Imagine learning from South Africa’s best of the best in their respective fields – be it business, sport, politics, entertainment or philanthropy – and having access to decades of experience in strategic planning, business and change management, human resources development, and the nitty-gritty of building a personal brand that extends to your business and everyone you employ. Look no further than the 200 pages of WIN! Inspiring Interviews with SA’s Top 20 Leaders by Jeremy Maggs.

With 30 years’ experience in journalism, marketing and public speaking, Maggs chooses the best of the best he has interviewed over the years, and succinctly captures their winning ways, business challenges, some spectacular failures and secrets of their trade to reach their ultimate goals – being winners! The book looks at attaining all brands of success – whether it be how one leader runs a multi-billion-dollar company; how another inspires masses of people to follow a trend, or how an idea can spark the innovation of a product so basic yet so integral to a community’s prosperity.

As you read the book, you will realise there are no hard and fast rules to reaching the top rung of the success ladder – there are unique twists and turns, which enrich each leader’s experience; they are faced with make-or-break split-second decisions; some get a lucky break, while others work, fail and work harder to become the cream of the crop. There is a method for each and every business owner, entrepreneur, manager or franchise owner to make their business bigger, better and a bold example of winning success.

High Times is the true story of Michael Medjuck, whose taste for weed, women and the good life led him from late-1960s Johannesburg to notoriety as one of the biggest hash and weed smugglers in North America.

From his base in Vancouver, Michael built up a smuggling network that supplied dealers in scores of cities across Canada and the United States. The proceeds of smuggling afforded this former King David High School pupil a lifestyle of hedonistic excess – the finest wines, the most glamorous hookers, the best weed in the world.

In 1991, Michael was nabbed by US federal agents while smuggling an enormous shipload of Afghani hash into the West Coast of Canada. Put on trial as the scheme’s mastermind, Michael was convicted and sentenced to 24 years behind bars. His US prison experiences, from dingy county lock-ups to brutal federal penitentiaries, are the stuff of legend. Eventually, a chance remark to his lawyer led to his early release and return to Canada. After barely a year of freedom, Michael was again arrested – this time in Spain for an ill-judged cocaine-smuggling venture – and sentenced to another prison term of nine years.

This is Michael’s extraordinary story, as told to fellow South Africans Roy Isacowitz, author and journalist, and the late Jeremy Gordin, award-winning journalist, editor and author.

The Crown focuses on Queen Elizabeth II as a 25-year-old newlywed faced with the daunting prospect of leading the world's most famous monarchy while forging a relationship with legendary Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.

The British Empire is in decline, the political world is in disarray, and a young woman takes the throne.... a new era is dawning.

Peter Morgan's masterfully researched scripts reveal the Queen's private journey behind the public facade with daring frankness. Prepare to be welcomed into the coveted world of power and privilege and behind locked doors in Westminster and Buckingham Palace....the leaders of an empire await.

The gripping and inspiring story of acclaimed actor Jeremy Renner’s near-fatal accident, and what he learned about inner strength, endurance and hope as he overcame insurmountable odds to recover, one breath at a time.

Two-time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner was the second most googled person in 2023… and not for his impressive filmography. His searing portrayals on film ranged from an Iraq-based army bomb technician in The Hurt Locker and a Boston bank robber in The Town to a crooked Camden mayor in American Hustle before he became heir to the Jason Bourne franchise (The Bourne Legacy). Amongst other iconic roles, he also captured hearts as fan-favorite comic book marksman Hawkeye in seven Marvel films.

Yet, his otherworldly success on-screen faded to the periphery when a fourteen-thousand-pound snowplow crushed him on New Year’s Day 2023. Somehow able to keep breathing for more than half an hour, he was subsequently rushed to the ICU, after which he would face multiple surgeries and months of painful rehabilitation.
 
