One last ‘best of 2003’ list for you to ponder. These are the picks from the reviewers on National Radio’s Nine To Noon show:

Laura Kroestch
Love, Toni Morrison (Random House)
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes On An Imperfect Science, Atul Gawande (Archetype Allen & Unwin)
The Fifth Book Of Peace, Maxine Hong Kingston (Random House)
Toast, Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate)

Miriam Jonas
Boudica: Dreaming Of The Eagle, Manda Scott (Random House)
A Vine Romance: Tales From An English Vineyard, Gay Biddlecombe (Pan Macmillan)
Practical Smallfarming In New Zealand, Trisha Fisk (Reed Books)

Dinah Vincent
Flights Of Love, Bernhard Schlink (Phoenix)
The Giant's House, Elizabeth McCracken (Vintage)
The Amazing Adventures Of Cavalier And Clay, Michael Chabon (Fourth Estate)
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber)

Phil Wallington
1688: A Global History, John E Wills (Granta)
In The Heart Of The Sea, Nathaniel Philbuck (Flamingo)
Stuff:The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach (Viking)
Spring Offensive: New Zealand and The Second Battle Of the Somme, Glyn Harper (HarperCollins)
Who's Who:The Old Testament, Joan Comay (Dent)

John McCrystal
How To Be Alone, Jonathan Franzen (Fourth Estate)
Portrait Of the Artist's Wife, Barbara Anderson (Victoria University Press)
The Transformaton, Catherine Chidgey (Victoria University Press)
Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer (Penguin)