Category: Books

‘Off The Page’ author series

// What's on

Off the Page is back! The always popular Off The Page series is relaunching with a stellar line-up of local, national and internationally published writers. Off the Page will be bringing food writing, crime, historical fiction, romance and more to the Palmerston North City Library. The best of New Zealand writing is better than ever in 2024!

Off the Page will feature a popular writer in conversation with a local chair about their books, the writing life, and much more. As always, the events will also feature book sales and signings, snacks, and stimulating conversation. Everyone is invited and the events are free.

The writers in the Off the Page line-up are all acclaimed writers launching new books. They are the very best New Zealand has to offer! The writers you would pay to see at our national festivals, are free at your hometown library.

Launching the season, on April 19th, we have the award-winning crime writer Charity Norman in conversation with Gigi Fenster. Charity has published more than ten novels. Her book Remember Me won the Ngaio Marsh award in 2023 – an award which three of her previous books were finalists in. She is a wonderfully engaging speaker, and we are excited to be able to talk about her upcoming book as well as earlier ones.

On 24th May: Come and hear the wonderful Vanya Insull (VJ Cooks) in conversation with the library’s own Angela Rea. Vanya’s Everyday Favourites is a hit recipe book, and her blogs, courses and website are all hugely popular. If you’ve googled a meal for the family, you’ve probably cooked one of Vanya’s fabulous recipes.

On 21 June, Saige Vendome will be in conversation with Thom Conroy. Saige is an award-winning human rights journalist. Her new book The Seasonwife reveals aspects of our history previously hidden from mainstream education. Saige has a deep historical knowledge and understanding of the lives lived by her characters.

On 19 July, Catherine Robertson will talk about her TWO new books. Catherine is known for her wit, her vibrancy and her prolific writing career. She is a key figure in Aotearoa’s literary landscape. At least one reviewer has called her a ‘national treasure’. And she writes what she calls ‘Romcoms with heat and heart’!

On 20 or 27 September, Manawatū’s own Richard Shaw will be in discussion with Colin Bjork. Richard’s newest book, The Unsettled follows from his acclaimed memoir, The Forgotten Coast. In his latest, Richard offers readers the stories of Pakeha coming to grips with the truths of their family’s settler history – people who are unsettled but are doing something about it.

On 11 October, join us for Student Showcase. Massey University’s Gigi Fenster and Thom Conroy will host an evening featuring the emerging voices of Massey’s celebrated Creative Writing programme. The showcase is a rare opportunity to tomorrow’s biggest talent today.

Find all the Off The Page details here.

Books Just Want To Be Held

// Library News

Like most of us, library books just want to be held. Holds are free at Palmerston North City Library, and it’s a great way to make sure you don’t miss a popular title. You can also place a hold on a book to bring it from another location. For example, if you’re at Ashhurst you can put a hold on a book that’s at Central, and it will be brought out to you.

Here are some ways to place a hold:

  • use the Place Hold button when you’re browsing the library catalogue. Just enter your card number and PIN, select the pickup library, click ‘Place Hold(s)’ and you’re done!
  • ask a librarian next time you’re at one of the library locations
  • contact us on 06 3514100 or at pncl@pncc.govt.nz

Whichever method you use, you’ll receive an email when the book is ready to be collected. Then you have 10 days to pick up the item.

Show a library book some love today!

Tips for using ‘My Account’

// Books

While the Library app is unavailable, here’s a reminder of some things you can do by logging into My Account on the City Library’s online catalogue.

When you’re logged in, you can search for items, and it’s free to place holds on them. Once you receive a message to say an item is available, you have 10 days to pick it up.

Here are few other hold-related things you might find useful:

  • Going on holiday or have a long wish list?  You can ‘suspend holds’ so that they don’t arrive while you’re away.
  • If you don’t want to place a hold, but simply want to keep track of cool things you’ve spotted, try using My Lists. You can have several different lists with different themes, and then easily go back to place holds later if you desire.
  • If you no longer require a hold, you can cancel it. (Unless you’ve already been notified it’s available, in which case please contact the Library to cancel it for you.) Cancelling an unwanted hold speeds the process up for other people in the queue.

Did you know the system keeps a history of two years’ worth of titles you’ve borrowed? Look for ‘Checkout History’ in the Checkouts tab. You can use this literary time machine to travel back through all the cool books you’ve read!

