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Biography and Memoir January 2020
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| The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire by Francesca Cartier BrickellA sweeping family history of French jewelry dynasty the Cartiers, from their humble 19th-century Parisian beginnings to their contemporary status as purveyors of globally-renowned luxury goods. Read it for: the glitz, the glamour, and the gossip. Francesca Cartier Brickell is the great-granddaughter of Louis-François Cartier, who founded the eponymous company in 1847. |
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Clean : A Story of Addiction, Recovery and the Removal of Stubborn Stains
by Michele Kirsch
When she leaves home in New York to go to college in Boston in the 1970s, Michele Kirsch - an anxious 19-year-old, with a growing valium dependency - starts taking on cleaning jobs to help make ends meet. It gives her a taste of the life she thinks is in store: nice big house, teenagers' music blaring from their rooms, a crock pot sizzling away in the kitchen... And yet, when she finally does have something like that life, as a wife and mother in London, she is the one blaring music from her room, necking drink and drugs and making an almighty mess of her own home and family. Cleaning other people's houses, eventually, is the only option left. At 50 years old, post rehab, living alone in a Hackney bedsit, Michele finds herself finishing her working life as she had begun, 'in a dumb job that you do when you can't really do anything else'...
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How to Be Autistic
by Charlotte Amelia Poe
Charlotte Amelia Poe's voice is confident, moving and often funny, as she reveals to us a very personal account of autism, mental illness, gender and sexual identity. As we follow Charlotte's journey through school and college, we become as awestruck by her extraordinary passion for life as by the enormous privations that she must undergo to live it. From food and fandom, to body modification and comic conventions, Charlotte's experiences through the torments of schooldays and young adulthood leave us with a riot of conflicting emotions: horror, empathy, despair, laugh-out-loud amusement and, most of all, respect.
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The Basis of Everything : Rutherford, Oliphant and the Coming of the Atomic Bomb
by Andrew Ramsey
The story that bonds Ernest Rutherford and Marcus Oliphant is as extraordinary as it is unlikely. They were kindred souls, schooled and steeped in the furthest frontiers of Britain's empire, whose restless intellect and tireless conviction fused in the crucible of discovery at Cambridge University's celebrated Cavendish Laboratory, at a time when nature's deepest secrets were being revealed. Their brilliance illuminated the sub-atomic recesses of the natural world and, as a direct result, set loose the power of nuclear fusion.
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Titanic hero : the autobiography of Captain Rostron of the Carpathia
by Arthur Rostron
The story of the Titanic in the words of the hero whose swift action saved the lives of 710 survivors. The Carpathia was on its regular voyage to New York City, when early on 15 April 1912 it received a distress signal from the White Star Line ocean liner Titanic, which had struck an iceberg and was sinking. Rostron was asleep when his wireless operator, Harold Cottam, by chance left his headset on while undressing for bed and so heard the signal.
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I Ran With the Gang : My Life in and Out of the Bay City Rollers
by Alan Longmuir
The Bay City Rollers were one of the brightest things to happen in the tumultuous 1970s, illuminating a dark decade marred by falling stock markets, a plummeting economy and industrial unrest. Alan Longmuir, an apprentice plumber from Edinburgh, was inspired by The Beatles to form a band in the 1960s. Firstly, he enlisted his brother and then his cousin and via throwing a dart at a map they eventually became the Bay City Rollers.
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Let the whole thundering world come home : a memoir
by Natalie Goldberg
When longtime Zen practitioner and world-renowned writing teacher Natalie Goldberg learns that she has a life-threatening illness, she is plunged into the challenging realm of hospitals, physicians, unfamiliar medical treatments, and the intense reality of her own impermanence. In navigating this foreign landscape, Natalie illuminates a pathway through illness that is grounded in the fierce commitment to embrace the suffering directly. In the middle of this, her partner discovers that she too has cancer. The cancer twins, as Natalie calls them, must together and apart grapple with survival, love, and the rawness of human connection.
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| Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give by Ada CalhounAn expansion of Ada Calhoun's 2015 essay "The Wedding Toast I'll Never Give," originally published in the New York Times' Modern Love column. A funny and insightful exploration of marriage -- both Calhoun's own and the concept itself -- aided by extensive research and interviews with couples, scholars, and clergy. Who it's for: Newlyweds and longtime spouses alike will appreciate this engaging collection blending personal reflections with frank advice. |
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| Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me by Bill HayesAfter the death of his longtime partner, Bill Hayes moved to New York City in 2009 and found a second chance at love with renowned neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks, who died in 2015.
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Heloise by Mandy HagerHeloise has an exceptional mind. In her determination to pursue learning rather than marriage or life as a cloistered nun, her path inevitably crosses with Peter Abelard, the celebrity philosopher, theologian and master at Paris' famed Cathedral School. When two such brilliant minds meet and engage, sparks are likely to fly. And when those two minds belong to a charismatic man and a determined young woman, those sparks are likely to ignite. But theirs is an impossible love.
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| Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady by Susan QuinnThe 30-year relationship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok, who championed each other's pursuits to make the world a better place. Fast-paced and meticulously researched, this illuminating dual biography chronicles the evolution of an empowering love. |
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Widow Basquiat : a love story
by Jennifer Clement
An exploration of the achievements and tragic early death of New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is presented through the story of his relationship with his lover and muse, Suzanne Mallouk.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi PO Box 73045 Christchurch 8154 +64-3-941-7923
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