July 2024: Read a book set in Australia or New Zealand
July's Year in Reading challenge is to read a book set in or about New Zealand or Australia!
Be sure to check out our Beanstack challenge here to earn cool virtual badges! https://griver.beanstack.com/reader365
Can you tolerate this? : essays
Author(s):
Description:
A collection of essays on youth and aging, ambition and disappointment, Katherine Mansfield tourism and New Zealand punk rock, and the limitations of the body.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
824 You
Colour scheme
Author(s):
Marsh, Ngaio, 1895-1982
McCaddon, Wanda.
Description:
"It was a horrible death-- Maurice Questing was lured into a pool of boiling mud and left there to die. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, far from home on a wartime quest for German agents, knows that any number of people could have killed him: the English exiles he'd hated, the New Zealanders he'd despised or the Maoris he'd insulted. Even the spies he'd thwarted-- if he wasn't a spy himself"--Container.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Mar
Blood and circuses
Author(s):
Description:
The Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher is feeling dull. But is she bored enough to leave her identity, home and family behind and join Farrell's Circus and Wild Beast Show? There have been strange things happening at the circus. And when Phryne is asked by her friends, Samson the Strong Man, Alan the carousel operator and Doreen the Snake Woman, to help them, curiosity gets the better of her.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Gre
The unlikely escape of Uriah Heep
Author(s):
Description:
For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can't quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob -- a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancée, and an utterly normal life -- hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life's duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world... and for once, it isn't Charley's doing. There's someone else who shares his powers. It's up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Par
Wombat walkabout
Author(s):
Shields, Carol Diggory
Blackall, Sophie,
Description:
Rhyming text follows six little wombats on walkabout and a hungry dingo following, envisioning them as his lunch until the wombats turn the tables on him.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Shi
Elizabeth, queen of the seas
Author(s):
Cox, Lynne, 1957-
Floca, Brian,
Description:
Describes how an elephant seal made a home in New Zealand's narrow Avon River and loved to stretch out across a two-lane road, requiring volunteers to tow her farther out to sea after she kep returning repeatedly.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Cox
Tomorrow, when the war began
Author(s):
Description:
Seven Australian teenagers return from a camping trip in the bush to discover that their country has been invaded and they must hide to stay alive.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Mar
Words In Deep Blue
Author(s):
Description:
Teenagers Rachel and Henry find their way back to each other while working in an old bookstore full of secrets and crushes, love letters and memories, grief and hope.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Cro
The Luminaries
Author(s):
Description:
Hemlock Falls isn't like other towns. You won't find it on a map, your phone won't work here, and the forest outside town might just kill you. Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries, the ancient order that protects the town--and the rest of humanity--from the monsters and nightmares that rise in the forest of Hemlock Falls every night. Ever since her father was exposed as a witch and a traitor, Winnie and her family have been shunned. But on her sixteenth birthday, she can take the deadly Luminary hunter trials and prove herself true and loyal--and restore her family's good name. In order to survive the trials, Winnie enlists the help of the one person who can help her train: Jay Friday, resident bad boy and Winnie’s ex-best friend. While Jay might be the most promising new hunter in Hemlock Falls, he also seems to know more about the nightmares of the forest than he should. Together, he and Winnie will discover a danger lurking in the forest no one in town is prepared for.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Den
Australia
Author(s):
Wheeler, Patti
Hemstreet, Keith,
Description:
"Gannon and Wyatt head to the land down under, and they aren't even a little bit worried about Australia's many deadly creatures. Well, maybe a teensy bit worried, but they're up for the challenge! Starting off their adventure in Sydney, the brothers do their best to immerse themselves in the full outback experience: boning up on aussie slang, exploring the fashion down under, learning to play the didgeridoo, and even encountering enormous saltwater crocs. But when a plane crash strands them in forbidden territory, they must draw on the knowledge they've learned from their new aboriginal friends to survive. When things take a turn for the grim, the brothers hold out hope that they can persevere by relying on their respect for the australian bush and the power of the ancient wisdom of the aboriginal people"--Publisher's description.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Whe
Farewell, my orange
Author(s):
Iwaki, Kei, 1971-
McKinney, Meredith,
Description:
In Australia, an immigrant from Nigeria and an immigrant from Japan meet in an English class and form a friendship that sustains them through tragedy.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Iwa
The unknown terrorist
Author(s):
Description:
What would you do if you turned on the television and saw you were the most wanted terrorist in the country? Gina Davies is about to find out when, after a night spent with an attractive stranger, she becomes a prime suspect in the investigation of an attempted terrorist attack. In The Unknown Terrorist , one of the most brilliant writers working in the English language today turns his attention to the most timely of subjects — what our leaders tell us about the threats against us, and how we cope with living in fear. Chilling, impossible to put down, and all too familiar, The Unknown Terrorist is a relentless tour de force that paints a devastating picture of a contemporary society gone haywire, where the ceaseless drumbeat of terror alert levels, newsbreaks, and fear of the unknown pushes a nation ever closer to the breaking point.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Fla
Boy swallows universe
Author(s):
Description:
Eli Bell's life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail, and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli's life is Slim--a notorious felon and national record-holder for successful prison escapes--who watches over Eli and August, his silent genius of an older brother. Exiled far from the rest of the world in Darra, a seedy suburb populated by Polish and Vietnamese refugees, this twelve-year-old boy with an old soul and an adult mind is just trying to follow his heart, learn what it takes to be a good man, and train for a glamorous career in journalism. Life, however, insists on throwing obstacles in Eli's path--most notably Tytus Broz, Brisbane's legendary drug dealer. But the real trouble lies ahead. Eli is about to fall in love, face off against truly bad guys, and fight to save his mother from a certain doom--all before starting high school.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Dal
Anything you can imagine : Peter Jackson and the making of Middle-earth
Author(s):
Description:
The definitive history of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth saga, Anything You Can Imagine takes us on a cinematic journey across all six films, featuring brand-new interviews with Peter, his cast & crew. From the early days of daring to dream it could be done, through the highs and lows of making the films, to fan adoration and, finally, Oscar glory.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
791.43 Nat
The note through the wire : the incredible true story of a prisoner of war and a resistance heroine
Author(s):
Description:
"In the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe, two people meet fleetingly in a chance encounter. One an underground resistance fighter, a bold young woman determined to vanquish the enemy occupiers; the other a prisoner of war, a man longing to escape the confines of the camp so he can battle again. A crumpled note passes between these two strangers, slipped through the wire of the compound, and sets them on a course that will change their lives forever. Woven through their tales of great bravery, daring escapes, betrayal, torture, and retaliation is their remarkable love story that survived against all odds. This is an extraordinary account of two ordinary people who found love during the unimaginable hardships of Hitler's barbaric regime as told by their son-in-law Doug Gold, who decided to tell their story from the moment he heard about their remarkable tale of bravery, resilience, and resistance."--Amazon.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
940.54 Gol
Better the blood
Author(s):
Description:
"A tenacious Māori detective, Hana Westerman juggles single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription. Delving into the investigation after a second, apparently unrelated, death, she uncovers a chilling connection to a historic crime: 160 years before, during the brutal and bloody British colonization of New Zealand, a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a Māori Chief. Hana realizes that the murders are utu--the Māori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. There were six soldiers in the British troop, and since descendants of two of the soldiers have been killed, four more potential murders remain. Hana is thus hunting New Zealand's first serial killer. The pursuit soon becomes frighteningly personal, recalling the painful event when as a new cop two decades before, Hana was part of a police team sent to end by force a land rights occupation by indigenous peoples on the same ancestral mountain where the Chief was killed, calling once more into question her loyalty to her roots. Worse still, a genealogical link to the British soldiers brings the case terrifyingly close to Hana's own family" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Ben
The secret life of sunflowers
Author(s):
Description:
"When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law. Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world. The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Mol
New Zealand
Author(s):
Description:
Describes the history and culture of New Zealand and offers tips on accommodations, restaurants, and sights.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
919.3 New 2024
