Memoirs Books
Little, Brown & Company And Now We Have Everything
Book Synopsis A raw, funny, and fiercely honest account of becoming a mother before feeling like a grown up. When Meaghan O''Connell got accidentally pregnant in her twenties and decided to keep the baby, she realized that the book she needed -- a brutally honest, agenda-free reckoning with the emotional and existential impact of motherhood -- didn''t exist. So she decided to write it herself. And Now We Have Everything is O''Connell''s exploration of the cataclysmic, impossible-to-prepare-for experience of becoming a mother. With her dark humor and hair-trigger B.S. detector, O''Connell addresses the pervasive imposter syndrome that comes with unplanned pregnancy, the fantasies of a natural birth experience that erode maternal self-esteem, post-partum body and sex issues, and the fascinating strangeness of stepping into a new, not-yet-comfortable identity. Channeling fears and anxieties that are still taboo and often unspoken, And Now We Have Everything is an unflinchingly frank, funny, and visceral motherhood story for our times, about having a baby and staying, for better or worse, exactly yourself. Smart, funny, and true in all the best ways, this book made me ache with recognition. -- Cheryl Strayed
£999.99
Little, Brown & Company The Sun Is a Compass
Book SynopsisDuring graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the peculiarly misshapen beaks of chickadees, ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert began to feel stifled in the isolated, sterile environment of the lab. Worried that she was losing her passion for the scientific research she once loved, she was compelled to experience wildness again, to be guided by the sounds of birds and to follow the trails of animals.In March of 2012 she and her husband set off on a 4,000-mile wilderness journey from the Pacific rainforest to the Alaskan Arctic. Travelling by rowboat, ski, foot, raft and canoe, they explored northern landscapes so remote there were no maps or guidebooks to mark them. Together, they survived harrowing dangers while also experiencing incredible moments of joy and grace - migrating birds silhouetted against the moon, the steamy breath of caribou and the bond that comes from sharing such experiences. A unique blend of science, adventure and personal narrative, the book explores the bounds of the physical body and the tenuousness of life in the company of creatures whose daily survival is nothing short of miraculous. It is a journey through the heart, the mind and some of the wildest places left in North America.In the end, The Sun Is a Compass is a love letter to nature, an inspiring story of endurance and a beautifully written testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
£999.99
Little, Brown & Company Learning in Public
Book SynopsisFrom the time Courtney E. Martin strapped her daughter, Maya, to her chest for long walks, she was curious about Emerson Elementary, a public school down the street from her Oakland home. She learned that White families in their gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school. As she began asking why, a journey of a thousand moral miles began.Learning in Public is the story, not just Courtney''s journey, but a whole country''s. Many of us are newly awakened to the continuing racial injustice all around us, but unsure of how to go beyond hashtags and yard signs to be a part of transforming the country. Courtney discovers that her public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, is a powerful place to dig deeper. Courtney E. Martin examines her own fears, assumptions, and conversations with other moms and dads as they navigate school choice. A vivid portrait of integration''s virtues and complexities, and yes, the palpabl
£14.24
Little, Brown & Company My Fair Junkie
Book SynopsisIn the tradition of Sarah Hepola's Blackout and Jerry Stahl's Permanent Midnight, a darkly funny and deeply revealing debut memoir about one woman's twenty-year battle with sex, drugs, and alcohol addiction, and what happens when she finally emerges on the other side--now available in paperback.
