Your Library, Your VoiceHelp us design your dream libraryThe city's New Central Library (Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi) will be built in Cathedral Square and the Christchurch City Council wants your input on the design. What exciting things do you want to do in our New Central Library? How should the building look and feel? Have your say at http://yourvoice.ccc.govt.nz
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"After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations." ~ Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish writer
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New and Recently Released! |
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What Westerners have for breakfast: five years in Goa
by John McBeath
In the mid-eighties John McBeath and his partner Sue left Australia for India with the dream to open a European-style pensione in an old Portuguese villa in Goa. After several visits to India they had realised that Goa with its European influences, pristine beaches, and laid-back tropical lifestyle was at the start of a tourism boom. Now told for the first time, this is the alluring true story of what happened: of the locals, expatriates and visitors they befriended, of the colourful, hilarious and sometimes confounding experiences that both enriched and threatened their relationship.
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| Savage harvest: a tale of cannibals, colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's tragic quest for primitive art by Carl HoffmanIn 1961, a scion of the powerful Rockefeller family, 23-year-old Michael, disappeared during an expedition to Dutch New Guinea where he'd planned to study a primitive tribe and gather art for a museum that his father -- the governor of New York -- had founded. Michael's body was never found, and officials ruled that he had drowned... but rumours swirled that he was actually killed and eaten by natives. In search of the truth, avid traveller and author Carl Hoffman recently retraced Michael’s path, immersing himself in the world of former headhunters and cannibals to solve this historical whodunit. If you enjoy this "riveting, multilayered tale" (Publishers Weekly), pick up Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff, which takes place in the same area. |
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Latinalicious: the South America diaries
by Becky Wicks
In her latest laugh-out-loud travel memoir, intrepid traveller Becky Wicks sets her sights on both the natural and - ahem! - man-made attractions of South America, and discovers that while gauchos aren't always hot, strangely, birdwatchers are ... From dodging naked Aussies on Bolivia's Death Road and diving with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands to conquering the Inca Trail (just), being crushed at the Rio Carnival and having her fake designer bag snatched in a Colombian ghetto, Becky tangos, gallops, bikes and treks her way through this spectacular continent.
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Flying Kiwis: a history of the OE
by Jude Wilson
Leaving home to see the world is something that succeeding generations of young New Zealanders have done in ever-increasing numbers. The 'overseas experience,' or the 'OE,' has been the topic of countless individual travel accounts, and has provided subject matter for plays, films, and novels. Until now, there hasn't been a history of the OE. Based on the oral accounts of several hundred travellers across all seven decades of the OE, this vibrant history shows how the OE has changed over time.
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American smoke: journeys to the end of the light
by Iain Sinclair
The award-winning author of Downriver shares observations from his misadventures in America, during which he obsessively followed in the footsteps of such writers as Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs to experience firsthand the foibles of landmark regions.
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The cats of Ephesos
by Sabine Ladstätter
Ephesos is one of the most important archaeological digs in the world. For 120 years Austrian archaeologists have been at work on this magical site in western Turkey and continue to bring up spectacular finds. In this place archaeologists have succeeded like nowhere else to make academia and the public aware of the distant past. In this book, Sabine Ladstatter, who leads the Ephesos dig, and award-winning photographer Lois Lammerhuber present the world of antiquity from a very special angle. Cats are to be found almost anywhere around the ancient city. They live in a very special environment. Sabine Ladstatter explains the nature of this extraordinary relationship.
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Land of eagles: riding through Europe's forgotten country
by Robin Hanbury-Tenison
In the footsteps of Byron, Edward Lear and Edith Durham crossed some of the most beautiful landscapes in Europe. Through soaring mountain ranges and hidden valleys they lived simply; staying in the homes of communities completely untouched by the 21st century and in towns bursting with artistic creativity.
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The Nile: downstream through Egypt's past and present
by Toby A. H. Wilkinson
Egypt is the most populous country in the world's most unstable region. It is the key to Middle East peace, the voice of the Arab world and the crossroads between Europe and Africa. Its historical and strategic importance is unparalleled. And the key to Egypt - its colourful past, chaotic present and uncertain future - is the Nile. From Herodotus's day to the present political upheavals, the steady flow of the Nile has been Egypt's heartbeat. It has shaped its geography, controlled its economy and moulded its civilisation..
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Explore everything: place-hacking the City
by Bradley Garrett
It is assumed that the world has been explored and charted; that there is nowhere new to go. But perhaps it is the everyday places around us - the cities we live in that need to be rediscovered. What does it feel like to find the city's edge, to explore its forgotten tunnels and scale high above the metropolis upon unfinished skyscrapers? Explore Everything reclaims the city, recasting it as a place for endless adventures.
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| Chasing Shackleton: re-creating the world's greatest journey of survival by Tim JarvisErnest Shackleton's amazing 1914-16 polar expedition was one of the most incredible survival and endurance stories of all time. Led by Tim Jarvis, one of the modern world's leading explorers, and with the blessing of Shackleton's granddaughter, a group sailed a replica of Shackleton's 23-foot boat and used authentic period gear and supplies to sail 800 nautical miles across the unpredictable South Georgia sea to South Georgia Island, where they then traversed mountains and glaciers. Though many pictures are included here, if you wish you could also see video footage of this incredible journey, you're in luck -- there's a PBS documentary of the same title. |
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| Day of honey: a memoir of food, love, and war by Annia CiezadloNot many Americans choose to spend their honeymoon and early years of marriage in troubled Beirut, but Annia Ciezadlo did, and tried to make it feel like home. After falling for a Lebanese-American journalist, foreign correspondent Ciezadlo married him in 2003 and left New York City for his hometown when he became Newsday's new Middle East bureau chief. Eventually, the couple moved on to Iraq, which was in the middle of a war. Describing delicious dishes and fascinating people (including her Lebanese mother-in-law), Ciezadlo has written a mouthwatering book that The New York Times calls "among the least political, and most intimate and valuable, to have come out of the Iraq war." |
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A bite of the Big Apple: my food adventure in New York
by Monica Trapaga
New York, New York. It's Ella and Louis. It's Seinfeld and Woody Allen. It's the bright lights of Broadway, it's hot dogs at 2 a.m., it's bagels and donuts and pastrami on rye. It's also Mexican, Jamaican, Filipino, Puerto Rican and Chinese food, all thrown together in a cultural cacophony quite unlike anywhere else in the world.
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| Animal, vegetable, miracle: a year of food life by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille KingsolverYou'lll relish this tasty memoir by novelist Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible) if you want to know more about the food you eat. The author and her family -- biologist husband Steven and daughters Camille and Lily -- move from Tucson, Arizona to a small town in Virginia's southern Appalachians where they strive to eat only locally and home-grown food (there are a few exceptions, coffee being one). Among other things, readers will learn about vegetable gardening, turkey breeding, and cooking with what is in season (recipes are included). Armchair travellers will enjoy the Appalachian setting as well as the vacations (there's even one to Italy). With wonderful descriptions, humour, fact-filled sidebars, and family lore, this lively book is informative as well as charming. |
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A cook's tour of France: regional French recipes
by Gabriel Gate
Every year in spring, Gabriel Gate spends two months travelling in his beloved native land, where he began as a chef more than 40 years ago. During these visits Gabriel delights in the top gourmet specialities of France's renowned cities and regions including Nice, Marseille, Provence, the Loire Valley and Paris. On his travels, Gabriel discovers the outstanding fish and seafood, excellent wines and liqueurs, extraordinary cheeses, unique range of charcuteries, delicious bread, cakes and patisseries which are a constant delight for the French people.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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