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NEWS UPDATES |
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Lloyd Jones has been awarded the Kiriyama Prize for Pacific Rim literature for his novel Mister Pip. The Kiriyama Prize was established in 1996 to recognize outstanding books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia that encourage greater mutual understanding of and among the peoples and nations of this vast and culturally diverse region. It is awarded annually to one fiction and one non-fiction work, the winners sharing the US $30,000 prize. The well known science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90. A prolific writer of fiction and non-fction science-based books, he will best be remembered for his novel, 2001 : A Space Odyssey, which was later made into a ground-breaking film by Stanley Kubrick. His other famous novels were Rendezvous with Rama, and the other novels in the Rama series, and The Fountains of Paradise. His most recent work Time's Eye was published in 2004. Arthur Clarke's biography can be read on the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation web site. The 2008 PEN/Faulkner award has been awarded to Kate Christensen for her novel The Great Man. She is only the fifth woman winner in the American prize's 28 year history. Previous winners include, John Updike and Philip Roth. The novel Pillow Talk by Freya North has won the Romantic Novel of the Year award. The award is now in it's 48th year. The nomination of 189 novels was the highest number ever submitted. |
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NEW FICTION PICKSThe long-list for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction has recently been announced. Of the 112 entries, only 13 were chosen for this the first stage of judging. The short list will be announced early September, with the prize awarded to the over all winner in October. The long-list of authors and titles can be found @ www.themanbookerprize.com.Interestingly four of the authors long-listed were recently chosen as part of the Hay 21 list of authors to watch. This list was to celebrate 21 years of the Guardian Hay Literary Festival, held in Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Originally the Festival started with 50 speakers and 2,400 members of the audience, this has grown to this year having 768 speakers/performers and an audience of 140,000. Many famous writers have actually begun their careers at the Festival, and for the young writers listed on the Hay 21 which includes Emily Perkins from New Zealand this is quite an achievement. The complete list with author profiles and some book extracts can be found @ www.ahyfestival.com/wales/hay21.aspx This month we will highlight six of these young writers, showing not only the diversity of their nationalities as the differences in their writing styles and genre. |
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Edward Docx has been literary editor and Sunday columnist for the London Express and also a satirical columnist for the London Times. He was born in 1972 and his first novel, The Calligrapher was published with much acclaim in 2003. His second novel, Self Help was published in 2007; this was long-listed for the Man Booker prize that year and won the 2007 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for a novel. But with his highly praise third novel, Pravda, published this year he has proved his consistency and ability, therefore has been included in the Hay 21 list. Inspired by the author's own family history, this is a novel of suspicion and loss, love and loyalty and the destructive legacy of deceit. When Gabriel Glover arrives in St. Petersburg to find his mother dead in her apartment, still reeling from grief, Gabriel and his twin sister, Isabella, arrange the funeral without contacting their father, Nicholas, a brilliant and manipulative libertine. Unknown to the twins, their mother had long ago abandoned a son, Arkady, a pitiless Russian predator now determined to claim his birthright. Aided by an ex-seminarian whose heroin addiction is destroying him, Arkady sets out to find the siblings and uncover the dark secret hidden from them their entire lives. Edward Docx is able to capture the feel of St. Petersburg, London, New York and Paris which adds depth to this portrait of a family in turmoil. As the mystery of their mother's life and death is revealed, this haunting story rushes toward a startling conclusion. |
