"There was one detail that caught nearly everyone off guard: that at the war’s end Hanns had tracked down the Kommandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss." ~ from Thomas Harding's Hanns and Rudolf
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BIG BARGAIN BOOK SALE March is the month of our "world famous in Christchurch" book sale. - Friday 11 March, 9:00am - 7:00pm
- Saturday 12 March, 9:00am - 4:00pm
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| Maggie Smith: A Biography by Michael CoveneyVersatile, award-winning actress Dame Maggie Smith, a favourite of many fans of television's Downton Abbey, has been appearing on stage and screen for over 60 years. In this detailed biography, British theatre critic Michael Coveney reviews Smith's remarkable career, which has ranged from comedy to tragedy and from London's West End to Hollywood -- and even a touch of Bollywood (in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). Though Smith guards her privacy when offstage, she and her husband, family, and colleagues cooperated with Coveney in his research, allowing him to develop a full portrait of her professional and personal life. |
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Over the top and back
by Tom Jones
In this, his first ever autobiography, Tom will revisit his past, both personal and professional, exploring the twists of fate that took a boy from a poor Welsh coal-mining family to global celebrity status.
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Boys in the trees : a memoir
by Carly Simon
Simon's memoir reveals her remarkable life, beginning with her storied childhood as the third daughter of Richard L. Simon, the co-founder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, her musical debut as half of The Simon Sisters performing folk songs with her sister Lucy in Greenwich Village, to a meteoric solo career.
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My name is Mahtob
by Mahtob Mahmoody
A sequel to the best-selling biography shares the story of daughter Mahtob Mahmoody, who describes her firsthand experiences as the daughter of an abusive and fanatical Iranian father and her struggles with abduction fears, illness and faith after her escape.
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Six Days in Leningrad
by Paullina Simons
Paullina Simons travelled to Leningrad (now St Petersburg) with her beloved Papa. What began as a research trip turned into six days that forever changed her life, the course of her family, and the novel that became The bronze horseman.
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Queen of spies : Daphne Park, Britain's Cold War spy master
by Paddy Hayes
Documents the true story of the female British secret intelligence officer to share insights into the significance of her achievements in a male-dominated organization, offering intimate narratives of her Cold War-era missions and her celebrated appointment as one of the SIS's elite Area Controllers.
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| The Last Volcano: A Man, a Romance, and the Quest to Understand Nature's Most... by John DvorakThe science of volcanology was in its infancy when geologist Thomas Jagger traveled to Martinique in 1902 to see how Mount Peleé's recent explosion had devastated the island. What he saw made him immerse himself in volcano studies to the extent that he alienated his wife and family and drew ridicule from other geologists. Criscrossing the globe to study active volcanoes, sometimes running towards eruptions, he made key discoveries (he was the first to predict a tsunami) and left an important scientific legacy. |
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Amazing fantastic incredible : a marvelous memoir
by Stan Lee
In a full-color graphic memoir, a comic book legend and co-creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk and a legion of other Marvel superheroes shares his iconic legacy and the story of how modern comics came to be.
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Easily distracted
by Steve Coogan
The autobiography of one of Britain's favourite actors. Born and raised in Manchester in the sixties, Steve Coogan was the fourth of seven children. It was soon noticed that he had a talent for impersonations.
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Charles Williams : The Third Inkling
by Grevel Lindop
A lively and readable literary biography of a remarkable personality who was a central member of the Inklings, this book rediscovers the dramatic and contradictory life of a brilliant writer and publisher from a poor London background who became a ground-breaking theologian, fantasy novelist and poet.
