The perfect rose

Our new home and garden books look at ikebana, making bags, soft furnishings, serge and dressmaking. 'A short history of sheep in New Zealand' by Richard Wolfe includes history and sheep trivia, sheep lore and facts.

Discovered and demystified

Our new health books discuss the female brain, children's immune systems, depression and fertility. 'What's in this stuff?: the essential guide to what's really in the products you buy' looks at the contents of food additives, beauty products, household cleaners, pharmaceutical products and pet supplies. In 'George and Sam', mother Charlotte Moore describes the experience of autism in her family.

Radio programme December 2nd

Our radio programme on Access Radio 783AM, December 2nd 4.30pm, features Under the covers Vol. 1 by Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs.

Walking on custard

Mouth watering photographs of food, why you can walk on custard, heroic adventures, Leonardo da Vinci's self propelled armoured tank and pompoms are among the topics covered in our latest children's non fiction. See how fun physics can be with prize-winning 'Can you feel the force?', by Top Gear's Richard Hammond.

Flashes from the Welsh Pulpit

This month our buyers recommend new books by Victoria Beckham and Joan Collins, and titles on Georgette Heyer's regency England and surviving children's parties. 'Fish who answer the telephone and other bizarre books' is full of gems such as 'Scouts in Bondage', 'Moles and their Meaning', and 'Premature Burial and How it May Be Prevented'.

Change of leadership

Our latest In the news feature is on the National Party's change of leadership. We link to some of the latest NZ and Australian newspaper articles, and some useful books.

Stalingrad, STDs

Stalingrad is the latest feature on our history page. Sexual health is the feature on our health page.

Bargains at library book sale

Our book sale starts 5 December at 9.30am. Bag a bargain, find a gem or complete a collection - items from only 50 cents!

Throughout beautiful New Zealand

Our latest New Zealand recent picks look at NZ in the nuclear age, Crown Lynn pottery, disasters, magnificent maps, bed and breakfasts, Polish NZers and the Foxton Windmill.

Humours and homunculi

Our new popular science books include gorgeous Te Papa Press publications 'Extinct birds of New Zealand' and 'Eagle's complete trees and shrubs of New Zealand'. 'Ghosts of Gondwana: the history of life in New Zealand' by Wellingtonian George Gibbs is a fascinating account of our natural history.

Petulant princesses and vengeful owls

We have many great new short stories, including collections by Margaret Atwood, Susanna Clarke (she of 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell'), Colm Toibin and Joyce Carol Oates. Visit the wacky world of womanless wedding fund-raisers, watch a pack of vindictive salesgirls give a haughty fashionista a deadly dressing-down, survive an Iowa blizzard and meet a a conceited Regency clergyman.

A cabal of sorceresses

Lurking among our new science fiction and fantasy novels, a female android with a conscience, plague, Never Dead Ned (commander of the Ogre Company) and Grafenwalder's bestiary. Lara, the Queen of Xy, Vlad Taltos, Adrilankha and Siyee continue the ever amusing naming conventions of these genres.

Fatal repercussions

New graphic novels, featuring a legendary chain-smoking, hard-drinking man of the occult, UFO-like fireballs sighted by World War II pilots, zombie servants, and girls (most frightening of all?)

Our customers recommend

This month's reader's choice includes marvellous books, books with slow beginnings, warm human dramas, universal themes, and wonderful reads. Submit a review online here

An unlikely seduction

Our librarian's choice novels this month involve a cantankerous spinster, relatives who engage in every imaginable sin and foible of modern existence, a brutal trail of murder and violence, and a talented young seamstress with a hunger for knowledge.

What we liked this year

Our staff fiction picks for 2006 include an allegoric crime novel, Margaret Atwood's take on Penelope and Odysseus, a poker-faced comic and surreal masterpiece, Rumpole and Philip Roth.

A duffel bag of hundred dollar bills

Crime films are the new featured genre on our movies page.

AweSoMe. Five Stars.

We have book reviews by kids, for kids on our book reviews page. Write a review for us - just fill in the online form. There are separate forms for teens and grownups.

Fundview and Breakout

Fundview and Breakout can now be accessed from computers outside of the library. Login to the databases with your library card number, and see what funding is available to you.

Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess

A stack of new teens graphic novels has appeared overnight, as if by magic. Includes new X-men, Wonder woman, Tom Strong and Girl genius titles.
Also, where would you most like to live - Bro'Town, Hogwarts, Discworld, That place where the OC is set? Vote on our Hype page.