The Chinese Lunar New Year of the Sheep begins on 19 February. Celebrate at Christchurch City Libraries with cultural performances; and family fun craft activities including Chinese lantern making.
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New and Recently Released!
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A royal experiment: the private life of King George III
by
Janice Hadlow
Documents the American Revolution-era king's radical pursuit of happiness in his private life with Queen Charlotte and their 15 children, describing his resolve to avoid the cruelties of his progenitors, his determined faithfulness and his approaches to parenting.
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Margot at war: love and betrayal in Downing Street, 1912-1916
by
Anne de Courcy
Margot Asquith was perhaps the most daring and unconventional Prime Minister's wife in British history. Known for her wit, style and habit of speaking her mind, she transformed 10 Downing Street into a glittering social and intellectual salon. Yet her last five years at Number 10 were a period of intense emotional and political turmoil in her private and public life.
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Magnificent obesity: my search for wellness, voice and meaning in the second half of life
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Martha M. Moravec
When Martha Moravec shows up at the ER with severe anxiety, she does not expect to be told she is having a heart attack at age 55. What follows is a journey of mind, body, and soul as the shock accelerates a tolerable midlife crisis into a race to close the gap between where she is headed in life and the very different place she wants to be.
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Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the primeval monsters
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Patricia Pierce
Spinster Mary Anning, uneducated and poor, was of the wrong sex, wrong class and wrong religion, but fate decreed that she was exactly the right person in the right place and time to pioneer the emerging science of palaeontology, the study of fossils. Aged twelve, she caught the public's attention when she unearthed the skeleton of a 'fish lizard' or Ichthyosaurus. She later found the first Plesiosaurus giganteus, with its extraordinary long neck associated with the Loch Ness monster, and, dramatically, she unearthed the first, still rare, Dimorphodon macronyx, a frightening 'flying dragon' with hand claws and teeth. Yet her many discoveries were announced to the world by male geologists like the irrepressible William Buckland and Sir Henry De La Beche and they often received the credit. In Jurassic Mary Patricia Pierce redresses this imbalance, bringing to life the extraordinary, little-known story of this determined and pioneering woman.
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Land's edge: a coastal memoir
by
Tim Winton
On childhood holidays to the western coast, Tim Winton's days followed a joyous rhythm. In the mornings, the sun and surf kept him outside, in the water. In the afternoons, as the horizon wobbled with mirages and the wind came in from the ocean, he was driven inside, to books. In the 'simple, peculiar shack' that his family borrowed each year there was a small library: a room with four walls of books, a world unto itself. In this beautifully delicate memoir, Winton writes about his obsession with what happens where the water meets the shore about diving, dunes, beachcombing and the sense of being on the precarious, wondrous edge of things that haunts his novels. It is a book about the ebb and flow that became a way of life, and that shaped one of our finest writers.
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There was a little girl: the real story of my mother and me
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Brooke Shields
The award-winning actress and best-selling author of Down Came the Rain explores her relationship with her tough single mom, detailing her role in shaping Shields' career, her fierce protectiveness and her struggles with alcohol.
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Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the pulse of history
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Rhonda K. Garelick
An extensive portrait of the 20th-century fashion maven examines her critical place in history and the talents through which she internalized and transmitted cultural trends, drawing on extensive portraits of her intimates to offer insights into her creativity and business savvy.
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Tove Jansson
by
Tuula Karjalainen
Tove Jansson (1914-2001) led a long, colourful and productive life, impacting significantly the political, social and cultural history of 20th-century Finland. This is an illustrated biography of one of the most unique and beloved children's authors of the 20th century, the creator of the Moomins.
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Stalin: paradoxes of power, 1878-1928
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Stephen Kotkin
The first of three planned volumes. Historian Stephen Kotkin details the Soviet dictator's youth and rise to power in the context of the sweeping political changes that eventually brought down the czarist regime in Russia. Having started life in poverty, Stalin received a seminary education, where he was radicalized by a Marxist teacher. Joining the revolutionary movement, he overcame social and physical disabilities to place himself in the ideal position to assume leadership of the Soviet Union at Lenin's death -- and to begin his dictatorial career.
