Author: Kath

Wild Boys and Material Girls: The Pop Idols of the 80’s in Print

Kath

Hands up all the Gen X pop tragics out there! Yes, I’m one of those, my pre-teen years were right there from 1980 – 1985, so I have a long history of boy bands, pop idols and pin ups in my past.  The good news is, all of those pop idols, at least those that are still with us, are writing books and being written about.  I’ve chosen a few of my favourites to share with you all here.

Please please tell me now : the Duran Duran story / Davis, Stephen
“In ‘Please Please Tell Me Now’, bestselling rock biographer Stephen Davis tells the story of Duran Duran, the quintessential band of the 1980s. Featuring exclusive interviews with the band and never-before-published photos from personal archives, this book offers a definitive account of one of the last untold sagas in rock and roll history – a treat for diehard fans, new admirers, and music lovers of any age.” (Catalogue)

Wham! : George & me / Ridgeley, Andrew
“Wham! were the band that never underestimated the power of pop, nor the healing powers it possessed. In 1981, what started out as a boyhood friendship, catapulted two suburban adolescents to worldwide pop domination, becoming icons of their era.” (Catalogue)

 

 

This thing called life : Prince, race, sex, religion, and music / Vogel, Joseph
“What were Prince’s politics? What did he believe about God? And did he really forsake the subject- sex- that once made him the most subversive superstar of the Reagan era? In this illuminating, thematic biography, Joseph Vogel explores the issues that made Prince one of the late 20th century’s most unique, controversial, and fascinating artists.” (Catalogue) Continue reading “Wild Boys and Material Girls: The Pop Idols of the 80’s in Print” →

Delivered from Distraction: New Health Books in the Collection

Kath

If you have health questions, are looking for more in-depth information or just have curiosity about health topics in general, we’ve got a robust selection of new books for you to delve into on the subject of health.  Take a look at these:

Delivered from distraction : getting the most out of life with attention deficit disorder / Hallowell, Edward M
“In 1994, Driven to Distraction sparked a revolution in our understanding of attention deficit disorder. Widely recognized as the classic in the field, the book has sold more than a million copies. Now a second revolution is under way in the approach to ADD, and the news is great. Drug therapies, our understanding of the role of diet and exercise, even the way we define the disorder – all are changing radically. And doctors are realizing that millions of adults suffer from this condition, though the vast majority of them remain undiagnosed and untreated.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Migraine / Sacks, Oliver W
“Migraine is an age-old — the first recorded instances date back over two thousand years — and often debilitating condition, affecting a ‘substantial minority’ of the population across the globe. In this book, Oliver Sacks offers at once a medical account of its occurrence and management; an exploration of its physical, physiological, and psychological underpinnings and consequences; and a meditation on the nature and experience of health and illness.” (Catalogue)

Box of birds : what New Zealand taught me about life and the practice of medicine / Stowers, Stephen
“In this fascinating memoir, cardiologist Stephen Stowers eloquently captures the various changes that he has lived through over a lifetime spent as a caring and ethical medical professional. He also shows how he found refuge in another country, where he was able to practice medicine in a more ethical fashion once again and explains to us the surprising truth that he discovered there: New Zealand has better patient outcomes yet spends less money on healthcare, compared with a country such as the US. Doctors, nurses, medical professionals of all kinds, and anybody who has been a patient and wondered what has gone wrong in American medicine and how to help put things right again should read this book.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Continue reading “Delivered from Distraction: New Health Books in the Collection” →

Wandering Through Life: New Biographies and Memoirs in the Collection

Kath

Reading about extraordinary lives is often inspirational, intriguing, fascinating, shocking or outrageous.  Every biography or memoir has the potential to take you on a real adventure in it’s pages.  We have another month of new titles that have arrived in the collection, and have selected some for you below to try.

Wandering through life : a memoir / Leon, Donna
“From a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with frequent visits to her grandfather’s farm and its beloved animals and summers spent selling homegrown tomatoes by the roadside, Donna Leon has long been open to adventure. In 1976, she made the spontaneous decision to teach English in Iran, before finding herself swept up in the early days of the 1979 Revolution. After teaching stints in China and Saudi Arabia, she finally landed in Venice. Having recently celebrated her eightieth birthday, Leon now confronts the dual challenges and pleasures of aging. Wandering through life offers Donna Leon at her most personal.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Berserker / Edmondson, Adrian
“Ade Edmondson smashed onto the comedy circuit in the 1980s, stormed The Comedy Store and, alongside Rik Mayall, brought anarchy to stage and screen. How did a child brought up in a strict Methodist household – and who spent his formative years incarcerated in repressive boarding schools – end up joining the revolution? Well, he is part Norse. Could it be his berserker heritage? With wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour, Ade traces his journey through life and comedy: starting out on the alternative scene, getting arrested in Soho, creating his outrageously violent characters and learning more about his curious (possibly Scandinavian) heritage. With star-studded anecdotes and set to a soundtrack of pop hits which transport the reader through time, it’s a memoir like no other.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Astor : the rise and fall of an American fortune / Cooper, Anderson
“The story of the Astors is an extraordinary but true tale of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention–and of cunning, determination, hard work, hubris, infighting, and greed. One of the wealthiest men to have ever lived, John Jacob Astor first arrived in New York in 1783 and built a fortune through a ruthless expansion of his beaver trapping business, which he grew into an empire through real estate that enriched him at the expense of Manhattan’s poorest residents.  In this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs, Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and offer a window onto the making of America itself.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Continue reading “Wandering Through Life: New Biographies and Memoirs in the Collection” →

Hidden Stories, Family Secrets: Memoirs About Long Held Secrets

Kath

There is something infinitely compelling about reading memoirs regarding long held secrets.  Whether they be deep in the family history, a secret child, a life of espionage, or a deep shame for past exploits, they make for fascinating reads.  We’ve selected some here that you may like to explore.

