Make glow-in-the-dark gherkins

In our new teen books, the gang are on the run from a school full of psycho teachers, a top sports journalist learns about the power of the occult, Sky inhabits the body of a Viking ancestor, and rowdy Ophelia falls for the captivating prince.

An occasional reluctant sleuth

The dark secrets of a mysterious Guild. A reformed pickpocket. A vile pirate eavesdropping at a porthole. The only talking dog in Australia. To learn more, check out our latest children's fiction.

Divorce and children

For our latest In the news feature, Divorce and Children, we have selected some of the most useful books, journal articles and webpages.

Become a pineapple picker

From the lightning-struck face of David Bowie to Marlene Dietrich in Dior; from Disney's 'Ladies-in-Hating' to a lawless gunslinger spreading mayhem. Our buyers have diverse tastes - check out their latest picks.

What is an emirp?

All these and more in our new Children's non-fiction.

Pre-wedding hair regime

Looking for a copy of 'Sheep may safely graze' by Bach to walk down the aisle to? Concerned that your lack of interest in the bridesmaids' shoes might offend them?
Our new weddings page will help you with wedding music, etiquette, hair and make-up, dresses, readings, ceremonies and more.

Glowing skin

Our latest travel page feature is on tropical holidays. Our latest health page feature is on skin care.

A bizarre Zen Monk

An escaped pride of lions in Baghdad, kid geniuses, a dutiful Samurai and a frontier town full of vampires are among the joys awaiting you in our newest graphic novels.

Folk off

Stargazers, flowery eventides and prisoners. Our latest radio show on Access 783AM explores folk music, both new and trendy and not-so. For more information, check out the radio show track-list on our popular music page.

Proper footwork

Surfing, tag-rugby, horsemanship, volleyball and bridge are among the topics of our latest sport and fitness recent picks.

A shrubbery

We now have a gardening pathfinder to help you locate our gardening, landscaping and botanical resources. As well as the books and magazines in the library, you can access the full-text of several gardening magazines and the wonderful 'Oxford Companion to the Garden' via our online databases.

New health books

Dyslexia, menopause, heart disease, breast cancer, children with eating disorders and vaccination are among the topics of our latest health picks.

Explore the basics of NURBS

Ubuntu, Photoshop Elements 4 and CS2, Maya 7, Java programming, Dreamweaver 8, C# and Openoffice.org are among the subjects covered in our computer recent picks. There's another Firefox book with a cute animal on the cover; there aren't enough cute tigers on Mac OS books.
(NURBS stands for "Non Uniform Rational Basis Spline", which is ever so helpful).

Enough boys for an infield

We have new large print and audio-visual recommendations on our Seniors page. Learn about Len Lye and Michael King from DVDs; read about actress Prunella Scales, Monty Don (the face of British gardening), BBC radio and life on a Cotswold hill farm during WWII.

What's popular this month?

Our booklists for January are available - see what new general fiction, genre fiction, large print and DVDs we've bought.
Among the most highly reserved books this month are a Steve Irwin tribute, Michael Palin's diaries from his Monty Python years, Shirin Ebadi's Iran memoir and Frederick Forsyth's latest thriller The Afghan. Popular CDs include those by local act Bachelorette, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and diva Katherine Jenkins.

Warm herby breads

Our latest home and garden and cooking picks look at gourmet eating as a trend, becoming a confident cook, farmers' markets, straw-bale houses, sustainable architecture, herbs and flower arranging, among other topics.

Welly-boot throwing

Our new New Zealand books look at memorable moments in NZ sport, Keulemans' bird paintings, extinct native birds, the history of sheep in NZ and near-naked bungy jumpers.

An unhealthy interest in rats

We have many new items in our children's fiction, picture books and sound and vision collections.

Utterly nonsensical

This month our buyers recommend books on Lance Armstrong, famous days that changed the world, holiday destinations for children, ballroom dancing, movies of the 1930s, murderball, barbecuing for blokes ("impress your mates") and more.

Why movie car chases are wrong

The corporate corruption of universities, the top ten rock n' roll automobile accidents, a serial killer, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Black Power are among the subjects covered in our latest popular non-fiction recent picks.

Jerks at work

Write successful business proposals, do business in China, learn to speak like a CEO, ask smart questions during job interviews and determine whether your boss was raised by wolves - all this and more in our latest management recent picks.

Blogging holiday

Unfortunately our blog posting will be less regular than usual while we sort through some technical issues. We hope to resolve them as soon as possible.
UPDATE: blog posting has now been fixed.