Book Reviews

Cooking at home can feel difficult when time is short and everyday demands keep piling up. Simple Too responds to that reality with an inviting approach to food. Yotam Ottolenghi brings his distinctive flavours to recipes designed for ordinary kitchens and busy schedules. For readers who enjoyed Ottolenghi SIMPLE, Simple Too offers another collection of accessible recipes. The book features 135 dishes covering breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Each recipe places simplicity at its core without sacrificing flavour, creativity or visual appeal.

The author returns with Farewell to Eden, an ambitious historical novel about love, trauma, faith and the difficult process of rebuilding a life after war. Set between post-war Mandatory Palestine and the English countryside, the novel explores how private lives carry the lasting consequences of major historical events.

Busy schedules often leave little time for preparing a satisfying home-cooked meal. Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals tackles that challenge with a practical collection of quick and flavourful recipes. The book shows that fast cooking can still produce food worth sharing around the dinner table. 20 Minute Meals features 120 recipes designed to reach the table in 20 minutes or less.

Protocols offers a practical guide to improving mental and physical wellbeing through simple, science-based practices. Rather than presenting health as a collection of complicated interventions, Huberman focuses on everyday behaviours that readers can understand and apply. The book explores how small, consistent changes can influence sleep, focus, stress, exercise, nutrition and overall performance.

Traditional strategy rests on assumptions that often fail when organisations face uncertainty, complexity and rapid change. Professor Clayton Fraser Williams challenges these assumptions. He asks a deceptively simple question: What is strategy?

Zama Mkhize’s debut book, What Now?: Navigating Personal Growth and Transformation, arrives as a reflective companion for young adults confronting uncertainty, loss and personal change. Through poetry, affirmations and personal reflections, Mkhize creates an intimate account of the emotional turbulence that often accompanies adulthood.

Cheslin Kolbe: Sidestepping the Odds offers readers an intimate account of one of South Africa’s most recognisable rugby figures. Kolbe wrote the book with award-winning writer and broadcaster David O’Sullivan. The memoir traces Kolbe’s journey from Kraaifontein to international rugby. As a young boy, he was consistently the smallest player on the rugby field.

1985: The Langa Massacre and the Ending of White Rule in South Africa revisits a critical moment in the country’s struggle against apartheid. Mark Swilling examines the Langa massacre and the political developments surrounding it. He also considers how events in 1985 helped shift the balance between an authoritarian state and a growing democratic movement.

Money with Carla challenges many assumptions South Africans hold about building wealth. Carla Venter draws on her experience in finance, investing and international markets. She combines professional knowledge with practical lessons from her own journey towards financial independence.

Situated builds on the ideas explored in her bestselling book, Grit. While Grit focused on passion and perseverance, this book examines another factor behind achievement. Duckworth argues that success also depends on the situations people create around themselves. Her research challenges the popular belief that people should simply adapt to difficult circumstances.