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 take place on Thursday 27 February at 6.30 pm. The theme will be: A book in the afternoon.
Picton Library and Service Centre Waitohi Whare Mātauranga
The next Picton Book Club meeting will take place on Thursday 6 March. Watch this space to find out the theme.
Below are some of the books discussed at this month's Blenheim Book Club, where the theme was 'out of this world'.
Book Club Reviews
The First Murder on Mars by Sam Wilson
Adult fiction
This is the story of the first human being born on Mars: Rose Fuller, who saw a better future than the one that came to pass. And Dylan Ward, a woman raised in the vast wilderness of the frontier, who will find her way back to it. It's a story about a man who went missing, and the man who wants to find out what he knew. It's a story about what makes us human and how we might live once we leave our home.
See if The First Murder on Mars is available on our catalogue or place a hold
The Launch Party by Lauren Forry
Adult fiction
Ten lucky people have won a place at the most exclusive launch event of the century: the grand opening of the Hotel Artemis, the first hotel on the moon. It's an invitation to die for. As their transport departs for its return to Earth and the doors seal shut behind them, the guests take the next leap for mankind. However, they soon discover that all is not as it seems. The champagne may be flowing, but there is no one to pour it. Room service is available, but there is no one to deliver it. Besides the ten of them, they are completely alone. When one of the guests is found murdered, fear spreads through the group. But that death is only the beginning. Being three days' journey from home and with no way to contact the outside, can any of the guests survive their stay?
See if The Launch Party is available on our catalogue or place a hold
Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom by Bradley Schenck
Adult fiction
After a surprise efficiency review, the switchboard operators of Retropolis are replaced by a mysterious system they don't understand. Dash Kent, a freelance adventurer and apartment manager, is hired to find out what happened to their jobs. Dash discovers that the replacement switchboard is only one element of a plan concocted by an insane civil engineer: a plan so vast that it reaches from Retropolis to the Moon.
And no one, not the Fraternal League of Robotic Persons, nor the mad scientists of Experimental Research District, nor even the priests of the Temple of the Spider God, will know what hit them when that plan is complete. Because when engineers go mad, they know how to build madness.
And meanwhile, the World's Smallest Giant Robot is striding toward his destiny. An inch or two at a time.
See if Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom is available on our catalogue or place a hold
The Ordre of the Masks by Alina Bellchambers
Adult fiction
Circus performer Mira has spent her life on the run. She is determined to secure her future by competing in the deadly Trials and winning a place in one of the three magical royal Orders. Princess Scarlett is fighting to withstand her half-brothers' sinister ambitions and seize power. Mira is the opportunity she's been waiting for; a dangerous outsider poised to cleave apart the very foundations of the Court. As Mira and Scarlett navigate a glittering world of magic, court intrigue and forbidden romances, they must decide if they are co-conspirators or rivals in a bloody bid for the throne. Will they sacrifice everything, even their own lovers for power and revenge? 'Death wasn't the end. It was just the beginning.
See if The Order of Masks is available on our catalogue or place a hold
Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant by Cristina Saunders
Adult fiction
It's 1866 and the three-masted sailing ship General Grant is on the southern route from Melbourne to London, with gold from the diggings secreted in returning miners' hems and pockets. In the fog and the dark, the ship strikes the cliffs of the Auckland Islands, is sucked into a cave and wrecked. Only fourteen men make it ashore and one woman - Mrs Jewell. Stuck on a freezing and exposed island, the castaways have to work together to stay alive, but they're a disparate group with their own secrets to keep and their only officer is disabled by grief after losing his wife in the wreck. A woman is a burden they don't need. Meanwhile stories about the gold grow with the telling: who has it, where is it and how much went down with the ship.
See if Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant is available on our catalogue or place a hold
Big Little Lies by Leanne Moriarty
Adult fiction
Pirriwee Public's annual school Trivia Night has ended in a shocking riot. A parent is dead. Was it murder, a tragic accident...or something else entirely?
See if Big Little Lies is available on our catalogue or place a hold