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A case of exploding mangoes by Hanif Mohammed is his debut novel. He has been included in the Hay 21 list and his novel has been long-listed for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. Mohammed Hanif was born in Pakistan in 1965; he graduated from the Pakistan Air Force Academy as Pilot Officer, but left to pursue a career in journalism. He has written plays for stage and BBC radio where he is currently head of the BBC's Urdu Service. He lives in London. A case of exploding mangoes is a clever, provocative and funny novel that re-imagines the conspiracies and coincidences that lead to the mysterious 1988 plane crash that killed Pakistan's dictator General Zia ul-Haq. At the centre of this novel is the narrator Ali Shigri, a Pakistan Air Force pilot. His father, one of Zia's colonels, committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. Ali is determined to understand what or who pushed him to such desperation and to avenge his death. What he quickly discovers is a tangle of events: Americans in Pakistan, Soviets in Afghanistan and dollars in every hand. He mounts his elaborate plot for revenge with an ever changing band of accomplices that include a hashish smoking American lieutenant, the chief of Pakistan's secret police, the Air Force squadron's laundryman and a mango besotted crow. This is a darkly comic book about love, betrayal, tyranny and family. |
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Another debut novel, God's own country by Ross Raisin, has ensured the author has been included in the Hay 21 list of authors to watch. In this novel the fine line between sanity and insanity are explored which is chilling but entirely convincing. Sam Marsdyke is an awkward late teenager who was thrown out of school after being accused of attempting to rape a schoolmate. Sam now works his family's farm along with his father, and there he notices Josephine Reeves, a 15-year-old whose family has moved from London to the Yorkshire village where Sam resides. From that moment on, Sam's carefully constructed protections begin to crumble and what starts off as a harmless friendship between an isolated loner and a defiant teenage girl takes a most disturbing turn as Sam's tenuous grip on reality slips away. The novel uses much Yorkshire dialect and a stream-of-consciousness narration, which adds to the authenticity of the story. Ross Raisin was born in 1980 and holds an MFA from Goldsmiths College in London, where he resides. |
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Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith is another debut novel, placing the author on the Hay 21 list and also on the 2008 Man Booker prize long-list. He was born in 1979, and began writing plays at school and continued at St John's College, Cambridge. He became assistance story editor for Channel 5, after working on several soap operas; he later took a job in Phnom Penh with the BBC, story lining Cambodia's first soap opera. Child 44 has been regarded at a prequel to Martin Cruz Smith's classic mystery Gorky Park. Set in the Soviet Union in 1953, war hero Leo Stepanovich Demidov, a rising star in the MGB, the State Security force, is assigned to look into the death of a child. Leo is annoyed, first because this takes him away from a more important case, but, more importantly, because the parents insist the child was murdered. In Stalinist Russia, there's no such thing as murder; the only criminals are those who are enemies of the state. After attempting to curb the violent excesses of his second-in-command, Leo is forced to investigate his own wife, the beautiful Raisa, who's suspected of being an Anglo-American sympathizer. Demoted and exiled from Moscow, Leo stumbles onto more evidence of the child killer. This is a suspenseful, surprising unexpected novel of love and family, of hope and resilience. |
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Sasa Stanisic was born in 1978 in eastern Bosnian. In 1992 their home town was besieged by Serbian troops, he fled with his parents and an uncle to southern Germany where they have remained. He has published short stories and essays. How the soldier repairs the gramophone was short-listed for The German Book Award, as well as winning several other major prizes. The author is the recipient of the Graz and Iowa writing fellowships and has been included in the Hay 21 list. How the soldier repairs the gramophone is a moving, powerful story of a young Bosnian refugee named Aleksandar Krsmanovic. Aleksandar is the apple of his family's eye, but his sheltered childhood ends when ethnic wars brewing in the surrounding republics make their way to his hometown in the spring of 1992. As Serbian troops storm the village, Aleksandar's family hides, but nowhere is safe. The violence forces the family to Germany, where they struggle to adjust to their new lives as refugees. Although this novel captures the catastrophe of war through a child's eyes it contains much natural, witty humour. The semi-autobiographical the hero, Aleksandar, is talkative, precocious and determinedly optimistic in the face of heartbreaking losses, forever making startling little observations on life that somehow get it all wrong and yet sort of right. |
