An earlier version of this book was published by Bridget Williams Books in 2014, but I have the gorgeous little hardback published by Notting Hill Editions in London, which is printed very stylishly, with red page numbers. It's a very personal essay about Kirsty Gunn's time in the Randell Cottage in Thorndon in 2009. Gunn is a New Zealander in exile, having lived in the UK for many years, and has a particular interest in Katherine Mansfield; both of these themes are explored in this lovely little book.

This is the book of the TV series, which was presented by the author, a neuroscientist and author. He examines, in 6 sections, such profound topics as Who Am I?, What Is Reality?, Who Will We Be?, and others. It's an easily accessible book, but not lacking in depth and profundity. He does a very good job of explaining how the brain learns from our experiences, how we each shape our brains, and how they shape us. The chapter I found most unsettling was the last, looking at the future of artificial intelligence, thinking computers, and the idea of digital immortality.

I've been reading Ethan Canin since his first short story collection Emperor of the Air in 1985. I've enjoyed most of his slightly sporadic output since then, and the long wait for this epic new novel turns out to have been worth it. A Doubter's Almanac tells the story of a genius mathematician from 1970s California, over a period of some 40 years and 550 pages. It's a virtuoso performance, exploring the power of the mind, the nature of love, the sometimes destructive nature of ambition and unreachable dreams.

The Outrun is another stunning memoir, against a background of beautiful nature writing. Amy Liptrot grew up on Orkney, a carefree childhood on a sheep farm, but clouded by her father's mental illness. She then left for a hedonistic life in London, where her drinking gradually took over her life. Realising that her life had to change, she returned to the island to recover.

Zero K is a very Don DeLillo Don DeLillo novel, if you know what I mean. No one else could have written it. Superficially, it's about a billionaire and his secret compound in a very remote location in Central Asia, where he and his researchers are working on a project to preserve human bodies until a future time when advances in medical technologies can be applied so that they can become, perhaps, immortal. Jeffrey, the billionaires son, is invited to the compound to witness the project first hand.

I've been intending to read this ever since it came out, but never quite got to it until now. Having seen her at the Auckland Writers' Festival recently, it became essential post-Festival reading. In a way, it's a non-fiction version of her early novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, a kind of silent twin to that book. Jeannette Winterson is able to move from extreme humour to extraordinary painful and sad events with equal ease. It's the story of her early life as an adopted child in the north of England; adopted by a fanatical Pentecostal mother.