Shortlisted for the 2017 PEN Ackerley Prize 'The thing to remember about this story is that every word is true. If I never told it to a soul, and this book did not exist, it would not cease to be true. I don't mind at all if you forget this. The important thing is that I don't.' On a hot still morning on a beautiful beach in Jamaica, Decca Aitkenhead's life changed for ever. Her four-year-old boy was paddling peacefully at the water's edge when a wave pulled him out to sea. Her partner, Tony, swam out and saved their son's life - then drowned before her eyes. When Decca and Tony first met a decade earlier, they became the most improbable couple in London. She was an award-winning Guardian journalist, famous for interviewing leading politicians. He was a dreadlocked criminal with a history of drug-dealing and violence. No one thought the romance would last, but it did. Until the tide swept Tony away, plunging Decca into the dark chasm of random tragedy. Exploring race and redemption, privilege and prejudice, ALL AT SEA is a remarkable story of love and loss, of how one couple changed each other's lives and of what a sudden death can do to the people who survive.

What is it like learning from a mother who is privy to a whole different type of privilege than you? When was the first time you realised your boyfriend was dating you to satisfy some weird fetish? How demoralising was it to find out that Princess Jasmine, your sole claim to Disney royalty, was based on a white model? What impact did it have to play the entire Puerto Rican community in West Side Story in your local theatre group? And was Parvati Patil really such an appalling date for Harry? Part autobiography and part critical commentary, join Laila Woozeer as she blends together stories from her own life, looking specifically at the impact pop culture and media representation has on non-white people and the way they understand themselves, charting a narrative about being mixed race that stems from the 90s until the present day. Her book examines the multi-racial experience: the personal, emotional and psychological impact of being mixed, without being reduced to two separate representations of a person. In the UK alone, "mixed" is the fastest growing census category, and the number of mixed race people has risen by a quarter of a million in just 10 years. But even so, mixed people are placed outside of the conversation - they can speak directly to one of their communities but can't be all of them at the same time. Except, that is exactly how mixed people have to function all day, every day. Most of us agree that Representation Matters - but why? What does that actually mean? It's important to make these issues real - to attach them to a human emotion or personal journey lest they become an abstract phrase that just gets bandied around every time Hollywood release another Very White cast list. That's where Laila comes in: the face of the lived experience, sharing with you the cruelest and funniest moments of her life for your delectation. The book is routed in her own specific journey and introduces concepts as she chronologically learned of them. She incorporates child psychology, academic texts, and race theory without losing the personal connection, using anecdotes and experience to truly get to the core of the issues explored.

I will always and forever feel I have a 'hole' in my life where my mother once existed. I think, when you have to think about the fact you might have to take care of your parents someday and juggle kids at the same timeIt's a scary proposition. We had open communication during and before the breast cancer. But then after the breast cancer, I was often afraid to bring things up, in trying to protect Mom. This insightful book tells the stories of women whose mothers had breast cancer. It uses their own voices to express the common fears and expectations of daughters in the periods before and during their mothers' illnesses, involving genetic risks, death and dying, and changes in their relationships. The case studies, tables and figures, and two appendices will benefit health professionals and counselors, while the poignant narratives will help mothers and daughters better understand their experiences with breast cancer. I was kind of surprised to be alive and free of cancer at age 42, when at this point my mother was crippled by metastases. When I get to be 43the age at which my mother died, or maybe when I get to 44it's like, 'what do I do?' I have this life that I didn't expect to have. Breast Cancer: Daughters Tell Their Stories presents the results of a qualitative, grounded theory study of breast cancer survivors, providing in-depth information about an aspect of breast cancer that has been previously overlooked. The book examines the daughters' experiences through four phasesthe period prior to mother's illness, the period during mother's illness and treatment, the period following mother's death (if mother dies), and the long-term impact. From this study, recommendations are compiled for providing or improving services for tomorrow's daughters. The radical mastectomy left her scarred and disfigured below her nightgown. It was bruised and nasty looking. That was kind of scary. I think that has terrified me since. Sometimes I'll have pains in my left breast and that's what I visualize. It's terrifying. I'm not really obsessed about dying of cancer. I'm more along the line of, 'If this is going to happen to me, and there's a chance it's going to, I'm gonna survive. I'm not going to die from it. From an empathetic perspective, this book reveals how many daughters react to and deal with their mothers' diagnoses, depending on their age and family situation at the time of their mothers' illnesses. It shows how daughters can gain a more accurate idea of their level of risk by providing educational materials and developing new strategies for communication. It also helps breast cancer survivors see how their illnesses can shape their daughters' future outlook, offering new inspiration for resolving and preventing family crises.