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My heart is a drunken compass: a memoir
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Domingo Martinez
Bestselling memoirist Domingo Martinez continues his life story (begun in The Boy Kings of Texas) with accounts of two shattering events: his youngest brother and his ex-fiancée both suffered serious head injuries in separate incidents. After introducing this memoir with reports of their accidents, Martinez portrays his relationships with his brother and his former fiancée, the devastating effects their injuries had on them and him, and his recovery from resulting depression and addiction. In My Heart is a Drunken Compass, Martinez' powerful and graceful writing offers inspiration as it illuminates his path to healing and redemption.
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Only when I laugh
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Paul Merton
An autobiography, that takes us on a journey from the author's working-class Fulham childhood to the present day. Begining with his school days, it covers his run-ins with the nuns and other pupils; taking acid; leaving home to live in bedsit; his early brushes with the opposite sex and his repeated attempts to break into the world of comedy.
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Different every time: the authorised biography of Robert Wyatt
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Marcus O'Dair
Robert Wyatt started out as the drummer and singer for Soft Machine, who shared a residency at Middle Earth with Pink Floyd and toured America with Jimi Hendrix. He brought a Bohemian and jazz outlook to the 1960s rock scene. This is a definitive biography of Robert Wyatt, Britain's greatest cult musician.
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Wagstaff, before and after Mapplethorpe: a biography
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Philip Gefter
A broad-scale portrait of the intellectual and cultural visionary and lover of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe traces his evolution from a 1940s society bachelor to his emergence as a counterculture curator and world-class collector.
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Shackleton: by endurance we conquer
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Michael Smith
Anglo-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton participated in the greatest Antarctic expeditions, not quite winning the race to the geographic South Pole but making his mark in Polar exploration nonetheless. Though Shackleton's name is associated with remarkable achievements, less has been written about his life at home in England. In Shackleton, journalist Michael Smith portrays the whole man, including his failed business ventures and complicated personal life along with his remarkable leadership abilities and details of his expeditions. Polar exploration fans, general biography readers, and adventure addicts won't want to miss this riveting life story.
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Focus on: Actors and Actresses
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"I've had to work hard at that easygoing manner you see on the screen." ~ James Garner (1928-2014), American actor
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The Garner files
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James Garner and Jon Winokur
James Garner, star of television's Maverick and The Rockford Files (among other roles), claims that he owes his successful acting career more to luck than to his own abilities. Nevertheless, when he describes the physical demands of action roles, it becomes clear that he was a hard worker. Employing the gentle humour that distinguished his television characters, he recalls his difficult Depression Era childhood, his service in the Korean War, and his marriage of over 50 years. This delightful autobiography includes anecdotes about Garner by friends and family as well as an introduction by Julie Andrews and his annotations on films and television shows where he appeared.
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Olivier
by
Philip Ziegler
The award-winning biographer draws on previously unavailable materials to illuminate the achievements that rendered Olivier one of the most distinguished actors of the 20th century and his surprising decision to become the low-paid founding director of the National Theatre.
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The Astaires: Fred & Adele
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Kathleen Riley
Entertainer Fred Astaire's first dancing partner was his older sister Adele, who initially outshone her brother with her more natural talent. The siblings developed a wildly successful career in New York and London, until Adele retired from the theatre after marrying a British aristocrat. In The Astaires, theatre historian Kathleen Riley depicts Adele and Fred's gay and glittering life among entertainment celebrities such as Noël Coward, the Gershwin brothers, Flo Ziegfeld, and socialites on both sides of the Atlantic. Writing with a "grace and eloquence equal to her subjects" (Publishers Weekly), Riley offers a well researched and sparkling theatrical biography.
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The Redgraves: a family epic
by
Donald Spoto
A dramatic account of five generations of the Redgrave family traces their achievements and personal lives while offering new revelations based on the author's insider access as a personal friend of the late Michael Redgrave, in a volume that explores their collective influence and theatrical legacy.
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My extraordinary ordinary life
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Sissy Spacek with Maryanne Vollers
Academy Award-winning actress Sissy Spacek has had a long and storied career in Hollywood, but don't read her memoir expecting dirt on her co-stars. Instead, the down-to-earth actress shares the story of her life and career in an honest and open account that spans her childhood in Texas, her arrival in New York City, her distinguished acting career, and, most importantly it seems, her connection to the farm in Virginia where she raised her daughters and continues to live. With a focus on family and friendships, Spacek's life story will appeal to readers more interested in the wife and mother than the movie star.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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