"I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have." ~ from Andre Agassi's Open
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Our annual sale of books, magazines, CDs and DVDs is back and better than ever! Head on down to Pioneer Stadium on Friday 20 March and Saturday 21 March at Pioneer Stadium. Pay by cash or EFT-POS only.
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New and Recently Released!
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| Thomas Cromwell: the untold story of Henry VIII's most faithful servant by Tracy BormanLord Thomas Cromwell, made more visible to modern readers by Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall, was one of Henry VIII's most trusted advisers, until he was executed for supposedly trying to seize too much power. In this engaging biography, historian Tracy Borman depicts a complex personality -- both a devoted family man and a manipulative power broker. Making use of both primary and secondary sources, Borman relates Cromwell's life and analyses the reasons for his fall from favour. |
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Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: the untold story
by Barbara Leaming
An account of the former first lady's decades-long struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder offers insight into how she managed the psychological scars of JFK's brutal assassination in private while she lived out her high-profile public life.
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Life on Air: memoirs of a broadcaster
by David Attenborough
Sir David Attenborough is Britain's best-known natural history film-maker. His career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly six decades, and in this volume of memoirs Sir David tells stories of the people and animals he has met and the places he has visited.
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Educating Alice
by Alice Greenup
A footloose city backpacker who couldn't tell a bull from a cow was hardly the ideal candidate to answer an ad for a governess on a Mackay cattle station. But Alice Greenup was game for anything, until she was bowled over by a handsome young jackeroo with a devastating smile.
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Hero or tyrant? Henry III, King of France, 1574-89
by R. J. Knecht
King Henry III of France has not suffered well at the hands of posterity. Generally depicted as at best a self-indulgent, ineffectual ruler, and at worst a debauched tyrant responsible for a series of catastrophic political blunders, his reputation has long been a poor one. Yet recent scholarship has begun to question the validity of this judgment and look for a more rounded assessment of the man and his reign. For, as this new biography of Henry demonstrates, there is far more to this fascinating monarch than the pantomime villain depicted by previous generations of historians and novelists.
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Parekura Horomia
by Wira Gardiner
'Kia Ora, Chief! ' The book is based on interviews with sixty-five of Parekura Horomia's family, friends and colleagues, and it shares stories about his qualities, abilities and his tireless work. The personal stories pay tribute to his leadership and ability to be equally comfortable with and work with common people and those in positions of power. The stories build a picture of this man with a large heart and huge commitment and give insights into little-known parts of his life.
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Cold sweat: my father James Brown and me
by Yamma Brown
Being the child of a global superstar is never easy, but being the daughter of the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business" - that's a category unto itself. Like every little girl, Yamma Brown wanted her father's attention, but fame, drugs, jail, and the complicated women in James Brown's life set the stage for an uncommon childhood. She got caught in the same trap as her mother, doing things in her adult life and troubled marriage that, as a child, she'd promised herself she'd never do. The struggles she went through, both as a child and as an adult, make for a gripping read and, in the end, a profound examination of the nature of celebrity, violence, and survival.
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Kenny Rogers: through the years
by Country Music Foundation
The book is full of never-before seen photographs, personal memorabilia, treasured artefacts, and more from his iconic career. It represents a comprehensive look at the singer who owns twenty-one #1 hits, and who has charted in country, pop, rock and R&B - a unique impact that has stretched across six decades.
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Sound man
by Glyn Johns
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame producer and sound engineer behind such iconic artists as The Rolling Stones, The Who and Eric Clapton traces his definitive collaborations and his firsthand glimpses into the early years of rock.
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Travelling to infinity
by Jane Hawking
In this compelling memoir Stephen Hawking's first wife, Jane, relates the inside story of their extraordinary marriage. As Stephen's academic renown soared, his body was collapsing under the assaults of motor neurone disease, and Jane's candid account of trying to balance his 24-hour care with the needs of their growing family will be inspirational to anyone dealing with family illness.
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Beethoven: anguish and triumph: a biography
by Jan Swafford
An esteemed music historian provides a rich, detailed overview of the life of Ludwig van Beethoven, travelling from Enlightenment-era Bonn to the musical capital of Europe, Vienna, to vividly describe the composer's career, ill health and romantic rejections.
