1. society
2. unrest and war

Shelf life
CENTRAL OTAGO & QUEENSTOWN LAKES LIBRARIES
Sep-Nov 2012 No. 28
A selection of new books available at CQ Libraries: http://libraries.codc-qldc.govt.nz
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Page 2 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
Rotting in the Bangkok
Hilton
By T. M. Hoy
The author was born
and raised in California.
After extensive travel
through Asia, he settled
in Bangkok, and then
Chiang Mai, located in
Northern Thailand.
While living there, he
made a ‘tragic error in
judgement’ by not
reporting a friend to the
police for murder.
In 1995, he was given a
life sentence, and spent
the next five-plus years
between Chiang Mai Remand and Bang Kwang Prison.
He was given a treaty transfer and sent back to the
States, where he finished his sentence at FCC Tucson
in 2011. A collection of stories chronicling Hoy’s
descent into the madness, horror and insanity provoked
by Southeast Asian prison life – a life of murders, drug
overdoses, torture and corruption. Shelved: 796.046092 GUR
The Red Circle
By Brandon Webb
Webb’s experiences in
the world’s most elite
sniper corps are the stuff
of legend. From his
gruelling years of training
in Naval Special
Operations to his combat
tours in the Persian Gulf
and Afghanistan, he
provides a rare look at
the inner workings of the
U.S. military through the
eyes of a covert
operations specialist.
Yet, it is Webb’s
distinguished second
career as a lead instructor for the shadowy ‘sniper cell’
and course manager of the Navy SEAL Sniper
Programme that trained some of America’s finest and
deadliest warriors that makes his story so compelling.
“This book illustrates why he wanted to be a SEAL, what it takes to
Extreme South
By James Castrission.
Antarctica is no place for
the faint-hearted; it is a
perilous icy desert of
extreme cold, hidden
crevasses and unrelenting physical hardship.
In a hundred years of
polar exploration no-one
had ever walked from
the edge of Antarctica to
the South Pole and back
without any support.
Many had tried. None
had succeeded. Until,
on 26 January 2012, two
Australian adventurers,
James Castrission (Cas)
and Justin Jones (Jonesy) made history by completing
the longest unsupported polar journey of all time.
Following in the footsteps of great polar explorers like
Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton and Mawson, they battled
frostbite, physical and mental breakdown, starvation,
blizzards and crevasse falls. After eighty-nine gruelling
days they made it back to the coast more dead than
alive. Like Robert F. Scott, a Norwegian had pushed
them harder than they thought possible.
But, unlike Scott, in a dramatic twist this Norwegian,
Aleks Gamme, taught them lessons decades of
adventure had not. With honesty and humour, James
Castrission outlines their preparation and touches on the
rich history of past explorers who inspired their efforts,
showing what can be achieved through hard work,
tenacity and mateship. Shelved: 919.8904092 CAS
My Mother Warned Me
About Blokes Like Me
By Boris Mihailovic.
Whether you’re into dirt
bikes, road bikes, ride a
Yamaha, scooter or
Laverda; if you’ve ever
experienced the primal
rush of riding a motorcycle, the pain of crashing, the suffering of
healing and the
epiphanies of speed,
then this book is for you.
The author has been
riding all sorts of bikes,
fast, since he was
fifteen. Here, he writes
about friendship,
treachery, girls in tight pants and motorcycles that have
been possessed by Satan. He tells of brotherhood,
camaraderie, drugs, alcohol and being hounded by the
police for daring to combine them all at once.
He writes about breaking the law, and racing a thousand
kilometres through the night for money and thrills; and
about being molested by fighting dogs, massive
amputations, bovine stupidity, maniacal genius and the
wisdom of the old.
His story is about chance and fate and suffering, being
two people at once and being handcuffed in a
Melbourne gutter. About being cold and crazy and
hopeful and irredeemably lost; about impossible highs
and soul-crushing lows; about demons and brothers and
dirt and danger, and houses with iron bars instead of
glass in their windows. Shelved: 629.2275092 MIH
be a SEAL, how you survive the life of a SEAL, and the value of mind
over matter.” CDR. Richard Marcinko, USN (Ret.)
Shelved: 359.984092 WEB
BIOGRAPHY
Page 3 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
All of it : A
Memoir of Love,
Fear and Art
By Bev Aisbett.
Bestselling author
Bev Aisbett′s nononsense text,
combined with her
insightful cartoon
images, have
reassured
countless people seeking help for
anxiety.
Now, she reveals the deep spirit that
lies behind these deceptively simple
books.
All of It is an unflinching selfexamination, an exploration of Bev′s
life journey through and beyond
crippling anxiety and depression. The
themes of love and loss, rejection,
self-doubt and a longing for spiritual
meaning are familiar to all those who
seek to make peace with life on this
complex plane called Earth.
Peppered with glimpses of 70s and
80s share-house culture, and told with
candour and tenderness, this is the
story of an unconventional and multilayered life and the ultimate quest to
′come home to myself and find a
welcome there′.
Chopper Chatter
By Ken Tustin.
Perhaps best
known for his
relentless pursuit of
the elusive
Fiordland moose,
Ken Tustin also
spent 20 years as
a highly respected
helicopter pilot.
Starting in the cavalier days of live
deer capture, he worked for Tim Wallis
around South Westland until the end
of the venison boom, eventually taking
on more general aviation, most of it
based from Wanaka.
Five seasons in Antarctica flying for
the Italian Antarctic Research
programme fuelled a lifelong passion
for the icy continent and a lifetime
aversion to pasta. Seeking warmer
places he worked for a time in the
jungles of Burma, then lived for over
two years in Lao PDR where much of
the flying was over the old battlefields
of the Vietnam War, then a stint in
Oman.
This book is Ken’s candid, personal
story of those days and those places,
the scrapes, the frights and those
times when everything went wrong.
The Man from
Coolibah
By Milton Jones.
Ouback life was
imprinted on Milton
Jones from birth.
Born in Darwin in
1963, he spent his
first year at Gordon
Downs, a vast
station straddling
the Northern Territory-Western
Australia border. Leaving school at
fourteen, he worked in various jobs
until, while still a teenager, Milton saw
a way to make some golden dollars –
bull-catching, a rugged existence that
challenged even the toughest of
characters. Once he had a suitable
vehicle, all he needed was his swag, a
billycan and his wits about him.
As he grew into manhood, Milton
showed he liked a drink, wasn’t afraid
of a fight and never turned away from
hard work. In 1988 he’d earned
enough to buy the first of many
properties, Coolibah, a 700-squarekilometre cattle station in the Victoria
River region. This is the story of an
authentic Australian bush character,
bull catcher, crocodile catcher,
musterer, pilot and knock-about bloke.
Shelved: 616.852 AIS
Shelved: 629.1325252 TUS
Shelved: 626.201092 JON
Harry : The Ride of My Life
He may 'smoke like a chimney, drink like a fish and eat like a sparrow' but Kiwi jockey, Noel Harris rides
like a true champion. And he has outlasted many of his competitors, still leading them home in his late
fifties after having notched up over 2000 wins. Along the way he has gained the loyalty of owners and
trainers, the respect of fellow jockeys and the admiration of race-goers.
He has also had a few beers, a bit of fun and lots of laughs, enjoying life and loving racing. Colourful including green hair on occasions, Noel has stood out for his singular riding style, his optimism,
commitment, sense of humour and sincerity.
Shelved: 798.40092 HAR
The House of Redgrave : The Secret Lives of a Theatrical Dynasty – By Tim Adler.
