Otaki District, Otaki

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463 days ago

Florence Grace by Tracy Rees

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

As new condition. tenderly evoked and compelling read. The House at Silvermoor deserves to be a huge success' Rachel Hore, author of The Love Child

'I loved The House at Silvermoor. Tracy's writing is always so warm and the story is both romantic and compelling' Rosanna Ley, … View more
As new condition. tenderly evoked and compelling read. The House at Silvermoor deserves to be a huge success' Rachel Hore, author of The Love Child

'I loved The House at Silvermoor. Tracy's writing is always so warm and the story is both romantic and compelling' Rosanna Ley, author of The Lemon Tree Hotel

Florrie Buckley is an orphan, living on the wind-blasted moors of Cornwall. It's a hard existence but Florrie is content; she runs wild in the mysterious landscape. She thinks her destiny is set in stone. But when Florrie is fourteen, she inherits a never-imagined secret. She is related to a wealthy and notorious London family, the Graces. Overnight, Florrie's life changes and she moves from country to city, from poverty to wealth. Cut off from everyone she has ever known, Florrie struggles to learn the rules of this strange new world. And then she must try to fathom her destructive pull towards the enigmatic and troubled Turlington Grace, a man with many dark secrets of his own.

'I adore Tracy's writing and have from the moment I read Amy Snow when it first came out. The House at Silvermoor is a sweeping saga full of likeable characters. What a joy to read!' Lorna Cook, author of The Forgotten Village

'Tracy Rees has a rare gift for making us care about her characters from the very first pages. I rushed to pick up my copy in any spare moments, because I needed to know what would happen next. It's a compassionate and compelling novel, with a heart-warming love story at its core' Gill Paul, author of The Lost Daughter

'A rich, riveting and romantic read' Joanna Courtney, author of Blood Queen

Price: $5

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463 days ago

Beyond the Orchard by Anna romer

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

As new condition. Lucy Briar has arrived home in turmoil after years overseas. She’s met her fiancé in London and has her life mapped out, but something is holding her back. Hoping to ground herself and find answers, Lucy settles into once familiar routines. But old tortured feelings flood … View moreAs new condition. Lucy Briar has arrived home in turmoil after years overseas. She’s met her fiancé in London and has her life mapped out, but something is holding her back. Hoping to ground herself and find answers, Lucy settles into once familiar routines. But old tortured feelings flood Lucy’s existence when her beloved father, Ron, is hospitalised and Morgan – the man who drove her away all those years ago – seeks her out. Worse, Ron implores Lucy to visit Bitterwood Estate, the crumbling historic family guesthouse now left to him. He needs Lucy to find something – an old photograph album, the very thing that drove Ron and his father apart. Lucy has her own painful memories of Bitterwood, darkness that has plagued her dreams since she was young. But as Lucy searches for the album, the house begins to give up its ghosts and she is driven to put them to rest. And there, held tightly between the house, the orchard and the soaring cliffs, Lucy uncovers a long-hidden secret that shattered a family’s bond and kept a frightened young girl in its thrall ... and Lucy discovers just how fierce the lonely heart can be.

Price: $5

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463 days ago

The sewing circles of herat by Christina lamb

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Lamb's long experience as a journalist is a solid stage upon which to build the story of her voyage through Afghanistan, told with a deep, loving honesty." -- Montreal Gazette (Canada)

A brilliant British war correspondent who has spent ten years in Afghanistan gives a first hand … View more
Lamb's long experience as a journalist is a solid stage upon which to build the story of her voyage through Afghanistan, told with a deep, loving honesty." -- Montreal Gazette (Canada)

A brilliant British war correspondent who has spent ten years in Afghanistan gives a first hand report on the war and its genesis.

Award-winning journalist Christina Lamb chronicles the human stories behind the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Lamb spent the last phase of the Soviet War in Pakistan, relying on her friendship with exiled Afghans to smuggle her in and out of Jalalabad. Many of these friends are now the Taliban, giving her exclusive and critical insight into the brutalization of this tragic, war-ravaged land.

