News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Porowhita = Circle songs : two new karakia and twelve new round songs in Māori and English for classrooms, choirs and communities / Sean O’Connor.
“These fourteen new compositions offer classrooms, choirs and communities a chance to rediscover ’round’ singing and its unique musical and social dynamic. Round singing invites equal participation, a balance of following and leading, and a development of heightened musical and social awareness through interwoven melody and rhythm, creating harmony. Weaving together Te reo and English with voices and movement, standing in the circle, singing of the circle of the year, and of proverbs, awakenings and karakia that carry simple but beautiful wisdom.” – (Book cover description)

The meeting place : Māori and Pākehā encounters, 1642-1840 / Vincent O’Malley.
“Vincent O’Malley suggests a solution emerged {to enable the two peoples to live together} at a cultural meeting place in which neither party was able to dictate the rules of engagement…That shared meeting place eroded after 1840 as Pākehā became powerful enough to dictate terms.” – (Back cover description)

Tiki and temple : the Mormon mission in New Zealand, 1854-1958 / Marjorie Newton.
Details many events that happened from the very beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand in the 1850s. Behind each is a story of faith, devotion, and many hardships.
“The New Zealand Mission of the Mormon Church was virtually two missions – one to the English-speaking immigrants and their descendants, and on to the tangata whenua –people of the land” – (Back cover description)

The grand tour / Agatha Christie ; edited by Mathew Prichard.
“In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a 10-month voyage around the British Empire with her husband as part of a trade mission to promote the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition. She kept up a detailed weekly correspondence with her mother, describing in detail the exotic places and people she encountered as the mission travelled through South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada. Previously unpublished letters are accompanied by hundreds of photos taken on her portable camera as well as some of the original letters, postcards, newspaper cuttings and memorabilia collected by Agatha on her trip. The Grand Tour is a book steeped in history, sure to fascinate anyone interested in the lost world of the 1920s. Coming from the pen of Britain’s biggest literary export and the world’s most widely translated author, it is also a fitting tribute to Agatha Christie and is sure to fascinate her legions of worldwide fans.” – (adapted from Global Books In Print summary)

Jackie, Ethel, Joan : the women of Camelot / J. Randy Taraborrelli.
“The Kennedys once again are the focus of a biography, but this time the stories bring together three women who married into the famous family: Jackie Bouvier, Ethel Skakel, and Joan Bennett. Although their childhoods are briefly visited, it is the years of Camelot that are the main focus here, with much attention to its poignant collapse upon the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy. Filled with anecdotes derived from an exhaustive list of sources, including interviews and personal letters, there are enough tantalizing interpersonal scenes to keep even the most experienced Kennedy watcher alert. Taraborrelli keeps true to his focus by emphasizing the wives’ reactions, feelings, and accomplishments rather than shifting to the Kennedy family members themselves. Although the narrative borders on the melodramatic at times, the comfortable pace, coupled with a rich reading by Beth Fowler, makes this a necessary purchase for any public library collection.” – (adapted from Library Journal summary)

The queens’ London : the metropolis in the Diamond Jubilee years of Victoria & Elizabeth II / Jon Curry & Hugo Simms.
“In the last years of the nineteenth century, The Queen’s London: A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Great Metropolis was published. The work, a collection of some of the finest photographs of the capital ever taken, was produced to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of her most excellent Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India. In 2012, when the eyes of the world will be on London, The Queens’ London brings this story up to date. Pairing these beautifully captured vintage views with 180 images taken from identical vantage points in the London of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, it gives the reader a fascinating perspective on the history behind London’s familiar streets.” – (adapted from Global Books In Print summary)

Colonel Gaddafi’s hat : the real story of the Libyan uprising / Alex Crawford.
“Colonel Gadaffi’s Hat is both a gripping and deeply moving account of the Libyan uprising from the lone journalist who was able to report from the rebel army convoy that captured Green Square, in the heart of Tripoli. Alex Crawford’s daring reports were beamed across news networks from around the globe, and against a dramatic backdrop of celebratory gunfire, Alex and her team showed the world the final symbolic moments of the fall of a regime that had held power for more than 40 years. The euphoria and chaos of that atmosphere of jubilation was soon overcome by the realities of conflict, and the story of the following days that Alex so viscerally tells in this remarkable account is an eye-opening journey full of human stories that are both shocking and touching. A portrait of the last gasps of Gaddafi’s regime, Crawford’s book is an extraordinary insight into modern political conflict and the nature of journalism. The first journalist to be on the scene at a number of key points in the Libyan conflict, Alex has been arrested, shot at, tear gassed and interrogated in the course of her career, and paints a fascinating picture of war journalism. A heart-stopping ride through a dramatic moment in modern history, Colonel Gadaffi’s Hat is a window into both the craft of journalism and the amazing story of Libya’s road to Freedom.” – (adapted from Global Books in Print summary)

A foreign country : New Zealand speculative fiction / edited by Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan.
Strange creatures are loose in Miramar, desperate survivors cling to the remains of a submerged country, humanity’s descendants seek to regain what they’ve lost, and the residents of Gisborne reluctantly serve alien masters. The visions of New Zealand, and beyond, painted in this collection of short stories are both instantly recognisable and nothing like the place we know. (Book cover)

Fosterling / Emma Neale.
A young man is found unconscious in a remote forest. He is over seven-feet tall, his skin covered in thick hair, which reminds onlookers of an animal’s pelt. When has wakes in a city hospital, he is eerily uncommunicative. Speculation begins. (Book cover)

Dance With Me : Ballroom Dancing and the Promise of Instant Intimacy / Julia A. Ericksen.
“In Dance With Me , Julia Ericksen, a competitive ballroom dancer herself, takes the reader onto the competition floor and into the lights and the glamour of a world of tanned bodies and glittering attire, exploring the allure of this hyper-competitive, difficult, and often expensive activity…” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Engage : The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson / Paul Kimmage.
“The shocking, controversial, and moving story of Matt Hampson, the rugby player who dislocated his neck and was paralyzed in an England training session “Engage!” was the last word Matt Hampson heard before dislocating his neck while in rugby training with other young England hopefuls…… In that moment his life changed forever. Paul Kimmage went to visit Matt as he recuperated, and wrote an award-winning piece on him for the Sunday Times . They struck up a friendship which led to this spectacular book – where Paul tells Matt’s whole story,….a story of terrible sadness yet unadorned triumph and joy, of anger yet of reconciliation and peace – and of a boy who became a man.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)