New YA graphic novels

For more of the latest titles, try our graphic novels quicksearch.

Diwali webpages

We have a Diwali section in our Kid's catalogue, featuring our favourite websites. Celebrate Wellington's vibrant Indian culture on 22nd October, 3-10.30 pm at the Wellington Town Hall. For other current events and hot topics like Steve Irwin, global warming and Hallowe'en, visit our Kid's catalogue.

Zines at WCL

We are piloting a zine collection at Central Library. Zines (pronounced "zeens") are cut-and-paste, photocopied and stapled, self-published magazines. They can cover any topic from environmental issues to music, or can be a diary of a person's day to day life. For more info, visit our zines page.

Slacker rock-star wannabe

New to our hype page for teen fiction - hungry polar bears, a mad moon-dance at midnight, penniless in rural Tennessee, and popular girls.

New Soul/R&B section

We have a new CD section devoted to Soul/R&B. With box-sets on major movements and artists from Sam Cooke to James Brown, Motown to Stax-Volt, Philly Soul to R&B, and hundreds of individual CDs charting the evolution of the genre from the smooth vocals of the Drifters to the funky sounds of the new Justin Timberlake, Wellington City Libraries' Soul/R&B section is the place for you. For a complete list of all our Soul/R&B CDs, click here.

Zorro, Casanova & Dr Who

Due to dreadful behaviour on my part, the September DVD picks is only now available (after October's). But please read it - there's great stuff like Ricky Gervais' 'Extras' and the first season of 'The L word' (no need to wait for the TV showing). 'Murderball' is a fascinating doco about quadriplegic rugby players. 'Inside man' was Spike Lee's biggest hit. You can IMDB the titles to see what others think.

Leech-infested wilds

Journey high into the canopy-home where two-thirds of all creatures on our planet live, and encounter flying frogs, huge spiders and a flower that smells of decaying flesh. View 1800 images of birds. Learn about the development of scientific description by Renaissance naturalists. Watch science documentaries on DVD. All this and more on our latest science MyLibrary page.

Literature's what-ifs and never weres

What was the monstrous secret contained in Lord Byron's "Memoirs" that caused his publisher to burn the manuscript? How do you write a blockbuster? If you haven't read David Copperfield yet, should you be punished? What will the End of the Universe might actually look like? Our new literature titles this month may answer these questions. Also look out for CDs of 2006 NZ International Festival of the Arts Writers and Readers sessions, with Robert Fisk, Ronald Wright and more.

White bonnets and beer

Our new DVDs include the doco 'Devil's playground' about Amish teenagers immersed in debauchery during Rumspringa, NZ hit 'Sione's wedding', animated comic epic 'Broken saints', the magnificent Jeanne Moreau in Malle's 'Ascenseur pour l'echafaud' and a doco on Gram Parsons.

Messages without words

Our new art and graphics books for October look at contemporary cartoonists, Modigliani, the 17,000-year-old paintings of Lascaux, contemporary NZ textile artists and more. In 'Secret Knowledge' David Hockney argues that artists from the 15th century onward produced their vividly realistic art by use of optics. 'Left to right: the cultural shift from word to image' explores the trend towards visual communication.

Salzburg's immortal genius

This month our featured classical music books and CDs include 'The Big Book of Christmas Songs', 'Voices of life' by the Bulgarian Women's Choir and 'Sentimento latino' from Juan Diego Florez. The Pavao Quartet take on Gershwin and there is a splendid performance of Monteverdi's Vespers.

Nobel Prize for Literature

The winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature is Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk. The 54 year old has been involved in political controversy over the last year. He has a reputation as a social commentator, but sees himself as a fiction writer with no political agenda. His novels include The White Castle, The Black Book, My Name is Red and The New Life. His books can be found on our catalogue here.

Man Booker Prize

Kiran Desai's 'The inheritance of loss' has won the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Of the finalists, Kate Grenville's 'The Secret River' and Sarah Waters' 'The Night Watch' are particularly popular with WCL readers. For more information on the 2006 nominees and past winners, visit our Booker prize page and the official website.