While we wait for a replacement library app, you can still do all this via My Account.  Save it as a short cut on your computer or device for quick access.

Versions Tuarima – creative writing project

// Library News

Versions is back! Each year we throw open the invitation to local writers to be part of an anthology. We provide the prompt (which you’re welcome to ignore if you don’t need it) and you can submit anything from a poem to a short story to a play. Actually, anything creative – music, visual art, sculpture, dance, anything – we’ll figure out how to include it.

Library staff do the editing and formatting, and then the anthology is published later in the year. All writers get a hard copy of the book, and are invited to bring their friends and family to the launch.

All submissions are accepted (unless they are offensive or plagiaristic). So if you’ve ever wanted to write something and have it published, here’s your chance!

This year’s prompt is as brief as it is broad: earth. This ties in with this year’s Heritage Month theme, so if you’re short on ideas, you could attend some of the Heritage talks and see if they spark something.

You might want to write a poem about Planet Earth. Or a short story where the protagonist builds a rammed-earth house. Go wild with it, and write whatever comes to mind.

As this is the fifth instalment of Versions, it will be called Versions Tuarima. (Rima = five.)

Keep an eye on the City Library website as we get closer to March, and we’ll release details of the submission dates and process.

Until then, start conjuring up ideas!

New Books Display

// Books

The last New Books Displays in the Fiction and Non-Fiction areas go up on Thursday Dec 14. The first one of 2024 will be on Thursday Jan 11.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the New Titles email – once we restart the lists on Jan 11, you’ll get a selection of the latest titles straight to your inbox every week!

Latest Prize winners (Nov 2023)

// Books

The Ngaio Marsh Awards, established in 2010, promote and celebrate excellence in Kiwi crime writing, both Fiction and Nonfiction. This year‘s prize winners were announced on Friday night in Christchurch. Congratulations to all the winners!

– Best Non-Fiction: MISSING PERSONS by Steve Braunias

– Best First Novel: BETTER THE BLOOD by Michael Bennett

– Best Novel: REMEMBER ME by Charity Norman

And on the other side of the world, the 2023 Booker Prize winner was announced this morning.

Irish author, Paul Lynch, won with his fifth novel Prophet song, an exhilarating, propulsive and confrontational portrait of a country – and a family – on the brink of catastrophe. Ireland is in the grip of a government that is taking a turn towards tyranny and Eilish Stack, the novel’s protagonist, soon finds herself trying to make sense of the nightmare of a collapsing society – assailed by unpredictable forces beyond her control and desperate to do whatever it takes to keep her family together.   

Check out a short clip where Paul talks about the book here.

Seed Library at Central

// Library News

Some of the Community Libraries have led the way with this, and starting in early November, the Central Library will follow suit with a Seed Library!

More details to come, but briefly, a seed library is a collection of seeds that everyone can ‘borrow’ from.

The Seed Library is stocked by donations from the public, so borrowers are encouraged to ‘return’ seeds saved from the plants they grew from the seeds they borrowed – or other seeds surplus to their requirements. This means that the Seed Library stays stocked for everyone to enjoy!

Of course, you can still use the Seed Library even if unable to contribute seeds.

The Seed Library is for everyone! You don’t need to be a Palmerston North City Library member to borrow seeds.

Matinee Mondays

// Music

There will be a series of screenings on Mondays at 10am, between now and Dec 4th on the Mezzanine Floor, provided via the wonderful Beamafilm service.

Beamafilm is a movie streaming platform for documentaries, and independent features. Stream content straight from your TV, computer or device – all you need is a library card!

Come along and you’ll see how you could use Beamafilm at home, or simply take a seat and enjoy a movie, with tea and coffee provided.

Let us know if there’s a specific film on Beamafilm you’d like to watch, and we’ll see if we can play it for you!

First Voice 2023

// Library News

Once again the First Voice project has delivered a wonderful bundle of writing!

55 Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School students, from 27 non-English speaking backgrounds, produced a piece of writing in their mother tongue. This year, the theme was ‘Unique Nations’. With the assistance of mentors, the pieces were proofread. When the students returned to school, the results were published.

Amazing to see so many languages and scripts represented, from Tokelauan to Urdu, Swedish to Samoan.

You can peruse the finished article at Palmerston North City Library. It’s available as a physical version, and also online via Manawatū Heritage.

Congratulations to all the students involved – you’ve done an excellent job!