Helen Speirs

ODT books editor Helen Speirs reviews the latest international picture books for the older child.

Scottish-born French-domiciled crime writer Peter May has an impressive list of book titles, television screenplays and literary prizes to his name. He is in Dunedin this month to promote his new thriller, Coffin Road, set on the Isle of Harris, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Books editor Helen Speirs asked him about his varied work, his influences and interests, and why there are so many Scottish crime writers.

2015's literary standouts, according to ODT books editor Helen Speirs.

ODT books editor Helen Speirs reviews children's New Zealand picture books.

ODT books editor Helen Spiers reviews the latest children's international picture books.

ODT books editor Helen Spiers reviews picture books for older children.

I have been a fan of English author Pat Barker since reading her haunting World War 1 Regeneration trilogy, the first of which was made into an equally impressive film.

Ribbonwood forest and blechnum ferns at Kiwi Lake, Wild Natives Valley, in Fiordland National Park, are pictured in this image (above) from Light & Landscape, The New Zealand Photographs of Andris Apse, published by Potton & Burton.

Helen Speirs reviews the latest picture books for children. 

Calcutta-born and Delhi and Oxford-educated author Amitav Ghosh lives between India and the United States.

Wellington author Anna Smaill's debut novel The Chimes is set in a dystopian London, where the written word is outlawed and memory has been sacrificed to music, the ruling principle, a form of mind control. ODT books editor Helen Speirs sat down with the writer, who is being touted as our next Booker Prize contender, when she came south to appear in the recent Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival.

Mohsin Hamid is perhaps best known for his second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the story of a Pakistani man living in New York, the first draft of which was written just before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

My stipulation to reviewers that our recommended reads must have been published in 2014 precluded the likes of 2014 Book Prize winner The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan (Vintage), which was published late last year, and otherwise would have been on this list.

Lorde loves Dunedin. And Dunedin clearly loves Lorde.

This book is a collection of Guardian feature writer John Crace's ''Digested Read'' parodies, the column in which he summarises in 700-800 words the latest books by many of the most popular names in literature.

With its striking cover, provocative title, controversial content and bitingly satirical tone, this novel is likely to appeal to as many people as it may offend.

It may be a new stand-alone novella, rather than the latest instalment of one his several popular series, but readers will instantly recognise this prolific Scottish author's genial humour and satirical style.

A tramper admires the view over Lake Hawea towards Mt Aspiring from Breast Hill Track, one of the nine Otago tracks that make up the Te Araroa trail, in an image from Te Araroa: A Walking Guide To New Zealand's Longest Trail, published by Random House.

Pakistan-born English-based author Kamila Shamsie has created a sweeping and detailed historical epic, that contains several intertwined personal stories.

The title of this novel and its close analysis of one Indian family in sickness, not health, seems to me a clear nod to Family Matters, by Indian-born literary heavyweight Rohinton Mistry.