For a girl / MacColl, Mary-Rose
“Emerging from an unconventional, boisterously happy childhood, Mary-Rose MacColl was a rebellious teenager. And when, at the age of fifteen, her high-school teacher and her husband started inviting Mary-Rose to spend time with them, her parents were pleased that she now had the guidance she needed to take her safely into young adulthood. It wasn’t too long, though, before the teacher and her husband changed the nature of that relationship with overwhelming consequences for Mary-Rose. Consequences that kept her silent and ashamed through much of her adult life. In this poignant and brave true story, Mary-Rose brings these secrets to the surface and, in doing so, is finally able to watch them float away.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

On Chapel Sands : my mother and other missing persons / Cumming, Laura
“In the autumn of 1929, a small child was kidnapped from a Lincolnshire beach. Five agonising days went by before she was found in a nearby village. The child remembered nothing of these events and nobody ever spoke of them at home. On Chapel Sands is a book of mystery and memoir. Two narratives run through it: the mother’s childhood tale; and Cumming’s own pursuit of the truth. …Cumming discovers how to look more closely at the family album – with its curious gaps and missing persons – finding crucial answers, captured in plain sight at the click of a shutter.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Two trees make a forest : on memory, migration and Taiwan / Lee, Jessica J.
“After unearthing a hidden memoir of her grandfather’s life, written on the cusp of his total memory loss, Jessica J Lee hunts his story, in parallel with exploring Taiwan, hoping to understand the quakes that brought her family from China, to Taiwan and Canada, and the ways in which our human stories are interlaced with geographical forces. Part-nature writing, part-biography, Two Trees Make a Forest traces the natural and human stories that shaped an island and a family.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Continue reading “Hidden Stories, Family Secrets: Memoirs About Long Held Secrets” →

Halloween – The Night of the Witch

Kath

Halloween is coming up next week and that means it’s time to get witchy! If you love a good witch story, you’re in luck because they’re a hot subject matter in fiction at the moment.  Here’s a mixed selection that can satisfy every witchy need, from romantic to spooky to downright terrifying.

The witching tide / Meyer, Margaret
“East Anglia, 1645. Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer, and servant, has lived peacefully for more than four decades in her beloved coastal village of Cleftwater. Rendered voiceless as a child, Martha has not spoken a word in years. One autumn morning, a sinister newcomer appears. The witchfinder, Silas Makepeace, has been blazing a trail of destruction along the coast, and now has Cleftwater in his sights. Set over the course of just a few weeks that forever change the people of this village, The Witching Tide offers powerful and psychologically astute insights about the exigencies of friendship and the nature of loyalty, and heralds the arrival of a striking new voice in fiction.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The book of witches
“With a breathtaking array of original stories from around the world, P. Djèlí Clark, Amal El Mohtar, Garth Nix, Darcie Little Badger, Sheree Renée Thomas, and two dozen other fantasy and science fiction geniuses bring a new and exciting twist to one of the most beloved figures in fiction, witches, in never-before-seen works written exclusively for The Book of Witches, compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan and illustrated by award-nominated artist Alyssa Winans.” (Catalogue)

After the forest / Woods, Kell
“Ginger. Honey. Cinnamon. Flour. Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Greta has a secret, though: the witch’s grimoire, secreted away and whispering in Greta’s ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you’ve ever tasted.  But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her mysteriously addictive gingerbread, not to mention the rumors about her childhood misadventures, is a source of gossip and suspicion. And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta’s magic-magic she is still trying to understand-may be the only thing that can save her. If it doesn’t kill her first..” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Continue reading “Halloween – The Night of the Witch” →

Gut Feelings – New Health Books in the Collection

Kath

It’s a new month and we have another selection of new health books for you.  From looking after your gut health, to caring for a brain injury, to a guide to living with lupus and good eating habits, we have a wide selection of titles for you to delve into.

Gut feelings : healing the shame-fuelled relationship between what you eat and how you feel / Cole, Will
“Now, Dr Will Cole sheds light on the relationship between your physical and emotional health, providing a framework for you to better understand the gut-brain connection and influence that connection for the better. Dr Cole will help you re-evaluate your relationship with food and your body, getting you back in touch with your gut feelings, in this practical 21-Day Plan that bridges the gap between your emotions and your health with healing recipes, dietary guidance and mindfulness techniques.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Healing the traumatized brain : coping after concussion and other brain injuries / Vaishnavi, Sandeep
“Recovering from a brain injury can be a challenging, prolonged process. This book explains how the brain works, how injuries affect the brain, and how to use your brain’s own power to recover.” (Catalogue)

 

FAQs on menopause / Robinson, Julie
“No question is too simple, too embarrassing, too rude or too offbeat to be included, and each one has been asked by thousands of people just like you. Do people know I’m having a hot flush? Is it normal to feel rage all the time? Why I am getting more hair in some places and losing it from others? All these questions, and hundreds more, are covered in this short but powerful, helpful, practical guide to managing your menopause symptoms.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Continue reading “Gut Feelings – New Health Books in the Collection” →