"There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or else go mad, or die."
~ Robertson Davies (1913-1995), Canadian novelist
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Learn something new in 2015
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If you have plans to try something new in 2015, why not jump into learning?
We support all ages – from preschoolers and parents, to lifelong learners who want to get more out of their computers.
Our
Learning Centres
at South, New Brighton and Upper Riccarton run programmes throughout the year.
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New and Recently Released!
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Amnesia: a novel
by
Peter Carey
Writing the biography of a cyber criminal who released a virus into Australia's prison system and allowed hundreds of asylum seekers and prisoners to escape, left-wing journalist Felix Moore struggles to convey the hacker's intentions as a political protest against Australia's relationship with the United States.
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The heart has its reasons: a novel
by
MarÃa Dueñas
When her husband leaves her for his much-younger, pregnant mistress, Madrid professor Blanca Perea can think of nothing but escape. She jumps at the opportunity to take a fellowship in far-away California, where she gets deeply involved in researching the life of a Spanish writer who died decades earlier. Through her research, and in finding the parallels between his life and hers, she is able to come to terms with her losses. Though the novel is set in the late 1990s, historical fiction readers may appreciate the lush descriptions of life in 1930s Spain.
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An untamed state
by
Roxane Gay
Her perfect life is shattered when Mireille is kidnapped by armed men in front of her father's estate in Haiti and she must endure the horrors and torments of her captors while her father inexplicably resists paying for her ransom.
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A brief history of seven killings
by
Marlon James
A tale inspired by the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley spans decades and continents to explore the experiences of journalists, drug dealers, killers and ghosts against a backdrop of period social and political turmoil. By the award-winning author of The Book of Night Women.
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Harraga
by Boualem Sansal
Story of two women in male dominated Algiers and what happens when reclusive Lamia answers the door to a 17 year old, pregnant by Lamia's brother who's left for Europe.
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Skylight
by
José Saramago
When bestselling Portuguese author José Saramago wrote Skylight and submitted it to a publisher, he was an unknown. He never received an answer, and he published nothing for another 20 years. The manuscript resurfaced after he'd made a name for himself, but he never accepted an offer to publish it; it was finally published after his death, and this is its first English translation. Centering around the residents of a Lisbon apartment building in the late 1940s, Skylight reads like a collection of linked short stories.
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The oyster catcher
by
Jo Thomas
A likeable feel good Irish tale of a facing the past and falling in love in County Galway.
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Shotgun lovesongs
by
Nickolas Butler
Little Wing, the fictional Wisconsin town that serves as the setting of this debut novel, is as much a character as are the friends who share narrative duties. Hank, a farmer, has never left; Kip has returned after making a fortune in Chicago; Lee visits whenever his music career allows it; Ronnie is recovering from both an addiction to booze and a few rough years on the rodeo circuit; all of them have been friends since childhood. Heartfelt but not sentimental, Shotgun Lovesongs is the story of these friends and the town they call home. Told in a straightforward manner, it will appeal to anyone who has found "his life reflected in a Bob Seeger song" (Kirkus Reviews).
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The sleepwalker's guide to dancing: a novel
by
Mira Jacob
Wedding photographer Amina Eapen has returned home to New Mexico upon hearing that her father, Thomas, has been acting oddly. Stricken with a brain tumor, Thomas believes that he is communicating with the dead, including Amina's brother, who died years before. This prompts Amina to look into the family's painful history, which all seems to have started with a truncated visit back to India in 1979. Those who loved Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You or Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland will enjoy this haunting, reflective novel, which portrays the struggles of an immigrant family in a new community as well as the rifts within their own home.
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Redeployment
by
Phil Klay
The last few years have seen an influx of debut novels that depict the horrors of the Iraq war, from Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds to Michael Pitre's Fives and Twenty-Fives, but Redeployment earned the distinction of winning the 2014 National Book Award. A collection of short stories by a former Marine captain and Iraq veteran, it focuses on the complexities of life for soldiers on the front lines and after their returns stateside, veering from the mundane to the horrifying and back again.
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I am having so much fun here without you
by
Courtney Maum
British artist Richard Haddon has lost his way, both as an artist and as a husband. He's sold out, creating commercially viable work instead of the provocative pieces of his early career, and he's just been caught cheating on his wife. Set for the most part in Paris, this realistic love story follows Richard as he attempts to rekindle his relationship with his wife and restore their marriage. Readers who enjoyed the male perspective of a broken marriage in Elizabeth Berg's Say When may also appreciate the quirky humour of I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You.
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We are not ourselves
by
Matthew Thomas
Over the course of this leisurely paced 600+ page debut, which spans nearly 60 years, Eileen Tumulty, her family, and her version of the American dream act as a microcosm of 20th-century America. Raised by Irish immigrant parents in 1940s Queens, in a home where alcohol, rather than love, held sway, Eileen wanted more out of life, but her marriage to an unambitious scientist does not bring the status she craves. One of this book's many appeals is the changing character of New York City neighbourhoods over the decades; another is the deeply realistic characters and the "unforgettable narrative" (Publishers Weekly) they provide.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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