A selection of the books that landed on our shelves

Rapid Fire Remarkable Miscellany, by John Maytham (Tafelberg Publishers)

JOHN Maytham is no stranger to Cape Talk radio listeners as the afternoon drivetime host.

While his views are at times controversial, his knowledge of anything and everything is encyclopaedic as demonstrated when he fires off answers to listeners who test his knowledge.

If you’ve ever wondered why there are no snakes in Ireland it’s not, as Maytham wryly says, because St Patrick drove them out.

One of the most famous questions is who actually said “let them eat cake”? For those under the false impression that it was Marie Antoinette – it was not!

This book will take you on a weird and wonderful journey of the strangest, most arcane and most surprising of questions and all the while that you are garnering new information you’ll be highly entertained. –

The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood, by Kevin Powell (Atria Books)

WRITER and activist Kevin Powell’s memoir vividly tells about the poverty of his youth and the writer’s struggles to overcome a legacy of anger, violence, and self-hatred.

When Powell was 3 years old, he discovered his world was a place of pain, poverty, violence, rats, roaches and a fear that would haunt him for years. But there were also moments of joy and belonging.

Powell survived abuse, abandonment by his father, debilitating low self-esteem, a police beating and years of relocation.

The book is a striking account and powerful chronicle of life from a child of post-civil rights America to healing and growth, survival and redemption. –

Buy these books at loot.co.za by scanning the QR codes with your smartphone