‘I straighten her little tiara every morning – I lift her chin and remind her that she is meant for greater things than playground bullies.’

‘Everything shines in its own time. There is no timetable for life.
Timetables are for classrooms, not for people.’

These are just some of the wisdoms shared on The Village, South Africa’s beloved Facebook group for parents raising tweens, teens and young adults.

Having kids is a baffling endeavour beset with sulks, meltdowns, anxiety and disappointment – and that’s just the parents! When you get that call to the principal’s office? When the school acceptances don’t come? When the bedroom door slams and you hear your child sobbing behind it? All awful but the family years are also, to many of us, our most precious time. The trick? To find a way to enjoy our families, love our children and believe in them and ourselves despite the daily challenges. And laugh . . .

In this book, Vanessa Raphaely and Karin Schimke have gathered together experiences and insights from The Village members. These are the gems and remedies from the real parenting experts – the parents – to help you raise your family in your own perfectly imperfect way.

'She's so good, Brené Brown, at finding the language to articulate collective feeling' Dolly Alderton

Every time we are faced with change, no matter how great or small, we also face risk. We feel uncertain and exposed. We feel vulnerable. Most of us try to fight those feelings - or feel guilt for feeling them in the first place.

In a powerful new vision Dr Brené Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability, and dispels the widely accepted myth that it's a weakness. She argues that, in truth, vulnerability is strength and when we shut ourselves off from vulnerability - from revealing our true selves - we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives.

Daring Greatly is the culmination of 12 years of groundbreaking social research, across every area of our lives including home, relationships, work, and parenting. It is an invitation to be courageous; to show up and let ourselves be seen, even when there are no guarantees.

This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.

Hotelier and guest lodge owner extraordinaire Nicky Fitzgerald poses the question, ‘How can you
possibly feed guests who, when they are not on safari, are eating in the best restaurants on the planet?’

As she goes on to say, ‘It is a daunting challenge to prepare food in the middle of nowhere for guests
who come from all four corners of the world, from different culinary cultures and who, quite rightly,
expect the best of the best when it comes to choosing where to stay for their next holiday.’

Angama Mara not only rose to the challenge, it has exceeded it. Perched on the edge of the Great
Rift Valley overlooking Kenya’s lovely Maasai Mara, Angama Mara and its bush kitchen draws
inspiration from the finest ingredients to be found in Kenya: beautiful vegetables from the highlands,
tropical fruits a-plenty from the coast, cheese from a renowned supplier just outside of Nairobi,
prawns from Malindi, freshwater fish from Lake Victoria and beef from the north. As you will discover
as you read this book, Kenyan cuisine is deeply influenced by Arab-inspired Swahili dishes from the
coast and Indian food from the significant communities that have called this country home for many
generations. Aren’t your taste buds dancing with delight at the very thought?

This quirky anthology of recipes, reminiscences, anecdotes and stories was compiled and written
in honour of the chefs at Angama Mara, and its guests who made the dream possible. The food and
the breathtaking scenics were photographed by Sam Linsell, herself a well-known food stylist, food
and travel photographer, and cookbook author.

How do you enjoy erection-free sex? How do you navigate consent? Is there a way of sending safe nudes? How do you have the hard conversations about sex?  Sex can be scary but it doesn’t have to be. 

In bite-size pieces of information, this guide will look all things sex and sexuality, busting myths and looking to upgrade the knowledge that you already have. It is the ultimate tool to help elevate your sex life.

Brutally dragged 780 metres beneath a taxi – a young woman’s inspiring story of survival, courage, and the will to live.

13 September 2011. The story would shock thousands and be remembered by many for years to come. It would be plastered all over the papers and continue to attract interest well after the shock factor of what happened had passed. Reports and articles would be written, and “facts”, as given to reporters by some of those involved and willing to be interviewed, would be recounted and repeated in all forms of public media over the months and even years that followed. And although these versions would generate widespread outrage, none was entirely accurate.

"The stories were about me. I was there. I am Kim McCusker - the girl who was dragged by a taxi. This, as I experienced it, is the true version of events."

Do you dream of a future free of financial stress? One where you can afford to start your own business, travel or retire comfortably? In Make Your Money Work For You, investment specialist Anthea Gardner shows you how to ‘sweat your assets’ and grow your wealth to achieve these dreams – and you won’t even need a degree in accounting.

Gardner makes the world of investing accessible by:

• Illustrating why it’s important to know the difference between saving and investing
• Explaining key terms, from ‘unit trusts’ and ‘retirement annuities’ to ‘compound interest’
• Clarifying the role of different players, such as financial advisors and asset managers
• Describing how easy it is to buy shares on the stock market

You don’t need millions to start. You can launch your financial future by investing just R100 per month. It’s time to take action and make your money work for you.

“I saw my mommy walking to the court with a hoodie on and a scarf covering her face. She looked almost like someone that was poor. People were cursing at her… and that broke me. This is the woman who was there for me every day, making lunch for me and my friends when we came from school, and now here she is on television being called a criminal.”

The kidnapping of baby Zephany Nurse from the cot beside her mother’s hospital bed made headline news. Desperate pleas from her parents to return her safely went unanswered. There was no trace of the baby. For 17 years, on her birthday, the Nurse family lit candles and hoped and prayed.

