Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari (Harvill Secker, RRP $38): With a PhD in history from Oxford University, Dr Yuval Noah Harari is well-qualified to examine the history of us – the human species. Sapiens: A Brief…
Author: Jillian Allison-Aitken
A good read, if you ignore the annoyances
The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (Doubleday, RRP $37): Every morning, Rachel catches the same train to the same destination, to her same job, and passes the same houses on her journey. And every morning that train stops…
Hold it in your hands and feel the history
Paper: An Elegy, by Ian Sansom (Fourth Estate, RRP $30): Where would we be without paper? Sure, the digital age has changed the way we read our books, magazines and newspapers, but we didn’t get there without killing a few…
New name for publisher
Craig Potton Publishing is having a wee name change (to Potton & Burton), in a move the company says reflects the increasingly diverse range of New Zealand books it publishes. The change happens on today and marks the end of a…
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New Zealand in Watercolour
Showcasing a selection of beautiful watercolour paintings by 30 of our leading artists, New Zealand in Watercolour is an affordable coffee table or bookshelf addition for lovers of New Zealand art. Each of the artists has supplied four or five…
■ REVIEW
Explore New Zealand: 101 Must-Do’s for Kiwis
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The Happiness Trap Pocketbook
The tattooed lady is coming back
The Millennium series was a hugely popular trilogy that introduced the world to Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, and now they are set to return in a continuation of the late Stieg Larsson’s epic saga. Yes, that’s right: we’re getting…
Sniffing out dog facts
Every Dog Has Its Day: A Thousand things You Didn’t Know About Man’s Best Friend, by Max Cryer (Exisle Publishing, RRP $30): After penning books on everything from proverbs to music, Max Cryer has now turned his attention to man’s…
A bit like Eat, Pray, Love … but better
Heavenly Hirani’s School of Laughing Yoga, by Sarah-Kate Lynch (Random House, RRP $38): As a disclaimer, let me just say that I’m probably not the target audience for New Zealand novelist and magazine columnist Sarah-Kate Lynch’s books, and the one…