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Books > Biography > General
The phenomenal Korean bestseller translated by international booker shortlistee Anton Hur.
PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you?
ME: I don't know, I'm – what's the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail?
Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? – depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal.
But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a desire for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?
Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.
In January 2017, Chimene Suleyman was on her way to an abortion clinic
in Queens, New York with her boyfriend, the father of her nascent
child. It was the last day they would spend together. In an
extraordinary sequence of events, Chimene was to discover the truth of
her boyfriend's life: that she and many other women had been subtly,
patiently and painfully betrayed.
In this spellbinding memoir, she exposes one man's control over many
women and the trauma he left behind, and celebrates the sisterhood that
formed in his wake despite - and in spite of - him. Exploring how women
are duped every day by individuals, she interrogates how society itself
continually allows this to happen. She demonstrates that, no matter how
intelligent, educated or self-aware they might be, over time a woman
can be played into performing the age-old role of giver and nurturer:
self-sacrificing and subordinate.
Both a devastating personal testimony and a searing indictment of
persistent misogyny, The Chain is a book for any woman who has
questioned her relationship and buried her doubts, for any woman who
can't quite identify the source of her unease and for any woman who has
been sheltered by the fierce protection of her female friends.
Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus offers the authoritative
account of one woman's life and reinstates her to the full
complexity of her history. Displayed on European stages from 1810
to 1815 as the Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman was one of the most
famous women of her day, and also one of the least known. As the
Hottentot Venus, she was seen by Westerners as alluring and
primitive, a reflection of their fears and suppressed desires. But
who was Sara Baartman? Who was the woman who became the Hottentot
Venus? Based on research and interviews that span three continents,
Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus tells the entwined histories
of an elusive life and a famous icon. In doing so, the book raises
questions about the possibilities and limits of biography for
understanding those who live between and among different cultures.
In reconstructing Baartman's life, the title traverses the South
African frontier and its genocidal violence, cosmopolitan Cape
Town, the ending of the slave trade, the Industrial Revolution, the
French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, London and Parisian high
society, and the rise of racial science. The authors discuss the
ramifications of discovering that when Baartman went to London, she
was older than originally assumed, and they explore the enduring
impact of the Hottentot Venus on ideas about women, race, and
sexuality. The title concludes with the politics involved in
returning Baartman's remains to her home country, and connects
Baartman's story to her descendants in nineteenth- and
twentieth-century South Africa.
The Graphic Novel. Captain Scott's infamous expedition to the
Antarctic and the South Pole, retold in stunning images by Disney
animator, Sarah Airriess. Produced in collaboration with the Scott
Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, The Worst Journey in the
World's original tale was written by one of the youngest members of
Scott's infamous expedition to the South Pole. Apsley
Cherry-Garrard has all the idealism and excitement of a young man
on the adventure of a lifetime. As things start to go wrong, he
finds himself drawn to the centre of events, and burdened with
responsibility far beyond his years. A painful loss of innocence is
the axis on which the story turns, but it's ultimately about the
power of friendship, the value of curiosity, and the extremes to
which people go for the sake of an idea. To celebrate the Scott
Institute's centennial, Sarah Airriess transform's Cherry's tome
into cinematic visuals, keeping as true as possible to the facts
while bringing out the emotional core of the story, to open up a
classic book to new audiences.
Born Perlé van Schalkwyk, into a strict Jehovah Witness family, after studying drama at Stellenbosch University, Perlé quickly realises that acting is not going to buy her that house on the hill. And so erotic dancing and stripping becomes her modus operandi and GiGi is born.
Tales of drugs, murder and porn lace her fascinating life, along with stories of courage and cunning in the sexist underworld. GiGi is a true survivor. Ultimately, this bare all memoir will both titillate and inspire.
A love letter to a community of Trappist monks who provided family
when it was needed the most. This warmhearted memoir describes how
a small, insecure boy with a vibrant imagination found an unlikely
family in the company of monks at Holy Trinity Abbey, in the
mountains of rural Latter-day Saint Utah. Struggling with his
parents' recent divorce, Michael O'Brien discovered a community
filled with warmth, humor, idiosyncrasies, and most of all,
listening ears. Filled with anecdotes and delightful "behind the
scenes" descriptions of his experiences living alongside the monks
as they farmed, prayed, buried their dead, ate, and shared the joys
of life, Monastery Mornings speaks to the value of spiritual
fatherhood, the lasting impact of positive mentoring, and the
stability that the spiritual life can offer to people of all ages
and walks of life.
