This is a debut novel, set mostly in Taranaki and Auckland, is mostly about running, but it's about a lot more than running. Mickey Bloom is a terrific character, five feet tall, dyslexic, bullied at school and bad at relationships, but a hell of a runner. This novel follows her through her life of triumph and failure, the loss of dreams, family tragedy, and ultimate redemption. It's quite a journey, atmospheric, compelling, dramatic and well paced. An excellent debut which deserves to be a bestseller.

A fascinating look at the current science about the impact on the mind and the brain that various forms of body movement and exercise can have, this book is full of helpful and convincing information about how one can live a better and healthier life. It looks at why we move in the first place, examines in turn walking, physical strength, dance, posture, stretching, breathing etc. It's amusingly and accessibly written, not all of it will take with any reader, but it's a reminder that doing anything is better than doing nothing!

Henry Marsh is a retired brain surgeon, and the author of two previous memoirs about his career Do No Harm: Stories of Life Death and Brain Surgery, and Admission: A Life in Brain Surgery. These chronicles reveal a man of huge compassion and humanity, the brain surgeon version of Oliver Sacks if you like. He thought he understood illness, but since his own diagnosis of advanced cancer, he has been forced to undergo a very confusing transition from doctor to patient.

Over 15 years since the publication of The Road, McCarthy is back with a pair of linked novels, probably his last. Stella Maris is the companion to this novel, and was published about 3 months after this. The Passenger is set in the 1980s in various parts of the American South, largely in New Orleans, and features Bobby Western, a former physicist, now salvage diver. His sister, a genius mathematician, has taken her own life after some years in an asylum. They had a possibly incestuous relationship, which casts a shadow over the narrative.

I came across this book about living with myeloma, as my brother is currently dealing with that incurable illness. Sandra Russell is a psychotherapist, and a terrific writer. The book concentrates on the patient's emotional journey, based on the author's own direct experience, and provides guidance for sufferers and their families. A lovely, moving book.

10 years after her phenomenal novel The Luminaries, Catton finally delivers a very different book - a propulsive thriller, a contemporary novel of the highest quality. It brings together a disparate group of characters, anarchists, wealthy business people, an American billionaire, in an isolated region of the South Island. The first section of the book establishes the characters and their motivations.