£999.99
Back Bay Books Little Weirds
Book Synopsis
£13.36
Little, Brown & Company Black Widow
Book Synopsis With her signature warmth, hilarity, and tendency to overshare, Leslie Gray Streeter gives us real talk about love, loss, grief, and healing in your own way that 'will make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page' (James Patterson). Leslie Gray Streeter is not cut out for widowhood. She's not ready for hushed rooms and pitying looks. She is not ready to stand graveside, dabbing her eyes in a classy black hat. If she had her way she'd wear her favorite curve-hugging leopard print dress to Scott's funeral; he loved her in that dress! But, here she is, having lost her soulmate to a sudden heart attack, totally unsure of how to navigate her new widow lifestyle. ('New widow lifestyle.' Sounds like something you'd find products for on daytime TV, like comfy track suits and compression socks. Wait, is a widow even allowed to make jokes?) Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Wid
£999.99
Little, Brown & Company JellO Girls
Book SynopsisIn 1899, Allie Rowbottom''s great-great-great-uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor for $450. The sale would turn out to be one of the most profitable business deals in American history and the generations that followed enjoyed immense privilege - but they were also haunted by suicides, cancer, alcoholism and mysterious ailments.More than 100 years after that deal was struck, Allie''s mother Mary was diagnosed with the same incurable cancer, a disease that had also claimed her own mother''s life. Determined to combat what she had come to consider the Jell-O curse and her looming mortality, Mary began obsessively researching her family''s past, determined to understand the origins of her illness and the impact on her life of Jell-O and the traditional American values the company championed. Before she died in 2015, Mary began to send Allie boxes of her research and notes, in the hope that her daughter might write what she could not. JELL-O GIRLS is the liberatio
£999.99
Little Brown and Company Vision
Book Synopsis
£25.60
Little, Brown & Company Im Just Happy to Be Here
Book SynopsisAt 21, Janelle Hanchett embraced motherhood with the reckless self-confidence of those who have no idea what they''re getting into. Having known her child''s father for only three months, she found herself rather suddenly getting to know a newborn, husband, and wholly transformed identity. She was in love, but she was bored, directionless, and seeking too much relief in too much wine.Over time, as she searched for home in suburbia and settled life, a precarious drinking habit turned into treacherous dependence, until life became car seats and splitting hangovers, cubicles and multi-day drug binges--and finally, an inconceivable separation from her children. For ten years, Hanchett grappled with the relentless progression of addiction, bouncing from rehabs to therapists to the occasional hippie cleansing ritual on her quest for sobriety, before finding it in a way she never expected. This is a story we rarely hear--of the addict mother not redeemed by her children; wh
£16.14
Little Brown and Company You with the Sad Eyes
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£25.50
Pan Macmillan An Unexpected Light
Book SynopsisJason Elliot lives in London. His is the author of An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan and Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran.Trade Review'What raises the book to the level of a classic is its intensely personal meditation on the magic of unplanned adventure, of the pain and pleasure of pushing into the unknown. The whole book, like Elliot’s travels themselves, operated on this heightened level. * The Times *Jason Elliot is that rare traveller who surrenders himself to people and places and this tale is a many-layered reconstruction of his experience . . . I am sure this book will soon be among the classics of travel’ -- Doris Lessing‘An Unexpected Light is often unexpectedly funny and constantly perceptive, but it is also profound’ * New York Times *
£16.14
Random House USA Inc The Real James Herriot
Book Synopsis
£15.30
Random House Publishing Group That Summer in Sicily
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “At villa Donnafugata, long ago is never very far away,” writes bestselling author Marlena de Blasi of the magnificent if somewhat ruined castle in the mountains of Sicily that she finds, accidentally, one summer while traveling with her husband, Fernando. There de Blasi is befriended by Tosca, the patroness of the villa, an elegant and beautiful woman-of-a-certain-age who recounts her lifelong love story with the last prince of Sicily descended from the French nobles of Anjou. Sicily is a land of contrasts: grandeur and poverty, beauty and sufferance, illusion and candor. In a luminous and tantalizing voice, That Summer in Sicily re-creates Tosca’s life, from her impoverished childhood to her fairy-tale adoption and initiation into the glittering life of the prince’s palace, to the dawning and recognition of mutual love. But when Prince Leo attempts to better the lives of his peasants, h
£13.49
Random House Publishing Group Loon
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£15.29
Random House USA Inc A Big Little Life
Book Synopsis
£12.41
Random House USA Inc In Spite of Myself
Book SynopsisA collection of delicious anecdotes of a life spent on stages and film sets across the world—from Peter Hall’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre to The Sound of Music—from one of our greatest actors.Christopher Plummer’s magnificent book recounts the wild adventure that was his life, stretching from a privileged childhood in Canada to the glorious, star-studded New York of the fifties to a sensational career in film appearing in some of our most beloved classics. Here are his late nights out with Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, Paddy Chayefsky, and Arthur Miller; his affairs and marriages; his collaborations with famed producers; and his memorable roles alongside fellow young and talented actors, each also destined for stardom: Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Peter O’Toole, Natalie Wood, and countless others.
£16.16
Random House USA Inc My Last Sigh
Book Synopsis
£14.45
Random House USA Inc Ordinary Light
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • This dazzling memoir from the former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Life on Mars is the story of a young artist struggling to fashion her own understanding of belief, loss, history, and what it means to be black in America.Engrossing in its spare, simple understatement.... Evocative ... luminous. —The Washington PostIn Ordinary Light, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith tells her remarkable story, giving us a quietly potent memoir that explores her coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter.
