New and Recently Released!
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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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The book of Hat
by Harriet Rowland
Hat was 17 when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that starts in the bones. Living in Wellington, New Zealand, Hat has fought the disease for three years and found a friend in cancer sufferer Hazel from John Green's novel The Fault in Our Stars, duplicating her trip to the Anne Frank House. In 2013, Hat celebrated her 20th birthday and mixed with the stars of the new Hobbit movie - both things she never expected to do. Since her diagnosis, Hat has kept a blog called My Experience of Walking the Dog and the posts are collected in this book, edited with the author's blessing. Why the blog title? Her family says cancer is like a dog - fine if it stays in its own yard. Hat's dog got out. This is her unexpected story.
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Beloved strangers: a memoir
by Maria Chaudhuri
A personal account of the author's upbringing in Dhaka describes the ephemeral family perspectives that made happiness elusive, her struggles to reconcile her inner self with her faith and the impact of friends on her education and beliefs.
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The art of being Deaf
by Donna McDonald
When she was five, the author was placed in an oral deaf school. There, she was trained to communicate only in spoken English. Her determination led to achievements that caused many to identify her as a "Deaf girl that had made good." This book tells her story.
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Dear Tyrant
by Barrie Allom
Dear Tyrant, as his wife called him, is the story of Albert James Allom (1825-1909), his family and childhood, his adventurous youth, his relationship with Edward Gibbon Wakefield, his struggle for success, and his philosophy of life. His story begins in London then moves to New Zealand and, later, the West Indies before he returns to New Zealand. Later again, seven years are spent in Tasmania before a final return to New Zealand. In New Zealand he was a survey cadet for the New Zealand Company in Wellington, Manawatu and Otago before becoming an enterprising run-holder in the Wairarapa, a mining and farming estate manager on Great Barrier Island, the registrar of mines at Thames and Ohinemuri goldfields, and eventually a very active retiree in Auckland. The story of his life is laced with human insight, humour and tragedy. Many notable figures during New Zealand's colonial era appear in Allom's own writings which add immediacy to the narrative and there are poignant passages about his beloved wife, Eliza, and their family of nine children.
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Peter the Great: his life and world
by Robert K. Massie
Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia, Robert K. Massie unfolds the extraordinary story of Peter the Great. A volatile feudal tsar with a taste for barbaric torture; a progressive and enlightened reformer of government and science; a statesman of vision who recreated his country's army and navy and founded St Petersburg as his imperial capital: Peter the Great embodied the greatest strengths and weaknesses of Russia while being at the very forefront of her development. Robert K. Massie delves deep into Peter's life and character, chronicling the pivotal events that transformed the boy tsar into a national icon. His portrayal of the complexities and contradictions of this most energetic of Russian rulers - a man both impetuous and stubborn, generous and cruel - brings a towering historical figure triumphantly to life.
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Storyteller: a foreign correspondent's memoir
by Zoe Daniel
Zoe Daniel is the ABC's fifteenth South East Asia Correspondent, and one of only a handful of women to combine one of the most dangerous jobs in the world with one of the most demanding: motherhood. From the political unrest in Bangkok and the bittersweet story of conjoined twins in India, to a tragic plane crash in Laos and the destruction of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Storyteller is a frank and brave memoir, as much about the events that capture our attention as it is about a personal story of the universal juggle of work, ambition and family amid the unpredictability of life and the predictability of the 24/7 media cycle.
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The bucket: memories of an inattentive childhood
by Allan Ahlberg
In this, his first book for adults, Allan Ahlberg sets out to recover or otherwise conjure up the early years of an oddly enchanted childhood lived out in a Black Country town in the 1940s. He writes of 'fugitive memories, the ones that shimmer on the edges of things: trapdoors in the grass, Dad's dancing overalls".
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The Bosnia list: a memoir of war, exile, and return
by Kenan Trebincevic
A young survivor of the Bosnian War returns to his homeland to confront the people who betrayed his family. At age eleven, Kenan Trebincevic was a happy, karate-loving kid living with his family in the quiet Eastern European town of Brcko. Then, in the spring of 1992, war broke out and his friends, neighbours and teammates all turned on him. Pero Kenan's beloved karate coach, showed up at his door with an AK-47, screaming: "You have one hour to leave or be killed!" Kenan's only crime: he was Muslim. This poignant, searing memoir chronicles Kenan's miraculous escape from the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign that swept the former Yugoslavia.
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The strange case of Dr Terry and Mr Chimes
by Terry Chimes
The Strange Case of Dr Terry and Mr Chimes is an autobiography with a difference. It covers the life of a founding member of The Clash, a man who appears to many to be a dual personality. Surely the crazy muso bashing the drums in a succession of punk and metal bands including the Clash, Black Sabbath and Billy Idol couldn't possibly be the same pursuing a successful career as a chiropractor, treating sick and injured with such kind compassion? Yet that is the mystique of the man, the rock star, the healer and the legend that is Terry Chimes.