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Lastly another Man Booker Prize long-listed title and Hay 21 author to watch is Australian Steve Toltz and his debut novel titled, A fraction of the whole. Steve Toltz was born in Sydney and has lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona, and Paris working in a variety of jobs, including English teacher and screenwriter. Most of his life, Jasper Dean couldn't decide whether to pity, hate, love, or murder his certifiably paranoid father, Martin, a man who overanalyzed anything and everything and imparted his self-garnered wisdom to his only son. But now that Martin is dead, Jasper can fully reflect on the crackpot who raised him in intellectual captivity, and what he realizes is that, for all its lunacy, theirs was a grand adventure. As he recollects the events that led to his father's demise, Jasper recounts a boyhood of outrageous schemes and shocking discoveries, about his infamous outlaw uncle Terry, his mysteriously absent European mother, and Martin's constant losing battle to make a lasting mark on the world he so disdains. It's a story that takes them from the Australian bush to the cafes of bohemian Paris, from the Thai jungle to strip clubs, asylums, labyrinths, and criminal lairs. This is an amazing, satirical novel that is funny and very entertaining. |
Click here for previous new fiction picks |
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NEW BOOKS |
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Recent additions to the Fiction collection | Booklists | MyLibrary Booklists MyLibrary |
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BOOK AWARDS |
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Adult Book Awards The Crime Writer's Association IMPAC Dublin Award. The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes LAMBDA Literary Awards Man Booker Prize "Everything about the Booker Prize" site New Zealand Awards, Grants and Competitions Montana New Zealand Book Awards Nobel Prize for Literature The Orange Prize for Fiction Pulitzer Prize Whitbread Book Awards |
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BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS |
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Librarian's Choice | New York Times Best Sellers | Publishers Weekly Best Sellers Librarian's Choice |
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Silence of the grave / Arnaldur Indridason ; translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. (2005) Building work in an expanding Reykjavik uncovers a shallow grave. Years before, this part of the city was all open hills, and Erlendur and his team hope this is a typical Icelandic missing person scenario; perhaps someone once lost in the snow, who has lain peacefully buried for decades. Things are never that simple. Whilst Erlendur struggles to hold together the crumbling fragments of his own family, his case unearths many other tales of family pain. (Amazon) |
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The palace of strange girls / Sallie Day. (2008) It is 1959 and the Singleton family is on holiday in Blackpool. For seven-year-old Beth, just out of hospital, this means struggling to fill in her 'I-Spy' book and avoiding her mother Ruth's eagle-eyed supervision. Her sixteen-year-old sister Helen, meanwhile, has befriended a waitress whose fun-loving ways hint at a life beyond Ruth's strict rules. As foreman of the local cotton mill, Ruth's husband Jack is caught between unions and owners whose cost-cutting measures threaten an entire way of life. And his job isn't the only thing at risk. When a letter arrives from Crete, a secret re-emerges from the rubble of Jack's wartime past that could destroy his marriage. (Amazon) |
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The finder / Colin Harrison. (2008) A young, beautiful, secretive Chinese woman, Jin-Li, gets involved in a brilliant scheme to steal valuable information from corporations in New York City. When the plan is discovered by powerful New Yorkers who stand to lose enormous sums of money, Jin-Li goes on the run. Meanwhile, her former lover, Ray Grant, a man who was out of the country for years but has recently returned, is caught up in the search for her. Ray has not been forthcoming to Jin-Li about why he left New York or what he was doing overseas, but his training and strengths will be put to the ultimate test against those who are unmerciful in their desire to regain a fortune lost. (Amazon) |
 | Sadika's way : a novel of Pakistan and America / Hina Haq. (2004) Sadika is a bright girl who was born into a rigid Pakistani social structure where baby girls are unwanted and where the endless neighbourhood gossip ruins reputations. After Sadika's mother arranges for Sadika to marry her first cousin, who lives in America, her future briefly looks bright until the young man chooses Sadika's younger sister to be his wife. The ensuing disgrace destroys Sadika's hopes of ever finding a suitable match. No matter that she excels at school: a woman's job is to get married and have sons, and Sadika, it seems, will never succeed, prompting a desperate plan to reach the U.S. on her own. (Amazon) |
