News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Soul of the age: the life, mind and world of William Shakespeare by Jonathan Bate gives an insight of the extraordinary, colourful and often violent world that shaped Shakespeare’s thinking. Little known facts about his life add mystique to a writer who produced such a large volume of work. Why was he the only dramatist not to be imprisoned? How did Bottom’s dream rewrite the bible? How did his play lead to the death of an Earl? The answers are in this book.

Many people write a book but why do some become published authors and others don’t? Comprised of 20 letters, The Maeve Binchy writers’ club offers advice and tips with focus on what editors and publishers are looking for.

Simply memorizing or blindly accepting information has the potential to lead to the wrong answers and can impact on day-to-day decisions. Asking the right questions: a guide to critical thinking by M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley teaches how to think critically, how to spot fallacies and avoid being manipulated. If something seems to good to be true, it probably is!

Read these books and others about poetry, what would happen if Aristotle ran Hogwarts and free speech in this month’s Literature Recent Picks.

Peter J. Bentley has written The undercover scientist: investigating the mishaps of everyday life to help understand why some days things just go wrong. He explains the science that lies behind the most mundane mishaps such as sleeping through the alarm and battling with superglue and how to be in control of these situations.

Ed Zine, an otherwise healthy 24 year old has a form of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) where his mind tells him that if going forward in time leads to death, then reversing time will lead away from it. In Life in rewind: the story of an OCD prisoner and the Harvard doctor who broke all the rules to set him free by Terry Murphy highlights the relationship between doctor and patient and how the breakthrough finally occurred.

Experiments on animals and plants have been used for generations. In Pavlov’s dogs and Schrodinger’s cat: scenes from the living laboratory: tales from the living laboratory by Ron Harre the focus is on the history of how and why living creatures have been used for scientific purposes rather than the moral aspects. It includes extraordinary stories, curious incidents and scientific fraud through five centuries.

Learn more through these books and others including titles on how to build a dinosaur, the Hadron Collider and viruses in the month’s Recent Popular Science Picks.

Boring lampshades – not any more with The lampshade lady’s guide to lighting up your life: 50 custom lampshades & lamps by Judy Lake. Using inexpensive basic frames, a range of fabrics, photos, postcards or anything that inspires, a tired lampshade will be resurrected or a personalised new one produced.

It can be difficult to be enthusiastic about creating that personal touch for a short term home but Decorating to go by Robin Bernard and Adrienne Nappi gives suggestion on how to do just that. Advice, design ideas and how to achieve a lot with little money will create a feeling of home as well as an ability to transfer the result to another home.

How do you hang a big screen television? Why can’t you ever find your tools?  What should you do with that old sun-lounger? Solutions to these questions and others will be given in Weekend projects: a step-by-step guide to more than 50 DIY projects by Reader’s Digest.

Learn new skills from these books or others including self-sufficient living, upholstery and cooking home-grown produce in this month’s Home and Garden Recent Picks.

Cloth dolls are very popular in the creative world and textile artists are also using them as a three-dimensional medium for their art. They range from simple stump dolls to the more complicated jointed doll. Cloth dolls for textile artists by Ray Slater includes patterns and step-by-step instruction for all levels.

Feltique: techniques and projects for wet felting, needle felting, fulling and working with commercial felt by Nikola Davidson and Brookelynn Morris includes 45 projects to try from gloves, earrings, rattles to floppy flying discs! They are simple to make and suitable for all ages.

The art of Kalamkari painting is one of the oldest in India. An expert in this field, Shakuntala Ramani explains how this ancient craft, deeply rooted in religion has evolved into both market craft and folk art. Read about this little known art in Kalamkari and traditional design heritage of India.

Learn about these arts and crafts and other types including tapestry weaving, gift making and crocheting in this month’s Craft Recent Picks.

A bicycle is the most used method of getting from A to B and this has been David Byrne’s primary mode of transport in New York City since the 1980’s. Travelling with his folding bicycle he began to explore other cities. Part travelogue, part journal, part photo album his Bicycle diaries are an account of his experiences travelling through Berlin, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Sydney and more.

Small fry: play; inspiration for creative play with kids is written by the Small Fry team. The focus is to encourage parents and carers to return to basics and encourage free play rather than more structured activities. Other books by the Small Fry team cover creative play and being outdoors.

This is the ideal book for lovers of sport and statistics. Rugby to remember: a collection of programmes and match reports from 100 years of New Zealand rugby by Lindsay Knight celebrates games at the provincial level through to test matches.

