A Promised Land by Barack Obama

$59.99 NZD

$69.99 (14% off)

Category: Biography | Reading Level: near fine

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of th e first term of his historic presidency - a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorises Operation Neptune Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective — the story of one man's bet with history, the faith of a community organiser tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of hope and change and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama's conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.       ...Show more

Song for Rosaleen by Pip Desmond

$29.99 NZD

Category: Biography

A beautifully crafted memoir of a family coping with their mother's dementia, Song for Rosaleen is both a celebration of Rosaleen Desmond's life and an unflinching account of the practical and ethical dilemmas that faced her six children. Told with love, insight, humour and compassion, it raises importa nt questions about who we become when our memories fail, how our rapidly ageing population can best be cared for, and what this means for us all. ...Show more

Joe Biden American Dreamer by Evan Osnos

$29.99 NZD

$32.99 (9% off)

Category: Biography

A concise, brilliant and incisive examination of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his lifelong quest for the presidency This definitive history of Joe Biden tells the poignant story of the man – both his life in politics and the series of personal tragedies that have marked him – drawing on extensive co nversations with Biden himself from his time at the Whitehouse to his home during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as interviews with President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and some of the biggest names in American politics. Blending up-close journalism with broader context, award-winning New Yorker journalist Evan Osnos illuminates the life of Joe Biden and captures the characters and meaning of an extraordinary presidential election. In his nuanced portrait, Biden emerges as flawed, yet resolute, and tempered by the flame of tragedy – a man who just may be uncannily suited for his moment in history… ...Show more

Freyberg - A Life's Journey by Matthew Wright

$45.00 NZD

Category: Biography

In this fresh account of one of the 20th-century's great New Zealanders, Matthew Wright approaches Bernard Freyberg the man rather than the more widely known figure of a military leader. What took a humble immigrant child in Wellington to become a hero in two wars, friend to literary giants and politici ans, very private father and husband, and very public govenor-general? Freyberg: A Life's Journey is the most accessible biography on 'Tiny' Freyberg yet, with numerous black and white photos. ...Show more

Antarctica's Lost Aviator: The Epic Adventure to Explore the Last Frontier on Earth by Jeff Maynard

$32.99 NZD

Category: Biography

The astonishing voyage of the first solo crossing of Antarctica by the unlikeliest of arctic explorers. By the 1930s, no one had yet crossed Antarctica, and its vast interior remained a mystery frozen in time. Hoping to write his name in the history books, wealthy American Lincoln Ellsworth announced h e would fly across the unexplored continent. And to honor his hero, Wyatt Earp, he would carry his gun belt on the flight. The main obstacles to Ellsworth's ambition were numerous: he didn't like the cold, he avoided physical work, and he couldn't navigate. Consequently, he hired the experienced Australian explorer, Sir Hubert Wilkins, to organize the expedition on his behalf. While Ellsworth battled depression and struggled to conceal his homosexuality, Wilkins purchased a ship, hired a crew, and ordered a revolutionary new airplane constructed. The Ellsworth Trans-Antarctic Expeditions became epics of misadventure, as competitors plotted to beat Ellsworth, pilots refused to fly, crews mutinied, and the ship was repeatedly trapped in the ice. Finally, in 1935, Ellsworth took off to fly from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. A few hours after leaving, radio contact with him was lost and the world gave him up for dead. Antarctica's Lost Aviator brings alive one of the strangest episodes in polar history, using previously unpublished diaries, correspondence, photographs, and film to reveal the amazing true story of the first crossing of Antarctica and how, against all odds, it was achieved by the unlikeliest of heroes. ...Show more

