25 March is Good Friday. In New Zealand both the Friday (Good Friday) and the Monday of Easter are statutory public holidays, so libraries will be closed. But Saturday and Sunday aren't public holidays - so libraries will be open - except Linwood Library at Eastgate which will be closed on Easter Sunday.
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In the cafe of lost youth
by Patrick Modiano
"Who was Louki? Did anyone really know? She made her mark on all of us in different ways. We all remember her, some of us more than others, but did any of us truly know her? Can anyone honestly say they know another person? In the Cafe of Lost Youth is an absorbing evocation of a particular Paris of the 1950s, shadowy and shady, a secret world of writers, criminals, drinkers, and drifters. The novel, which includes vignettes of a number of historical figures and is inspired in part by the circle (depicted in the photographs of Ed van der Elsken) of the notorious and charismatic Guy Debord, centres on the enigmatic, waiflike figure of Louki, who catches everyone's attention even as she eludes possession or comprehension. Through the eyes of four very different narrators, we contemplate Louki's character and her fate, while Modiano explores the themes of identity, memory, time, and forgetting that are at the heart of his hypnotic and deeply moving art"
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| The Yid by Paul GoldbergIt's 1953 in the Soviet Union, and Stalin's plans to rid the country of its Jews are well under way. A security detail has gone to arrest an elderly Jewish actor; his response is to kill all three of them in a graceful but ultimately deadly move, find some followers, and make plans to assassinate Stalin. Written in three acts by a reporter who emigrated from Moscow in 1973, this debut novel is meticulously depicted, offbeat in its characterisations, full of gallows humor, and imaginative in its version of an alternative history. Fans of Gary Shteyngart (Absurdistan) should give it a shot. |
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A cat called Alfie
by Rachel Wells
Once a doorstep cat, always a doorstep cat. Edgar Road used to be your typical London street; a road full of people who barely said a word to one another. Then Alfie came along a big grey ball of fur who changed the lives of every family he met, and brought a community together. But now a new family have moved into Edgar Road and they, more than anyone else, need Alfie's help. Can he bring light to their darkest times? Or is it already too late to stop them from falling apart?
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The continuity girl
by Leah McLaren
Waking on the morning of her thirty-fifth birthday with baby fever, script supervisor Meredith Moore impulsively flees her Canada home for London, where she reunites with her eccentric mother, accepts a new job with a famous producer, and sets out to seduce an unsuspecting would-be father.
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Tail gait
by Rita Mae Brown
When a popular University of Virginia history professor is found murdered, Harry and her furry entourage disregard the confession of a homeless alum and look for clues in the victim's research about Virginia's Revolutionary past.
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| A dog's purpose by W. Bruce CameronThe dog at the heart of this touching novel narrates his search for purpose over the course of multiple canine lives. Though his first life as a stray is short and none too sweet, his second, as a golden retriever owned by eight-year-old Ethan, seems to be the pinnacle of a dog's existence. After a long life as Bailey, he is born again, this time as a female German shepherd who becomes a star Search and Rescue dog, but it's not until his rebirth as Buddy, a black Lab, that his true purpose becomes clear. This "tail-wagging three hanky boo-hooer" (Publishers Weekly) is sure to delight fans of books from Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain to Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie. |
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| We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy FowlerAt its core a story of heartbreaking family dysfunction, this novel is narrated by Rosemary, whose family fell apart in the wake of her sister Fern's disappearance when they were five years old. Several years later, her brother also left the family. Claiming not to remember what led to Fern's disappearance, Rosemary is eventually forced to confront the role she played. Spoilers abound when it comes to this family's story, so we'll say nothing more, but chances are your understanding of family may be redefined. |
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| The bees by Laline PaullThe rules are simple: "Accept, Obey, and Serve." But Flora 717, a worker bee whose "exceedingly large and ugly" appearance distinguishes her from the rest of her caste, is destined to put that motto to the test. Flora observes, questions, and challenges the hive's strict laws as all the while she rises through the colony's ranks -- from sanitation worker to Queen's handmaid -- undeterred by the brainwashing effects of honey and the all-consuming pheromonal power of Queen's Love. But honeybee colonies are super-organisms whose survival depends on the suppression of individual desires in service of the common good. Will Flora prove to be the saviour of her hive, or the agent of its destruction? |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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