Books

As he hits our screens as the hottest MasterChef sensation, the new judge takes us home to his beloved farm to meet the family. Matt Moran might be the newest judge on MasterChef, but away from the TV studio he is still a country boy – happiest at home tending to the family farm with […]

Following the immense popularity of their third album Hands All Over, three-time Grammy award-winners Maroon 5 chat to Woman’s Day about their success and their upcoming Aussie tour. “I just love Australia!” exclaims the band’s keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, 32. “I love the people, the ocean, the surfing, the accents and the general laid back attitude.” […]

Michelle Bridges is well known for transforming Aussies on the hit show The Biggest Loser. Now she shows you how to go one step further in ditching those last few kilos in her new book, Losing the Last 5 Kilos. We asked her about her reading habits. What was the last book you read? The […]

Five years on from the first hit season, host Natalie visits our favourite farmers. Four weddings, two engagements, two babies – and two more on the way – is proof that Nine’s hit series The Farmer Wants A Wife sows seeds of love every season. And when the show sent host Natalie Gruzlewski around the […]

They’ve lost 270kg between them and never looked better. This year’s remaining seven contestants in The Biggest Loser are scrubbing up very well. Just look at the hotties who’ve been hiding beneath their workout gear of lycra leggings and tatty oversize T-shirts! “I feel so good,” says Lara Whalan (Westren family), 25, who’s lost 37kg. […]

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt, Sceptre, $25 When Mia’s husband of 30 years calls for a pause in their marriage (“the Pause was French with limp but shiny brown hair. She had significant breasts”) she goes mad briefly, is hospitalised, and emerges from hospital shaken but sane into a world entirely made up […]

Savages, by Don Winslow, William Heinemann, $29.95 It was Sir Michael Parkinson — well-known TV interviewer, lesser-known crime buff — who first put me onto Don Winslow, describing his 2005 novel The Power of the Dog as the best crime thriller ever written. He’s probably right. Four books on, Winslow returns to Dog territory, where […]

The Philanthropist by John Tesarsch, Sleepers Publishing, $27.95 The good man who does bad things is a familiar figure in fiction. So points to first-time author John Tesarsch who’s taken the harder road and given us a thoroughly rotten protagonist who does good things (like, philanthropy) though for all the wrong reasons (status and tax-deductions). […]

Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré, Viking, $32.95 The key question whenever a new Le Carré comes out is: is it a good one? He’s the master of the spy thriller but, as even fans concede, he can be patchy. The good news: yes, novel number 22 is a very good one. A […]

Vivian Rising by Daniella Brodsky, Simon & Schuster, $29.99 She has a dead end job, a dead boring boyfriend, and a deadbeat mother. Vivian Sklar’s one true joy is her feisty grandmother, who dies in her hospital bed, as poor Viv cowers in the loo. Lost and bereft, she’s cared for, and constantly fed, by […]