Living not far away from the Nurses, 17-year-old Miché Solomon had just started Matric. She had a boyfriend. She had devoted parents. She was thinking about the upcoming school dance and the dress her mother was going to make for her. She had no idea that a new girl at her school, who bore an uncanny resemblance to her, and a DNA test would shake her world to its foundations.

Miché is now 22. This is her story – for the first time in her own words. Told with astonishing maturity, honesty and compassion, it is also a story of what it means to love and be loved, and of claiming your identity.

The new, updated edition of the 2017 bestseller!

Coming to grips with money, making wise decisions and setting ourselves on a path to wealth can be daunting. Some women excel at this; others battle from payday to payday. What do ‘smart women’ know that the rest of us can learn? In this updated edition, Smartwoman reveals who is competing for your money (black tax and other family pressures), how to create a designer life (as opposed to filling up space with designer stuff), and how to start a side hustle. It also covers major life events, such as marriage, divorce and death, and how you can make smart financial decisions at these times.

Knowing how and where to invest is crucial to building wealth, and this book covers the full spectrum of investment options, including equities, property, offshore investment and alternative investments, such as art.

New chapters include how Covid-19 impacts our cash flow and investments; side hustles; investing offshore; and cryptocurrencies and how they fit into an investment portfolio.

Whatever your life stage or circumstances, being in financial control, owning your destiny and building long-term wealth is within every woman’s reach.

Prim Reddy and Niranj Pather are South Africans of Indian origin who embrace the diverse culinary offering of cosmopolitan South Africa.

Temptations is a reflection of their philosophy, a cookbook encompassing various cultures and featuring heritage recipes passed down through generations, as well as dishes experienced on their travels. To these they have added their own flair and the resulting flavours are incredible. The array of recipes will transport you from local Indian cuisine and exotic offerings from the sub-continent, through local braaivleis (barbecue) and salads, to Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and African flavours.

Every recipe has a story. Best of all, these are meals that are quick and easy but that will make a home chef feel like a million bucks. They exude laughter and happiness, sharing and celebration.

Niranj and Prim’s motto is that food isn’t just about sustenance; it’s about the experience, irrespective of how simple the offering may be.

"I wrote this book because I believe the road to financial freedom is a journey everyone can embark on. I wrote this book with you in mind. You, who perhaps have never been taught anything about how money works. You, who have been too intimidated to pick up and read a book about personal finance because you were too scared of the jargon. You, who want to #getyourmoneyright. I had you in mind when I wrote this book." – Mapalo Makhu

If you are a millennial who is trying to figure out how money works, this book is for you. With simple, relatable and sometimes amusing stories about how to manage money on a day-to-day basis, you will learn how to change your mindset about money, get out of debt and stay debt-free, invest your money and, ultimately, live your best life.

You’re Not Broke, You’re Pre-Rich will help you, the young professional, to think differently about money, while covering pertinent topics like black tax, savings, budgeting, emergency funds and financial scams, as well as estate and retirement planning (and why you should care right now!). It is the best class you never attended… in a book!

Novelist Andre Brink married Karina Szczurek when he was 71 and she was 29. They were together for 10 years before he died on a plane, beside her, high above Africa in February 2015.

Selected and edited by Karina M. Szczurek, the love letters between herself and the writer Andre Brink included in You Make Me Possible tell in detail the story of how they met in Austria in December 2004, fell in love, and decided to forge a future together. The intense correspondence which followed in the weeks after their fateful encounter recounts their courtship in words, revealing their initially unacknowledged attraction, their fears and longings, and writing a new world of recognition and togetherness into being.

The letters chronicle the time between their first meeting and Karina's decision to relocate to South Africa to be with Andre in 2005.

Anne Biccard has worked as an emergency doctor in Johannesburg for more than 30 years. It is a job that is both terrifying and thrilling, where death can be outwitted by skill and quick thinking, and the pressure eased by dark humour. The coronavirus, however, has added another dimension of fear.

In this heartwarming and at times hilarious memoir she recounts some of the cases that have burst in through her doors, such as the woman who mistook her Dettol for beer and the man who tried to run down his cardiologist. There is sadness, too, as she remembers the patients who didn't make it.

Above all, she writes of the camaraderie and dogged determination of health workers holding fast in the face of the Covid-19 nightmare as they battle, every day, to save a stranger's life.

In the shattered fantasy of rainbow-nation South Africa, there are many uncomfortable truths. Among these are family secrets - the legacies of traumas in the homes and bones of ordinary South African families.

In this debut collection, feminist and Khoi San activist Kelly-Eve Koopman grapples with the complex beauty and brutality of the everyday as she struggles with her family legacy. She tries unsuccessfully to forget her father - a not-so-prominent journalist and anti-apartheid activist, desperately mentally ill and expertly emotionally abusive - who has recently disappeared, leaving behind a wake of difficult memories. Mesmerisingly, Koopman wades through the flotsam and jetsam of generations, among shipwrecks and sunken treasures, in an attempt at familial and collective healing.

Sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious, she faces up to herself as a brown, newly privileged "elder millennial", caught between middle-class aspirations and social justice ideals. An artist, a daughter, a queer woman in love, she is in pursuit of healing, while trying to lose those last 5 kilograms, to the great disappointment of her feminist self.

“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.