In 1928, at the end of a production of Hamlet at the Old Vic, Laurence Olivier strode to the front of
the stage to hush the audience. ‘Tonight,’ he announced, pointing at his co-star Michael Redgrave,
‘a great actress has been born. Laertes has a daughter.’ The baby he was referring to was Vanessa
Redgrave, subsequently to become one of the finest and most singular dramatic performers of all
time. That is where this story begins. It concludes more than sixty years later, in 2009, with the
sudden and terrible death in a skiing accident of Vanessa’s daughter Natasha Richardson – and
further family sorrow was soon to follow with the deaths of both Corin and Lynn Redgrave. The
author has conducted dozens of new interviews in researching the first full biography of this remarkable family. There is never a dull moment – but always scandal, intrigue, tangled relationships,
melodramatic feuds, fallings-out and by the end, genuine tragedy. Shelved: 792.028092241 RED
Toyo : A Memoir – By Lily Chan.
Blending the intimacy of memoir with an artist's vision, Toyo is the story of a remarkable woman, a
vivid picture of Japan before and after war, and an unpredictable tale of courage and change in
present-day Australia. Born into the traditional world of pre-war Osaka, Toyo must always protect
the secret of her parents' true relationship. Her father lives in China with his wife; her unmarried
mother runs a cafe. Toyo and her mother are beautiful and polite, keeping themselves in society's
good graces. Then comes the rain of American bombs. Toyo's life is uprooted again and again.
With each sharp change and painful loss, she becomes more herself and more aware of where she
has come from. She finds family and belief, but still clings to her parents' secret. Lily Chan has
pieced together the unconventional shape of her grandmother's story. Poetic, vibrant and ultimately
heart-rending, Toyo is the chronicle of an extraordinary life, infused with a granddaughter's love.
Shelved: 920.720994 CHA
ECONOMICS
Dark Pools : The
Rise of A.I. Trading
Machines and the
Looming Threat to
Wall Street –
By Scott Patterson.
The author, a Wall
Street Journal reporter
tells the story of the
group of whizzkids
who applied their
computer programming genius to the
invention of ‘robot
versions of Warren
Buffet’. As they did
so, they created a
radically new trading
system in which
machines trade
anonymously with other machines, making and losing
fortunes in the blink of an eye. This state-of-the-art
technology has transformed the financial markets, but it
has also raised some disturbing questions. If computers
are trading with each other, does that mean that people
have lost control? How can this system be monitored,
let alone regulated? And if it all comes crashing down,
whose fault will it be? Shelved: 332.640973 PAT
The Landgrabbers :
The New Fight over
Who Owns the Planet
By Fred Pearce.
The race is on to grab
the world’s most
precious and irreplaceable resource: land.
And the author has
gone in pursuit of the
globe-trotting landgrabbers – a largerthan-life cast of
characters that
includes city
speculators, Gulf oil
sheikhs, Chinese
entrepreneurs, bigname financiers like
George Soros, and
industry titans like Richard Branson. Pearce reports that
parcels of land the size of Wales are being gobbled up
across the plains of Africa, the paddy fields of Southeast Asia, the jungles of the Amazon and the prairies of
Eastern Europe. The land – often fraudulently sold by
governments as vacant – turns out to be the property of
subsistence farmers, cattle herders and forest tribes.
All this is being done in the name of feeding the world.
But will it? Does taking land from the poorest and
hungriest really make sense? Or is the landgrab more
about profits than full stomachs? Shelved: 333.33091724 PEA
Page 4 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
The Price of
Inequality
By Joseph E Stiglitz
The impact of
inequality on societies
is now increasingly
well understood –
higher crime, health
problems and mental
illness, lower
educational achievements, social
cohesion and life
expectancy.
Stiglitz shows how,
left to their own
devices, markets are
neither efficient nor
stable and will tend to
accumulate money
and power in the hands of the few, rather than engender
competition.
He demonstrates how government policies and political
institutions, far from countering these trends, often
enhance them, and that politics frequently shape
markets in ways that advantage the richest over the rest.
The author was Chief Economist at the World Bank. He won
the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. Shelved: 305.5 STI
The Moneyless Man
A Year of
Freeconomic Living
By Mark Boyle.
Imagine living for an
entire year without
money. Economics
graduate and former
businessman Mark
Boyle did just that.
How do friends and
family react? What do
you eat? How does it
affect your social life
and relationships?
How do you stay in
touch with friends?
How do you wash?
The author finds out
the hard way and, in
the process, explores the troubling consequences of our
obsession with money. Encountering cuttlefish
toothpaste, seasonal foods, skill-swapping schemes,
and compost toilets, Mark even faces the unthinkable:
a cash-free Christmas. Following his own strict rules,
he goes back to basics and learns ingenious ways to
eliminate his bills. Highlighting the huge wastage in
modern consumer living, Mark explains how to feed
yourself with no money and flourish for free. This book
will inspire you to question what really matters in life.
Shelved: 646.7 BOY
PRACTICALITIES
Page 5 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
TRUE CRIME
Bringing Adam Home
By Les Standiford
There are two periods of history
that pertain to missing and
endangered children in the
United States: before Adam
Walsh and after Adam Walsh.
In the aftermath of that six-year
old's abduction and slaying in
1981, everything about the
nation's regard and response to
missing children changed.
The shock of the crime and the
inability of law enforcement to
find Adam's killer put an end to
innocence and altered the very
perception of childhood itself –
gone forever are the days when young children burst out the
doors of American homes with a casual promise to be home
by dark. And, due in large part to the efforts of Adam's
parents, John and Reve Walsh, the entire mechanism of law
enforcement has transformed itself in an effort to protect
children. Before Adam went missing, there were no children's
faces on milk cartons and billboards, no national Centre for
Missing and Abused Children, no national databases for
crimes against children, no registration of paedophiles – in
fact, it was easier to mobilize the FBI to search for a stolen car
or missing horse than for a kidnapped child. Such facts may
be sad testimony to the weariness of a modern world, but
there is also an uplifting aspect to Adam's story - the 27 years
of undaunted effort by decorated Miami Beach Homicide
Detective Joe Matthews to track down Adam's killer and bring
justice to bear at long last. Shelved: 364.15 STA
The True Story of Ned
Kelly’s Last Stand –
By Paul Terry
Using science, history and
family lore to unearth a
new understanding of how
a legend was made, this is
the full story of the most
famous siege in Australian
history.
When Ned Kelly fought his
'last stand' at Glenrowan,
he made his suit of armour
and a tiny bush pub part of
Australian folklore.
But what really happened
at the Glenrowan Inn when
the Kelly Gang took up
arms against the government?
Who was there when the bullets began to fly and how did their
actions help to set the course of history?
Almost 130 years after the gunfight, a team of archaeologists
peeled back the layers of history at Glenrowan to reveal new
information about how the battle played out, uncovering the
stories of the people caught up in the violent confrontation
between the Kellys and the law.
The book examines the actions of a woman who took a
chance and lost and delves into the lives and deaths of the
people who helped to create the legend.
And, perhaps most importantly, as the inn reveals its lost
secrets, it creates an opportunity to shed new light on Ned
Kelly, a man who still polarises a nation as either a romantic
hero or a convicted killer. Shelved: 994.031 KEL
Page 6 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
Eugenia : A True Story of
Adversity, Tragedy,
Crime and Courage –
By Mark Tedeschi
The true crime account of
Eugenia Falleni, a woman
who in 1920 was charged
with the murder of her wife.
Eugenia had lived as a
man in Australia for
twenty-two years. She
lived a full married life with
her first wife, Annie, for
four years before Annie
realised that her husband
was a woman. Even after
Annie knew, they lived
together for eight months
before they went on a bush
picnic, when Annie
mysteriously died. Her body was not identified for almost
three years, and during this time Eugenia married again, this
time to Lizzie.
