Book Club
Book Clubs are held monthly at both Blenheim and Picton Libraries.
Book Club is a group of keen readers who meet to discuss books on a theme, although you can talk about any book that you have been reading and enjoyed. Bring whatever you have been reading and give a brief outline of the book and what you thought of it (without giving away any spoilers or the ending!).
Marlborough District Library (Blenheim) Book Club
Blenheim Book Club meets on the last Thursday of the month, 6:30pm at Te Kahu o Waipuna. Book Club meets after hours so if you are wanting to attend, please come to the Wynen Street side door.
The next Blenheim Book Club meeting will be the last book club of the year and will take place on Thursday 28 November at 6.30 pm. The Blenheim Book Club will recommence on Thursday 30 January 2025.
Picton Library and Service Centre Waitohi Whare Mātauranga
The next Picton Book Club meeting will take place on 7 November and will be the last of the year. The Picton Book Club will recommence on Thursday 6 March 2025.
Below are some of the books discussed at this month's Picton Book Club.
Book Club Reviews
Pet by Catherine Chidgey
New Zealand Adult Fiction
Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher, and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine's sense that something isn't quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie.
See if Pet is available on our catalogue or place a hold
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Adult fiction
Life on our planet as you've never seen it before. A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day. Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part, or protective, of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
See if Orbital is available on our catalogue or place a hold
Strays and Waifs by Mandy Hager
New Zealand Adult fiction
Cli-fi writer and climate activist Bella Goodfellow wants to save the world, but how can she do that when she can't even save herself? Forced from her hideaway after a landslide swallows it whole, she finds temporary accommodation with her publisher's elderly aunt on the Kapiti Coast. But lilac-eyed Freyja is not what she seems, and soon Bella's flung into a crazy scheme to expose a murderer and rescue a child. There's just one problem, before they can act Bella has to believe what Freyja is telling her and reopen her heart to her painful past.
See if Strays and Waifs is available on our catalogue or place a hold
The Rose and the Yew Tree by Agatha Christie as Mary Westmacott
Adult fiction
Everyone expected Isabella Charteris, beautiful, sheltered and aristocratic, to marry her cousin Rupert when he came back from the War. It would have been such a suitable marriage. How strange then that John Gabriel, an ambitious and ruthless war hero, should appear in her life. For Isabella, the price of love would mean abandoning her dreams of home and happiness forever. For Gabriel, it would destroy his chance of a career and all his ambitions...
See if The Rose and the Yew Tree is available on our catalogue or place a hold
Bloodless Boy by Robert J Lloyd
Adult fiction
The City of London, 1678. New Year's Day. Twelve years have passed since the Great Fire ripped through the City. Eighteen since the fall of Oliver Cromwell and the restoration of a King. London is gripped by hysteria, and rumours of Catholic plots and sinister foreign assassins abound. When the body of a young boy drained of his blood is discovered on the snowy bank of the Fleet River, Robert Hooke, the Curator of Experiments at the just-formed Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge, and his assistant Harry Hunt, are called in to explain such a ghastly finding and whether it's part of a plot against the King. They soon learn it is not the first bloodless boy to have been discovered. Meanwhile, that same morning Henry Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, blows his brains out, and a disgraced Earl is released from the Tower of London, bent on revenge against the King, Charles II. Wary of the political hornet's nest they are walking into and using scientific evidence rather than paranoia in their pursuit of truth, Hooke and Hunt must discover why the boy was murdered, and why his blood was taken.
See if Bloodless Boy is available on our catalogue or place a hold
Shadow State by MP Woodward
Adult fiction
The vibrant economy of the new Vietnam is a shiny lure for Western capital. Companies are racing to uncover ideal opportunities. Not wanting to be left behind, Hendley Associates has sent their best analyst, Jack Ryan Jr, to mine for investment gold. And he may have found some in a rare earth mining company, GeoTech. But a trip with a Hendley colleague to observe the company's operations takes a treacherous turn when their helicopter is shot down. Some things haven't changed, and Vietnam is still the plaything of powerful neighbours. The Chinese are determined to keep Jack from finding the truth about what exactly is being processed at the isolated factory. Now Jack is in a race for his life. He's got to stay one step ahead of a pack of killers while supporting his wounded friend. And he'll get no help from the government, because in the jungle, it's the shadow state that rules.
See if Shadow State is available on our catalogue or place a hold
How to be Human by Ruby Wax
Adult non-fiction 158.1 WAX
A practical and inspiring book by the Number One Sunday Times bestselling author of A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled With a little help from a monk, and a neuroscientist, Ruby Wax answers every question you've ever had about- evolution, thoughts, emotions, the body, addictions, relationships, kids, the future and compassion. How to be Human is extremely funny, true and the only manual you'll need to help you upgrade your mind as much as you've upgraded your iPhone.
See if How to be Human is available on our catalogue or place a hold