Category: Recent picks

Our picks of the new material in different subject areas. Find your next read! See also our full lists of what’s new, and our other lists that feature a mix of old and new material.

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“No, emptiness is not nothingness”: New Sci Fi & Fantasy

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“No, emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is a type of existence. You must use this existential emptiness to fill yourself.” ― Liu Cixin, The Three-Body Problem

Welcome to our latest selection of recently acquired science fiction and fantasy titles. As always, we have a cosmos of choice awaiting our readers.

This month’s selection includes three titles from our own fair shores, the first of which is the eagerly anticipated new book by H. G Parry called Heartless. Regular readers will know that H. G. Parry is one of our personal favourites and we were thrilled to see a new title from this wonderful author on the shelves. Another treat from Aotearoa  comes in the form of  best-selling, award-winning  author David Hair’s latest release that’s called The Burning Land, and the third member of our local trio of talent is local author Helen Vivienne Fletcher, who releases a collection of stories called Beside the River Styx. It’s fabulous to see so much exceptional home-grown talent out there. The other title that caught our eye was A View from the Stars by Liu Cixin, author of the exceptional modern classic The Three-Body Problem, currently one of the most popular television adaptations around. If you’ve not read any Liu Cixin before and enjoy deep, thought-provoking cutting-edge science fiction we thoroughly recommend his work.

To see our full list of selected titles and borrow any that interest you, just browse below.

Heartless / Parry, H. G.
“At the age of seven, in a London workhouse, newly-orphaned James meets ten-year-old Peter. Mysterious, mercurial, thoughtless to the point of cruelty, Peter nonetheless takes a liking to James. The two forge a strange friendship, bound together by their shared love of stories…But one fateful night, Peter vanishes from his bed, and in the morning James is found lying alone and broken in the courtyard outside…Over twenty years later, on the deck of a whaling ship in the frozen wastes of the Arctic…James’s obsession with finding his childhood friend will lead him to mutiny and murder, beyond the edges of the world, and finally to an island that shouldn’t exist.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

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The things that make me different: New fiction

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“The things that make me different are the things that make me, me.”  A.A. Milne (Piglet)

Welcome to our latest selection of titles from our recently acquired fiction books. As always, we have a wide variety of authors and novels to suit all tastes.

In amongst this month’s literary treasures, we have the much-anticipated Aotearoa debut novel from Joy Holley called Dream girl. We also have a new collection of short stories from A. A. Milne, which gives readers the chance to see another side of this much beloved children’s author. Black silk & sympathy by Aotearoa bestselling author Deborah Challinor is a book inspired by Victorian funeral practices. We also have three books that directly feature books in their storylines: The Titanic Survivors Book Club by Timothy Schaffert, The underground library by Jennifer Ryan, and Days at the Morisaki bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa. All of these titles show how important books are to various cultures, at all times throughout history. We would also like to make a special mention of Scrap by Calla Henkel, a novel that has scrapbooks at its core.

To see our full list of selected titles and borrow any that interest you, just browse below.

Dream girl / Holley, Joy
“Alice wants a heart-shaped bed. Mary, Genevieve and Angelica want to know the future. June says she wants Lena to rescue her from a rat, but really she wants Lena to make out with her. Eve wants to get Wallace alone at the strawberry farm. Olivia just wants to leave the haunted boarding school and go home. Bittersweet and intimate, comic and gothic, Dream Girl is a collection of stories about young women navigating desire in all its manifestations. In stories of romance and bad driving, ghosts and ghosting, playlists and competitive pet ownership, love never fails to leave its mark.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

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Needing and loving are two different things: New fiction

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Needing and loving are two different things. ― Armistead Maupin, Further Tales of the City

Welcome to this month’s selection of recently acquired general fiction. For this month we have selected a rich carnival of new titles that span a colourful range of styles, subjects, periods in time and genres.

First up on the list we have two Aotearoa highlights in the form of Ruin: and other stories by Emma Hislop and Bird life by Anna Smaill. Next, we spread our wings and travel to the Cotswolds via the streets of San Francisco to enjoy the tenth instalment of the hugely popular Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin, Mona of the manor. Then we have a chilling and scintillating horror set in a small town in Alberta called Bad Cree = Âcimowin by Jessica Johns. Continue reading “Needing and loving are two different things: New fiction” →

“There’s no escaping fate”: new mystery titles

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“Drink up!” urged the Chief. “There’s no escaping fate. Drink while the champagne lasts!”
― Andrey Kurkov, Death and the Penguin

Welcome to another of our regular round ups of recently acquired detective and thriller titles.

