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Books > Promotion > Mother's Day > Biography
Falling Forward is a story of reclaiming identity, voice and power.
The perfect match. Or so she thinks. Her warmth and empathy. His charisma and ambition. Yet, Cathy feels safer teaching battle-scarred gangsters in a prison classroom than at home with her own partner. By day she walks on eggshells. At night she sleeps on the backseat of her car. Her safe place is an all-night roadhouse; her best friend, her journal. The slow boil intensifies until, one day, Cathy finds her grandmother’s armoire smashed to pieces in her bedroom, a hammer on the floor, her life in splinters beside it. Part memoir, part inspiration, Boiling A Frog Slowly is unflinching in its confrontation of abuse and utterly courageous in its portrayal of redemption.
By the time Shana Fife is 25 she has two kids from different fathers. To the coloured people she grew up around, she is a jintoe, a jezebel, jas, a woman with mileage on the p*ssy. She is alone, she has no job and, as she is constantly reminded by her family, she is pretty much worthless and unloveable. How did she become this woman, the epitome of everything she was conditioned to strive not to be? Unsettlingly honest and brutally blunt, Ougat is Shana Fife’s story of survival: of surviving the social conditioning of her Cape Flats community, of surviving sexual violence and depression, and of ultimately escaping a cycle of abuse. Exploring themes of sexuality, marriage and motherhood, rape, drugs and depression and cultural identity, Shana describes – with the self-deprecating humour her followers love so much – what it means to be a coloured woman, who gives coloured womanhood meaning and, ultimately, how surviving life as a coloured woman means being OK with giving a giant ‘f*ck you’ to the norm. A powerful, fresh and disarming new voice – Shana’s writing is like nothing you’ve read before.
** Fasten your seatbelts, darlings, it's been one helluva ride. ** Liza Minnelli is one of the most iconic and enduring figures in entertainment history. Now, in her first and only memoir, Liza tells her story in her own words - and what a story it is. Born into Hollywood royalty, Liza was the daughter of legendary director Vincente Minnelli and the incomparable Judy Garland - and yet her beloved Mama's brilliance was matched by deep personal battles, making her both an inspiration and, at times, a source of fear. In this deeply candid memoir, Liza pulls back the curtain on her extraordinary life, from her meteoric rise to Broadway and Hollywood stardom to the whirlwind of high-profile marriages and scandalous affairs, as well as the private heartbreaks of multiple miscarriages and lifelong struggle with Substance Use Disorder. She relives the liberated nights at Studio 54, the activism and friendships that shaped her - including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Halston, Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson and Princess Diana - and the fearless way she defied conventions, embracing sexual fluidity long before it was part of the public conversation. But above all, as she turns 80 years old, Liza is ready to reclaim her truth, dispelling the tabloid myths and setting the record straight with stories she's never shared before. Raw, strong, sexy, hilarious and unapologetically honest, this is a defiant celebration of self-belief, survival and stardust - proving once and for all why Liza remains one of the most captivating performers the world has ever known.
A searing and brave memoir chronicling the author’s resilience, compassion and growth as she moves from a childhood of trauma, through the challenges of dealing with the early loss of her beloved husband and becoming a single parent as well as subsequently accompanying her child on a difficult journey of self-discovery, to a life of acceptance and forgiveness. Thobeka Yose confronts the taboos surrounding mental health, abuse, betrayal and sexual identity with fearless honesty, kindness and understanding that will inspire countless others.
Hot Water is an intimate and daring look into the life of a young African woman from the Cape Flats with a chronic illness. The book investigates how endometriosis affects the way young woman function and navigate the world, and how this becomes especially complicated for those who are underprivileged and reliant on the public sector’s healthcare system. In Hot Water Nadine Dirks reveals the unique issues of racism, sexism, classism, fatphobia and slut-shaming that African women experience within the context of healthcare facilities, and how especially jarring it is when the stigma comes from medical staff who one expects to have the patient’s care as their primary concern. All of this has enraged Dirks and catapulted her into becoming a sexual reproductive health and rights advocate. Hot Water tells the story of how people with chronic illness are treated daily, at school, university and socially for being differently abled; how people are regarded as lazy, aggressive, disappointing, lacking, among multiple other things for being unwell in comparison to their healthy counterparts. One cannot look at seeking adequate healthcare as a young, black, underprivileged woman on the Cape Flats without experiencing racism in the most blatant of ways. Even with guidelines in place, the book shows that it is next to impossible to invoke those rights even if you are aware of them for fear of being victimised and excluded from the system.
