"Once a year, go someplace you've never been before." ~ The 14th Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and author
|
|
Ngā mihi o te wā! Find out more about Christmas and explore our seasonal stuff: Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from Christchurch City Libraries to you and yours.
|
|
New and Recently Released!
|
|
|
Brazil: a celebration of contemporary Brazilian culture
by Rodrigo Fernandes Da Fonseca
An overview of contemporary Brazilian culture from photography to fashion, street art to gastronomy and architecture to music. A fresh look at one of the most exciting countries on the planet from those who know it best.
|
|
| Midnight in Siberia: a train journey into the heart of Russia by David GreeneDavid Greene, the co-host of NPR's Morning Edition, spent several years based in Russia. In his new book, he describes his eye-opening travels along the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Travelling third class from Moscow to Vladivostok, he meets ordinary but fascinating people -- from singing babushkas to entrepreneurial teens -- and shares food and time with them. Using this trip as a lens, he also discusses the challenges faced by 21st-century Russia. For another entertaining look at this storied place, try Ian Frazier's acclaimed Travels in Siberia. |
|
| Without you, there is no us: my time with the sons of North Korea's elite by Suki KimReading a bit like a dystopian novel, this gripping book provides a rare look at life in North Korea. Suki Kim, an award-winning author who was born in South Korea but has lived in the United States since she was a teen, took a job teaching English to the sons of North Korea's elite during what turned out to be the last six months of Kim Jong Il's reign. She watched every word she said, kept her notes on a secret flash drive, and tried to connect with her students, young men who believed all the propaganda they'd been served and had little idea of what the rest of the world is like. Fans of Barbara Demick’s excellent Nothing to Envy will appreciate Kim's well-written, thought-provoking examination of this closed-off land. |
|
|
The irresponsible traveller: tales of scrapes and narrow escapes
by Jennifer Barclay
Publishing to coincide with Bradt's 40th anniversary, this title offers a light but edgy collection of travellers' tales. It features travel writers and celebrities who recount their exciting, and often dangerous, adventures such as: being chased by a sea lion, accosted by Brazilian kidnappers and a midnight raid to free turtles on the Amazon.
|
|
|
Paris Magnum
by Eric Hazan
By documenting the everyday workings of the city, Magnums photographers capture the essence of Parisian life. Their photographs show the city as it lives and breathes from fashion shows to underground jazz clubs, from the bustling metro to outdoor cafes, and from the Art Deco Fouquets hotel to the working class Goutte d'Or neighbourhood. Even celebrities appear as ordinary citizens encountered in their own milieu - from former President Francois Mitterrand to novelist Marguerite Duras, singer Edith Piaf to actress Catherine Deneuve, fashion designer Christian Dior to artist Giacometti.
|
|
|
A geek in Korea: discovering Asia's new kingdom of cool
by Daniel Tudor
A Geek in Korea reinvents the culture guide for the Internet age. Packed with articles and photographs, it covers all the touchstones of Korean culture from Buddhism and Confucianism to chapters on the traditional arts and disciplines like Taekwondo. There are chapters on cultural code words and norms; personal relationships; business and technology; and symbols and practices that are peculiarly Korean. A number of chapters are devoted to Korean pop culture, with attention to the stars, idols, and urban subcultures associated with them. For visitors to Korea, the author includes a mini-guide to his favourite neighbourhoods in Seoul and other places of outstanding interest.
|
|
|
Swimming with warlords: a dozen-year journey across the Afghan War
by Kevin Sites
Kevin Sites made his first trip to Afghanistan in October 2001, crossing the Amu Darya River at night, travelling with Northern Alliance fighters as they toppled the Taliban regime with the help of American forces. In that first hundred days, he lost seven colleagues and nearly his own life. Since then, Sites has returned five more times. On his last trip in summer 2013, on the eve of America's planned withdrawal, he retraced the steps of his first original odyssey to examine what, if anything, has changed. Using his trademark immersive style, Sites uncovered surprising stories with unexpected truths. He swam in the Kunduz River with an infamous warlord named Nabi Gechi, who demonstrated his fearsome killing skills as well as a genius for peaceful invention. Sites talked with ex-Taliban fighters, politicians, female cops, farmers, drug addicts and diplomats, and patrolled with American and Afghan soldiers.