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As hot as it was you ought to thank me : a novel / Nanci Kincaid. (c2005) This is the touchingly honest story of Berry Jackson, a young teenager growing up Pinetta, Florida, home to two churches, a school, and a gas station. Berry spends her days soaking up the lives of her parents, Ford and Ruthie, her brothers Sowell and Wade, and an amusing array of neighbours that include a wayward preacher, a shotgun toting father of six, and the town's (relatively) wealthy businessman. As Berry navigates her way through young adulthood, she unearths a number of truths and lies that will ultimately serve as the foundation for her sense of self. (Amazon) |
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In search of a distant voice / Taichi Tamada ; translated by Michael Emmerich. (2006) A woman is trying to contact Kasama Tsuneo at a crisis point in his life. But she won't reveal her identity. Kasama is an immigration officer in Tokyo, struggling to live a 'normal' life after an event that happened eight years previously, when he lived in the USA. His arranged marriage is looming, and he's seized by a strange emotional fit and then the disembodied voice begins. All Tsuneo can do is desperately chase this woman, and the mystery behind what happened eight years earlier over the sea. |
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New York Times Best Seller Publishers Weekly Best Sellers Radio New Zealand Books Page Top 100 Novels The BBC Big Read Top 100 The Modern Library 100 Best Novels Radcliffe Publishing Course: the century's top 100 novels Guardian Unlimited top 100 books of all time Time Magazine-All time 100 Novels Whitcoulls List - Top 100 books in New Zealand We are always interested in the opinions of our readers, and so provide opinion forms with new debut novels, and new fiction as they are received. We also have these forms available on the Reader's Choice display, along with forms for favourite novels. Readers can also submit reviews online or email us with any questions. The response to Reader's Choice had been amazing, and each novel that receives good readers reviews is displayed with a light blue Reader's Choice sticker. All completed opinion forms, with either good or bad comments are displayed in a folder, on the display stand. This display has proved extremely popular, as a guaranteed good read can be found there. We also have a new webpage devoted to archived customer reviews. Here are a few recent ones: |
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The headmaster ritual / Taylor Antrim. (2007) Reader's comment: "It is a very original, interesting piece of fiction. I enjoyed the character development and the plot lines were clear and well laid out. I recommend it thoroughly." |
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The chess machine : a novel / Robert Löhr ; translated from the German by Anthea Bell. (2007) Reader's comment: "I thought this book was a ripping yarn, blending fact and fiction." |
 | Children of the revolution / Dinaw Mengestu. (2007) Reader's comment: "I thought this book brought out the loneliness and stoicism of a refugee. Having fled the 'Red Terror' himself, Mengestu has taken "write what you know" to his heart and produced a superb love story set among the displaced African community in Washington." |
 | The night climbers / Ivo Stourton. (2007) Reader's comment: "I thought this book was quite remarkable for a first novel, fast paced, intriguing: held my interest right throughout. Well worth reading." |
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Before I wake / Robert J. Wiersema. (2007) Reader's comment: "I thought this book was beautifully written, sensitively portrayed with a touch of mystery and the good old theme of dark versus light. 5 stars." |
 | The diplomatic corpse / Anne Marshall Zwack. (2007) Reader's comment: "Very well written and constructed. Good development of both the story and characters. I couldn't put it down as the story unfolded at a cracking pace. This author knows how to write - buy more of her stuff please, good typesetting and layout too."
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BOOK REVIEWS | |
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Allreaders. com Book Browser Complete Review Guardian Books Unlimited What do I read next? and Literature Resource Centre | |
BOOK CLUBS | |
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Book Clubs or Reading groups have become a popular way to read more, understand and discuss what you have read, make new friends and socialise.They can be small and informal, with a different work read each month from a list decided on by the group, or they can be formally structured, with a memberproviding author profiles each month and discussion taking more academic forms. They can also now be joined through the Internet, with several reading group sites available. At Wellington City Libraries we endeavour to assist and encourage Book Club /Reading groups where we can, providing author information, reviews etc. Informal book groups also meet once a month at Cummings Park (Ngaio), Island Bay, Karori, and Miramar libraries. Come along, they are open to all! If you were thinking of setting up a reading group, the information given by Penguin Books Australia, on their web site would be invaluable. They cover all aspects, from starting out, membership, meetings, and points for discussion.
