News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

If you can’t go on holiday (yet), have a look at our travel books’ selection this month. Every man in this village is a liar is the account of a journalist ’s experiences reporting conflicts in the Middle- East. From here to there relates the experience of a father and son teaming up for a road-trip across three continents. Driving home: an American scrapbook shows America through the eyes of award winning writer Jonathan Raban, an Englishman who now lives in Seattle. The dead yard : a story of modern Jamaica gives another image of the country of James Bond fame, exposing the culture, history and today’s society. And finally, Swimming with sharks is a book depicting the chronic instability enduring in the countries of the South Pacific. If you want to know more about these books and others that are available, check out this month’s Travel Recent Picks.

Due to the increase in GST, we have reviewed our fees and charges.  Overdue prices for Adult books and  borrowing charges for Children and Young Adult DVDs will change.

Overdue books borrowed by Adult library members will increase from their current price of 60 cents per day to 80 cents per day.

Borrowing a DVD from the Children and Young Adults collection will increase from the current price of 50 cents to 80 cents per DVD.

These price increases relate to items that are due after 1 November.  All other standard fees and user charges stay the same.

We’re upgrading our computer system at the end of October, which is why these changes take effect later than the nationwide GST increase.

Author Susan Hill’s best known book is The Woman in Black and her latest one has that same eerie feeling of unknown threats and sinister happenings. Ultimately The small hand: a ghost story may be produced for the stage as well.

Started early, took my dog is the fourth of Kate Atkinson’s novel involving the detective Jackson Brodie. Returning to his home county his path crosses retired police detective Tracy Waterhouse and aging actress Tilly. All find that the past has a habit of appearing at unexpected times with potential dangerous outcomes.

Author of the television series Wire in the Blood Val McDermid’s new novel Trick of the dark intertwines the lives of writer Jay Macallan, recently widowed Magda Newsam and psychologist Charlie Flint. All have secrets they want to keep hidden and realise that when the truth does get out there is a high price to pay.

Enjoy these bestselling books and others by authors including Jennifer Egan, Lisa Gardner and Jack Higgins in this month’s Contemporary Fiction Recent Picks.

So it’s been a looong time since our last zine interview, but Carla was lucky enough to catch up with Yelz recently (of Around 21 fame) and asked him a few ziney questions.

Describe an average day:

After a hearty and oaty breakfast with lots of honey and raisins I tend to doodle some stickers to loosen me up and prep me for the day.

If I’m working a full day at ‘work’ I usually don’t get too much drawing or painting done, and I spend the day daydreaming about what I want to be doing the rest of the week. This might involve looking for walls to paint, and sketching and painting if I have a commission or there’s a show coming up.  I like street-art missions the best during summer and tend to paint more in the studio during winter.

How did you first get into zines?

I don’t know if I’m that ‘into’ zines yet. Lately my girlfriend has been getting them out of the library though, and she has great taste so they are a growing sensation. I get very excited about the little wee booklets now.
Also this year my friend drypnz started creating his ‘massage’ zines with PNTR. This immediately spoke out to me and I realised I had something public and personal to illustrate as well, so the zine process began.

What do you like about zines?

Raw thoughts, poetry, pictures and doodles

Is there anything you don’t like about zines as a medium?

No.

How do you get inspiration for a zine?

I have to feel like something that I’m doing is vital to public interest or appeal, or to my own I guess. For “around” it was very easy to get inspired, when your doing an arty info zine about endangered animals, those feeling fuel you through the process pretty easily. I’d like to keep collecting data and doing sketches, and do an ‘around’ zine perhaps for every country I reside in for a while. It seems it’s a good way to learn about a place and its natural history.

Tell us about some of our favorite zines…

There’s some pretty cool zines lying around at the mo -
‘The Ultimate questions’ – a collection of humorous and sadistic Kiwi collages.
‘Massage magazine’ filled with the best upcoming NZ street artists, photographers and the like
‘The weakly mushroom’ is also present in my room, filled with philosophical thoughts and doodles.

And there’s some issues of  ‘around’ left, if you would like a copy send me a mail at holla@ilikeyelz.co.nz.

