|
|
Books > Biography
A Los Angeles Times columnist recounts her eighteen-month
undercover stint as a man, a time during which she underwent
considerable personal risks as she worked a sales job, joined a
bowling league, frequented sex clubs, dated, and encountered
firsthand the rigid codes and rituals of masculinity. 'This
captivating account will forever change the way you see men - and
perhaps yourself.' -- Marie Claire An addictive, enthralling read?
breathtaking. -- Viv Groskop, Observer Beautifully written? a brave
and fascinating book. -- Christopher Hart, Sunday Times Funny,
compelling and human. -- Sarah Vine, The Times Intelligent,
articulate and perceptive... one of the most sympathetic renderings
of masculinity you?re likely to read.-- Lionel Shriver, Guardian
Massacres, mayhem, and mischief fill the pages of Outlaw Tales of
Utah, 2nd Edition. Ride with horse thieves and cattle rustlers,
stagecoach, and train robbers. Duck the bullets of murderers, plot
strategies with con artists, hiss at lawmen turned outlaws. A
refreshing new perspective on some of the most infamous reprobates
of the Midwest.
Based on a series of fascinating interviews, this extraordinary
book relates real stories of conflict from the people who lived
through it. In vivid detail, and genuinely moving accounts, this
unique publication draws the reader into a hugely significant
period of history; capturing surprising and emotional stories first
hand, before they disappear forever. These are more than just
memories, they are the events that marked the world and an entire
generation.
Andy West teaches philosophy in prisons. He has conversations with
people inside about their lives, discusses their ideas and feelings
and listens as the men and women he works with explore new ways to
think about their situation. Could we ever be good if we never felt
shame? What makes a person worthy of forgiveness? Could someone in
prison ever be more free than someone outside? These questions
about how to live are ones we all need to ask, but in this setting
they are even more urgent. When Andy steps into jail, he also
confronts his inherited guilt: his father, uncle and brother all
spent time in prison. He has built a different life for himself,
but he still fears that their fate will be his. As he discusses
questions of truth, identity and hope with his students, he
searches for his own form of freedom. Moving, sympathetic, wise and
frequently funny, The Life Inside is an elegantly written and
unforgettable book. Through its blend of memoir, storytelling and
gentle philosophical questioning, readers will gain a new insight
into our justice system, our prisons and the plurality of lives
found inside.
The stories of Naz Gool Ebrahim and District Six are intimately
linked; in fact it is hard to imagine the one without the other.
As
the niece of Cissie Gool, Naz came from fighting stock. Strong
women with strong voices ran in the family. So when the Apartheid
Government declared 'the District', a slum in 1966 and announced
plans to flatten it, Naz wasnt about to lose all that she held
dear without a fight. She became the voice of the voiceless, both
in South Africa and in the USA and was nominated as Woman of the
Year. Naz combined her radical political activism with her roles
as devoted wife and mother to six children. Up until the end of her
life in 2005, she worked tirelessly to oppose the evil of racial
segregation.
To her opponents, she was an indomitable adversary,
but to her friends she was Naz Raz-a-ma-tazz, a great lady who
certainly knew how to tell a story and put on a good show.
A court case, haled and feted world-wide as a remarkable success and
achievement, blessed an indigent family in South Africa with
considerable wealth. The case enabled them to benefit financially from
the creativity and talent of their deceased father, Solomon Linda
(portrayed along with his group The Evening Birds on the cover),
despite his having signed away all his rights to a valuable song that
he had composed, called Mbube. This song evolved into the international
mega hit song, The Lion Sleeps Tonight and made a fortune. But Solomon
had cut all his ties with the song. The outcome of the court case gave
rise to a poignant ‘rags to riches’ story that touched the hearts of
many. It brought about a fairy tale ending to what was a tragic
episode.
This came to pass thanks to the valiant efforts of a team of eminent,
highly competent and specialised lawyers who took it upon themselves to
risk their reputations and livelihoods in embarking on litigation that
was exceedingly complex and arguably tenuous in nature, without any
financial backing, in order to pursue what they considered to be a just
and honourable cause of social justice. In the process they thought
outside the box, executed daring ploys, traversed virgin legal terrain,
overcame redoubtable odds and made new law that can benefit others in
time to come. They also achieved a remarkable success in furthering the
interests of South African culture. In the end their work did not go
unrewarded and they were able to enjoy properly regulated financial
compensation for their services.
Happy endings do not always sit well with some. Netflix made a
documentary movie about the case, called The Lions Share, in which it
is contended that the lawyers purloined a major share of the financial
rewards that ought have been due to the Linda family. This claim is
without any foundation or substance. The film’s perversion of the story
of the court case and its aftermath, which aims at sensationalism and
controversy, taints the legacy of the court case.
’n Baie lang brief aan my dogter is Marita van der Vyver, een
van Afrikaans se mees geliefde skrywers, se ontroerende
jeugmemoir. Dit is 'n speurtog deur die skrywer se beginjare,
maar dit is ook ’n liefdesbrief aan ’n dogter en ’n taal en ’n land. En
bowenal is dit ’n ma se poging om sin te maak van hierdie onverskillige
en wrede wêreld waarin sy haar nou begewe.
