Festive Biography and Memoir
'Is Dit Jý?' Avonture Voor en Agter die Skerms
As ’n jong seun wat kaalvoet en vry grootgeword het op sy ouers se sitrusplaas in die Oos-Kaap, sou Ian Roberts nooit kon dink dat hy eendag ’n ikoon van die silwerskerm sou word nie. Vandag nog herken mense hom as die taai Bittereinder Sloet Steenkamp van Arende of as Boet van die gewilde Castrol-advertensies. Ian se loopbaan strek van Langstraat in Kaapstad tot Los Angeles en van Shakespeare-produksies in die teater tot die Oscar-wenner Tsotsi. In sy outobiografie verklap hierdie briljante storieverteller met ’n stoute sin vir humour meer oor wat alles agter die skerms op televisie- en rolprentstelle gebeur. Hy beskryf ook die hoogbloei van Afrikaanse televisie- en rolprentvervaardiging toe hy saam met legendariese regisseurs soos Manie van Rensburg en Dirk de Villiers gewerk het. Sy lewensverhaal is ’n meesterklas in die kuns van toneelspel.So outentiek, vreesloos en onkonvensioneel soos wat talle van sy karakters was, só is Ian ook in die regte lewe. Hy trap sy eie paadjie en was nog nooit ’n tropbok nie. Hy deel sy lewensverhaal met soveel humor, patos en insig dat dit nie anders kan as om die leser te ontroer nie.
R 340.00
Billionaire, Nerd, Saviour, King
From the finance editor of The New York Times, an examination of Bill Gates—one of the most powerful, fascinating, and contradictory figures of the past four decades—and an eye-opening exploration of our national fixation on billionaires. Few billionaires have been in the public eye for as long, and in as many guises, as Bill Gates. At first heralded as a tech visionary, the Microsoft cofounder next morphed into a ruthless capitalist, only to change yet again when he fashioned himself into a global do-gooder. Along the way, Gates forever influenced how we think about tech founders, as the products they make and the ideas they sell continue to dominate our lives. Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he also set a new standard for high-profile, billionaire philanthropy. But there is more to Gates’s story, and here, Das’s revelatory reporting shows us that billionaires have secrets and philanthropy can have a dark side. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with current and former employees of the Gates Foundation, Microsoft, academics, nonprofits, and those with insight into the Gates universe, Das delves into Gates’s relationships with Warren Buffett, Jeffrey Epstein, Melinda French Gates, and others, to uncover the truths behind the public persona. In telling Gates’s story, Das also provides a new way to think about how billionaires wield their power, manipulate their image, and pursue philanthropy to become heroes, repair damaged reputations, and direct policy to achieve their preferred outcomes. Insightful, illuminating, and timely, Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King is an important story of money and government, wealth and power, and media and image, and the ways in which the world’s richest people hold us in their thrall.
R 475.00
Cher: The Memoir, Part One
The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person … Cher herself. After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir. Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center. She is a longtime activist and philanthropist. As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship. With her trademark honesty and humour, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century. Cher: The Memoir, Part One follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono – and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous, but eventually drove them apart. Cher: The Memoir reveals the daughter, the sister, the wife, the lover, the mother and the superstar. It is a life too immense for only one book.
R 465.00
Esther Mahlangu
A captivating exploration of the life and work of the iconic South African artist Esther Mahlangu, one of the great innovators of Pan-African Contemporary Art. Esther Mahlangu (b. 1935) is globally acclaimed for her bright and bold abstract paintings that are rooted in South African Ndbele art. She was a disruptor from an early age, becoming the first person to reimagine her visual heritage, historically used for decorating houses, on painting media such as canvas. Mahlangu is one of the most influential artists of Pan-African Contemporary Art. Esther Mahlangu: A Life in Colour celebrates Mahlangu’s remarkable journey as a pioneer and innovator of contemporary African art, whose vibrant and distinctive paintings have captured the hearts of many worldwide. Through a series of interviews with Mahlangu conducted by Thomas Girst, Azu Nwagbogu and Hans Ulrich Obrist, readers will gain insight into her creative process, inspiration, and the cultural significance of her work – in the artist’s own words. With a preface by Nontobeko Ntombela, the curator of Mahlangu’s major 2024 travelling retrospective, this book presents stunning visuals and engaging narratives, offering an inspiring experience to the reader.