'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.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Erin French, owner and chef of
the critically acclaimed The Lost Kitchen, comes a life-affirming
memoir about survival, renewal and the pleasure of bringing joy to
people through food. Erin French grew up barefoot on a farm, fell
in love with food as a teenager working the line at her dad's diner
and found her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant
The Lost Kitchen, tucked into a 19th-century mill-now a
world-renowned dining destination. In Finding Freedom in the Lost
Kitchen, Erin tells her story of multiple rock-bottoms, from
medical student to pregnant teen, of survival as a jobless single
mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of
a man who seemed to offer salvation but ripped away her very sense
of self. And of her son who became her guiding light as she slowly
rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found
in food-as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of
creating community and making something of herself, despite
seemingly impossible odds. Set against the backdrop of rural Maine
and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin French's
rollercoaster memoir reveals struggles that have taken every ounce
of her strength to overcome, and the passion and courage behind the
fairytale success of The Lost Kitchen.
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.
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 SUNDAY
TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER When he receives an invitation to deliver a
lecture in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, international lawyer
Philippe Sands begins a journey on the trail of his family's secret
history. In doing so, he uncovers an astonishing series of
coincidences that lead him halfway across the world, to the origins
of international law at the Nuremberg trial. Interweaving the
stories of the two Nuremberg prosecutors (Hersch Lauterpacht and
Rafael Lemkin) who invented the crimes or genocide and crimes
against humanity, the Nazi governor responsible for the murder of
thousands in and around Lviv (Hans Frank), and incredible acts of
wartime bravery, EAST WEST STREET is an unforgettable blend of
memoir and historical detective story, and a powerful meditation on
the way memory, crime and guilt leave scars across generations. * *
* * * 'A monumental achievement: profoundly personal, told with
love, anger and great precision' John le Carre 'One of the most
gripping and powerful books imaginable' SUNDAY TIMES Winner:
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction JQ-Wingate Literary Prize Hay
Festival Medal for Prose
Could you leave behind the bustle of modern life and spend a
lifetime immersed in nature? In The Way of the Hermit, Ken Smith
recounts a life he has chosen to spend alone with the wilderness.
Seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in
the Scottish Highlands. He lives alone, with no electricity or
running water. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig,
known as 'the lonely loch', where he lives off the land: he fishes
for his supper, chops his own wood, and even brews his own tipple.
He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit. For the first
time, Ken shares the story of his life. From his working-class
origins in Derbyshire, to the formative years he spent travelling
in the Yukon and finally how he came to be the Hermit of Loch
Treig. Looking back through decades of diary entries, Ken reflects
upon the reasons he turned his back on society, the vulnerability
of old age and the awe and wonder of a life lived in nature. The
Way of the Hermit is a humourous, transcendant and life-affirming
memoir.
The world's most famous mountain, Everest remains for serious
high-altitude climbers an ultimate goal. Ed Viesturs has gone on
eleven expeditions to Everest, reaching the summit seven times.
He's spent more than two years of his life on the mountain. No
climber today is better poised to survey Everest's various
ascents-both personal and historic. In The Mountain, Viesturs
delivers just that: riveting you-are-there accounts of his own
climbs as well as vivid narratives of some of the more famous and
infamous climbs throughout the last century, when the honour of
nations often hung in the balance, depending on which climbers
summited first. In addition to his own experiences, Viesturs sheds
light on the fate of Mallory and Irvine, whose 1924 disappearance
just 800 feet from the top remains one of mountaineering's greatest
mysteries, and on the multiply tragic last days of Rob Hall and
Scott Fischer in 1996, the stuff of which Into Thin Air was made.
Informed by the experience of one who has truly been there, The
Mountainaffords a rare glimpse into that place on earth where
Heraclitus's maxim-character is destiny-is proved time and again.
Complete with gorgeous photos of Everest, many of which were taken
by Viesturs himself, and shots taken on some of the legendary
historic climbs, The Mountainis an immensely appealing book for
active and armchair climber alike.
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