Category: Books

Book recommendation: ‘The Diamond Eye’

// Books
The cover of 'The Diamond Eye' by Kate Quinn

This recommendation is from a library staff member.

I finished reading The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn over Anzac weekend. An amazing story based on the true story of Mila Pavlichenko, who was a history student in the Ukraine when the second world war broke out and then became one of the best snipers in the Russian Army. I always know if I have found a good book if I end up googling for more information which is exactly what I did for Mila Pavlichenko. Kate Quinn did an excellent job telling her story.

It was kind of weird reading this book knowing what is happening in Ukraine at the moment. I personally do not know much history in regards to Ukraine, but from reading this book it seems like there has been a long complicated history, one I will definitely be looking into further. The history of the country isn’t the main part of the story but I just found it interesting because of what is happening at the moment.

This book is currently on our New Book display but we have a few copies of it, and even a copy in large print. I got my copy as an eBook through Libby.

Book recommendation – ‘Diddly Squat’

// Books

One of our library staff members has been reading Diddly Squat by Jeremy Clarkson. It is a humorous book about Jeremy’s ventures into running his own farm over a year- spoiler alert- it doesn’t go smoothly! 

Hilariously honest from page one it is a good book to pick up if you need a laugh.   

This book can also be found as an eBook on BorrowBox.

Book recommendation

// Books

I was recently recommended Jennifer Ryan as a new author to read. I am so very glad I took this recommended as I really loved the 3 stand alone novels of hers that I read which were Lost and Found Family, Sisters and Secrets, and The Me I Used to Be. I feel the theme of ‘families’ and the all the drama’s that goes with families is the over lying theme in all of these books. They were really were all an enjoyable read and I would recommend them.

Book recommendation – The Essential Fairy

// Books

Spotted on the shelves at the Awapuni Library! We so enjoyed this picture book by Anna Kenna! The Essential Fairy is the story how the tooth fairy’s job got added to the list of essential roles during the 2020 lockdown. It’s a fun, rhyming read and captures a special part of New Zealand history. A great read for kids and adults! Find it on our shelves or reserve it here: https://bit.ly/3MYPpSu

May be an image of book

Friday Fast Food inspo

// Books

We kiwis love our takeaways, especially on a Friday evening, when we’re tired and just want to take it easy. But we *know* takeaways aren’t the best for us, but that hankering for something quick, affordable and tasty is so great. Luckily for you, Palmerston North City Library has curated some great books for fast Friday food, in case you feel the need to cook on Friday (or if you want fast food any other day of the week). Get stuck in here and pay us a visit to check out your fave (don’t forget we also offer click and collect, in case you’re really busy!)

Time saving fast food, by Simon Holst

Most of us are on the lookout for different ways to create tasty meals that will satisfy ourselves and families. With fast busy lifes and households Time Saving Fast Food will save you time in the kitchen and cooking can be a more enjoyable experience instead of a chore.

Find it in the library here.

Vegan fakeaway, by Katy Beskow

We all love a takeaway. It’s one of life’s little pleasures, and a great way to try food from around the world in the comfort of our own homes. But when hankering after a plant-based treat, the takeaway menu isn’t always the easiest thing to navigate. Vegan Fakeaway offers 70 recipes that deliver fast, easy, vegan takeaway classics that will make sure that you’re able to indulge, whenever the craving strikes.

Find it in the library here.

Nigella express, by Nigella Lawson

The Domestic Goddess is back — and this time it’s instant. Nigella and her style of cooking have earned a special place in our lives, symbolizing all that is best, most pleasurable, most hands-on, and least fussy about good food.

Featuring fabulous fast foods, ingenious shortcuts, terrific time-saving ideas, effortless entertaining tips, and simple, scrumptious meals.

Find it in the library here.

Eat : the little book of fast food, by Nigel Slater

A collection of recipes that you can have to the table in less than an hour . The recipes are generally for two but are easy double or triple up for more.

Find it in the library here.


Fast & fun family food, by Alison Holst

This collection of recipes provides lots of exciting ideas for parents faced with the dilemma of how to provide nutritious, economical – and above all tasty and tempting – meals for their young families.

Find it in the library here.

In the mood for quick family food, by Jo Pratt

Jo Pratt has devised a cookbook full of delicious and healthy food that addresses one of the most challenging problems experienced by busy parents- finding time to cook meals for their family. The recipes are simple, easy to shop for and quick to make, with shortcuts and prepare-ahead tips.

Find it in the library here.

Gordon Ramsay’s fast food

Everyone needs quick, healthy, and delicious recipes for feeding a family–and no ones better at providing them than Gordon Ramsay, the three-star chef famous for his no-nonsense cooking. Here he serves up a feast of doable ideas: more than 100 recipes and 15 great menus for putting food on the table each and every day. Many of the dishes take only 15 minutes to prepare and cook!

Find it in the library here.

The “I love my air fryer” 5-ingredient recipe book, by Robin Fields

Create deliciously quick and easy recipes in your Air Fryer using only 5 ingredients or less! Want simple meals that your entire family (even the pickiest eaters) will devour? This easy-to-use cookbook provides mouthwatering, whole-food dishes for every meal–from breakfast and dinner to appetizers and dessert–using favorite, familiar ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.

Find it in the library here.

Nadiya’s fast flavours, by Nadia Hussain

Known for her bold and surprising flavour combinations, Nadiya loves to throw the rulebook out of the window, always finding ways to take familiar recipes to the next level. Now she makes it easy for others to do so too, with a host of everyday recipes that are guaranteed to send your taste buds into overdrive. Sour, sweet, spicy, zesty, earthy, fruity, herbal – her delicious recipes offer new and innovative ways to pack your meals with flavour, using clever shortcuts, hacks and handy ingredients to put the va-va-voom into your food without spending hours in the kitchen.

