Homeland
Mandy Patinkin: the singing spy
ANDREW TAYLOR Heaven seems like an unlikely place to find a spy with an ear for opera. But it was where Mandy Patinkin, who plays veteran CIA agent Saul Berenson in Homeland, first encountered baritone Nathan Gunn.
Addicted to a cure
Paula Goodyer The urge to rescue loved ones from dependency is strong but often not the best way to help.
Adult orphans tell moving stories of life and loss
Stephanie Dowrick My Mother, My Father is a wonderful book that greatly exceeded my keenest expectations.
Barometer of our times
Ruth Ritchie A local version of a medical reality show takes us to places that are far more exotic than Adam Liaw's Japan.
Sister review: Between two worlds
PAUL BYRNES Kacey Mottet Klein's 12-year-old thief is a performance to cherish.
Beyond the edge of reason
Michelle Griffin Older but not much wiser, our heroine reverts to bad habits as she copes with widowhood.
Great leap of faith
Michael McGirr Winton's new book, Eyrie, is something to celebrate, not least because it is the work of a writer who has continued to grow and whose work has only deepened.
Our nation's story
Anna Clark A collaboration by some of Australia's top historians has produced an invaluable overview.
Take a moment to mourn the mainstream
RICHARD GLOVER It's not new that people become annoyed by things they hear on the radio; What's new is the ability to instantly inform the broadcaster of this.
Mr Pip
The weight of expectations for Lloyd Jones
Lloyd Jones Author Lloyd Jones was a close observer on set in Bougainville as his novel was transformed for the screen.
The Butler review: What the butler saw
SANDRA HALL The presidents come and go, but the genuine characters are below stairs.
Frank Camorra's luscious vanilla desserts
FRANK CAMORRA The exotic vanilla bean has no substitute in the flavour stakes.
Weight of expectation
Jason Steger The worldwide success of The Slap was a once-in-a-lifetime event, according to its bestselling author, Christos Tsiolkas. As he awaits reaction to his latest novel, the man who sparked a national debate reflects on class, family and his own self-doubts.
4 stars
Renoir review: a brush with greatness
Paul Byrnes A pretty, diverting but somewhat unsatisfying movie about the traingular relationship between Pierre-Auguste Renoir, his son Jean and a beautiful young woman.
Ghost story
A fine bromance
Nick Galvin Artist Ben Quilty and filmmaker Warwick Thornton bonded over beer and a shared love of cars. The two good mates sit down to discuss their first artistic collaboration.
Ageing dangerously
Katrina Lobley Old age should be a time of richness and reinvention. One veteran campaigner shares her insights.
Colonial history a brutal backdrop in visceral Tasmanian western
James McNamara Pirate-hunter William Burr has a decent life in British Honduras. There are brigands to capture, beautiful women and plenty of booze.
Costume drama
John McDonald An embattled museum harnesses the pulling power of fashion in a show where every outfit tells a story.
Tin Star review: Lindi Ortega's talent and humour shines through
You just know you'd like Lindi Ortega if you ever stood next to her at a bar. Across three albums she has displayed the voice of a young Emmylou Harris just discovering Dolly Parton, the willingness to be as old-fashioned as possible in sound and style, and a 21st-century knowing edge. But what would get you buying her a second and third drink is her sense of humour. She is drily funny without going for gags, sharp without earning the sometimes questionable tag of sassy, and seems to have a bottomless well of energy.
Faster fitness
Paula Goodyer Short, sharp exercise sessions can do wonders for the waistline, but they're not for the faint-hearted.
Fond vignettes in chapter and verse
Delia Falconer In Michelle de Kretser's novel Questions of Travel it's a hot summer evening in Sydney's western suburbs and everyone is out on their verandas when the neighbourhood children gather with candles on a carport deck to sing UB40's cover of Red, Red Wine. Conjured in this tiny, perfect vignette is everything that makes a Sydney childhood so unique: its mix of light and dark, old and new, thick air and moments of piercing brightness. A sensitive child quickly learns that black and white and technicolour overlap in this city - it is bold and staggeringly beautiful, but a place, too, of shady, half-seen things, like weeping sandstone and fruit bats and etiolated fennel plants growing wild from railway tracks.
4 stars
Captain Phillips review: margin of terror
SANDRA HALL Tom Hanks is convincingly ordinary in a nautical thriller.
Pretty in pink? Farmers maybe, bikies no
RICHARD GLOVER The Queensland government, under its new anti-bikie legislation, has proposed that club members be forced to wear hot pink jumpsuits while in prison as a way of humiliating them and making them more malleable. It's an idea - oh, how surprising - borrowed from that innovative legal jurisdiction known as Arizona.
Sound System brimming with energy and contradiction
Bernard Zuel This is a public service announcement. With guitars. Ah, what a mess of contradictions - theirs and ours - surrounded the Clash, as this mix of studio albums, alternative/live recordings and films teases out.
Satisfying plot is thickened with gift of the gab
Review By Daphne Guinness It's more than three decades since Colleen McCullough wrote The Thorn Birds and - not wanting to be typecast - vowed never to pen another family saga. But two dozen books later, here she is doing just that, claiming she was bored after failing eyesight put paid to her other love, painting.
Stations of the Cross
Michael Duffy Poets, perverts, dramatists and drug dealers stopped here. Louis Nowra's portrait of a suburb also reflects on the city and his own obsessions.
Tales of menace and memory
Kalinda Ashton A poet and academic draws on literature and the subconscious to create a collection of unnerving yet poignant stories.
Lost girls
The lost girls
Ruth Ritchie Rebel Wilson deserves a better vehicle than Super Fun Night. Viewers deserve better than Mork 2.0.
Tune in, turn on
Barry Divola Forty years after igniting the New York punk scene, Television's front man is as prickly as ever.
Frank Camorra's BLT with a twist
FRANK CAMORRA This BLT with avocado and egg has the added zing of HP sauce - such a tasty way to start the morning.
Get fit quick
How to get fit with just 45 minutes exercise a week
Paula Goodyer Short, sharp exercise sessions can do wonders for the waistline, but they're not for the faint-hearted.
Comedy
'To some people, I'm a scary monster': Rosie O'Donnell
KYLIE NORTHOVER It has taken one hell of a shock to motivate Rosie O'Donnell to return to stand-up comedy.
America, the unknown
John McDonald The Art Gallery of NSW's summer blockbuster is a sprawling collection from the United States spanning more than two centuries.
Americana with a twist
Sarah McInerney Quality coffee and brioche buns meet classic '50s diner fare.
Asian flavours spice up tough narratives and original characters
Sue Turnbull The politics of race and place are up front and centre in Angela Savage's third crime novel to feature Australian private investigator Jayne Keeney. Picking up where the Bangkok-based Jayne's previous case left her, on the precarious cusp of a relationship with an Indian information-technology and business graduate five years her junior, The Dying Beach finds Jayne and Rajiv enjoying a well-earned break on the idyllic Andaman coast in Thailand.
About Time review: Cosmic romance
SANDRA HALL A time-travelling plot is at the heart of Richard Curtis' latest charmer.