I will always and forever feel I have a 'hole' in my life where my mother once existed. I think, when you have to think about the fact you might have to take care of your parents someday and juggle kids at the same timeIt's a scary proposition. We had open communication during and before the breast cancer. But then after the breast cancer, I was often afraid to bring things up, in trying to protect Mom. This insightful book tells the stories of women whose mothers had breast cancer. It uses their own voices to express the common fears and expectations of daughters in the periods before and during their mothers' illnesses, involving genetic risks, death and dying, and changes in their relationships. The case studies, tables and figures, and two appendices will benefit health professionals and counselors, while the poignant narratives will help mothers and daughters better understand their experiences with breast cancer. I was kind of surprised to be alive and free of cancer at age 42, when at this point my mother was crippled by metastases. When I get to be 43the age at which my mother died, or maybe when I get to 44it's like, 'what do I do?' I have this life that I didn't expect to have. Breast Cancer: Daughters Tell Their Stories presents the results of a qualitative, grounded theory study of breast cancer survivors, providing in-depth information about an aspect of breast cancer that has been previously overlooked. The book examines the daughters' experiences through four phasesthe period prior to mother's illness, the period during mother's illness and treatment, the period following mother's death (if mother dies), and the long-term impact. From this study, recommendations are compiled for providing or improving services for tomorrow's daughters. The radical mastectomy left her scarred and disfigured below her nightgown. It was bruised and nasty looking. That was kind of scary. I think that has terrified me since. Sometimes I'll have pains in my left breast and that's what I visualize. It's terrifying. I'm not really obsessed about dying of cancer. I'm more along the line of, 'If this is going to happen to me, and there's a chance it's going to, I'm gonna survive. I'm not going to die from it. From an empathetic perspective, this book reveals how many daughters react to and deal with their mothers' diagnoses, depending on their age and family situation at the time of their mothers' illnesses. It shows how daughters can gain a more accurate idea of their level of risk by providing educational materials and developing new strategies for communication. It also helps breast cancer survivors see how their illnesses can shape their daughters' future outlook, offering new inspiration for resolving and preventing family crises.

On 17 July 2014, Malaysian Airlines MH17 was shot out of the sky above Ukraine. Aboard were 298 people, 38 of whom were Australians. No one survived. Subsequently it was shown that the airliner was almost certainly hit by a Buk surface-to-air missile fired by Ukrainian separatists aided by the Russian military. The debris from the plane's disintegration mid-air was spread over 50 square kilometres, but for weeks rescue teams and investigators were denied access. The Russians have refused to take any responsibility for the deaths. This is the story of some of the people who boarded that fatal flight and the conflict below them that was doomed to destroy their lives and the happiness of the people they left behind. The fullest account yet published, it is also the story of a continuing clamour for justice. Unsettling, compelling and revealing, Shot Down will provoke both outrage that this criminal act could have happened and deep sadness for the lives lost. 'A compelling account of one of the most appalling aviation atrocities of our time.' JIM EAMES, author of Courage in the Skies

