Christchurch Photo Hunt 2014
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New and Recently Released!
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Maeve Binchy: the biography
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Piers Dudgeon
Irish author Maeve Binchy engagingly portrayed her native country in numerous bestselling novels and story collections for three decades before she died in 2012. She also wrote sparkling commentary about contemporary life for the Irish Times. In this captivating biography, author Piers Dudgeon creates a portrait of Binchy that explores the connection between her personal experiences and her fiction.
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Working stiff: two years, 262 bodies, and the making of a medical examiner
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Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell
In Working Stiff, pathologist Judy Melinek recounts her experiences during two years training as a medical examiner in New York City, which included the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Melinek also investigated more typical deaths from natural causes, homicides, and suicides; she counselled grieving families; and she testified in court cases. This engaging memoir not only explains how to carry out an autopsy but humorously relates conversations about the work of a pathologist and vividly describes deaths from unusual causes.
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Harry's last stand: how the world my generation built is falling down, and what we can do to save it
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Harry Leslie Smith
'As one of the last remaining survivors of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I will not go gently into that good night. I want to tell you what the world looks like through my eyes, so that you can help change it.' In November 2013, 91-year-old Yorkshireman, RAF veteran and ex-carpet salesman Harry Leslie Smith's Guardian article 'This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time' was shared almost 60,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate about the state of society. Now he brings his unique perspective to bear on NHS cutbacks, benefits policy, political corruption, food poverty, the cost of education and much more.
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Wellington: the path to victory 1769-1814
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Rory Muir
The Duke of Wellington was Britain's greatest soldier, whose victories turned the tide of Napoleon's conquests and played a crucial role in his downfall. Wellington went on to be a major figure in British politics, twice serving as Prime Minister. Often the centre of controversy, he was at times feted and celebrated as a national hero, at others reviled in the press and abused in the streets. He was a far more complicated man than the paragon of virtue celebrated by Victorian biographers. Rory Muir's masterly new biography, the first of a two volume set, is the result of thirty years research into the Duke of Wellington and his times.
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Blimmin heck
by
Kerry Butler
If you are blessed with a good sense of humour then you've got to read this book by Hawkes Bay farmer Kerry Butler... where he recounts his life of escapades, frustrations and fun. Some of the stories are centred around the 1960s - which will evoke nostalgic memories in those who grew up during that liberated era of mini-skirts and shenanigans.
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Stolen lives: a New Zealand foster child's story from the '40s and '50s
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Netta England
From a very early age Netta and her older brother Ray lived with foster parents and at school were treated as different. Growing up, Netta became increasingly aware that her foster mother disliked her. Though never starved, Netta suffered neglect, as well as mental, physical and sexual abuse. Stolen Lives is the record of Netta's journey from a neglected and abused state ward, to a woman who discovers her heritage and creates a positive life regardless of her upbringing.
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Call me sister
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Jane Yeadon
Who'd have thought a missing bacon rasher and a teaspoon would play a part in advancing someone's career? It's the late '60s and Jane Yeadon has always wanted to be a district nurse. Staff nursing in a ward where she's challenged by an inventory-driven ward sister, she reckons it's time to swap such trivialities for life as a district nurse. Independent thinking is one thing, but Jane's about to find that the drama on district can demand instant reaction; and without hospital back up, she's usually the one having to provide it.
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Upside of down
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Susan Biggar
Susan Biggar fell in love with a New Zealander. Maybe, as an American, she saw Darryl as a ticket to an exhilarating, global life. When her first son arrived, he came with fierce blue eyes, a curly toe and cystic fibrosis. The doctors said he would be lucky to reach the age of thirty. A job offer in Paris snatched the family from New Zealand, depositing them in the city of lights, romance-and a whole new medical world. When Susan's second baby was also born with cystic fibrosis, the insignificant worries of her old life slipped away, shifting her from 'normal mum' to 'gotta-figure-out-how-to-keep-the-kids-alive-mum'. This - and all that followed - was not what she expected. Set across the globe-in California, New Zealand, France and Australia.
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Diary of a mad diva
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Joan Rivers
In this follow-up to her best-selling I Hate Everyone... Starting With Me, the legendary comedienne presents the hilarious contents of her diary which offer insights, quips, musings and critiques on her daily life, pop culture and celebrities.
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Getting life: an innocent man's 25-year journey from prison to peace
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Michael Morton
Author Michael Morton spent 25 years in prison in Texas for the murder of his wife before being exonerated. In this eye-opening memoir, he details in a straightforward, thoughtful manner how he discovered his wife's body and the prosecution that led to his wrongful conviction. Getting Life vividly recounts Morton's prison experiences and explains how the Innocence Project presented evidence that led to the actual culprit. The conclusion to this account offers an inspiring resolution to his story without negating the disturbing facts of the case.