R 700.00
Exit Wounds
When she turned ninety, my mother sprang a final surprise on us. She started speaking in the voice of a stranger. Peter’s mother is dying. Born in England and having spent most of her adult life as a doctor in Zimbabwe, she now lies on a hospital bed in the partitioned living room of his sister’s London apartment, her accent having overnight become posher than the Queen’s. Unsentimental, fiercely stubborn and at times hilarious, she finally drops her guard, losing all fear of conflict to become the family provocateur. While confronting the revelations of what his family was – and wasn’t – and the stoicism that sometimes threatened to destroy them, Peter also mourns the ending of his long marriage. At this point of rupture and healing, Peter reflects on his family’s legacy of exile and their tenuous hold on home. In Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss and Occasional Wars, Peter Godwin considers, with both tenderness and candour, the life of émigrés, exiles and refugees, and grieves the many losses that make life both magnificent and unbearable. He brings us into the spaces that make us question, suffer and celebrate the relationships we have among family and friends, and the healing of our own wounds
R 360.00
From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir
Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough.In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-conceived memoir.A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words; never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story: about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland; about the unconditional love she felt from her father; about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, and about being married to Michael Jackson, and what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.To make her mother known.This extraordinary book is composed of both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating across the chasm of life and death as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other – the last words of the only child of a true legend.
R 409.00
Hoe ek dit onthou
Francois van Coke span met die skryf van hierdie biografie saam met Annie Klopper om in sy eie stem die gebeure te vertel wat hom as mens en musikant gevorm het. Sy perspektief word gebied op als van Fokofpolisiekar tot Van Coke Kartel, die sukses van “Toe vind ek jou” en sy rol as afrigter op The Voice. Minder bekende en onbekende verhale word ook vertel oor wilde partytjies, vuisgevegte, dwelms, nagte in tronkselle, liefde, soberheid en pa-wees. Dít is sy stories, hoe hý dit onthou.
R 310.00
I Will Not Be Silenced
As a young journalist, roped into court reporting to cover Jacob Zuma’s 2006 rape trial, Karyn Maughan could not have known that she would be reporting on Zuma’s legal woes for the next two decades – and would herself become his target. Disarmingly honest and deeply personal, this book takes a razor-sharp look at how powerful men use attacks on individuals who try to hold them accountable, as well as on the media and the courts, to undermine democracy. Adriaan Basson says: 'Brave and brilliant. Jacob Zuma found his match in Karyn Maughan.'
R 360.00
Life Lessons
A business biography that follows the life of Alan Knott-Craig as a serial entrepreneur in the telecoms and tech spaces, tracking his wins and losses, and the lessons along the way for both business and life. Known in Stellenbosch business circles as the ‘Weapon of Mass Financial Destruction’ after a major flop at Mxit, he was able to rebuild his own confidence and that of his peers by becoming a shrewd, highly innovative and successful businessman, true to his own principles and convictions.
R 330.00
Matriarchs, Meze and the Evil Eye
In this humorous coming-of-age memoir, young Costa finds himself in the middle of a matriarchal triangle. His sulky mother Victoria is forced to share her kitchen with both her conservative Greek mother-in-law and her bossy sister-in-law. A raucous war in the kitchen takes place, not only for oven territory but also for the affection of their beloved "Kostaki". An intricately woven portrait of the Greek immigrant experience of a family, trying to navigate South Africa in the 1960’s and 70s.
R 330.00
Nomad Heart: Adventures On and Off the Set
Actor and musician Ian Roberts is something of a South African icon, renowned for his roles as the rugged Boer fighter Sloet Steenkamp in the TV series Arende and as Boet in the immortal and immensely popular Castrol advertisements. In Free Spirit he looks back on his long and illustrious career in which he became known for having a flair for languages and acting from the gut. As a boy, young Ian ran wild on his family’s citrus farm in the Eastern Cape, preferring the company of the local farm boys (and Kees the baboon). It was here that he first learnt the art of communicating with an audience through song and story. A master storyteller with a wicked sense of humour, Ian offers a highly entertaining glimpse of how actors make the magic happen, whether on a theatre stage or before the TV cameras. Drawing on a career that runs from Long Street to Los Angeles, and from Shakespeare to Tsotsi, Ian provides a masterclass on the art of acting, making his life story a vital guide to aspiring actors. His no-nonsense and fearless approach to life means he has never hesitated to tackle challenging roles and to do things in his own, unconventional way. Today, as frontman for Die Radio Kalahari Orkes, he continues to follow his heart.
R 340.00
Seun
Dana Snyman deel in Seun die deel van sy storie waaroor hy nog nooit gepraat het nie: sy ervaringe in die 1980’s. Dit is die tyd van PW Botha se vinger, van die Voëlvry-toer, AWB-saamtrekke, onderhandelinge en die laaste dae van diensplig. Dana word oneervol ontslaan uit die weermag, maar eers maak hy ’n draai in Saal 24. Werkloos en doelloos eindig hy in ’n gewese bediendekamer in Pretoria. Dié rou, selfonthullende memoir vra: hoe word ’n seun ’n man? Met Seun neem Dana lesers in sy vertroue.
