Are you feeling overwhelmed by the number of new books that you really want to read but can’t imagine where you’ll find the time? Well prepare to feel even worse, because there are some fascinating new books in our reference centre – ANZC. Most of these books will also have borrowable copies in the library.
About 30 years ago Robert Long dropped out of Medical School and took up life in remote Westland. Since then he has been joined in this frontier land by wife Catherine and 2 children He tells the story in A life on Gorge River : New Zealand’s remotest family..
In After Andrew: two kiwis cross Australia by Bill Lennox, Bill retraces the steps of his grandfather, Andrew Lennox, from Adelaide to Darwin in 1899. Bill had the help Andrew’s unpublished manuscript of his experiences, and a car, which beats the transport that Andrew endured.
From rags to rivets: the Trevor Bland story: a biography compiled and written by Ron Pemberton, is the story behind one of the founding members and driving forces behind the New Zealand Warbirds Association. If the words Vampire, Venom and Hawker Hunter strike a thrill in your heart then you really need to read this book.
Cornelius & co: collected working class verse, 1996-2008 by John O’Connor is an anthology which springs from the author’s background of working class Irish Catholic Addington.
Takutai: the foreshore and seabed is by the interesting sounding Peter Cleave. He is a singer, songwriter, pakeha, from South Auckland, former secondary school teacher, fluent in Te Reo and has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Oxford – phew! In Takutai he endeavours to put the whole seabed and foreshore thing into some sort of context.
The Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust have done great things in terms of putting Oamaru on the tourist map. Their DVD, Another great story of pioneering New Zealand, brings to life the growth of Oamaru and tales of the early settlers.
The elephant man: a pictorial autobiography of the Whirling Bros Circus by Tony Radclifffe has beautiful pictures from a 40 year period of a circus that has now closed.
Vitamins, minerals & supplements for Australia and New Zealand produced by Reader’s Digest is a swish looking book with loads of detail about those supplements you take each day (or not!). It also has information about adverse interactions and what to look for on labels – as well as how you can get the vitamins in your everyday diet.
In 1863 surveyor Henry Whitcombe and Swiss goldminer, Jakob Lauper set of to find a route through the Southern Alps. Jakob Lauper survived (I will leave Whitcombe’s fate for the book – although given its title it won’t be a surprise) and wrote about the trip. Apparently there were a number of inconsistencies in the original translated report, Author, Hilary Low, decided to go back to Lauper’s original work. Pushing his luck: report of the expedition and death of Henry Whitcombe by Jakob Lauper – a new translation and commentary is the new and accurate translation of Jakob Lauper’s recount of 1863 events.
And finally, just to give you an idea of the depth and breadth of research material available in ANZC, we have a couple of new pamphlets in the Everyday guide to the RMA series: The designation process, and Making a submission about a proposed plan or plan change. These are sure to be in your bedside reading pile!
More next week…
