Pirates ahoy!

Gather round me hearties for a pirate storytime. Solve the treasure map, and make pirate hats, parrots and swords. Dress up as a pirate or have your face painted! Any naughty children may have to walk the plank... Come to our holiday programmes and become a pirate, play Playdough Pictionary, make some funky fridge magnets, meet a friendly fireman and celebrate Christmas.

Slowly awakening taniwha

New Zealand before the Treaty, the Pakeaka educational programme, meeting houses, Matariki and Māori health are among the topics covered in our Māori recent picks.

Heated debate

Would you eat your neighbour? Does China have a ravenous hunger? Have the majority of people evolved beyond war? Has terrorism taken over the modern world? Are you an ambivalent consumer? What is the meaning of wife? These questions may be answered by our new popular non-fiction, but having done nothing more than admire their covers, I offer no guarantees.

New computer books

Photoshop CS2, software security, open source software, blog design solutions, computing for seniors, podcasting - these topics and more are discussed in our new computer books.

Stunningly, uproariously bizarre

Circus performers, pirates, an erudite martini-swilling dog, Steve Irwin, graphic French horror, Vicky Pollard, thumbsuckers, crime solving math professors - they're all here among our DVD recent picks.

Poison-laced champagne

Brawls, ranting, gory shapes, demon spawn, true guffaws, rumpled library-scholars, sexy scam artists, tentative love affairs, Highlands villages, immoral appetites and a barrister turned monk - to unravel these strands, you must investigate our mystery recent picks.

Perfect happiness may exist only in our minds

Explore positive psychology, grow older healthily, pursue happiness, cope with stress and pain, come to a new understanding of religion - these subjects and more are covered in our new self help recent picks.

Blissed out hippies

Our popular music recent books look at U2, David Crosby, trumpeter James Morrison and AC/DC. In 'I was there: the gigs that changed the world,' Mark Paytress shows us what it would have been like to see the Beatles in one of their lunchtime spots in 1963 at the Cavern.

Best book lists

In addition to our favourite books of 2006, we're gathering together the picks of magazines and newspapers. The New York Times '10 best books' includes Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart, Special topics in calamity physics by Marisha Pessl, The looming tower, Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright and The omnivore's dilemma, a natural history of four meals by Michael Pollan. Check out what the Guardian, Times, New Statesman, Washington Post and others have to say on our fiction page.

What we've got

What new fiction, books on CD and DVDs arrived this month? Visit the booklists page to find out. We also list some of the most popular items this month, including Clive James's 4th volume of unreliable memoirs, new novels by Terry Pratchett, Elizabeth George and Mark Haddon, and CDs by The Be Good Tanyas and The Beatles.

The power of nice

Rev up your workplace, move from conflict to collaboration, write a great CV, kick-start your business, win the knowledge transfer race - all this and more in our management recent picks. You can also learn from great thinkers such as Viscount Horatio Nelson and some psychologist from The Apprentice.

Prise oneself from one's armchair

"Every lady should, to my mind, know how to use a revolver. She may at any time be in China or some other country where there are savage natives," Walter Winans, 1904. In addition to some antique advice in 'The lost art of travel: a handbook of modern adventurer' by Vic Darkwood, our travel recent picks look at Tuscany, Rio, Indian rail journeys, Northland and the Himalayas.

Of whirlwind underground

Learn to play accordion music, Verdi, Lilburn ... all this and more in our classical music recent picks, this month featuring scores and songbooks.

Sub-zero heroes

Our children's AV recent picks include DVDs of Curious George, Fungus the Bogeyman, Angelina Ballerina (a mouse), Bob the Builder, Tractor Tom and more. New CDs to soothe babies include 'Peaceful baby' and 'Sleepy baby', and you can then put on 'Playful baby' to wake them up.

Chainsaws in the bedrooms

Read our new Children's fiction and experience the difficulty of ruling the Faerie Realm, being chased by the FBI and Hairless Joe and an ambush of Father Christmas. In 'Parent Swap', a secret agency helps children find perfect parents. In 'The Charioteer of Delphi', rival racing factions are embroiled in sabotage, secret identities and a deadly curse.

A one-whiskered rat

Christmas, blue kangaroos, grumpy ducks, wise old tomcats, pharaohs and Kylie can be found in our latest children's picture books.

Metallic threads

Brown grocery bags, screenprinting, quilt folklore, crochet techniques, yoga bags and machine embroidery are among the topics of our recent craft picks. Learn how to make greeting cards, beaded bags, embroidered flowers and more.

He was a lowly hussar

New books by Michael Dobbs, Sue Townsend, Stephen King and Martina Cole (as plastered on posters around town) are among our contemporary fiction recent picks. Long-estranged fathers, Norfolk craft shops, partying girlfriends, perilous journeys, poultry keeping, influenza and the blind ineptitude of Westminster men are featured.

The infamous Chopine

Stripes, puppets, t-shirts, pictograms, fashion culture, alphabets, body painting, traditional Indian designs and the eroticism of ancient shoe lacing are among the topics of our new design books.

Molecular gastronomy

Polenta, squid, Bellinis, moist beef, sinking souffles, cheat's pizza and fried shallotts are discussed in our new cooking books. Ruth Pretty, Biba Caggiano, Bill Granger, Julie Biuso and Alison herself are among the writers.