The Lake Of Dreams by Kim Edwards, Viking, $29.95 Kim Edwards’ debut novel The Memory Keeper’s Daughter became a runaway bestseller when it was released in 2006 — and was published in 38 countries, selling millions of copies around the world. Four years later her much anticipated second novel has a lot to live up […]

A Food Lover’s Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela by Dee Nolan, Lantern, $100 This book is so beautiful it makes me squeak. That grass-green jacket – the colour, I’m told, of the hills on which you walk during stages of the grand six-week (though many do less) pilgrimage of St James, which ends at the […]

Half a Life by Darin Strauss, Hamish Hamilton, $26.95 “Half my life ago, I killed a girl.” She was just 16. Darin Strauss, the author of this memoir and also an acclaimed novelist, was 18 and soberly driving his father’s Oldsmobile when a freak accident – a girl, a bike, an inexplicable collision – changed […]

Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Text Publishing, $32.95 A remote Swedish island. A six-year old girl who disappears without a trace. A broken father, who returns to mourn the tragedy two years on – and discovers hers is not the first disappearance from the blighted island of Domaro. It is not just the islanders, nursing […]

Life by Keith Richards, Hachette Australia, $49.99 Who knew the old rogue was so popular? I’d always thought of The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards as a minority taste – yet here’s his autobiography storming the bestseller lists. No small feat given it’s a $50 hardback, huge, and that’s one raunchy life he’s describing. Even allowing […]

The Queen’s Dolls’ House by Lucinda Lambton, Royal Collection Publications, $35 When you’re a royal princess after the ultimate dolls’ house who do you turn to? Who else but the country’s top architect, the guy whose day job is to design stately homes. And so it was that Princess Marie Louise, Queen Victoria’s granddaughter commissioned […]

Are you a NETTEL? This acronym, coined by market researchers to describe people struggling with crazy-busy lives, stands for: not enough time to enjoy life.

Which workout will give you the best results in the shortest amount of time? It all depends on your body type. Exercise physiologist and nutritionist Kathleen Alleaume reveals the right fitness level for your body type.

Somewhere in between a midi and a maxi, a new length of skirt arrived during the spring-summer shows and looks set to stay for autumn. The hem hovers a few centimetres above the ankle, and looks beautifully chic on the genetically blessed blondes wafting down the runway, but can it work for the rest of […]

Are you a NETTEL? This acronym, coined by market researchers to describe people struggling with crazy-busy lives, stands for: not enough time to enjoy life. These 10 tried-and-true tips can help you to find a little bit more time for yourself on even the most hectic day. 1. Break it down: When faced with a […]