Summer is here and that means beach reads, holiday reads, chilling on the deck reads… all those lovely ways to relax and enjoy a good book. This month we have some cracking good reads in our new biographies, take a look at these that have hit the shelves recently.
If you would have told me : a memoir / Stamos, John
“If you would have told a young John Stamos flipping burgers at his dad’s fast-food joint that one day he’d be a household name and that, at the height of his success, he’d be living alone, divorced, with no kids, high on a cocktail of forgetting, he might’ve asked, “You want fries with that?” John burst onto the scene in General Hospital, propelling him into the teen idol stratosphere, a place that’s often a point of no return. Whether showing off his comedic chops on Full House or his dramatic skills on ER, pushing the boundaries on Broadway or living out his youthful dreams as an honorary Beach Boy, John has surprised everyone, most of all himself.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The stirrings : a memoir in northern time / Taylor, Catherine
“This is a story about one young woman coming of age, and about the place and time that shaped her: the North of England in the 1970s and 80s. About the scorching summer of 1976 – the last Catherine Taylor would spend with both her parents in their home in Sheffield. About the Yorkshire Ripper, the serial killer whose haunting presence in Catherine’s childhood was matched only by the aching absence of her own father. About 1989’s ‘Second Summer of Love’, a time of sexual awakening for Catherine, and the unforeseen consequences that followed it.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Wifedom : Mrs Orwell’s invisible life / Funder, Anna
“Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, award-winning writer Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. When she uncovers his forgotten wife, it’s a revelation. Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s literary brilliance shaped Orwell’s work and her practical common sense saved his life. But why-and how-was she written out of the story? Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder recreates the Orwells’ marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War in London.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Larry McMurtry : a life / Daugherty, Tracy
“In over forty books, in a career that spanned over sixty years, Larry McMurtry staked his claim as a superior chronicler of the American West, and as the Great Plains’ keenest witness since Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner. Daugherty traces his origins as one of the last American writers who had direct contact with this country’s pioneer traditions. He follows McMurtry’s career as a bestselling novelist and Pulitzer-Prize winner, and shows how life as a nomad, immersing himself in a world of bookshops and movie theaters, helped McMurtry learn the rhythms of narrative.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Untouchable girls : the Topp Twins’s story / Topp, Jools
“The incredible story of how a couple of country kids from Huntly became much-loved Kiwi icons and TV stars, with their own unique brand of original country music and comedy that has captivated audiences in New Zealand and overseas for over 40 years. Jools and Lynda Topp aka The Topp Twins tell this story in their own words, describing their adventurous lives through laugh-out-loud anecdotes and heart-warming tales. Including never-before-told stories and images, this is a nostalgic and important historic record of the lives of two ground-breaking and inspiring women, and of the times through which they’ve lived.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Word monkey / Fowler, Christopher
“This is the memoir Christopher Fowler always wanted to write about ‘writing’. It’s the story of how a young bookworm growing up in a house where there was nothing to read but knitting pamphlets and motorcycle manuals became a writer – a ‘word monkey’ – and pursued a sort of career in popular fiction. In Spring 2020, just as the world went into lockdown, Chris was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Past and present intermingle as, in prose as light as air, he relates with wry humour and remarkable honesty what he knows will be the final chapter in his story.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
End times / Priestley, Rebecca
“In the late 1980s, two teenage girls found refuge from a world of cosy conformity, sexism and the nuclear arms race in protest and punk. Then, drawn in by a promise of meaning and purpose, they cast off their punk outfits and became born-again Christians. Unsure which fate would come first – nuclear annihilation or the Second Coming of Jesus – they sought answers from end-times evangelists, scrutinising friends and family for signs of demon possession and identifying EFTPOS and barcodes as signs of a looming apocalypse. Fast forward to 2021, and Rebecca and Maz – now a science historian and an engineer – are on a road trip to the West Coast. Their journey, though full of laughter and conversation and hot pies, is haunted by the threats of climate change, conspiracy theories, and a massive overdue earthquake.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The closet : a coming-of-age story of the clothes that made me / Van den Broeke, Teo
“From the blue princess dress he coveted as a child, that first led him to question whether he was normal, through to the Nike cap and Gucci loafers he wore to impress the men he first desired, fabric has long enveloped and shaped his formative moments. Using the wardrobe of his past as a lens through which to explore the myriad trials and tribulations of adolescence, The Closet charts Teo’s growth from uncertainty to self-acceptance. Courageously recounting his sexual awakening, the all too familiar hesitancy around his adult future – and his many, often tumultuous, relationships with family and friends – Teo learns that it is only in celebrating our differences that we can learn to fully embrace the brilliance within ourselves.” (Catalogue)
Omega Farm : a memoir / McPhee, Martha
“In March 2020, Martha McPhee, her husband, and their two almost-grown children set out for her childhood home in New Jersey, where she finds herself grappling simultaneously with a mother slipping into severe dementia and a house that’s been neglected of late. Martha grew up at Omega Farm with her four sisters, five stepsiblings, mother, and stepfather, in a house filled with art, people, and the kind of chaos that was sometimes benevolent, sometimes more sinister. Caring for her mother and her children, struggling to mend the forest, the past relentlessly asserts itself–even as Martha’s mother, the person she might share her memories with or even try to hold to account, no longer knows who Martha is.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Charlie Chaplin vs. America : when art, sex, and politics collided / Eyman, Scott
“In the aftermath of World War Two, Charlie Chaplin was criticized for being politically liberal and internationalist in outlook. He had never become a US citizen, something that would be held against him as xenophobia set in when the postwar Red Scare took hold. He had been married three times and had had numerous affairs. His sexuality became a convenient way for those who opposed his politics to condemn him. Refused permission to return to the US from a trip abroad, he settled in Switzerland, and made his last two films in London. Eyman explores the life and times of the movie genius– and of an America consumed by political turmoil.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
A canoe before the wind / Lafaele, Vitale
“In 1962, a Sāmoan family journeyed to New Zealand – a country immigrants once called ‘the land of milk and honey’ – in search of a better life. Instead, their eldest son, Vitale, arrived in an era of dawn raids by police and immigration officials, and endless racism and bullying at school. Yet he endured and, against the odds, grew up to become one of a select few civilians to pass New Zealand’s elite SAS selection process. After seven years in the army, Vitale scaled impressive heights to become tactical commander of the police special tactics group, commander of the armed offenders squad, head of dignitary and witness protection, and one of New Zealand’s most decorated policemen. From high-profile hostage situations to overcoming a career-ending stroke, Soifua Vitale Joseph Fatutoa Lafaele’s story is an inspiring one, of overcoming difficulty with values to guide you through life’s challenges – ua se vaʻa tu matagi, like a canoe before the wind.” (Catalogue)
For more new books in the collection, go to: What’s new / December 2023 (wcl.govt.nz)
