For two months every winter, when Pacific storms make landfall, Oahu's paradisical North Shore turns into a fiery hell. Its population more than triples as mainlanders, Brazilians, Australians, and Europeans transform the normally sleepy shore into a lawless, violent, drug-addled, and adrenaline-soaked mecca where fearless men paddle into thirty-foot waves breaking over a razor-sharp reef. And when the sun goes down, the true danger comes out as drug money, fights, murder, and extortion rule the surfing underworld. The North Shore during winter is downright dangerous but also exhilarating, and Chas Smith paints a true picture of what it feels like to be in the middle of it all. Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell is both a breathtaking and wildly funny tale of beauty, wickedness, and the unyielding allure of ocean waves in all their glory.

Parallel Summits explores the journey to the top of two steep mountains: Everest and financial freedom. It is the story of Robby, a mountaineer whose grit and perseverance led him to conquer Mount Everest after a devastating injury, and Thys, an alternative investments expert who helps others navigate the complex terrain of financial planning.

Collette Wolfe was on holidays in Lanzarote with her husband Anthony when they got the call that all parents most dread. Their beloved daughter Leanne had died, having taken her own life. On the morning of Leanne's funeral, her diaries were uncovered by her sister, and the family awakened to a nightmare within the nightmare: to witness in written form the devastation of years of unrelenting bullying by a group of Leanne's peers, and to have been powerless to prevent it. There began a journey that brought Collette to the very edge of existence, as she contemplated taking her own life to end months of unbearable pain and suffering. Then, at her darkest moment, everything changed, and a new beginning opened up where she never imagined it was possible, one in which she would confront her own demons as a survivor of child abuse and rape, and ultimately, through the love of God, find hope and joy beyond measure. Here, for the first time, she tells her story - interwoven with extracts from Leanne's diaries - to create an unforgettable book that will be cherished by anyone who has known darkness, and seeks hope.

Fiction. Gay and Lesbian Studies. Memoir. This collection of conversations and ruminations during walks around the city was first published in 1979 by Black Star Series, San Francisco. It was immediately recognized as a core text by a group of young writers known collectively as the New Narrative school, associated with Robert Gluck's workshops and other events held at Small Press Traffic. The anecdotal stories reveal what it was like to be gay and interested in intelligent literature in 1970's San Francisco. Dennis Cooper calls it "a seminal and perfect work," and for Camille Roy it is "a founding document, and the brilliant record of an opening in writing."

In this intimate memoir, Hannah Botsis chronicles life as a minister's daughter in post-apartheid South Africa. Through the lens of her father's forty-year ministry at a Presbyterian church in Cape Town's northern suburbs, she explores faith, family, and racial privilege with unflinching honesty. A meditation on grace and belonging, this story illuminates how communities navigate change while wrestling with their complicated histories.

Steve Joubert had always wanted to be a pilot and the only way he could afford to do so, was to join the South African Air Force in the late 1970s.

As an adventurous young man with a wicked sense of humour, he tells of the many amusing escapades he had as a trainee pilot. But soon he is sent to fight in the Border War in northern Namibia (then South West Africa) where he is exposed to the carnage of war. The pilots of the Alouette helicopters were witness to some of the worst scenes of the Border War. Often, they were the first to arrive after a deadly landmine accident.

In the fiercest battles their gunships regularly supplied life-saving air cover to troops on the ground.

As grootoog seun in die ou Oos-Transvaal het Louis Jansen van Vuuren nooit kon dink dat hy eendag die Franse kunswerke in ’n ensiklopie in sy pa se studeerkamer in lewende lywe sou sien nie, wat nog te sê dat hy ’n château in die Franse platteland sou besit.

Louis se liefde vir alles wat Frans is, is so aansteeklik dat ’n rits ander Suid-Afrikaners die afgelope paar jaar ook blyplekke in die Boussac-omgewing gekoop het. In Biltong en Dior deel hy kostelike vertellings oor hoe inkommers in ’n vreemde land met ’n haas onleerbare taal en eiesoortige gewoontes moet oorleef.

Hulle tel baie op oor Franse styl en kultuur, maar die Franse leer ook iets oor Suid-Afrikaners se onblusbare ondernemingsgees en gasvryheid. Sy stories word verryk met boeiende brokkies oor die Franse geskiedenis, taal en kultuur.

Uiteindelik gee hierdie Afrikaanse Fransman se lewe in die vreemde gee hom ook ’n nuwe waardering vir dit wat hom uniek en trots Suid-Afrikaans maak.

Baek Sehee could never have predicted how many people I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki would reach across the world. A runaway bestseller in South Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia and the UK, this record of conversations with her therapist demonstrated the realities of anxiety and depression in a uniquely intimate way.

But Baek's battle with dysthymia did not end there. Grappling with mental health is an everyday struggle.

In I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Baek's experiences become more complex, as she demonstrates that striving contentment is an ongoing journey.

