10 bookshelf must-haves
FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE: COLLECTION OF FACT AND FICTION FOR LOVERS OF LITERATURE Powerful and empowering titles to help you navigate some of the challenges that 2021 is likely to throw your way.
Leading in the 21st century: The Call for a New Type of African Leader Author: Professor Tshilidzi Marwala
Publisher: Tracey McDonald Publishers
Release date: January 2021
Just because the Oval office looks set to be a little less orange next year, doesn’t mean the global leadership crisis is recovering. The digital age presents us all with opportunities for leadership, and lucky for us, in this book we get to draw on lessons from people like Charlotte Maxeke and the Rain Queen Modjadji, to Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe, Eric Molobi and Richard Maponya. Female Fear Factory
Author: Professor Pumla Dineo
Gqola
Publisher: Melinda Ferguson Books (NB Publishers) Release date: May 2021
The scourge of sexual- and gender-based violence affects not only those individuals who bear wounds and scars, but has traumatised a nation. This is the follow-up to the 2016 Sunday Times Alan Paton award winner Rape: A South African Nightmare. This book fuses intellectual rigour and extensive research, and offers an even bolder vision for collective action.
The Prophets
Author: Robert Jones Jr Publisher: Quercus (Distributed in SA by Jonathan Ball Publishers) Release date: February 2021
There has been a great deal of hype around this novel, which tells the story of the forbidden union between Isiah and Samuel, two enslaved men who work on a plantation in the American deep south. This tale of intimacy and betrayal amid a backdrop of injustice will feel poignantly and painfully familiar to South African readers. Author Robert Jones Jr is the creator of Son of Baldwin, a social justice online community that pays tribute to author James Baldwin.
Heal – begin with food
Author: Melissa Delport Publisher: Struik Lifestyle Release date: February 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has, in many ways, revealed deep limitations in our understanding of well-being, health and immunity. One of the simplest and most powerful ways of taking control of your health is by improving your relationship with food. Delport encourages readers to live a life of energy and abundance through beautiful, whole-food cooking. The close to 100 recipes in this book are delicious, and will nourish mind, body and soul.
Precarious Power: Compliance and discontent under Ramaphosa’s ANC
Author: Susan Booysen Publisher: Wits University Press Release date: February 2021
As SA’s ruling party continues to haemorrhage legitimacy, President Cyril Ramaphosa walks a well-documented tightrope between serving the needs of the organisation and those of the nation. The Covid-19 crisis has further highlighted existing inequalities in SA and discontent is growing. Political commentator Susan Booysen’s analyses ANC power – as party, as government, as state – in a way that will appeal to all. How many ways can I say goodbye?
Author: Refiloe Moahloli Publisher: Penguin Random House
Release date: March 2021
In How Many Ways Can You Say Hello?, Sara and her friends galivanted around the country in a hot-air balloon and learnt to say howzit in all the local languages. In this book, they are making a return trip to drop off the friends, and learn how to say goodbye in all of the country’s 11 official languages. If people aren’t sure how to pronounce words, there is a digital link to guide readers. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need Author: Bill Gates
Publisher: Allen Lane/Penguin Release date: February 2021
It is interesting that Gates’ title refers to “avoiding” climate disaster: many might argue that this is not a distant prospect, but an unfolding reality. Yet his message is one of hope. Gates sets out practical ways to minimise the emissions of greenhouse gases, showing us not only what we can do as individuals, but also what policymakers ought to be doing, and how we should hold governments to account. Walking Safaris of South Africa Author: Hlengiwe Magagula and Denis Costello
Publisher: Struik Travel & Heritage Release date: February 2021
Need to spend more time in nature? Here’s a wonderful way to do all those things: explore some of our country’s most beautiful big game areas on foot. Magagula and Costello describe more than 50 guided walks across 21 parks and reserves. They cover everything from luxurious to experiences to sleeping sleeping under the stars. Klara and the Sun
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Publisher: Faber & Faber (Distributed in SA by Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Release date: March 2021
What does it mean to love? That is the central question in the story of Klara, an “artificial friend” who waits patiently in a store hoping that one day a customer will choose her. This is the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017. While the themes around artificial intelligence invite us to reflect on the deeper quandaries of our digital age, this novel also offers its readers a series of timeless truths. African Europeans: An Untold Story
Author: Olivette Otele Publisher: Jacana All release dates are subject to change. Release date: Release date TBC
By tracing a long African European heritage through the lives of individuals, Professor Otele explores a history that has been long overlooked. She uncovers a forgotten past – from Septimius Severus, Rome’s first African emperor, all the way to migrants moving to Europe’s cities – with timely insights on the fraught interplay between race, power, identity and, above all, resilience.