| The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran by Masih AlinejadExiled Iranian journalist and women's rights advocate Masih Alinejad chronicles her life spent resisting the Islamic republic in this captivating and informative memoir. Alinejad is the creator of the social media movement My Stealthy Freedom, which encourages women to defy Iran's compulsory hijab laws by sharing photographs of themselves without their head scarves. |
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Somebody I Used to Know
by Wendy Mitchell
Brave, illuminating and inspiring, Somebody I Used to Know is the first memoir written by someone living with dementia.
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Elizabeth Macarthur : A Life at the Edge of the World
by Michelle Scott Tucker
In 1788 a young gentlewoman raised in the vicarage of an English village married a handsome, haughty and penniless army officer. In any Austen novel that would be the end of the story, but for the real-life woman who became an Australian farming entrepreneur, it was just the beginning.
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Miss Ex-Yugoslavia : A Memoir
by By Sofija Stefanovic
A funny, dark and tender memoir about growing up between the lunacy of Yogoslavia's civil war and suburban Australia.
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Belle : the slave daughter and the Lord Chief Justice
by Paula Byrne
This remarkable true account tells the story of Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, one of the most powerful men in the 18th century, and his highly controversial adoption of a mixed race girl, which resonated with the public as a campaign against slavery.
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Form : My Autobiography
by Kieren Fallon
Kieren Fallon was one of the world's greatest jockeys, but his career was littered with controversy. He was accused of race fixing, resulting in an astonishing Old Bailey trial at which he was completely cleared. No one would question his ability in the saddle. Few, if any, have ever been as good at coaxing the best out of their rides. But his extraordinary rapport with horses didn't quite extend to his dealings with people particularly with those in authority.
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Common Ground : A Political Life
by Justin Trudeau
From his childhood at the prime ministerial residence of 24 Sussex up to his role as leader of the Liberal party, Trudeau captures the formative moments of his upbringing, including the influence of his father, Pierre, who was prime minister before him, and the tragic death of his brother, Michel. Filled with anecdotes, personal reflections, and never-before-seen photographs from his own collection, Common Ground reveals an intimate portrait of the man who has thrust Canada back onto the world stage.
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| Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale HurstonIn 1927, author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Cudjo Lewis (c. 1841-1935), one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade; the transcript of their conversation was only recently discovered.
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Picasso and the painting that shocked the world
by Miles Unger
Traces the story of Picasso's rise from an obscure young painter in Barcelona to one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, documenting the events of his first visit to Paris, his emergence as a leader of a group of bohemian artists, his gradual recognition by collectors and the 1906 creation of the disturbing masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
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Neruda : the poet's calling
by Mark Eisner
Vividly describes the life of the intriguing and influential Chilean poet, bringing together his powerful poetry, his involvement in politics and his tumultuous personal life into a compelling narrative that also enlightens understanding of his work.
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Adrift in the Fog: A Journey of Rediscovery
by By C. C. Johannes Peet
After a long career in the wine industry, circumstances forced Hans Peet to reconsider his options. This is his true and honest answer of how he faced up the challenge of ongoing loss of vision, the friend who rescued him from depression and what happened to change him from winemaker to writer. Hans Peet was a winemaker and artist before he began to loss his sight in his 40s. Dutch-born, he has lived in the Hawkes Bay region and been a New Zealand citizen for over three decades.
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The Elephant and the Wasp
by John McArdle
This is the story of a working-class boy destined to practice law at a time when working-class boys didn't become lawyers. By choosing to fight for individuals against large establishments, he upset enough people in the name of justice that he nearly lost everything. This is a story of resilience, sense of justice and determination beyond belief.
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A Longing for Wide and Unknown Things : The Life of Alexander Von Humboldt
by By Maren Meinhardt
A Longing for Wide and Unknown Things portrays a scientific life lived in the era of German Romanticism; a time of radical change, in which new ways of living seemed possible. Humboldt's travels in South America were motivated both by scientific curiosity and by other desires that are less easily identified. As he himself admitted, he 'would have sailed to the remotest South Seas, even if it hadn't fulfilled any scientific purpose whatever'.
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Anthony Fokker : the Flying Dutchman who shaped American aviation
by M. L. J Dierikx
The biography tells the larger-than-life true story of maverick pilot and aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker. Fokker came from an affluent Dutch family and developed a gift for tinkering with mechanics. Despite not receiving a traditional education, he stumbled his way into aviation as a young stunt pilot in Germany in 1910. He survived a series of spectacular airplane crashes and rose to fame within a few years. A combination of industrial espionage, luck, and deception then propelled him to become Germany's leading aircraft manufacturer during World War I, making him a multimillionaire by his midtwenties.
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Looking at the Stars : How Incurable Illness Taught One Boy Everything
by Lewis Hine
My illness may define the length of my life, but it won't define how I live it. My disability gave me the ability to understand and help others. And now I finally feel like I am living. 17-year-old Lewis Hine is a global phenomenon. Diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumour and water on the brain at 17 months, he wasn't expected to survive. But Lewis proved everyone wrong; he's not only surviving but thriving.
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Focus on: Prison and Captivity
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A Lifetime Behind Bars
by By Dean Wickliffe
Dean was convicted of murdering, Wellington jeweller, Paul Miet in an armed robbery in 1972. At retrial, 15 years later the charges were reduced to manslaughter, but his life sentence remained, a decision that Dean could not accept. Dean was released in 1995, but was later found guilty of murdering, gang leader Richard Bluett. This conviction was quashed in 1998 and he was acquitted at retrial. In April 2010, Dean was sentenced to 2 years and 9 months for drug and firearms offences. And after being released he again offended and was arrested for the manufacture and possession of methamphetamine for supply and was sentenced to a further 7 years imprisonment. He was paroled, 24 May 2017.
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In Dark Places : The Confessions of Teina Pora and An Ex-cop's Fight for Justice
by By Michael Bennett
Teina Pora, a 17-year-old car thief, was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Susan Burdett, who had been beaten to death with the softball bat she kept next to her bed for her own protection. Tim McKinnel, en ex-cop turned private investigator, discovered the long forgotten case 18 years later, saw an injustice had been done and set out to win Teina's freedom. Reaching from the mean streets of South Auckland to the highest court in the Commonwealth, this is the story not just of Tim's quest, but also of how an innocent man who was left rotting in a prison cell for two decades found the inner strength to rise above the dark places to which he had been condemned.
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| The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia MuradThe raw yet inspiring story of Nadia Murad's escape from captivity by the Islamic State, for whom she was forced to serve as a "sabiya" (or sex slave) after her Yazidi village in Iraq was destroyed in 2014. Nadia Murad is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. |
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| Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould SlahiA riveting and reflective account of the human rights abuses perpetuated at the Guantánamo Bay military prison. Guantánamo Diary is the first book on the subject to be written by a detainee during his imprisonment. Written in 2005, Guantánamo Diary remained classified for almost ten years; earlier editions of the book were heavily redacted. This Restored Edition reconstructs previously redacted text and includes a new introduction by Slahi. |
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| Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan StevensonIn 1994, lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to inmates on Alabama's death row -- many of whom face miscarriages of justice.
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Contact your librarian for more great books! |
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