"Beautifully written, searingly honest, and deeply affecting ... when the book ended, I only wanted more" - Roxane Gay "Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody's Daughter will be a book of the year" - Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed "Truly a classic in the making" - John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars An Oprah book Throughout her adolescence, Ashley Ford doesn't know how to deal with the worries that keep her up at night. If only she could turn to her father for his advice and support. But he's in prison, and she doesn't know what he did to end up there. After being raped by her ex-boyfriend, Ashley desperately searches for her sense of self. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father's incarceration... and Ashley's world is turned upside down. Ashley embarks on a powerful journey to find the connections between who she is and what she was born into, discovering that, however much we might try to untether ourselves from a painful past, the ties that bind families together are the strongest ones of all. "Sure to be one of the best memoirs of 2021" - Kirkus Reviews "A heart-wrenching coming-of age story" - Time "Her coming-of-age story gets at how to both acknowledge and break away from what we're born into" - Cosmopolitan "A beautiful, delicate memoir... a journey toward true and powerful selfhood" - Elle

A pioneering cardiac surgeon expertly sews up the heart of surgery, the health of the nation, and the NHS.

The Angina Monologues speeds from the transporting of a donor’s heart up the motorway hard shoulder, to cautionary stories of excessive intervention gone awry in US hospitals, to a traumatic trip to bring advanced cardiac surgery to the Palestinian West Bank. Nashef tells heart-stopping stories of transplants, coronary artery bypasses, aorta repair, and cardiac arrest. He also delivers humane advice about medical realities rarely observed: the futility of obsessing over diet, the necessity of calculating risks, the role of decision making, the resilience of doctor and patient alike, and the threadbare brilliance of the NHS.

Nashef is a magnificently warm and likeable doctor and writer; and he has the best imaginable bedside manner.

The United States imprisons a higher proportion of its population than any other nation. Mass Incarceration Nation offers a novel, in-the-trenches perspective to explain the factors - historical, political, and institutional - that led to the current system of mass imprisonment. The book examines the causes and impacts of mass incarceration on both the political and criminal justice systems. With accessible language and straightforward statistical analysis, former prosecutor turned law professor Jeffrey Bellin provides a formula for reform to return to the low incarceration rates that characterized the United States prior to the 1970s.

The United States imprisons a higher proportion of its population than any other nation. Mass Incarceration Nation offers a novel, in-the-trenches perspective to explain the factors - historical, political, and institutional - that led to the current system of mass imprisonment. The book examines the causes and impacts of mass incarceration on both the political and criminal justice systems. With accessible language and straightforward statistical analysis, former prosecutor turned law professor Jeffrey Bellin provides a formula for reform to return to the low incarceration rates that characterized the United States prior to the 1970s.

New and updated, the paperback edition of the bestselling true story of the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, told with heart-rending honesty by Holly's father Kevin. Some tragedies become part of our national history. On August 4, 2002 Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared. For the next thirteen days their families, the police, and the local community searched for them, while the nation watched in horrific suspense. Almost two weeks after Holly and Jessica went missing, their bodies were found. Two days later Ian Huntley was charged with their murders. In the terrible weeks that followed Kevin started to make notes, fearful that he might forget important details. GOODBYE, DEAREST HOLLY tells the story of the nightmare that began on August 4th, from the moment it became clear that Holly and Jessica were missing, through the long investigation and its aftermath. An unflinching tale of surviving tragedy, Kevin's diaries tell of battles with the media, police bureaucracy and the legal system. The book also includes a gripping account of the trial and convictions of Huntley and Maxine Carr. Above all, GOODBYE, DEAREST HOLLY is a loving act of fatherhood.

