New books on display at Hurunui District Library from 1 Dec – 8 Dec

 

 

 

 ”The yellow duster sisters” by Susan Kennaway

1939. Nine-year-old Susie and her sister Gyll live in Watford and all week look forward to their Saturday shopping expedition to Woolworths, accompanied by their nanny Alice, to buy something nice for Mummy. But as war breaks out across Europe, Susie and Gyll are evacuated to Africa. Alone on a dusty continent, the sisters find little to like about their new way of life and get no sympathy from their guardians, especially devout Aunt Geraldine (or ‘Dor-dor’) who forces them to wear patched-up clothes and be in bed by six o’clock. Feeling increasingly abandoned as the years pass and letters from home stop arriving, the sisters dream desperately of escape and cling fervently to their memories of idyllic England. When they do finally reach British shores, only a few weeks after D-Day, there is no one to meet them at Liverpool Docks. After getting to their father’s new home in Gloucestershire, they find a strange woman living with him and gradually learn that their mother has moved away and joined the Polish army. Life only gets stranger when they are sent to Cheltenham Ladies College, where English boarding school life is possibly even worse than their years of exile in Africa. Wonderfully evocative, funny and charming, Susan Kennaway writes about the difficult challenges of growing up during the Second World War with rare honesty and insight. The Yellow Duster Sisters is a moving and unusual exploration of the often ignored, and often destructive, nature of shifting war-time family relationships. [Cover]

 

 

 

“The apothecary’s daughter” by Charlotte Betts

Susannah Leyton has grown up behind the counter of her father’s apothecary shop, surrounded by the resinous scents of lavender, rosemary, liquorice and turpentine. More learned than any apprentice, she concocts soothing medicines and ointments with great skill. Content with her life, Susannah is shocked when her widowed father announces his intentions to marry again, and later becomes caught in a battle of wills with her new step-mother. When she receives a proposal of marriage from handsome and charming merchant Henry Savage, she believes her prayers have been answered and resolves to be a good wife to him. But Henry is a complex and troubled man, haunted by his memories of growing up inBarbados. As the plague sweeps through the city, tragedy strikes, and the secrets of Henry’s past begin to unfold …[Cover]

  “Italia” by Jo Seagar

Taking her inspiration from her cook school in beautiful Umbria, Jo Seagar shows us how to make classic Italian recipes the easy way. In her inimitable way Jo teaches us that authentic doesn’t have to mean difficult. She demystifies gnocchi, risotto, making your own pasta and pizza bases, and many other classics of Italian cooking through simple step-by-step instructions.  The book takes you through an Italian feast: antipasto (eg crostini with gorgonzola and tapenade); small first courses (eg fava beans with mint, garlic and prosciutto); salads and vegetables (eg aubergine involtini); gnocchi, risotto and polenta (eg bacon, sage and butternut risotto); pasta (eg farfalle with tomato, basil and broccoli butter); breads and pizza (eg focaccia); meat, chicken, game and fish (eg chicken saltimbocca); desserts (eg mama’s tiramisu); baking (eg florentines); and drinks (eg papa’s limoncello). With over 100 mouth-watering recipes, this is THE Italian cooking bible for New Zealanders.  The divine photography taken on location at a wonderful villa in a small town in Umbria means that this cookbook is also wonderful armchair travel. It’s a delight to savour, and the recipes are ones you’ll return to again and again. [Cover]

 

 

 

 “Snuff” by Terry Pratchett

According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all…[Cover]

 

 

 

 “The last jump” by Elizabeth Benney

Author Elizabeth Benney was a brat of a child. She’s completely candid about it – self-centered, perverse, willful, obstinate …living for her one passionate obsession – horses. It’s a life-story that at last faces up to what we must all confront, that’s if we’re lucky enough to live long enough. What will it be, in our own advancing years, which we will be forced to give up, forever? Will she ever learn to say ‘No more’? Liz Benney portrays her day-to-day life running of their New England horse farm, and the many return visits to her own country,New Zealand. Then there are her accounts of her girlhood, her forays into the Antarctic and into deepest China, and her extraordinary capacity for attracting memorable characters. Throughout it all is the foundation of her marriage to ‘rock solid’ Kiwi mathematician Dave, her family and friends and the undying ‘can do’ spirit of her pioneering New Zealand forbears. Michael Korda, publisher, editor and bestselling author (his biography of T.E. Lawrence) has said: ‘I enjoyed reading this story very much. It is funny, sometimes sad, and full of great stories, exactly what a memoir should be.’ [Cover]

 

Other titles on display this week :

“Ed King” by David Guterson

“The hummingbird and the bear” by Nicholas Hogg

“The trader’s wife” by Anna Jacobs 

“Kill Alex cross” by James Paterson

“Econned” by Yves Smith

“Sleeping with the enemy” by Hal Vaughan

“The department store” by Jan Whitaker

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

 Avril