Stuck for a gift
or holiday read?
Our librarians share some of their favourites.
The True Tails of Baker and Taylor: The
Library Cats Who Left Their Pawprints on a
Small Town . . . and the World
by Jan Louch with Lisa Rogak
This looks like a book for librarians, but it is also, and primarily, a book
for cat-lovers. It’s the story of Baker and Taylor, two library cats from
Nevada, who became the mascots for Baker & Taylor, a large United
States book supply company. For 15 years the librarians loved and
cared for them, the library patrons enjoyed them, and Baker & Taylor
(the company) used their images on posters and book bags. Even
today, in New Zealand, when librarians go to conference they consider
themselves lucky to score a Baker & Taylor cat bag. I have four.
Baker and Taylor (the cats) were both Scottish Fold breed, which has
distinctive folded ears, giving them a quirky expression. They fitted
into their library role admirably and spent their lives giving pleasure
to all the people who visited the library: the cat-lovers who came
to see the cats ended up being book-lovers, and the book-lovers
who weren’t too sure about having pet cats at all, let alone in the
library, found themselves drawn into the antics of two personalities
that couldn’t be
ignored. It’s a very
readable book full
of stories of the
antics of the cats, the
difficulties in making
cats cooperate with
photographers for
Baker & Taylor’s
publicity shoots, and
the day to day work
of librarians in the
1980s. It is available
at Tauranga Public
Library – when I take
it back!
Island Nurses: Stories of birth, life and
death on remote Great Barrier Island
By Leonie Howie and Adele Robertson
I do not have a nursing background but I did enjoy this memoir
written by two remarkable women, Leonie Howie and Adele
Robertson. They have lived and worked on remote Great Barrier
Island for over 30 years, providing midwifery and cradle-to-grave
nursing care for the island’s 900 residents. This is a classic story
of hope and new life, making do and overcoming adversity. There
was no reliable telephone coverage and no helicopter service to
Auckland. Their lounge room doubled as the waiting room for the
island’s practice rooms, a caravan parked outside their front door.
The book tells some intrepid tales of the challenging and uplifting
work with the hardy island inhabitants. From birthing a baby on
Two of the best books I have read
recently are: The secret scripture
by Sebastian Barry and Irène
Némirovsky’s Suite française.
Both novels deal with the
human condition under
extraordinary situations
and both traverse
similar themes. The
secret scripture
introduces us to
Roseanne McNulty
nearing her one
hundredth year
in the confines
of Roscommon
Mental Hospital. Her
psychiatrist, Dr. Grene,
is intrigued by his patient
and is slowly unravelling
her story. Both characters try
to make sence of their partitioned lives by writing a
journal.
Suite française is set during the Nazi occupation of
France and is in two parts. Part one, “A Storm in June”,
is an acute observation of the population of Paris
fleeing the German onslaught. Part two, “Dolce”, is set
in a rural community and depicts ordinary people faced
with the political and moral dilemmas of occupation.
Both these authors write with an unusual ability to
merge the sensuous to reflective writing. Sebastian
Barry is tracing his own family history in Ireland whilst
Irène Némirovsky lived during but did not survive Nazi
persecution. Her novel was discovered 65 years after
her death.
a boat, the plane crash near the
island runway, to the chap whose
foot was left hanging after his
track pants became caught up
in the fly wheel of a generator.
This book is both an insight
into nursing, a revelation about
the challenges of rurality and
a fascinating piece of NZ
history.
We have this book at the
Tauranga Hospital Library.
It is also available from the
Tauranga Public Library.
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