Read these and others about hunting, mountaineering, sports heroes and the Swiss Eiger in this month’s Sport Recent Picks.

As part of the International Year of Astronomy, people worldwide will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope to look at the night sky from 22-24 October. We have three great opportunities for you to join in too with Wellington City Libraries and Wellington Astronomical Society – there’s something for everyone: they’re all fun and free, no bookings required.

The Life and Science of Galileo – Thursday 22 October, 7-8pm, Central Library
Find out about Galileo’s contributions to modern science and how he used his ideas to discover the universe with a telescope in this free talk by Ross Powell from the Wellington Astronomical Society.

Best known as a genius of science for his use of the telescope, Galileo also made important discoveries about gravity and motion that laid the foundations for modern astronomy and science. Find out more about the man who was at times surrounded by controversy between science and religion, but did not let that stop his revolutionary ideas from progressing the exploration of our universe (suitable for adults).

Galileo for Kids – Saturday 24 October, 2-4pm, Central Library
Kids can join in the fun too :  find out how to make a simple telescope and try out other fun experiments exploring things such as gravity and pendulums, just like Galileo did. All young astronomers who come along will also get to make their own special Galileo badge to take home (suitable for 5-12 year olds).

Activities and experiments will be provided by the Wellington Astronomical Society and Wellington City Libraries.

Galileo’s Moons – Saturday 24 October, 7.30-11pm, Thomas King Observatory (near Carter Observatory at the top of the Botanical Gardens)
Come along to Thomas King Observatory to join in the celebrations and look through telescopes to see Jupiter and the Moon just like Galileo did 400 years ago* – it’s a fun and free night for all the family!
(*weather permitting – if cloudy or wet other activities will be held inside Thomas King Observatory)

Come along and join us as we continue to explore, wonder and discover in the International Year of Astronomy 2009!

Wellington City Libraries along with IP (Interactive Publications) invite you to the launch of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand, on Monday 19^th October at 5.30 pm ground floor Central Library, Victoria Street. This amazing anthology is edited by poet, fiction writer, critic and publisher Mark Pirie and Tim Jones, poet and fiction writer, both Wellingtonians. There is an impressive number of New Zealand writers represented in this anthology. The readers for the evening include poets Janis Freegard, Nic Hill, Jack Perkins, Rachel McAlpine, Helen Rickerby, Robin Fry and the editors Mark Pirie and Tim Jones.

The seating will be available on a first come first served based.

So come along and join us for a wonderful evening of poetry.

Helen Gurley Brown became an “overnight” success in 1962 with her international bestseller Sex and the Single Girl. Editor of Cosmopolitan magazine for 32 years, when she finished she left her readers with three pieces of advice – read Bad girls go everywhere: the life of Helen Gurly Brown by Jennifer Scanlon to find out what they were.

Arthur Ransome is best remembered for Swallows and Amazons but previously he led a very different life in Russia as a spokesman for violence and oppression. The last Englishman: the double life of Arthur Ransome by Roland Chambers follows the transition to successful published children’s writer.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was adapted to a successful stage-play and film and the best known of Muriel Spark’s work. In 1992 she invited Martin Stannard to write her biography giving him full access to interviews and papers. Muriel Spark: the biography is the result and covers both the highlights and her darker moments.

Read about these people and others including Titian, Alan Bennett, Francis Coty in this month’s Biography Recent Picks.

Visit our libraries next week for a series of free workshops for everyone aged over 55.

Workshop topics include  gardening, yoga, estate planning, jewellery care, family history, antiques and more. Interested in writing for teenagers? Come along to a workshop with award-winning author Fleur Beale. Want to get into organic gardening? Come and listen to New Zealand Gardener of the Year, Sister Loyola. There’ll be lots of opportunities to ask questions, and if you’re an antiques enthusiast coming along to our Antiques Show and Tell session with Tinakori Antiques’ John Fyson, you can even bring along your family heirlooms and find out more about them!

Interested? Make sure to check out our Living Well Workshop Programme for a full schedule of speakers and topics.

October is the month for celebrating New Zealand writing and publishing. This is an annual event in which New Zealand books are highlighted,  and writers new and well-established are acclaimed and rediscovered. As part of the celebration we’ve created an online quiz - How well do you know New Zealand Fiction?  on our Popular Topics Fiction web page. Find out how your knowledge stacks up! You might know more than you think, and you may even come across an interesting fact or two that you didn’t know. Good luck – and we hope you discover a fantastic New Zealand book or two this month!

(P.S. The  book above  is the answer to one of the quiz questions…)