Seriously . . . I’m Kidding, by Ellen Degeneres (HarperCollins, RRP $40): I missed all the Ellen excitement when she first hit our screens back in the 1990s, because I worked nights and didn’t really watch a lot of television back then. Fast forward a decade or two and I’m now working days and...
Kill Alex Cross, by James Patterson (Century, RRP $38): It will probably be no surprise to anyone out there when I say this latest Alex Cross book is a cracker: James Patterson has an impressive track record and I’m not shy about proclaiming myself a fan. In Kill Alex Cross, the eponymous detective is...
New Zealand Hall of Fame, by Maria Gill and Bruce Potter (New Holland Publishers, RRP $35): All too often youngsters adopt sportspeople and entertainers as their role models and overlook the other incredibly talented people out there. And, sadly, all too often those role models fall short of the mark with booze and behaviour...
The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography, by Stephen Fry (Penguin, RRP $37): Stephen Fry is one of those horribly intelligent people who manages to make it very clear that he knows a lot about a lot without coming across as a pompous prat. Well, OK, at times he does do the pompous prat thing, but...
Hachette New Zealand has announced it will publish the second installment in Helen Lowe’s “The Wall of the Night” historical fantasy series. The Gathering of the Lost will be published in April and follows the award-winning The Heir of the Night, which took out the Sir Julius Vogel Award for best novel in 2011. The...
The Spanish Helmet, by Greg Scowen: New Zealand author Greg Scowen has come up with an interesting concept for his conspiracy thriller The Spanish Helmet: what if the officially accepted history of New Zealand is wrong? A mysterious Spanish helmet sitting in our national museum, a large pohutukawa tree in La Coruna, Spain, and...
Where’s Wally? The Great Picture Hunt and The Totally Essential Travel Collection, both by Martin Handford (Walker Books, RRP $16 and $39): It’s school holiday time so if you’re want something to keep the youngsters occupied, this is it. Wally is an elusive little character and these books are packed with Wally, and others,...
Married With Zombies, by Jesse Petersen (Simon & Schuster, RRP $28): Now here’s a novel concept: a romantic comedy with zombies. If, like me, you are over the whole sparkly vampire trend, this could be the book for you. Once upon a time, Sarah and David met and fell in love, as you do....
Preposterous Proverbs: Why Fine Words Butter No Parsnips, by Max Cryer (Exisle Publishing, RRP $30): If you have a wordy person in your life, they will love this book. We all know a few proverbs and while some are fairly self-explanatory, others seem to fall into the realm of ridiculous. Broadcaster and entertainer Max...
The Payback, by Simon Kernick (Bantam Press, RRP $40): Once again, author Simon Kernick promises and delivers a fast-paced thriller. Ex-cop Dennis Milne is a man with a past that involves murder. Milne has earned his living killing the bad guys who, in his opinion, deserve to die. Now he is in Manila, awaiting...
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