Money can’t buy you love, but sometimes you find one when you think you need the other. Georgia’s fifteenth year starts in pursuit of money (for a trip to see her favourite band), and ends with an unexpected pay-off – first love.
A funny and engaging novel written in a playful, inventive style.
You can read With lots of love from Georgia as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.
With lots of love from Georgia is also available as a paper book.
Frankie Parsons is twelve going on old man: an apparently sensible, talented Year 8 student with a drumbeat of worrying questions steadily gaining volume in his head: Are the smoke alarm batteries flat? Does the cat, and therefore the rest of the family, have worms? Is the kidney-shaped spot on his chest actually a galloping cancer? Most of the significant people in Frankie’s world – his father, his brother and sister, his great-aunts, his best friend Gigs – seem gloriously untroubled by worry.
Only Ma takes seriously his catalogue of persistent anxieties; only Ma listens patiently to his 10pm queries. But of course, it is Ma who is the cause of the most worrying question of all, the one that Frankie can never bring himself to ask. Then the new girl arrives at school and has questions of her own: relentless, unavoidable questions. So begins the unravelling of Frankie Parson’s carefully controlled world.
So begins the painful business of fronting up to the unpalatable: the ultimate 10pm question.
The 10pm Question is a novel which defies all age categories. It does so with a sparkling wit and an operatic cast of characters so delightful and maddening they become dear to us.
You can read 10 pm question as an e-book from our Overdrive collection and Wheelers collection.
10 pm question is also available as a paper book and an audiobook.
In 2027, sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl–playing the guitar, falling in love, and protesting the wrongs of the world with her friends.
But then Tegan dies, waking up 100 years in the future as the unknowing first government guinea pig to be cryogenically frozen and successfully revived.
Appalling secrets about her new world come to light, and Tegan must choose to either keep her head down or fight for a better future.
You can read When We Wake as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.
When We Wake is also available as a paper book.
It’s been two years since Ness and Dev escaped the Islanders of Dunnett, and Ness is struggling to find a place for herself in the city of Vidya where the community is struggling to rebuild itself.
Caught up in surprise attacks and ongoing land battles, and then working in the infirmary at Ebony Hill, Ness witnesses the realities of war and questions her commitment to this brave new society.
You can read Ebony Hill as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.
Ebony Hill is also available as a paper book.
Natural history museums contain many thousands of zoological specimens and each has a tale to tell – often involving extraordinary people, daring explorations, unquenchable scientific curiosity, and strange coincidences. This perfectly presented book, with its engaging pictures, is rich in stories and unveils many secrets.
Read about: the fate of a tortoise given as a gift by Captain Cook; the epic international voyage of the biggest known moa egg; the admiration induced by an ape from the jungles of Borneo; the barn owl of mysterious origins; the unfortunate fate of an angry young elephant; the quest to discover how a New Zealand heron turned up in a Florence museum; the strange arrival of an Australian banjo frog and many other mind-boggling mysteries.
You can read The owl that fell from the sky as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.
The owl that fell from the sky is also available as a paper book.
Rushing from one crisis to another, Penny Rushmore has a name to live up to, coping with a demanding job and still adapting to life without her husband Steve. The first set-back comes when she hears that the glamorous young woman Steve took off with is pregnant. According to Charlotte, Penny’s daughter, Steve and Jacinta are head over heels about each other. According to Penny’s son, Charlotte is also head over heels – about her ageing university lecturer.
But is Penny head over heels about her new boyfriend or is she too frantic running between disasters to find out? And is her elderly father still head over heels about his wife or has her advanced dementia driven him over the edge? Funny and fast-paced, this is a candid and entertaining novel about finding some sort of balance in your life while being stuck in the Sandwich Generation – sandwiched between the demands of ageing parents, teenagers, a career and a badly behaved spaniel.
You can read Head over heels as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.
Head over heels is also available as a paper book.
Elena catches a glimpse of her friend Jeanie Roper in a New Zealand art gallery. It is twenty-three years since Jeanie suddenly disappeared. They had been close when Jeanie lived in Samoa with her bullying husband and gentle father.
But why is Jeanie hiding her identity? Elena is intrigued to discover Jeanie has a daughter who is unaware of her Samoan ancestry. There are family secrets here – possibly dangerous ones – that Elena is determined to uncover.
Inheritance is a novel of contrasts: the tropical beauty and exuberance of Samoa in the 1960s; and the dark violence that arises from the conflict between truthfulness and love.
You can read Inheritance as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.
Inheritance is also available as a paper book.
Tom Stone, skinnyish, fortyish, English, is madly in love with his wife Ann, an Australian in self-imposed exile in London. Pushing forty and expecting their first child, they buy their first, semi-derelict house in Hackney. They believe this is their settled future, despite Tom’s stalling career and their spiralling money troubles. But Ann becomes convinced she’s being shadowed by a local homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen.
As her pregnancy progresses she spends hours cleaning and reorganising the house, and sits up all night talking with a new feverish passion. As their child grows, so too does Tom’s sense of an impending, nameless threat. Their home appears beset with vermin, smells and strange noises. On the verge of losing the house, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives.
You can read Novel about my wife as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.
Novel about my wife is also available as a paper , audio and large print book.
You don’t need to be big to be good. Small is beautiful. New Zealand is a small country so it seems appropriate that it has produced two great series of “small” books. Some how it seems wrong to say small because some of them have been huge sellers and all have great writing. They are showcasing some of the best writing in New Zealand.
First up is the Ginger series from Awa Press. Probably the most well known is Justin Paton’s How to look at painting. (Actually now I want him to write the followup – how to look at conceptual art – perfect for Christchurch these days). This book has been through several reprints. It’s companions include How to watch a bird by Steve Braunias and others on how to watch rugby or cricket, drink wine, pick a winner at the races, listen to pop music and so on. The writers are some of NZeds finest – Kevin Ireland, Nick Bollinger, Harry Ricketts to name a few.
An older (and physically smaller series) was the Montana Estates essay series. Again some fantastic writing by great Kiwi writers. Gems include Notes of a bag lady by Margaret Mahy, On kissing by Kate Camp and Biography of a local palate by David Burton.
And now Bridget Williams Books has come up with a new digital series BWB Texts which includes Starting with Paul Callaghan: Luminous Moments, Maurice Gee’s Creeks & Kitchens: A Childhood Memoir, Rebecca Macfie’s Report from Christchurch (in association with the New Zealand Listener), Kathleen Jones’s ‘I think … I am going to die.’: Katherine Mansfield at Fontainebleau, Hamish Campbell’s The Zealandia Drowning Hypothesis and Sir Tipene O’Regan’s New Myths and Old Politics.
What could be better in New Zealand Book Month than to sample some of these.
The Writer begins with a sparkly good idea for a fabulous fairytale. A girl called Glory is sent to work in the Royal Palace, where the queen is planning a grand ball and a bad-tempered princess is sorting through jewels and tiaras. And, unknown to Glory, the threads of her destiny are coming together. Nova is reading the fairytale.
Fairytales are not usually her thing, but right now she’s feeling a bit messy and lost. Her best friend has gone away and bitchy Dylan is hassling her. Still, Nova is curious to find out why Glory’s mother is scrabbling under the bed for an old magic book. Can the Writer make everything turn out happily ever after? Will the princess find true love? Will Glory escape a secret curse?
And can Nova smooth out the lumps and bumps in her life?
You can read Triple ripple as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.
Triple ripple is also available as a paper book.
Christchurch City Libraries Blog 