Tracy Going‘s powerful memoir, Brutal Legacy (originally published in 2018), was first adapted for stage by the award-winning theatre maker, Lesedi Job, with a cast including Natasha Sutherland, Charlie Bougenon and Jessica Wolhuter, and it has now inspired a documentary, That’s What She Said – A social inquiry: in it, Tracy offers up her story to be scrutinised by a random group of men in the present. They watch her account as it is displayed in a theatre production adaptation of her book. The film documents this process and the frank discussions that follow the performance. Offering a unique social dialogue, to bring an important message across as a relatable film without diminishing the abused, or men / women in general. When South Africa’s golden girl of broadcasting, Tracy Going’s battered face was splashed across the media back in the late 1990s, the nation was shocked. South Africans had become accustomed to seeing Going, glamorous and groomed on television or hearing her resonant voice on Radio Metro and Kaya FM. Sensational headlines of a whirlwind love relationship turned horrendously violent threw the “perfect” life of the household star into disarray. What had started off as a fairy-tale romance with a man who appeared to be everything that Going was looking for – charming, handsome and successful – had quickly descended into a violent, abusive relationship. “As I stood before him all I could see were the lies, the disappearing for days without warning, the screaming, the threats, the terror, the hostage-holding, the keeping me up all night, the dragging me through the house by my hair, the choking, the doors locked around me, the phones disconnected, the isolation, the fear and the uncertainty.” The rosy love cloud burst just five months after meeting her “Prince Charming” when she staggered into the local police station, bruised and battered. A short relationship became a two-and-a-half-year legal ordeal played out in the public eye. In mesmerising detail, Going takes us through the harrowing court process – a system seeped in injustice – her decline into depression, the immediate collapse of her career due to the highly public nature of her assault and the decades-long journey to undo the psychological damages in the search for safety and the reclaiming of self. The roots of violence form the backdrop of the book, tracing Going’s childhood on a plot in Brits, laced with the unpredictable violence of an alcoholic father who regularly terrorised the family with his fists of rage. “I was ashamed of my father, the drunk. If he wasn’t throwing back the liquid in the lounge then he’d be finding comfort and consort in his cans at the golf club. With that came the uncertainty as I lay in my bed and waited for him to return. I would lie there holding my curtain tight in my small hand. I would pull the fabric down, almost straight, forming a strained sliver and I would peer into the blackness, unblinking. It seemed I was always watching and waiting. Sometimes I searched for satellites between the twinkles of light, but mostly the fear in my tummy distracted me.” Brilliantly penned, this highly skilled debut memoir, is ultimately uplifting in the realisation that healing is a lengthy and often arduous process and that self-forgiveness and acceptance is essential in order to fully embrace life.
The first authorised biography of eternal legend Elizabeth Taylor. Known for her glamorous beauty, soap-opera personal life and magnetic screen presence, Elizabeth Taylor was the twentieth century's most famous film star. Including unseen photographs and unread private reflections, this authorised biography is a fascinating and complete portrait worthy of the legend and her legacy. Elizabeth Taylor captures this intelligent, empathetic, tenacious, volatile and complex woman as never before, from her rise to massive fame at the age of twelve in National Velvet to becoming the first actor to negotiate a million-dollar salary for a film, from her eight marriages and enduring love affair with Richard Burton to her lifelong battle with addiction and her courageous efforts as an AIDS activist. Using Elizabeth's unpublished letters, diary entries and off-the-record interview transcripts as well as interviews with 250 of her closest friends and family, Kate Andersen Brower tells the full, unvarnished story of the classic Hollywood star who continues to captivate audiences the world over.
As a young journalist, roped into court reporting to cover Jacob Zuma’s
2006 rape trial, Karyn Maughan could not have known that she would be
reporting on Zuma’s legal woes for the next two decades – and
would herself become his target. Disarmingly honest and deeply
personal, this book takes a razor-sharp look at how powerful men
use attacks on individuals who try to hold them accountable, as well as
on the media and the courts, to undermine democracy.
