What's new on the shelves?
- Visit us
- Using the library
-
Explore our collection
- Online library
-
Local history
- Woollahra Council Plaque Scheme
- Discovering and Rediscovering Woollahra
- World War 1 Remembered
- World War 2 Remembered
- A brief history of Woollahra
- Council history
- Council records
- External resources
- Family history
- Galleries
- Local areas
- Local history fast facts
- Oral history
- Searching your property
- Women in Woollahra
-
Readers advice
-
Author Q & A
- Phillip Adams - Author Q & A
- Margaret Rice - Author Q & A
- Greig Beck - Author Q & A
- Vanessa Berry - Author Q & A
- Tim Bowden - Author Q & A
- Helen Brown - Author Q & A
- Melissa Bruce - Author Q & A
- Darleen Bungey - Author Q & A
- Luke Carman - Author Q & A
- Claudia Chan Shaw - Author Q & A
- Jessie Cole - Author Q & A
- Peter Corris - Author Q & A
- Sibella Court - Author Q & A
- Sam Crosby - Author Q & A
- James Curran - Author Q & A
- Mark Dapin - Author Q & A
- Michelle de Kretser - Author Q & A
- Robert Dessaix - Author Q & A
- Michael Duffy - Author Q & A
- David Dyer - Author Q & A
- Elizabeth Farrelly - Author Q&A
- Tim Ferguson - Author Q & A
- Jesse Fink - Author Q & A
- Tim Fischer - Author Q & A
- Kate Forsyth - Author Q & A
- Candice Fox - Author Q & A
- Peter Garrett - Author Q & A
- Nikki Gemmell - Author Q & A
- Richard Glover - Author Q & A
- Libby Hathorn - Author Q & A
- David Hunt - Author Q & A
- Maggie Joel - Author Q & A
- Mark Johnston - Author Q & A
- Meg Keneally - Author Q & A
- L.A. Larkin - Author Q & A
- Kate McClymont - Author Q & A
- Fleur McDonald - Author Q & A
- Hugh Mackay - Author Q & A
- Gretchen Miller - Author Q & A
- Patti Miller - Author Q & A
- Margaret Morgan - Author Q & A
- Chris Muir - Author Q & A
- Judy Nunn - Author Q & A
- Helen O'Neill - Author Q & A
- Gill Paul - Author Q & A
- Roland Perry - Author Q & A
- Ailsa Piper - Author Q & A
- Michael Robotham - Author Q & A
- Mandy Sayer - Author Q & A
- Sam Twyford-Moore - Author Q & A
- Terry Smyth - Author Q & A
- Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist - Author Q & A
- Sarah Turnbull - Author Q & A
- Nancy Underhill - Author Q & A
- Josh Wakely - Author Q & A
- Dr. Tanveer Ahmed - Author Q & A
- Adam Spencer - Author Q & A
- Louis Nowra - Author Q & A
- Jane Caro - Author Q & A
- Jessica Rowe - Author Q & A
- Grace Tobin - Author Q & A
- Elizabeth Coleman - Author Q & A
- Dr Peter Sheridan - Author Q & A
- Michael Speechley - Author Q & A
- Jacqueline Harvey - Author Q & A
- Staff and reader picks
- What's new on the shelves?