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Hope: entertainer of the century
by Richard Zoglin
Draws on exclusive reporting to honour Bob Hope's top-rated successes while discussing such topics as his secret first marriage, stint in reform school and ambivalent relationships with fellow stars.
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| A fifty-year silence: love, war, and a ruined house in France by Miranda Richmond MouillotAfter surviving World War II, author Miranda Richmond Mouillot's grandparents, Armand and Anna, moved into a house in southern France, then emigrated to New York. Five years later, they separated and never reconciled. Miranda, born in 1981, grew up with only a vague idea of their wartime ordeals and why they separated. When she learned that the old house in France was being sold, she decided to move into it and do some research in family records, hoping to learn more about her grandparents' estrangement. A Fifty-Year Silence hauntingly depicts what Miranda discovered about them. |
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Becoming Richard Pryor
by Scott Saul
Drawing upon interviews with family and friends, court transcripts, unpublished journals and screenplay drafts, the author traces Richard Pryor's journey from his rough childhood, his trials in the Army and his apprentice days in Greenwich Village to his ascent in the “New Hollywood” of the 1970s and his struggles with drugs and fame.
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Robin Williams: when the laughter stops 1951-2014
by Emily Herbert
July 21, 1951. Through roles in cherished films such as Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, Aladdin and Hook, Robin Williams became the genial face of family comedy. Emily Herbert's sensitive and thoughtful biography celebrates his genius and attempts to understand what drove such a gifted man to so tragic an end.
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Unchosen: the memoirs of a philo-semite
by Julie Burchill
Unchosen is not a book for anyone who wants balance or an even-handed historical account of modern Jewish culture. It's a spiritual autobiography turned up to the maximum, a book that manages to range from the movingly personal to the raucously outrageous in the space of a single paragraph.
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March and April Birthdays
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| Gabriel García Márquez: a life by Gerald MartinMarch 6, 1927. In this thorough and easy-to-read biography of Nobel Prize-winning Gabriel García Márquez, author Gerald Martin details his early life, his career in journalism, his political views, and the substance and impact of his acclaimed and popular magical realist works. Anyone interested in Márquez or in 20th-century literature will find this an exemplary literary biography. |
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Music in the castle of heaven: a portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach
by John Eliot Gardiner
March 31, 1685. John Eliot Gardiner takes us as deeply into Bach's works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists. Sir John Eliot Gardiner is one of the world's leading conductors, not only of Baroque music but across the whole repertoire.
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| Spencer Tracy: a biography by James CurtisApril 5, 1900. Spencer Tracy's image on-screen was that of a self-reliant man whose sense of rectitude toward others was matched by his sense of humour toward himself. Tracy was forever seen as a pillar of strength, the sort of regular American guy one could depend on. Now biographer James Curtis gives us the life of this revered actor. Curtis writes of Tracy's distinguished career, his deep Catholicism, his devoted relationship to his wife, his drinking that got him into so much trouble, and his twenty-six-year-long bond with his partner on-screen and off, Katharine Hepburn. Drawing on Tracy's personal papers and writing with the full cooperation of Tracy's daughter, Curtis tells the rich story of the brilliant but haunted man at the heart of the legend. |
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| Da Vinci's ghost: genius, obsession, and how Leonardo created the world in his... by Toby LesterApril 15, 1452. While most recognise Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man - a nude, four-armed, four-legged man framed by a circle and a square - few are familiar with its origins. According to Renaissance European beliefs rooted in classical Roman philosophy, the perfectly proportioned human body represented a microcosm of the universe, and da Vinci's image encapsulates this symbolism. In his engaging, well illustrated biography, historian Toby Lester discusses the history of the Vitruvian Man and da Vinci's keen observations of the physical world while exploring his humble origins and dazzling artistic career. |
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| Open: an autobiography by Andre AgassiApril 29, 1970. In this "ace of a tale" (Kirkus Reviews), tennis champion Andre Agassi relates his brutal childhood, during which his father forced him to practice endlessly even when he was in pain, and his successful professional career. Because of his father's abuse, he hated tennis and was unhappy even when winning multiple Grand Slams. Open vividly depicts some of his tennis matches, provides a close-up view of a star athlete's life, describes his failed marriage with Brooke Shields, and closes on a happier note with his marriage to Stephanie Graf and retirement from tennis. Agassi's memoir offers a compelling and insightful view of a complex human being. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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