Redeem your story, redefine your creativity, and make a life that truly matters Sometimes the greatest gift you can receive is for your life to fall apart. After years stuck in a painful cycle fueled by past abuse and ongoing addiction, actor, artist, and director Blaine Hogan finally hit rock bottom. No longer able to hide behind the veneer of success or find comfort in the shadows of compulsion, Blaine was forced to look at the story his life was telling and realize he'd lost the plot. Desperate to find hope, he gave up a budding career and took a major life detour where he discovered that facing his past was the key to unlocking a new kind of creativity. In Exit the Cave, Blaine shares the stories that shaped him while exploring how our relationship to our past defines how we imagine the future and live in the present. Through powerful personal revelations, he invites you to take up the practices of radical imagination and real creativity so you can tell a better story with your life. If you've ever been stuck, addicted, ashamed, discontented, or lost, take courage--a richer, more imaginative, and meaningful life is waiting for you just outside the cave. "A tender but fierce story of survival, reckoning, and redemption. Blaine manages to somehow weave themes of acting, allegory, addiction, family, and faith into one beautifully written account of his own healing. This is the kind of story that will redeem you."--Laura McKowen, bestselling author of We Are the Luckiest "Blaine Hogan has inspired me for many years with his unique way of seeing the world. In this book you'll find a blast of inspiration and a trusty guide to help you exit the cave and enter a world that is real and beautiful and vital."--Brad Montague, New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of The Circles All Around Us, Becoming Better Grownups, and Kid President's Guide to Being Awesome

With a message of hope that is both timely and timeless, Upside-Down Love is an extraordinary memoir--irreverent, funny, and profoundly uplifting--of an Israeli lawyer, a Palestinian professor, and a love that transcends all division.

Osama is a Palestinian professor, originally from Gaza, who cannot leave the West Bank city of Ramallah. Sari is an Israeli-American lawyer and long-distance runner who petitions Israel's Supreme Court for his right to travel freely. When the case began, neither expected to fall in love--and when it was over, nobody expected their love to endure.

First published in Hebrew in 2021, Osama and Sari's star-crossed romance--an intimate, vulnerable portrait of an astoundingly resilient Israeli-Palestinian relationship--has since become a beacon of hope in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. Now on its way to becoming an international cult sensation, Upside-Down Love speaks to the unique circumstances of this specific moment in history, while also illustrating a timeless truth: Love will triumph over bigotry and destruction.

In 1982, at the age of just twenty-three and halfway through her architecture studies, Elspeth Beard left her family and friends in London and set off on a 35,000-mile solo adventure around the world on her 1974 BMW R60/6. Reeling from a recent breakup and with only limited savings from her pub job, a tent, a few clothes and some tools, all packed on the back of her bike, she was determined to prove herself. She had ridden bikes since her teens and was well travelled. But nothing could prepare her for what lay ahead. When she returned to London nearly two and a half years later she was stones lighter and decades wiser. She'd ridden through unforgiving landscapes and countries ravaged by war, witnessed civil uprisings that forced her to fake documents, and fended off sexual attacks, biker gangs and corrupt police convinced she was trafficking drugs. She'd survived life-threatening illnesses, personal loss and brutal accidents that had left permanent scars and a black hole in her memory. And she'd fallen in love with two very different men. In an age before email, the internet, mobile phones, satnavs and, in some parts of the world, readily available and reliable maps, Elspeth achieved something that would still seem remarkable today. Told with honesty and wit, this is the extraordinary and moving story of a unique and life-changing adventure.

A fun, sophisticated illustrated collection of essays that catalogs the simple and not so simple pleasures of the eclectic world of candy from the award-winning author of After the Eclipse. With illustrations by Forsyth Harmon.

A taxonomy of sweetness, a rhapsody of artificial flavors, and a multi-faceted theory of pleasure, Sweet Nothings is made up of one hundred illustrated micro essays organized by candy color, from the red of Pop Rocks to the purple Jelly Bonbon in the Whitman’s Sampler. Each entry is a meditation on taste and texture, a memory unlocked. Everyone’s favorites—and least favorites—are carefully considered, including Snickers and Trader Joe’s Peanut Butter Cups, as well as the beloved Good n’ Plenty and Werther’s Originals.

An expert guide and exquisite writer, Sarah Perry asks such pressing questions as: Twizzlers or Red Vines? Why are Mentos eaters so maniacally happy? And in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, how could Edmund sell out his siblings for, of all things, Turkish delight? She rejects the dreaded “What is your favorite candy?” question and counters: Under what circumstances? F The question itself is flawed—favorite under what circumstances? In what weather? On the road, or at home? In what mood? For candy is inextricably tied to the seasons of our lives. Sweet Nothings moves associatively, touching on pop culture, art, culinary history, philosophy, body image, and class-based food moralism. It challenges the very idea of “junk” food and posits taking pleasure seriously as a means of survival.

Sarah Perry’s pure love of candy weaves together elegiac glimpses of her 90s childhood—and the loss at its center—with stories of love and desire. Surprisingly smart and frequently funny, Sweet Nothings is a tart and sweet ode to finding small joys where you can. Yes, even in black licorice.

"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."

From beloved spiritual writer and Catholic leader Gregory Floyd comes a moving meditation on the power of memory and how God is often more clearly seen when we look back. This is a book about memory, about what stays in the mind, and why. It is a book about the presence of God in our lives and the sights, sounds, words, and experiences that become unforgettable. Beginning with a single word he heard in the middle of the night-one that changed his life-this powerful memoir by Gregory Floyd asks the question: without memory, who are we? It is a meditation on beauty, marriage, family, and prayer, asking of the memories that each implants: what do they reveal? Where do they lead? -and witnessing to their potential to draw us to God.