Shane Warne is one of cricket’s most colourful and at times infamous characters, both on and off the pitch. His book Shane Warne’s Century : My top 100 test cricketers profiles players that have had influence on him and the game. Ironically he never reached a test century although he achieved 99 three times. Perhaps the title should be changed to reflect this!

With the ANZ netball championship matches on locally and televised it may encourage budding and seasoned netballers to learn new skills. Anita Navin’s manual Netball : Skills, techniques ,tactics will give all ages practical advice to improve their game.

Cycle for life : Bike basics + Body basics + Challenge yourself by Nicole Cooke and Steven James is aimed at novices and improvers. Three crucial elements, the body, the brain and the bike will ensure successful cycling whether for pleasure or competition.

Read more about these books and a wide variety of others including skateboarding, the NZ Maori rugby team and jigsaws via this month’s Recent Sport Picks.

Sloane Crosley’s essays I was told there’d be cake sold over 75, 000 copies and was on the New York Times bestseller list for 4 weeks. Aspects of her life, the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly are covered in 15 short essays written with humour and honesty. Read about her exploits and why she was expecting cake!

Arthur Conan Doyle created one of  literature’s greatest characters, the brilliant but flawed Sherlock Holmes. With unprecedented access to Conan Doyle’s personal papers and correspondence, biographer Russell Miller has written a comprehensive portrait. The adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle : a biography shows that his life was no less fascinating than his fiction.

This poignant collection by poets killed in World War 1 combines with colour plates and sketches to give insight into the experiences that inspired their poetry: – editor Brian Busby of In Flanders fields : and other poems of the First World War has chosen a variety of  poems relating both to war and the personal sadness of being away from home.

Read more about these books or others by New Zealand authors via the Literature Recent Picks.

The winner of the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the literary world’s richest, was recently announced. This year’s award was won by Michael Thomas for his first novel Man Goes Down. Brilliant in its scope and energy, deeply moving and insightful this novel tell the story of a young black father of three in a biracial marriage trying to claim a piece of the American Dream he has hoped for since his youth.

Michael Thomas was born and raised in Boston, where his novel is set. He recieved his B. A. from Hunter College and his M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College. He teaches at Hunter and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

When the Second World War stopped for most, it still carried on for others as a shadow war consisting in tracking, finding and abducting Nazi criminals of war. Such is the story told in Hunting Eichmann, a book relating the efforts made to bring “the architect of the Holocaust” to justice. Our selection this month includes books dealing with the Warsaw Ghetto archives, the battle of the River Plate, Afghanistan before terrorism, and the revolt of the gladiators led by Spartacus. You can also read about what daily life was like in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, what the Western Front was like during WWI, and what it is like to live in the occupied territories of Palestine. And if you are interested in the Tudors or Antiquity, check out this month’s History Recent Picks.

Whether to save money or to get a sense of achievement through producing your own vegetables DIY gardening is becoming more popular. In The healthy soil handbook , organic gardeners give advice on making the soil nutrient rich with minimal effort while reducing water usage. A healthy soil will produce healthy results.

Many people would like to try growing vegetables but feel they may not have the time, the space, the environment or the know-how. Dennis Greville’s book Easy on the pocket vegetable gardening : growing your own groceries guides the novice through all aspects and confidently states that year-round vegetables will be the result.

The residents of eight houses in America have allowed architectural photographer Bilyana Dimitrova into their homes. Chosen for their distinctive interiors that blend in with the personalities and lifestyles none of the homes in To each his home : inspiring interiors as unique as their owners have been designed by professionals.

Learn more about DIY reading these books and others on kitchens, bathrooms, woodshopping and more on the DIY Recent Picks page.

This film, written as a gift for Marilyn Monroe by her husband Arthur Miller about a despairing divorcee was a case of art imitating life. Although their marriage ended just months after filming she remained an integral part of Miller’s work for the next 40 years. The genius and the goddess : Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe by Jeffrey Meyers covers their life together and interactions with Hollywood and the literary elite.

When Michael J. Fox became unwell no-one expected the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. Following on from his first memoir Lucky Man, his new book  Always looking up : the adventures of an incurable optimist gives insight to a man who feels his glass is definitely half-full.

Daughters of shame by Jasvinder Sanghera are true stories about the lives of vulnerable women in many societies where they have no status and no say in their future. Sanghera has experienced this personally and works to aid these women, putting herself at risk so that others can live without fear.

Read more about these books and others looking at the lives of Catherine the Great, Diana Mosley, and Mary Moody via the Biography Recent Picks.

Combine Lance Armstrong’s cycling achievements (winning the Tour de France 7 times), his recovery from cancer and a relationship with a musical icon and his life begins to read like a movie. In Lance : the making of the world’s greatest champion John Wilcockson interviews friends and fellow cyclists giving an insight into a unique individual.

The cocktail dress has a long association with glitz and glamour – think Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany. Laird Borrelli-Persson’s book Cocktail dress chronicles its history using a wide range of images including art, photography, advertisement and magazine covers. Turn up the heater and slip into your favourite “little cocktail dress”.

The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility was opened in 2002 and has been called secretive, inhumane and illegal by some and necessary for the “fight against terror” by others. The least worst place by Karen Greenberg records its first 100 days and how influences from Washington turned a prison into a interrogation centre.

This month’s eclectic mixture of subject matter continues with books on exorcism, American comics, Edward de Bono, Piers Morgan and “green sewing” – something for everyone. Pick your favourite via the Buyer’s Choice Recent Picks.

Do you have a wide imagination and dream about castles in the sky, nebulous galaxies and awesome spaceships? You can give your dreams shape with two books that feature in our selection: Mega Manga and Sci-Fi art. We also have a number of items dedicated to sustainable designs and green architecture. You can learn about 100 new eco designs and where to find them, Green design and Designing sustainable packaging. And if you are interested in American illustration and graphics, check out this month’s Graphic design and art Recent Picks.

Focusing on the inventors as well as the inventions The lives, loves and deaths of splendidly unreasonable inventors by Jeremy Coller and Christine Chamberlin examine the process from the original idea to subsequent wealth and fame – for some! These inventors, largely from the 19th and 20th centuries are responsible for changing how we live our day-to-day lives. Learn how the sewing machine, the safety razor, the telephone and many more inventions became reality.

Readers of Physics World voted for their most popular equation. A brief guide to the great equations : the hunt for cosmic beauty in numbers by Robert Crease lists the top ten. What made number 1? Surprisingly (to those non-mathematicians perhaps) the most commonly known equation “E=mc2″ was out-voted by Euler’s equation “eip+1=0″. A poetic mathematician states that it “captures with beautiful simplicity what can only be described clumsily in words”. Who could disagree?

Simon Levay’s book When science goes wrong : 12 tales from the dark side of discovery focuses on scientific misadventures. While not appointing blames it highlights the potential life threatening risks that can and do occur when science fails. The impact on the victims can be devastating.

Read more about these books and others about the history of science, the quest to catalogue life and Darwin’s lost world in this month’s Recent Science Picks.

Te Papa is a great museum but it might take a lifetime to uncover all its treasures! If you want to have a glimpse of their collection, consult Art at Te Papa and discover 400 of their best items. The South Pacific has been a source of inspiration for a great many European writers and artists, you can contemplate their work in In search of paradise: artists and writers in the colonial South Pacific. New Zealand artists are also featured in our selection this month with books covering contemporary art and painted gardens in New Zealand art. And if you are still in need of impressionism after the exhibition at the National Museum, check out our Art Recent Picks.