News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

If you were to write a letter to your 16-year-old self, what would it say? In Dear me by Joseph Galliano some of the world’s well known personalities have written just such a letter. Writers include knights, Oscar winners, pop stars, authors, actors and an explorer to name just a few.

Shaun Ellis is the Man who lives with wolves and writes about his unique and fascinating life. As a young boy he was more at home with animals than humans. His compulsion to live with and as a wolf was to learn about them, protect them and to offer an extraordinary look into the lives of these threatened and often misunderstood creatures.

Considered the decade that taste forgot, the 1970s are now popular for the trends they inspired from the fashion, music, and literature of the time. 70s style & design by Dominic Lutyens & Kirsty Hislop gives a fresh look on foil wallpaper, flares, platform shoes and shag rugs and much more. 400 colour illustrations add to the text.

This month’s Buyer’s Choice Recent Picks includes other subjects as varied as Macarons, Mr and Mrs Smith hotels, pattern making and soccernomics.

In two years twelve thousand children went through the Theresienstadt internment camp on the way to Auschwitz and few survived. In Girls of Room 28: friendship, hope and survival in Theresienstadt by Hannelore Brenner, ten of these children, now mothers and grandmothers give personal insight through letters, photos, diaries and remembrances on how they survived.

Sport has always produced personal rivalries – Ali-Frazier, Palmer-Nicklaus and McEnroe-Borg to name a few. In today’s era of tennis the rivalry is between Federer and Nadal with totally different personalities. Stroke of genius: Federer v Nadel: rivals in greatness by L. John Wertheim looks at the aspects of psychology, technology, strategy and personality needed to become a winner.

Seeing Central Park: the official guide to the world’s greatest urban park by Sara Cedar Miller takes readers through America’s most popular and well-known park. 25 million people visit annually and this book will guide them through the well and little known features.

Enjoy these books and others covering Evelyn Waugh, rock and roll photographs and how to write histories in this month’s Recent Picks Buyer’s Choice.

Christian Siriano made headlines in 2008 when he became the youngest designer to win the hit series Project Runaway.  Having established himself as a name in fashion he is now sharing his expertise to others.  Fierce style: how to be your fabulous self  helps readers to discover how to look, feel and act “fierce “ – one of his now well known catch phrases!

Paris times eight: finding myself in the city of dreams by Deirdre Kelly is both a travel book and a reflection on her life and her favourite city. She first visited Paris as a 19-year-old and has returned many times – as a writer, fashion reporter, wife and mother. As her life changed she found that her expectations and experiences of Paris were different.

Georgian London evokes images of elegant buildings and fine art but for many it was a harsh environment with little money and food. They survived any way they could often depending in some way on the “wages of sin”. The sex industry was a powerful force and in The secret history of Georgian London by Dan Cruickshank he shows how it came to affect almost every aspect of life and culture in the capital.

Look at these new books and others including lesbian travel, life in New York in the 1960’s and Swedish country interiors in this month’s Buyer’s Choice Recent Picks – truly an eclectic mix.

Woody Leonhard’s book Green home computing for dummies makes being green easier. He gives tips on green technology as well as information on buying, upgrading and discarding devices in an environmentally safe way.

Crafters enjoy meeting and sharing their ideas with like-minded people and have embraced blogging with a passion. Tara Fey’s book Blogging for bliss: crafting your own on-line journal gives practical advice and inspiration on how to create an online journal.

In Renaissance Italy the name Borgia struck fear in many – and with good reason. Bribery, murder, corruption, nepotism and greed – the list goes on. Read The house of Borgia by Christopher Hibbert to learn more about this family – the phrase “I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse” could have been coined for them.

You’ll find these books as well as titles about the price of petrol, romantic weekends, and  conquering habits and fears in this month’s Buyer’s Choice.

David Lebovitz’s first job was an ice-cream scooper and with a further 25 years as a frozen dessert maker is well qualified to write Perfect scoop: ice-cream, sorbets, granitas and sweet accompaniments. With practical instruction and step-by-step photos flavours like Chocolate Peanut Butter, Fresh Fig and Pear Pecorino will soon be ready to enjoy.

