Frank: The Making of a Legend by James Kaplan, Sphere, $35 James Kaplan’s 700-page biography of the first 39-years-old of Frank “The Voice” Sinatra (1915 until 1954), packs a colourful, sometimes crude and blue, but entertaining punch, littered with fascinating and dogged detail. Dubbed “scarface” by fellow New Jersey street kids because of facial disfigurements […]

Ask Me About Mary Kay by Jackie Brown, Strategic Book Group, $19.95 Jackie Brown rose through the ranks of Mary Kay Cosmetics as no-one else did and she became the role model for new recruits. In this pacey autobiography she takes us behind the scenes at the cosmetics house revealing the highs and more importantly […]

Insurrection by Robyn Young, Hodder & Stoughton, $32.99 Set during the period of the Wars of Scottish Independence, this historical fiction leads you in swiftly and doesn’t let you go. It starts in 1286 with the death of Alexander, King of Scotland, who is murdered by one of his own men as he rides home […]

Henri Matisse Rooms with A View by Shirley Neilsen Blum, Thames & Hudson, $90 The window was integral to the paintings of French 20th century artist Henri Matisse offering a unique framing for many of his works and for the first time this stunning book analyses its role. Art Historian Shirley Neilsen Blum looks at […]

The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford, Random House US, $12.95 I think I saw the film first, a brilliant film, and didn’t read the book until 15 years ago when I fell totally in love with it. It was first published in 1960 and is the most beautiful story about animals – a Labrador, a […]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Allen & Unwin, $22.99 Kathy, Ruth and Tommy were pupils at Hailsham – an idyllic establishment situated deep in the English countryside. The children there were tenderly sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe they were special, and that their personal welfare was crucial. But for […]

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 […]