Gran’s Kitchen, by Natalie Oldfield & Dulcie May Booker, Hardie Grant Books, $45. Ninety-five-year-old Dulcie May Booker’s recipes and cooking tips have the wonderful whiff of a bygone era. Dulcie grew up in a rural farming community in Weymouth, Auckland, and started cooking as a child on her family’s coal range, winning prizes for her […]

This Body of Death, by Elizabeth George, Hodder & Stoughton, $32.99. With any long-running series, loss of potency can be a huge issue as characters cease to develop and plots stagnate. But the 16th novel in Elizabeth George’s bestselling series featuring Scotland Yard’s sharp killer catcher DI Lynley is a thrilling exception. The multi-layered stories […]

Solar, by Ian McEwan, Jonathan Cape, $32.95. I’m an McEwan tragic, I admit. So, I thought, if anyone was going to pull off the coup of turning the subject of climate change into a compelling novel, it was surely the master. Rather than lecture, he’s given us a black comedy –a farce, almost – centred […]

Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad, by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit, Penguin, $22.95. There’s not a lot of Jane Austen in this true story of an unlikely friendship between a tough-minded Iraqi lecturer on literature and a BBC journalist, but if the title reels in readers, all to the good, because this is a […]

Beatrice and Virgil, by Yann Martel, Text Publishing, $32.95 Beatrice is a donkey, Virgil a howler monkey. They are loyal friends with a taste for philosophy – or at least they were. Now, after an epic journey, they’re no more than stuffed specimens in a taxidermist’s window, where they attract the interest of a successful […]

Reading By Moonlight, by Brenda Walker, Hamish Hamilton, $29.95. One woman’s journey through the books that saved her life. Not changed it, not improved it, but saved it when, out of a bright blue sky, the unimaginable happened and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Perth-based author Brenda Walker did what she had to do […]

The Last Station, by Jay Parini, Text Publishing, $23.95. Jay Parini’s historical novel on the last days of Russian literary giant Leo Tolstoy is about to be discovered by hordes of film fans. Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren were nominated for Oscars for their portrayals of Count and Countess Tolstoy, and the flick is sure […]

House Rules, by Jodi Picoult, Allen & Unwin, $32.99. Fans of Jodi Picoult’s work know what to expect. House Rules delivers it all: the shifting perspectives of several narrators, a child with a disability or illness, a court case, and cleverly explored ethical issues. Single mum and agony aunt Emma Hunt has two sons, Jacob […]

The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, by Alan Bradley, Orion, $49.99. Flavia de Luce is, without question, the most delightful detective ever created. An 11-year-old aristocrat gone wild, with a passion for chemistry, she’s a 1950s’ crime scene investigator who’s not above poisoning her sisters’ chocolates or snooping in the vicar’s study. When a […]

Every Day in Tuscany – Seasons of an Italian Life, by Frances Mayes, Bantam Australia, $34.95. Part travelogue, part cookbook, part memoir, Every Day in Tuscany is all escapism. It’s 20 years since Frances Mayes first fell in love with everything under the Tuscan sun, and she’s still aglow with adoration. This third Tuscan memoir […]