"There was something intrinsically melancholy, a sudden sharp intimation, like a warning tap on the shoulder, of the fleetingness of everything, in bidding goodbye to people who had been kind, as nearly everyone was, and knowing that, in all likelihood, I would never see them again." ~ Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011), British author, scholar, and soldier, The Broken Road
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Matariki – the Māori New Year – takes place on Pipiri 28 June. There will be Matariki storytimes and activities at our libraries throughout June.
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New and Recently Released!
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| The broken road: from the Iron Gates to Mount Athos by Patrick Leigh FermorFinally arriving on bookshelves is the long-awaited last travelogue in a trilogy that traces the year-long sojourn across 1933 Europe by 18-year-old Patrick Leigh Fermor, who then "thought himself a failure" but later became one of the best travel writers the world has known. Using Fermor's almost-finished manuscript, which melds lush descriptions with history and fascinating adventures, biographer Artemis Cooper and travel author Colin Thubron edited this book after Fermor's death at the age of 96. Erudite readers and lovers of lyrical language will embrace this delightful read, which covers Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece; those who haven't read Fermor will want to pick up A Time of Gifts, about the first leg of his eye-opening journey that began in Holland. |
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| Cathedral of the wild: an African journey home by Boyd VartyLions, tigers, and baboons, oh my! Growing up at the Londolozi private game reserve in South Africa, Boyd Varty's childhood included plenty of excitement (hosting Nelson Mandela after his 1990 release from prison) and danger (such as a black mambo slithering over his 11-year-old legs). And there was also a lot of love from his fascinating family, made up of a visionary, conservation-minded father, a renowned filmmaking uncle, a caring but not-easily-shaken mother, and a sister who was his beloved companion and playmate. In this dramatic memoir, Varty reflects on his time with Mandela, shares campfire stories of his family and their adventures, and documents his own tale of personal evolution, which saw him travel around the world only to come back home again. |
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As long as it's fun: the epic voyages and extraordinary times of Lin and Larry Pardey
by Herb McCormick
In As Long as It's Fun, the biography of Lin and Larry Pardey, Herb McCormick recounts their remarkable sailing career-from their early days in Southern California to their two circumnavigations to their current life in a quiet cove in New Zealand. Through interviews with their families, friends, and critics, McCormick delves deeply into the couple's often-controversial opinions, sometimes-tenuous marriage, and amazing list of accomplishments. As Long as It's Fun is as much a love story as it is a sea yarn, and, like all such stories, it's not without complications . . . which makes it not only a sailing tale but also a human one.
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Kings Cross: a biography
by Louis Nowra
Louis Nowra burrows beneath the sensationalist Underbelly 'sex and sin' narrative, revealing stories and a cast of characters - some household names, others little-known - that not even a writer could conjure up. Kings Cross is a no-holds barred place, where backpackers, prostitutes, strippers, chefs, mad men, poets, beggars, booksellers, doctors, gangsters, sailors, musicians, drug traffickers, eccentrics, judges and artists live side by side. Part flaneur, part historian and part eyewitness, Louis Nowra is the best possible guide to a place both real, and a state of mind.
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Full steam ahead: a golden age of cruises
by Boris Danzer-kantof
Full Steam Ahead takes the reader on a gloriously nostalgic journey aboard the first frail pleasure steamers to the largest cruise liners of all time visiting (or revisiting) numerous legendary ports of call along the way, divided geographically: the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Great North and Poles, Latin America, East and South Africa, as well as the Far East.
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Travels in Zanskar: a journey to a closed kingdom
by Mark Boyden
Mark Boyden set out from Ireland in the Spring of 1981 to explore the two western-most provinces of old Tibet, Ladakh and Zanskar, and to record their old traditions before they were inexorably eroded by modernity. Travelling with a horse and his friend Paddy, Mark Boyden was one of the first Westerners to visit this closed kingdom. In this book, he has written a delightful travelogue of his remarkable expedition: the challenges of the landscape, the encounters with a succession of characters, and the details of life in Zanskar, in what Dervla Murphy calls in her Foreword, "a travel book in the classic tradition."
