Show Notes
Reader Services Librarian Lucy Mitchell on all the things the Nelson Public Libraries have to offer, what being a librarian actually entails, and some of the weird things found in the returns slot. Plus a whole heap of upcoming 2026 titles you should put on hold right now!
Books mentioned in this episode: - What We Can Know, Ian McEwan (Vintage) - Dry, Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman (Simon & Schuster) - Secret Water, Arthur Ransome (Vintage) - I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman (Vintage Classics) - The Women, Kristin Hannah (Pan Macmillan) - Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Quercus Publishing) - Butcherbird, Cassie Hart (Huia Publishers) - Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice (ECW Press) - The Mires, Tina Makereti (Ultimo) - Bunny / We Love You, Bunny, Mona Awad (Penguin) - Soldier Sailor, Claire Kilroy (Faber & Faber) - Frankenstein, Mary Shelley - All the Colours of the Dark, Chris Whitaker (Orion Publishing Co)
2026 BOOKS - Land, Maggie O'Farrell (June 2026, Knopf Canada) - Exit Party, Emily St. John Mandel (September 2026, Knopf) - The Things We Never Say, Elizabeth Strout (May 2026, Viking) - Platform Decay, Martha Wells (Tor) - Whistler, Ann Patchett (June 2026, Bloomsbury)
More from A Little Bit Booked
Ahead of his appearance at the 2026 Nelson Arts Festival, Booker Prize-winning author Shehan Karunatilaka joins to talk about his magical realism novel “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” – from ghosts and truth-finding to absurdism and a little bit of hope.
Catherine Chidgey’s latest captivating novel follows Hazel, a young woman who signs up as a Blackpool sideshow act where she won’t eat for 40 days. As the days tick by and strangers watch Hazel transform, she must decide how far she’s willing to go for what she wants.
With over 30 children’s books to his name, author and illustrator Ned Barraud looks at the world a little bit differently. With an eye for detail and love of nature, his love of New Zealand’s environment are brought to life for little readers around the country.
Allyson Gofton’s latest cookbook, Give: Seasonal Recipes for Gifting, is all about recipes you can bake, make and share with the loved ones in your life, any time of the year. We talk everything from recipe development, what qualities a “giftable” recipe needs to have and the secret to flaky pastry. $30 from every book sold goes to support Breast Cancer Cure, funding vital breast cancer research in Aotearoa New Zealand. Learn more at https://breastcancercure.org.nz.
How do you learn to work in publishing? Whitireia Publishing Programme tutor Theresa Crewdson and current student Gaby West do their best to tempt me into a career change...and share some exciting you-heard-it-here-first news about what’s next for the course!