Is Twitter the new black? It would seem so with a membership that has increased 700% in just one year. All a Twitter: a personal and professional guide to social networking with Twitter by Morris Tee is written for the baffled through to the expert.

You want to go where?: how to get someone to pay for the trip of your dreams is by Jeff Bluefeld who runs a PR company that matches explorers and corporate sponsors, including the successful expedition of the first blind man to reach the summit of Mt Everest. Enjoy the feats of others or plan your own – advice is given on how.

Read these books and more on glamorous rooms, desperate romantics, rich Dads and the last days of old Beijing on this month’s Buyers Choice Recent Picks.

Combine Lance Armstrong’s cycling achievements (winning the Tour de France 7 times), his recovery from cancer and a relationship with a musical icon and his life begins to read like a movie. In Lance : the making of the world’s greatest champion John Wilcockson interviews friends and fellow cyclists giving an insight into a unique individual.

The cocktail dress has a long association with glitz and glamour – think Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany. Laird Borrelli-Persson’s book Cocktail dress chronicles its history using a wide range of images including art, photography, advertisement and magazine covers. Turn up the heater and slip into your favourite “little cocktail dress”.

The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility was opened in 2002 and has been called secretive, inhumane and illegal by some and necessary for the “fight against terror” by others. The least worst place by Karen Greenberg records its first 100 days and how influences from Washington turned a prison into a interrogation centre.

This month’s eclectic mixture of subject matter continues with books on exorcism, American comics, Edward de Bono, Piers Morgan and “green sewing” – something for everyone. Pick your favourite via the Buyer’s Choice Recent Picks.

Are you wondering what new books our selectors have chosen to buy? This month,  their selection is eclectic and will suit many a reader. If you are fond of horses, you will learn about the importance of this animal in mythology, history, and art. Are you overworked and understretched? You will overcome demotivation in the office by following the advice of Philippe Rothlin. If the living conditions during the Victorian era interest you, you will want to know about its slums. You will be able to follow the quest for love of a young British Muslim woman in a lively memoir. In Voodoo histories, you will learn how conspiracy theories shaped our modern world. And if you are interested by Cold War posters, Sri Lankan food, the upbringing of teenage girls, the ruin of the Roman Empire and cricketer Shane Warne, don’t miss this month’s Buyer’s Choice.

In this month’s Buyer’s Choice recent picks, the focus is on healthy and fresh food with over 100 hundred dishes put together by hyper chef Gordon Ramsay in his latest book Gordon Ramsay’s healthy appetite. He gives ideas and recipes for healthy breakfasts, lunches, barbecues, suppers, and desserts that follow on  his hugely successful Fast Food and Sunday Lunch. If you want to do more than eating fresh and healthy, follow the advice of Renee Loux in Easy Green Living as she demonstrates that being green at home is easy, affordable, and better for the environment, yourself and your family. And if you still crave more culinary adventures, check out Around the world in 80 dinners as the authors travel from Bali to South Africa via the Pacific and Asia to discover new and authentic flavours.  But if you’re not into cooking at all, still check out the Buyer’s Choice for a comprehensive history of pirates, a spotlight on African art and more.

Every month our buyers pick their favourite on order books. This month their recommendations include titles on flouncy, flirty skirts, gravity and racing horse Man o’ War. Alasdair Roberts’ ‘Tales of the Morar highlands’ explores a wild and desolate part of Scotland. Heroism and loyalty are set against venal double-dealing and treachery in ‘The white cockade’, Stuart McHardy’s tales of Jacobean life. Someone picked ‘Working with you is killing me’, but they’ve just been on team-building so hopefully it’s sorted now.

For June our buyers have picked books about the French occupation, small foods, Arabs and Jews in Jaffa, rugby sevens coach Gordan Tietjens and 500 cupcakes. On magazine Sports Illustrated’s 50th anniversary, they have produced a gorgeous photography book, now on order for the library collection.