In this debut memoir, Jeremy writes in blistering detail about his accident and the aftermath. This retelling is not merely a gruesome account of what happened to him; it’s a call to action and a forged companionship between reader and author as Jeremy recounts his recovery journey and reflects on the impact of his suffering. Ultimately, Jeremy’s memoir is a testament to the human spirit and its capacity to endure, evolve, and find purpose in the face of unimaginable adversity. His writing captures the essence of profound transformation, exploring the delicate interplay between vulnerability and strength, despair and hope, redemption and renewal.

Dirk Aruseb was seventeen years old when Abraham Morris fetched him from the Pella orphanage to join the Bondelswarts. Dirk couldn’t wait to conquer the accursed Schutztruppe alongside legendary Kaptein Jakob Marengo, successor to Hendrik Witbooi and Jonker Afrikaner. But when he arrived at Schansvlakte deep in Namaland, Dirk was warned that he first had to master many life skills before he could join the war: be humble, be patient, be merciful. Find your eland, tame your butcherbird.

But for Dirk war was an adventure – as long as he could kill the German enemy, he was content. It didn’t matter what commander Nana Kruiper, or Klara Morris, her second in command, tried to teach him: that the liberation struggle of the Bondelswarts meant more than protecting Namaland – their promised land – at all costs.

Crimson Sands is set in Namaland – from German-South-West Africa to the Cape Colony – from 1904 to 1922, when thousands of Bondelswarts were shot down by Jan Smuts’s fighter planes. It is an epic, panoramic war novel, traversing southern Africa from Tsumeb to Upington, from internment camps in Windhuk to the dry riverbeds of the Fish River Canyon. Jeremy Vearey conjures a mesmerising tale across an arid landscape of sand, shrub and dune, evoking voices and stories long gone.

Another year on the Diddly Squat Farm and Jeremy is still knee-deep in mud and endless challenges . . .

Welcome back to Clarkson's Farm. Since taking the wheel three years ago Jeremy's had his work cut out. And it's now clear from hard-won experience that, when it comes to farming, there's only one golden rule: Whatever you hope will happen, won't.

Enthusiastic and inventive schemes to diversify have met with stubborn opposition from the red trouser brigade, defeat at the hands of Council Planning department, and predictable derision from Kaleb - although, to be fair, even Lisa had doubts about Jeremy's brilliant plan to build a business empire founded on rewilding and nettle soup. And only Cheerful Charlie's still smiling about the stifling amount of red tape that's incoming. But he charges by the hour.

Then there are the animals: the sheep are gone; the cows have been joined by a rented bull called Break-Heart Maestro;. the pigs are making piglets; and the goats have turned out to be psychopaths.

But despite the naysayers and (sometimes self-inflicted) setbacks, Jeremy remains irrepressibly optimistic about life at Diddly Squat. Because It's hard not to be when you get to harvest blackberries with a vacuum cleaner.

And, after all, it shouldn't just be Break-heart Maestro who gets to enjoy a happy ending ....

Major-General Jeremy Vearey, ex-MK cadre, is deputy provincial commissioner of the Western Cape SAPS. He starts his 'police memoir' with the old apartheid police and ex-freedom fighters meeting for the first time.

Action ranges from the secretive Operation Saladin to anti-gang policing with the 'skollie patrollie'. Underworld figures and gangsters loom large, as does the constant fear of death. Painting a vivid portrait of policing, politics and criminality in the Western Cape, this is also an intimate account of what it means to reach the highest ranks of policing, having been a revolutionary.

The ‘dark stream’ is the price that the author has paid for following his calling.

Welcome back to Clarkson’s Farm.

So, that went well …

The spring barley crop failed. Just like the oil seed rape. And the durum wheat. Then the oats turned the colour of a hearing aid and the mushrooms went mouldy. Farming sheep, pigs and cows was hardly more lucrative. Jeremy would be better off trying to breed ostriches.

But in the face of uncooperative weather, the relentless realities of the agricultural economy, bureaucracy, a truculent local planning department and the world’s persistent refusal to recognise his ingenuity and genius, our hero’s not beaten yet. Not while the farm shop’s still doing a roaring trade in candles that smell like his knacker hammock, he isn’t.

