Advance for planned presidential memoir is expected to break the $US15 million record set by Bill Clinton.

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command," wrote George Orwell.

Literary news and events in Canberra.

Like few other pastimes, crosswords seem to offer that lifelong affair, an intimate tussle to keep the brain supple, from breastfeeding to that last dinner tray.

Cordelia Fine examines the assumption that testosterone is what turns young boys into stereotypical men.

Scott Pape's The Barefoot Investor tops the independent bestsellers chart.

According to Alex Soojun-Kim Pang, the eight-hour day has become a dimly remembered base line, but four hours work is all that's necessary.

Heyman literally immersed herself to write her new novel, Storm and Grace, spending two years learning to free-dive.

Andy Jones' rom-com offers a fresh take on a convention-bound genre.

Cecelia Ahern's novel about reality TV is intricately plotted and, at times, extremely moving.

"In the modern world we hardly need to think about where we live because we eat the same food, go to the same shops."

Ali Land's novel is an interesting treatment of the subject: what happens to the children of criminals?

Ali Land worked as a child and adolescent mental-health nurse in hospitals and schools in Britain and Australia before becoming a full-time writer.

James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published 100 years ago. But it almost met with disaster.

Claire-Louise Bennett's novella or series of stories is unlike anything in contemporary fiction.

The man who prosecuted the killers at Myall Creek was the subject of considerable public criticism.

The biography of Michael Chabon's grandfather is derived from the elderly man's deathbed stories, fleshed out with Chabon's and other people's memories, and his imaginings.

According to Thomas Friedman, we will be able to solve the big social and health problems of the world. That's optimism.

Julia Foulkes explores the connections between West Side Story, the social issues of New York and the Cold War politics of the day.

The origins of champagne as a mass-market prestige product are unsettling for lovers of fizz.

Despite the grim stories about abuse of the organ, Heart is not a grim book and enthuses about the benefits of sex.

Lin Utzon was a 17-year-old art student when Martin Sharp, the notorious young cartoonist of the satirical magazine Oz, arrived at a noisy Paddington party. She found him intelligent, charming and roguish.

Over that past 20 years pop-up has gone from being a children's book or type of toaster to a computer ad to a spectral emporium offering flavours of the month with maple syrup.

Antoine Leiris' response to his wife's murder in Paris is pointed: "Guns, bullets, violence: this is just background noise to the real tragedy taking place: absence."