by Thando on 16 May 2012
Picador Africa presents a fresh, entertaining series of pocket books that feature prominent young South African voices worth listening to.
The Youngsters series explores topics of interest to the young and the young at heart, ranging from hair weaves to discovering who you are and what you should do with your life, as well as issues of race and gender, love and sex in the time of social networks, the music and radio industries, comedy, empowering yourself and more. The series shares the reality of being a youngster in South Africa and helps you to make sense of it all.
The Youngsters eBooks are now available to pre-order from Amazon for your Kindle:
It Feels Wrong to Laugh, But… by Anele Mdoda
“I am not my gap, but I own it. I am not my size, but I own it and you can’t use what you see as a negative against me. I own me and proudly so.” – Anele Mdoda
Carving her own path in radio, Anele Mdoda (@Anele) is known as one irreplaceable half of The Grant & Anele Show on 5FM and, from April 2012, on the Drive Time show on Highveld Stereo. A talker, a comic, honest and raw, Anele discusses everything from radio to hair weaves and owning your size in It Feels Wrong to Laugh, But…
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Take it from Me by Danny K
“They say there’s no business like show business. And that’s not because of the fame, or the money. It’s because of just how hard it can be.” – Danny K
Take It From Me records the ups and downs of the career path of South African singer, songwriter, actor and producer, Danny K (@dannykmusic). A performer from a young age, Danny K talks about the good, the bad and the ugly of the music business, his influences and how rejection can sometimes pay off.
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In My Arrogant Opinion by Khaya Dlanga
“This book isn’t about anything in particular. I know that sounds a little disturbing, but hear me out. I think that those people who read my work read it precisely because there is no particular pattern; they read it to find out what I have to say. Essentially I am like them. I am a conversationalist. I write like people talk. No fancy language; nor do I show how smart I am.” – Khaya Dlanga
Award-winning blogger and advertising guy who never eats black jelly babies Khaya Dlanga (@khayadlanga) discusses issues of racism, love and sex, money, gender and a range of things in between. Khaya’s humour mixed with opinion is a recipe guaranteed to make you think and laugh out loud.
Khaya Dlanga is a Senior Communications Manager: Content Excellence at Coca-Cola South Africa. He writes in his personal capacity. He is a winner of the prestigious Cannes Gold and Black Eagle advertising awards. He is also a terror of the social networks.
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South Africa: A Long Walk to a Free Ride by Nik Rabinowitz and Gillian Breslin
According to these two youngsters, “The hardest thing about South African history is getting people to agree on it.”
A fast-paced, hilarious guide to surviving your youth in South Africa. Expect a history lesson with a difference, what makes a comedian tick, some alternative political insights and thoughtful crystal-ball gazing. Join Nik Rabinowitz (@nikrabinowitz) and Gillian Breslin on a side-splitting journey to discover the “real” South Africa.
Nik Rabinowitz was raised on the mean, green streets of Constantia, Cape Town, a world of ride-bys, piano lessons, and unrelenting love and financial support from family members. Despite all this hardship he still managed to be moderately successful, achieving fame as the world’s foremost Xhosa-speaking Jewish comedian. Gillian Breslin obtained a Journalism Degree from Rhodes University, but quickly realised that writing is much easier when you get to make stuff up. After a brief stint as ‘The World’s Worst Producer’ she started writing for television, and hasn’t looked back since (mostly because that’s where the creditors are). Gillian and Nik have been working together since 2008.
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Becoming by Shaka Sisulu
“There is a poetic justice to life because we are the sum of our experiences.” – Shaka Sisulu
Grandson of anti-apartheid stalwart Walter Sisulu, CEO of non-profit organisation Cheesekids, creator, dreamer, father and devoted Afrikan, Shaka Sisulu (@shakasisulu) discusses heritage, BEE, inspiration, leadership, legacy and how you can carve your own destiny in the Afrikan soil in Becoming.
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Book details
by Amanda on 16 May 2012
Louise Westerhout moes nadat kanker in haar linkerdybeen gediagnoseer is ‘n prostese kry en van voor af begin loop. Vandag is die kanker in remissie en het sy pas ‘n kookboek met gesonde gesinskos, Cook Eat Love Grow, die lig laat sien.
Annelize Visser het met Westerhout gesels oor hierdie nuwe hoofstuk in haar lewe:
Sy moet mooi loop. Sit sy ’n voet verkeerd, kan sy val en dan gaan die trane rol en die nagmerrie van voor af begin.
Toe sake begin skeefloop het vir Louise Westerhout vroeg in 2008, was die mooi vrou met die kort donkerrooi hare en fyn sproete skuins voor 40 en pas geskei van haar Sweedse man. Terwyl sy haar balans as enkelma probeer herwin het, was kanker besig om haar linkerdybeen stil-stil weg te vreet. Teen die tyd dat sy met stadium 4-limfoom gediagnoseer is, was dit te laat om haar knie te red. ’n Week later is dit vervang deur ’n mega-prostese, ’n tegnologiese wonder van titanium waarmee sy van voor af moes leer loop.
