Sarah's husband is undergoing medical treatment in Auckland, they live in Hamilton, so are staying in a central city apartment temporarily. Sarah is walking in the Symonds Street cemetery and meets Hartley. They meet for coffee and soon begin an affair, which takes Sarah by surprise; middle-age is not meant to lend itself to passion and excitement, especially when one's husband's life is at risk. The conduct of the affair, the emotions involved from all parties, and the city of Auckland are all very finely observed with nuance and subtlety.

Melissa Harrison is a novelist and nature writer. This book is an evocative meditation on the English landscape in wet weather. She described four quite different expeditions in different landscapes, and describes what happens in those landscape when it rains, and how rainfall is essential both to the world around us, and also to the English identity. She has read widely on the subject, so the book refers to poets, historians, philosophers and others. A lovely little hardback.

Jenny Powell is a poet, and this moving memoir is essentially an extended prose poem of a little under 100 pages. Lily, the narrator, suffers from Proprioception Deficit. Proprioception, when functioning correctly, lets you know where your various body parts are, so that you can, subconsciously, make adjustments to keep yourself upright, walk etc. Through this memoir, Lily works with a physiotherapist, and succeeds, after some struggle, to find her own body.

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.