B.Books

A small project helping Queenstown authors share their work.

A hive of imagination.

B.Books is a series of small bookshelves featuring books by local Queenstown authors.

Currently available at Laryn Osteopathy and Mecure Hotel Queenstown, the shelves are miniature bookshops selling books written by independant authors who live in (or have close ties to) the region. Some of these books you won’t be able to find elsewhere!

As a writer and independant author who’s lived in Queenstown for more than a decade, I’ve often found it tricky to share my work with the world. I used to help run the Queenstown Creative Writing Group and was a founding trustee of the Queenstown Writers Festival. I also worked for and edited several publications showcasing arts and creativity in this town. I know first-hand that Queenstown is a hive of talent and imagination that deserves to be shared more widely.

So when a friend asked if I could set up a mini bookshelf in her osteopathy clinic, so that people in the waiting room could peruse (and purchase) books written by local authors, I jumped at the idea. Thank you to the Queenstown businesses supporting B.Books.

Red Balloons

By Margaret Amor

Children’s Literature

“Put your worries in a red balloon and let them float away”

Originally a song, this bright and cheerful children’s book is written in English and Te Reo Māori. Packed with bright colours and themes of positivity and resilience, Red Balloons encourages young readers to overcome their worries.

Kaleidoscopes in the Dark

By B.G. Rogers

Short stories/Dark fiction

“She says the cat is heliotropic because he can find light even in darkness.”

Short. Readable. Disturbing. The short stories in this collection paint the more sinister elements of the human psyche in technicolour. Expect black humour, remnants of fairytales and gothic themes.

Tales of the Pale Victor

By Alastair Thomson

Comedy/Biographical

“This has got all the latest safety features, including indicator lights and front seatbelts.”

Set in Otago in the 1960s, these (mostly) true and laugh-out-loud funny tales follow oil salesman Gordy Thomson, his friends and a 1961 Vauxhall Victor in “arctic glow” white.

Broken is Beautiful

By Jane Shearer

Fiction

“How do you mend the broken, be it toasters, relationships or people?”

Julia once re-created broken objects to be better than before. But after a series of earthquakes and now the COVID pandemic, Julia’s lost the will to repair anything, including herself. Can her new friends at the Obsessives Associated support group help?