Kia ora.

Thanks for the ad!!

Yelz

A brand new addition to our zine collection is Around 21 by the very talented Yelz. Yelz moved to New Zealand a few years ago and quickly found a strong connection with native birds. He started to illustrate them with an amazingly unique style. The first page of this zine has a listing of all NZ’s native birds that are quickly disappearing. This zine is beautiful and meaningful. I wonder if Yelz knows how highly talented he is and how moving his art can be. This is for sure another Librarians’ choice!

By Carlita

Check out more of his amazing work here.

Law for Lunch – Dealing with workplace bullying will take place this week on Wednesday (tomorow), from noon till 1pm, on the groundfloor of the Central library.

Our speaker will be Colin Ross, Wellington Community Law Centre’s senior community lawyer, who specialises in employment law. Colin has extensive management experience and is expertly placed to discuss both sides of the workplace bullying coin: how to approach bullying as a manager, and how to respond effectively as a victim.

He will talk throught the following points:

• Tough manager or workplace bully?
• Organisational and personal consequences of workplace bullying
• Useful strategies to deal with bullying (for both staff and managers)
• How to be “bully-free”

For more information, check our online Event Calendar.

Our Bestsellers collection is the ‘no-wait way to borrow’ latest popular books.

Simply check out the distinctive red shelves on the ground floor of the Central Library and at selected branch libraries. Bestsellers books cannot be reserved and are $5 for a one week loan (overdue charge is $1/day).

These titles will be available for free in the main collection. However, there may be a reserve queue.

Bestseller Non Fiction:

Bill Granger- Bill’s basics

Julie Le Clerc- Made by hand: natural food to nourish and delight
(more…)

50-ish author Andee Jones decided to look for love via the world of on-line dating and her book Kissing frogs: a psychologist goes looking for love on-line—and finds trouble is the result. She comes to realises that dating in this on-line world has many of the same pitfalls as traditional ways of looking for love. After four years of dating did she find the one? Read the book and find out.

What part of no don’t you understand? The power of no: take your life back with a two-letter word by Beth Wareham gives advice on how to say no without offending others.

The uses of sadness: why feeling sad is no reason not to be happy looks at what sadness is and is not. It differs from depression and may actually help to reflect on our lives. Author Karen Masman feels it is a “warning” that we need to re-evaluate where we are at and where we want to be.

Look at these titles and others in this month’s Personal Development Recent Picks with subjects including the five love languages, achieving goals and how to clear mental clutter.

The Gabriel method: the revolutionary diet-free way to totally transform your body devised by Jon Gabriel is a combination of obesity research, scientific aspects and the influence of our own mindset to weight loss. After losing 220 pounds without dieting or surgery he showed minimal physical signs of his previous body shape and size.

Forget the gym, get fit and lose weight by cycling. Selene Yeager’s book Ride your way lean: the ultimate plan for burning fat and getting fit on a bike will show you how. Included are training strategies, tips, pitfalls to avoid, nutritional information and advice from others who have been successful with this programme. 
The book The ultimate pH solution: balancing your body’s chemistry to prevent disease and lose weight recommends starting the day sipping a glass of water with lemon juice. This helps to neutralise our pH by lowering the acid levels in the body and improving health. Author Michelle Schoffro Cook includes 50 recipes to try as well as success stories by people who have used this method.

Look into these books as an option for losing weight or for other topics including prostate cancer, moods, anxiety and even how Google affects our intelligence in this month’s Health Recent Picks.

Our new non-fiction selection is here ! It includes Sons to Men: a mother’s guide that is meant to give mothers of teenage sons help with raising them as well as preserving themselves. The reluctant spy : my secret life in the CIA’s war on terror describes what it was like in the CIA’s headquarters on 9/11. Andean cocaine : the making of a global drug relates the history of cocaine through the ages in the Andes. Sex at dawn : the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality sheds light on the true nature of the sexuality of Man. Peddling peril : how the secret nuclear trade arms America’s enemies explains how the A.Q. Khan network functions. We have lots more books for you to find out about in this month’s Popular Non-Fiction Recent Picks.