£16.15
Random House USA Inc An Odyssey
Book SynopsisA New York Times/PBS NewsHour Book Club PickFrom award-winning memoirist and critic, and bestselling author of The Lost: a deeply moving tale of a father and son's transformative journey in reading--and reliving--Homer's epic masterpiece.When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, a retired research scientist who sees the world through a mathematician's unforgiving eyes, this return to the classroom is his one last chance to learn the great literature he'd neglected in his youth--and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that the two men explore Homer's great work together--first in the classroom, where Jay persistently challenges his son's interpretations, and t
£15.30
Little, Brown Book Group Who Goes Home Scenes from a Political Life
Book SynopsisEach night when the House of Commons rises, throughout the Palace of Westminster policemen shout, ''Who goes home?'', a relic of the days when Members of Parliament were escorted safely to their beds. WHO GOES HOME? is Roy Hattersley''s witty and characteristically frank account of a lifetime in the Labour party from schoolboy canvassing in post-war Sheffield through Cabinet office and the wilderness years in Opposition, to the decision to leave Parliament at the dawn of Tony Blair''s New Labour. During this period, the Honourable Member for the Sparkbrook constituency of Birmingham never forgot his Yorkshire roots (or his passion for Sheffield Wednesday FC). This memoir is an evocation of the 50-year journey that has taken the Party from Attlee''s Welfare State and nationalisation programme to the modernizers of social-ism and New Labour under Tony Blair. For Roy Hattersley, politics was fun while it lasted, even though the joke was often on him. These Scenes from Political Life sTrade Review'Scintillating . will beguile many who have not the slightest regard for politics' Brian Walden, SUNDAY TIMES *'The sheer zest for the political life - together with a refreshing absence of malice - permeates every page' THE TIMES *'Highly intelligent' Michael Foot, MAIL ON SUNDAY *'something wonderful on every page' TIME OUT
£22.52
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Compromised
Book SynopsisTrade Review“The United States needs a hero . . . Trump doesn’t want Americans to get ideas or inspiration from Strzok. He doesn’t want them to see what backbone looks like.” — Slate “Peter Strzok stands for an FBI that, whatever its faults, serves the nation rather than a political master. G-men have become the Henry Fondas, the Jimmy Stewarts, of the present day—the true believers in an archaic code.” — James Traub, The Atlantic “His early experiences . . . make for riveting reading . . . Strzok delivers a compelling tale.” — Carlos Lozada, Washington Post “Aficionados will welcome the insights he is able to provide about key moments in the story . . . For those with a solid background in the Clinton email and Russia imbroglios, Strzok's account obviously is essential.” — Philip Ewing, NPR.org “A former Army officer, Mr. Strzok . . . rose quickly through [the FBI’s] ranks, earning a reputation within the bureau as one of its most savvy and reliable counterintelligence agents.” — New York Times “Compelling . . . [Strzok] offers a window into FBI counter-intelligence work, a defense of his conduct, and a scathing indictment of the president and his administration. Compromised is a significant contribution to the library of Trump tell-alls.” — The Guardian
£14.24
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Flying Blind
Book SynopsisAn exhilarating memoir by a daughter uncovering the secret of her father's rags-to-riches story, from poor farm boy to international drug smuggler, and the many mysteries surrounding his sudden death by plane crash. Nothing seemed awry the morning that five-year-old Artis Chester climbed into her father's plane: this was simply their usual Saturday bonding. But moments after they take off into the crystal blue sky, the plane plummets to the ground, leaving Artis with a broken body--and without a father. This tragedy would be enough to shape any young life, but Artis's world is further turned upside down when, shortly thereafter, the IRS arrives to seize all her family's possessions. Lamar Chester had always had an air of mystery about him, but now her mother won't say a word. He'd been a dashing commercial pilot, settling his family in a palatial estate in Georgia, amassing a collection of boats, cars, a private plane and even a group of islands in the Bahamas. But Artis, as a youn
£20.90
HarperCollins The High Desert