Boekbesonderhede
by Chris on 16 May 2012
Willie Esterhuyse bewaar steeds die notatjie wat Thabo Mbeki tydens ‘n geheime ontmoeting in 1989 in Londen aan hom oorhandig het.
“Wat ook vir my fantasties was, en ek raak daaroor wel ’n bietjie sentimenteel, is hy skryf toe vir my in Afrikaans,” het Esterhuyse aan Murray la Vita gesê tydens ‘n onderhoud oor sy boek Eindstryd: Geheime gesprekke en die einde van Apartheid.
Esterhuyse was een van die lede van die Afrikaanse “binnekring” wat op versoek van die Nasionale Intelligensiediens geheime gesprekke met ANC-leiers gevoer het, as voorloper tot die onderhandelinge wat tot die nuwe Suid-Afrika gelei het:
’n Oproep uit Pretoria het ’n Stellenbosse filosoof se lewe, en die koers van die Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis, onherroeplik verander.
Prof. Willie Esterhuyse staan in sy studeerkamer met ’n wit plastiekroomysbak in die hand.
Daaruit haal hy twee stukke papier. Een is ’n A4-groot gelinieerde vel aan albei kante gevul met woorde in swart ink. Dit is sy handskrif.
Lees uittreksels uit Eindstryd waarin Esterhuyse onder meer beskryf hoe Winnie Mandela op ‘n vliegtuig met NP-minister Kobie Coetsee gaan gesels het, waarna hy besluit het om Nelson Mandela in die hospitaal te gaan besoek:
Dis een van die groot historiese ironieë van Suid-Afrika se oorgangsproses na ’n inklusiewe demokrasie: Die vurige en charismatiese Winnie Mandela, toe nog die vrou van die politieke gevangene Nelson Mandela, gooi ’n tou uit na die NP-minister Kobie Coetsee, ’n gebeurtenis wat eindelik sou lei tot Mandela se ontmoeting met P.W. Botha in Tuynhuys, Kaapstad, op 5 Julie 1989.
Winnie Mandela, op pad om haar man in die hospitaal te gaan besoek (Mandela is in November 1985 in die Volkshospitaal in Kaapstad opgeneem vir ’n prostaatoperasie), was op dieselfde vliegtuig as Kobie Coetsee, wat by Jimmy Kruger as minister van justisie, polisie en gevangenisse oorgeneem het. (Kruger het Winnie Mandela in 1977 na Brandfort, ongeveer 60 kilometer vanaf Bloemfontein, verban.)
Boekbesonderhede
Foto te danke aan Beeld
by Amy on 16 May 2012
From the Tiger Brands case, through the Walmart saga to the recent auction scandal, the Competitions Tribunal has seldom been far from the news in the last few years.
Join ex-Head of the Competition Tribunal David Lewis for an inside account of the way this relatively new body has dealt with the anti-competitive practices of South African Big Business, through their examination of mergers, abuse of dominance (or monopolies) and cartels, and enlivened with case studies of each.
Lewis will launch his book, Thieves at the Table: Enforcing the Competition Act, at The Book Lounge on Wednesday 23 May at 6PM. See you there!
Event Details
Book Details
by Lindsay on 16 May 2012
Verdict: carrot
The premise of the South African writer Ivan Vladislavic’s genre-blending collection The Loss Library sounds fairly simple at first – to write a personal book about the stories he could not write, with thoughts on what prevented him.
In theory, this book would be perhaps 50 per cent creative non-fiction, an autobiographical look back through old notebooks that form, among other things, a chronicle of the writer’s past ambitions. Fiction could be included by giving readers snippets of the unfinished stories, which Vladislavic does, and if the book sheds new light on the modern writer’s craft and avoids looking like a bunch of old fragments published for fun or profit, it might yield good results.
Book Details
by Lindsay on 16 May 2012
In his brand new book, The Second Sexism, David Benatar, head of philosophy at the University of Cape Town, puts forward the controversial idea that men are the new victims of sexism, in an age were discrimination against women is far from obsolete.
Elizabeth Day examines Benatar’s claims, and other tales of persecuted men, in an article for The Guardian:
You might not have realised it, but men are being oppressed. In many walks of life, they are routinely discriminated against in ways women are not. So unrecognised is this phenomenon that the mere mention of it will appear laughable to some.
That, at least, is the premise of a book by a South African philosophy professor which claims that sexism against men is a widespread yet unspoken malaise. In The Second Sexism, shortly to be published in the UK, David Benatar, head of the philosophy department at Cape Town University, argues that “more boys drop out of school, fewer men earn degrees, more men die younger, more are incarcerated” and that the issue is so under-researched it has become the prejudice that dare not speak its name.
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Benatar will deliver a talk on The Second Sexism on 21 May as part of HUMA’s 2012 seminar series. The talk, entitled “Discrimination against men and boys”, will be in held in the Oppenheimer Institute Building on UCT’s Upper Campus from 1 to 2 PM. Don’t miss it!
Event details
- Date: Monday, 21 May 2012
- Time: 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
- Venue: Seminar Room
Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA)
Oppenheimer Institute Building
Upper Campus
University of Cape Town | Campus Map
- RSVP: Heather Maytham; 021 650 4592
Book details
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