We’re chock full of new biographies and memoirs in the collection this month.  Way too many to share here in a blog post, but we’ll give you a selection to get you started.  Be sure to go and look at What’s New in the collection, where you can use the filters to select the genre or subject you’re most interested in.  Take a look at these…

Bits and pieces : my mother, my brother, and me / Goldberg, Whoopi
“From multi-award winner Whoopi Goldberg comes a new and unique memoir of her family and their influence on her early life. If it weren’t for Emma Johnson, Caryn Johnson would have never become Whoopi Goldberg. Emma raised her children not just to survive, but to thrive. In this intimate and heartfelt memoir, Whoopi shares many of the deeply personal stories of their lives together for the first time. To this day, she doesn’t know how her mother was able to give them such an enriching childhood, despite the struggles they faced–and it wasn’t until she was well into adulthood that Whoopi learned just how traumatic some of those struggles were.” ( Adapted from Catalogue)

How to avoid a happy life : a memoir / Lawrinson, Julia
“From domestic dysfunction to extraordinary bad luck, Julia Lawrinson reflects on her intriguing and eventful life with disarming honesty and wit. Some people are born into bad situations, some people have bad situations thrust upon them, and some people find bad situations through their dodgy choices, lack of information and personal idiosyncrasies. Julia’s life sits at the intersection of all three.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The rulebreaker : the life and times of Barbara Walters / Page, Susan
“Barbara Walters was a force from the time TV was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of competition from streaming services and social media half a century later. This is the eye-opening account of the woman who knew she had to break all the rules so she could break all the rules about what viewers deserved to know.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

 

Hine Toa : a story of bravery / Te Awekōtuku, Ngāhuia
“In this fiery memoir about identity and belonging, Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku describes what was possible for a restless working-class girl from the pā. After moving to Auckland for university, Ngāhuia advocates resistance as a founding member of Ngā Tamatoa and the Women’s and Gay Liberation movements, becoming a critical voice in protests from Waitangi to the streets of Wellington.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

First things : a memoir / Ricketts, Harry
“In First Things, Harry Ricketts chronicles his early life through the lens of ‘ firsts’: those moments that can hold their detail and potency across a lifetime. Set mostly in Hong Kong and Oxford, these bright fragments include the places, people, writers, encounters and obsessions that have shaped Ricketts’ world, from his first friends and rivals to his first time being caned by a teacher and his first time dropping acid. In First Things, the gaps in between shine as brightly as the memories themselves.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Writers who changed history
“Explore the fascinating lives and loves of the greatest novelists, poets, and playwrights. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and paintings of writers’ homes, studies, and personal artifacts—along with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, and their correspondence—Writers Who Changed History introduces the key ideas, themes, and literary techniques of each writer, revealing the imaginations and personalities behind some of the world’s greatest novels, short stories, poems, and plays. Covering an eclectic range of authors from the Middle Ages to the present day, Writers Who Changed History provides a compelling glimpse of the lives and loves of each great writer.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Nothing significant to report : the misadventures of a kiwi soldier / Nustrini, Dario
“Laugh-out-loud yarns from a soldier in the New Zealand Army. Nothing Significant to Report is the brilliantly entertaining and unvarnished truth of what life is like in the New Zealand Army. From back-breaking exercises designed to make recruits spit the dummy to roleplaying in an SAS manhunt and accidentally starting a rubbish fire in a military compound, these are self-deprecating tales of misfits, mischief and camaraderie.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Across mountains, land & sea / Azadi, Arman
“Arman’s just a boy when he’s forced to leave his home and embark on an incredible journey. Separated from family and friends, he travels across mountains, land and sea to find refuge. Encountering bandits, war and wolves, and surviving a hazardous boat crossing, he arrives at Dover, clinging to the underside of a lorry. His journey had just begun.” (Catalogue)

 

The whole staggering mystery : a story of fathers lost and found / Brownrigg, Sylvia
“When Sylvia Brownrigg received a package addressed to her father that had been lost for over fifty years, she wanted to deliver it to him before it was too late. She did not expect that her father, Nick, would choose not to open it, so she and her brother finally did. Vividly weaving together the lives of her father and grandfather, through memory and imagination, Brownrigg explores issues of sexuality and silences, and childhoods fractured by divorce. In her uncovering of this lost family, she finally makes her own story whole.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Missing persons : or, My grandmother’s secrets / Wills, Clair
“When Clair Wills was in her twenties, she discovered she had a cousin she had never met. Born in a mother-and-baby home in 1950s Ireland, Mary grew up in an institution not far from the farm where Clair spent happy childhood summers. Yet Clair was never told of Mary’s existence. How could a whole family–a whole country–abandon unmarried mothers and their children, erasing them from history? There are some experiences that do not want to be remembered. What began as an effort to piece together the facts became an act of decoding the most unreliable of evidence–stories, secrets, silences.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

For more new books in the collection, go to: What’s new / June 2024 (wcl.govt.nz)