Robin Dudding, the author's father, was the greatest New Zealand literary editor of his generation. He nurtured many of our finest writers, while living a determinedly bohemian life in a falling down house surrounded by chickens and long-haired children in 1970s suburbia. Adam Dudding's book relates what it was like growing up in an extremely nonconformist household, his gradual realisation of just how different his family was to most others, and his later realisation that his strange and depressed father was a hugely respected figure in the literary world.

Tim Winton seems to be publishing more non fiction than fiction in recent years, which is no bad thing, I reckon. His previous book, Island Home, was very good, and this slightly more substantial memoir is also very good. It has some overlap with the previous book, although this one is more personal. This is a collection of true stores about his life, rather than a continuous narrative. It's vaguely chronological, and the stories about his childhood are very moving and provide insight into some of the sources of his artistic vision and inspiration.

A brilliant, intelligent and provocative collection of stories, comic strips, activities, games, puzzles and more from a who's who of high profile New Zealand contributors, including Barbara Else, Damien Wilkins, Gregory O'Brien, Jenny Bornholdt, Bernard Beckett, Sarah Laing, Dylan Horrocks and others. Perfect for book loving 8-12 year olds, it's a beautifully designed, large format hardback, bright orange in colour, and quite evocative of the old-fashioned annuals that used to be very widely anticipated as Christmas presents. Hopefully, there will be another next year!

This is Faber's first poetry collection. He wrote the poems during and after the painful period when his much loved wife was dying from cancer. They are confronting in both content and emotion. He pulls no punches here. The poems are informal in structure, the form takes second place to the portrayal of raw emotion. It's a difficult collection to read, as it doesn't seek to provide solace to readers going through the same issues, rather to give voice to feelings that are not often revealed with this degree of honesty. Approach with caution!

I've read this before, around 10 years ago, but couldn't remember all that much about it, except for the fact that I really loved it, and thought the narrator and I were pretty much the same person. (except that he had had a brain thing, and I hadn't. Then.) So, time to reread it, even though I have mixed feelings about rereading books I've loved, in case I'm disappointed that I don't love it as much the second time.

White Sands is a collection of mostly travel pieces by Geoff Dyer; they have been published in different forms in magazines such as Harpers, Granta, and The New Yorker. Some concern visits to the great Land Art works in the US - he visits Lightning Field and Spiral Jetty, and also Tahiti, Beijing and Svalbard among others. These essays do reveal more of Geoff Dyer himself than others I've read, he seems more vulnerable and human than usual, they are a little more personal, about him as well as what he's seeing or where he is. The title piece, White Sands, is particularly dramatic.