Heaps o' new books

Perhaps it's the beginning of the Christmas publishing season - we have so many new bestsellers. Roddy Doyle, John Grisham, Anna Quindlen, Clive Cussler, Tess Gerritsen. C.K. Stead's version of Judas. Mark Haddon's follow-up to 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time'. Joanne Lees on the murder of Peter Falconio. Savant Daniel Tammet's fascinating autobiography. The life of Mary Wesley. If you don't want a Bestseller copy, you can place a reserve. (Some bestsellers won't show up on the catalogue until later today).

Ambient findability

Our new computer books discuss: laptops, CSS, Word hacks, DOM scripting, Maya 7, Openoffice.org, MYSQL, family computer fun and more. As always, we link to the latest issue of PC World, available for free online for WCL members.

Religion and beliefs

Our religion and beliefs recent picks for October discuss the myth of Hitler's Pope, the history and continuing influence of the Qur'an, the future of Jesus, and the methods and theory of Buddhist meditation. In 'A monk in the world : cultivating a spiritual life', Wayne Teasdale describes his experiences as an interreligious monk and mystic in India. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's 'The caged virgin : an emancipation proclamation for women and Islam' calls for clear thinking and an Islamic Enlightenment.

Readings from the fringe

Newly arrived popular non-fiction includes books on zines, Irish folklore, oil depletion and African Americans during the American Revolution. Candida Crewe discovers there is more to life than constantly thinking about what she eats or daren't. Robert F. Kennedy accuses Bush and his 'corporate pals' of high-jacking American democracy. A collection of essays by Bernard Williams explore the history of philosophy.

Maori recent picks

Items featured in our Maori recent picks include 'Tamaki-Makaurau : myths and legends of Auckland landmarks' by Edith Phillips-Gibson, 'New Zealand identities : departures and destinations' edited by James H. Liu etc and children's book 'Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan' by Kevin Boon. We also list many recent magazine articles.

Search across databases

Now you can search across mygateway.info databases. This is really useful if you don't know which database is best suited to your query or if you don't want to have to repeat the same search in different databases. Of course, you can still search your favourite mygateway.info databases separately.

Amorous Argentine Colonels' wives

Our new sports books will help you train for a triathlon, win at chess, participate in competitive taekwondo and make millions playing MMPORGs (Massively MultiPlayer Online Role-Playing Games). 'Terminated : The Explosive Story of the Tua-Barry Split' by Chris Mirams has more betrayals than a steamy television mini-series. 'Penguins stopped play : eleven village cricketers take on the world' by Harry Thompson showcases amorous Argentine Colonels' wives, cunning Bajan drug dealers, gay Australian waiters, overzealous American anti-terrorist police and idiot Welshmen dressed as Santa Claus.

"I loved it"

Our reader's choice picks for this month involve a dolphin fanatic, WWII, ghostwriters, arsonists, excitable women, damaged men, women legislators and a New York city hotel room. 'The red hot empress' by Meredith Blevins follows dazzling scoundrel Jimmy Qi who can heal using music.

We are led inexorably

Among the characters in our new librarian's choice novels are a widow who guzzles cartons of ice-cream for breakfast, a PhD student obsessed with 'The Turn of the Screw' and a deranged uncle who is convinced a cannibal lives under the furniture. 'The Moneypenny diaries' by Kate Westbrook follows the adventures of the secretary in love with James Bond.

New history books

Our new history recent picks cast a new eye on India's partition, North Korea's relationship with America, and Cambodia's killing fields. According to 'Elizabeth's spy master: Francis Walsingham and the secret war that saved England' by Robert Hutchinson, the Walsingham's methods anticipated those of later British spies from MI5 and MI6 and even the KGB.

Murky Mumbai mafia underworld

Our new fiction picks include Vikram Chranda's new bestseller about a Sikh policeman investigating the whereabouts of an Indian gangster and JG Ballard's new dystopia set in a sinister shopping mall. 'A disorder peculiar to the country' by Ken Kalfus features a feuding couple in New York whose divorce involves wire tapping and fake anthrax attacks.

New DVDs

From 'Je vous salue, Marie' to 'Keep the faith, baby', our new DVDs are a weird and varied bunch. Doco 'Blue vinyl' explores the toxic effects of polyvinyl chloride. We have 4 new yoga DVDs, the 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France and a surprisingly good adaptation of Lawrence's 'Sons & lovers.' Young Zazie frolicks around Paris in Louis Malle's charming 'Zazie dans le Metro.' Admire Balanchine's classic ballet 'Jewels joyaux' with its gorgeous costumes. Does anyone else think that the (just arrived) Doctor Who episode 'The girl in the fireplace' with Madame de Pompadour was inspired by novel The time traveller's wife?

