New books on display at Hurunui District Library from 15 Dec – 22 Dec

 

 

 

 “Fleur : the life and times of pioneering restauranteur Fleur Sullivan” by Fleur Sullivan

Fleur Sullivan is a South Island legend, the culinary maven responsible for not one but two iconic local restaurants – Olivers in Clyde and the eponymous Fleurs Place in Moeraki – and now at the age of 72 she’s running a third, The Loan and Merc in her hometown of Oamaru. Her eventful career has spanned more than 40 years, during which time she’s transformed two sleepy towns into international destinations. Fleur is brimming with great stories, anecdotes, reminiscences, the conversations had round her table and friendships formed in her establishments. This memoir chronicles her early life cooking in a pub on the West Coast, through to setting up Dunstan House in Clyde and on to the heady days of the restaurant scene in the 1970s in Queenstown. Drawing on this range of influences, Fleur then returned toClydeand embarked on the 20-year journey that was Olivers, using local produce and products at a time when no one else was doing so. From there she went to Moeraki and opened her world-renowned fish restaurant Fleur’s Place. Everything Fleur does is touched by her warmth, vision and enthusiams, making her places the place to be. IIlustrated with new photography by Aaron McLean, plus Fleur’s own photographs and ephemera. [Cover]

 

 

 

 “That woman : the life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor” by Anna Sebba 

This will be the first serious yet sympathetic book by a female biographer to explain the story of how an American divorcee became a hate figure for allegedly ensnaring a British King from his throne. It focuses on the core conflict of her life in the 1930s, with particular reference to her impoverished American childhood as a motivation for her ambition. ‘That woman’, so called by her sister-in-law the new Queen Elizabeth, was born Bessie Wallis Warfield in 1895 in Baltimore, and she endured a childhood of relative obscurity which sharpened a burning desire to rise above her circumstances. To win in the game of life was her unequivocal aim. ‘That woman’ was not only one of the most talked about women of her generation. In death she has become one of the most written about and reviled. But she has also become a symbol of female empowerment as well as a style icon. And yet Wallis Simpson remains an enigma. A witty woman who lived on her wits. ‘A woman can never be too rich or too thin’ – one of her aphorisms – is all that some people know of her. Neither beautiful nor brilliant, both her assumed as well as her known moral transgressions add to her aura and dazzle. Accused of fascist sympathies and Nazi friends, she is an object of fascination that has increased with the years. [Cover]

 

 

 

  “So brilliantly clever : Parker, Hulme and the murder that shocked the world” by Peter Graham

The brutal, premeditated murder of Honorah Parker in 1954 in a lonely park by her 16-year-old daughter Pauline and Pauline’s 15-year-old friend Juliet Hulme made shock headlines around the world. International media flocked to New Zealand to follow the trial. Still today, the murder remains one of the most interesting criminal cases of all time, and a source of intense public fascination throughout the world – especially since one of the murderers was revealed to be the murder-mystery writer Anne Perry, whose books sell in the millions. Lawyer and true crime writer Peter Graham writes of the secrets and lies that permeated the girls’ families, the bizarre lead-up to the murder, the girls’ conviction and imprisonment, and their lives following their release. He also examines Parker’s and Hulme” actions in the light of modern psychology. In the 1950s the two girls were suspected of lesbianism, and judged and imprisoned as inherently evil. Would this happen today? [Cover]

 

 

 

 ”River Cottage veg every day’ by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Why don’t we eat more veg? They’re healthy, cost-effective  and, above all, delicious. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall believes that it is time  to put this to rights, as he explains in this brilliant new book. He’s come up with an abundance of veg-tastic recipes, including a warm salad of  grilled courgettes, lemon, garlic, mint and mozzarella, a winter giant couscous  salad with herbs and walnuts, radishes with butter and salt,  lemony guacamole, linguine with mint and almond pesto and cherry tomatoes, baby  carrot risotto, new potato gnocchi, a summer stir-fry with green veg, ginger,  garlic and sesame, a winter stir-fry with Brussels sprouts, shiitake mushrooms  and five-spice, a cheesy tomato tart, a spring onion gallette, roast jacket  chips with merguez spices and spiced yoghurt, curried bubble and squeak,  scrambled eggs and asparagus with lemon, tomato gazpacho, pea and parsley soup,  roast squash wedges, baba ganoush, beetroot houmous, spinach pasties and  barbecued corn on the cob. With over 200 recipes and vibrant photography from Simon Wheeler, River Cottage Veg Every Day is a  timely eulogy to the glorious green stuff. [Cover]

 

 

 

 “Beat till stiff : a woman’s recipe for living” by Peta Mathias

Razor-witted, wise and just a touch scandalous, Beat till Stiff covers topics that Peta considers important, entertaining, naughty or personal. With chapters on why redheads have more fun, how egg whites provide a metaphor for living and how Peta stopped strangling her mother, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Can We Help it if We’re Fabulous? and Just in Time to be too Late, is a book about the universal themes that affect all women. [Cover]

Other titles on display this week :

“The christmas angel” by Marcia Willett

“Hotel Vendome” by Danielle Steel

“Dublin dead” by Gerard O’Donovan

“The next always” by Nora Roberts

“More than bombs and bandages” by Kirsty Harris

“Zero day” by David Baldacci 

“Before the storm ” by Peter Robinson

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

 Avril