Other books that might interest you

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  Positively Me - Daring to Live...

  Nozibele Mayaba, Sue Nyathi

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  My name is Nozibele Mayaba, and I am HIV-positive. 
    
  I am a devout Christian who did everything by the book: worked hard, got good marks, found a steady job and helped to make life better for my family. In our neighbourhood, I was the girl other parents pointed to as a role model. Until a few months before my diagnosis at age 22, I was a virgin. 
    
  Women like me don’t get HIV. But then I did. 
    
  It took me years to accept my new reality. Speaking out freed meand completely changed my life. Being HIV-positive wasn’t my first challenge and it won’t be my last, but it has been the hardest. It also taught me an important lesson: behind every statistic is a person with a name, a family, a story. This is my story. 
    
  My name is Nozibele Mayaba, I am HIV-positive, and I am still positively me. 
    
  An HIV-positive diagnosis may no longer be a death sentence, but it still changes everything. In this frank, vulnerable memoir, as told to acclaimed writer Sue Nyathi, activist and TV host Nozibele Mayaba talks about finding purpose when you think your life has come to an end. 

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  The One Thing We've Never Spoken...

  Elfy Scott

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  An investigation into the failings of Australia’s mental healthcare system, grounded in a personal story of a mother–daughter relationship 
   
  Journalist Elfy Scott grew up in a household where her mother’s schizophrenia was rarely, if ever, spoken about. They navigated this silence outside the family home too; for many years, this complex mental health condition was treated as an open secret. 
   
  Over the past two decades, we have started talking more about common mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. But complex conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and psychosis have been left behind, as have many of the people who live with these conditions or who care for them. 
   
  Part memoir, part deep-dive investigation, The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About is filled with rage at how our nation’s public discourse, emergency services and healthcare systems continue to fail so many people. It is also a work of care, telling the little-heard stories of people who live with these conditions and work at the front lines of mental health. Above all, this timely, compelling book is informed by hope and courage, breaking down taboos and asking big questions about vulnerability, justice and duty of care. 
   
  ‘Expansive and generous … brimming with kindness, revelatory accounts and wit. The book itself is a thing of grace.’ Rick Morton 
   
  ‘Elfy brings empathy, reason and generosity to a book Australia so desperately needs.’ Zara McDonald 
   
  ‘Absorbing and mind-opening, this is panoramic in scope, while offering a deeply intimate portrait of fierce familial love and care.’ Benjamin Law

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  In Search of Silence

  Poorna Bell

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  A gorgeous, poignant, and unflinchingly humorous memoir for listeners of Cheryl Strayed and Michelle Zauner about a woman overcoming dramatic loss and finding reinvention 
   
  In this exquisite story, Poorna Bell asks who exactly is responsible for her happiness? 
  She was sold the fairytale of life. That love wins the day. That marriage and children are the natural progression of any relationship. But in 2015 everything changes after her husband Rob takes his own life on a winter’s night, having battled depression and addiction. 
   
  With humour and heart, and against the changing landscapes of India, New Zealand and Britain, Poorna tells of how in the midst of rebuilding she starts to redefine what she wants her life to be and what exactly makes a successful, fulfilling life. 
   
  Refreshingly honest and heartfelt, Bell’s voice shines in this audiobook. Rich with intimacies that will resonate widely, In Search of Silence is a book to cherish. This is a deeply heartfelt journey. 
   
  Also included is a interview between The Masala Podcast's Sangeeta Pillai and Poorna Bell where they delve deeper into some of the themes discussed in In Search of Silence. 

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  Bright Galaxies Dark Matter and...

  Ashley Jean Yeager

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  We now know that the universe is mostly dark, made up of particles and forces that are undetectable even by our most powerful telescopes. The discovery of the possible existence of dark matter and dark energy signaled a Copernican-like revolution in astronomy: not only are we not the center of the universe, neither is the stuff of which we're made. Astronomer Vera Rubin (1928–2016) played a pivotal role in this discovery. By showing that some astronomical objects seem to defy gravity's grip, Rubin helped convince the scientific community of the possibility of dark matter. In Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond, Ashley Jean Yeager tells the story of Rubin's life and work, recounting her persistence despite early dismissals of her work and widespread sexism in science. 
   
   
   
  Yeager describes Rubin's childhood fascination with stars, her education at Vassar and Cornell, and her marriage to a fellow scientist. At first, Rubin wasn't taken seriously; she was a rarity, a woman in science, and her findings seemed almost incredible. Still, she continued her groundbreaking work, driving a scientific revolution. She received the National Medal of Science in 1993, and has since been memorialized with a ridge on Mars, an asteroid, a galaxy, and most recently, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory—the first national observatory named after a woman.

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  Keep Living

  Loreal Chanel "LC" Palmer, Keke...

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  As long as you’re alive and breathing, you have a say in what direction your life will take. Just keep living. 
   
  After seven years of marriage, multiple miscarriages, and three beautiful children, Loreal’s life changed in an instant when she found out that her husband, her first and only love, had a secret. At first, they embraced an untraditional solution, separating romantically but choosing to live in the same house to continue raising their children together. But ultimately, at thirty-two, Loreal would need to start over in life, find herself, and pave her own way forward. Loreal used to make decisions based on internal fear and arbitrary timelines—until life started making decisions for her. In her inspirational memoir, she decides to step up and start taking control of her own destiny. Choosing to look back and learn from her past, with new insight, Loreal draws from the wisdom of her grandmother and her own personal journey to embolden readers to take control of their futures and turn change into fuel for self-discovery. By remembering her grandmother’s phrase, “keep living,” she realizes that no matter what your past looks like, you are responsible for your own future.

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  Mamerto Gueritz - A Country...

  David Gunn-Johnson

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  This is the story of Mamerto Gueritz, a country priest in the second half of the nineteenth century. His is a fascinating tale, with the adventures of his father and grandfather in Spain and the subsequent deeds of his children, framing the story of the man himself.
  
   
  However, Mamerto Gueritz also offers an illustration of the ways in which the Catholic Revival in the Church of England, the Oxford Movement, spread and took root in the remotest corners of the kingdom. His story tells a much wider tale of the renewal of the Church, the revival of a glorious liturgical heritage and the search for holiness which, for Gueritz and many of his peers, was the driving force behind it all.
  
   
  Mamerto’s father had been an officer in the Royal Guard of Spain but his opposition to the absolutism of Ferdinand VII meant that he and his family had to flee. The period between the time of Gueritz’ arrival as an infant refugee from Spain in 1823 and his death in 1912 may indeed be seen as the time of the emergence and flowering of what became known as the Oxford Movement. However, it was also a time of great conflict and change both in the Church and in society. Such change was not without cost and Mamerto Gueritz shared in it all, both in the battles in London and in his country parish, which proved anything but a safe haven.
  
   
  The reader with a straightforward love of history will find Mamerto’s story a significant addition to their store of knowledge. Those who read widely in Church history, particularly that of the nineteenth century, may find that what seems like familiar ground can be anything but!  The student of the Oxford Movement and the catholic heritage of the Church of England may yet find some further insight from hitherto unreported events and in Mamerto Gueritz find also an encouragement for the work of today.

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