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The secret life of Kim Dotcom
by David Fisher
From a lonely boy's bedroom in Germany to the penthouses of Hong Kong, from Wellington's Beehive to Washington's corridors of power, from the sedate suburb of Coatesville to the motor racing tracks of Europe, this is the untold story of the charismatic internet tycoon who has driven governments to distraction while winning the affection of internet users worldwide and of a large number of the New Zealand public. It recounts not only the high profile political and legal battles but also the behind the scenes domestic life of a man who has more wealth than he can spend in New Zealand and who once escaped to Europe for winter - and took his cars and furniture with him. Written by David Fisher, who has covered the story from the start for the New Zealand Herald , and who won the 2013 Reporter of the Year award in part for his coverage of the story, the book is not an authorised biography but has been written with the full co-operation of Kim Dotcom, who granted the author hours of exclusive interviews. The book also reveals: why Hollywood is obsessed with Dotcom; why he and wife Mona decided to settle in New Zealand; the full story of the dawn raid; what happened to Dotcom in jail; the truth about John Banks and Dotcom; and where The Hobbit comes into it.
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Jumbo: the unauthorised biography of a Victorian sensation
by John Sutherland
The first comprehensive 'biography' of one of the first celebrity animals who gave us one of our favourite words. Jumbo, Victorian England's favourite elephant, was born in 1861 in French Sudan, imported to a Parisian zoo and later sold on to London, where - for seventeen years - he dutifully gave children rides and ate buns from their hands, all the while being tortured at night to keep him docile. Worldwide fame came when he was bought by the American showman and scam artist P.T. Barnum in 1881, despite letters from 100,000 British schoolchildren who wrote to Queen Victoria begging her to prevent the sale.
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"In Hollywood, brides keep the bouquets and throw away the groom." ~ Groucho Marx (1890-1977), American humorist
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| Pauline Kael: a life in the dark by Brian KellowFor over two decades, from the 1960s to the early 1990s, Pauline Kael handed down the definitive word on Hollywood films through her reviews in The New Yorker. Biographer Brian Kellow relates how Kael developed a love for movies, learned the art of criticism, and eventually achieved the distinction of writing critiques that were both eagerly anticipated by moviegoers and feared by film producers. Sometimes controversial and always incisive, Kael was a masterful writer. Kellow takes advantage of her skill by quoting extensively from her best-known reviews (including those of Bonnie and Clyde, Jaws, and Star Wars) while identifying the major influences and inspirations in her career. Kirkus Reviews says, "this bio is a page-turner." |
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John Wayne: the life and legend
by Scott Eyman
Draws on first-person interviews in a revelatory portrait that includes coverage of his early life with his difficult parents, his anti-Communist conservative beliefs and his stormy marriages.
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Charlie Chaplin
by Peter Ackroyd
He was the very first icon of the silver screen, and is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood, even a hundred years on from his first film. But what of the man behind the moustache? The director holding the camera as well as acting in front of it? Peter Ackroyd's new biography turns the spotlight on Chaplin's life as well as his work, from his humble theatrical beginnings in music halls to winning an honorary Academy Award. Everything is here, from the glamour of his golden age to the murky scandals of the 1940s and eventual exile to Switzerland. This masterful book offers fresh revelations about one of the most familiar faces of the last century and brings The Little Tramp into vivid colour.
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| Hollywood: a third memoir by Larry McMurtryFrom Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry comes this memoir about his experiences in the film industry, including winning an Oscar for the screenplay he co-wrote of Brokeback Mountain. Hollywood includes stories of McMurtry's interactions with celebrities past and present, but it also incorporates more unusual reflections on the role of a writer in Hollywood. Fans of both McMurtry and Tinseltown will appreciate their intersection in this unique memoir from one of America's most renowned writers. This is the 3rd in McMurtry's trilogy of memoirs; though the first two don't discuss his film-related writing, you might want to pick up Books and Literary Life. |
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Love life
by Rob Lowe
A collection of personal writings by the actor, producer and best-selling author of Stories I Only Tell My Friends discusses such topics as his work on a flop television show, an actor's preparation exercises and his experiences while coaching a kids' basketball team dominated by omnipresent helicopter parents.
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| Possessed: the life of Joan Crawford by Donald SpotoIn this "balanced and readable account" (Library Journal) of a sometimes maligned film star, celebrity biographer Donald Spoto explores the life of Joan Crawford. Drawing on her personal papers, as well as previous biographical works, Spoto endeavors to rehabilitate her reputation (damaged by her daughter Christina Crawford's exposé in Mommie Dearest) and highlight her professional and business achievements. From her impoverished childhood to a dancing career on Broadway to Hollywood, Crawford worked incredibly hard -- but also made a name for herself as a self-absorbed diva. Bringing together different views of Crawford, Possessed delivers a thoroughly researched appraisal of her life and career, including her relationships with other film stars. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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