"This startling, vital book deserves our attention." -San Francisco Chronicle For fans of War Dogs and Bad Blood, an explosive look inside the rush to profit from the COVID-19 pandemic, from the award-winning ProPublica reporter who saw it firsthand. The United States federal government spent over $10 billion on medical protective wear and emergency supplies, yet as COVID-19 swept the nation, life-saving equipment such as masks, gloves, and ventilators was nearly impossible to find. In this brilliant nonfiction thriller, called "revelatory" by The Washington Post, award-winning investigative reporter J. David McSwane takes us behind the scenes to reveal how traders, contractors, and healthcare companies used one of the darkest moments in American history to fill their pockets. Determined to uncover how this was possible, he spent over a year on private jets and in secret warehouses, traveling from California to Chicago to Washington, DC, to interview both the most treacherous of profiteers and the victims of their crimes. Pandemic, Inc. is the story of the fraudster who signed a multi-million-dollar contract with the government to provide lifesaving PPE, and yet never came up with a single mask. The Navy admiral at the helm of the national hunt for additional medical resources. The Department of Health whistleblower who championed masks early on and was silenced by the government and conservative media. And the politician who callously slashed federal emergency funding and gutted the federal PPE stockpile. Winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, McSwane connects the dots between backdoor deals and the spoils systems to provide the definitive account of how this pandemic was so catastrophically mishandled. Shocking and monumental, Pandemic, Inc. exposes a system that is both deeply rigged, and singularly American.

With poignant insight and humor, Frank Vertosick Jr., MD, describes some of the greatest challenges of his career, including a six-week-old infant with a tumor in her brain, a young man struck down in his prime by paraplegia, and a minister with a .22-caliber bullet lodged in his skull. Told through intimate portraits of Vertosick s patients and unsparing yet fascinatingly detailed descriptions of surgical procedures, When the Air Hits Your Brain the culmination of decades spent struggling to learn an unforgiving craft illuminates both the mysteries of the mind and the realities of the operating room."

The twins were born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1998, where their mother struggled to care for them. Ha was taken in by their biological aunt, and grew up in a rural village, going to school, and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. Ha's twin sister, Loan, spent time in an orphanage before a wealthy, white American family adopted her and renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Vietnam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college. But when Isabella's adoptive mother learned of Isabella's biological twin back in Vietnam, all of their lives changed forever. Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members and tells the girls' incredible story from their perspectives, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters' experiences with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies, the nature versus nurture debate, and intercountry and transracial adoption, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees. For readers of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming-of-age, told through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the meaning of family for themselves.

Asked shortly after the revolution about how she viewed the new government, Tatiana Varsher replied, "With the wide-open eyes of a historian." Her countrywoman, Zinaida Zhemchuzhnaia, expressed a similar need to take note: "I want to write about the way those events were perceived and reflected in the humble and distant corner of Russia that was the Cossack town of Korenovskaia." What these women witnessed and experienced, and what they were moved to describe, is part of the extraordinary portrait of life in revolutionary Russia presented in this book. A collection of life stories of Russian women in the first half of the twentieth century, In the Shadow of Revolution brings together the testimony of Soviet citizens and emigres, intellectuals of aristocratic birth and Soviet milkmaids, housewives and engineers, Bolshevik activists and dedicated opponents of the Soviet regime. In literary memoirs, oral interviews, personal dossiers, public speeches, and letters to the editor, these women document their diverse experience of the upheavals that reshaped Russia in the first half of this century.

As is characteristic of twentieth-century Russian women's autobiographies, these life stories take their structure not so much from private events like childbirth or marriage as from great public events. Accordingly the collection is structured around the events these women see as touchstones: the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War of 1918-20; the switch to the New Economic Policy in the 1920s and collectivization; and the Stalinist society of the 1930s, including the Great Terror. Edited by two preeminent historians of Russia and the Soviet Union, the volume includes introductions that investigate the social historical context of these women's lives as well as the structure of their autobiographical narratives."