-
Author Q & A
- Community languages
- Magazines and newspapers
- What's On
- Children's services
- Youth services
- Local history
- Newsletters
- News
- Volunteer
VISIT US
Hours
| Monday: | 9am-8pm |
| Tuesday: | 9am-8pm |
| Wednesday: | 9am-8pm |
| Thursday: | 9am-8pm |
| Friday: | 9am-8pm |
| Saturday: | 10am-4pm |
| Sunday: | 10am-4pm |
| Closed on public holidays | |
Address
Woollahra Library
Level 1, 451 New South Head Road
Double Bay NSW 2028
Hours
| Monday: | 9:30am-6pm |
| Tuesday: | 9:30am-6pm |
| Wednesday: | 12pm-8pm |
| Thursday: | 9:30am-6pm |
| Friday: | 9:30am-6pm |
| Saturday: | 10am-4pm |
| Sunday: | 10am-4pm |
| Closed on public holidays | |
Address
Paddington Library
Paddington Town Hall
247 Oxford Street,
Paddington NSW 2021
Hours
| Monday: | 2pm-5pm |
| Tuesday: | 9:30am-5pm |
| Wednesday: | 12pm-7pm |
| Thursday: | 9:30am-5pm |
| Friday: | 2pm-5pm |
| Saturday: | Closed |
| Sunday: | Closed |
| Closed on public holidays | |
Address
Watsons Bay Library
The Tea Gardens
8 Marine Parade
Watsons Bay NSW 2030
New titles for February 2020
Darkness for Light – Emma Viskic
The third thrilling instalment in the award-winning Caleb Zelic series.
After a lifetime of bad decisions troubled PI Caleb Zelic is finally making good ones. He's in therapy, reconnecting with the Deaf community, and reconciling with his beloved wife.
But he can't escape his past.
A violent confrontation forces Caleb back into contact with his double-crossing partner, Frankie. When her niece is kidnapped, Frankie and Caleb must work together to save the child's life. But their efforts will risk everything, including their own lives
Information provided by Angus and Robertson
Rabbits for Food – Binnie Kirshenbaum
Master of razor-edged literary humor Binnie Kirshenbaum returns with her first novel in a decade, a devastating, laugh-out-loud funny story of a writer's slide into depression and institutionalization.
It's New Year's Eve, the holiday of forced fellowship, mandatory fun, and paper hats. While dining out with her husband and their friends, Kirshenbaum's protagonist--an acerbic, mordantly witty, and clinically depressed writer--fully unravels. Her breakdown lands her in the psych ward of a prestigious New York hospital, where she refuses all modes of recommended treatment. Instead, she passes the time chronicling the lives of her fellow "lunatics" and writing a novel about what brought her there. Her story is a brilliant and brutally funny dive into the disordered mind of a woman who sees the world all too clearly.
Propelled by razor-sharp comic timing and rife with pinpoint insights, Kirshenbaum examines what it means to be unloved and loved, to succeed and fail, to be at once impervious and raw. Rabbits for Food shows how art can lead us out of--or into--the depths of disconsolate loneliness and piercing grief. A bravura literary performance from one of our most indispensable writers.
Information provided by Angus and Robertson
Legacy of Ash – Matthew Ward
Legacy of Ash is an unmissable fantasy debut - an epic tale of war and revolution packed with action, intrigue and a cast of memorable characters
A shadow has fallen over the Tressian Republic.
Ruling families - once protectors of justice and democracy - now plot against one another with sharp words and sharper knives. Blinded by ambition, they remain heedless of the threat posed by the invading armies of the Hadari Empire.
Yet as Tressia falls, heroes rise.
Viktor Akadra is the Republic's champion. A warrior without equal, he hides a secret that would see him burned as a heretic.
Josiri Trelan is Viktor's sworn enemy. A political prisoner, he dreams of reigniting his mother's failed rebellion.
And yet Calenne, Josiri's sister, seeks only to break free of their tarnished legacy; to escape the expectation and prejudice that haunts the Trelan name. As war spreads across the Republic, these three must set aside their differences in order to save their homeland. However, decades of bad blood are not easily set aside - victory will demand a darker price than any of them could have imagined.
Legacy of Ash is an epic tale of war and revolution, packed with vicious intrigue, ancient magic and a host of memorable characters - an unmissable fantasy debut from an exciting new British talent.
Information provided by Angus and Robertson
Peaky Blinders - The Real Story of Birmingham's most notorious gangs – Carl Chinn
A fascinating insight into the true story behind Birmingham's most notorious gang, The Peaky Blinders.
The Peaky Blinders as we know them, thanks to the hit TV series, are infused with drama and dread. Fashionably dressed, the charismatic but deeply flawed Shelby family blind enemies by slashing them with the disposable safety razor blades stitched in to the peaks of their flat caps, as they fight bloody gangland wars involving Irish terrorists and the authorities led by a devious Home Secretary, Winston Churchill.
