I feel like everyone should read this first book – Stolen Focus - to understand why it is SO easy to become hooked on our smartphones and explains why it is a conscious struggle to stop scrolling and turn it off. But it’s not your fault! It comes down to the big advertisers and the technology, designed to reel you in and keep you there. Holidays are here – let’s see how inspiring a book on backcountry tramping might be in this ataahua motu of ours. Certainly a dose of real experience over virtual. And doing it by yourself – challenging! Love the cover on this next one – Seven days. Who doesn’t want to know why someone is dangling over the open mouth of a hippopotamus? And for those who read We were liars – welcome to the rest of the family. This one is a prequel, so it’s been going on for some time.

Stolen Focus : Why you can’t pay attention / Johann Hari

How technology is robbing us of concentration.

In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. We think our inability to focus is a personal failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more disturbing: our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces that have left us uniquely vulnerable to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit.

We’re switching tasks at unprecedented speed. The more information we inhale, the less we’re able to focus on any one piece of it. Our brains aren’t designed to absorb so much at a time: In one study, 136 students took a test; some had their phones turned off, while others received occasional text messages. Those who received messages scored about 20 percent lower than those who didn’t. One of the best ways out of distraction is finding your way into flow. This is when you are so absorbed in what you are doing that you lose all sense of yourself, and time seems to fall away, and you are flowing into the experience itself. Technology is deliberately designed to distract. There’s money to be made by advertising. There’s not an easy solution. Sites could remove their infinite scroll, so when you reached the bottom of the screen, you had to think about whether you wanted to see more or not. They could stop constantly notifying you of posts or messages. (Hint: change your phone notification settings) These technology changes could be implemented overnight, but without financial incentives, they’re unlikely to come to fruition.

Precised from Goodreads book blurb and an article by Angela Haupt, Washington Post

https://bit.ly/3Ieg244 Goodreads reviews

https://wapo.st/3uoF2jf Washington Post review

Solo: Backcountry adventuring in Aotearoa New Zealand / Hazel Phillips

“This book is for all those who long to wade through emerald rivers and breathe the mountain air.”

In 2016, the author realised that her 40-hour working week at a desk was actually completely doable remotely. So, she put on her boots, and her backpack, took a ski pole and spent the next three years, tramping, camping, and working from mountaintops and DOC huts. This book details all the above. A self-described intersection of Feminism and mountaineering. Follow this link to the publisher’s page and you get to read the first 32 pages. Then come and get the rest of it from the Library 😊

https://www.masseypress.ac.nz/books/all/solo

Seven days / Fleur Ferris

Mystery, lies, shocking crimes and a 100-year-old families feud.

When Ben has to spend the first week of the school holidays at his Aunt and Uncles place, he is not keen. In fact, he sets his watch to countdown the 168 hours he calculates he will be staying there. Then he finds his Great-Grandfather’s Journal whilst helping to clear out boxes. It is written in a very old-fashioned style and may contain clues to solving a mystery. Ben is intrigued to learn that his Great-Grandfather was shot and killed by members of the Rhinestone family – who claimed he had stolen family heirloom jewels from their sister. And thus began the feud between the Parkers and the Rhinestones that still exists to this day. This Journal was found on the body of his dead Great Grandfather and maybe could hold the key to solving the jewel theft committed over a hundred years ago and resolving the bad blood between these two families.

Click on the link for a taster – then come and borrow the book for the rest of it

https://bit.ly/3IfiwiP

Family of liars / e.lockhart

“They were always liars”

This prequel to We were liars (tiktok fav) offers more about the lives of the extremely wealthy Sinclair family and their private island, Beechwood off the coast of Massachusetts, where they summer every year. We learn the story of the previous generation’s teenage years and the seeds of how the pretence, lying and acting began of this dysfunctional family; creating its own mythology that they dwell their lives within. The author has a particular style, poetic and bitten off, often unpunctuated, so not to everyone’s liking. But hey – give it a go and see what YOU think.

Research Website to check out

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAotearoaHistoryShow/videos

The Aotearoa History Show Take a voyage through the history of New Zealand with The Aotearoa History Show from RNZ - a part-animated web-series that travels all the way through from 100 million years ago to the modern day, capturing the highlights of our nation’s story. Fourteen short, sharp episodes dissect the what, when, how, and (most importantly) why of our past. Co-presented by RNZ's Maori Issues Correspondent Leigh-Marama McLachlan and William Ray from the smash hit Black Sheep podcast, it’s an accessible and entertaining tale perfect for history newbies and history buffs alike.

And you can access the library website here at any time to see what else is new, search for items, reading lists and links to Research and Academic databases.