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Keepers of history : New Zealand centenarians tell their stories
Renee Hollis
In 2017, Renée interviewed 120 people over the age of 100, living in every region of New Zealand. Along the way she met opera singers and farmers, a politician and a racing car driver, a nun and a freedom fighter with Gandhi, and even a member of Hip Operation — the oldest hip-hop group in the world! From the everyday to the extraordinary, these are the stories of people who have lived through history and whose message of resilience has so much to offer the generations that have followed
The neuroscience of mindfulness : the astonishing science behind how everyday hobbies help you relax, work more efficiently and lead a healthier life
Stan Rodski
Neuroscientific studies are finding that our brain circuits for emotions are just as tangible as circuits for our other five senses. Advanced imaging techniques can now observe this. Recent fascination with colouring-in for adults joins a long list of techniques that have been employed by humans to calm the brain and help us with our emotions. Our ways of dealing with this intuitively have included tasks like knitting and gardening with some return for our time and effort. But, we now enter a world where these tasks are redundant for many of us. The discoveries of focused activities which take our minds away from the emotions of day-to-day living are returning again, but in new formats such as colouring-in books and even lego building blocks for adults. In this book, Dr Rodski explores the science behind these activities and many others which we humans crave for to help us through our emotional world.
Under Pressure
Lisa Damour
Though anxiety has risen among young people overall, recent research studies confirm that it has skyrocketed in girls since the turn of the century. So what's to blame? And how can we help these girls? In the same engaging, anecdotal style and reassuring tone that won over thousands of readers of her first book, Untangled, clinical psychologist Lisa Damour starts by examining the science of stress and anxiety, then turns to the many facets of girls' lives where stress hits them hard: the parental expectations they face at home, pressures at school, social anxiety among their peers, and on social media. Exploring the multiple layers of girls' lives, Damour shows us the critical steps we can take to shield them from the toxic stress to which both our culture and also we, as their caregivers, subject them.
Mentors: How to help and be helped
Russell Brand
Mentors describes the impact that a series of significant people have had throughout Russell's life, from the wayward youths he tried to emulate growing up in Essex, through the first ex-junkie sage, to the people he turns to today to help him be a better father. It explains how we all - consciously and unconsciously - choose guides, mentors and heroes throughout our lives and examines the new perspectives they can bring.
It's Not About the Burqa
Mariam Khan
When was the last time you heard a Muslim woman speak for herself without a filter?
Taking one of the most politicized and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. Here are voices you won’t see represented in the national news headlines: seventeen Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex, and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country. With a mix of British and international women writers, from activist Mona Eltahawy's definition of a revolution to journalist and broadcaster Saima Mir telling the story of her experience of arranged marriage, from author Sufiya Ahmed on her Islamic feminist icon to playwright Afshan D'souza-Lodhi's moving piece about her relationship with her hijab, these essays are funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, and each of them is a passionate declaration calling time on the oppression, the lazy stereotyping, the misogyny and the Islamophobia.
What does it mean, exactly, to be a Muslim woman in the West today? According to the media, it’s all about the burqa. Here’s what it’s really about.
The Flexible Pescatarian
Jo Pratt
Whether you’re looking to eat less meat, a lover of seafood, or even a dedicated pescatarian, you’ll find something for you in this book filled with delicious and practical recipes for every lifestyle from celebrated chef Jo Pratt. Choose between cooking each recipe as a fish dish, or get creative with some veggie substitutes. From a curried Buddha bowl to Cornish crab pasties, aromatic cured salmon with pea blinis to a wholesome and hearty smoky mac ‘n’ cheese, the range of international recipes spans the globe and are all simple, well-balanced and packed with flavour. As well as easy approaches on how to cook your fish and hacks for vegetarian options, this original cookbook shows you how to prepare the perfect fish fillet and handle whole fish and seafood. With a wide variety of health benefits, there has never been a better time to join the growing pescatarian movement and expand your culinary skills.
From Scratch
Tembi Locke
In Sicily, it is said that every story begins with a marriage or a death—in Tembi Locke’s case, it is both. Her story is about loss, but it’s really about love found. Her story is about travel, but it’s really about finding a home. It is about food, but it’s really about chasing flavor as an act of remembrance. From Scratch is for anyone who has dared to reach for big love, fought for what mattered most, and needed a powerful reminder that life is…delicious. A poignant and transporting cross-cultural love story set against the lush backdrop of the Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hour.
Natives : race and class in the ruins of empire
Akala
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today. Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, "Natives" will speak directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire.
Maid : hard work, low pay, and a mother's will to survive
Stephanie Land
As a struggling single mum, determined to keep a roof over her daughter's head, Stephanie Land worked for years as a maid, working long hours in order to provide for her small family. In MAID, she reveals the dark truth of what it takes to survive and thrive in today's inequitable society. As she worked hard to climb her way out of poverty as a single parent, scrubbing the toilets of the wealthy, navigating domestic labour jobs as a cleaner whilst also juggling higher education, assisted housing, and a tangled web of government assistance, Stephanie wrote. She wrote the true stories that weren't being told. The stories of the overworked and underpaid. Written in honest, heart-rending prose and with great insight, MAID explores the underbelly of the upper-middle classes and the reality of what it's like to be in service to them. 'I'd become a nameless ghost,' Stephanie writes. With this book, she gives voice to the 'servant' worker, those who fight daily to scramble and scrape by for their own lives and the lives of their children.
The Honey Bus
Meredith May
An extraordinary story of a girl, her grandfather and one of nature's most mysterious and beguiling creatures: the honeybee. Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. That first close encounter was at once terrifying and exhilarating for May, and in that moment she discovered that everything she needed to know about life and family was right before her eyes, in the secret world of bees. May turned to her grandfather and the art of beekeeping as an escape from her troubled reality. Her mother had receded into a volatile cycle of madness and despair and spent most days locked away in the bedroom. It was during this pivotal time in May's childhood that she learned to take care of herself, forged an unbreakable bond with her grandfather and opened her eyes to the magic and wisdom of nature. The bees became a guiding force in May's life, teaching her about family and community, loyalty and survival and the unequivocal relationship between a mother and her child. Part memoir, part beekeeping odyssey, The Honey Bus is an unforgettable story about finding home in the most unusual of places, and how a tiny, little-understood insect could save a life.