|
|
|
Chasing El Dorado: a South American adventure
by Aaron Smith
Aaron Smith's often hilarious chronicle of love, danger and enlightenment, set in the one of most vibrant places on earth, is a true delight. Whether Aaron is being held at gunpoint in Rio, stranded on the Amazon River; interviewing musician Peter Gabriel for The Iquitos Times, dancing the samba at Carnival with the 60 Minutes team, undergoing initiation as a Matses warrior, tripping the light fantastic, or falling in love with his beautiful Brazilian wife-to-be, you are bound to 'experience', along with him, more than a glimmer of gold.
|
|
|
Marrakech Express: on and off the rails in the sultans' kingdom
by Peter Millar
Back in 1969 when Morocco's ancient capital was a hashish clouded hippy mecca, Crosby, Stills and Nash recorded their cheesy (and hopelessly inaccurate) foot-tapping anthem 'Marrakesh Express'. A generation on, award-winning journalist, author, and one-time glamrock fan Peter Millar uses what is now the country's best visited tourist destination as the embarcation point for a literally reverse-engineered train journey through this still exotic, diverse and challenging North African country, struggling to maintain its unique blend of tradition and tolerance in the turbulent winds of the Arab spring. From the snake charmers and food stalls of Jamaa el Fna, Millar takes us to the ancient walled city of Fez, the wineries of the Meknes valley, cosmopolitan Casablanca, tacky Tangier, and the anomalous Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, squatting on Morocco's Mediterranean coast like a counterpoint to British Gibraltar.
|
|
|
Where the peacocks sing: a palace, a prince, and the search for home
by Alison Singh Gee
What happens when a successful, glamorous American journalist based in Hong Kong falls for an Indian journalist who turns out to be a prince with a ramshackle 100-room palace? Enough things to fill a book! Not even realising she was looking for a husband, Alison Singh Gee found him, and that changed her life. Describing her unlikely and fairy tale-like love affair, she recounts her cross-cultural journey to the rural Indian countryside, where she abandoned modern comforts and embraced new perspectives on home and family. In a starred review, Library Journal says Where the Peacocks Sing is "like Eat, Pray, Love but with more heart and less sulking."
|
|
|
Frozen in time: an epic story of survival and a modern quest for lost heroes of World War II
by Mitchell Zuckoff
In Nov. 1942 a U.S. cargo plane crashed into the Greenland ice cap. The B-17 sent on the search-and-rescue mission got caught in a storm and also crashed, but miraculously all nine men aboard survived. A second rescue operation was launched, but the plane, the Grumman Duck, flew into a storm and vanished. The survivors of the B-17 spent 148 days fighting to stay alive while waiting for rescue by famed explorer Bernt Balchen. Then in 2012 the U.S. Coast Guard and North South Polar mount an expedition to solve the mystery of the vanished plane and recover the remains of the lost plane's crew.
|
|
| The lost: a search for six of six million by Daniel MendelsohnIn this moving (and internationally bestselling) memoir, author Daniel Mendelsohn traces the lives of six family members who were killed during the Holocaust. After finding poignant letters written by his Uncle Shmiel (whom he resembled so strongly that older relatives would sometimes cry when they saw him), Mendelsohn decided to find out what exactly happened to Shmiel, his wife, and his four beautiful daughters. To do so, Mendelsohn travelled to multiple countries on four continents talking to people and gathering information about his relatives and the Holocaust. The result is a "finely wrought, many-faceted narrative" (Booklist) that helps shed light on the meaning of suffering. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|