When Eugenia was arrested and charged with Annie's
murder, the police attempted to tell Lizzie that her husband
was a woman. She laughed at them - she was so convinced
that her husband was a man that she thought she was
pregnant to him.
The book traces Eugenia's history: from her early years in an
Italian immigrant family in New Zealand, to her brutal treatment when she first tried living as a man. The story then
follows the years she lived in Sydney as Harry Crawford.
The trial for Annie's murder is extensively analysed.
This is the story of a tragic character who believed she was a
man trapped in the body of a woman, sexual deception in the
dark, an allegation of murder, an over-exuberant police
investigation, an erudite judge, a determined prosecutor, an
overwhelmed defender, a Press gone feral, and a public
clamouring for blood - a mix that led to a miscarriage of
justice. Shelved: 364.1523092 TED
The Dark Charisma of
Adolf Hitler : Leading
Millions into the Abyss
By Laurence Rees
Adolf Hitler seemed an
unlikely leader – fuelled by
hate, incapable of forming
normal human relationships, unwilling to debate
political issues – and yet
he commanded enormous
support.
So how was it possible
that Hitler became such an
attractive figure to millions
of people?
That is the important
question at the core of this
book which accompanies
a new BBC series.
The Holocaust, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the outbreak of the Second World War – all these cataclysmic events
and more can be laid at Hitler’s door.
Hitler was a war criminal arguably without precedent in the
history of the world. Yet, as many who knew him confirm,
Hitler was often able to exert a powerful influence over the
people who encountered him. Shelved: 943.086092 HIT
Page 7 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
journeys
NEW ZEALAND NON-FICTION
Page 8 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
All the Commissioner’s
Men – By Chris Birt
The killing of Jeanette and
Harvey Crewe at Pukekawa,
South Auckland, is indelibly
burnt into the memory of
anyone resident in New
Zealand at that time.
Most Kiwis know that an
innocent man was arrested
and spent almost 10 years in
prison for two murders he
did not commit.
The author’s inquiries into
the Crew murders now span
36 years and he is viewed by
some as the Crew case historian.
He presents the damning story of how detectives
fabricated evidence and suppressed crucial eyewitness
statements in a bid to resolve New Zealand’s ultimate
cold case. Shelved: 364.1523099331 BIR
The Great Divide : The
Story of New Zealand & its
Treaty
By Ian Wishart
New Zealand was catapulted
kicking and screaming from
the stone age to the space
age within two hundred years
of Captain Cook setting foot
here…and we’re still arguing
about it.
Who really got to New
Zealand first?
Which version of the Treaty
of Waitangi is the most
accurate translation?
Did the Treaty ever set up a ‘partnership’ to rule the
country? Why did Maori chiefs really sign it?
The author shares his theory on our history and the
Treaty debate.
Graham Henry : Final Word
By Bob Howitt
After the All Blacks crashed
out of the 2007 World Cup,
humiliatingly at the quarterfinal stage, Graham Henry
thought his time as an international rugby coach was up.
The NZRU had never
reappointed a losing World
Cup coach and he couldn’t
see why they would make an
exception. That is, until he
began preparing his coach’s
report, which involved a
detailed analysis of the video
of that fateful quarter-final. What he uncovered would
contribute to his controversial reappointment.
How Henry and his coaching partners, Wayne Smith and
Steve Hansen rebuilt the All Blacks makes enthralling
reading. Shelved: 796.33365 HEN
Naked Truth : Lifting the
Lid on the New Zealand
Sex Industry
By Rachel Francis
Through intimate
conversations with key
personalities in the New
Zealand sex industry, the
author lifts the lid on a hidden
world.
Those interviewed include a
101-year-old relative of Flora
MacKenzie, owner of the
famous brothel in Auckland’s
Ring Terrace; Steve Crow,
the man behind Boobs on
Bikes and the Erotica Lifestyles Expo; and Storm, owner
of the first legal transsexual brothel in NZ.
A brutally honest account inside an industry which
includes brothels, strip bars and the porn business.
Shelved: 993WIS
Shelved: 306.740993 FRA
HISTORY
Antarctica : A Biography –
By David Day
It was not until 1820 that the
continent of Antarctica was discovered and parts of the frozen land
began to be claimed by nations
intent on having it as their own.
Draws upon libraries and archives
from around the world to provide a
large-scale history of Antarctica.
On one level it is the story of
explorers battling the elements in the
most hostile place on earth as they
strive for personal triumph,
commercial gain and national glory.
On a deeper level, it is the story of
nations seeking to incorporate the
Antarctic into their national narratives
as environmentalists, scientists and
resource companies compete for
control. Shelved: 919.89 DAY
Page 9 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
Da Vinci’s Last Commission –
The Fishing Fleet : Husband
By Fiona McLaren
Hunting in the Raj
Imagine you have an old painting, a
By Anne De Courcy
Madonna and Child. It has been in
From the late 19th century, when the
your family for years. It hangs on
Raj was at its height, many of
your wall and you take it for granted. Britain’s best and brightest young
But curiosity eventually impels you to men went out to India to work as
call in the experts. They get excited. administrators, soldiers and
What if the painting was thought to
businessmen. Countless young
be by a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci – women, suffering at the lack of
or even the great master himself?
eligible men in Britain, followed in
You start researching,
their wake. This amorphous band
communicating with academics and
was composed of daughters
institutions. The results of your
returning after their English
search are astounding. What would education, girls invited to stay with
you do if that painting pointed to one married sisters or friends, and yet
of the greatest heresies of our time? others whose declared or undeclared
And what if it revealed an incredible
goal was simply to find a husband.
story that the Roman Catholic
They were known as the Fishing
Church has kept secret for
Fleet, and this book is their story.
Shelved: 954.03 DEC
centuries? Shelved: 759.5 MCLA
Dam Busters : The Race to Smash the Dams 1943 –
By James Holland
The night of 16 May 1943. Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take
off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, each with a huge 9,000lb cylindrical bomb
strapped underneath it.
Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland, which
provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich’s war machine.
From the outset it was an almost impossible task, a suicide mission: to fly low and
at night formation over many miles of enemy-occupied territory at the very limit of
the Lancasters’ capacity; and drop a new weapon that had never been tried
operationally before from a precise height of just sixty feet from the water on
some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany.
More than that, the entire operation had to be put together in less than ten weeks.
When visionary aviation engineer Barnes Wallis’s concept of the bouncing bomb
was green lighted, he hadn’t even drawn up his plans. What followed was a race
against time, which, despite numerous setbacks, became one of the most
successful and game-changing bombing raids of all time. The author brings new
research and perspectives to this story.
Shelved: 940.544941 HOL
RELATIONSHIPS IN FICTION
The Housemaid’s Daughter
By Barbara Mutch.
Cathleen Harrington leaves her
home in Ireland in 1919 to travel to
South Africa and marry the fiancé
she has not seen for five years.
Isolated and estranged in a harsh
landscape, she finds solace in her
diary and the friendship of her
housemaid’s daughter, Ada.
Under Cathleen’s tutelage, Ada
grows into an accomplished pianist.
When Ada is compromised and finds
she is expecting a mixed-race child,
she flees her home. Scorned within
her own community, she is forced to
carve a life for herself, her child, and
her music.
But Cathleen still believes in Ada,
and risks the constraints of apartheid
to search for her.
The First
Warm
Evening
of the
Year
Jamie M.
Saul.
From the
moment
he first
sees her,
Geoffrey
instinctively knows
this attractive, plainspoken woman has the power to upend his cool, compartmentalized life.
What Marian knows is that life comes
with no guarantees, no promises of
lasting happiness, and although she
finds herself unsettled by this persistent, compelling man, she's unwilling to
trade her hard-won, quotidian
existence for an indefinite future.