Find it in the library here.

Bon Appétit Palmy!

Book review: ‘The Body on the Doorstep’ by A.J MacKenzie.

// Library News

We have another great review from a wonderful patron at the Awapuni Library on The Body on the Doorstep by A.J. MacKenzie.

1796, Kent. Peaceful backwater? Hardly! Be prepared for a story of murder, mayhem, smuggling and treachery. Late one night the Reverend Hardcastle finds a dying man on his doorstep and so begins a tale that swings from one dramatic event to another; told with a wry good humour.

With the able assistance of his friend Mrs Chaytor, Hardcastle sets out to solve the mystery. Smuggling is rife along England’s South East Coast so he first assumes that it must be linked, but there are others who lurk along the Kentish Coast and the Reverend soon finds he may have bitten off more than he can chew…

This book is available online through Libby and BorrowBox.

Top 10 Romances for Valentines Day

// Books

Valentine’s Day is coming up in a few days time, so we scanned the shelves for our most popular romantic fiction books to share with you. Because even if you think that Valentine’s Day is over-commercialised, the borrowing numbers don’t lie and our borrowers love luuurve.

And even if these books are some of our most-loved books, it doesn’t mean you can’t get your hands on them. If the book you want is on loan, you can still place a reserve for your desired book. Here’s our guide on how to place a reserve for collection at your preferred library location.

10. The One Plus One, by Jojo Moyes.

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell-until an unexpected knight in shining armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages. Maybe ever.

Available in physical copy, eBook, eAudiobook and Audio disc. Find it here.

9. Legacy, by Nora Roberts.

Adrian Rizzo is a beautiful young woman with a successful business and a wonderful family and friends. She’s worked hard to build a happy life for herself. When she receives a death threat in the post, she puts it down to jealousy and tries to forget about it. But Adrian doesn’t realise that it’s more than just spite. Someone is very unhappy about her happy life and will stop at nothing to bring it all crashing down.

Available in physical copy. Find it here.

8. Still Me, by Jojo Moyes.

Lou Clark knows how many miles lie between her new home in New York and her new boyfriend Sam in London. She knows her employer is a good man and she knows his wife is keeping a secret from him. But what Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to meet someone who’s going to turn her whole life upside down. Because Josh will remind her so much of a man she used to know that it’ll hurt.

Available in physical copy (including large print), eBook and eAudiobook. Find it here.

Still Me is the final book of the Me Before You trilogy. Check out the first book; Me Before You, and the second; After You.

7. Other Women, by Cathy Kelly.

Three women. Three secrets. Three tangled lives.

Sid wears her independence like armour. So when she strikes up a rare connection with unlucky-in-love Finn, they are both determined to prove that men and women can just be friends. Can’t they? Marin has the perfect home, attentive husband, two beloved children – and a secret addiction to designer clothes. She knows she has it all, so why can’t she stop comparing herself to other women? Bea believes that we all have one love story – and she’s had hers. Now her life centres around her son, Luke, and her support group of fierce single women. But there’s something that she can’t tell anyone.

Available in physical copy (including large print). Find it here.

6. The Affair, by Danielle Steel.

Nadia considered her life perfect, married to bestselling novelist, Nicolas Bateau, who adored her and their two daughters. Until the tabloid press leak a story of Nicolas’s affair with dazzling young actress Pascale Solon. Heartbroken and publicly humiliated, Nadia looks to her family for comfort, support and help to try to put her life back on course. As mother and daughters spend more time together, they come to realize what matters most in life.

Available in physical copy (including large print), and in eBook format. Find it here.


5. All the colours of night, by Jayne Ann Krentz.

North Chastain possesses a paranormal talent that gives him the ability to track down the most dangerous psychic criminals. When his father suddenly falls into a coma-like state, North is convinced it was caused by a deadly artifact that traces back to the days of a secret government program known only as the Bluestone Project. North knows his only hope of saving his father is to find the artifact. He is good when it comes to tracking down killers, but to locate the relic he’s going to need help from a psychic who knows the shadowy world of obsessive collectors, deceptive dealers and ruthless raiders….

Available in physical copy and eAudiobook. Find it here.

4. The Return, by Nicholas Sparks.

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked as an orthopedic surgeon sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he’d inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any. Tending to his grandfather’s beloved bee hives while preparing for a second stint in medical school, Trevor isn’t prepared to fall in love with a local…

Available in physical copy (including large print). Find it here.

3. Hideaway, by Nora Roberts.

Caitlyn Sullivan had come from a long line of Hollywood royalty, stretching back to her Irish immigrant great-grandfather. At nine, she was already a star – yet still an innocent child who loved to play hide and seek with her cousins at the family home in Big Sur. It was during one of those games that she disappeared. Some may have considered her a pampered princess, but Cate was in fact a smart, scrappy fighter, and she managed to escape her abductors. Dillon Cooper was shocked to find the bloodied, exhausted girl huddled in his house – but when the teenager and his family heard her story they provided refuge, reuniting her with her loved ones. Cate’s ordeal, though, was far from over.

Available in physical copy (including large print). Find it here.

2. The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes.

Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. When a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on. Though they face all kinds of dangers, they’re committed to their job– bringing books to people who have never had any, sharing the gift of learning that will change their lives.

Available in physical copy (including large print), eBook and eAudiobook. Find it here.

1. The Duke and I, by Julia Quinn.

In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince – while other dictates are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable…but not too amiable. Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter.

Now a series created by Shonda Rhimes for Netflix.

Available in physical copy (including large print), eBook and eAudiobook. Find it here.