Librarian Picks for October 2022
Published on 06 October 2022
Ever wondered what the staff at the Ōamaru Library are reading? Well here's your chance! Check out our list below for all the goodies the staff are reading and their reviews for October 2022.
Susanna's pick:
Can you tolerate this? By Ashleigh Young (Adult Non-Fiction)
This is an incredibly stunning collection of personal essays. Young’s works cross through genres like two opposing swells, the reader caught floating in between what sometimes feels poetry, others essay, some fantasy. Throughout the collection, I have been ‘we’ and ‘he’ and ‘they’ and ‘she’. I have been intimately ‘I’. They are startling and bone-hallowing and I could spend hours inhabiting all of them!
Fiona's picks:
Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Adult Fiction)
An intriguing set of characters based in a New Zealand environment with international places was really engaging and kept me reading to the end.
The Gift of Everything / Lang Leav (Adult Non Fiction)
I was recommended this book of poetry by a library member and if you enjoy free verse poetry, you’ll love this as much as I did.
Eileen's pick:
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
Best book I have read for a while. A great mix of fact woven through fiction, a great read, I highly recommend it.
"In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son--but Hitler's invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper--a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour."
Glenys' pick:
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
O’Farrell bases her heroine, Lucrezia de’ Medici, on a real-life figure depicted in Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess,” who was murdered by her husband. When the reader first meets Lucrezia, she’s been married for not quite a year and faces mortal danger in what O’Farrell describes as a “wild and lonely place.” The narrative moves back and forth from the nearly deserted fortress where Lucrezia plays a game of cat and mouse with the duke of Ferrara, the husband who might be attempting to kill her, and the events that have brought her here.
This gripping but creepy tale makes me so glad to be living in present times rather than as a daughter of a nobleman in renaissance Italy. Thoroughly recommended by Glenys
Maclean's pick:
The Great British Sewing Bee: Sustainable Style by Alexandra Bruce and Caroline Akelson
I freely admit I’m obsessed with The Great British Sewing Bee; it encourages the most faltering sewers to give anything a try!
Starting with the essentials, sewers will learn how to maintain and care for their sewing machine, find out the secrets to using an overlocker (and what to do if you don't have one) and the key to pattern matching. With a guide that demystifies the fitting process, and with expert sewing tips on making alterations, you'll be able to choose from 27 projects, for both women and men, that will ease you into the world of sustainable sewing. For burgeoning dressmakers, this book showcases a vast array of sustainable and natural fabrics, reveals how to breathe life into old garments and entices the would-be sewer to dress handmade.
Interspersed with sustainable tips, from advice on keeping an eco-friendly sewing space and how to better care for your garments, to guidance on recycling old clothes, using up fabric scraps and making repairs, this book is an indispensable reference to a more considered approach to sewing, that will encourage you to create long-lasting projects to cherish. With womenswear sizes ranging from 8 to 22 and menswear sizes ranging from XS to XL, along with five full-size pattern sheets, expert sewers Caroline Akselson and Alexandra Bruce cover everything you need to build your sewing repertoire and grow in confidence as you sew yourself sustainable.
Debbie's pick:
Eddy Eddy by Kate De Goldi (Adult Fiction)
A fantastic foray into the fields of pet minding and evangelical transgressions, Eddy Eddy explores the meaning of life after the Christchurch earthquakes from the perspective of a gorgeous but slightly lost young man, his pets and other assorted waifs and strays. At times laugh out loud funny and others heart wrenchingly honest, Eddy Eddy is generously sprinkled with rich, multi-syllabic vocabulary and a yarn that makes it un-put-downable.
Kerrie's pick:
The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Young Adult Fiction)
A thrilling conclusion to the trilogy, full of twists and turns!