"At the age of 15 I already had a criminal record, busted by the drug squad for possession of an illigal substance. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, wouldn't you, but I'm still learning, even though I'm clean of street drugs now - well, just for today - and have a lot of clean time behind me. The hardest lesson of all for an addict is that the nightmare is never over and the powerful seduction of just one more high never ever goes away." Steve Hamilton's story is not a comfortable one. He tells of his life growing up with drugs and his battles with heroin, the book is at times harrowing reading but his story is touching and heartfelt throughout.

I Want My Life Back

Hamilton, Steve

Biographies & Memoirs

Penguin South Africa

Kaleidoscope is a novel about shifting perspectives within a family, brought about by the birth of an autistic child. Primarily about relationships, insights are given into the difference between early infantile autism, Asperger's syndrome and social phobia.

Kaleidoscope

Erasmus, B. J. B.

Literature & Fiction

This title refers to the frustrations and vexations we experience when we try to judge Africa from our Western perspective. It also alludes to the notion that although we may be confused and impatient with it, we are in Africa's spell. Once Africa is in our blood, it is hard to let go. The author uses paintings accompanied by anecdotes and stories of his experiences in the bush and the people he met there to portray the magic of Africa, while simultaneously exploring the mystical connection between wild animals and man. The author also makes mention of one of Africa's great conservationists, Norman Carr, as well as the splendour and beauty of Zambia, both of which he feels have not received the attention they deserve. Some of the stories are light-hearted, even humorous, others are sombre, but all are intended to reflect Africa's inscrutable face the trouble with Africa.

The Trouble with Africa

Travel

Guhrs, Vic

Africa

Stories Gogo Told Me

Grainger, Lisa

Children's Books

Little Ice Cream Boy

Jacques Pauw

As Spud Milton continues his diabolical stagger through adolescence, he learns one of life's most important lessons: when dealing with women and cretins, nothing is ever quite as it seems. 'I'm practically a man in most areas', writes Spud confidently on his sixteenth birthday. The year is 1992 and, as always in South Africa, radical change is in the air. The country may be on the bumpy road to an uncomfortable redemption, but Spud Milton is hoping for a smooth ride as he returns to boarding school as a senior. Instead, he discovers that his vindictive arch enemy is back to taunt him and that a garrulous Malawian has taken residence in his dormitory, along with the regular inmates and misfits he calls friends. Spud's world has never seemed less certain; he attempts to master Shakespeare, wrestles constantly with God and the power of negative thinking, and develops an aversion to fried fish after a shocking discovery about his grandmother, Wombat.

Spud - Learning To Fly

De Ruit, John Van

House Of War

Wende, Hamilton

Smacked

Ferguson, Melinda

Handful Of Summers

Forbes, Gordon

Sports & Outdoors

Loss and life are the themes that weave through this tale of three generations of Muslim women living in suburban South Africa. Khadeejah Bibi Ballim is a hard-working and stubborn first-generation Indian who longs for her beloved homeland and often questions what she is doing on the tip of Africa. At thirty-seven, her daughter Summaya is struggling to reconcile her South African and Indian identities, while Summaya s own daughter, eleven-year-old Aneesa, is a girl who has some difficult questions of her own. Is her mother lying to her about her father s death? Why won t she tell her what really happened? Gradually, the past merges with the present as the novel meanders through their lives, uncovering the secrets people keep, the words they swallow and the emotions they elect to mute. For this family, faintly detectable through the sharp spicy aromas that find their way out of Khadeejah s kitchen, the scent of tragedy is always threatening. Eventually it may bring this family together, if not, it will tear them part.

Onion Tears

Khan, Shubnum

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