Books

from Mahurangi Matters _Issue 454_8 May 2023

by Localmatters

The Forest Bridge Trust

Tracey Lawton

Second Chances by Hayley Holt

We’ve all seen Hayley Holt on our television screens over the years – Dancing With The Stars, Treasure Island, Shock Treatment, Crowd Goes Wild, TVNZ Breakfast, and currently TVNZ News Sports. In her early forties, she’s packed in a lot of living. At the age of seven, she started ballroom and Latin dancing and then got seriously into snowboarding. Holt seemed outgoing and confident but her reality was that she was introverted and alcohol became the key to her fitting in. The loss of her first baby has been widely reported but in this memoir she is so open and raw about that devastating loss, the love she has found with her partner Josh, and the support from her family and close friends. This was an easy read and it was interesting to learn about the person behind the famous face.

Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah

Efe and Sam are both of Ghanaian descent and meet in London in the 1990s. They remain friends, reconnect years later and marry. But the perfect love story has a glitch. Sam is working hard as a lawyer, his extended family live in London, he wants to stay in London and start a family. Efe has always said she doesn’t want children and she is an artist who is still close to her sister and parents back in Ghana. And so the story starts with the marriage breakdown and then we go right back in time and work our way forward to the marriage crisis. It’s a beautiful story that is told with much love and empathy, and gives us a glimpse of the difficulties of living in different cultures while trying to stay true to your roots.

Celebrating music

Warkworth Library is looking for musicians to perform at the library during NZ Music Month this month. If you play an instrument, sing or are in a band, they would love to hear from you. Pop into the library or email katherine.mitchell@aucklandcouncil. govt.nz. Meanwhile, a song writing workshop with Andy Hamilton and the Dirt Road Orchestra will be held at the Masonic Hall on May 20, at 11am.

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