Marvel Entertainment was a struggling toymaker not even twenty years ago. Today, Marvel Studios is the dominant player both in Hollywood and in global pop culture. But what accounts for its stunning rise?

In MCU, beloved culture writers Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards draw on more than a hundred interviews with actors, producers, directors, and writers to present the definitive chronicle of Marvel Studios and its sole, ongoing production, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As they delve into the studio’s key moments – from the contentious hiring of Robert Downey Jr. for Iron Man to the negotiations over Disney’s acquisition of Marvel to studio head Kevin Feige’s embrace of streaming TV – the authors demonstrate that the genius of Marvel was its resurrection and modification of Hollywood’s old studio system.

Dishy and authoritative, MCU is the first book to tell the Marvel Studios story in full – and an essential, effervescent account of popular culture.

What is your stake in the upcoming 2024 election in South Africa – the most crucial election since 1994? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the outcome? As a businessperson, consumer, worker or farmer, you will be affected by the election results and the significant changes that are likely to appear in South Africa’s political economy. The 2024 election gives South Africans the opportunity to decide what the country and its political leadership will look like in the future.

Tipping Point – Turmoil Or Reform? examines some critical questions about the country’s political and socioeconomic landscape today and whether the 2024 election outcome is likely to signal more gloom or will it rather pave the way for positive and enduring reforms. Edited by prominent economist Raymond Parsons, the book comprises pieces by some of South Africa’s leading intellectuals and thought leaders, all of whom have seriously considered South Africa’s post-election future.

Among the major themes emerging from the different chapters, which will help to steer the national agenda in the months and years ahead, are: South Africa’s political prospects after 2024; the future role of coalition politics in South Africa; the dynamics between business and the economy; what South Africa’s geopolitical leanings mean for the country’s trade competitiveness; how to make local government work; need for greater community engagement and why doing business in South Africa is challenging.

Tipping Point – Turmoil Or Reform? is as absorbing as it is frank, informing readers (and, importantly, voters) about the harsh reality of where South Africa is today but also offering them hope of a much better tomorrow – which will largely depend on the critical choices they make during this watershed election year for South Africa.

Two sisters. One secret. A journey to learn who they really are…

As the waves crash on to a wild Atlantic beach, Lou is at a crossroads. For the first time ever, just giving up seems like an option.

In just one night, at her own 50th birthday, her world has imploded. Her mother has kept a secret hidden all her life. And it changes everything. Before Lou can take another step, she needs to get to the bottom of the shocking truth that alters who she really is.

Along with her sister, Toni, who is facing her own crisis, the two women set out on a life-changing journey – one that will take them through Ireland’s wildest coastline and to Sicily’s sun-baked rocky shores. It will also take Lou deep into her relationships with her mother, her sister and her daughter to figure out how to stop pleasing everyone else – and carve out who she really wants to be.

Read King of Sloth now for a steamy reverse grumpy sunshine romance.

He'd never wanted anyone enough to chase them . . . until he met her.

Charming, easy-going, and rich beyond belief, Xavier Castillo has the world at his fingertips.

He also has no interest in taking over his family's empire (much to his father's chagrin), but that hasn't stopped women from throwing themselves at him . . . unless the woman in question is his publicist.

Nothing brings him more joy than riling her up, but when a tragedy forces them closer than ever, he must grapple with the uncertainty of his future - and the realization that the only person immune to his charms is the only one he truly wants.

Three of them, one of her, and a remote cabin in the woods. Let the hot, winter nights ensue in this steamy dark romance from New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas, now with bonus material.

Tiernan de Haas doesn't care about anything anymore. The only child of a film producer and his starlet wife, she's grown up with wealth and privilege but not love or guidance. And when her parents suddenly pass away, she knows she should be devastated. But she's always been alone, hasn't she?

Jake Van der Berg, her father's stepbrother and her only living relative, assumes guardianship of Tiernan. Sent to live in the mountains of Colorado with Jake and his two sons, Noah and Kaleb, Tiernan quickly learns that these men now have a say in what she chooses to care and not care about anymore.

As the men take Tiernan under their wing, she slowly finds her place among them.

Because lines blur and rules become easy to break when no one else is watching.

One of them has her. The other one wants her. But he's going to keep her.

Mister Winston is a substantial man, an honest man, a ‘good’ politician. Or at least, this is how he likes to see himself.

But as his life falls apart and his political party’s hypocrisies and failings become impossible to ignore, this easy image begins to crack, and he goes from being a potential president to a man washing dishes and sleeping under bridges.

