News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Is letter writing a lost art? Read 800 years of women’s letters by Olga Kenyon and it may inspire you to put pen to paper. Organized by subject matter it covers a wide variety of topics including politics, work, war, childhood, love and passion. Read letters from Queen Victoria, Vita Sackville-West, Virginia Woolf and many more.

Shrinking the world: the 4000-year story of how email came to rule our lives by John Freeman looks at the rise and rise of communication via modern technology. The first email was sent less than forty years ago and the daily volume is enormous. From carrier pigeon to computer mouse, this history of how we communicate will make people look at the inbox in a whole new way.

A presentation is more likely to be successful if the speaker comes across clearly and with a degree of self-assurance. Love your voice: use your speaking voice to create success, self confidence and star-like charisma by vocal coach Roger Love shows how to improve the way you speak for all occasions. An accompanying CD complements the text.

Read about these books or choose from others looking at detective fiction, Raymond Carver and travel writing in this month’s Literature Recent Picks.

The 100: insights and lessons from 100 of the greatest speeches ever delivered by Simon Maier and Jeremy Kourdi discuss what makes a speech and a speaker memorable and inspirational. Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, JF Kennedy, Barack Obama and many more have the X-factor. Read out loud words that have changed the face of history.

We all have odd habits, authors being no different. One shouted his words, some wrote naked, some dictated their words and some wrote in isolation while others needed noise and company to be successful. The page fright: foibles and fetishes of famous writers by Harry Bruce is an amusing look at what these writers needed to produce great literature.

In the movie Sex and the City there was a book of love letters which Carrie reads to Big. Fans keen to have a volume found that although the love letters existed they weren’t available in one volume. In response editor Ursula Doyle put the poems together in Love letters of great men. Letters include those of Beethoven, Lord Byron, Mozart, Charles Darwin and many more. Relax and share these words with someone special.

This month’s Literature Recent Picks also includes Victorian fiction, Australian writers and artists, Sam Hunt and crime writers – something for everyone.

Looking for a book in her collection, author Susan Hill discovered some old favourites, some she’d forgotten about and some that had never been opened. In Howard’s End on the landing: a year of reading from home she decides to re-visit her collection, resisting adding any more to her library for a year. Many memories came back during that time as often when a book is read again it links with times and places.

There are many songs about the moon but not as well known are the poems. To the moon: an anthology of lunar poems edited by Carol Ann Duffy spans continents and centuries. Choose a clear night, relax back, maybe with a glass of wine and look at and read about the moon.

The power of the dark side: creating great villains, dangerous situations and dramatic conflict by Pamela Jaye Smith will teach writers how to develop nasty, spiteful, mean, malicious, cruel, horrible, malevolent and wicked characters. Every-one secretly loves the baddies and conflict is what gives books, plays and films the tension. Move over Darth Vader, Voldemort, Dexter and Cruella de Vil there’s a new villain about to be unleashed.

This month’s Literature Recent Picks includes the International Who’s who, the Oxford Companion to English literature, the Believer book of writers talking to writers and how to write “in Twitter” as well as the above titles.

Why not Catch-21?: the stories behind the titles is an expansion on Gary Dexter’s long-running Sunday Telegraph column. 50 bite-sized chapters focus on the origins and history of some of the great titles of world literature. The emphasis is on titles that are literally unfathomable without this background knowledge. Why – A Clockwork Orange, Moby Dick, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Waiting for Godot? All will be revealed.

Many of us know the first lines of poems but find it hard to remember the rest or who wrote it. I wandered lonely as a cloud–and other poems you half-remember from school edited by Ana Sampson is a collection of many of these. It includes mini-biographies, introductions to the poems and an index of famous lines

The Lord of the Flies is school curriculum staple. William Golding: the man who wrote Lord of the flies: a life by John Carey is the first authorized biography. Golding was born in 1911 and after publishing a volume of poems in 1934 his first novel was an immediate success. Other accolades were the Booker Prize and being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. Surely one of the foremost novelists of the twentieth century?

Read these books and others in this month’s Literature Recent Picks including a guide to travel writing, vehicular hell-bending, quotations and lobsters!

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.

If speaking in public is stressful, then this is the book to read. Your voice is your calling card: how to power-charge your voice, boost your confidence and speak with joy, ease and conviction by Suzann Rye acknowledges the difficulties many have when called upon to present, perform or debate. Looking at ways of overcoming nerves and stage fright, along with other practical advice will lead to confident speaking in any situation.

Featuring women’s poetry from 1900 through to the present, Women’s work: modern women poets writing in English has a selection incorporating aspects of women’s lives including work, children, God and lust!  This title includes work from authors as diverse as Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath and Carol Ann Duffy.

New Zealander David Haywood’s unusual title My first stabbing is described as a collection of “strange meanderings”. Reviews of the book have said it is biting, very funny and written by one of the best new writers to have come on the scene for a while.

Enjoy these books and others covering television reviews, spiritual writings, Keats and Kurt Vonnegut in this month’s Literature Recent 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.

Claire Harman’s study of Jane Austen is entitled In Jane’s fame : how Jane Austen conquered the world. Considering that Wellington City Libraries has 104 titles by Jane Austen in over ten formats including a number of languages, this seems a reasonable statement. The book covers her early life, her struggle to become published and her determination to succeed. The latest Jane Austen incarnation, “Pride and prejudice and zombies : the classic Regency romance – now with ultraviolet zombie mayhem“ has been published recently. What would Jane think of it? – with amusement hopefully .

Leaving formal education with an E in history hasn’t stopped Karl Pilkington giving his unique take on museums, galleries and other places of cultural interest. Karlologoy : what I’ve learnt so far is the result.

More than 250 women writers are introduced by author Elaine Showalter in her book  A jury of her peers : American women writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. It spans 400 years and includes household names and those less well recognised. Enjoy learning more about your favourite authors and introduce yourself to new ones.

Read these books and others including the lives of Margaret Atwood, Emily Dickinson and Seamus Heaphy via this months Recent Literature Picks.

Have you always been fascinated by the twists and turns of Discworld, the imaginary dimension Terry Pratchett has been diverting us with for the last twenty-five years? if so, you will enjoy reading The folklore of discworld, a book that discloses the secrets of the saga and unveils the mysteries of this unique fantasy world. The world of literature is dense to say the least and if you feel lost and need guidance, look no further than 501 great writers. This book will present you with the most talented writers of all time and the most fascinating works that exist. Are you a fan of comedic science-fiction? Then, do not miss The Science of The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy: you will get to know more about the background of the book. And if you want to learn about Susan Sontag’s journals and notebooks, how to write non-fiction, and how to get published, check out this month’s Literature Recent Picks.

Our literature selection can teach you many things this month, like how to be funny, creative, or how to publish children’s books. Poetry written by women is also featured this month, as well as the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. And if poetry is not your cup of tea, there are two books in our selection which compile newspapers’ columns which will give you a taste of America and New Zealand. But, Uncommon arrangements : seven portraits of married life in London literary circles, 1910-1939 is probably one of the most interesting books this month for anyone interested in the private lives of some of the most famous XXth century British authors. Learn more about these titles in this month’s Literature Recent Picks.