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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography
“I saw my mommy walking to the court with a hoodie on and a scarf covering her face. She looked almost like someone that was poor. People were cursing at her… and that broke me. This is the woman who was there for me every day, making lunch for me and my friends when we came from school, and now here she is on television being called a criminal.”
The kidnapping of baby Zephany Nurse from the cot beside her mother’s hospital bed made headline news. Desperate pleas from her parents to return her safely went unanswered. There was no trace of the baby. For 17 years, on her birthday, the Nurse family lit candles and hoped and prayed.
Living not far away from the Nurses, 17-year-old Miché Solomon had just started Matric. She had a boyfriend. She had devoted parents. She was thinking about the upcoming school dance and the dress her mother was going to make for her. She had no idea that a new girl at her school, who bore an uncanny resemblance to her, and a DNA test would shake her world to its foundations.
Miché is now 22. This is her story – for the first time in her own words. Told with astonishing maturity, honesty and compassion, it is also a story of what it means to love and be loved, and of claiming your identity.
A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat
star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child
actor-including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated
relationship with her overbearing mother-and how she retook control
of her life. Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her
first acting audition. Her mother's dream was for her only daughter
to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother
happy. So she went along with what Mom called "calorie
restriction," eating little and weighing herself five times a day.
She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, "Your
eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn't
tint hers?" She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while
sharing her diaries, email, and all her income. In I'm Glad My Mom
Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail-just as she
chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in
a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame.
Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on
a first-name basis with the paparazzi ("Hi Gale!"), Jennette is
riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into
eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy
relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking
the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana
Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering
therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and
decides for the first time in her life what she really wants. Told
with refreshing candor and dark humor, I'm Glad My Mom Died is an
inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of
shampooing your own hair.
"As I sat on the side of Hamnafield on Foula in the Shetland
Islands, looking down at my 'enormous' 38-foot ferry stowed in its
cradle on the quay in Ham Voe, over 1,000 feet below me, I
reflected on a moderately successful career to date, and wondered
how on Earth I had ended up driving what was, in effect, a floating
dust cart" After 42 years at or connected with the sea, Jeremy
Walker ended up on the Shetland Island of Foula commanding and
running a small ferry to the mainland of Shetland. Throughout the
course of his career, firstly as a seagoing deck officer with a
large, but now defunct, British shipping company, then as a
Hovercraft Commander for four years, returning to sea for a brief
period as Master of two small coastal tankers and then for the
majority of his career as a Pilot on the River Humber, he
encountered many amusing situations. In this book he attempts to
relate these stories and to illustrate the lighter side of what was
a very difficult, responsible and, at times, incredibly stressful
job. And little did he know that his career was far from over and
new opportunities and challenges would take him on for a further 13
years to eventual retirement.
"As I sat on the side of Hamnafield on Foula in the Shetland
Islands, looking down at my 'enormous' 38-foot ferry stowed in its
cradle on the quay in Ham Voe, over 1,000 feet below me, I
reflected on a moderately successful career to date, and wondered
how on Earth I had ended up driving what was, in effect, a floating
dust cart" After 42 years at or connected with the sea, Jeremy
Walker ended up on the Shetland Island of Foula commanding and
running a small ferry to the mainland of Shetland. Throughout the
course of his career, firstly as a seagoing deck officer with a
large, but now defunct, British shipping company, then as a
Hovercraft Commander for four years, returning to sea for a brief
period as Master of two small coastal tankers and then for the
majority of his career as a Pilot on the River Humber, he
encountered many amusing situations. In this book he attempts to
relate these stories and to illustrate the lighter side of what was
a very difficult, responsible and, at times, incredibly stressful
job. And little did he know that his career was far from over and
new opportunities and challenges would take him on for a further 13
years to eventual retirement.
"I became a life insurance salesman in London in May 1969, for the
glamour, the fast cars, the groupies... the beautiful women who'd
stop at nothing to buy life insurance. It's a very well-kept
secret." Thus begins Peter Rosengard's extraordinary account of his
life so far, and the endless adventures in which he made, lost and
remade a fortune; founded London's famous Comedy Store, discovered
and managed some of the greats in stand-up comedy; turned an
unknown boy band into a chart-topping sensation; and sold the
world's biggest life insurance policy in history, for $100m, which
is still celebrated by the Guinness Book of Records. This is a book
about "chutzpah," testament to a simple belief that "nothing is
impossible."
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