Her own professional history equips Lamb to discover the people no one else is writing about: the battered and abandoned victims of a quarter century of war. These include people like Khalil Ahmed Hassan, a former Taliban torturer who admits to inflicting horrific beatings, and to breaking the spines of men, then making them stand on their heads. A business graduate with no strong religious convictions, Hassan joined the Taliban on hearing that his 85-year-old grandfather had been captured and would only be released if a male relative joined the Taliban. Lamb also tells the story of Afghan women who would covertly continue academic lessons at a great risk to themselves and their families

Price: $4

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463 days ago

The light on the water by Olga Lorenzo

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Recently divorced and trying to make sense of her new life, Anne takes her daughter Aida on an overnight bushwalk in the moody wilderness of Wilsons Promontory. In a split second, Aida disappears and a frantic Anne scrambles for help. Some of the emergency trackers who search for Aida already doubt… View moreRecently divorced and trying to make sense of her new life, Anne takes her daughter Aida on an overnight bushwalk in the moody wilderness of Wilsons Promontory. In a split second, Aida disappears and a frantic Anne scrambles for help. Some of the emergency trackers who search for Aida already doubt Anne's story.

Nearly two years later and still tormented by remorse and grief, Anne is charged with her daughter's murder. Witnesses have come forward, offering evidence which points to her guilt. She is stalked by the media and shunned by friends, former colleagues and neighbours.

On bail and awaiting trial, Anne works to reconstruct her last hours with Aida. She remembers the sun high in the sky, the bush noisy with insects, and her own anxiety, as oppressive as the heat haze.

A superbly written and conceived literary work about the best and the worst aspects of family life, this story asks difficult questions about society, the media, and our rush to judgement. This is a thoughtful, provocative and unflinching novel in the tradition of Helen Garner, Joan London and Charlotte Wood.

Price: $4

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463 days ago

Maeve Binchy this year it will be different

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

From the New York Times bestselling author of Circle of Friends and The Glass Lake comes This Year It Will Be Different, a stunning new work that brings us the magic and spirit of Christmas in fifteen stories filled with Maeve Binchy's trademark wit, charm, and sheer storytelling genius. … View moreFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Circle of Friends and The Glass Lake comes This Year It Will Be Different, a stunning new work that brings us the magic and spirit of Christmas in fifteen stories filled with Maeve Binchy's trademark wit, charm, and sheer storytelling genius. Instead of nostalgia, Binchy evokes contemporary life; instead of Christmas homilies, she offers truth; and instead of sugarplums, she brings us the nourishment of holidays that precipitate change, growth, and new beginnings.

In "A Typical Irish Christmas," a grieving New York widower heads for a holiday in Ireland and finds an unexpected destination not just for himself, but for a father and daughter at odds. The title story "This Year It Will Be Different" also delves into the emotions of a person at mid-life--a woman with a complacent husband and grown children who are entering a season that can forever alter her life, and theirs. In "Pulling Together," a teacher not yet out of her twenties sees her affair with a married man at a turning point as Christmas Eve approaches--and she may be off on a new direction with some unusual friends. And in the delightful tale "The Hard Core," the four most recalcitrant residents of a nursing home are left alone at Christmas with the owner's daughter in charge: the result is sure to be disaster--or the kind of life-affirming renewal that only the spirit of the season can bring.

The stories in This Year It Will Be Different powerfully evoke many lives--step-families grappling with ex's, long-married couples faced with in-law problems, a wandering husband choosing between "the other woman" and his wife, a child caught in grown-up tugs-of-war--during the one holiday when feelings cannot be easily hidden. The time of year may be magical, imbued with meaning. But the situations are universal. And Maeve Binchy makes us care about them all. As the Philadelphia Inquirer noted, "Maeve Binchy's people come to life fully. They make you laugh and cry and disturb your sleep." They do precisely that in this extraordinary collection, on the night before Christmas when we are snug in our beds, or anywhere, any time of the year.

