Book Reviews

In a bold and fascinating narrative, June Bam presents a history of the imposition of history and the suppression of knowledge. She considers the voices that have been left out of the official history of our deep pasts and how this omission has impacted on our knowledge of South Africa’s pasts.

The Living Room Leader from Jack Hammer CEO Debbie Goodman is an illuminating exploration into the status-quo-shattering lessons learned in 2020 that can-and should-prevail beyond the era of the pandemic.

Theo Byrne is a promising young astrobiologist who has found a way to search for life on other planets dozens of light years away. He is also the widowed father of a most unusual nine-year-old. His son Robin is funny, loving, and filled with plans. He thinks and feels deeply, adores animals, and can spend hours painting elaborate pictures.

Bestselling writing duo, Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman, return with a new unputdownable thriller. When a wealthy man is found murdered in his hilltop home, Deputy Coroner Clay Edison is shocked to discover a link to his own brother Luke on the scene. Luke is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow.

After over a decade of Bitcoin, which has now moved beyond lore and hype into an increasingly robust star in the firmament of global assets, a new and more important question has arisen. What happens beyond Bitcoin? 

Set in the 19th century Boer Republic of Transvaal, Southern Africa, the Boer Dirk van Zyl leads his band of vagabonds in raids on African villages, capturing children to be traded for cattle and sold into labour on the Boer farms.

In 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton's attempt to traverse the Antarctic was cut short when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice. The disaster left Shackleton and his men alone at the frozen South Pole, fighting for their lives. Their survival and escape is the most famous adventure in history.

This book explains Leandie's rituals for her body, mind, soul and business, and the ‘life hacks’ the author figured out following both the death of her mother and her divorce. These rituals helped her be the best version of herself.

Every now and then a book comes along that is both timely and remarkable, but only a few integrate all aspects of life, from recognising one’s roots, to getting started, developing a grounding, building strong family foundations, and remaining humble when it all comes to pass.

This extraordinary account of imprisonment shows with exacting clarity the awful injustices of the system. Sylvia Neame, activist against apartheid and racism and by profession a historian (see the three-volume, The Congress Movement, HSRC Press, 2015), has not written a classical historical memoir.