In Through Her Eyes Australian women correspondents tell their own stories from the frontline - covering the breaking news, the issues and the events that are changing the world. They tell of Russian tanks and Ukrainian mothers fleeing with their children, vicious Afghan warlords, anti-government rebels in Central Africa, terrorist attacks in the United States, and the chaos faced by ordinary people caught up in disasters and political upheaval. While a woman strapping on a reporters' flak jacket is now a common sight, there was a time when they were locked out of the big stories because of their gender. Unlike their male counterparts, they needed single-minded determination to score a plum assignment or win a posting to a foreign bureau. Through Her Eyes tells of the exhilaration that comes with a big story but also the dangers, the risks, the struggle and the big issues women still face, from vicious media trolling to threats of sexual violence. Through Her Eyes includes well-known women correspondents for major media organisations inside and outside Australia including the ABC, BBC, SBS, CNN, The Associated Press of America, UPI, Reuters, The Times of London, Al Jazeera, China Global Television Network, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and the Australian Financial Review.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Charming' - The Sunday Times 'Delicious' - Daily Mail 'Wonderful' - Stephen Fry 'Delightful' - Delia Smith 'Brilliant' - Claudia Winkleman 'Joyous' - Caitlin Moran 'Entertaining' - Observer 'Funny' - Ken Follett 'Glorious' - Daily Express 'Touching' - Robert Peston Appetite is a memoir with a twist: each chapter is a recipe that tells a story. Ed Balls was just three weeks old when he tried his first meal in 1967: pureed roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. From that moment on he was hooked on food. Taught to cook by his mother, Ed's now passing her wisdom on to his own kids as they start to fly the nest. Reflecting on his life in recipes, Ed takes us from his grandma's shepherd's pie to his first trip to a restaurant in the 1970s (and ordering an orange juice as a starter); from the inner workings of Westminster to the pressures of parenting. This is a collection of the meals he loves most, and the memories they bring back. The world may have changed since 1967, but the best recipes last a lifetime. Appetite is a celebration of love, family, and really good food.

This is an account of how an angry young man can cross the line that divides theoretical support for violence from a state of 'killing rage', in which the murder of neighbour becomes thinkable. Over 3000 people have died in Northern Ireland since 1969, and most of them have died at the hands of their neighbours. The intimacy of the Ulster conflict, what it means to carry out a political murder when in all probability the victim is personally known, or lives in a nearby street, is described accurately by an honest participant. The book does not attempt to soften the impact of the events it describes through euphemism or rhetoric. It is a truthful picture of the brutality and waste caused by the IRA's unwinnable campaign, and of its human consequences. It is also a self-portrait of the despair and disintegration, the hardening to conscience and grief, that accompany political violence.

The bestselling author of The Endurance reveals the startling truth behind the legend of the Mutiny on the Bounty -- the most famous sea story of all time. More than two centuries have passed since Fletcher Christian mutinied against Lt. Bligh on a small armed transport vessel called Bounty. Why the details of this obscure adventure at the end of the world remain vivid and enthralling is as intriguing as the truth behind the legend. Caroline Alexander focusses on the court martial of the ten mutineers captured in Tahiti and brought to justice in Portsmouth. Each figure emerges as a richly drawn character caught up in a drama that may well end on the gallows. With enormous scholarship and exquisitely drawn characters, The Bounty is a tour de force.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'The farewell calls from the planes... the mounting terror of air traffic control... the mothers who knew they were witnessing their loved ones perish... From an author who's spent 5 years reconstructing its horror, never has the story been told with such devastating, human force' Daily Mail This is a 9/11 book like no other. Masterfully weaving together multiple strands of the events in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Fall and Rise is a mesmerising, minute-by-minute account of that terrible day. In the days and months after 9/11, Mitchell Zuckoff, then a reporter for the Boston Globe, wrote about the attacks, the victims, and their families. After further years of meticulous reporting, Zuckoff has filled Fall and Rise with voices of the lost and the saved. The result is an utterly gripping book, filled with intimate stories of people most affected by the events of that sunny Tuesday in September: an out-of-work actor stuck in an elevator in the North Tower of the World Trade Center; the heroes aboard Flight 93 deciding to take action; a veteran trapped in the inferno in the Pentagon; the fire chief among the first on the scene in sleepy Shanksville; a team of firefighters racing to save an injured woman and themselves; and the men, women, and children flying across country to see loved ones or for work who suddenly faced terrorists bent on murder. Fall and Rise will open new avenues of understanding for everyone who thinks they know the story of 9/11, bringing to life - and in some cases, bringing back to life - the extraordinary ordinary people who experienced the worst day in modern American history. Destined to be a classic, Fall and Rise will move, shock, inspire, and fill hearts with love and admiration for the human spirit as it triumphs in the face of horrifying events.