With lucid prose and startingly beautiful imagery, Nthikeng Mohlele reaches into the consciousness of a man fallen from grace, and the disillusionment, fractured morals and unravelling personal life which led to this spiritual exile is revealed.

Revolutionaries’ House is an electrifying novel of love, power and attachment, and their many betrayals.

The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way we think about work – we’ve had the great resignation, the quiet quitters and those determined to always work from home. But not everyone can afford to quit, what happens to those overwhelmed by a work environment that leaves them feeling defeated or maybe just resigned to putting up with it?

Judy Klipin draws on years of coaching people through problems in their work environment to offer practical ways to make sure that your work works for you, asking questions like:

• Is the physical work environment sapping your energy?
• Are the toxic office politics driving you mad?
• Is relentless stress pushing you to the point of burnout?
• Do you have burnout as a result of ongoing stress and distress?
• Are your values reflected in the work you do?

By looking at what is and isn’t working for you at work, you can draw up a list of what needs to change. Using the Wheel of Work tool, Judy helps you identify the choices you have in how to respond to the situations you find yourself in at work. Case studies show you how other people have successfully developed the skills to improve their working experience.

Suid-Afrika se skoonheid en koloniale geskiedenis het seker gemaak dat verskeie bloubloediges deur die eeue heen sterk bande met die land ontwikkel het. Só is daar byvoorbeeld die Nederlandse prinses Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld, met haar groot liefde vir die Karoo, wat hard baklei het teen skaliegas-ontginning deur die Nederlandse petroleummaatskappy Shell.

As godsdienstige of politieke leiers - dikwels van adellike afkoms - in die Oosterse kolonies té veel geluide begin maak het, is hulle na die Kaap verban, wat 'n deurslaggewende rol gespeel het in die land se slawegeskiedenis: Hiervan getuig die verhale van sjeg Joesoef en die radja van Tambora. Watter spoor het die Napoleons in Durban agtergelaat? En George Rex, stigter van Knysna, wat dan nou op 'n druppel water soos koning George III van Engeland gelyk het?

Hoe het dit gekom dat prinses Anne van Brittanje se oorkrabbetjie dwarsdeur 'n volstruis se pens gegaan het? Konstantyn II, die laaste Griekse koning, prinses Charlotte van Liechtenstein en die Karadjordjević's van Serwië het hulle eie bande met Suid-Afrika - en die kroonprins van Albanië praat Afrikaans! Hoe het dit alles gebeur? En hoekom lui die naam lady Juana Smith 'n klokkie?

Blou bloed: koninklike spore in Suid-Afrika gaan soek antwoorde op hierdie en nog baie ander vrae.

In this fierce and funny battle of the exes, Ashley Winstead's Fool Me Once explores the chaos of wanting something you used to have.

Lee Stone is a twenty-first-century woman: she kicks butt at her job as a communications director at a women-run electric car company (that’s better than Tesla, thank you), and after work she is “Stoner,” drinking guys under the table and never letting any of them get too comfortable in her bed…

That’s because Lee’s learned one big lesson: never trust love. Four major heartbreaks set her straight, from her father cheating on her mom all the way to Ben Laderman in grad school—who wasn’t actually cheating, but she could have sworn he was, so she reciprocated in kind.

Then Ben shows up five years later, working as a policy expert for the most liberal governor in Texas history, just as Lee is trying to get a clean energy bill rolling. Things get complicated—and competitive—as Lee and Ben are forced to work together. Tension builds just as old sparks reignite, fanning the flames for a romantic dustup the size of Texas.

Yes, the keto diet has been around for a while; you’ve heard about it but don’t fully understand the concept and think it’s too expensive. Or perhaps you tried it but were overwhelmed with a deluge of often conflicting information, so you gave up. Possibly, you are following it faithfully but need new inspiration. Besides, there’s always new information coming to the fore. Following on the runaway success of his first book two years ago, Living the Ultimate Keto Lifestyle, Hendrik Marais has decided that it’s time to introduce the ketogenic lifestyle to even more people, while offering devotees a simplified breakdown of the latest trends, and a completely new set of easy and delicious recipes.
 
Keto Lifestyle: Simple  is exactly that – a guide to implementing a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting – with meal plans that are simple to follow – that makes sense, is both budget- and loadshedding-friendly, and with all the tricks to save you time. You’ll love the tasty recipes and even find ways to entertain your friends with menus that fall within this lifestyle. But there is so much more: nutritional information, advice on exercise and ways to maintain your motivation.

Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.

The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles.

Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.

Ja, die ketodieet is al lankal bekend; jy het daarvan gehoor maar verstaan die konsep nie heeltemal nie en dink dis te duur. Of miskien het jy dit getoets maar is oorweldig deur ’n oorvloed dikwels teenstrydige inligting en het jy moed opgegee. Miskien volg jy dit noukeurig maar het jy nuwe inspirasie nodig. Daar kom in elk geval altyd nuwe inligting na vore. Ná die wegholsukses van sy eerste boek twee jaar gelede, Living the Ultimate Keto Lifestyle, het Hendrik Marais besluit dis tyd om die ketogeniese leefstyl aan selfs meer mense bekend te stel, terwyl hy aanhangers terselfdertyd ’n vereenvoudigde uiteensetting van die jongste neigings en ’n volledige stel maklike en smaaklike resepte wou bied.

Keto Lifestyle: Maklik is presies dit: ’n Gids vir die implementering van ’n ketogeniese dieet en periodieke vas – met maaltydplanne wat eenvoudig is om te volg – wat sinvol asook begroting- en beurtkragvriendelik is, en met al die truuks om tyd te bespaar. Jy sal mal wees oor die geurige resepte en selfs maniere vind om jou vriende te onthaal met spyskaarte wat by hierdie leefstyl inpas. Maar daar’s soveel meer: inligting oor voedingswaarde, en raad oor oefening en maniere om jou motivering te handhaaf.

"Stephen Symons’s poetry enters a realm of tenderness, the quiet embrace of nature, and the frailties of the human spirit from which beauty arises. I hold his poetry in the highest regard. He is a masterful image maker and a believer in the power of close looking. This poet is a gem."

– David Keplinger, author of Another City and The Long Answer: New and Selected Poems

Hoe kleiner die plek, hoe groter sy geheime

Lekespeurder Ludo Labuschagne sit saam met ’n vriendin af na die Overberg. Kort voor lank verdwyn mense daar tussen neus en ore. Net om weer hul opwagting te maak. As lyke …

Die spanning kring uit. Aanvalle. Afpersing. ’n Berekende blik agter ’n gemoedelike plattelandse glimlag.

Kan die bose vastrapplek in so ’n idilliese landskap kry? En sal Ludo oorleef om die waarheid oop te krap?

If you can't trust your head, can you trust your heart?

If she had been found moments later, Amelia's heart would have stopped and never recovered. Instead she was taken from the desolate beach to the nearest hospital just in time to save her life. When her sister Lexi arrives from New York, Amelia's heart is beating, but the accident has implanted a series of false memories. These memories revolve around a man named Sam, and a perfect love story that never existed.

Determined to help her sister, Lexi enlists the help of Nick, a local vet who bears a striking resemblance to Sam. Together, Lexi and Nick recreate and photograph Amelia's dream dates in the hopes of triggering her true memories.

But as love starts to stir between Lexi and Nick, they must navigate a complex web of emotions. How can Lexi fall for Amelia's dream man without hurting her sister?

Filled with breathtaking romance, heart-wrenching emotion, the magic of destiny and the power of sisterhood, The Memory of Us is a must-read for fans of Holly Miller and Colleen Hoover.

Poetic Inquiry for the Social and Human Sciences: Voices from the South and North enriches human and social science research by introducing new voices, insights, and epistemologies.

Poetic inquiry, or poetry as research, is a literary and performance arts-based approach. It combines the arts and humanities with scientific inquiry to enhance social research. By challenging conventional epistemological traditions that assert a detached stance of the known from the knower, poetic inquiry proposes a method of decolonising knowledge production. This book expands on ground-breaking work done in the Global North on transdisciplinary poetic inquiry scholarship by bringing it into conversation with knowledge from the Global South. It allows for South-North leadership and places unique scholarly contributions from the South at the centre of transnational discussions.

In exploring and advancing poetic inquiry in the Global South, part of the book’s decolonising agenda is to challenge and expand the definition of poetic inquiry and recognise the contributions from diverse traditions and social practices. The peer-reviewed chapters are written by new and established scholars in various knowledge fields worldwide. The chapters’ scholarly contributions are complemented by an original poetry sequence interwoven through the book. Critically, Voices and Silences shows how poetry can engender innovative research that addresses pressing social justice issues, such as inclusion and decolonisation.

