Ordinary into extraordinary

Our management recent picks bring you negotiation boot camp, brilliant answers to tough interview questions, the Starbucks experience (5 principles for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary...), business plans in a day, and more.

Murderball saved my life

A true story of adoption, how to save the planet, confessions of the other mother, and murderball are among the topics of our latest popular non-fiction recent picks.

Gimme gimme shock treatment

Be your own pet, Magazine, Dead Kennedys, The Ramones... all this and more on our punk special on Access Radio, 4.30pm Saturday 24 March.

Kids: create your own clay person

This was a popular activity in 2006 to celebrate Race Relations Day, so check out the times and dates at Kids: What's On - then visit a branch library this week to make your very own clay person!

Want to know more about family law?

If so, come along to this week's Law for Lunch topic: "Family Court parenting hearings". This popular series is happening every Thursday at Central Library, 2nd Floor, 12-1pm. To find out more about these sessions, check out the library website's News page.

Goodbye!

The anonymous WCL blogger is heading off overseas, to be replaced by another WCL staff blogger. Best wishes to WCL customers and staff, and thanks to everyone in the blogosphere and library world who has supported our blog.
Now off to plan a campaign of comment writing...

The superbad Samuel L. Jackson stare

Sublimely built emperor penguins, Scully and Mulder in Springfield, Darnell the Crab Man, forensic anthropology, a swarm of vampires in Dunedin, a Fijian-Kiwi matriarch and handsome American Doug are featured in our latest DVD recent picks.

The right talent

Talent management & corporate culture is our latest business hot topic.

Cosmic onion

Climate science, the multi-billion dollar Hadron Collider at CERN, Francis Crick, the godfather of Ecstasy, Galen, insects, quantum mechanics and consciousness are among the topics of our most recent science books and DVDs.

Sweeping shoujo

New graphics books (and miserable dvd)

Discerning eye

New books on Adjaye's houses, Bauhaus, Lucian Freud, Hokusai and Annie Leibovitz are featured as our new art books.

Posing with fish

New to our literature and language collections - love poetry, Shakespeare's sonnets, Georgette Heyer's Regency England, the story of French and a zombie survival guide. Edward Said's last work is about late life artistry, and Mike Berry scams email scammers.

Corporate graffiti

Typography, colour, Eva Hesse's sculpture, handmade elements in graphic design, pictograms, screenprinting and tire houses are among the subjects of our latest design recent picks.

The unquiet spirit

A fifties film star, an unsavoury landlord, wildflowers, grimy slums, a wood chisel, an expert burglar, the Gobi desert and a fake medium are featured in our latest mysteries recent picks.

Stubborn phobias

Traditional Chinese medicine, luxury spas, eating disorders, energy psychology, and toxic behaviours are among the subjects of our latest health recent picks.

Disposable-nappy

Meet Sampson the lion, the brawny, brave, uncontested king of a New York City zoo, and Otis the carefree cow who spends his days singing, dancing and playing tricks on humans. Nicholas' baby brother Cheese auditions as a beautiful bottom for a disposable-nappy advertisement. Check out our new DVDs and books on CD in our Children's AV recent picks.

Scintillating dialogue

The impossible love of a Tatar khan for a captive Polish countess, Judas, larger-than-life Captain William Coffin, vast cattle ranches, a vivacious Bohemian writer and eco-activist, a frosty French night, and fainting spells are featured in our latest New Zealand fiction picks.

What's popular this month?

An Australian culinary journey, nonviolence, six women in Revolutionary France, convincing children to eat weird foreign flavours and climate change are the subjects of some of our most reserved books this month. Ian McEwan's new novel is on order and there are popular CDs from Bloc Party and Fray. Visit our booklists page for more info.

Milkshakes as a vehicle for creativity

Why do our elbows and knees bend in opposite directions? What should you eat for a good mood? How did rapper LL Cool J get his "chiseled" body? What are the twenty greatest philosophy books? What's inside David Lynch's head? See which books our buyers recommend.

Roly-poly pudding

Curried Trout with Coconut-Chili Sauce from Kenya and Apple-Squash Fritters from South Africa's Cape Malay. Tea gardens and tea shops. The use of cooking chopsticks. Pie-making sessions and nut counting. For more on cooking and food, see our latest cooking recent picks.

Potty with pictures

Babies in socks, adventures inside paintings, a madcap heroine, pigeon Percy, and a sad little fish looking for his rainbow coloured mummy - see our children's picture books picks for some of our new favourites.

Aliens posing as lunch ladies

A principal-turned-superhero, students turning into zombie nerds, Super Evil Rapid-Growth Juice, an eerie cocoon, a burnt bear, a werepuppy and appalling cooking abound in our latest Children's fiction picks.

Avoid a wombat's bum

Most dinosaurs were no bigger than chickens. A snail has about 25,000 teeth. Learn more quirky animal facts plus read about spicy chocolate sauce, sinking cities, the destruction of the Hindenburg and the story of salt. Visit our children's non-fiction picks for more.

Hottest opening variations

Lance Armstrong, the triumphant story of the godfather of street skating, the English attack in chess, casino poker, climbing, scrabble and tramping the back country of NZ are among the subjects of our latest sport books.

Top romance novels

A list of the top 100 romance novels has been complied from books that received the most votes by readers of this genre, from a list of 1500 books and over 500 authors nominated. Books by Diana Gabaldon, Linda Howard and Susan Elizabeth Phillips top the list, which also includes Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Margaret Mitchell and Nora Roberts.

Little sailing vessels

The dark side of Kiwi culture, the Pacific war, vintage NZ tractors, beautiful birds, helicopters and All Blacks are among the subjects of our latest New Zealand picks.

A boiling concoction

Hungry Alaskan vampires, Will Eisner's mythical Dropsie Avenue of the Bronx, 19th century hucksters and freemen, a monkey called Ampersand and Tank girl are among the joys of our newest graphic novels.

Loose doorknobs

Build a straw house, clear blocked gutters, sew a stylish wardrobe, a cat called Birmingham, container gardening and vintage tractors - see our home and garden picks for more info.

Neanderthal-like Beastmen

The wrong physics is loose in the universe. Four grimly comic angels chat. A soul is taken forfeit by a daemon. A super-secret German aircraft is stolen. A shadowy fanatical anti-tech cult get up to mischief. Telepathic seals. Yey, new SF and fantasy.