But who were the real Peaky Blinders? Did they really exist?
Well-known social historian, broadcaster and author Carl Chinn has spent decades searching them out. Now he reveals the true story of the notorious Peaky Blinders, one of whom was his own great grandfather and, like the Shelbys, his grandfather was an illegal bookmaker in back-street Birmingham.
In this gripping social history, Chinn shines a light on the rarely reported struggles of the working class in one of the great cities of the British Empire before the First World War. The story continues after 1918 as some Peaky Blinders transformed into the infamous Birmingham Gang. Led by the real Billy Kimber, they fought a bloody war with the London gangsters Darby Sabini and Alfie Solomon over valuable protection rackets extorting money from bookmakers across the booming postwar racecourses of Britain.
Drawing together a remarkably wide-range of original sources, including rarely seen images of real Peaky Blinders and interviews with relatives of the 1920s gangsters, Peaky Blinders: The Real Story adds a new dimension to the true history of Birmingham's underworld and fact behind its fiction.
Information provided by Angus and Robertson
Your Own Kind of Girl – Clare Bowditch
ARIA Award-winning singer and actress Clare Bowditch confronts her inner critic in this no-holds-barred memoir.
This is the story I promised myself, aged twenty-one, that I would one day be brave enough - and well enough - to write.
Clare Bowditch has always had a knack for telling stories. Through her music and performing, this beloved Australian artist has touched hundreds of thousands of lives. But what of the stories she used to tell herself? That 'real life' only begins once you're thin or beautiful, that good things only happen to other people.
Your Own Kind of Girl reveals a childhood punctuated by grief, anxiety and compulsion, and tells how these forces shaped Clare's life for better and for worse. This is a heartbreaking, wise and at times playful memoir. Clare's own story told raw and as it happened. A reminder that even on the darkest of nights, victory is closer than it seems.
With startling candour, Clare lays bare her truth in the hope that doing so will inspire anyone who's ever done battle with their inner critic. This is the work of a woman who has found her true power - and wants to pass it on. Happiness, we discover, is only possible when we take charge of the stories we tell ourselves.
Information provided by Angus and Robertson
Your Best Year Ahead – Cris Beer
Have you ever struggled to be healthier, have greater energy in your day and be comfortable with your body weight? Simple habits lead to good health, vitality and optimum self-care happiness.
Your Best Year Ahead is written for every busy person who thinks they do not have time to look after their health but wants to try to start off the new year with a fresh, easy and achievable approach.
Supported by evidence-based research and no-fuss tips, Dr Cris tackles real-life issues and provides a clear-path approach to creating new self-care habits. The simpler we keep things the more likely we are to stick with any changes we make; by following the week-by-week advice within these pages you will soon see the healthier lifestyle emerging that you and your body deserve.
Information provided by Angus and Robertson
Invisible in a Bright Light – Sally Gardner
A middle grade novel about a crystal chandelier shaped like a galleon that splinters into a thousand pieces, a girl abandoned as a baby on the steps of an opera house and a dangerous game called the Reckoning.
From I, Coriander to Invisible in a Bright Light, Sally Gardner's first middle grade novel in 14 years soars with the imagination of a master story-teller. A pitch perfect, haunting story about a crystal chandelier shaped like a galleon that splinters into a thousand pieces, a girl abandoned as a baby on the steps of an opera house and a dangerous game called the Reckoning.
It is 1870: opening night at the Royal Opera House in a freezing city by the sea, where a huge crystal chandelier in the shape of a galleon sparkles magically with the light of 750 candles.
Celeste, a theatre rat, wakes up in a costume basket from what she hopes is a bad dream, to find that everyone at the theatre where she works thinks she is someone else.
When the chandelier falls, she is haunted by a strange girl who claims to know Celeste's past and why she must play a game called the Reckoning to try to save the people she loves.
Information provided by Angus and Robertson