Poetic Inquiry will interest researchers and academics who seek to advance social research by adopting new epistemologies and approaches that integrate the value of the Global South’s contributions and foster expanded South-North collaborations.

Ná ’n jagongeluk is niks op die familieplaas Soetkloof ooit weer dieselfde nie. Die 15-jarige De Viljee is dood en sy broer en suster, die 18-jarige tweeling Cornél en Ragel, se lewe is verwoes. Cornél slaan op die vlug, want hy kan nie sy gebroke ouers in die oë kyk nie. Die koeël het immers uit sy jaggeweer gekom.

In die nasleep van die tragedie moet Ragel meisie-alleen red wat te redde is op Soetkloof. Dan kom daar ’n groot droogte en die Opkomsrivier, hul laaste oorblywende reddingsboei, verdor. Boonop is hul grond in die gedrang, want ’n yslike bewaringsgroep wil al die plase in die distrik op koop.

Gaan Ragel aanhou om vir haar erfgrond te baklei of gaan die noodlot die oorhand kry? Kan die luiperdman die jong, taai vrou weer ’n proesel van lewensvreugde gee? En gaan Cornél ooit lewend na Soetkloof terugkeer?

Solank as die aarde, Lucia Prinsloo se derde roman, is uiteindelik ’n verhaal van oorwinning en hoop. Want solank as die aarde bly staan, sal saaityd en oestyd nie ophou nie, sal koue weer warm word, winter weer somer en nag weer dag.

Dare To Believe is a poignant narrative of resilience, courage and hope in the face of adversity. Mmusi Maimane invites readers on a journey through his personal experiences, from the hardships of Apartheid-era Soweto to the corridors of power in post-liberation South Africa.

With insights drawn from his political career and a deep commitment to justice, Maimane shares the travails of party politics, the difficult task of transforming the DA, and his vision for a South Africa where all races can live and prosper together.

This book challenges us to confront the realities of inequality and division while daring to envision a nation united in prosperity and peace. It is a call to restore democracy back to the people and a compelling articulation of Maimane's belief in the transformative power of unity and the promise of a better tomorrow.

“the bird is freed”
- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, commentators were rooting for the visionary behind Tesla and SpaceX to succeed. Here was a tough leader who could grab back power from Twitter’s entitled workforce, motivate them to get “extremely hardcore,” and supercharge Twitter’s profit and potential. And it was all out of the goodness of his own heart, rooted in his fervent belief in the necessity of making Twitter friendlier to free speech. "I didn’t do it to make more money,” Musk said. “I did it to try and help humanity, whom I love.” 

Once Musk charged into the Twitter headquarters, the command-and-control playbook Musk honed at Tesla and SpaceX went off the rails immediately. Distilling hundreds of hours of interviews with more than sixty employees, thousands of pages of internal documents, Slack messages, presentations, as well as court filings and congressional testimony, Extremely Hardcore is the true story of how Musk reshaped the world’s online public square into his own personal megaphone. 

You’ll hear from employees who witnessed the destruction of their workplace in real-time, seeing years of progress to fight disinformation and hate speech wiped out within a matter of months. There’s the machine-learning savant who went all-in on Twitter 2.0 before getting betrayed by his new CEO, the father whose need for healthcare swept him into Musk’s inner circle, the trust and safety expert who became the subject of a harassment campaign his former boss incited, and the many other employees who tried to save the company from their new boss’s worst instincts. This is the story of Twitter, but it’s also a chronicle of the post-pandemic labor movement, a war between executives and a workforce newly awakened to their rights and needs.

Riveting, character-driven, and filled with jaw-dropping revelations, Extremely Hardcore is the definitive, fly-on-the-wall story of how Elon Musk lit $44 billion on fire and burned down Twitter. It’s the next best thing to being there, and you won’t have to sleep in the Twitter office to get the scoop.

Lane is in the middle of an identity crisis. Her friends are all partnered up, her career is leading nowhere, and she’s just not happy. So, after a night out celebrating her birthday, she makes one hell of an impulse purchase: a giant yellow forty-eight passenger school bus that she intends to make a home.

With little-to-no renovation experience, but a large sum of inheritance money, Lane enlists the help of her friend Matt – mechanic by trade, handyman by practice, and hottie by nature.

While their mutual attraction is undeniable, Matt’s a total family guy with ‘settle down with me’ tattooed across his forehead, whereas Lane is entirely commitment averse. Matt and Lane have silently agreed that friendship is the only thing that can ever exist between them. So when Matt offers to help her with the bus, and in the bedroom, Lane’s sure it can never work… can it?

