Books & Authors

Louise O'Brien from quarterly review periodical New Zealand Review of Books Pukapuka Aotearoa reviews The Unreliable People by Rosetta Allan, which is published by Penguin Books New Zealand. Audio

Award winning writer Stephanie Johnson talks with Kathryn Ryan about her new non-fiction book, West Island, a portrait of five twentieth-century New Zealanders who found fame and notoriety in… Audio

Here's a crazy idea: people should be promoted to leadership roles in politics and in business based on talent. Simple enough, right?  Audio

Sonja de Friez reviews When We Remember to Breathe by Renee Liang and Michele Powles , which is published by Magpie Pulp. Audio

With all the talk of artificial intelligence and machine learning - does the technological revolution really mean that robots are knocking on the door to take many of our jobs? New Zealand economist… Audio

Rotorua is gearing up for GeyserCon! It's the 40th national science fiction and fantasy convention held in New Zealand. Audio

Quentin Johnson reviews Cari Mora by Thomas Harris, which is published by Penguin Random House. Full of dry, cynical humour and set in Florida, this is Harris' fourth book on Hannibal Lecter. Audio

Professor Emily Oster's used hard data to detail what parents should be looking at when deciding what is best for their families in her book Cribsheet. Audio

Douglas Coupland sometimes misses the time before the dawn of the internet, but says once you get addicted to any increased level of speed of information you can never go backwards. Mixing the bizarre… Audio

Carla Guelfenbein is a novelist and screenwriter and was born in Santiago to a Russian-Jewish family. She is one of Chile's bestselling writers and the author of five novels including In the Distance… Audio

Tilly Lloyd of Unity Books reviews Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country by Simon Winder. Following bestsellers Danubia and Germania, this book is the third and final instalment in… Audio

Rae McGregor reviews Conventional Weapons by Tracey Slaughter, which is published by Victoria University Press. Audio

Sometimes the best way to deal with difficult topics in the real world, is to explore them in the world of fiction. Neal Shusterman writes for children, teens and adults.  Audio

Last night was a big one for Chessie Henry. She won the Ockham New Zealand Book Award for best first work of general non fiction for her first book We Can Make a Life.  Audio

Widely regarded as Australia's foremost landscape designer, Paul Bangay shares tips with Kathryn Ryan to help turn a small outdoor space into a garden paradise. Paul's new book Small Garden Design… Audio, Gallery

Pigs can hope. Monkeys believe in fairness; animals of all shapes and sizes experience a wide range of emotions says biologist Frans de Waal.  Video, Audio, Gallery

Robert Kelly pops in to take us on a tour through the works of surrealist fiction author Jasper Fforde and investigate how the absurd can provide a way to look at our present. Audio

Almost everything we know today about climate change, the potential for extreme weather, the threat to wildlife, we knew back in 1979. A small group of scientists tried to convince the world to act.