On the face of it, the challenges of making a success of Diddly Squat are enough to have you weeping into your (Hawkstone) beer, but misery loves company and in girlfriend Lisa, Farm Manager Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie and Gerald his Head of Security Jeremy knows he’s got the best. And it’s hard for a chap to feel too gloomy about things when there’s a JCB telehandler, a crop-spraying hovercraft and a digger in the barn.

Because as a wise man* once said, ‘there’s no man alive who wouldn’t have fun with a digger …’

*Jeremy

Dirk Aruseb was sewentien toe Abraham Morris hom uit die Pella-weeshuis kom haal het om by die Bondelswarts aan te sluit. By Schansvlakte begin die eerste van Dirk se lewenslesse: wees nederig, geduldig, en genadig. Vind jou eland, tem jou janfiskaal.

Rooisand speel af in Namaland – van Duits-Suidwes-Afrika tot die Kaapkolonie – vanaf 1904 tot 1922. Dit is ’n epiese oorlogsroman wat strek van Tsumeb tot Upington, van Windhuk se interneringskampe tot die droë rivierlope van die Visrivier.

Welcome back to Clarkson’s Farm.

So, that went well . . .

The spring barley crop failed.
Just like the oil seed rape.
And the durum wheat.
Then the oats turned the colour of a hearing aid and the mushrooms went mouldy.
Farming sheep, pigs and cows was hardly more lucrative. Jeremy would be better off trying to breed ostriches.

But in the face of uncooperative weather, the relentless realities of the agricultural economy, bureaucracy, a truculent local planning department and the world’s persistent refusal to recognise his ingenuity and genius, our hero’s not beaten yet. Not while the farm shop’s still doing a roaring trade in candles that smell like his knacker hammock, he isn’t.

On the face of it, the challenges of making a success of Diddly Squat are enough to have you weeping into your (Hawkstone) beer, but misery loves company and in girlfriend Lisa, Farm Manager Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie and Gerald his Head of Security Jeremy knows he’s got the best. And it’s hard for a chap to feel too gloomy about things when there’s a JCB telehandler, a crop-spraying hovercraft and a digger in the barn.

Because as a wise man* once said, ‘there’s no man alive who wouldn’t have fun with a digger . . .’

The Handbook of Metabolic Phenotyping is the definitive work on the rapidly developing subject of metabolic phenotyping. It explores in detail the wide array of analytical chemistry and statistical modeling techniques used in the field, coupled with surveys of the various application areas in human development, nutrition, disease, therapy, and epidemiology to create a comprehensive exploration of the area of study. It covers recent studies that integrate the various -omics data sets to derive a systems biology view. It also addresses current issues on standardization, assay and statistics validation, and data storage and sharing. Written by experts with many years of practice in the field who pioneered many of the approaches widely used today, The Handbook of Metabolic Phenotyping is a valuable resource for postgrads and research scientists studying and furthering the field of metabolomics.

This book presents a unique collection of case studies from across the globe to create a comprehensive understanding of how family firms can respond to future disruptions. Each case contains learning notes with objectives, discussion questions and suggested readings to facilitate learner understanding and engagement with the topic. Cases on topics such as global succession and governance practices will aid strategic decision-making capabilities in family businesses and will also benefit practitioners in these areas. Diverse in terms of generational involvement, demographic groups, cultural aspects, institutional settings and industries, the cases range from founder-led SMEs to multi-generational family conglomerates in 18 countries spanning over four continents. In addition to identifying successful practices, this book offers unconventional wisdom on the impact of family feuds, sudden death, divorce and multiple marriages on family businesses. It concludes by exposing new understandings on succession and the unique role played by rising-generation leaders in this disruptive era. Informed by the common research paradigm of the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practice (STEP) Project Global Consortium, this book will provide a practical learning experience for advanced students and scholars of family business, family entrepreneurship, and strategic management studies.

The critically acclaimed laboratory standard for more than forty years, Methods in Enzymology is one of the most highly respected publications in the field of biochemistry. Since 1955, each volume has been eagerly awaited, frequently consulted, and praised by researchers and reviewers alike. Now with more than 300 volumes (all of them still in print), the series contains much material still relevant today--truly an essential publication for researchers in all fields of life sciences.