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Where hornbills fly: a journey with the headhunters of Borneo
by Erik Jensen
Once headhunters under the rule of White Rajahs and briefly colonised before independence within Malaysia, the Iban Dayaks of Borneo are one of the world's most extraordinary indigenous tribes, possessing ancient traditions and a unique way of life. As a young man Erik Jensen settled in Sarawak where he lived with the Iban for seven years, learning their language and the varied rites and practices of their lives. In this compelling and beautifully-wrought memoir, Erik Jensen reveals the challenges facing the Iban as they adapt to another century, whilst fighting to preserve their identity and singular place in the world. Haunting, yet hopeful, Where Hornbills Fly opens a window onto a vanishing world and paints a remarkable portrait of this fragile tribe, which continues to survive deep in the heart of Borneo.
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The Appian Way: ghost road, queen of roads
by Robert A. Kaster
The Roman poet Statius called the Via Appia "the Queen of Roads," and for nearly a thousand years that description held true, as countless travellers trod its path from the centre of Rome to the heel of Italy. Today, the road is all but gone. This book deals with the author's adventures along this ancient highway.
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War, Conflict, Repression
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| A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael BeahChildren should not have to see the horrors of war, much less commit them. But as conflict rages in hot spots around the world, children are always affected, and in some heart-wrenching cases, they are actually forced to become solders who do terrible things. In this powerful, candid autobiography, Ishmael Beah, now a human rights activist, tells how he went from a mischievous 12-year-old schoolboy to a hardened 13-year-old government soldier carrying an AK-47 and fighting in the civil war that raged in Sierra Leone in the 1990s before he was rescued by UNICEF and pulled himself back from violence. |
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| Nothing to envy: ordinary lives in North Korea by Barbara DemickExamining North Korea under the regime of "dear leader" Kim Jong-il (father of current leader, Kim Jong-un), journalist Barbara Demick spent seven years extensively interviewing six North Koreans who had managed to escape from the repressive regime. She tells how the country's schoolchildren sang anthems praising their leader even as many of them suffered from malnutrition, some to the point of dying, and how everyone guarded their secrets and complaints lest the government put them in horrific labour camps. This grim though "strongly written and gracefully structured" (Wall Street Journal) book offers an eye-opening look at a land most of us will never set foot in. |
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The hotel on Place Vendôme: life, death, and betrayal at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris
by Tilar J Mazzeo
Taking readers behind the doors of Paris's Hotel Ritz during the Nazi occupation of World War II, this extraordinary chronicle reveals a hotbed of illicit affairs, deadly intrigues, courageous acts of defiance and treachery and the people and events that made this opulent cultural landmark legendary.
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| Love thy neighbor: a story of war by Peter MaassDuring the Bosnian war between 1992 and 1995, horrible atrocities occurred, including torture, rape, murder, and genocide - sometimes committed by those in charge, sometimes committed by neighbours against neighbours who'd been friendly just hours before. In this book that won The Los Angeles Times book prize for nonfiction, war correspondent Peter Maass offers a stunning portrait of that time, from the battlefield of Sarajevo (host city of the 1984 Winter Olympics), to the shocking crimes that occurred, to the lives of innocents caught in the crossfire. Though this "angry, stinging, profanely eloquent and often painful book" (The New York Times) isn't light reading, it is compassionate and certainly worthwhile. |
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| Every man in this village is a liar: an education in war by Megan K. StackWhen Megan K. Stack was still a child, she already knew (thanks to a family friend who was a marine) that people affected by war could "survive and not survive, both at the same time." In this evocative account, she herself goes to war as a young reporter. Covering the time between September 11, 2001 and the end of 2006, this book describes her encounters with warlords, CIA operatives, and regular people as well as how she witnessed death and carnage, dealt with innocent people being killed, and heard government officials lie to the public. Travelling throughout the Middle East, Stack visited Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel, among other places, and this eloquent, personal book, which was a National Book Award finalist, provides much food for thought about a strife-filled region that continues to make the news. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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