The Oldest Song in the World
By Sue Woolfe.
Kate, a lonely city woman and
reluctant student, is asked by her
teachers to travel to the middle of the
Australian desert to record a dying
Aboriginal woman singing an ancient
song.
She accepts because she believes
that she might be able to reunite with
a childhood love and solve the
mystery of her past.
But once there, she’s confronted by
an Aboriginal culture vastly different
to her own, and also by the forceful
personality of the man who is
supposed to help her find the singer.
Very soon she is questioning
everything she has ever felt about
her own country and about her
childhood.
Lost &
Found
Jacqueline
Sheehan.
Consumed
by grief
following
her husband’s
death,
Rocky
chops off
all her hair,
leaves her
career as a
psychologist, and takes a job as an animal
control warden on a remote island.
There she finds friendship with a
woman whose brain misfires in the
most wonderful way and a young girl
who is trying to disappear. Then
Lloyd, a large black Labrador retriever,
enters her world with a primitive arrow
sticking out of his shoulder.
Page 10 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
Summerland
By Elin Hilderbrand
On the night of high school graduation Nantucket Island is alive with
parties and celebrations. But for four
teenagers, life is about to change
forever, when Penny crashes her
car, killing herself and leaving her
twin brother Hobson in a deep coma.
Penny’s boyfriend Jake and her best
friend Demeter escape physical
injury. But the real scars lie much
deeper than that. And while Jake’s
family try to take him away from the
memories by moving to Australia,
Demeter has no such opportunity,
and finds herself in an unstoppable
spiral of self-destruction. As details
of the accident emerge, questions
are raised. Will healing be possible
for the friends who survived?
The Rose
Petal
Beach
Dorothy
Koomson.
Tamia
Challey is
horrified
when her
husband,
Scott, is
accused of
something
terrible but when
she discovers who his accuser is, everything
goes into freefall. Backed into a
corner, Tamia is forced to choose who
she instinctively believes. This choice
has dire consequences, when matters
take a tragic turn. Then a stranger
arrives in town to sprinkle rose petals
in the sea in memory of her lost loved
one. This stranger has shocking truths.
LOVE STORIES
Page 11 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
Abdication
The Next
The Things
Juliet
Best Thing
We Do For
Nicolson.
Jennifer
Love
A backdrop
Weiner.
Roisin
of Pre-World
Believing
Meaney.
War II
she is
Art teacher,
England,
realizing her
Audrey
and Edward
dreams
Matthews
VIII's scandwhen her
sits alone in
alous affair.
sitcom is
Room Six at
A fatherless
bought,
Carrickbawn
chauffeur
television
College,
shares an
writer Ruth
wondering if
undeclared
Saunders
anyone is
love with a complex Oxford underfinds her happiness threatened by
going to sign up for her life drawing
graduate, a housekeeper hides her
demanding actors and executives as for beginner’s class. By eight o’clock
Nazi sympathies and a woman
well as an unrequited crush on her
six people have arrived. Nobody
struggles with escalating tensions in boss and her septuagenarian
could have predicted the profound
her friendship with Wallace Simpson. grandmother's upcoming wedding.
effect the class would have.
What I Did on My
Jacaranda
Holidays
Mandy Magro.
Chrissie Manby.
At nineteen, Molly Jones
Sophie Sturgeon can't
has the world at her feet.
wait for her annual
Then one drunken night
holiday. Not only will it
she falls into bed with
be a week away from
Mark, a cowboy just
work, it will be a chance
passing through. By the
to reconnect with her
time Molly realises she is
boyfriend Callum.
pregnant, Mark is long
So this trip to Majorca is
gone. Now, at twentya big deal. She's bought
six, Molly’s life is almost
a new wardrobe. She's
perfect. The devoted
been waxed to within an
mother of Rose, and a
inch of her life. She and
renowned horse trainer,
Callum will have the best
she lives amid the beauty
time ever. Then Callum
of Jacaranda Farm,
dumps her, the night
surrounded by family and
before they're due to leave. In a show of independence, friends – none closer than hunky stockman Heath.
Sophie says she'll go to Majorca alone - but in fact, she
When Mark stumbles back into her world, as charming
hides in her London flat. But when her friends, family,
as ever, Molly begins to hope for a future she’d long ago
and even Callum seem so surprised and delighted at her relinquished. But how will Mark react when he learns
single girl courage, Sophie decides to recreate the
he’s a father? And could the man of Molly’s dreams be
ultimate 'fake break' . . . with hilarious results.
closer to home than she thinks?
Big Sky Mountain
Overseas
Linda Lael Miller.
By Beatriz Williams
With his rugged good looks, Wall Street analyst Kate
vast wealth, and family
Wilson is good at her job,
name, hell-raiser Hutch
good looking, smart, and
Carmody is still the golden
while she's out of place in
boy of Parable, Montana.
her shark-filled firm, she's
But he's done some
hardly the type handsome
growing up--making peace
billionaire investment
with his illegitimate halfgenius Julian Laurence
brother and inheriting half of would take an interest in.
Whisper Creek Ranch,
Yet from the moment he
which should have been all
sees her, he's smitten.
his.
Kate's left to wonder why he
These days, Hutch knows
backs off. Is he just some
there are some things
rich jerk blowing hot and
money can't buy: like the
cold? No, he's deeply in
heart of loving, ladylike
love and stuck with a
divorcee Kendra Shepherd.
secret: he's from a different time, and they've met before.
FICTIONAL ORIENTAL
Across a Bridge of Dreams
By Lesley Downer
In the brave new Japan of the
1870s, Taka and Nobu meet as
children and fall in love; but their
relationship will test the limits of
society. Taka is from the powerful
southern Satsuma clan which now
dominates the country, and her
father, General Kitaoka, is a leader
of the new government.
Nobu, however, is from the
northern Aizu clan, massacred by the Satsuma in the
civil war. Defeated and reduced to poverty, his family
has sworn revenge on the Satsuma.
The Red Chamber
By Pauline Chen
18th century Beijing:
When orphaned Daiyu
leaves her home in the
provinces to take shelter
with her cousins in the
capital, she is drawn into a
world of opulent
splendour, presided over
by the ruthless, scheming
Xifeng and the prim,
repressed Baochai. The
secret, exquisite world of
the women’s quarters of
this aristocratic household
is brought to life, where
the burnish of wealth and refinement mask a harsher
truth: marriageable girls are traded like chattel for the
family’s advancement, and to choose to love is to risk
everything. Daiyu learns of secrets and finds herself
entangled in a web of intrigue and hidden passions, from
the petty gossip of the servant’s quarters to that of the
Imperial Palace. When a political coup overthrows the
emperor and plunges the once-mighty family into
grinding poverty, each woman must fight for survival.
Page 12 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
The Pillow Book of the Flower
Samurai – By Barbara Lazar
I am Kozaischo : fifth daughter,
woman-for-play, teller of stories,
lover, wife and flower Samurai. In
the rich, dazzling, brutal world of
twelfth-century Japan, one young
girl begins her epic journey, from
the warmth of family to the Village
of Outcasts. Marked out by an
auspicious omen, she is trained in
the ancient warrior arts of the
samurai. But it is through the power of storytelling that
she learns to fight her fate, twisting her life on to a path
even she could not have imagined...
