"Ruby Stevens from the streets of Brooklyn, who danced in cabarets and clubs, a Broadway star at twenty, was a daughter of the American Revolution."
~ from Victoria Wilson's A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 |
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Waitangi Day and New Zealand
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The New Zealand flag is back in public debate and February begins with the celebration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, an important moment in our history. Waitangi Day is always a time of celebrating our nation, but also of understanding how we have got to this point. Our Waitangi Day resource is a useful guide to the event and to further reading and thinking about the issues. We have a special section on what happened at Ōnuku Marae, the site of one of the South Island treaty signings.The Kids’ Treaty Zone is a great new resource for helping kids to learn about the Treaty. |
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New and Recently Released!
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Undisputed Truth
by Mike Tyson
An unstinting memoir by the former heavyweight champion explores his stereotype-defying life and career, looks back on the notoriety that has overshadowed his successes and recounts his fight back to success and respectability after losing his fortune in 2003.
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Self-Portrait
by Marti Friedlander
From a childhood in London's East End to half a century in New Zealand photographing wine-makers, artists, children and kuia, Marti Friedlander has lived a rich life. In Self-Portrait, Marti tells her story for the first time. As forthright and revealing in words as in her photographs, she tells of growing up in London orphanages, being Jewish, working in a Kensington photography studio, marrying a New Zealander and moving across the world to a challenging new country. This book is a rich meditation on one woman's photographic journey through the twentieth century.
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Passion for Life
by Joan Collins
Reveals details of author's life with her fifth (and final) husband Percy, her travels around the world, fun with family and friends, and shares anecdotes about the people she has met during her life. Filled with images of her life, this book tells her story.
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And a Voice To Sing With: A Memoir
by Joan Baez
From the smoke-filled coffeehouse of the 1950s folk scene, where she first performed, to the racially tense South of the early sixties, bringing support to terrorized African-Americans with Martin Luther King, Jr., Joan has been involved with some of the most important political movements. Joan always took her social and political beliefs on-stage with her. The Woodstock performance where she sang to thousands in the middle of the night while six months pregnant became one of the stand-out and iconic performances of that period. Whether she is recounting her stormy love affair with a young, undiscovered Bob Dylan and how, years later, they fought bitterly over her affair with a woman; or her marriage to David Harris and the pain of their break up, Joan displays both the openness and vulnerability that have touched us in her music and the passion and integrity that have marked her politics.
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Sophie Pascoe
by Sophie Pascoe
Sophie Pascoe is New Zealand's most successful Paralympian. She has won 16 medals across two Paralympics and two World Championships, including six gold. Born in Christchurch, Sophie grew up on a lifestyle block near Halswell.
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| A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria WilsonBorn in New York City in 1907 and named Ruby Stevens, Hollywood star Barbara Stanwyck started in the chorus line (including a stint as a Ziegfeld Girl in the Follies) before developing into an award-winning actress. In this biography, author Victoria Wilson enthrallingly details the actress' life, providing not only personal details but a panoramic view of the American motion picture industry. Exhaustively researched and vividly portrayed, A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 absorbs readers into Stanwyck's world, leaving them hungry for the still unpublished volume 2. |
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Musorgsky and His Circle: A Russian Musical Adventure
by Stephen Walsh
A collective biography of the 19th-century Russian composer and four of his musical peers examines the considerable originality of their achievements in spite of limited technical training, sharing insights into their role in bringing Russian music into the modern world.
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The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski
by Samantha Geimer
Breaking a 35-year silence, the girl at the centre of the infamous Roman Polanski sexual assault case reflects on the events of that day and, taking readers far beyond the headlines, tells how her life was irrevocably altered by the rape and subsequent media attention.
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Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker
by Stanley Crouch
The first of two volumes based on the life of one of the most talented and influential musicians of the 20th century reaches back past the legend to reveal Charlie Parker the wunderkind who was raised in the midst of the Depression in the wide-open town of Boss Tom Pendergast's Kansas City.
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Gandhi Before India
by Ramachandra Guha
This is the first volume of the definitive biography of Gandhi, one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th century, from the great historian Ramachandra Guha.
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Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore
by Linda Leavell
A portrait of the modernist poet, written with the support of the Moore estate, goes beyond popularised depictions to reveal her passionate and canny nature as well as her struggles between her devotion to family and desire for freedom, providing coverage of her Greenwich Village artist influences and her later-in-life personal transformation.
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Robert Plant: A Life
by Paul Rees
The legendary rock icon offers a rare glimpse into his life, from his years as the front man for one of the most influential rock bands of all time and his relationship with Jimmy Page and John Bonham, to the solo career today that sees him producing some of the most acclaimed work of his career.
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Some Books You Might Have Missed in 2013
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| My Way: An Autobiography by Paul AnkaFans of 1950s and '60s popular music will relish this autobiography of Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka, who achieved his first hit, "Diana," when he was 16. The following year, 1958, he had five more hits, and he became one of the most popular singers of the early '60s. As he focused more on songwriting, Anka became closely associated with the Rat Pack, drinking and gambling with Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and even mobsters. Sharing details of his own life and insights into the personalities of other pop stars and Rat Pack members, Anka's "lively, entertaining" (Booklist) account brings readers up to date. |
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| Country Girl: A Memoir by Edna O'BrienIrish author Edna O'Brien, born in 1930, grew up in the countryside, where her convent education didn't encourage her dreams of becoming a writer. As a young woman she took a job in Dublin in hopes of meeting established writers and joining their fraternity. By 1960 she had moved to London, where her first novel, The Country Girls, found success -- though it was long banned in Ireland. Her evocative tales continued to bring critical acclaim, numerous awards, and celebrity. In Country Girl, O'Brien employs her lyrical, evocative writing to recount her life. Even when she's describing her years as a swinger, her core essence as an outstanding writer shines through. |
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| Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me by Patricia VolkGrowing up in fashion-conscious circles in New York City, author Patricia Volk admired and loved her beautiful mother Audrey, observing her ability to maintain her gorgeous image and her womanly mystique. Despite being impressed with her mother, though, Patricia couldn't adhere to Audrey's expectations. At age ten she discovered a very different model of womanhood when she read fashionista Elsa Schiaparelli's memoir A Shocking Life. In her memoir Shocked, Patricia reviews the contradictory effects of these two role models on her persona as she depicts her life and the New York society that formed her. Employing sharply witty vignettes, she paints a portrait of three lives -- her own, her mother's, and Schiaparelli's. "Witty, tender, and vividly nostalgic, |
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| Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael SheldenNow best remembered as Britain's indomitable leader during World War II, Winston Churchill began his political career four decades earlier, entering Parliament in 1901. In Young Titan, biographer Michael Shelden focuses on Churchill's life up to 1915, during which he was rejected by a young woman he loved, began a successful political career, and subsequently resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty after the disastrous defeat at Gallipoli. Shelden interweaves details about Churchill's adventures throughout the British Empire with accounts of his education, love life, and writing, producing an engaging close-up of the young man who would eventually make his mark as one of Britain's greatest statesmen. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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