Read by the Author: Entertaining Autobiographies in the Author’s Voice

One of the greatest inventions of our time is the audiobook.  Being able to listen to a book while you’re doing another task has opened up a world of reading to us in our busy lives.  Pop it on during your morning commute, or when on a roadie.  Fire up an audiobook while you’re gardening or doing chores around the house.  They’re great for keeping kids entertained on a rainy day or in the car.  I particularly love autobiographies in audiobook form when they are read by the author.  It gives the reader so much more insight into who the subject is than having the book read by someone else.

Here are some eAudiobooks available through Libby that have been read by the author that I’ve particularly enjoyed:

Overdrive cover Unprotected: a Memoir – Billy Porter,
From the incomparable Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner, a powerful and revealing autobiography about race, sexuality, art, and healing. It’s easy to be yourself when who and what you are is in vogue. But growing up Black and gay in America has never been easy. Before Billy Porter was slaying red carpets and giving an iconic Emmy-winning performance in the celebrated TV show Pose; before he was the groundbreaking Tony and Grammy Award–winning star of Broadway’s Kinky Boots; and before he was an acclaimed…young boy in Pittsburgh who was seen as different, who didn’t fit in. Porter is a multitalented, multifaceted treasure at the top of his game, and Unprotected is a resonant, inspirational story of trauma and healing, shot through with his singular voice. (Adapted from Overdrive description)

Overdrive cover As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride – Cary Elwes,
From actor Cary Elwes, who played the iconic role of Westley in The Princess Bride, comes the New York Times bestselling account of the making of the cult classic film filled with never-before-told stories, exclusive photographs, and interviews with costars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin, as well as author and screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and director Rob Reiner. (Adapted from Overdrive description)

Overdrive cover And Away… – Bob Mortimer,
Although his childhood in Middlesbrough was normal on the surface, it was tinged by the loss of his dad, and his own various misadventures (now infamous from his appearances on Would I Lie to You?), from burning down the family home to starting a short-lived punk band called Dog Dirt. As an adult, he trained as a solicitor and moved to London. Though he was doing pretty well (the South London Press once crowned him ‘The Cockroach King’ after a successful verdict), a chance encounter in a pub in the 1980s with a young comedian going by the name Vic Reeves set his life on a different track.
Warm, profound, and irrepressibly funny, And Away… is Bob’s full life story (with a few lies thrown in for good measure.) (Adapted from Overdrive description)

Continue reading “Read by the Author: Entertaining Autobiographies in the Author’s Voice”

Did I Ever Tell You This?: Our June eBook Club pick!

Welcome to the WCL eBook Club, where each month we highlight a popular eBook or eAudiobook in our digital collection and give access to an unlimited number of downloads. That means no waiting in long reserves queues- you’ll get instant access to our monthly popular pick!

Join us between 19th June – 2nd July as we let our ears devour Sam Neill’s new eAudioBook Did I Ever Tell You This?, an unexpected memoir by one of New Zealand’s finest and most beloved acting exports. Narrated by the legend himself, Did I ever tell you this? recounts the varied tales of Neill’s fascinating life; from his humble beginnings as a Northern Irish immigrant boy growing up between Dunedin and Christchurch, to his highly successful Hollywood acting career, and his homecoming to establish a successful Central Otago vineyard. Did I ever tell you this? will take you on a journey that will leave you crying, laughing and everything in between. Borrow your copy via the link below:

Overdrive cover Did I Ever Tell You This?, Sam Neill (Audiobook)

In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world’s most celebrated actors, working with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his career has been a series of unpredictable turns of fortune. Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, he emigrated to New Zealand at the age of seven. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island, but young Sam was sent away to boarding school in Christchurch, where he was hopeless at sports and discovered he enjoyed acting.
Did I Ever Tell You This? is a joy to read, a marvellous and often very funny book. This is the work of a natural storyteller who is a superb observer of other people, and who writes with love and warmth about his family. It is also his account of his life outside film, especially in Central Otago, where he established Two Paddocks, his vineyard famous for its pinot noir. (Overdrive description)

Did I Ever Tell You This? is full of warm, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking stories. It will make you feel like you have just sat down under a tree to chat with a dear friend.’

– Jimmy Barnes, Musician

Did I ever tell you this? is tender, funny and emotional, modest and generous, both unbearably sad and deliciously companionable..