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of a 2022 ALA Alex Award * Winner of the 2023 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Print Comics* One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2022 * One of NYPL's Best Books of 2022 *One of Chicago Public Library's "Best of the Best 2022 Books" * A Publishers Weekly "Best Book of 2022" * One of LitHub's "Best Graphic Novels and Nonfiction of 2022" * One of ALA's "Best Graphic Novels for Adults" — "Punk is James Spooner’s salvation as he comes of age in a racist world, but punk culture is also a microcosm of that world. The path to reconciliation—with himself, his parents, his peers—is navigated with exquisite nuance and compassion. A beautifully drawn story." — Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home "A rewarding journey of identity, creativity and self-determination." — Washington Post “Deeply relatable...it is genuinely therapeutic to read about James Spooner’s experiences: being in proximity to white supremacy, the exceptions that are made in small town, USA, and how quickly violence can escalate. Man oh man. The High Desert hits so deep.” — Kimya Dawson, Moldy Peaches "Like most coming-of-age books, 'The High Desert' is the saga of a square peg. What differentiates Spooner’s memoir is its bold confrontation of race." — Los Angeles Times "James Spooner’s documentary AFRO-PUNK not only exposed racism in the punk scene, it inspired a movement that centered Black and Brown punks everywhere. In his new memoir, we learn about the major pitfalls and minor triumphs that put Spooner on the path to realize his dream of an all Black mosh pit. Beautifully written and illustrated The High Desert is a must-have for every music fan. After I finished reading it I kept wishing a second, third and fourth volume would magically appear so it didn’t have to end." — Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill & Le Tigre “James Spooner captures an often overlooked, West Coast slice of modern American culture and subculture. Misfits, nerds, social outcasts and rebels: Mr. Spooner has delivered a well needed roadmap for future generations of kids that don’t quite fit in, especially kids of color.” — Norwood, Fishbone “This beautifully paced graphic memoir illustrates the struggle and joy of finding self-acceptance and community on the fringes. It perfectly captures the innocence, camaraderie, and trauma of being a punk of color in the late eighties and early nineties. I couldn’t look away.” — MariNaomi, author and illustrator of Losing the Girl "Washington DC is a long way from Apple Valley and the circumstances of James’ introduction to the punk underground are vastly different than mine, but there’s something so recognizable in The High Desert that I felt like I was there. I suspect in a way we were all there at one time in our lives, navigating and negotiating as we figured out just who the fuck we were and who was with us. I loved this book." — Ian MacKaye, Minor Threat & Fugazi “In each panel of The High Desert, James Spooner delivers magic between his art and his words, mixing the intense passions of youth with the hindsight of the wise. Gorgeously drawn, brutally honest, and as emotionally raw as your favorite punk song.” — Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev “A coming of age tale of the very precarious faultlines of growing up an outsider amongst outsiders: The High Desert is an American tale of race, politics, counter-culture, and the tender and personal story of Black adolescence rarely told.” — Brontez Purnell, author of 100 Boyfriends "This reminds me of how punk can pull us out of a pit, give us legs to dance on, and words to scream with our dumb drunk beautiful friends. This already feels like a classic." — Ben Passmore, author of BTTM FDRS and Your Black Friend “[A] probing graphic memoir. . . . . Spooner is a discerning student of his own past and the movement he joined. . . .[An] eloquent latter-day rejoinder to Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City. A lively, inspirational tale that will point readers toward art, music, and resistance of their own.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Much like Ghost World, this grabbing, angsty coming-of-age tale offers a sidewalk view of a creative subculture. It’s also a poignant ode to the power of music to fill voids left by family and circumstance, with provocations thrumming on race and identity that sound out like a smashed guitar.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A masterful debut that's just as captivating as it is inspiring. Spooner paints a world that's irresistible and harrowing, and fills it with the kind of honesty that defines every great graphic memoir." — Ezra Claytan Daniels, author of BTTM FDRS "James Spooner’s The High Desert has all the marks of a classic Black punk coming-of-age story. What makes this graphic novel extra special is Spooner’s thoughtful observations about the ways that Black kids have to flatten themselves to feel safe in hostile white spaces. If you’ve ever had to fight to be yourself, this book is for you." — Chris L. Terry, author of Black Card and Zero Fade "The High Desert is a memoir for music lovers. Spooner brings readers along on the punk journey of his younger self, blazing lyrics across the pages; the larger the writing, the louder the volume." — departures.com "His freshly told and achingly vulnerable graphic memoir illustrates his adolescence as being an outcast many times over...Spooner’s narration is endearingly earnest and honest feeling, whether pining after the cool Goth girl at the video store or exulting in discovering countercultural meccas like the East Village and Venice Beach." — Star Tribune "I always love a good ‘punk kid coming of age’ tale and the 350+ pages of this kept me reading pretty much non-stop to the end." — Hanging Hex "Perfect for fans of music history, as well anyone who’s ever been looking for their place to fit in." — Book Riot "A must-read for fans of punk music." — "The Hub" at the Young Adult Library Services Association.