Skeleton Women
By Mingmei Yip
Once upon a time in
China, the most beautiful
and gifted women were
known as ‘skeleton
women’ – the ultimate
femmes fatales who could
bring a man to his knees,
or to his doom…
When Camilla, a young
orphan girl in Shanghai, is
adopted and brought to
life in luxury, it seems like
a stroke of luck, But as
Camilla grows to womanhood, she realizes that her
‘rescue’ was part of gang leader Big Brother Wang’s
scheme. Camilla is trained in singing, dancing, knifethrowing and contortion – all to attract the attention of
Wang’s enemy, the ruthless Master Lung. Forced to
become Master Lung’s mistress, Camilla meets two
other intriguing women who both pose risks to her safety
and status. But an even greater danger comes in the
form of Master Lung’s eldest son, Jinying, who despises
his father’s violent lifestyle – but loves Camilla.
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Merivel : A Man of
His Time
Rose Tremain.
Robert Merivel,
courtier to Charles II
is no longer a young
man, but off he goes
to France in search
of the Sun King and
Switzerland in
pursuit of a handsome woman. As he narrates the
picaresque journey, Merivel gets into all
sorts of scrapes; he is torn between
enjoying himself and making something
of his life but constantly backslides into
laughter and laziness. A big-hearted
rogue who loves his daughter, his
country house and the English King ...
Merivel is Everyman.
The Splintered
Kingdom
James Aitcheson.
England, 1070.
Barely has the dust
of rebellion settled
when the Normans’
recently conquered
realm is under siege
once more.
Ensconced in his
newly won lordship on the Welsh
Marches, the proud and ambitious knight
Tancred a Dinant battles the raiders who
seek to plunder his lands. Renowned
for his exploits, he has knights of his
own to command and a manor to call
home. But his hard-fought gains are
soon placed in peril by enemies at home
and abroad.
The Uncommon
Appeal of Clouds
Alexander McCall
Smith.
As a mother, wife,
employer and editor
of the Review of
Applied Ethics, Isabel
Dalhousie is aware
that to be human is
to be responsible. So
when a neighbour brings her a potentially dangerous puzzle to solve, Isabel
feels she has no option but to assist.
A masterpiece painting has been stolen
from Duncan Munrowe, old-fashioned
philanthropist, father to two discontented
children, and a very wealthy man and
Isabel enters into negotiations with the
shadowy figures who demand a ransom.
BLOKE FICTION
Bloodline –
By James Rollins
Galilee, 1025. Infiltrating
an ancient citadel, a
Templar knight uncovers
a holy treasure long
hidden within the
fortress’s labyrinth: the
Bachal Isu – the staff of
Jesus Christ – a priceless
icon that holds a
mysterious and terrifying
power that promises to
change humankind for
ever. A millennium later,
Somali pirates hijack a
yacht off the coast of the
Horn of Africa,
kidnapping a young
pregnant American woman. Commander Gray Pierce is
enlisted for a covert rescue mission in the African jungle.
The woman is no rich tourist: she’s Amanda GantBennett, daughter of the U.S. president. Suspicious that
the kidnapping masks a far more nefarious plot, Gray
must confront a shadowy cabal which has been
manipulating events throughout history…and now
challenges the current presidency. Meanwhile, halfway
around the world, a firebombing at a fertility clinic in
South Carolina exposes a conspiracy that goes back
centuries…a scheme that lies within our genetic code.
With time against them, SIGMA must race to save an
innocent unborn baby whose very existence raises
questions about the nature of humanity, asking: Could
you live for ever? Would you live for ever?
The Tombs
By Clive Cussler and
Thomas Perry
When an archaeologist
excavating a top-secret
historical site realizes
the magnitude of his
discovery he requests
help from treasure
hunters Sam and Remi
Fargo. And in rushing to
join him, the husband
and wife team are
thrown into their most
daring quest to date.
The clues point to the
hidden tomb of Attila the
Hun, the High King who
was reportedly buried
with a vast fortune of gold, jewels and plunder – a bounty
that has never been found.
But as Sam and Remi piece together the puzzle, the trail
takes them through Hungary, Italy, France, Russia and
Kazakhstan and not to one tomb, but five. And into the
path of deadly danger. They are not the only ones
hunting for the High King’s riches. The Fargos find
themselves pitted against treasure hunters who will stop
at nothing to claim the tombs’ riches.
Page 13 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
False Friends –
By Stephen Leather
When Navy Seals track down
and kill Osama bin Laden in
Pakistan, it’s obvious there was
a traitor. After the false friends
are revealed to be two British
students – former Islamic fundamentalists recruited by MI5 –
they become targets themselves. Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd
must teach the pair how to
survive undercover with
al-Qaeda closing in. But Spider is not used to playing
handler. And as the line between mentor and friend
begins to blur, and a terrorist plot threatens thousands
of lives, can he protect everyone before it’s too late?
Assassin –
By Duncan Falconer
In Afghanistan, elite operative
John Stratton leads a raid on a
remote compound, leaving no
survivors. Days later, in
London, Stratton is contacted by
an old friend in military
intelligence with a curious
message about being hunted by
an assassin. When the officer
vanishes, Stratton is drawn into
a desperate race to secure a
missing nuclear war-head that has been stolen from the
Pakistan military. Against an unknown enemy, he
begins a search for the bomb that will take him from a
Taliban hideout to the crowded streets of Manhattan.
Osama –
By Chris Ryan
The President of the
United States knows it.
The world knows it.
And SAS hero Joe
Mansfield knows it.
He was on the ground
in Pakistan when it
happened. He saw
Seal Team 6 go in, and
he saw them extract
with their grisly cargo.
He was in the right
place at the right time.
Or maybe, the wrong
place at the wrong
time. Because
somebody wants Joe dead. His world is violently
dismantled. His family is targeted, his reputation
destroyed. And as he learns of a devastating terror
attack on both sides of the Atlantic, Joe knows this: his
only chance of survival is to find out exactly what
happened in Bin Laden’s compound the night the
Americans went in. But an unseen, mincing power has
tracks it needs to cover. And it will stop at nothing to
prevent him uncovering the sinister truth.
HISTORICAL FICTION
Page 14 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
Devil’s Charge
The Second
Softly Grow the
Michael Arnold.
Empress –
Poppies –
For Captain
Michelle Moran.
Audrey Howard
Stryker, scarred
Based on
Wealthy Rose
hero of a dozen
primary
Beechworth
battles, the
resources from
meets Harry
rights and
the time, this
Summers when
wrongs of the
story takes
she chaperones
cause mean
readers back to
loveable young
little. His
Napoleon’s
heiress, Alice
loyalties are to
empire, where
Weatherly, in
his own small
royals and
love with Harry’s
band of comrades – and to Queen
servants alike live at the whim of one brother, Charlie. Two very different
Henrietta Maria. The English Civil
man, and two women vie to change
pairs of lovers brought together by
War is portrayed vividly here.
their destinies.
the Great War.
The Eagle of the Twelfth
The Lady’s Maid –
M. C. Scott
Dilly Court
3rd in the Rome series:
‘Kate had grown up
Throughout the Roman
knowing there were two
Army, the XIIth Legion is
worlds, sharply divided.
notorious for its ill fortune.