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The lucky one: a story of courage, hope & bright pink lipstick
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Krystal Barter
Krystal Barter was born with the breast cancer gene, a hereditary curse that has run through generation after generation in her family, claiming at least twenty of her close relatives. But unlike them, Krystal was able to take the BRCA1 gene test, and found out the devastating news that she too was carrying the rogue gene. At the age of 25, with her husband and two children beside her, she decided to have a double mastectomy on national television, no less, so she could inspire others in similar circumstances to do the same. From her hospital bed, Krystal started a unique community and fund-raising platform called Pink Hope, which is a safe haven and resource for cancer victims and women throughout Australia.
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Garden of dreams: the life of Simone Signoret
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Patricia A. DeMaio
Simone Signoret, one of the grand actresses of the twentieth century and one of France's most notable stars, considered herself the "oldest discovery" in Hollywood. After years of blacklisting during the McCarthy era, she was thirty-eight years old when she entered Hollywood through the back door in the 1959 British blockbuster Room at the Top. Her portrayal of Alice Aisgill earned her the Academy Award in 1960, the first French actor to win an Oscar. Though a latecomer to Hollywood, Signoret was already an international star who had survived the Nazi occupation of Paris, emerging as a beautiful, promising actress capable of communicating more emotion through body language than dialogue alone could achieve. She gained a reputation as the thinking man's sex symbol..
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Blue-eyed boy: a memoir
by
Robert Timberg
Near the end of his service as a Marine in Vietnam, Robert Timberg was severely burned and disfigured by a landmine. In Blue-Eyed Boy, he recounts his recovery and the multiple reconstructive surgeries that restored his health -- but not his looks. Needing a career to support his family, he decided to study journalism but realised he would have to interact with people to be an effective reporter. Overcoming his reluctance to be seen, he developed a successful 30-year newspaper career, which included serving as the Baltimore Sun's White House correspondent. This inspiring memoir offers an appreciation of challenges veterans face and insight into stories Timberg covered -- including the Iran-Contra affair.
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Pilgrim's wilderness: a true story of faith and madness on the Alaska Frontier
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Tom Kizzia
Documents the story of Robert "Papa Pilgrim" Hale and the antiestablishment family settlement in remote Alaska that was eventually exposed as a cult-like prison where Hale brutalised and isolated his wife and 15 children, describing the torturous abuse endured by the family before his older children escaped and reported Hale to authorities.
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Ivan Lendl: the man who made Murray
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Mark Hodgkinson
What did Lendl do to turn Murray from a perennial runner-up to US Open Champion and the first Briton to lift the Wimbledon trophy in 77 years? Going back to Lendl's roots and through extensive interviews and analysis of the Murray-Lendl axis seen at close quarters, Mark Hodgkinson reveals the magic formula that Lendl used to turn Murray into a champion. In so doing he lifts the lid on their relationship, and how it came to an end, which made this left-field combination the most successful in British tennis history.
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MWF seeking BFF: my yearlong search for a new best friend
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Rachel Bertsche
A web producer at Oprah.com and former editor at O: The Oprah Magazine documents the year she spent looking for a new best friend after relocating to Chicago, a search marked by weekly girl-dates and her observations on current social research about the friend-making challenges faced by modern adults.
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Updike
by
Adam Begley
Delving into his best-loved works, this glimpse into the life of the award-winning author, based on in-depth research and interviews, reveals a private person compelled to spill his secrets on the printed page.
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"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends." ~ Maya Angelou (1928-2014), American author,
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
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Imperial dreams: tracking the imperial woodpecker through the wild Sierra Madre
by
Tim Gallagher
The imperial woodpecker, once commonly seen in the Sierra Madre mountains, may be extinct, but reports suggest that a few of these majestic birds still live there. The region is also rich with accounts of human activity, including the exploits of Geronimo and Pancho Villa, the adventures of Mormon settlers -- and present-day drug smugglers. Naturalist Tim Gallagher, following a map of reported sightings, trekked through the area in 2008 hoping to spot an imperial.
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Just sea and sky: England to New Zealand the hard way
by
Ben Pester
Part travelogue and part adventure story, two men sailed half way round the globe with no GPS, electronics, radio or any of the mod cons we take for granted. Staggering that they did it, and staggering that it was only a few decades ago.
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The Puppy Express: on the road with 25 rescue dogs. What could go wrong?
by
David Rosenfelt
Travelling goes to the dogs in this funny, heartwarming book. As if driving from California to Maine wasn't ambitious enough, crime novelist David Rosenfelt also transported his large family of 25 rescued dogs. The author of crime novels starring dog lover Andy Carpenter relates stories of canines he's known through the years as he recounts how he crossed the country with his wife, their dogs, and several friends and fans in three RVs.
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Farewell, Fred Voodoo: a letter from Haiti
by
Amy Wilentz
"Fred Voodoo" is the condescending alias that reporters used to call the typical Haitian. Veteran journalist Amy Wilentz, who's been fascinated by and reporting on the poverty-stricken country for almost 30 years, gladly leaves behind that stereotype to present sympathetic but acute close-ups of the individuals she's met, including the powerful and the impoverished. Describing Haiti's turbulent history, and focusing especially on the devastating 2010 earthquake's aftermath, she explains why she's "stirred and moved" by what she sees.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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