This month’s Science Fiction Recent Picks feature assassins, sorcerers, clones, a portal to hell, warring gods and fallen angels, humanity on the brink of extinction, a math prodigy, the downtrodden masses of a corporation-owned world, sinister plots, vengeance, resurrection, space cowboys, mortal enemies, the founding of a new world, a witches’ coven, revolution, war, and a yeti in the frozen food aisle at the supermarket. For all of the above (and more!) check out our  Science Fiction Recent Picks for July. Whew.

40 years ago this July humans landed on the Moon for the first time - and then did it five more times over the next three and a half years. In this illustrated presentation, David Maclennan, President of the NZ Spaceflight Association, will reflect on how and why the Apollo programme came to be, its historical and cultural significance, and how we experienced it all from afar here in New Zealand.

Project Apollo reflected the heady optimism of the “Swinging 60’s”, when the world finally shook off the post-World War 2 gloom and envisaged a bright, shiny future, perhaps best epitomised by Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. That this utopian future never quite eventuated may in part explain why humans haven’t returned to the Moon since December 1972.

But all that will soon change - come along to find out more about plans for humans to be back on the Moon by 2020, and later on to Mars…

When: Tuesday 21 July, 7-8pm

Where: Central Library, 65 Victoria Street, Wellington

1950s Calcutta, a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a small town in south-east Ireland in the 1950s, Shanghai in 1937, and Alabama in 1931 - our Contemporary Fiction Recent Picks this month range across many different times and places. You’ll find sprawling sagas, broken dreams, personal tragedies, a guilty conscience, one journey of a lifetime, crumbling masonry, a garden choked with weeds, and a journalist in search of justice and a Pulitzer who finds himself in the sights of a murderer (Michael Connelly’s The Scarecrow). And did we mention the prehistoric giant squid? Check out our Contemporary Fiction Recent Picks.

Feisty heroines, neo-Victorian melodrama, strange sounds, awful smells, a semi-demonic cat, and murder most foul - all wrapped up in a nice tidy package for your perusal in our Mysteries Recent Picks this month.

Just a few of the titles featured this month… Liars Anonymous is Shamus Award-winner Louise Ure’s new book, wherein damaged heroine and emergency roadside operator Jessie Dancing is drawn into a web of intrigue when she answers an emergency call from a driver who sounds as if he’s being murdered. Also on our reading list this month: the new Dalziel & Pascoe novel from Reginald Hill; an Irish tale of world politics, industry and organised crime in Brian McGilloway’s Bleed a River Deep; and Scott Frost’s new Lieutenant Alex Delillo book - the Lieutenant has a serial killer on his hands when the bodies of prominent community members start showing up posed as a copy of a Goya painting. Plus, for semi-demonic cats and all manner of the macabre, check out Daniel Edward Craig’s Murder at Graverly Manor.

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.