She lived in the ratIt faces the toughest of
infested stables with the
campaigns, the most
smell of horses clinging to
vicious of opponents. For
her hair and clothes, while
one young man Demalion
Josephine Damerell, the
of Macedon, joining it will
spoilt, petted and overbe a baptism of fire. And
indulged daughter of the
yet, amid the violence and
house, dwelt in luxury.’
savagery, he realizes he
In the quiet of a summer’s
has discovered a vocation
evening two young
– as a soldier and a leader
mothers are forced to give
of men.
up their babies. Whilst
But during the brutal Judaean campaign, the Hebrew
Kate grows up knowing only poverty and servitude,
army inflict a catastrophic defeat upon the legion,
Josie’s world is one of privilege and luxury. Despite the
decimating their ranks, and taking away their soul, the
differences in their circumstances, Kate and Josie have
eagle. To save the legion’s honour – to steal back the
been friends since childhood. But their past binds them
eagle, Demalion and his legionaries must go undercover together in ways they must never know. Until a chance
into Jerusalem if they are to recover their pride.
meeting threatens to destroy their friendship for ever…
The Wolves of the North
The Queen’s Vow –
Harry Sidebottom
C.W. Gortner
Warrior of Rome series:
Isabella of Castile, the
AD263: Barbarian
intelligent and fiery
invasions and violent upSpanish queen best
risings threaten to tear
remembered today for
apart the imperium of
funding the voyages of
Rome. In the north, the
Christopher Columbus,
tribes are increasingly bold
begins this historical novel
in their raids – their
as a mere pawn in the
savagery unlike anything
decadent court of her
Rome has ever known
weak older brother.
before. Balista must
When controversy arises
undertake his most
over the legitimacy of her
treacherous journey yet –
brother's heir, Isabella's
a covert attempt to turn the
tenacity and ruthlessness
barbarians of the Steppes
allow her to seize the
against each other. He must face the Heruli – the most
throne with the help of her beloved Ferdinand of Aragon.
bizarre and brutal of all the nomad tribes – the Eaters of After she is crowned, however, Isabella faces continued
Flesh, the Wolves of the North. As Balista and his
threats to the security of the realm not only from outside
retinue make their journey, someone – or something – is sources but also from Ferdinand's own pride and
hunting them, picking them off one by one.
arrogance.
MYSTERY FICTION
Page 15 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
Let the Devil Sleep – By John
Malice in Mind – By A V Denham
Verdon
When Harriet escapes with her
Semi-retired NYPD homicide
daughter, from the abusive Paul, she
detective, Dave Gurney is approached runs to South Wales where she is
by a young woman who is producing a taken in by her friend Florence and
documentary on a notorious murder
introduced to James, home from
spree. Soon after, a razor-sharp
fighting in Afghanistan and owner of
hunting arrow lands in his yard, and
a newly inherited garden centre.
Gurney escapes injury in a boobyAttracted to him, needing work, and
trapped basement. He finds himself
deciding to settle there, Harriet
re-examining a case which ten years
invests in his business.
before involved a series of shootings
When a series of unexplained
and a rage-against-the-rich manifesto. The only gambit is
incidents threaten Harriet's peaceful
to make himself a target and get the killer to come to him.
new life there are questions to be answered.
The Girl on
Orchid Blue
Rush of
the Stairs –
Val
Blood –
Louise
McDermid.
Mark
Welsh.
The case:
Billingham.
Some
January
Three
buildings are
1961, and
couples meet
alive with
the beaten,
on holiday in
memories.
stabbed and
Florida and
Jane Logan
strangled
become fast
is six months
body of
friends.
pregnant and
nineteenBut on their
has moved to
year-old
last night,
Berlin to live
Pearl
their perfect
with her longGamble is
holiday takes
term lover, rich banker, Petra.
discovered, after a dance the
a tragic twist: the teenage daughter
The women's chic new apartment is
previous night at Newry Orange Hall. of another holidaymaker goes
in a trendy part of the city but Jane
The detective: Returning from
missing, and her body is later found
finds herself increasingly uneasy
London, Detective Eddie McCrink
floating in the mangroves.
there. She conceives a dread of the
soon suspects that there may be
When the shocked couples return
derelict backhouse across the court- people wielding influence over
home, they remain in contact, and
yard and begins to suspect someaffairs, and that the accused, the
over the course of three increasingly
thing sinister is happening in the flat
enigmatic Robert McGladdery, may
fraught dinner parties they come to
next door. Jane's decision to turn
struggle to get a fair hearing.
know one another better.
detective has devastating results
The judge: Lord Justice Curran, a
But they don’t always like what they
when her own past collides with the
man whose nine years previously
find: buried beneath these
past of the building and its
found his own family in the news,
apparently normal exteriors are
inhabitants. A haunting, atmospher- following the murder of his nineteen- some dark secrets, hidden kinks,
ic novel from the acclaimed author of year-old daughter, Patricia. Based
ugly vices…Then a second girl goes
The Cutting Room.
on a true story.
missing.
A Killing in the Hills
You Don’t Want to Know
Julia Keller
Lisa Jackson
Crime runs rampant in the town
Two years ago, Ava Garrison’s
of Acker’s Gap, West Virginia.
cherished two-year-old son
The treacherous mountain roads
Noah disappeared from a house
harbour secret places, perfect for
full of party guests. There was
selling the prescription drugs that
no ransom demand; his body
tempt many of its desperately
was never found. Most people
poor into addiction. Belfa ‘Bell’
assumed that Noah drowned.
Elkins left a broken teenager –
Ava, unable to remember the
savaged by a past that no-one
details of her son’s disappearwould let her forget, desperate to
ance and wracked with grief, has
escape the scene of her worst
been in and out of mental
nightmares. But, as prosecuting attorney for Raythune
institutions since that night. Back on the family estate
County, Bell is back and determined to do all she can to now, though, Ava is having strangely lifelike visions of
help those around her and clean up the only home she
Noah on the dock, or in his nursery. Visions that seem
has ever known. As winter sets in and her teenage
to be urging her risk her own life.
daughter is witness to a shocking triple murder, Bell
Secretly visiting a hypnotist, she discovers her son may
finds that her family is in real danger.
still be alive.
KIWI FICTION
Gorse is Not People : New
and Uncollected Stories –
By Janet Frame
A collection of 28 short stories
by Janet Frame which span
the length of her career.
None of these stories have
been published in a collection
before, and more than half are
published for the first time.
Readers will recognise
familiar themes, scenes,
characters and locations from
Frame’s writing and life.
When in Rome –
By Nicky Pellegrino
1950s Rome, there’s nowhere
quite like it. The narrow stone
streets, the fountains, piazzas
full of life in the heat of the day,
the cafes and bars full of music
and desire by night. Serafina
and her sisters busk for spare
change and cinema tickets.
They grow up quickly and
Serafina must make a choice
between the world she knows
and the life she dreams of.
The Big Music – By Kirsty Gunn
Presented as a collection of found
papers, appendices and notes, telling
the story of John Sutherland of ‘The
Grey House’, who is dying and creating a musical composition that will
define his life. Yet he has little idea of
how his tune will play out into the
world. As the book moves through its
themes of death and birth, change
and stasis, the sound of his solitary
story connects with those around him.
Page 16 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
The Not So Perfect Life of
Mo Lawrence –
By Catherine Robertson
Michelle Lawrence’s perfect
life has been just as she’s
designed it. But then her
husband, Chad, ruins everything by taking a job in San
Francisco, about as far from
their comfortable family home
as it's possible to get without
actually emigrating. Up until
now Chad’s primary focus has
been keeping her happy, and
Michelle can see no good
reason why this should change. But change it has, and
Michelle now has to deal with Chad’s increasing detachment, while building a new life with her two small
children in a place filled with cat-eating coyotes.
On top of that, Michele’s oldest friend is turning against
marriage, while her newest is a little too obsessed with
clean taps. And down the redwood-lined street, there’s
Aishe Herne, a woman who could pick a fight with a
silent order of nuns. Aishe has designed her own kind of
perfect life, in which there’s room for her, her teenage
son and no one else. But when cousin Patrick lands in
town like a Cockney nemesis, both Aishe and Michelle
must begin determined campaigns to regain their grip on
the steering wheel of their lives.