£20.00
Lulu.com The Vanishing Point
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£13.49
Lulu.com I Am A Survivor
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£15.82
Lulu.com I Am A Survivor
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£15.85
ReadHowYouWant Barefoot in the Bindis 16pt Large Print Edition
£28.49
ReadHowYouWant ADHD and Me 16pt Large Print Edition
£17.99
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc My Queer War
Book SynopsisIn 1942, a timid, inexperienced twenty-one-year-old Lord reports to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to enlist in the US Army. This title tells the story of this young man's exposure to the terrors, dislocations, and horrors of armed conflict.
£20.67
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc Uproot Travels in 21stCentury Music and Digital Culture
£18.52
Farrar, Straus and Giroux The Greek House
Book SynopsisWhen Christian Brechneff first set foot on the Greek island of Sifnos, it was the spring of 1972 and he was a twenty-one-year-old painter searching for artistic inspiration and a quiet place to work. This narrative is about his relationship to Sifnos, writing with warmth about its residents and the house he bought in a hilltop farm village.
£18.52
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Doctored The Disillusionment of an American Physician
£9.99
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc My Two Italies
Book SynopsisThe child of Italian immigrants and an award-winning scholar of Italian literature, Joseph Luzzi straddles these two perspectives in My Two Italies to link his family's dramatic story to Italy's north-south divide, its quest for a unifying language, and its passion for art, food, and family.
£9.99
Farrar, Straus and Giroux American Philosophy A Love Story
Book SynopsisThe epic wisdom contained in a lost library helps the author turn his life around.
£10.44
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl Draw A Memoir
£17.09
Picador USA Among Flowers
Book SynopsisIn this travel memoir, the acclaimed novelist Jamaica Kincaid chronicles a three-week trek through Nepal, the spectacular and exotic Himalayan land, where she and her companions are gathering seeds for planting at home. The natural world and, in particular, plants and gardening are central to Kincaid's work; in addition to such novels as Annie John and Lucy, Kincaid is the author of My Garden (Book): a collection of essays about her love of cultivating plants and gardens throughout her life. Among Flowers intertwines meditations on nature and stunning descriptions of the Himalayan landscape with observations on the ironies, difficulties, and dangers of this magnificent journey.For Kincaid and three botanist friends, Nepal is a paradise, a place where a single day's hike can traverse climate zones, from subtropical to alpine, encompassing flora suitable for growing at their homes, from Wales to Vermont. Yet as she makes clear, there is far more to this foreign world than rhododendrons that grow thirty feet high. Danger, too, is a constant companionand the leeches are the least of the worries. Unpredictable Maoist guerillas live in these perilous mountains, and when they do appearas they do more than oncetheir enigmatic presence lingers long after they have melted back into the landscape. And Kincaid, who writes of the looming, lasting effects of colonialism in her works, necessarily explores the irony of her status as memsahib with Sherpas and bearers.A wonderful blend of introspective insight and beautifully rendered description, Among Flowers is a vivid, engrossing, and characteristically frank memoir from one of our most striking voices.
£16.15
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc Dressed Up for a Riot Misadventures in Putins Moscow
Book SynopsisA memoir of revolution, reaction, and Russian men's fashionIn this crackling memoir, the journalist and novelist Michael Idov recounts the tempestuous years he spent living alongsideand closely observingthe media and cultural elite of Putin's Russia. After accepting a surprise offer to become the editor in chief of GQ Russia, Idov and his family arrive in a Moscow still seething from a dubious election and the mass anti-Putin rallies that erupted in response. Idov is fascinated by the political turmoil but nonetheless finds himself pulled in unlikely directions. He becomes a tabloid celebrity, acts in a Russian movie with Snoop Dogg, befriends the members of Pussy Riot, punches an anti-Semitic magazine editor on the steps of the Bolshoi Theatre, sells an autobiographical sitcom pilot that is later changed into an anti-American farce, and writes Russia's top-grossing domestic movie of 2015. Meanwhile, he becomes disillusioned with the splintering opposition to P
£16.00
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Doppelganger
Book SynopsisA finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle AwardWinner of the Women''s Prize for NonfictionNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER National Indie BestsellerA New York Times notable book of 2023 Vulture's #1 book of 2023One of Slate's ten best books of 2023 A Guardian best ideas book of 2023 One of Time's ten best books of 2023 Winner of the Pacific Northwest Book AwardI've been raving about Naomi Klein's Doppelganger . . . I can't think of another text that better captures the berserk period we're living through. Michelle Goldberg, The New York TimesIf I had to name a single book that makes sense of these last few dark years, it would be this one. Katie Roiphe, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another selfa double who was almost you and yet not yo
£24.00
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Love in Exile
£15.30
Random House USA Inc Persepolis 2
Book Synopsis
£14.40
Random House USA Inc A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A A beautifully ragged, laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable book (San Francisco Chronicle) that redefines both family and narrative. • From the bestselling author of The Circle.A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. This exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.