Price: $3

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463 days ago

Five Go Gluten Free

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Julian, Anne, Dick, George and Timmy are all feeling really rather rum, and it's been going on for days. Nothing seems to work, and with their doctors mystified, they're driven to trying out various expedients to cure themselves. Julian goes online to self-diagnose that he's got … View moreJulian, Anne, Dick, George and Timmy are all feeling really rather rum, and it's been going on for days. Nothing seems to work, and with their doctors mystified, they're driven to trying out various expedients to cure themselves. Julian goes online to self-diagnose that he's got pancreatic cancer, bird flu and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Anne decides that the old methods are the best and decides to have herself exorcised - which proves to be an awful lot of bother for everyone, and such a mess. Dick goes to a witch-doctor who calls himself a 'homeopath' ('sounds only one short of sociopath, Dick!') but it's George who discovers they need to go on an exclusion diet, so they enter a world of hard-to-find, maddeningly expensive specialist foods . . . Just perfect for anyone who likes DELICIOUSLY ELLA, AMELIA FREER and THE NATURALISTA - as well as any reluctant partners who are begrudgingly spiralising courgettes for dinner.
Author Biography:
Bruno Vincent is a bestselling author, with a number of humour titles to his name including Do Ants Have Arseholes?which was a Sunday Times bestseller, with 147,000 sales through bookscan in 3 months. The follow-up, Do Bats Have Bollocks?, was also a Sunday Times bestseller.

Price: $5

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463 days ago

Red Barns and other scenes ... art instruction

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

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Red Barns and other scenes...
Walter T. Foster was born in Woodland Park, Colorado, in 1891. In his younger years, he worked as a sign painter and a hog medicine salesman. He also performed in a singing and … View more
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Red Barns and other scenes...
Walter T. Foster was born in Woodland Park, Colorado, in 1891. In his younger years, he worked as a sign painter and a hog medicine salesman. He also performed in a singing and vaudeville act. Walter invented the first postage-stamp vending machine and drew political caricatures for several large newspapers. He's well known as an accomplished artist, art instructor, and art collector. In the 1920s, while running his own advertising agency and instructing young artists, Walter began writing self-help art instruction books. The books were first produced in his home in Laguna Beach, California, where he wrote, illustrated, and printed them himself. In the 1960s, as the product line grew, he moved the operation to a commercial facility, which allowed him to expand the company and achieve worldwide distribution. Walter passed away in 1981, but he is fondly remembered for his warmth, dedication, and unique instruction books.

Price: $5

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463 days ago

The memory collector by Meg Gardiner

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Great condition. Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett's specialty is the psychological autopsy- an investigation into a person's life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. She calls herself a dead=shrinker instead of a head-shrinker: The silence of her … View moreGreat condition. Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett's specialty is the psychological autopsy- an investigation into a person's life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. She calls herself a dead=shrinker instead of a head-shrinker: The silence of her "patients" is a key part of the job's attraction. When Jo is asked to do a psychological autopsy on a living person-one with a suspect memory who can't be trusted to participate in his own medical care-she knows all her skills will be put to the test.

Jo is called to the scene of an aircraft inbound from London to help deal with a passenger who is behaving erratically. She figures out that he's got anterograde amnesia, and can't form new memories. Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk and yet can't help Jo figure out just what happened to him. For every cryptic clue he is able to drag up from his memory, Jo has to sift through a dozen nonsensical statements.

Suddenly a string of clues arises, something to do with a superdeadly biological agent code-named "Slick," a missing wife and son, and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realizes her patient's addled mind may hold the key to preventing something terrible from happening in her beloved San Francisco.

In order to prevent it, she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her city-and herself.

Price: $4

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463 days ago

John Grisham The judges list

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

*THE SUNDAY TIMES THRILLER OF THE MONTH*** 'Besides the usual Grisham virtues of an arresting idea, polished plotting and vivid social snapshots, what's impressive here is his willingness to take on fresh challenges' THE SUNDAY TIMES Nonstop suspense from the Sunday Times bestselling… View more*THE SUNDAY TIMES THRILLER OF THE MONTH*** 'Besides the usual Grisham virtues of an arresting idea, polished plotting and vivid social snapshots, what's impressive here is his willingness to take on fresh challenges' THE SUNDAY TIMES Nonstop suspense from the Sunday Times bestselling author: Investigator Lacy Stoltz follows the trail of a serial killer, and closes in on a shocking suspect - a sitting judge. In The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz investigated a corrupt judge who was taking millions in bribes from a crime syndicate. She put the criminals away, but only after being attacked and nearly killed. Three years later, and approaching forty, she is tired of her work for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct and ready for a change. Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby's father was murdered twenty years earlier in a case that remains unsolved and that has grown stone cold. But Jeri has a suspect whom she has become obsessed with and has stalked for two decades. Along the way, she has discovered other victims. Suspicions are easy enough, but proof seems impossible. The man is brilliant, patient, and always one step ahead of law enforcement. He is the most cunning of all serial killers. He knows forensics, police procedure, and most important: he knows the law. He is a judge, in Florida - under Lacy's jurisdiction. He has a list, with the names of his victims and targets, all unsuspecting people unlucky enough to have crossed his path and wronged him in some way. How can Lacy pursue him, without becoming the next name on his list? The Judge's List is by any measure John Grisham's most surprising, chilling novel yet. 'The shocks come thick and fast in this slick thriller that is impossible to put down' THE SUN 'An excellent nail-bitingly tense thriller' IRISH INDEPENDENT 350+ million copies, 45 languages, 9 blockbuster films: NO ONE WRITES DRAMA LIKE JOHN GRISHAM