Second Chances –
By Charity Norman
In the quiet of a New Zealand winter’s
night, a rescue helicopter is sent to
airlift a five-year-old boy with severe
internal injuries. He’s fallen from the
upstairs verandah of an isolated farmhouse, and may not last the next few
hours. At first, Finn’s fall looks like a
horrible accident; after all, he’s prone
to sleepwalking. Only his frantic
mother knows how it really happened.
And she isn’t telling. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
WELL REVIEWED FICTION
The
Orchardi
st
Amanda
Coplin.
Middleaged
Talmadg
e tends
his
orchards,
content
with his
solitary life. Two young
sisters, Jane and Della, both
pregnant by an opiumaddicted, violent brothel
owner from whom they have
escaped, touch Talmadge's
otherwise stoic heart, and he
shelters and protects them
until the arrival of the girls'
pursuers.
Philida –
Andre
Brink.
This is
what it is
to be a
slave: that
everything
is decided
for you
from out
there.
You just
got to listen and do as they
tell you. You don’t say no.
You don’t ask questions.
But far at the back of your
head you think: Soon there
must come a day when I can
say for myself: This and that I
shall do, this and that I shall
not.
A
Possible
Life
Sebastian
Faulks.
A multilayered
narrative.
Through
naivety,
despair or
desire,
soldiers
and lovers, parents and
children, scientists and
musicians risk their bodies and
hearts in search of some kind
of connection, some key to
understanding what it is that
makes us the people we
become. Provocative and
profound.
The Time
Keeper
Mitch
Albom.
After
being
punished
for trying
to measure God's
greatest
gift,
Father
Time returns to Earth along
with a magical hourglass and a
mission: a chance to redeem
himself by teaching two
earthly people the true
meaning of time – one a
teenage girl who is about to
give up on life, the other a
wealthy old businessman who
wants to live forever
The Kingmaker’s
Daughter –
Philippa Gregory
Anne Neville and her
sister Isabel are
daughters of the
most powerful
magnate in 15th
century England, the
Earl of Warwick,
nicknamed the
‘Kingmaker’. Ever
ruthless, always
plotting, in the
absence of a son
and heir, Warwick
sets about using his
daughters as pawns
in his vicious political
games.
Toby’s Room –
Pat Barker
The characters of Life
Class return in a
story of human
desire, wartime
horror and the power
of friendship. When
Toby is reported
'Missing, Believed
Killed', another secret
casts a lengthening
shadow over Elinor's
world: how exactly
did Toby die - and
why? She determines to uncover the
truth. Only then can
she finally close the
door to Toby's room.
BESTSELLER AUTHORS
The Casual Vacancy –
J. K. Rowling
When Barry Fairbrother dies in his
early forties, the town of Pagford is
left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly,
an English idyll, with a cobbled
square and an ancient abbey, but
what lies behind the pretty facade is
a town at war. Rich at war with poor,
teenagers at war with their parents,
wives at war with their husbands,
teachers at war with their pupils...
Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on
the parish council soon becomes the
catalyst for the biggest war the town
has yet seen. Who will triumph in an
election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
A Wanted Man – Lee Child
When you’re as big and rough as
Jack Reacher – and you have a
badly set, freshly busted nose,
patched with silver duct tape – it isn’t
easy to hitch a ride. But Reacher
has some unfinished business in
Virginia, so he doesn’t quit. And at
least he’s picked up by three
strangers – two men and a woman.
But within minutes it becomes clear
they’re all lying about everything –
and then they run into a police roadblock on the highway. There has
been an incident, and the cops are
looking for the bad guys.. Will they
get through because the three are
innocent? Or because the three are
now four? Is Reacher just a decoy?
Winter of the World –
Ken Follett
Sequel to Fall of the Giants:
Five interlinked families live out their
destinies as the world is shaken by
tyranny and war in the mid-twentieth
century. Berlin in 1933 is in
upheaval. Eleven-year-old Carla von
Ulrich struggles to understand the
tensions disrupting her family as
Hitler strengthens his grip on
Germany.
Into this turmoil steps her mother’s
formidable friend and former British
MP, Ethel Leckwith, and her student
son, Lloyd, who learns the brutal
reality of Nazism and encounters a
group of Germans resolved to
oppose Hitler.
SUPERNATURAL FICTION
An Apple for the
Creature
Edited by Charlaine
Harris
Your schooldays are
supposed to be the
happiest days of your
life – until you start
thinking of your worst
school nightmares:
not knowing which is
your classroom door,
taking that maths test
you never studied for,
finding yourself
naked in Assembly!
But those fears will
pale in comparison in
these 13 new stories
that take academic
anxiety to whole new realms… You’ll need more than
an apple to stave off the creatures.
Lady of the Shades
By Darren Shan
Ed, an American author on the
hunt for a story for his next book,
arrives in London looking for
inspiration. A stranger in a
strange city, he's haunted by a
deadly secret that refuses to
stay buried, and no matter how
hard he tries he cannot escape
the manifest sins of his past.
What Ed wants is answers, what
he finds is something he didn't
bargain for: the beautiful and
untouchable Andeanna Menderes. Andeanna is a
woman who is dangerously bound to one of London's
most notorious crime lords, and if they are caught
together it could mean death for them both.
Ensnared in an illicit affair that can only be conducted in
the shadows, Ed's world is turned upside down as a
series of shattering revelations blurs the line between
what's real and what's not...
Page 18 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
The Dirty Streets of
Heaven
By Tad Williams
Sure, he takes the odd
trip to Heaven, but his
job as an advocate –
arguing the fate of the
recently deceased –
keeps him pretty busy
on Earth, and he’s
more than happy to
spend the rest of his
time propping up the
bar with his fellow
immortals. Until the
day a soul goes missing, presumed stolen
by ‘the other side’.
A new chapter in the
war between heaven
and hell is about to open. Bobby is right in the middle of
it, with only a desirable but deadly demon to aid him.
You Came Back
By Christopher Coake
Thirty-something Mark Fife
believes he’s moved on from
the death of his young son
Brendan and the subsequent
breakup of his marriage to
Chloe. He still has disturbing
dreams occasionally, but he’s in
love again, with a fine woman
called Allison, his job is going
well, and he believes he has
mastered his memories.
But then the current owner of
Mark’s old house claims that it’s haunted by Brendan’s
ghost, and the old nightmares return, bringing some
persistent questions with them.
Has Brendan truly gone, or is he searching for Mark and
Chloe’s help?
What would it mean to believe in a ghost? How will
Allison react with Chloe back in Mark’s life? And who
does he truly love?
THRILLER FICTION
No Return –
Brett Battles.
When he tries to
rescue the pilot of a
downed F-18 Navy
fighter, TV
cameraman, Wes
Stewart, barely
escapes with his
life. In the
moments he spent
with the dying pilot,
Wes discovered something that could
get him killed and is plunged into a
murderous conspiracy involving the U.S.
military, the local police and a faceless
enemy who is tracking his every move.
Zoo –
James Patterson.
All around the
world, brutal attacks
are crippling entire
cities. It isn't the
work of terrorists,
but of animals, and
their somehow coordinated assaults
are escalating.
Jackson Oz, a
young biologist, watches the events with
an increasing sense of dread. Could it
be the beginning of an all-out war on
mankind? Oz and ecologist Chloe
Tousignant race to warn world leaders.
The Wrath of
Angels –
John Connolly.
In the depths of the
Maine woods, the
wreckage of an
aeroplane is discovered. There are
no bodies, and no
reports of a missing
plane, but men both
good and evil have
been seeking it for a long, long time.
Hidden in the plane is a list of names, a
record of those who have struck a deal
with the Devil. The race to secure the list
draws in private detective Charlie Parker
CRIME FICTION
Sweet Talk –
Julie Garwood.
When FBI agent Grayson Kincaid
first encounters Olivia MacKenzie,
she makes quite an impression.
