Books

Ahmed Rashid's bestselling 2000 book Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia was used extensively by American analysts in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The Lahore-based… Audio

Briar Lawry from Unity Books Auckland reviews Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston, published by Orion Audio

Deputy editor of The Economist Tom Standage's new book is A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next. It is in fact, five and a half thousand years of the history of… Audio

Library fines can be so scary they'll stop a borrower from ever going back. Now there's a world-wide trend to change that. 

Bronwyn Wylie-Gibb of University Book Shop, Dunedin reviews The Dark by Emma Haughton, published by Hachette Bronwyn says: "The Murder. The Suspects. The Isolation… Not so much a locked room as a… Audio

Catherine Raven lives in a remote mountain valley in Montana. She has lived more or less alone since leaving a troubled home aged 15. She was a National Park ranger for 20 years, and gained a PhD in… Audio

Jenna Todd of Time Out Bookstore reviews People Like Them by Samira Sedira, published by Penguin Random House NZ. Audio

Joanna Ludbrook from Chicken and Frog books in Featherston reviews Melt by Ele Fountain, published by Allen and Unwin Audio

Jane Westaway reviews Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard, published by Harper Collins Audio

Anne Else reviews A Good Winter by Gigi Fenster, published by Text Publishing. Audio

Economist Rosie Collins is trying to make her line of work a bit more fun for people. She used stand up comedy as a way to improve her communication skills and inject humour into the world of… Audio

Catherine reviews Guarded by Dragons: Encounters with Rare Books and Rare People by Rick Gekoski, My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett, and the Chief Inspector… Audio

Anna Jackson-Scott reviews The Pink Jumpsuit by Emma Neale, published by Quentin Wilson Publishing Audio

Peter Laurenson is a keen tramper, climber and photographer who has spent three decades maintaining a special connection with the Khumbu region - the gateway to Mount Everest. He first visited the… Audio, Gallery

Award-winning Kiwi cartoonist Toby Morris tells Kim Hill working on his latest book Dad Man Walking was "a bit of a reprieve" from his regular gig illustrating Covid-19 explainers for the World Health… Audio, Gallery