Price: $5

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463 days ago

Songs of a war boy ... my story

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Deng Adut's family were farmers in South Sudan when a brutal civil war altered his life forever. At six years old, his mother was told she had to give him up to fight. At the age most Australian children are starting school , Deng was conscripted into the Sudan People's Liberation Army. … View moreDeng Adut's family were farmers in South Sudan when a brutal civil war altered his life forever. At six years old, his mother was told she had to give him up to fight. At the age most Australian children are starting school , Deng was conscripted into the Sudan People's Liberation Army. He began a harsh, relentless military training that saw this young boy trained to use an AK-47 and sent into battle. He lost the right to be a child. He lost the right to learn.The things Deng saw over those years will stay with him forever. He suffered from cholera, malaria and numerous other debilitating illnesses but still he had to fight. A child soldier is expected to kill or be killed and Deng almost died a number of times. He survived being shot in the back. The desperation and loneliness was overwhelming. He thought he was all alone.But Deng was rescued from war by his brother John. Hidden in the back of a truck, he was smuggled out of Sudan and into Kenya. Here he lived in refugee camps until he was befriended by an Australian couple. With their help and the support of the UN, Deng Adut came to Australia as a refugee.Despite physical injuries and mental trauma he grabbed the chance to make a new life. He worked in a local service station and learnt English watching The Wiggles. He taught himself to read and started studying at TAFE. In 2005 he enrolled in a Bachelor of Law at Western Sydney University. He and his brother John were the first people in his family to graduate from university.This is an inspiring story of a man who has overcome deadly adversity to become a lawyer and committed worker for the disenfranchised, helping refugees in Western Sydney. It is an important reminder of the power of compassion and the benefit to us all when we open our doors and our hearts to fleeing war, persecution and trauma.

Price: $5

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463 days ago

The Millers Daughter by Margaret Dickinson

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Emma Forrest has waited three long years to welcome home the man she loves from the horror of the trenches, but now her father's bitter feud with Jamie Metcalfe's family threatens everything she has dreamed of.


Knowing that Harry Forrest will go to his grave wishing she were a boy … View more
Emma Forrest has waited three long years to welcome home the man she loves from the horror of the trenches, but now her father's bitter feud with Jamie Metcalfe's family threatens everything she has dreamed of.


Knowing that Harry Forrest will go to his grave wishing she were a boy and now, devastated by Jamie's coldness, Emma clings resolutely to the memory of her beloved grandfather, Charlie, and his hopes for the mill he built with his own hands. Somehow, in spite of all Harry's scheming and the disastrous marriage she finds herself in as a result, Emma will make sure that the mill has a future - with a Forrest at the helm . . .


The Miller's Daughter is a heartfelt Lincolnshire saga, from much-loved author, Margaret Dickinson.



Born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Margaret Dickinson moved to the coast at the age of seven and so began her love for the sea and the Lincolnshire landscape.



Her ambition to be a writer began early and she had her first novel published at the age of twenty-five. This was followed by many more popular titles including Plough the Furrow, Sow the Seed and Reap the Harvest, which make up her Lincolnshire Fleethaven Trilogy.