Much has been written about the historic nature of the Obama campaign. The multi-year, multi-billion dollar operation elected the nation's first black president, raised and spent more money than any other election effort in history, and built the most sophisticated voter targeting technology ever before used on a national campaign. But what is missing from these accounts is an understanding of how Obama for America organized its formidable army of 2.2 million volunteers - over eight times the number of people who volunteered for democratic candidates in 2004. Unlike previous field campaigns that drew their power from staff, consultants, and paid canvassers, the Obama campaign's capacity came from unpaid local citizens who took responsibility for organizing their own neighborhoods months-and even years-in advance of election day. In so doing, Groundbreakers argues, the campaign enlisted citizens in the often unglamorous but necessary work of practicing democracy. How did they organize so many volunteers to produce so much valuable work for the campaign? This book describes how. Hahrie Han and Elizabeth McKenna argue that the legacy of Obama for America extends far beyond big data and micro targeting - to a transformation of the traditional models of field campaigning. As the first book to analyze a presidential contest from the perspective of grassroots volunteers, Groundbreakers makes the case that the Obama ground game was revolutionary in two regards not captured in previous accounts. First, the campaign piloted and scaled an alternative model of field campaigning that built the power of a community at the same time that it organized it. Second, the Obama campaign changed the individuals who were a part of it, turning them into leaders. Obama the candidate might have inspired volunteers to join the campaign, but it was the fulfilling relationships volunteers had with other people and their deep belief that their work mattered that kept them active. Moreover, the lessons learned from the Obama campaign have and will continue to transform the nature of future campaigns, in both political and civic movements, nationally and internationally. Groundbreakers proves that presidential campaigns are still about more than clicks, big data and money, and that one of the most important ways that a campaign develops its capacity is by investing in its human resources.

New research on children's executive functioning and self-regulation has begun to reveal important connections to their developing social understanding (or "theories of mind") and emotional competence. The exact nature of the relations between these aspects of children's social and emotional development is, however, far from being fully understood. Considerable disagreement has emerged, for instance, over the question of whether executive functioning facilitates social-emotional understanding, or vice versa. Recent studies linking the development of children's social understanding with aspects of their interpersonal relationships also raise concerns about the particular role that social interaction plays in the development of executive function. Three key questions currently drive this debate: Does social interaction play a role in the development of executive function or, more generally, self-regulation? If it does play a role, what forms of social interaction facilitate the development of executive function? Do different patterns of interpersonal experience differentially affect the development of self-regulation and social understanding? In this book, the contributors address these questions and explore other emerging theoretical and empirical links between self-regulation, social interaction, and children's psycho-social competence. It will be a valuable resource for student and professional researchers interested in executive function, emotion, and social development.

Queerty's Spring 2025 LGBTQ+ Books Roundup

From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Gay Bar comes a rule-breaking, sweat-soaked, genre-busting story of outlaw love.

It’s 1996, and Jeremy Atherton Lin has met the boy of his dreams — a mumbling, starry-eyed Brit — just as, amid a media frenzy, US Congress prepares the Defense of Marriage Act, denying same-sex couples federal rights including immigration. The pair steals away to remote forests and vast deserts, London fashion shows and Berlin sex clubs, dinner parties, back alleys, East Village hotel rooms, and San Francisco dives. Finding no other way to stay together, they shack up illicitly among unlikely allies in a “city of refuge.”

With Atherton Lin’s inimitable blend of tenderness and wicked humor, Deep House moves through the couple’s string of rented apartments while unlocking doors to a lineage of gay men who have come before — smuggling a foreign partner through national checkpoints or going public to stand up for the right to get down in the privacy of their own homes. They include hapless criminals, sexpot bartenders, friars, pirates, government workers who subverted the system, activists who went all the way to the Supreme Court, and the celebrated artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

Following Gay Bar — called “a rich tapestry” by Vanity Fair and “an absolute tour de force” by Maggie Nelson — Deep House juxtaposes whispered disclosures of undocumented domesticity with courtroom drama and political stunts to explore myriad forms of intimacy while questioning the mechanisms that legitimize love. Deep House is at once a historical kaleidoscope and the innermost tale of two boyfriends who made a home in the shadows of a turbulent civil rights battle.

