Welcome to the libraries’ News Blog! Here you’ll find reviews of new books, information about what’s happening at our libraries, and any breaking author news. We’ll also keep you up to date with exciting book award shortlists and prize announcements as they come to us, so check back often!
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There is still time (well two days, really!) to enter our Waitangi Day competition: a quiz that will test your knowledge of this major event in New Zealand history. If you know how to search the internet, you will be able to find the correct answers and be in to win really nice prizes.
Enter the competition by clicking here.
It is not so much the stories of a building as the story of the one hundred years old company that make Fletchers a fascinating book. This is available for borrowing along with other New Zealand publications such as The invention of New Zealand: art & national identity, 1930-1970. Our selection also includes books about Len Lye and kinetic art, New Zealand cooking, New Zealand Public Health system, and Wellington newest suburbs. And if you are interested in the history of families from the South Island of New Zealand, check out this month’s New Zealand Recent Picks.
Following the lead of our sister-blog the Teen Blog, here is the top ten list of most wanted fiction books (both on the shelf & on order) at Wellington City Libraries:
Most wanted Fiction books in circulation-
Most wanted Fiction books on order- Read more…
Do fruits make your kids smile but veges make them yawn? You can trick them into eating the green stuff with a collection of delicious smoothies created by Victoria Boutenko. If you are into a more potent drink yourself, you will like Living with wine by Samantha Nestor, as well as the Basic basics wine handbook. Our selection this month also includes recipe books for sweets, Asian dumplings, chicken & poultry, vegetarian cooking, and wacky cupcakes. And if you want to re-discover Kiwi fare and explore French and Italian cooking, check out this month’s Cooking Recent Picks.
Nau mai, haere mai. Please join with us in celebrating te Rā o Waitangi : Waitangi Day – a day of bicultural fun for the whole whānau.
Where & when : Saturday 6 February, Waitangi Park, 11 am-4.30 pm
After a powhiri at 11.00 am, Wellington City Libraries will be supported by storyteller, Moira Wairama, with these storytimes :
11.30 am Maui and the sun
12.30 pm Bilingual weta
1.30 pm. Ngake and Whataitai (taniwha)
In between, at 12 noon, 1 pm, 2 pm, we will be providing an opportunity for children & parents to make badges relating to each storytelling session.
Come also to see our range of books on the Treaty, and enter your name for a random prize draw of books.
You can also test your knowledge of historical events which triggered the signing of Te Tiriti/The Treaty by completing our simple quiz – and go in the draw to win a book prize.
Fans of the writer Marina Lewycka, author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, winner of the 2005 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing, will be thrilled to know she will be speaking on Monday 22nd February 2010 at the City Gallery, Civic Square, Wellington. She will discuss her work which includes Two Caravans published in 2007 and her latest novel, We are all made of Glue published in 2009. This event starts at 6.00pm; tickets are $15 ($12 for Book Council Members) and are available for purchase from the information desk at Wellington Central Library.
Sources: Contemporary Writers, British Council, The Guardian UK.
Here’s our team showing off the collection and their current favourite zines:
If you didn’t catch them, here are the zines mentioned:
We hope you enjoy our first video reviews!
Our DVD selection for February has just come out! Amongst others, our picks are: Young Victoria (although young Albert isn’t too bad either…), Sunshine Cleaning (could be called ‘Murder scene cleaning for Dummies’), Tyson (which shows the other side of the infamous ear-biting boxer), and Seraphine (the French female equivalent of Van Gogh, give or take a little). Other movies available are Inglorious Basterds (a glorious re-writing of WWII) and District 9 (you might not like prawns so much after watching this movie), and if you want to know what other movies are on the shelves, check out this month’s DVD Recent Picks.
The American novelist and short story writer J. D. Salinger has died aged 91. Although his last published work was 47 years ago he was one of the century’s most controversial writers, shunning all publicity and living in total seclusion since 1965. His most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951 and has sold an estimated 65 million copies to date, with 200,000 copies still being sold annually in the United States. His other published works include the novel Franny and Zooey published in 1961 and his last work of short stories, Raise High the Roof–Beam published in 1963. The publishing world will now wait to see if the work he amassed during his reclusive years, writing for himself will be made available for publication. This body of work is rumoured to contain 15 completed novels.
Have you noticed something quite unusual in Wellington lately ? A fair few folks sporting AC/DC t-shirts are roaming the streets, eagerly awaiting the last of the two AC/DC concerts taking place this Saturday at the Westpac Stadium.
If you are a fan of the Australian rock band and want to brush up on your knowledge of the music and history of the group, we have a list you might be interested in:
Read more…
WCL has over 600,000 books, 450,000 magazines, and 85,000 CDs, DVDs, videos and other items at our central library and 11 branches. We are located in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. Looking for your local branch? Have a look at our Library Locations page.