Penguin Books and Love Books take pleasure in inviting you to the launch of Thinking Up a Hurricane. Martinique Stilwell will be in conversation with Nic Dawes.
Date: Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Time: 6.00pm for 6.30pm
Venue: Love Books, The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg
The nineteen-year-old American soldier, Billy Lynn, is home for a short promotional tour across the country with his squad, before he is sent back to Iraq. The story is set in the Dallas stadium on the last day of the tour. Through flashbacks the reader follows his personal growth.
His brave attempt to help a fellow soldier in Iraq is caught on camera and the Bush administration uses the opportunity to get support for the war. The decadence of limos, fancy hotels, and compatriots worshipping them as heroes, depresses Billy.
The book starts with this Sepedi idiom: 'Mabu a u tswitswe' (The soil has been stolen), which simply means something is terribly wrong with the current state of affairs in our country. These words are uttered by a young man during his conversation with Dr Ramphele. The young man seems overwhelmed by frustrations and anguish. He is facing the dilemma of speaking out against corruption at his workplace and jeopardising his great career prospects, or shutting up and focuing on reaching the upper echelons of his career. And somehow this story sets the tone for the rest of the book.
Penguin Books and Exclusive Books take pleasure in inviting you to the launch of Journey from Darkness by Gareth Crocker and Llewellyn Crocker.
Date: Thursday, 18 October 2012
Time: 6.00pm for 6.30pm
Sean Davison made headlines in 2010 when he was arrested for aiding his mother's death. Eighty-four years old and terminally ill with cancer, medical doctor and psychiatrist Pat Ferguson wants nothing more than for her life, which no longer brings her joy, to be over. But when her ailing body refuses to let go, she asks her son Sean to do the unthinkable: to help her to die.
Penguin Books, in conjunction with The Brenthurst Foundation and Love Books invite you to a discussion about the need for Africa's third liberation.
John van de Ruit's Spud books are a publishing phenomenon in South Africa. My theory is that a large part of their appeal is the fact that Van de Ruit has managed to make the reader feel that they are part of the story. We've followed John “Spud” Milton through his last three years of boarding school – cheered at his successes, cringed at his family's madcap antics and followed his less-than-simple love life.
Penguin Books and Love Books take pleasure in inviting you to the launch of Hamilton Wende‘s Only the Dead. Wende willl be in conversation with Robyn Curnow.
Date: Thursday, 11 October 2012
Time: 6.00pm for 6.30pm
Venue: Love Books, The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg
This is lovely. The spicy heat of the ginger biscuits works really well with
the sharp tang of the lime. And the texture is different to that of baked
cheesecake – this is very light and creamy. Because there’s no actual
baking involved, this cheesecake is ready a lot quicker than the previous
cheesecake recipes I’ve given. All the same, it’s not what you might call
speedy. There’s still a lot of sitting around in fridges being done.
Deep in the Ugandan jungle, a mysterious new presence has infiltrated the Claws of God - a cult army of child soldiers led by the depraved General Faustin. The children are now being controlled by the sinister Papa Mephisto, and believe he is possessed by the magic and power of the lion.