Going for gold!

Well, team GB have returned home from the Rio Olympics as conquering heroes, second in the medal table to the USA.

To discover what brought some of these amazing gold medal winning athletes to the peak of their sport check out the sport biography sections in the library or reserve online:

Torfaen Libraries Catalogue

Mo Farah - Athletics, Men’s 5,000m & 10,000m

Farah became only the second man to retain the 5,000m and 10,000m titles as he triumphed in both events in Rio. He is also the first British track and field athlete to win four Olympic gold medals and Britain's most successful Olympic track and field athlete of all time.

Jade Jones - Taekwondo, Women’s 57kg

The Welsh girl retained her Olympic taekwondo title - winning GB's 22nd gold of the 2016 Games. At London 2012 Jade won GB's first Olympic gold medal in the sport and is the current European champion.

Andy Murray - Tennis, Men’s singles

Murray became the first tennis player to win two Olympic singles titles by beating Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro in Rio.

Bradley Wiggins - 

Cycling, Men’s Team Pursuit 

Sir Bradley Wiggins is the first Briton to win eight Olympic medals with victory in the men’s team pursuit in a new world record time. Wiggins together with Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke completed the 4km race in three minutes 50.265 seconds to beat Australia by almost a second.

Read the book before the movie comes out

Six great books will soon be appearing on screen. Why not read the book before you catch the movie? Then you can moan about how much better the book was!

Paula Hawkins – The girl on the train

Starring Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson and Justin Theroux

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life, as she sees it, is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar. Now they'll see, she's much more than just the girl on the train.

Patrick Ness – A monster calls

Starring Felicity Jones, Lewis MacDougall and Sigourney Weaver

The monster showed up just after midnight. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting, the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his back garden is something different, something ancient, something wild.

Dan Brown – Inferno

Starring Ben Foster, Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones

Set in the heart of Europe, 'Inferno' follows renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon as he becomes drawn into a harrowing world centred around one of history's most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces, 'Dante's Inferno'.

Ben Fountain – Billy Lynn’s long halftime walk

Starring Vin Diesel, Garrett Houndland, Steve Martin, Kristen Stewart and Chris Tucker

Nineteen-year-old Billy Lynn is home from Iraq. He's a hero. Billy and the rest of Bravo Company were filmed defeating Iraqi insurgents in a ferocious firefight. Now Bravo's three minutes of extreme bravery is a YouTube sensation and the Bush Administration has sent them on a nationwide Victory Tour.

J K Rowling – Fantastic beasts and where to find them

Starring Colin Farrell, Ezra Miller, Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterson

An extensive introduction to the magical beasts that exist in the non-Muggle world,including the Hippogriff, Flobberworm, Kappa and Chizpurfles

Ransom Riggs – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Starring Judi Dench, Eva Green, Samuel L Jackson and Ella Purnell

16 year old Jacob has discovered the ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As he explores the abandoned building, Jacob realises that the children were more than just peculiar, they may have been dangerous, and somehow, impossible though it seems, they may still be alive. 

The Wainwright Golden Beer Prize for UK Nature and Travel Writing 2016

Library staff get back to nature!

Whether you love to get out and about in the great outdoors or are more of an armchair naturalist, there’s sure to be something on the Wainwright Prize shortlist to get your teeth into.

The winner, announced 5 August 2016 is "The Outrun" by Amy Liptrot.

When Amy returns to Orkney after more than a decade away, she is drawn back to the sheep farm where she grew up. Approaching the land that was once home, memories of her childhood merge with the recent events that have set her on this journey. Amy was shaped by the cycle of the seasons, birth and death on the farm, and her father's mental illness, which were as much a part of her childhood as the wild, carefree existence on Orkney. But as she grew up, she longed to leave this remote life. She moved to London and found herself in a hedonistic cycle. Unable to control her drinking, alcohol gradually took over. Now 30, she finds herself washed up back home on Orkney, trying to come to terms with what happened to her in London

The rest of the short list

 The Wainwright Golden Beer Prize

WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2016

Winner – Thomas Morris “We don’t know what we’re doing”

Set in Caerphilly, Thomas Morris' debut collection of short stories reveals its treasures in unexpected ways, offering vivid and moving glimpses of the lost, lonely and bemused. By turns poignant, witty, tender and bizarre, these entertaining stories detail the lives of people who know where they are, but don't know what they're doing. I know the feeling!

This book also won the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award and the public vote in the Wales Arts Review People’s Choice Award. It's got to be worth a look. Reserve a copy now Torfaen Libraries Catalogue

Category winners
For poetry, Philip Gross “Love Songs of Carbon” and for Non Fiction, Jasmine Donahaye “Losing Israel”. Donahaye's search for her family's past brings up disturbing and unexpected revelations. This was probably not the book she set out to write.

Welsh Language Awards

Winner of the main Welsh language award was Caryl Lewis for Y Bwthyn. A novel that revolves around three characters - Enoch, Isaac and Owen. The story begins when Owen comes to stay at a cottage on a mountainous farm. A lyrical, subtle and memorable novel, the beautiful cover deserves an award in it’s own right.

The poetry award went to Mererid Hopwood for “Nes Draw” and the Non Fiction award to Gruffyd  Aled Williams for his book about the last days of Owain Glyndwr, “Dyyddiau Olaf Owain Glyndwr”

For more information visit Wales Book of the Year Award