What happens when you only know your dad when you're a young boy and then, one day, when you are middle-aged, he phones to say he'd like to see you again before he dies? In the space of one year, Ian Clayton makes a voyage around China, America and his father to ponder the familiar questions: Is blood thicker than water? Does it matter who teaches us so long as we learn? How do we let go of something that we never really had in the first place? With characteristic storytelling, wit and good humour, Ian Clayton reflects on a lifelong search for a father figure, skipping across the generations to weave a tale of how we relate, what we do with what we've got and what happens when some things just don't work out the way we want them to.

Few things are as powerful as the love of a woman for those others in her life. Love is enduring, forgiving, understanding and unending. So often, it is the one certainty in our lives, as is the love God has for His children - a thousand times over. A Treasury Of Miracles For Women is a collection of poignant and true stories about ordinary women touched in extraordinary ways. Within its insightful pages are unexplained miracles, answers to prayer and angelic encounters - all of them centred around women. Women who are sisters, mothers, daughters and friends. Whether it is through the gentle nudge of maternal conviction or the true sacrifice of self, each story in this extraordinary treasury reveals that God is at work in our lives. Each one reminds us how precious and close to heaven is the heart of a woman and that, even as we love, so we are loved.

When you are racing 435 miles through the jungles and mountains of South America, the last thing you need is a stray dog tagging along. But that's exactly what happened to Mikael Lindnord, captain of a Swedish adventure racing team, when he threw a scruffy but dignified mongrel a meatball one afternoon.

When they left the next day, the dog followed. Try as they might, they couldn't lose him - and soon Mikael realised that he didn't want to. Crossing rivers, battling illness and injury, and struggling through some of the toughest terrain on the planet, the team and the dog walked together towards the finish line, where Mikael decided he would save Arthur and bring him back to his family in Sweden, whatever it took.

A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo is about natural history, travel in the tropics, life sciences, and adventure, with the environment always in mind. It chronicles the nine years the author spent with his family on that equatorial island. The book's humorous style never detracts from the focus on the science, the island of Borneo and its natural wonders. The story begins in 2007 on top of a garage in Taiwan, where the author kept a greenhouse filled with hundreds of carnivorous tropical pitcher plants. In August of the same year, he attended a conference on these plants in Borneo and met them in the wild for the first time. This triggered an obsession with the island's legendary rainforest fauna and flora, and he decided to move to Borneo with his family for easier access to the jungle. In a tone reminiscent of Bill Bryson, Douglas Adams, and Gerald Durrell - funny, self-deprecating, but always satisfying for the science-minded reader - A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo documents the Breuer family's adventures with Borneo's enormous biodiversity: flying snakes, venomous primates, parachuting frogs, pangolins, king cobras, orangutans, masters of mimicry and camouflage, the world's rarest lizard and the world's longest snake. And these are just a fraction of the life forms the reader will meet. Adventure lurks behind every trail bend: toddler-sized monkeys terrorize night hikers, bearded jungle pigs hunt stray dogs, a giant python almost gets stepped on, and other encounters of the 'not so funny when it happened' kind. The reader will also meet the people inhabiting the island, such as Asia's last rainforest nomads, quaint government officials, and former headhunting tribes that still proudly display their trophies above their fireplaces. Inevitably, the author's life in Borneo also led to first-hand insight into the island's environmental tragedy caused by decades of severe over-exploitation, a recurring topic throughout the book. A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo puts the reader in a front-row seat to marvel at nature's wonders in all their magnificence visiting places unknown and creatures unheard of; and it is also an invitation to consider the state of the planet, to take it seriously, and to act before it's too late.