|
Biography and Memoir March 2020
|
|
|
|
|
West Island : five twentieth-century New Zealanders in Australia
by Stephanie Johnson
Five notable twentieth-century New Zealanders who made their lives in Australia are the subject of this fascinating biographical investigation by award-winning author Stephanie Johnson. Roland Wakelin, Dulcie Deamer, Jean Devanny, Douglas Stewart and Eric Baume had little in common in personality, proclivities and politics. Yet they all experienced fame and/or notoriety in the 'West Island' while being largely forgotten in their country of origin. Stephanie Johnson restores these striking New Zealanders to our national narrative, engaging their life stories to illuminate the curious lacuna that exists at the heart of the complex relationship between the two nations. As a writer with strong connections to both countries, Johnson draws on her own experiences of life on both sides of 'the ditch' in her reflections on the trans-Tasman diaspora and the subtle differences and cultural divide that set apart the two countries.
|
|
|
The master plan : my journey from life in prison to a life of purpose
by Chris Wilson
Like a lot of people, Chris Wilson didn't have an easy start in life. But, unlike many, he has managed to overcome severe setbacks to achieve a life defined by material success and personal meaning. How did he do it? When he committed a fatal crime at the age of 17 and received a devastating prison sentence, incarceration became the unexpected trigger that set Wilson off on a journey of self-improvement - reading, working out, learning languages, and starting a business. Creating a master plan for the life he wanted, he worked though it step-by-step to transform his reality. In this gripping memoir, he tells his story and explains the thought processes and techniques he used to go from being in prison with no hope of parole to being a free man, a successful social entrepreneur, and a respected mentor.
|
|
|
Last stop Auschwitz : my story of survival from within the camp
by E. de Wind
Eddy de Wind, a Dutch doctor and psychiatrist, was shipped to Auschwitz with his wife Friedel, whom he had met while volunteering in the Westerbork labour camp. On arrival, they made it through the brutal selection process and were put to work in the medical barracks. In their new life, each day, each hour became a battle for survival. For De Wind, this meant negotiating the volatile guards. For Friedel, it meant avoiding the inevitable fate of Joseph Mengele's medical experiments. Despite all this, love prevailed. Passing notes through the fence, sometimes stealing a brief embrace, Friedel and De Wind made it through. As the last Nazis fled at the end of the war, De Wind hid himself in an abandoned barracks and began to write with furious energy about his experiences at Auschwitz. The result is an extraordinary account of life as a prisoner, a near real-time record of the daily struggle, stress and horror, but also of the flickering moments of joy De Wind and Friedel found in each other. "Last Stop Auschwitz" is a document of the best and the worst of humanity, a reminder of what we as humans were - and are - capable of. A harrowing and eloquent account of suffering and survival, love and despair, it's a unique and timeless story that reminds us there is hope, even in hell. And it will linger with you long after the final page has been turned.
|
|
|
Rough magic: riding the world's wildest horse race
by Lara Prior-Palmer
The Mongol Derby is the world’s toughest horse race. An outrageous feat of endurance across the vast Mongolian plains once traversed by the army of Genghis Khan, the Derby sees competitors ride 25 horses across 1000km, and it’s rare that more than half of the riders make it to the finish line. In 2013 Lara Prior-Palmer – nineteen, wildly underprepared and in search of the great unknown – decided to enter the race. Finding on the wild Mongolian steppe strength and self-knowledge she didn’t know she possessed, even whilst caught in biblical storms and lost in the mountains, Lara tore through the field with her motley crew of horses. She didn’t just complete the race: in one of the Derby’s most unexpected results, she won, becoming the youngest-ever competitor to conquer the course. A tale of endurance, adventure and man’s struggle to tame the wild, "Rough Magic" is the extraordinary story of one woman’s quest to find herself in one of the most remote and challenging landscapes on earth.
|
|
|
High achiever : the incredible true story of one addict's double life
by Tiffany Jenkins
When word got out that Tiffany Jenkins was withdrawing from opiates on the floor of a jail cell, people in her town were shocked. Not because of the twenty felonies she'd committed, or the nature of her crimes, or even that she'd been captain of the high school cheer leading squad just a few years earlier, but because her boyfriend was a Deputy Sheriff, and his friends--their friends--were the ones who'd arrested her. A raw and twisty page-turning memoir that reads like fiction, "High Achiever" spans Tiffany's life as an active opioid addict, her 120 days in a Florida jail where every officer despised what she'd done to their brother in blue, and her eventual recovery. With heart-racing urgency and unflinching honesty, Jenkins takes you inside the grips of addiction and the desperate decisions it breeds. Tiffany breaks through the stigma and silence to offer hope and inspiration to anyone battling the disease--whether it's a loved one or themselves.
|
|
|
Stars, cars and crystal meth
by Jack Sutherland
Jack Sutherland, the narrator and protagonist of this memoir has, you might say, led a charmed life in the face of seeming damnation. A confirmed alcoholic in his early teens, by his twenties he was PA and bodyguard to the Hollywood stars, most notably Michael Stipe, Ru Paul and Mickey Rourke. His work took him to exotic destinations around the world and bizarre encounters and requests. It also led him back to a smorgasbord of lethal addictions: alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and perhaps most damaging of all crystal meth and the crazed chem sex that characterises its use. On the shores of death's coastline, a nine stone skeleton in a frame that once boasted the shape and tone of a bodybuilder, Jack is saved. By his father, one of the literary world's most esteemed personalities: John Sutherland. A son's memoir told through the prism and prose of a father, with grim but ultimately inspiring honesty.
|
|
|
All bets are off : losers, liars, and recovery from gambling addiction
by Arnie Wexler
Arnie Wexler's life as a gambler began on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, flipping cards, shooting marbles, and playing pinball machines. At age fourteen he found the racetrack, a bookie, and started playing the stock market. His obsession with gambling accelerated until a fateful day in 1968 when it all came crashing down. Wexler's gripping narrative leads us through the dungeon of a compulsive gambler's world--chasing the big win and coming up with empty pockets--and how his addiction drove him and his wife, Sheila, to the edge of life. With help, they managed to escape, and together they have devoted themselves to helping others with the problem they know so well.
|
|
|
The outrun
by Amy Liptrot
When Amy Liptrot returns to Orkney after more than a decade away, she is drawn back to the Outrun on 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 thirty, she finds herself washed up back home on Orkney, standing unstable at the cliff edge, trying to come to terms with what happened to her in London. Spending early mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, the days tracking Orkney's wildlife - puffins nesting on sea stacks, arctic terns swooping close enough to feel their wings - and nights searching the sky for the Merry Dancers, Amy slowly makes the journey towards recovery from addiction. "The Outrun" is a beautiful, inspiring book about living on the edge, about the pull between island and city, and about the ability of the sea, the land, the wind and the moon to restore life and renew hope.
|
|
|
|
|
|