In this month’s exciting and thrilling  mixed bag  of titles we have a  new crime thriller novel set in the atmospheric and wonderful city of Dunedin, called The Night She Fell by Eileen Merriman. We also have The Extinction of Irena Rey: a new book by Women’s Prize finalist Jennifer Croft.  In The Extinction of Irena Rey, the scene is set when an acclaimed author goes missing in an ancient Polish forest and her  translators set to work as sleuths to find her.

We also have The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill – a novel which has lots of fun with the concept of  conspiracy theories and carefully and cleverly weaves it into the plot. For fans of the “strange and fantastic “Death and the Penguin, we have a new work by its author Andreĭ  Kurkov, which is the first instalment of his latest series called The Silver Bone.  Taking a very different approach from Andreĭ  Kurkov, A Death in Diamonds by Sophia Bennett is a crime tale in which Queen Elizabeth II takes a leading role, we also have in our bag of delights a chilling, gas lit, gothic crime called A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn, a novel that revolves around a mysterious waxwork figure. And finally we have  novels which feature various dastardly deeds committed in Devon,  Lake Zurich and France.  In short, there is something to suit every detective and thriller fan. To peruse our full selection, just glance below.

The night she fell / Merriman, Eileen
“‘When I last saw Ashleigh, she was lying in a pool of blood … Her eyes were open, staring sightlessly into the sky. I’d like to think she saw the stars before she died; that in her last moments she flew, soaring on serotonin, dreamy with dopamine. I’d like to think she didn’t suffer …’ A beautiful young law student dies on the concrete below her third-storey window in chilly Dunedin. It’s clear enough how she died. What isn’t is why – or who’s involved. Plenty of people had a reason to hate Ashleigh, with her straight As and perfect looks. She’s fallen out with her flatmates, and her boyfriend Xander is having second thoughts about their future together. And then there are the weird messages…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

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“Genghis Khan bathed in sherbet ice cream”: New science fiction and fantasy

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It extols death with the luminescent brilliance of a dying star. It is Genghis Khan bathed in sherbet ice cream. The mantis shrimp is the harbinger of blood-soaked rainbows.

The Oatmeal

Welcome to our latest selection of newly acquired fantasy and science fiction titles. Every month we endeavour to highlight new books that aren’t necessarily the highest profile releases or even a reflection of the bestseller lists (although we do sometimes include titles that are on both); instead, we like to select books that have some unusual aspect that catches our attention, that maybe fall off the beaten track, but that we think you might enjoy. From that selection, we then like to go even further and turn the spotlight on one particular title.

For this month’s spotlight book, the book that literally caught our eye (pun intended) was Red side story by Jasper Fforde — a book in which people’s standing in society depends on their ability to perceive colour.

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When once you have tasted flight: New fiction

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When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

– Leonardo DaVinci

Welcome to this month’s selection of recently acquired fiction titles. To make this month’s choices we have employed a broad and panoramic approach, picking titles that convey the wide variety of subject matters, literary styles and approaches present in all our new intake books.

This month’s collection of titles includes a new historical fiction novel by Sara Ackerman called The uncharted flight of Olivia West, inspired by the Dole Air Race of 1927. This is a gripping story, based on true events, about a young pioneering aviator participating in the race. Literary legend Isabel Allende has released a new novel, called The wind knows my name. We have two highlights from Aotearoa, an outstanding collection of new short stories from the iconic Aotearoa author Patricia Grace, titled Bird child & other stories, and the much-anticipated debut novel from Olive Nuttall called Kitten. There’s also The Tearsmith by Erin Doom, which is currently being adapted into a Netflix series. To round things off in style, we have the Booker shortlisted and winner of the An Post Irish Book of the Year, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.

Links to all these titles, and a few others, can be found below.

The uncharted flight of Olivia West / Ackerman, Sara
“This extraordinary novel, inspired by real events, tells the story of a female aviator who defies the odds to embark on a daring air race across the Pacific. 1927. Olivia “Livy” West is a fearless young pilot with a love of adventure. She yearns to cross oceans and travel the skies. When she learns of the Dole Air Race–a high-stakes contest to be the first to make the 2,400 mile Pacific crossing from the West Coast to Hawai’i–she sets her sights on qualifying. But it soon becomes clear that only men will make the cut. In a last-ditch effort to take part, Livy manages to be picked as a navigator for one of the pilots, before setting out on a harrowing journey that some will not survive.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

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