‘You are going to Australia’… No one will ever forget the moment Oprah announced on her talk show that 300 of her crowd were going to join her in Australia for the filming of episodes for her 25th and final season on air. And who else would you ask to fly you there? Why John […]

Not only does Oprah boast one of the most impressive celebrity contact books in the world, she also has friends in high political places. From Bush to Brown, Oprah has dined (and no doubt wined) with some of the most powerful political figures in the world. Few boast the connections of Oprah, particularly when it […]

Have you ever asked yourself, “What makes me happy?” Your answer might be your good health, seeing your family healthy or liking what you see in the mirror. But these answers differ greatly from those identified by Canadian and US researchers who claim that your happiness, or lack thereof, might rest in your spouses’ hands. […]

MY LAST DUCHESS BY DAISY GOODWIN, HEADLINE REVIEW, $29.99. This stylish historical novel, set at the turn of the 19th century, gives us beautiful clothes and lavish jewels … a British duke in need of a rich wife … and a lively American heiress with a mother ambitious for her to “marry well”. And so […]

FREEDOM BY JONATHAN FRANZEN, FOURTH ESTATE, $32.99. The hype and the weight of expectation might well have sunk a lesser book, but Franzen delivers with a better, wiser, more dazzling novel even than the one which made his name, The Corrections. He takes one picture-perfect, liberal, Mid-western family – college sweethearts Patty and Walter Berglund […]

THE SMALL HAND: A GHOST STORY BY SUSAN HILL, ALLEN & UNWIN, $24.99. From the mistress of the modern ghost story comes this small and perfectly formed tale that, even weeks after reading, I cannot get out of my head. It haunts me, as a good ghost story should. Our questionable hero is antiquarian bookseller […]

THE WEEKEND BY BERNHARD SCHLINK, WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, $29.99. Bernhard Schlink writes so elegantly, with such calm simplicity – remember The Reader? – that he can pull you into the darkest and most difficult subjects before you realise where he’s taking you. In this case, it’s the weekend reunion of a group of one-time members […]

MARY ANN IN AUTUMN BY ARMISTEAD MAUPIN, RANDOM HOUSE, $32.95. San Francisco was captured in fading sunset by novelist Armistead Maupin three decades ago, when, pitching an idea for a daily serial to the San Francisco Chronicle featuring the tales of secretary Mary Ann Singleton and her best friend, gay gardener Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, he […]

DEAD MAN’S CHEST BY KERRY GREENWOOD, ALLEN & UNWIN, $22.99. Hot-blooded private detective Phryne Fisher and her bathing dress – “no back and hardly any front” – head to Queenscliff for a holiday. Along for the ride are her adopted daughters, bookish Jane and culinary Ruth, devoted maid Dot and hound Molly, who all take […]

IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT BY JUDY HORACEK, SCRIBE, $29.95. It’s impossible not to giggle at Judy Horacek’s smart yet dreamily inventive cartoons and illustrations, seen here in their technicolour glory in this seventh collection of Judy’s published sketches. The Australian artist’s observations on the absurdities of modern life and witty takes on environmental […]