New books on display at Hurunui District Library from 20 Nov – 27 Nov

 ”Can we help it if we’re fabulous?” by Peta Mathias

Television presenter, author and bon vivant, Peta Mathias’s life has been anything but dull. With ten topics relevant to all women – Fashion, Food, Relationships, Music, Travel, Beauty, Work, Sex, Happiness and, of course, Men – Peta’s sagacious, sexy and occasionally scurrilous book will encourage and inspire readers to reinvent, spice up, embrace and celebrate the lives they have. As well as recounting her own life lessons, Peta interviews a range of women – from psychologists to plastic surgeons, sex therapists to hairdressers, doctors to singers – and discovers what a woman needs to make her happy, independent and successful.
Inspirational, razor-witted and funny, Can We Help It if We’re Fabulous is Peta Mathias at her wisest – and naughtiest. [Cover]

 

 “Magda’s daughter” by Catrin Collier

Stateless and destitute after the Second World War, Magda Janek settles in the Welsh town of Pontypridd, in the hope of building a new life for herself and her baby daughter, Helena. All Magda has to give Helena are the ambitions she had once cherished for herself; dreams cruelly snatched from her by the war and its terrible aftermath. But 1960s Pontypridd is a place of opportunity – at twenty-one, Magda’s daughter has beauty, confidence and prospects beyond even her mother’s wildest imaginings. With a university degree behind her, a coveted teaching post in her old Grammar school, and marriage to the love of her life, Dr Eddie John, the son of an old Pontypridd family to look forward to, Helena couldn’t have been happier. Until tragedy strikes. A tragedy that robs Helena of the only family she has ever known and everything she has ever believed in; Helena uncovers a bitter secret, so explosive that her mother carried it to the grave. [Cover]

 

 ”Being Elizabeth” by Barbara Taylor Bradford 

The final novel in the Ravenscar trilogy. Elizabeth Turner, scion of the fabled Deravenel family, carries the red-gold hair and beautiful English complexion of her ancestors. And it is not just her colouring that she has inherited from Edward Deravenel. Astute and charismatic, she is also bold, daring and fiercely ambitious, with the same ruthless streak. Now, aged just twenty-five, she stands in the position she has dreamed of – inheriting the family business, Deravenels. Over eight hundred years old, the company is a bastion of male chauvinism and the challenge that lies ahead of Elizabeth is immense. Her future is threatened also by the bitter enmity of her cousin, Mary, who believes herself the rightful heir. Cecil Williams acts as Elizabeth’s mentor while navigating the treacherous corridors of power with her. But her greatest ally is her childhood friend, handsome, charming Robert Dunley. Highly intelligent, he is her match in every way — and there is a spark between them that is impossible to resist. Yet Robert is already married. When they begin an affair it scandalises those around them. But far worse is to come!From the family seat perched high on the Yorkshire moors to the glamour of London as the twentieth century draws to a close, Elizabeth fights for her birthright and her inheritance. [Cover]
“20 years of Garrick Tremain”

In this ‘best of’ collection from one of New Zealand’s leading political cartoonists, Garrick Tremain offers an hilarious perspective on some of the most notable – and most ridiculous – moments in New Zealand politics and popular culture from the last two decades. From the wine box enquiry to Tana Umaga’s infamous handbag incident, and featuring a cast of memorable characters from Muldoon to Bush, Tremain’s talent at finding the funny in everyday life is up there with the very best. A tireless wry wit has seen his career flourish with multiple newspapers publishing one of his cartoons seven days a week for many years, firmly securing his position as New Zealand’s most widely published political cartoonist. Now in semi-retirement, Tremain has whittled down his commitments to one cartoon a week which appears in the Sunday edition of the Otago Daily Times. This collection – handpicked by the cartoonist himself – is guaranteed to entice loads of laughs from anyone with even the slightest interest in New Zealand politics and social history. [Cover]

 

  “Dauntless spirit” by Denis Mclean

Sir Howard Kippenmberger is widely acknowledged as the ideal of a New Zealand citizen-soldier and our foremost soldier-scholar; a country lawyer and provincial intellectual who became a national figure as New Zealanders made the transition from colonials to a forthright nationhood. As a military leader, editor and author he was one of the prime movers in that process. His democratic style of leadership reflected the ethos of a new nation – active, competent and engaged in the world in its own right, no longer a dependency of Britain A second-generation New Zealander, born in 1897, his military career was probably unique in that he was a 19 year old private soldier in one war and emerged in the next as the commander of choice of what was in effect a national army – the 2nd NZ Division – whenever the British-born (and trained) Bernard Freyberg was absent. Kip was never a regular officer; a part-time Territorial soldier in peacetime, with no formal British staff training, he stood in the line of the New Zealand self-made man. Hard-boiled ordinary New Zealanders at war truly admired and respected him, not only for his mastery of the business of fighting but because he was known for a very real and deep rapport with his soldiers and concern for their welfare; he “made men realise that here was one who thought more of them than of himself.” [Cover]

 

To reserve any of these items please contact your local library or email info@hurunuilibraries.govt.nz

 

Avril