The Beginner’s Guide to Rugby, by Aaron Cruden (Random House, RRP $35): There was a popular ad campaign a year or three back that proudly proclaimed you’d never be a Kiwi until you loved a particular brand of sauce, but I reckon a love of rugby is probably of greater importance. It’s our national...
A Bit of What You Fancy, by Jo Seagar (Random House, RRP $55): Jo Seagar has done a good job of finding 130 recipes that help inspire tasty dishes. You do not have to flick far to find recipes – balsamic roasties, slow-roasted pork belly with lemon and fennel seed crackling, easy strawberry cheesecake...
One Summer: America, 1927, by Bill Bryson (Doubleday, RRP $55): British author Bill Bryson has come up with an interesting concept for this fact-packed trip back in time, telling the story of one summer in the history of America that changed the world forever. In 1927, the world between the two world wars, the...
New releases coming in August. FICTION I’m Travelling Alone, by Samuel Bjork: Published by Doubleday on August 1, with an RRP of $38. A six-year-old girl is found hanging from a tree. Around her neck is an airline tag which says ‘I’m travelling alone’. A special homicide unit in Oslo is re-opened and the race...
The Bassett Road Machine-Gun Murders, by Scott Bainbridge ($37 Allen & Unwin): This book was published to mark the 50th anniversary of a shocking crime that drew a line in New Zealand’s criminal history and heralded a more sinister era. Set against a backdrop of six o’clock closings, a Chicago-style underworld, bent cops, prostitution...
Vicious Circle, by Wilbur Smith (Macmillian, RRP $55): My brother, an avid reader, introduced me to Wilbur Smith when I was still in my teens and I’ve enjoyed his novels ever since. Smith is easily my favorite author and I love his books more now than ever. He is the master of the epic adventure...
Dog Will Have His Day, by Fred Vargas (Harvill Secker, RRP $37): Former special investigator Louis Kehlweiler has to find new ways to fill in his days now that he no longer works for the Parisian police force. Kehlweiler gathers information, takes care of his toad (yes, he has a pet toad), and patiently...
Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat, by Philip Lymbery with Isabel Oakeshott (Bloomsbury, RRP $37): It’s so easy to feel a disconnect between the vacuum packed offerings in the meat aisle at your local supermarket and the origins of that product on the farm, but it is important that we know – and care about –...
Marble Bar by Robert Schofield (Allen & Unwin, RRP $37): Gareth Ford is working long hours in the iron ore industry in Western Australia. He is a solo parent with plans for improving his future. But then his past starts to catch up. When Gareth’s housemate is found dead, the local police discover that...
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