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| The Way Around: Finding My Mother and Myself Among the Yanomami by David Good with Daniel PaisnerImagine being the child of an American scientist and an Amazonian tribeswoman who gives up trying to cope with American culture when you're six years old and disappears from your life. This describes author David Good's childhood, when his mother's abandonment left him uncomprehending and depressed. In this forgiving and insightful autobiography, Good relates the story of his parents' marriage, his early years, and his later struggles to understand who he was and why his mother had left. After going to the Amazon to meet her and her tribe, the Yanomami, he became able to reconcile himself with both cultures and find his own peace. |
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| Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter: A Biography of Princess Louise by Lucinda HawksleyPrincess Louise, Queen Victoria's sixth child, was an artist and passionate advocate for women's rights. She was highly regarded by the British public, but was far from being a conventional princess. Though much is known about Louise, many details of her life are off-limits, locked away in the Royal Archives and those of the National Gallery. Art historian Lucinda Hawksley draws on generally available information about Victoria and her family to develop this intriguing biography, which includes an exploration of the rumor that Louise gave birth to an illegitimate child. |
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Princess Margaret : a biography
by Theo Aronson
Looks at the tumultuous life of Queen Elizabeth's sister Margaret, her unsuitable relationships, and her tendency to flout the established royal conventions
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Emperor Huizong
by Patricia Buckley Ebrey
The first comprehensive English-language biography of this important monarch, Emperor Huizong is a nuanced portrait that corrects the prevailing view of Huizong as decadent and negligent. Patricia Ebrey recasts him as a ruler genuinely ambitious if too much so in pursuing glory for his flourishing realm.
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| When Breath Becomes Air by Paul KalanithiAt age 36, recently married neurosurgery resident Paul Kalanithi received the devastating diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer. In this compelling memoir, Kalanithi relates how he had previously chosen to study medicine instead of literature and then traces the personal upheaval of his illness and its disruption to his family life. Exploring the question of life's meaning in the face of death, he offers his courageous, inspiring insights on love, parenthood, and mortality. |
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I'm the man : the story of that guy from Anthrax
by Scott Ian
A memoir by the guitarist and founder of an influential thrash-metal band recounts his upbringing as a nerdy Jewish boy in Queens, the roles of favorite bands who shaped his ambitions and Anthrax's meteoric rise to fame.
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Destiny and power : the American odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
by Jon Meacham
Meacham creates an intimate and detailed life story of a man whom many know only through his politics, or from a distance. From interviews and exclusive access to Bush's presidential diaries, Meacham brings Bush and the American family he came from, vividly to life.
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Focus on: Dual Biographies
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| Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the... by Sean B. CarrollMost people would be surprised to find common bonds between a Nobel-winning scientist and another Nobel laureate in literature, but in Brave Genius scientist Sean Carroll explores the relationship between author Albert Camus and biologist Jacques Monod. During World War II, they separately joined the French Resistance and survived significant danger in its service. They met for the first time after the war and bonded over their shared abhorrence of communism. Carroll traces their earlier lives, vividly portrays their war service, and clearly and accessibly describes their scientific and philosophical achievements. . |
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| Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Tracked Down and... by Thomas HardingHanns Alexander was a German Jew who fled to Britain in 1938 and joined the British Army; in 1945 he was a member of the British War Claims Investigation Team. Rudolf Höss was the Kommandant of Auschwitz, where over a million Jews were murdered. In Hanns and Rudolf, author Thomas Harding, a great-nephew of Alexander, recounts in detail the lives of both men in the 1930s and '40s, bringing the narrative gradually to the point where Alexander captures Höss. Including Höss' confession and additional details about tracking and arresting Nazi war criminals, Hanns and Rudolf provides a gripping biography of the two men and a compelling piece of World War II history. |
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| Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David MargolickIn 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas, white residents vehemently opposed the integration of Central High School by the so-called Little Rock Nine. A famous photograph shows a black student, Elizabeth Eckford, being viciously heckled by a white teenager named Hazel Massery. In Elizabeth and Hazel, journalist David Margolick details their family backgrounds and vividly portrays the effects this confrontation had on the two women's lives. Eckford withdrew from society while Massery -- though initially unrepentant -- gradually changed her views. In this complex, thought-provoking story, sometimes hopeful and sometimes disturbing, a snapshot of the integration battles becomes an icon of the Civil Rights movement. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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