Book discussion, reviews, first chapters, author information and much more can be found on the Guardian Reading Group pages. It is a useful site for an individual or groups of readers. Also the New York Times provides assistance and information for Book Clubs, and also run their own reading group, or forum. Although similar to The Guardian site, this gives a more American approach and covers a large non-fiction subject range. Author profiles are provided each month and the book discussions can be quiet academic. They can also now be joined through the Internet, with several reading group sites available. Another interesting site is the Good Reads at Southern Adirondack Library System. This site mainly deals with readers advisory for Reading groups and Librarians, but has the main genres for example Mystery and Romance well covered and includes Award Winners, Online discussions, First chapters, and links to Authors websites. A new web site for book clubs with discussion, reviews, author information and interviews is Bibliofemme, an Irish Book Club. This site is continually up dated with the latest literary news, and provides an interesting forum for book discussion. | |
FINDING A PARTICULAR BOOK | |
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Finding fiction in our catalogue What's next (Books in Series) Which book | |
MYSTERY FICTION | |
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Mystery Fiction is another very popular genre with fiction readers. Our Mystery collection is the largest sub-genre within the Fiction collection and is distinguished for the readers by the use of red spine labels. Mystery readers are a diverse group from those who prefer classic English detective stories to the hard-boiled crime fans, so this selection of web sites will help to inform, entertain and lead readers to other great novels in their favourite genre. The Rap Sheet Mystery File January Magazine The Thrilling Detective |
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SHORT STORIES | |
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Wellington City Libraries has an extensive collection of short stories. At Branch libraries, short stories are interfiled with the general fiction collection; look out for 'short story' stickers on book spines. At Central Library they are found in two places in the Fiction collection. Books of short stories by multiple authors are kept in the main Short Story collection, on the ground floor between the adult video collection and the adult books on CD and Cassette, opposite the Issues desks. These are edited, collected stories by different authors. They are usually organised around a particular theme/subject, nationality, or era, and are shelved under the title of the volume. Books of short stories written by one author are held with the author's other works in the main Fiction Collection, under the author's surname. Short Story Indexes are held at the Fiction desk at Central and these can be used to find a short story on a particular theme or subject. This can also be done on the catalogue using a Keyword Search option and entering the theme/subject required with the word fiction. Finding a short story on a particular theme/subject can be difficult and staff are always available to assist. There are many short story web sites; unfortunately these do not always include theme/subject indexes, although many have full text short stories. Here are a few that may be of interest. Readbookonline.net has over 100 short story titles to choose from and all are full text. Although many American, all are classics and do include some Anthony Trollop, Rudyard Kipling and Leo Tolstoy. Classic Short Stories again contains full text classic short stories with a very international flavour. The most interesting aspect of this site is the related links pages. From here there are links to Mystery short stories, Jewish short stories, to name a few, also links to many author collections, such as Jack London and the complete works of William Shakespeare. East of the Web Short Stories provides a different short story experience. This site is interactive, and writers can post their own short stories and discuss others work. There are also short guides to other short stories, such as Katherine Mansfield, Fables, Vampires etc. | |
ROMANCE FICTION | |
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Romantic novels are a popular genre with fiction readers. These can vary from the simple romance, to the complicated suspense thriller type novel with romantic sub plots. Locating the different types of romantic novels on Wellington City Libraries catalogue is very easy. Try these searches for Romance, Romantic Suspense, or Historical Romance - you will get a list of the latest titles. There are also many web sites for Romance readers. Here are a few that are helpful and interesting. Top 100 romance novels All About Romance Dangerously Curvy Novels The Romance Reader | |
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY FICTION | |
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Science Fiction and fantasy is another very popular genre with fiction readers. Although our collection is slightly smaller than the Murder mystery collection it is distinguished for the readers by the use of blue spine labels. Science Fiction and Fantasy readers are the most dedicated group of readers in our Library, so this selection of web sites will help to inform, entertain and lead the reader to other great reads in their favourite genre. Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database Science Fiction Resource Guide The Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy
ASFA : Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists | |
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Last updated 13 August 2008 | |
Reader's Choice
Extensive information is given on the 