We have officially opened submissions for Tūhono 2024, our annual poetry journal for children and teens! This year’s theme is “Tūmanako | Hope”. We are so excited to read your entries this year — just make sure you get them in before the 12th of May! Use the button below to submit your entry.
Category: Feature
Te Tiriti o Waitangi: 6 Huitanguru 2024
Kia Tūpato: let’s begin this kōrero (in somewhat turbulent times) with a waiata from Morvin Simon:
And as we pause — kia maumaharatia anō Te Tiriti o Waitangi, me hora te aroha engari anō te rirhau, spread love not anger — ngā kupu mōhio nō ō tātou rangatira:
Here are some resources for Te Rā o Waitangi, gathered from ngā hau e whā…
Reader Highlights from Summer Reading!
Check out these awesome photos of our enthusiastic readers photo highlights whilst participating in our Summer Reading Adventure! One of the challenges is to take your book outside and discover the great outdoors. For some, that’s finding solace from the summer heat under the shade of a leafy tree, for others its a secluded spot with a killer view!
We also asked readers to get making! Whether it be a LEGO® architectural masterpiece or a crafty holiday project using all the bits and bobs, we wanted creativity to run free… and look at the masterful results of our readers!
There’s also still time left to complete challenges and mark off your Library Bingo sheets! Simply drop by any Library branch and grab a Bingo sheet that’s full of fun activities to complete across the Summer Reading Adventure! Do you have a friend or family-member who isn’t tech-savvy but would love our Summer Reading Adventure? Recommend Library Bingo to them as a way to join the fun!
Help us reach our community goal of reading 20,000 books before the Summer Reading Adventure ends on January 31st!
(Note: Please return your completed Bingo sheet to your library by February 7th).
Some literary treats for 2024
Image via Giphy.
A very warm welcome to 2024. As is now our annual custom for this time of year, we are going to peer into the tea leaves of the future at the bottom of the literary teacup. In this blog, we will be selecting just a few of the literary highlights that we at Wellington City Libraries are looking forward to. In the process, we hope to spot just a few of the novels that everyone will be talking about this year.
These are of course just the few of the fiction treats that have already been scheduled and announced for this year, many of the books that will feature in the ‘Best of 2024’ lists aren’t even listed yet. Indeed, one of the great delights of the literary world are the surprise novels that seemingly come out of nowhere to become one of the shining stars of that year, so there will be plenty of surprises in store. Having said that, there are already lots of interesting titles to look forward to. So, let’s start off with our list of what to look out for in the fiction world in 2024.
The first book on our list, due out later in January, is a Bird Child and Other Stories by the legendary Aotearoa author Patricia Grace. This is Patricia Grace’s first collection of short stories in 17 years, and needless to say it is already hotly anticipated! Further afield in January, My Friends by Hisham Matar is getting a lot of advance interest. The novel starts off in London during a protest at the Libyan embassy and contrasts the civil war in Libya and life in Britain. Also in January, we have Sigrid Nunez’s The Vulnerables, a lockdown novel beginning in 2020.
In February we have Kitten by Olive Nuttall, a debut Aotearoa novel that’s already causing waves in reviewing circles.
Top 10 most borrowed titles for 2023
The lists you’ve been waiting for. Here are Wellington City Libraries’ top 10 most borrowed titles for 2023.
Top 10 adult fiction
- Birnam Wood / Eleanor Catton
- Lessons in chemistry / Bonnie Garmus
- The bullet that missed / Richard Osman
- The marriage portrait / Maggie O’Farrell
- Lucy by the sea : a novel / Elizabeth Strout
- Shrines of gaiety / Kate Atkinson
- The axeman’s carnival / Catherine Chidgey
- Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Gabrielle Zevin
- The seven moons of Maali Almeida / Shehan Karunatilaka
- Mad honey : a novel / Jodi Picoult
Top 10 children fiction
- Double down / Jeff Kinney
- The getaway / Jeff Kinney
- Rodrick rules / Jeff Kinney
- The 13-storey treehouse / Andy Griffiths
- The third wheel / Jeff Kinney
- Hard luck / Jeff Kinney
- Diper överlöde / Jeff Kinney
- Big shot / Jeff Kinney
- The last straw / Jeff Kinney
- The ugly truth / Jeff Kinney
Top 10 non-fiction
- Spare / Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
- I’m glad my mom died / Jennette McCurdy
- The bookseller at the end of the world / Ruth Shaw
- Atomic habits / James Clear
- Did I ever tell you this? : a memoir / Sam Neill
- Straight up / Ruby Tui
- Just one thing : how simple changes can transform your life / Michael Mosley
- The light we carry : overcoming in uncertain times / Michelle Obama
- The myth of normal : trauma, illness & healing in a toxic culture / Gabor Maté
- There’s a cure for this : a memoir / Emma Espinar
Best of 2023: Our top fiction picks!
As we say goodbye to 2023 and hello to 2024, it is now tradition for us to take stock of the literary year and take note of some of the novels we regarded as highlights.
As always, we aim to cover as wide a mix as possible — from fabulous new Aotearoa New Zealand books to big international bestsellers and major prize-nominated books, not to mention the best of this year’s crime and thriller titles and some standout science fiction and fantasy books. We have selected books that got lots of attention as well as others we felt fell undeservedly under the radar — and we’ve also thrown in a few left-field curveballs of books we just absolutely loved and felt we could not ignore. As is always the case with these lists, some of the selections we make are by their nature subjective and we apologise in advance if we missed any of your favourites out. All in all it’s been a fascinating and exciting year for readers — roll on 2024!
So here we go — Wellington City Libraries’ very subjective list of the top 100 novels of 2023!
2023 Fiction Highlights — Browse the full list
Browse the full list with all our picks, or browse just the topic you enjoy!