One Life by Megan Rapinoe

$40.00 NZD

Category: Biography

Megan Rapinoe is one of the world's most talented athletes. But beyond her massive professional success on the soccer field, Rapinoe has become an icon and ally to millions, boldly speaking out on the issues that matter most. In recent years, she's become one of the faces of the equal pay movement and h er tireless activism for LGBTQ rights has earned her global support. In One Life, Rapinoe embarks on a thoughtful and unapologetic discussion of social justice and politics. Raised in a conservative small town in northern California, the youngest of six, Rapinoe was four years old when she kicked her first soccer ball. Her parents encouraged her love for the game, but also urged her to volunteer at homeless shelters and food banks. Her passion for community engagement never wavered through high school or college, all the way up to 2016, when she took a knee during the national anthem in solidarity with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, to protest racial injustice and police brutality - the first high-profile white athlete to do so. The backlash was immediate, but it couldn't compare to the overwhelming support. Rapinoe became a force of social change, both on and off the field. Using anecdotes from her own life and career, from suing the United States Soccer Federation alongside her teammates over gender discrimination to her widely publicized refusal to visit the White House, Rapinoe discusses the obligation we all have to speak up, and reveals the impact each of us can have on our communities. As she declared during the soccer team's victory parade in New York in 2019, " T his is everybody's responsibility, every single person here, every single person who is not here, every single person who doesn't want to be here, every single person who agrees and doesn't agree.... It takes everybody. This is my charge to everybody. Do what you can. Do what you have to do. Step outside yourself. Be more. Be better. Be bigger than you've ever been before." ...Show more

The Second Life of Tiger Woods by Michael Bamberger

$37.99 NZD

Category: Biography

Written by a New York Times bestselling author and reporter who "knows the world of professional golf...like few others" (The Wall Street Journal) comes "the most insightful and evenhanded book written yet about one of the signature athletes of the last twenty-five years" (Booklist, starred review) deta iling Tiger Woods's remarkable comeback and his journey back into winner's circle. Tiger Woods's long descent into a personal and professional hell reached bottom in the early hours of Memorial Day in 2017. Woods's DUI arrest that night came on the heels of a desperate spinal surgery, just weeks after he told close friends he might never play tournament golf again. His mug shot and alarming arrest video were painful to look at and, for Woods, a deep humiliation. The former paragon of discipline now found himself hopelessly lost and out of control, exposed for all the world to see. That episode could have marked the beginning of Tiger's end. It proved to be the opposite. Instead of sinking beneath the public disgrace of drug abuse and the private despair of a battered and ailing body, Woods embarked on the long road to redeeming himself. In The Second Life of Tiger Woods, Michael Bamberger, who has covered Woods since the golfer was an amateur, draws upon his deep network of sources inside locker rooms, caddie yards, clubhouses, fitness trailers, and back offices to tell the true and inspiring story of the legend's return. Packed with new information and graced by insight, Bamberger's story reveals how this iconic athlete clawed his way back to the top. This is a "gripping" (Kirkus Reviews) and intimate portrait of a man who has spent his life in front of the camera but has done his best to make sure he was never really known. Here is Tiger, barefoot, in handcuffs, showing a police officer a witty and self-deprecating side of himself that the public never sees. Here is Tiger on the verge of tears with his children at the British Open. Here is Tiger trying to express his gratitude to his mother at a ceremony at the Rose Garden. In these pages, Tiger is funny, cold, generous, self-absorbed, inspiring--and real. The Second Life of Tiger Woods is not only the saga of an exceptional man but also a celebration of second chances. Bamberger's bracingly honest book is about what Tiger Woods did, and about what any of us can do, when we face our demons head-on. ...Show more