The beautiful, tough, young
attorney has stumbled into the
middle of an FBI sting operation
and reduced it to chaos. Kincaid’s
partner is furious and lets Olivia
know that she’s ticked off the wrong
guy. After all, he’s FBI.
But Olivia isn’t intimidated, because she’s something
scarier.. she’s IRS. And working for the IRS is no picnic.
She’s on the trail of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, one that
threatens to ruin the lives of naïve and unsuspecting
victims, and one she has personal reasons to be angry
about. But after she asks questions of the wrong
people, her life is suddenly endangered.
She’s accustomed to fighting for the underdog but being
vulnerable herself is a very different story.
Smart enough to know when to call for reinforcements,
she contacts Grayson Kincaid.
Together they make an excellent team to fight corruption
but Olivia is also fighting the attraction she feels for
Agent Kincaid.
Bones are Forever –
Kathy Reichs.
A newborn baby is found
wedged in a vanity cabinet
in a run-down apartment
near Montreal.
Dr Temperance Brennan is
brought in to investigate.
While there, she discovers
the mummified remains of
two more babies. When
autopsies reveal that the
children died of unnatural
causes, the hunt for the
mother – a young woman
with a seedy past and at
least three aliases is on.
Delusion in Death –
J. D. Robb
The scene that greets Lt.
Eve Dallas and her team
one terrible evening in New
York is shocking. A usually
comfortable downtown bar
is strewn with bodies –
office workers who have
been sliced, bludgeoned or
hacked to death with the
nearest weapon available.
It appears they all turned
on each other in desperate
blinding rage. Eve must
turn to unexpected sources
in order to stop a killer who
is getting revenge by creating mass carnage…
Page 19 Shelf Life - No. 28 Sep-Nov 2012
The Mystery of Mercy Close –
Marian Keyes.
Helen Walsh doesn’t believe in fear
– it’s just a thing invented by men to
get all the money and good jobs –
and yet she’s sinking. Her work as
a private investigator has dried up,
her flat has been repossessed and
now some old demons have
resurfaced. Not least in the form of
her charming but dodgy ex-boyfriend Jay Parker, who shows up
with a missing-persons case. The missing person is
Wayne Diffney, the ‘Wacky One’ from boy band Laddz.
He’s vanished from his house in Mercy Close and it’s
vital that he’s found – Laddz have a sell-out comeback
gig in five days’ time. Things ended messily with Jay
and she’s never going back there. Besides, she has a
new boyfriend now, the very sexy detective Artie Devlin,
and it’s all going well, even though his ex-wife isn’t quite
‘ex’ enough and his teenage son hates her.
But the reappearance of Jay is stirring up all kinds of
stuff she’d left behind. Playing by her own rules, Helen
is drawn into a dark and glamorous world, where
increasingly the only person she feels connected to is
Wayne, a man she’s never even met.
Tuesday’s Gone –
Nicci French.
Psychotherapist Frieda Klein
thought she was done with the
police. But once more DCI Karlsson
is knocking at her door. A man’s
decomposed body has been found
in the flat of Michelle Doyce, a
woman trapped in a world of strange
mental disorder. The police don’t
know who it is, how he got there or
what happened – and Michelle can’t
tell them. But Karlsson hopes Frieda can get access to
the truths beneath her confusion. Painstakingly, Frieda
uncovers a possible identity for the corpse: Robert
Poole, a jack of all trades and master conman. As they
dig deeper, they encounter more victims and motives.
The Vanishing Point – Val McDermid.
Young Jimmy Higgins is snatched from an airport
security checkpoint while his guardian watches helplessly from the glass inspection box. But this is no
ordinary abduction, as Jimmy is no ordinary child.
His mother was Scarlett, a reality TV star who, dying of
cancer and alienated from her
unreliable family, entrusted the boy
to the person she believed best able
to give him a happy, stable life: her
ghost writer, Stephanie Harker.
Assisting the FBI to recover the
missing boy, Stephanie reaches into
the past to uncover the motive for
the abduction. Has Jimmy been
taken by his own relatives? Is
Stephanie's obsessive ex-lover
trying to teach her a lesson? Has
one of Scarlett's stalkers come back to haunt them all?
No. 28
SHELF LIFE
Sep/Nov 2012
BOOKMARK ON KINGSTON LIBRARY
The picturesque Kingston Library is housed in the building
of the original Kingston School which closed in 1983.
The old school consisted of a single classroom and was
featured in the book “Piano Rock” by noted children’s
author Gavin Bishop, who attended the school in Kingston
as a child.
The local community initiated the development of a library
service and the Kingston Library, one of the fourteen in the
combined Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes District
st
Libraries, was opened on the 1 January 1999.
In its early days the library service was manned by
volunteers for a few hours each Saturday morning.
In 2006 when opening hours were extended to include
Tuesday afternoons, Queenstown Lakes District Council
appointed a librarian.
Today, Kingston Library is open Saturday 10am - 12 midday
and Tuesday 3pm – 5pm. The library has a range of
resources including books, magazines and DVDs and
endeavours to cater to all, from children to retired folk.
In keeping with the school atmosphere, the original
blackboard can still be seen behind the shelves and old
school posters of farm life in the 1930's decorate the walls.
The Kingston Library, formerly the old Kingston School building
Tourists often pop in
for a look at this
charming little library
and to chat with
Librarian George
Munro.
Issues of library items
have continued to
increase each year
with a total of 1600
library items borrowed
in 2011 by local
residents, testament
to the popularity of
the Kingston Library.
Kingston Librarian, George Munro pictured above
The welcoming interior of the Kingston Library
CQ LIBRARY HOURS
CENTRAL OTAGO DISTRICT LIBRARIES’ HOURS:
Alexandra Library
Clyde Public Library
Mon-Thur 10.00am-5.00pm
Tues 10.00am-12.30pm
Fri
10.00am-6.00pm
Fri
2.00-5.00pm
Sat.
10.00am-12.00pm
Contact: 449 3227
Contact: 448 9412
Millers Flat School/Community Library
Omakau School/Community Library
Wed 3.30-5.00pm
Mon-Thurs 8.30am-3.30pm
Sat 10.30am-12.30pm
Closed School Holidays
Open School Holidays
Contact: 447 3837
Contact: 446 6616
QUEENSTOWN LAKES DISTRICT LIBRARIES’ HOURS:
Arrowtown Public Library
Glenorchy Library
Mon-Fri 10.00am-5.00pm
Wed 1.30-3.30pm
Sat
10.30am-12.30pm
Fri 1.30-3.30pm
Contact: 442 1607
Contact: 442 4378
Makarora Library
Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
Thurs 6.30pm–8.30pm
Sunday 2-3pm
Open School Holidays
Contact: 443 8342
Queenstown Public Library
Mon-Sat 10.00am-5.00pm
Contact: 441 0600
Cromwell Public Library
Mon-Fri 10.00am-5.00pm
Sat
10.00am-1.00pm
Contact: 445 0213
Roxburgh Public Library
Mon-Fri 9.00am-4.30pm
Contact: 446 8105
Hawea Library
Mon 10.00am-12.00noon
Tues, Wed 10.00am-5.00pm
Sat
10.00am-12.00noon
Contact 443 9371
Wanaka Library
Mon-Sat 10.00am-5.00pm
Contact: 443 0410
Maniototo Community Library
Mon-Fri 9.00-11.45am
12.30-4.00pm
Fri Evening:
7.00-8.00pm
School Holidays:
Mon-Fri 1.00-4.00pm
Fri
7.00-8.00pm
Contact: 444 9348
Kingston Library
Tues 3.00-5.00pm
Sat 10.00am-12noon
Contact: 248 8963