My Brief History, by Stephen Hawking (Bantam Press, RRP $35): There’s a lot more to uber-genius Stephen Hawking than a big brain and a debilitating illness, and this memoir offers a glimpse into what makes the man tick. This is…
Category: People
True midwife drama drawn from history
My Notorious Life by Madame X, by Kate Manning (Bloomsbury, RRP $35): My Notorious Life was inspired by the true story of 19th century New York midwife and abortionist Ann Trow Lohman, better known as Madame Restell; a woman once…
Author follows path laid out by Khan
On the Trail of Genghis Khan, by Tim Cope (Allen & Unwin, RRP $37): I’m done some travelling over the years but it’s fair to say that Mongolia wasn’t high on the list of destinations. Not for any particular reason,…
Kiwi history makes this a page-turner
Fitz: The Colonial Adventures of James Edward Fitzgerald, by Jennifer Roberts (Otago University Press, RRP $40): The subject of this biography is an important figure in the settlement of Canterbury. He was the province’s first superintendent, a politician, a watercolourist and founder…
Fascinating tale of underdog making good
The Crossroad – A story of life, death and the SAS By Mark Donaldson, VC (Pan Macmillan Australia, RRP $40) Winning the Victoria Cross requires actions beyond what most normal men or women would ever consider undertaking. There was nothing…
■ REVIEW
Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong
Uncovering the Armstrong ‘miracle’: No figure in world sport has fallen as far, or as hard, as Lance Edward Armstrong. Tiger Woods might have lost much of the esteem the world held him in following revelations of his truly epic…
Insight into NZ’s head honcho
John Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister, by John Roughan (Penguin, RRP $38): There’s no doubt that Prime Minister John Key is a polarising figure in New Zealand politics. There really seems to be no middle ground: people either love…
Author doesn’t let injuries define him
Without Warning, by Damien Thomlinson with Michael Cowley (HarperCollins, RRP $37): It would take a special type of person to criticise this book. The front cover sums it up – a surfie-looking guy smiling into the camera, fit and tanned,…
The man behind the muppets
Jim Henson: The Biography, by Brian Jay Jones (Virgin Books, RRP $40): I grew up with Sesame Street and later the Muppets and it has to be said: Jim Henson was a genius. This biography of the ultimate puppet-master, written…
50 shades of political humour
50 Shades of Key: The Unofficial John Key Joke Book, by Paul Little (Paul Little Books, RRP $15): Whatever your politics, you’ll find it hard not to have a giggle at a few of the offerings in this little book.…