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Biography and Memoir January 2021
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Stop surviving, start fighting
by Jazz Thornton
Jazz Thornton first attempted to take her own life at the age of 12. Multiple attempts followed and she spent time in psychiatric wards and under medical supervision as she rode the rollercoaster of depression and anxiety through her teenage years - yet the attempts continued. Find out what Jazz learned about how her negative thought patterns came to be, and how she turned those thoughts, and her life, around. Who and what helped, and what didn't help. The insights she gives will help create greater understanding of those grappling with mental illness, and those around them who desperately want to help. Jazz went on to attend film school, and to co-found Voices of Hope, a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping those with mental health issues and show them there is a way forward. She creates online content to provide hope and help.
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Te kuia moko : the last tattooed Māori women
by Harry Sangl
"Te Kuia Moko" is a taonga recording 34 Māori women, all bearing moko kauae (chin tattoos). First published in 1980 as "The Blue Privilege", this new printing evidences the book's ongoing importance as a record of moko art. The full-colour portraits were all compiled by immigrant artist Harry Sangl between 1972 and 1975; most of the kuia featured had been born in the nineteenth century, and many were of Ngāi Tūhoi descent. Biographies of the kuia ... are printed substantially as they spoke them, accompanied by black-and-white sketches of the moko.
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Clothes... and other things that matter
by Alexandra Schulman
Alexandra Shulman delves into her own life to look at the emotions, ambitions, expectations and meanings behind the way we dress. From the bra to the bikini, the trench coat to trainers, the slip dress to the suit, she explores their meaning in women's lives and how our wardrobes intersect with the larger world - the career ladder, motherhood, romance, sexual identity, ambition, failure, body image and celebrity. By turns funny, refreshingly self-deprecating and often very moving, this startlingly honest memoir from the ex-Editor of British Vogue will encourage women of all ages to consider what their own clothes mean to them, the life they live in them and the stories they tell.
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Guiding lights : the extraordinary lives of lighthouse women
by Shona Riddell
Women have a long history of keeping the lights burning, from tending ancient altar flames or bonfires to modern-day lighthouse keeping. Yet most of their stories are little-known. "Guiding Lights" includes stories from around the world, such as the dramatic torching of Puysegur Point, one of New Zealand's most inhospitable lighthouses; the two caretakers living alone on Tasmania's wild Maatsuyker Island; the female keeper in charge of Cape Beale on Canada's Vancouver Island (the station receives visits from bears, cougars and wolves); several 'haunted' lighthouses in various US states with tragic tales; the despotic keeper on Clipperton Island, a tiny atoll far off the coast of Mexico; lighthouse accidents and emergencies around the world; and two of the world's most legendary lighthouse women: Ida Lewis (US) and Grace Darling (UK), who risked their lives to save others. The book also explores our dual perception of lighthouses: are they comforting and romantic beacons symbolising hope and trust, or storm-lashed and forbidding towers with echoes of lonely, mad keepers? Whatever our perception, stories of women's courage and dedication in minding the lights - then and now - continue to capture the public's imagination and inspire us.
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A likely lad : the life of Norman Lesser, Archbishop of New Zealand
by Judy Mills
How did Norman Lesser, a boy from a terrace house in Liverpool, become the Archbishop of New Zealand? The answer lies in sheer native ability, great energy, a talent for leadership, a happy outlook on life and a bit of luck - or if you prefer, the Grace of God. Following effective ministry in different English parishes, he served as Provost of Nairobi Cathedral for seven eventful years before coming to be Bishop of Waiapu in 1947. Lesser's 24 year tenure saw the building and consecration of the Cathedral in Napier, the establishment of several old people's homes and rapid growth in the parishes. A gifted preacher and speaker, and blessed with the common touch, his quickness of mind, sense of humour and dramatic story-telling are still vividly remembered. As Archbishop he guided the church through the tumultuous changes of the 1960s and for years was at the forefront of Church Union negotiations. Norman Lesser's world might seem different from ours. But the values of faith, resolution and compassion that we see in his life-story are still relevant today, offering challenge and inspiration.
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Spotlight on: Healthcare Professionals |
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Flight risk : the highs and lows of life as a doctor at Heathrow airport
by Stephanie Green
For over a decade, Stephanie Green was a doctor on-call for one of the world's busiest airports, confronting dramatic, bizarre and sometimes heart-breaking situations. During her 24-hour shifts at Heathrow, Dr Green had to be ready for anything: from finding an abandoned suitcase leaking blood onto the carousel, to discovering a man smuggling heroin in a corset. It's a job that brought her into contact with all walks of life; her patients included drug mules and fugitives, schizophrenics and stowaways, refugees and tourists. And with the threats of a nerve agent poisoning or a Level Four viral epidemic always in the back of her mind, Dr Green found herself on the frontline where the decisions are made about who - or what - was allowed to leave the airport's borders."Flight Risk" reveals the thrilling drama that takes place behind-the-scenes of an airport and what is needed to make critical decisions in this hidden no-man's land of geopolitics, terror, tragedy and medicine.
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A country nurse : from Wave Hill to rural Queensland and almost everywhere in between
by Thea Hayes
Thea Hayes spent twenty years living and working on Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory. She arrived as a naive nineteen-year-old trainee nurse from Sydney, but when she left in 1979 she was married with four children and eager for her next adventure. And what twists and turns her new life in rural Queensland had in store. From a stint running a corner shop in the small town of Toogoolawah to dairy and cattle farming and working as a nurse in hospitals and nursing homes, Thea's life was eternally colourful. At the age of sixty-five, after losing her beloved husband Ralph, Thea moved to London to work as a nurse and travel around Europe. Back home in Australia, she found a second chance at love with a country boy from WA, and her new life with Bob began with a caravan, a dangerous farming floodplain and a swag full of laughs. "A Country Nurse" charts Thea's rich and inspiring life, from Wave Hill to North Stradbroke Island; London to the Riverina in NSW, and just about everywhere in between. This is the story of an ordinary girl from Sydney who has lived her extraordinary life to the fullest.
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Can you hear me? : a paramedic's encounters with life and death
by Jake Jones
A memoir of the chaos, intensity and occasional beauty of life as a paramedic. A young man has stopped breathing in a supermarket toilet. A pedestrian with a nasty head injury won't let the crew near him on a busy road. A newborn baby is worryingly silent. An addict urinates on the ambulance floor when denied a fix. This is the life of an ambulance paramedic. Jake Jones has worked in the UK ambulance service for ten years: every day, he sees a dozen of the scenes we hope to see only once in a lifetime. "Can You Hear Me?" - the first thing he says when he arrives on the scene - is a memoir of the chaos, intensity and occasional beauty of life on the front-lines of medicine in the UK.
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Do no harm : stories of life, death, and brain surgery
by Henry Marsh
In this gripping memoir, one of Britain's top neurosurgeons reveals what it is to play god in the face of the life-and-death decisions he encounters daily. The stories give us a rare insight into the intense drama of the operating theatre, the chaos and confusion of a modern hospital, the exquisite complexity of the human brain - and the blunt instrument that is the surgeon's knife in comparison. But above all this is a book about the moving personal dilemmas that lie behind every operation he performs, and his encounters with patients whose lives are balanced on a knife's edge.
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