Danny's family live in a large house close to the school where his father is headmaster. At school, his father's importance gives Danny certain privileges, but it also sets him apart from his classmates. When a new boy Philip, for whom everything…
- General Recommendations
- Staff-Created List
Best reads / listens / watches in 2025
StaffLibrary Staff
Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi
User from Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi

32 items
- When his grandfather dies, a boy named Jay travels south with his family to the property he left them, a once flourishing farm that has fallen into disrepair. The trees are diseased, the fields parched from months of drought.Still, Jay's father,…
- Scotland, 1933. Bobby MacBryde is on his way. After years grafting at Lees Boot Factory, he's off to the Glasgow School of Art, to his future. On his first day he will meet another Robert, a quiet man with loose dark curls and never leave his side
- Being in limbo, 30,000 feet in the air, offers time to reflect and take stock. For Aaron Umber, it's an opportunity to connect with his 14-year-old son as they travel halfway across the world to meet a woman who isn't expecting them. Unsettled by…
- 1942: As the Vichy government hunts for Jews across France, Claudette Pelletier, a young and talented seamstress and lover of romance novels, falls in love with a Jewish man who seeks shelter at the château where she works. Their whirlwind and…
- 1973. In a close-knit community on Ireland's west coast, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Named Brendan Bonnar by Ambrose, the fisherman who adopts him, Brendan will become a source of fascination and hope for a town caught in the storm of a…
- May 1941. One of the senior choristers of St Paul's Cathedral choir, Dr Edwin Roberts, is found beaten to death in the crypt of the Cathedral. Coburg and Lampson are called in to investigate
- James is a sheltered, shy 16-year-old. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in
- At the dark heart of the Holocaust, there was a wooden hut whose walls were painted with cartoons; a place where children sang, staged plays and wrote poetry. Safely inside, but still in the shadow of the chimneys, they were given better food, kept…
- At just nineteen, Stephen has already survived a year at the front. Now he is returning to the trenches to lead a platoon, despite his wounds. Broken-hearted from the loss of his first love, Stephen wonders what he's fighting for. Then he meets…
- Seventeen-year-old John Masterson has no idea what he wants. It's his last summer on the small island where he has grown up and he should be enjoying the weeks until his exam results come through. Instead, he's working mind-numbing shifts at the…
- There's a ghost who lives across the road from us, in a place called Wainoni Park. The park has closed down, but the signs advertising it are still there. The ghost's name is Alexander Bickerton. I've never seen him and neither has my brother, Sandy
- Revelling in the triumph of a high-school football win, MJ, Vikram and Diego find themselves at an ill-fated party, on a night that ends with the school bully in hospital. When no one comes forward with the truth of what actually happened, all three…
- This debut novel focuses on Jack, whose world is defined by neglect, abandonment, and a relentless search for connection. His story, told with raw emotion and unwavering honesty, sheds light on the darkest aspects of the care system
- A series of historical mystery novels by C.J. Sansom, set in 16th century Tudor England. The series features barrister Matthew Shardlake, who, while navigating the religious reforms od Henry VIII, solves crime and tries to avoid getting caught up in…
- When two quiet men form a tentative connection neither knows where it might lead. M has inherited his family's ironmongery business and B is younger by eleven years and can see no future in the place where he has grown up, but when M offers him a…
- When Evan, twenty-six, is suddenly called home from his life abroad to the secluded farmhouse where he was raised by his mother, June, there is so much he does not yet know. He doesn't know his mother is dying. He still doesn't know the identity of…
- One snowy morning, after arguing with her husband, Miquel's mother walks out from their home high up in the Pyrenees and does not return
- 020.9 Discover 50 of the world's most magnificent hidden libraries each with a unique and uplifting story to tell
- 264.2 The life and legacy of hymn writer Shirley Erena Murray
You've viewed 20 of 32 items