Romantic comedy directed by Gary Harvey and starring Sarah Rafferty, Sam Page and Jeremy Guilbaut. Just as Avery (Rafferty), a blogger whose Valentine's Day experiences have left much to be desired, is prepared to abandon her search for love for another year, she meets an attractive veterinarian by the name of Brendan (Page). Things appear to be looking up for Avery until she discovers that Brendan blames her and her blog for the abrupt end of his last relationship. Even worse, it turns out that Brendan is the person spouting vitriol at Avery's expense. Will they be able to move past their differences or will this be another Valentine's Day to forget?

Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond go on a seven-day road trip from Venice, Italy, to Pau, France, in this special episode from the BBC motoring series. Along the way the pair visit the Autodromo Nazionale Monza race track and take to the road in Monaco. The show features a range of cars including a Ford Model T, a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, a Porsche Cayman S and an Aston Martin Vanquish.

The Kingdom (2007)
When a terrorist bomb detonates inside a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an international incident is ignited. While diplomats slowly debate equations of territorialism, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) quickly assembles an elite team and negotiates a secret five-day trip into Saudi Arabia to locate the madman behind the bombing. Upon landing in the desert kingdom, however, Fleury and his team discover Saudi authorities suspicious and unwelcoming of American interlopers into what they consider a local matter. Hamstrung by protocol, and with the clock ticking on their five days, the FBI agents find their expertise worthless without the trust of their Saudi counterparts who want to locate the terrorist in their homeland on their own terms. Fleury's crew finds a like-minded partner in Saudi Police Captain Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), who helps them navigate royal politics and unlock the secrets of the crime scene and the workings of an extremist, hell bent on further destruction.

Jarhead (2006)
An adaptation of former Marine Anthony Swofford's Gulf War memoir. Young recruit Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) joins up with the US Marines (nicknamed 'Jarheads' because of their distinctive haircuts) on the eve of the 1990 Gulf War. After a brutal spell in boot camp, during which Swofford and his fellow recruits are systematically geared up for the conflict, the Marines are dispatched to the deserts of the Persian Gulf to take part in a war that sees them required to do very little in the way of fighting. Bored and frustrated in the middle of nowhere, the young soldiers resort to a macabre sense of humour as they wait for the war to happen to them.

Double bill of adventure films. 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief' (2010), based on the children's books by Rick Riordan, follows the adventures of 12-year-old New Yorker Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman). When Percy discovers that he is the descendant of a Greek god, he sets out on a cross-country adventure to settle an ongoing feud between the 'Big Three', Zeus (Sean Bean), Hades (Steve Coogan) and Poseidon (Kevin McKidd), and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves. 'Eragon' (2006), based on the best-selling novel by Christopher Paolini, follows the fortunes of an orphaned farm boy, Eragon (Edward Speleers), whose life is changed forever when a mystic stone chooses him for its keeper. When the stone turns out to be an egg from which a baby dragon is hatched, Eragon realises he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller (Jeremy Irons) for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon (voiced by Rachel Weisz) must navigate the dangerous terrain of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.

All 13 episodes from the third season of the American crime drama starring Timothy Olyphant as US Marshal Raylan Givens. In this season, though Raylan is still recovering from a gunshot injury, he refuses to sit behind his desk and becomes active in a murder case. The episodes are: 'The Gunfighter', 'Cut Ties', 'Harlan Roulette', 'The Devil You Know', 'Thick As Mud', 'When the Guns Come Out', 'The Man Behind the Curtain', 'Watching the Detectives', 'Loose Ends', 'Guy Walks Into a Bar', 'Measures', 'Coalition' and 'Slaughterhouse'.