I didn't expect to enjoy this book, but I did. I was expecting a bit more froth, but Rakoff's memoir about her time at a New York literary agency in the late 1990s has a surprising amount of grit and honesty which lifts it above the ordinary. The eccentric agent Rakoff works for just happens to represent JD Salinger, which makes for an interesting and entertaining tale of office paranoia and weird behaviour, but there are also insights into the strange world of life in and around publishing in New York, and some very real relationship issues in her own life.

This is a much expanded version of a little book of family history Mary Woodward wrote in 1988, which picked up a wide readership around New Zealand amongst those with an interest in West Auckland history. Apparently, it's been popular again, and copies are hard to come by. It's easy to see why. The Bethell family have had a huge influence over the history of West Auckland since Frances and Mary Bethell and their seven children sailed from Plymouth in 1858.

I've read almost all of Andrew Greig's novels, which I guess makes me a big fan; in fact, I probably wouldn't have read this if it wasn't by him, not being a big reader of historical fiction. It is quite different to his other novels, but Greig writes on a variety of non-fiction topics (golf, fishing, mountaineering), so why not some variety in his fiction. Greig is a very Scottish writer, this book more than his other fiction, I think.

This is an amazing and brilliant collections of stories, by a writer completely in control of his material. I read this book like a novel rather than a short story collection, because, although the stories are about a wide variety of characters and situations, the common theme of families and the various pressures they are subject to holds the book together with a real sense of unity. The situations in this book are so familiar to all of us, and yet O'Sullivan draws the tensions and responses so well, that we learn more about ourselves. You can't ask for more than that.

I've always been a fan of Sue Miller's keenly observed, graceful novels exploring the human condition, and this is a good one. Aid worker Frankie Rowley has returned from Africa, escaping from a failed affair and burn out. She returns to her small town American home to find her father struggling with dementia, her mother struggling to cope, and her sister resentful that she has been left to hold things together.

This is a collection of Dylan Horrocks' shorter graphic work, from 1986 to 2012. Many are unfinished pieces, and although the styles vary and evolve over time, they are all recognisably Dylan Horrocks. In many cases he himself is the subject, the stories are about the struggle of the cartoonist to create meaningful work, they are about self-doubt, ambivalence, the efforts of daily existence. There are some very powerful stories here, and some disturbing ones. I was completely blown away by 'There are no words in my mouth', a wordless cartoon.