The Great Fog of 1952 descends

Our new mysteries feature embarrassment in the line of duty, hunky party boys, lurking danger, death metal music and Easter Bunny costumes. The Scandinavians are at it again, with new books by Norwegian prizewinner Jo Nesbo and Swedish Ake Edwardson. The very clever Dick Francis continues to write novels despite being dead (appropriate for this genre, but nonetheless suspect).

Listen to the library

October 7th, 4.30pm the lovely Neil will be hosting WCL's Music Ad Lib radio show on Access Radio 783AM. Tune in for the disturbing and wonderfully literate country-folk of the Handsome Family.
Further information is available on our popular music page.

Of frockcoats, rapiers and pistols

Our buyer's favourites for this month include 'Pretty things : the last golden generation of American burlesque queens', 'Breaking the spell : religion as a natural phenomenon' and 'Minority rules : turning your ethnicity into a competitive edge'. On the lighter side we have new books with pictures of pretty Tiffany jewelry and brightly coloured Mexican dishes.

A bored certified diagnostician

Our staff DVD picks for this month include some great television - why not sit there for 972 minutes and watch an entire series of House or The Wire? Neil assures us that the US version of The Office is better than one'd think.
There's a documentary about Amish teenagers experiencing the ourside world during Rumspringa, a movie with often unintelligible Glaswegian dialogue and some romance. Yey.

Booklists

All of our new fiction (Peter Ackroyd, Maeve Binchy, Rachel Cusk, Mark Haddon...), all of our new large print (Georgette Heyer, Alexander McCall Smith...), all of our new books on CD and cassette (Ngaio Marsh, Margaret Atwood, Lynda La Plante...) - it's all here on our booklists page.

TB and other health updates

The recent outbreak of tuberculosis has shown that TB is still around in New Zealand and is not just an illness from the past. More than 150 students, teachers and parents had tests come back positive in the outbreak at Palmerston North Boys' High. For more information on tuberculosis and other health matters, chech out our health page.

Community languages

We have many new books in Chinese and Tamil. For updates on our foreign language collection, visit our Community languages page.

A rich tapestry of trees

Beach houses down under, small apartments, mixed gardens, the kiwi bach, making vintage bags and sustainable gardening are among the topics of our new
house & garden books.

Man Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 short list is available on our Booker Prize page. The winner will be announced 10th October. Read them now and then feel grumpy when the judges make the wrong decision.

Lime-green Capri pants

Among our new biographies - the private lives of Impressionists, branded lunatics by their contemporaries and celebrated by chocolate-box makers ever since; young Bill Bryson and the Sacred Jersey of Zap; how young Audrey Hepburn was discovered by Colette; Gertrude Bell (archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet, photographer and mountaineer); and the Queen Mother, who adored Margaret Thatcher and disliked Germans.

The foul daemon Tz'arkan

Dark elves, a galaxy full of hatred, lethal radiation sparks, a witch from modern day New York, territorial savagery, a sickly king and his daughter in the shadow of a terrifying curse, and a centuries-old vampire - yes, it's our new science fiction & fantasy for October. In Charles de Lint latest novel set in his magical version of North America Newford, Lizzie is rescued from a gang of thuggish spirits by a kindlier one. Somehow Nora Roberts has published six novels this year (fantasy and romance), which would lead some to question their quality.

Somewhat depressing contemporary fiction

Our new contemporary fiction this month isn't the lightest - novels are set during Nigeria's vicious civil war, feature child soldiers of the Ivory Coast and employees of the Danish Centre for Genocide Studies. Family are lost in a ferry accident, the bones of a young girl are found buried in the cellar of a Catholic church in Omaha, Nebraska, and a therapist experiences anger, grief, boredom, frustration, and resentment. Not to read when in a delicate mood.

For conforming teens

Or those who want to avoid what everyone else is listening to, here are the most highly reserved Young Adult CDs this month:
High school musical
Back to basics - Christina Aguilera
B'day - Beyonce
Dance now 2006
Real life - Evermore
Dutchess - Fergie
OC: mix 5
Fever you can't sweat out - Panic! at the disco
Soulstice - Shapeshifter
Eyes open - Snow patrol.

