by Luso on 16 May 2012
Verdict: a carrot for Mighty Be Our Powers and a stick for This Child Will Be Great
The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three women, Towakkol Karman of Yemen, Leymah Gbowee and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, both from Liberia, “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” In 2011, Gbowee published Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer and Sex Changed a Nation at War. Johnson, now current President of Liberia, published her memoir, This Child Will Be Great in 2008. Both women are formidable Liberians who worked to end thirteen years of civil war and to bring more power and education to the women of Liberia. I read both memoirs and found each compelling for different reasons. However, I am left with different (contrary, in fact) opinions of each book. Gbowee’s story is heart-wrenching and full of personal detail, leaving one with the impression of having stood by her side throughout her journey. Johnson’s narrative feels more like a laundry list of her good deeds and justification for some of her more questionable ones.
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by Lindsay on 15 May 2012
Verdict: Ryan Bubear gives it a carrot and Peter Taylor walks the fence
When the 13-chapter SuperVan & I landed on my desk with a reassuringly solid thud, I casually opened it to a random page and began scanning. The words “utter crap”, “ball of shit”, “pielkop”, “moer”, and “p*es” (this last one appeared twice, without the asterisk, for good measure) stood out. All on one page.
Lacking in colour, SuperVan & I most certainly is not.
In his acknowledgements in Supervan and I, a book that is modestly subtitled “The memoir of South Africa’s greatest driver and his alter ego”, Sarel van der Merwe says: “I suppose I should apologise to all the people who might be insulted, threatened, hurt, defamed or just generally pissed off by this book. Not that I give a s** t, but it just seems like the right thing to do.”
This is Van der Merwe to a T.
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by Amy on 15 May 2012
Jacana Media is thrilled to announce that McIntosh Polela has been shortlisted for the prestigious Sunday Times Alan Paton Award for his book My Father, My Monster.
“McIntosh Polela’s brave and honest account of his struggles to make something of himself under terrible conditions, and his heartbreaking look at his difficult relationship with his father, made sure that the voice of many unheard South Africans was acknowledged by the judges.” – Tymon Smith, Sunday Times
An overwhelmed Polela said he “felt embarrassed crying in front of such a big audience because, as spokeman for the Hawks, I’m supposed to be stiff and snobbish and shouldn’t cry.”
– Sunday Times, May 13 2012
A triumph of the human spirit
Police spokesperson and former TV journalist McIntosh Polela has been on our screens for many years. But behind his seemingly unfazed demeanour a troubled past haunts him. His parents disappeared when he was a little boy, leaving him and his sister Zinhle to suffer years of brutal abuse.
When the truth of his parents’ disappearance is revealed, the teenage McIntosh makes a fully functioning gun from found objects which he keeps for the day when he finds his father. He knows that he must come face to face with the man who robbed him of his childhood.
McIntosh has to confront his father about his mother’s brutal death. How can he possibly forgive, when his father remains a remorseless, brutal and heartless monster?
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by Thando on 11 May 2012
Pan Macmillan and The Book Lounge invite you to join them for the launch of Emma Mashinini’s Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life.
Mashinini will be in conversation with Jay Naidoo on Wednesday, 22 May at 5:30 for 6:00 PM.
See you there!
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by Luso on 10 May 2012
Verdict: carrot
The word “stark” in German means “strong”. Peter Stark can be likened to any great legend of the bush, such as Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. He was a tough young man growing up in a tough country – South West Africa – and Stark’s autobiography tells us what life was like for him in the 1930s and 1940s. At an early age he gained skills as a horseman and hunter.
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by Lindsay on 10 May 2012
On her Radio 702 book show, Jenny Crwys-Williams recently featured two biographical books about people who devoted their lives to the conservation of Africa’s animals: The Last Rhinos by Lawrence Anthony and An African Love Story by Diane Sheldrick.
The Last Rhinos relates the “tragic, brutal and beautiful” story of Anthony’s trip into war-torn Congo in a bid to save the last group of Northern white rhinos from extinction, while Sheldrick describes how she rescued orphaned baby elephants in An African Love Story.
Listen to the podcast:
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