Price: $3

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463 days ago

Surf for your life Mick Fanny

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Good condition. Mick Fanning might only be 28 but he already knows how a lot of things feel that most of us never will. How does it feel to lose a brother? Win a world title? Rip your hamstring muscle clean off the bone? Weave through a zippering Superbank barrel for 20 or 30 seconds or paddle over… View moreGood condition. Mick Fanning might only be 28 but he already knows how a lot of things feel that most of us never will. How does it feel to lose a brother? Win a world title? Rip your hamstring muscle clean off the bone? Weave through a zippering Superbank barrel for 20 or 30 seconds or paddle over the ledge at places like Pipeline and Teahupo? Have scoliosis so bad you can't get off the floor? Address the NSW state of origin team before a match, bowl to Matty Hayden and have Dave Warner belt you for consecutive sixes? Walk into the bar of a Brasilian hotel dressed only in a bikini to make your mates laugh, only to find your mates have left, and there is only a puzzled bartender staring blankly at you? You'll notice that not all these experiences fall neatly on one side of the ledger of good or bad. Mick's journey so far has definitely been a mixed bag, but it is the extremes of that journey that make him so interesting, and his readiness to learn from each experience and use it as fuel to drive him on that might provide lessons for the rest of us. Mick's only young but he already exudes a quiet wisdom beyond his years, and now he's ready to share it with anyone wanting to further their surfing, whether competitively or for sheer pleasure. Mick tells his life story candidly - in turns funny, sensitive, thoughtful, self-deprecating - while providing intimate insights into the personal lessons gained along the way - with practical tips on surfing technique, fitness, nutrition, board design, travel, competitive strategies and mental clarity. Mick has overcome personal tragedy and career-threatening injury on his way to claiming the 2007 world surfing title. Universally acknowledged as the most focused and driven competitive surfer of his era, Mick's approach to surfing, sports psychology, life and relationships, makes fascinating reading.

Price: $5

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463 days ago

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Good condition.Kingsolver's national bestseller paints an intimate portrait of a crisis-ridden family amid the larger backdrop of an African nation in chaos. Readers are invited to examine how the tragedy of the Price family mirrors the political unrest in the Congo and how the novel views … View moreGood condition.Kingsolver's national bestseller paints an intimate portrait of a crisis-ridden family amid the larger backdrop of an African nation in chaos. Readers are invited to examine how the tragedy of the Price family mirrors the political unrest in the Congo and how the novel views religion and marriage.




Barbara Kingsolver is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Unsheltered, Flight Behavior, The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, Animal Dreams, and The Bean Trees, as well as books of poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction. Her work of narrative nonfiction is the influential bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver's work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country's highest honor for service through the arts, as well as the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for the body of her work. She lives with her family on a farm in southern Appalachia.

Price: $4

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463 days ago

Sebastian Faulkes A week in December

Jan from Paraparaumu Beach

Good condition. London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Over seven days we follow the lives of seven major characters: a hedge fund manager trying to bring off the biggest trade of his career; a professional footballer recently arrived from Poland; a young lawyer with little work and too much time… View moreGood condition. London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Over seven days we follow the lives of seven major characters: a hedge fund manager trying to bring off the biggest trade of his career; a professional footballer recently arrived from Poland; a young lawyer with little work and too much time to speculate; a student who has been led astray by Islamist theory; a hack book-reviewer; a schoolboy hooked on skunk and reality TV; and a Tube train driver whose Circle Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop. With daring skill, the novel pieces together the complex patterns and crossings of modern urban life. Greed, the dehumanising effects of the electronic age and the fragmentation of society are some of the themes dealt with in this savagely humorous book. The writing on the wall appears in letters ten feet high, but the characters refuse to see it - and party on as though tomorrow is a dream. Sebastian Faulks probes not only the self-deceptions of this intensely realised group of people, but their hopes and loves as well. As the novel moves to its gripping climax, they are forced, one by one, to confront the true nature of the world they inhabit.

Price: $4

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465 days ago

Friday Feathered Friend

Nicholas Boyack Reporter from Community News

Picture and words from Louise Thomas.
"It's not enough to catch your dinner, you also have to stop your mates from nabbing it. I was pretty pleased with this photo from Henley Lake in Masterton. I've entered it in the NZ Geo competition, but even if I don't get anywhere, I … View more
Picture and words from Louise Thomas.
"It's not enough to catch your dinner, you also have to stop your mates from nabbing it. I was pretty pleased with this photo from Henley Lake in Masterton. I've entered it in the NZ Geo competition, but even if I don't get anywhere, I still think it's a cracker. Three black shags/māpunga (Phalacrocorax carbo) fighting over an eel."

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