What's popular this month?

Among the most highly reserved items this month is 'The God delusion' by opinionated Richard Dawkins, which will divide readers. 'A bed of red flowers' by Afghani Nelofer Pazira may interest biog fans. 'No, I don't want to join a book club: diary of a sixtieth year' by Virginia Ironside wins points for its title. 'The dangerous book for boys' by the brothers Iggulden provides manly amusement. On DVD, you can cheat and watch Prison Break without adverts.

New children's DVDs

DVDs for kids keep pouring in - Disney's The Emperor's new groove. 2, Kronk's new groove and Brother bear 2; for horse lovers The animated adventures of the silver brumby; from Sesame Street The great numbers game, Elmo visits the firehouse and The best of Ernie and Bert; Eric Carle's book favourite The very hungry caterpillar; Hollywood movie Nanny McPhee. And more, much more - you can see all our latest material by doing a quicksearch.

New Zealand Women's Suffrage

New Zealand Women's Suffrage is the focus of our new history page feature. Why was New Zealand first? How popular was the idea among New Zealanders? Why did breweries wage an anti-suffrage campaign?

Nixon visits; first Cobb & Co.

This month in history - Tibet was invaded by China, Mikhail Gorbachev received a Nobel Peace Prize, Houdini died, NZ's rugby team was first called All Blacks, the last of the 6 o'clock swills occured, and more.

Is the catwalk catty?

Break into graphic design, learn about the fashion industry, explore the history of movie posters, view 1,300 full-color images of American brands, see Europe's best advertising and more with our new design books.

Shadow of the silk road

Journey up the river Lena through some of Siberia's wildest and most hauntingly beautiful regions; ride a 1965 Yorkshire-made 650cc Panther and a 1954 Norton 600 from Beijing to Arnhem; visit the Dartmoor moors; walk 25 private walking tracks in NZ. This and more in our new travel books.

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Stomp! Chomp! come the dinosaurs. Where is the green sheep? Z is annoyed that he always has to go last, so the letters switch places. A penguin wants to fly; a meerkat eats beetles on toast. Yey, we've got new children's picture books.

Celebrate quilts

The quilts featured in our new craft books include those of the Henry Ford and International Quilt Festival collections and those from the South Carolina family of Mary Louisa Snoddy Black (1860-1927). Learn to make machine quilts and 'antique' quilts. 'Kaffe Fassett's quilt road' photographs his gorgeous creations in Yorkshire countryside against a background of lichen-encrusted dry-stone walls, barns and gardens.

Overcome paranoid and suspicious thoughts

Our new personal development & self-help books may help you by revealing the seven sacred secrets of manifestation, eliminating stress and finding inner peace and providing shybusters and motivation. 'In the mind's eye : visual thinkers, gifted people with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, computer images, and the ironies of creativity' by Thomas West looks at different forms of intelligence.

The healing power of flax

Our new health books cover type 2 diabetes, neck and back pain, flax seed oil, Asperger's, pregnancy, and self healing and harmony. In 'Send in the idiots', Kamran Nazeer investigates the lives of some of his classmates who graduated from a New York school for autistic children - a speechwriter, computer engineer, bike messenger and suicidal depressive.

Find your next great idea

Our new management books claim they will help you master consultancy, spot ideas, become an exceptional manager, build a better business, get good people to stay, win the war against bloated bureacracy and distinguish between hard facts, dangerous half-truths and total nonsense. So, no powers of invisibility then.

A less-than-famous goat

Nina Dewdrop loves ballet; a goat travels on Cook's first voyage and saves everyone from scurvy; a Tennessee mountain boy experiences the horrors of the American Civil War; kennel boy Brind is more dog than human; and Jax stumbles upon a mysterious monastery hidden deep in an ancient rainforest park. Visit MyLibrary for more new children's fiction.

We feel with human hearts

The characters in our new historical fiction recent picks include an East End gangland boss with a devastatingly attractive personality; Memnon of Rhodes; sensual dancer Nesrin; desperately poor Marjorie, unable dislodge her writer's block; and Sunderland and Middlesbrough football marksman Brian Clough. Philippa Gregory is back with more on Henry VIII's wives, and Bernard Cornwell with more of Richard Sharpe and the Napoleonic Wars.
Fiction about historical figures is featured on our seniors page.