– Jane Campion, Director

Join us again next month for another new eBook Club pick! And if you’re a voracious reader don’t forget that we have an amazing selection of eBooks that are always available to read

Treasures in the box – BorrowBox eBooks and eAudioBooks

Find these hidden gems of eAudiobooks and eBooks by New Zealand authors on BorrowBox. Immerse yourself in the storylines that are read by the authors’ own voices. You can download the app from AppleStore or GooglePlay for a better experience.

cover imageMoney in the Morgue : Unabridged edition / Ngaio Marsh, Stella Duffy Read by Stella Duffy
“Shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award 2018. Mr Glossop’s car breaks down he is stranded for the night at the isolated Mount Seager Hospital. Trapped with him are a group of quarantined soldiers with a serious case of cabin fever, three young employees embroiled in a tense love triangle, a dying elderly man, an elusive patient whose origins remain a mystery … and a potential killer. ” (Adapted from BorrowBox)

cover imageThe Luminaries / Eleanor Catton Read by Mark Meadows
“It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery.” (Adapted from BorrowBox)

cover imageThe Parihaka Woman / Witi Tame Ihimaera Read by Shavaughn Ruakere, Jim Moriarty
“Richly imaginative and original, weaving together fact and fiction, it sets the remarkable story of Erenora against the historical background of the turbulent and compelling events that occurred in Parihaka during 1870-80. As Erenora’s world is threatened by war and land confiscation, Erenora must take up her greatest challenge and save her exiled husband, Horitana.” (Adapted from BorrowBox)

cover imageThe 10pm Question / Kate de Goldi Read by Stig Wemyss
“The 10pm Question is an award-winning novel which defies all age categories. It does so with a sparkling wit and an operatic cast of characters so delightful and maddening they become dear to us. Frankie Parsons is twelve going on old man, a talented boy with a drumbeat of worrying questions: animals, flu, and cancer. Only Ma answers his 10pm questions, but it is Ma who is the cause of the most worrying question of all. ” (Adapted from BorrowBox)

cover imageDisplaced / Cristina Sanders
“Eloise and her family must leave Cornwall on a treacherous sea journey to start a new life in 1870s colonial New Zealand. On the ship across, Eloise meets Lars, a Norwegian labourer travelling below decks, and their lives begin to intertwine. When her brother disappears, her father leaves and the family are left to fend for themselves in their new home, Eloise must find the strength to stand up. An enthralling historical novel of immigration, courage and first love from an award-winning New Zealand author.” (Adapted from BorrowBox)

cover imageAccess Road / Maurice Gee Read by Heather Bolton
“As she watches her brother losing the battle with his memories, Rowan wonders how long she can keep her own past at bay. Rowan was safe in her ‘upper crusty’ suburb, now drawn more strongly ‘out west’. Clyde Buckley – violent as a boy; enigmatic, subterranean as an old man – returns to his childhood territory. What does he want? What crimes does he hide? And how is Lionel involved? Rowan must find out. ” (Adapted from BorrowBox)

cover imageMister Pip / Lloyd Jones Read by Susan Lyons
“After the trouble starts and the soldiers arrive on Matilda’s island, there comes a time when all the white people have left. Only Mr Watts and his wife remains. As Mr Watts stands before the class and reads the only book left to him, Great Expectations ‘by my friend Mr Dickens’, Dickens’s hero, Pip, starts to come alive in Matilda’s imagination. And on an island at war, the power of the imagination can be a dangerously provocative thing.” (Adapted from BorrowBox)

cover imageA Conversation With My Country / Alan Duff Read by Alan Duff
“A fresh account of New Zealand from one of our hardest-hitting writers. Following Once Were Warriors, Alan Duff wrote Maori: The Crisis and the Challenge. His controversial comments shook the country. A quarter of a century later, New Zealand and Maoridom are in a very different place. Alan never shies away from being a whetstone on which others can sharpen their opinions.” (Adapted from BorrowBox)

Book Club “Always Available” eBooks

Kia ora koutou — Jonny from Wellington City Library here. We know that a lot of you are reading or listening to books using Overdrive or Libby, but sometimes it can be frustrating dealing with wait times for popular titles. That’s why I’m here to talk about “The Book Club”. Have a watch (or read) below!

The Book Club is a curated selection of over 200 titles that are always available. We’re talking eBook AND eAudiobooks, fiction AND non fiction, from around the world AND right here in Aotearoa. Big name authors too, winners of local and international awards as well as some in te reo maori and international languages. They’re always available — which is especially helpful right now, and in the future, if you can’t get to the library for whatever reason.

To see this collection, head to either Libby or Overdrive on the eLibrary page. On overdrive you’ll find The Book Club under “Collections”, in Libby they’re called Unlimited Book Club Loans (go to ‘More guides’, then ‘The Book Club’). They’re also available on their respective apps.

Remember, if you have any questions about any of our services, you can fill out our online support form, or reach us on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), or email enquiries@wcl.govt.nz. Ka kite!

Audible audiobooks through BorrowBox

Did you know that Audible audiobooks are available to library users through Wellington City Libraries’ eLibrary app BorrowBox?

Download the BorrowBox app, choose Wellington City Libraries as your preferred library, enter your card number and pin — and you have access to over 400 Audible original audiobook titles!