'The most magical book about the African bush since Born Free' -
Daily Mail
'A beautiful love story between humans and the majestic elephants' Jo
Malone, Daily Express
Françoise Malby-Anthony never expected to find herself responsible for
a herd of elephants with a troubled past. A chic Parisienne, her life
changed forever when she fell in love with South African
conservationist Lawrence Anthony. Together they founded a game reserve
but after Lawrence’s death, Françoise faced the daunting responsibility
of running Thula Thula without him. Poachers attacked their rhinos,
their security team wouldn’t take orders from a woman and the
authorities were threatening to cull their beloved elephant family. On
top of that, the herd’s feisty new matriarch Frankie didn’t like her.
In this heart-warming and moving book, Françoise describes how she
fought to protect the herd and to make her dream of building a wildlife
rescue centre a reality. She found herself caring for a lost baby
elephant who turned up at her house, and offering refuge to traumatized
orphaned rhinos, and a hippo called Charlie who was scared of water. As
she learned to trust herself, she discovered she’d had Frankie wrong
all along . . .
Filled with extraordinary animals and the humans who dedicate their
lives to saving them, An Elephant in My Kitchen by Françoise
Malby-Anthony is a captivating and gripping read.
In the 1970s Hennie Keyter was an angry young man, fresh out of military service for the apartheid government of South Africa, unsure of his path in life and deeply uneasy about his faith. When God revealed to him that He had a purpose for him and a calling on his life, at first Hennie was not ready to hear it. When he finally accepted and understood his mission, a flame was lit in his heart that nothing could have extinguished.
But nothing could have prepared him either for the extraordinary spiritual journey he was about to embark on which would take him wherever God wanted him to go: from Malawi, "the warm heart of Africa", to Mozambique at the height of its civil war, where he was sentenced to death and faced a firing squad, from a less than welcoming beginning in Zanzibar, to the United Nations base at Lokichokio on the border between
Kenya and Sudan (where on one trip he discovered that he had a price of US 10 000 on his head). Desiring only to do the will of God and to spread the Gospel, Hennie took up the challenge of taking the Gospel to many of the countries on the African continent and in the Middle East, building up leaders and planting churches in poverty stricken areas, lands devastated by years of conflict and deprivation, and war zones where soldiers seemed to have lost everything, even hope.
Through the bushfire of mass evangelism and his dedicated teams of volunteers, supported by the love and faith of his wife Rita and his children Anton and Mari, in His Call, My All: An African Drumbea, A Missionary's Heartbeat Hennie Keyter looks back at his life in the service of the Lord and forward to continuing His work for as long as God requires it of him.
 |
Becoming
(Paperback)
Michelle Obama
|
R345
R318
Discovery Miles 3 180
Save R27 (8%)
|
Ships in 5 - 10 working days
|
|
|
An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States
In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America - the first African-American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations - and whose story inspires us to do the same.
In die verlede, was ek baie keer onseker oor myself, veral as ek in
'n moeilike situasie beland het of 'n krisis moes hanteer. Noudat
ek vierkantig daarmee gekonfronteer word, is dit vir my lekker om
te weet ek het nie moed opgegee nie. Mathys Roets het sy
musiekloopbaan in 1989 begin toe hy met sy kitaar in die hand, in
'n winkelsentrum in Pretoria, vir fooitjies gesing het. In 1996
maak hy 'n belangrike deurbraak met sy debuutproduksie op die KKNK.
In hierdie vertoning, Nokturne, sing hy die musiek van Koos du
Plessis. Met sy donker fluweelstem het die musiek van Koos du
Plessis, Mathys soos 'n handskoen gepas. Deur sy loopbaan het
Mathys bekendheid verwerf vir sy sielvolle vertolkings van die
wereld se mooiste ballades, veral die musiek van Leonard Cohen,
Roger Whittaker en Neil Diamond. Die pad wat hy gestap het was nie
maklik nie. Hy het harde bene gekou, self luidsprekers rondgedra en
van restaurant na restaurant gegaan om daar te sing, maar toe hy
uiteindelik raakgesien word, het dinge behoorlik vir hom vlam
gevat. Op 6 April 2009, op pad na die KKNK in Oudtshoorn, ry Mathys
met sy geel BMW motorfiets van die pad af. Vir dae lank hang sy
lewe aan ? draadjie en uiteindelik reik die Rosepark Hospitaal ?
verklaring uit: Mathys is verlam. Ten spyte van hierdie terugslag,
besluit Mathys om vorentoe te kyk en steeds voluit te leef. Steeds
Mathys is die inspirerende lewensverhaal van Mathys Roets, soos
vertel aan Alita Vorster. Dis 'n verhaal wat lesers sal laat
glimlag, maar ook aangryp en besiel. Na die lees van hierdie boek
moet 'n mens wonder hoe jy enige uitdaging as te groot kan beskou!
1 Recce: Behind Enemy Lines takes the reader into the ‘inner sanctum’ of the Recces. In their own words, Recce operators recount some of the life-threatening operations they conducted under great secrecy in the late 1970s.
Those who were there give first-hand accounts of the tension, anticipation, fear, adrenalin, exhaustion, thirst and grief they experienced, but also of the humorous moments and the close bonds of friendship that were forged in situations of mortal danger.
|
You may like...
Midnights
Taylor Swift
CD
R505
Discovery Miles 5 050
New Times
Rehana Rossouw
Paperback
(1)
R280
R259
Discovery Miles 2 590
The Butler
Danielle Steel
Paperback
R394
Discovery Miles 3 940
|