Like Father Like Son by Michael Parkinson

$35.00 NZD

Category: Biography

A look at the life and times of the man Sir Michael most looked up to. It started in the shadow of the pithead in a South Yorkshire mining village and ended up in tears before an audience of millions. Michael Parkinson's relationship with his late father John William was, and remains, a family love stor y overflowing with tenderness and tall tales of sporting valour, usually involving Yorkshire cricket or Barnsley FC. However, it was the overwhelming grief which poured out of Michael when Piers Morgan pressed him about John William in a television interview - four decades after the death of the father he encapsulated as 'Yorkshireman, miner, humorist and fast bowler' - that convinced one of the outstanding broadcasters and journalists of our time to delve deeper into the dynamics of their lives together. Co-written with his son Mike, this affectionate and revealing memoir explores the influences which shaped John William, Michael and succeeding generations of Parkinsons. The journey leads them from the depths of a Yorkshire coal mine, via the chapel, pub and picture-house, to a spot behind the bowler's arm at Lord's and the sands at Scarborough. While Like Father, Like Son conveys a powerful sense of time and place, it is wit, insight and, above all, enduring love which shine through its pages.     ...Show more

Stories of Hope: Finding Inspiration in Everyday Lives by Heather Morris

$32.99 NZD

Category: Biography

Heather Morris, author of the internationally bestselling novels The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey, grew up on a farm in rural New Zealand. On her way back across the paddocks from school, Heather would visit her great-grandfather and listen to his experiences of war - stories he told only Heather. From a young age Heather discovered that people would tell her their stories if she stopped and listened. In Stories of Hope, Heather Morris will explore the art of listening - a skill she employed when she met Lale Sokolov, the Tattooist of Auschwitz. It was her ability to listen that led him to entrust her with his story. Stories of Hope will examine Heather's extraordinary journey, in the form of a series of beautifully rendered tales of the people she has met, the remarkable stories they have shared with her, and the lessons they hold for us all.   ...Show more

How Did I Get Here? Soliloquies Of Youth by Ben Brown (edited by)

$25.00 NZD

Category: Biography

There are times when the right to remain silent and the need to say something exist in the same moment. I would suppose a choice is made at such a time as to whether guilt is a matter of fact or a matter of conscience. A youthful mind forged in a crucible of fear might argue, ‘Yeah I did it, but that do n’t make me guilty. My world has a different measure.’ In January 2020 poet Ben Brown took a box of biros, an A4 ream of paper and a question to 28 YPs—young people—living in Te Puna Wai o Tūhinapō, the Oranga Tamariki youth justice residence next door to Rolleston Prison, south-west of Christchurch. He asked them, ‘How did you get here?’ Over four days of kōrero and collaboration, tautoko and awhi, the young men aged 13–18 wrote their answers as poems, which have been collected in a book, with illustrations by two of the participants. ...Show more

The Puzzle Solver: A Scientist's Desperate Hunt to Cure Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Save His Son by Tracie White; Ronald W. Davis

$36.99 NZD

Category: Biography

Based on a viral article, the gripping medical mystery story of Ron Davis, a world-class Stanford geneticist who has put his career on the line to find the cure for chronic fatigue syndrome, the disease killing his son.

Inside Out by Demi Moore

$27.99 NZD

Category: Biography

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Daily Mail Book of the Year. A Mail on Sunday Book of the Year. Famed American actress Demi Moore at last tells her own story in a surprisingly intimate and emotionally charged memoir. For decades, Demi Moore has been synonymous with celebrity. From iconic film roles to high-profile relationships, Moore has never been far from the spotlight - or the headlines. Even as Demi was becoming the highest paid actress in Hollywood, however, she was always outrunning her past, just one step ahead of the doubts and insecurities that defined her childhood. Throughout her rise to fame and during some of the most pivotal moments of her life, Demi battled addiction, body image issues, and childhood trauma that would follow her for years - all while juggling a skyrocketing career and at times negative public perception.  As her success grew, Demi found herself questioning if she belonged in Hollywood, if she was a good mother, a good actress - and, always, if she was simply good enough. As much as her story is about adversity, it is also about tremendous resilience. In this deeply candid and reflective memoir, Demi pulls back the curtain and opens up about her career and personal life - laying bare her tumultuous relationship with her mother, her marriages, her struggles balancing stardom with raising a family, and her journey toward open heartedness. Inside Out is a story of survival, success, and surrender - a wrenchingly honest portrayal of one woman's at once ordinary and iconic life. ...Show more