From the bestselling author of Everything Is Beautiful, comes an utterly heartwarming new novel, about what it truly means to belong to those you love.

When unexpected circumstances bring Grace's estranged daughter Amelia and granddaughter Charlotte to live in her home, complicated feelings start to emerge, revealing a messy and emotional past which drove this family apart.

It will take a school mystery, an exquisite miniature railway and some brave decisions to help them each find not only themselves, but also each other - and to appreciate what it truly means to belong together.

The author of the “sexy, insightful, and utterly charming” (BuzzFeed) Kiss Her Once for Me returns with a new queer rom-com following once childhood best friends forced together to drive their former teacher across the country.

A long time ago, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends. They spent their childhood summers running through the woods, rebelling against their conservative small town, and dreaming of escaping. But then an incident the summer before high school turned them into bitter rivals. After graduation, they went ten years without speaking.

Now in their thirties, Logan and Rosemary find they aren’t quite living the lives of adventure they imagined for themselves. Still in their small town and working as teachers at their alma mater, they’re both stuck in old patterns. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other—and their complicated past—they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.

But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they’re forced together once and for all to fulfill his last wish: a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip—from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine—that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.

From Harvard stress expert, Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, comes a reimagined approach to overcoming your stress and burnout using five small but mighty mindset shifts.

Stress has a bad reputation but is actually a healthy biological phenomenon that helps us tackle life’s many demands. It simply becomes problematic when it’s out of tune with the frequency of our lives, result­ing in burnout, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and many other physical symptoms.

To bring stress back to healthy levels, Dr. Nerurkar offers her five science-backed mindset shifts for when life gets hard:

• The First Reset: Get Clear on What Matters Most
• The Second Reset: Find Quiet in a Noisy World
• The Third Reset: Sync Your Brain and Your Body
• The Fourth Reset: Come Up for Air
• The Fifth Reset: Bring Your Best Self Forward

Dr. Nerurkar illuminates why our everyday attempts at being ‘resilient’ – like multitasking, sleeping less, and undergoing huge lifestyle overhauls – aren’t beneficial to our stressed brains. Instead, she prescribes practical, real-world solutions for our modern-day perils that are time efficient, cost-free, and can be applied to anyone’s life, including following the Resilience Rule of 2 (making no more than two changes at a time because doing more is unsustainable), accepting that multitasking is a myth (our brains are wired to do one thing at a time!), and adopting her Bookend Method (creating boundaries).

The five mindset shifts, along with fifteen proven techniques, offer you a road map to change your relationship with stress, bring your biology back into balance, and feel calmer right now.

The million-copy bestselling author and BookTok sensation Monica Murphy is back with a swoon-worthy Lancaster Prep spin-off romance . . .

Young heiress Scarlett Lancaster is turning eighteen and her dad has promised to hire a famous musician for her party. Delight turns to disappointment when it’s revealed that her dad hired Tate Ramsey, former lead singer of a band that hasn’t been popular for years.

Tate, after years of alcohol- and drug-fueled partying, is sober and ready for a comeback and blows the audience away with his performance―though Scarlett herself still isn’t impressed. But when they talk after he leaves the stage, their encounter ends in a kiss that surprises them both―and immediately goes viral.

The kiss propels them into the spotlight. Riding the wave of stardom, the two agree to start a fake relationship.

But before long they discover their feelings might not be fake after all . . .

Why do so many South Africans prefer taking the law into their own hands to relying on the police? Why are those who do so often cheered or sympathised with?

Of the unprecedented 27 000 recorded murders in South Africa in 2022, at least 1 894 – or 7 per cent – were attributed to mob justice and vigilantism, more than double the number from five years before. In the first nine months of 2023, a further 1 472 mob justice deaths had already been registered.

Mob justice is nothing new, but in recent years it has taken on an undeniably desperate, furious edge. From the breathtakingly violent Zandspruit massacre in May 2021, to the killings during the July unrest two months later, to the march of Operation Dudula across the nation in 2022, vigilantism – and the condoning of it – has never before captured the zeitgeist of South Africa so sharply. What has changed in the past few years, and what does it augur for the future?

Following three recent cases of mob justice, from the hellish metropolitan townships of Gauteng to the far-flung bushveld of northern Limpopo, and drawing on extensive research and interviews, Why We Kill explores the roots, realities and consequences of South Africa’s current crisis of vigilantism.