Audible are ‘the largest producer and provider of spoken word entertainment, with genre-bending audible originals, and binge-worthy audiobooks’, and having sampled many of their meticulously recorded, carefully constructed audio productions, we think they do a wonderful job!

To set you on your way, here are 7 favourite Audible original titles available now through our BorrowBox service. Listen well!

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark /Gillian Flynn

For more than 10 years, a mysterious and violent predator committed 50 sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated 10 sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website True Crime Diary, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called the Golden State Killer. Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark – the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death – offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth.

(Adapted from BorrowBox Description)

The Rosie result / Graeme Simsion

Hilarious and thought-provoking, with a brilliant cast of characters, The Rosie Result is the triumphant final instalment of the internationally best-selling series that began with The Rosie Project.
Until 12 years ago, geneticist Don Tillman had never had a second date. Then he developed The Wife Project and met Rosie, ‘the world’s most incompatible woman’. Now, having survived 4,380 days of marriage, Don’s life-contentment graph, recently at its highest point, is curving downwards.

Rosie has just returned to work and is struggling with an obnoxious coworker. Don, meanwhile, is in hot water after his latest lecture goes viral. But their real worry is their son, Hudson, who is having trouble at school: his teachers say he isn’t fitting in with the other kids.
For Don, learning to be a good parent as well as a good partner will require the help of friends old and new. It will mean letting Hudson make his way in the world and grappling with difficult truths about his own identity. It will also mean opening a cocktail bar.

(Adapted from BorrowBox Description)

The Body / Bill Bryson

Bryson turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up.

A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this book will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again.

(Adapted from BorrowBox Description)

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle / Stuart Turton

Somebody’s going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won’t appear to be a murder and so the murderer won’t be caught. Rectify that injustice and I’ll show you the way out.
It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy.

As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed. But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot.
The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath …

(Adapted from BorrowBox Description)

Dishonesty is the Second-Best Policy / David Mitchell

But if you’re determined to give it a go, you might enjoy this eclectic collection (or eclection) of David Mitchell’s attempts to make light of all that darkness. Scampi, politics, the Olympics, terrorism, exercise, rude street names, inheritance tax, salad cream, proportional representation and farts are all touched upon by Mitchell’s unremitting laser of chit-chat, as he negotiates a path between the commercialisation of Christmas and the true spirit of Halloween.

Listen to this book and slightly change your life!

(Adapted from BorrowBox Description)

A Gentleman in Moscow / Amor Towles

On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol.
Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval.
Can a life without luxury be the richest of all?

(Adapted from BorrowBox Description)

Norse Mythology / Neil Gaiman

The great Norse myths, which have inspired so much of modern fiction, are dazzlingly retold by Neil Gaiman. Tales of dwarfs and frost giants, of treasure and magic, and of Asgard, home to the gods: Odin the all-father, highest and oldest of the Aesir; his mighty son Thor, whose hammer Mjollnir makes the mountain giants tremble; Loki, wily and handsome, reliably unreliable in his lusts; and Freya, more beautiful than the sun or the moon, who spurns those who seek to control her.
From the dawn of the world to the twilight of the gods, this is a thrilling, vivid retelling of the Norse myths from the award-winning, bestselling Neil Gaiman.

(Adapted from BorrowBox Description)

Your Lucky (eBook) Day is here!

Skip the waiting line and borrow the most popular eBooks and audiobooks with our Lucky Day eBook and eAudiobook titles!

Overdrive Lucky Day Promotional Image - It's your Lucky Day

These titles can be found, borrowed and read on a first-come, first-served basis through Libby — the award-winning, one-tap reading app from OverDrive (read more about getting started with Libby). The program is meant to be a bit like the serendipity of picking up popular titles off the shelf in a library.

Browse our Lucky Day Collection

The easiest way to find available titles for both our adult and kids Lucky Day collections is to scan the homepage of either Libby or OverDrive for our special Lucky Day curated lists.

Because our Lucky Day titles turn over so quickly, it’s difficult to provide direct links to Lucky Day copies  (only the ones currently available will show), but examples of recent titles are best-selling fiction eBooks like Fair Warning by Michael Connelly, The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Recent New Zealand non-fiction titles include Maori Made Easy by Scotty Morrison, Impossible: My Story by Stan Walker and Bella: My Life in Food by Anabel Langbein.

You can browse what’s available right now on our Lucky Day shelf. The list of titles will change as books are returned to the collection, so check back often.

Lucky Day titles are a bit different to regular lending copies. They are:

  • Available for 14 days (as opposed to 21 days)
  • Not able to be reserved
  • Not able to be renewed

For even more Lucky Day titles, try our Kids Lucky Day collections, full of the most popular kids authors and titles like Harry Potter, Diary of  a Wimpy Kid and David Walliams stories, sure to make you smile.

For more information on our Kids Lucky Day collections, read this excellent post from our Kids blog by our Children’s coordinator, Stephen!