R 330.00
Slaying the Dragon
When a billionaire businessman contemplates breaking into a pharmacy, driven by desperation for his next opioid fix, it's going to be one helluva ride.In 2018, Antonio Iozzo, the CEO and visionary leader of IUM, Africa's leading independently owned insurance underwriting manager, has a near-death accident when he comes off his Ducati Panigale superbike at breakneck speed racing around Cape Town’s notoriously dangerous Killarney Motor Raceway. Despite sustaining significant injuries, including a shattered T7 vertebra, 14 broken ribs, and punctured lungs, medical professionals are amazed that Antonio has not been left paralysed.Antonio undergoes a series of operations in both South Africa and the United States.Throughout his ordeal, he's prescribed OxyNorm, an opioid painkiller commonly known as Oxy in the US, where it's been linked to millions of overdose-related deaths. No one in the medical fraternity warns Antonio of its highly addictive nature, and so his five-year addiction nightmare unfolds.While managing a R600 million building project, launching a cutting-edge 5,000m² health and wellness facility, and overseeing his multibillion-rand insurance enterprise, this highly driven businessman grapples with a dual existence. His once magnificent life, built from rags to riches, begins to unravel as he consumes copious amounts of Oxy to manage his debilitating back pain, alternating it with even more addictive Suboxone to withdraw.As he expands his multibillion-rand business empire, Antonio finds it increasingly challenging to conceal his inner turmoil. He becomes fixated on the clock, obsessed with when he can take his next fix.Finally, in a mammoth surge of determination and willpower, Antonio goes into battle with the opioid dragon, resolved to wean himself off every last milligram of the drug. The bravest book you'll read this year.
R 295.00
Strive
Throughout her multi-faceted career, Venus Williams has earned four Olympic gold medals, 21 Grand Slam titles, and built two companies. Along with her sister, Venus became the first female African American minority owner of an NFL team, Miami Dolphins. All her successes are tied to one simple promise to herself: make everything in life easy, enjoyable - but most of all - exciting. In 2011, Venus was diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease which causes uncomfortable symptoms such as dry eyes and mouth, achiness and fatigue. But the diagnosis did not hold her back - in fact, she grew wiser and stronger. Venus has always believed that it shouldn't be hard to be healthy, which is why in STRIVE, she introduces readers to the strategy that has allowed her to reach any goal she has ever set for herself much faster with less effort or stress. She delivers an innovative approach that asks readers to simply consider eight tiny but essential tenets: Observe, Appreciate, Balance, Enrich, Soothe, Believe, Inspire, and Strive. By staying true to these eight tenets - even if just for a few minutes a day - the immediate and long-term health and wellness goals you have for yourself fall into place, quickly transforming smart, healthy choices into life-long habits. Through STRIVE, you'll finally forge a lifestyle you'll always return to because you 'want' to - not because you have to - and that's when you start winning.
R 485.00
Troep
In Troep! vertel meer as ’n honderd oud-troepe wat hulle onthou van diensplig: om op skool opgeroep te word, te gaan oorlog maak en twee jaar later weer huis toe te kom. Tussenin lê stories van varkpanne, tiekiebokse, twee-komma-viers, boeliebief, die DB, ryloop, pakkies, bosbussies, naweekpas, ratpacks, stof, Buffels, landmyne en skrapnel – en ook herinneringe van vriende, seuns en broers wat nie teruggekom het nie. Bun Booyens voeg al hierdie stemme saam tot die verhaal van die uitsonderlike dinge wat duisende gewone seuns beleef het. Hierdie stories sal ’n snaar by veterane roer, en hul naastes help om te verstaan watter dinge hierdie mense vandag steeds met hulle saamdra – dit wat hulle onthou, maar ook dit wat hulle nie kan vergeet nie.
R 330.00
Uncancelable: The Incredible Rise of Mac G
Discover the extraordinary journey of Mac G — a young boy from Venda with an insatiable passion for radio, who rose to become an international broadcasting titan. In "Uncancelable," Mac G, alongside one of the country’s most accomplished young authors, offers an electrifying dive into the dynamics of South African broadcasting, the perils of cancel culture, and the triumphs of navigating both. This compelling book delivers a gripping account of the highs and lows of the radio scene, revealing Mac G's battles with anxiety, alcohol, and public fallouts. Experience raw, unfiltered stories from some of the nation's most influential figures, including Black Coffee, John Kani, Julius Malema, and John Steenhuisen. Learn how Mac G's ground-breaking podcast has influenced South Africa's emerging modern culture. Uncancelable is a must-read for anyone fascinated by the craft of broadcasting and the power of unbreakable authenticity.
R 310.00
What Nelson Mandela Taught Me
When a thoughtless tweet by Zelda la Grange unleashed a storm, she was asked: ‘Have you learnt nothing from Nelson Mandela?’ This book is her answer. For years, she was the closest witness of Mandela’s interactions with people both famous and ordinary, and here she draws out his lessons on humility, respect, honesty, how to truly listen and what to do if you realise you have made a grave mistake, a lesson she herself had to learn the hard way.
R 360.00