Since a very young age, a shy and introverted Gloria, born as Coloured in Apartheid South Africa, always enjoyed processing her feelings on paper. After being urged and encouraged by a cherished friend to write her memoirs, Gloria eventually acquiesced and started this project, more than 12 years ago, fundamentally to leave as a legacy for her next of kin. Notwithstanding her early life of relative comfort, she and her family had to deal with the iniquities of the Apartheid system of government in South Africa, leading to many a trying experience. In her book, she chronicles her life, starting with her growing up years in relative comfort in the humble Coloured suburb of Elsie’s River in the Western Cape, to now alternate between her spectacular hideaways in the picturesque Alps of Switzerland and exquisite villas along breathtaking coastlines of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in South Africa. Gloria shares with the reader her many joys and triumphs as well as painful deceit and sorrow. Her aspirational and motivational spirit allowed her to be accepted into a Whites Only beauty school in Cape Town and to graduate with distinction. After being nominated onto the coveted list of South Africa’s Best Dressed Woman in 1988, she was honoured to walk away with the title and remained on the nominee list in 1989 and 1990. She shares the challenges and stumbling blocks she and her renowned fashion designer brother, Errol, faced with determination and passion to succeed in their business partnership that reached great heights. She relates her humiliating experiences at the hands of the Apartheid laws, two failed marriages, the second of which involved heart wrenching deceit and a seven-year estrangement from her brother and younger sister, as well as the deeply touching death of her beloved, aged mother. She found happiness and a partner in her present marriage that shares the same motivating spirit to live life to the full and to enrich the lives of those less fortunate.
Daughter. Prisoner. Survivor. Warrior.
Nobody’s Girl ... This is Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s last word.
This is not a book about gardening. It's a book about becoming - wildly, messily, and against all odds. "Sometimes I was sunshine. Sometimes I was stormy. Sometimes I was a dandelion blowing away in 20 directions at once, and other times I stood tall like a sunflower, faking confidence but rooted deep. It's a story about falling forward, laughing at bad timing, and blooming on your own weird wonderful terms." In this bold, heartfelt, and occasionally unfiltered memoir, the author dives into the mess of becoming. A real life story of blooming through the cracks and accidentally growing a life worth loving. Wild, rooted & occasionally untamed. It's for anyone who's smiled through storms, bloomed in chaos, or grown deep roots in rocky places. Oops! I Bloomed Again is a laugh-out-loud, tear-jerking kind of story for the ones who bloom sideways, bounce back louder, and keep showing up, even when the soil gets rough. Expect laughs. Expect tears. Expect dandelions in unexpected places. And between the pages?
Written in the six weeks following the sudden death of Mat, Ferguson’s soul mate, Swift is a memoir that unfolds, breath by breath, as the narrator moves through shock, fury, unspeakable sorrow, and an almost mythic sense of responsibility to save the life of a Swift, which she rescued seven days before her beloved left Earth. She somehow keeps the half-dead Swift alive through the blur of grief, but she has no real clue what she’s doing. Mat was the one who knew all about birds. He was the man with the heart of feathers who identified the rescue bird as a Little Swift when she brought it home. Mat told her many things about the bird: that it never touches the ground, that it eats, sleeps, drinks, and mates on the wing, and that it is a bird that can fly for up to two years without landing. In the aftermath of his shocking departure, and all its absurd bureaucratic requirements, an unlikely long-distance Swift guide appears in Ferguson’s DMs on old Twitter. Her name is Hannah, a hardcore Swift activist from the UK. Ferguson is mesmerized by the Swift Queen’s ethereal beauty and the tattoos of Swifts across her back.
“Ek het my mammie sien loop na die hofgebou met ’n hoodie aan en ’n doek oor haar gesig. Sy het byna gelyk soos iemand wat arm is. Mense het haar uitgevloek … Dit het my gebreek. Dit is die vrou wat elke dag daar was vir my, wat middagete vir my en my vriende gemaak het as ons van die skool af kom, en hier is sy nou op televisie en word ’n misdadiger genoem.” Die ontvoering van baba Zephany Nurse uit die kot langs haar ma se hospitaalbed het die hele Suid-Afrika aangegryp. Haar desperate ouers het herhaaldelik gepleit dat sy veilig terugbesorg word, maar daar was geen teken van die baba nie. Vir 17 jaar lank, op haar verjaarsdag, het die Nurse-gesin kerse aangesteek en gehoop en gebid. ’n Klipgooi van die Nurse-gesin af het die 17-jarige Miché Solomon pas met matriek begin. Sy het ’n kêrel gehad en toegewyde ouers. Sy het gedroom oor die matriekafskeid en die rok wat haar ma vir haar sou maak. Sy het nie die vaagste benul gehad dat ’n nuwe meisie in die skool, wat ongelooflik baie soos sy lyk, en ’n DNS-toets haar wêreld tot in sy fondamente sou skud nie. Miché is nou 22. Met verbysterende volwassenheid, eerlikheid en deernis vertel sy hier vir die eerste keer háár storie, in haar eie woorde, oor wat dit beteken om lief te hê en geliefd te wees, en om jou eie identiteit op te eis.
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