£14.85
Random House USA Inc Yes Chef
Book SynopsisJAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“One of the great culinary stories of our time.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Yes, Chef chronicles Samuelsson’s journey, from his grandmother’s kitchen to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of chasing flavors had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs, and, most important, the opening of Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fulfilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, and bus drivers. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.Praise for Yes, Chef “Such an interesting life, told with touching modesty and remarkable candor.”—Ruth Reichl “Marcus Samuelsson has an incomparable story, a quiet bravery, and a lyrical and discreetly glittering style—in the kitchen and on the page. I liked this book so very, very much.”—Gabrielle Hamilton “Plenty of celebrity chefs have a compelling story to tell, but none of them can top [this] one.”—The Wall Street Journal “Elegantly written . . . Samuelsson has the flavors of many countries in his blood.”—The Boston Globe “Red Rooster’s arrival in Harlem brought with it a chef who has reinvigorated and reimagined what it means to be American. In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope, and downright good food.”—President Bill Clinton
£16.20
Random House Publishing Group Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only
Book SynopsisMore than thirty years after the publication of his acclaimed memoir The Eden Express, Mark Vonnegut continues his story in this searingly funny, iconoclastic account of coping with mental illness, finding his calling, and learning that willpower isn’t nearly enough. Here is Mark’s life childhood as the son of a struggling writer, as well as the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital. At the late age of twenty-eight and after nineteen rejections, he is finally accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he gains purpose, a life, and some control over his condition. There are the manic episodes, during which he felt burdened with saving the world, juxtaposed against the real-world responsibilities of running a pediatric practice.Ultimately a tribute to the small, daily, and positive parts of a life interrupted by bipolar disorder, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is a wise, unsentimental, and inspiring book th
£15.19
Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale The Happiness of Pursuit
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Random House USA Inc The Beautiful Struggle
Book SynopsisAn exceptional father-son story from the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us.Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence—and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack—and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free. Among his brood of seven, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive and almost comically miscalibrated for his environment, and Big Bill, charismatic and all-too-ready for the challenges of the streets. The Beautiful Struggle follows their divergent paths through this turbulent period, and their father’s steadfast efforts—assisted by mothers, teachers, and a body of myths, histories, and rituals conjured from the past to meet the needs of a troubled present—to keep them whole in a world that seemed bent on their destruction. With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father’s generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond. Praise for The Beautiful Struggle“I grew up in a Maryland that lay years, miles and worlds away from the one whose summers and sorrows Ta-Nehisi Coates evokes in this memoir with such tenderness and science; and the greatest proof of the power of this work is the way that, reading it, I felt that time, distance and barriers of race and class meant nothing. That in telling his story he was telling my own story, for me.”—Michael Chabon, bestselling author of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay“Ta-Nehisi Coates is the young James Joyce of the hip hop generation.”—Walter Mosley
£16.14
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc Angels in My Hair
Book SynopsisINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this uplifting autobiography, a modern-day Irish mystic shares her vivid encounters and conversations with the angels and spirits she has known her entire life. With an afterword on angels and America and a bonus chapter on how to connect with your angelLorna Byrne physically sees and talks with angels every day and has done so ever since she was a baby. As a young child, she assumed everyone could see the angels who always accompanied her. Adults, however, were often skeptical, concerned that Lorna did not seem to be focusing on the world around her. Today, sick and troubled people from all around the world are drawn to her for comfort and healing, and theologians of different faiths seek her guidance. Angels in My Hair is a moving and deeply inspirational chronicle of Lorna’s remarkable life story. Invoking a wonderful sense of place, she describes growing up poor in Ireland and marrying the man of her dreams—only to have the marriage cut short by tragedy. Angels in My Hair has garnered overwhelming responses from readers from many walks of life, giving them hope and helping them to realize that no matter how alone they might feel they always have a guardian angel by their side.
£15.30
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Humor Me
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£19.46
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Leaving Home
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£26.80
