Other books that might interest you

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  Octavia E Butler - H is for Horse

  Chi-Ming Yang

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  An homage to the childhood genius of Black science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. 
   
   
   
  The figure of the horse, at once earthly and transcendent, represented the contradictions of freedom and captivity that enabled young Octavia to develop her nuanced sense of voice and place. Drawing on previously unknown archival research, this volume illustrates how Butler's development as a writer was tied to her extraordinary resourcefulness and self-awareness growing up as an awkward, bookish Black girl in segregated, Cold War Pasadena. She persistently re-visited and revised her early writings on teenage angst, Martians, Westerns, and racial politics. In one way or another her supernatural characters defied the constraints of gender, race, and class with equine-inflected resilience. 
   
   
   
  In the spirit of Butler's passion for library research, this book is comprised of twenty-six short A-Z chapters. It is part childhood biography, art and literary analysis, and memoir. It interweaves the author's personal recollections with scholarly musings on poetry, film, and literature inspired by Butler's encyclopedic reading habits and experiments with genre. Just as cross-species kinships are at the heart of her Afro-futurist, eco-feminist storytelling, Butler demonstrates that coming-of-age is an ongoing process and key to healing our damaged planet.

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  Unafraid

  Eddie Penney, Keith Wood

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  Hot Wash | noun: The review held after military training and real-world operations facilitating growth and improvement; an honest evaluation of strengths and weaknesses As a special operator in the US Navy’s most elite unit and actively engaged in the Global War on Terrorism, Eddie Penney had achieved his childhood dream. He was the tip of the nation’s spear, prepared for anything—except for becoming a single parent of three young children. Eddie learned powerful lessons from the roles of warrior and father. In Unafraid, he shares his story, insight gained, and the truths exposed when you reflect, regroup, and commit to personal growth. You’ll read about life as a Navy SEAL and the adolescent aspirations that led Eddie toward a military life, as well as the painful challenges that left him a single father with sole custody. You’ll learn that old wounds—both seen and unseen—can heal, and redemption is always possible. Whether these struggles feel familiar or you’re searching for inspiration, Unafraid is a must-read memoir revealing that each of us has a warrior within.

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  Praisesong for the Kitchen...

  Crystal Wilkinson

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  Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother's presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine. 
   
   
   
  An expert cook, Wilkinson shares nearly forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full of flavor—delicious favorites, including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Granny Christine's Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits. Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia. 
   
   
   
  As the keeper of her family's stories and treasured dishes, Wilkinson shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found their stories in her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens, and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves those stories together with recipes and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century.

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  Toy Fights - A Boyhood

  Don Paterson

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  For fans of Douglas Stuart and Nick Hornby comes an uproarious, tenderhearted memoir of growing up in working-class Dundee in the 1970s and 1980s. 
   
   
   
  Don Paterson is one of our most acclaimed contemporary poets, possessed of "an infinite sensitivity to the world" (Zadie Smith). But his current standing gives few hints of his hilariously misspent youth. An indifferent student prone to obsessions (with girls at school and . . . origami), Paterson nevertheless made clear early on his immense gift for observation. In Toy Fights, he vividly re-creates the customs of the Scottish working class, from the titular childhood game ("basically twenty minutes of extreme violence without pretext") to the virtues of the sugary sweet known as tablet. When American pop culture arrived, Paterson fell hard for the so-called outlaw sound; by his teens, he was traveling with his father, a Stetson-wearing "country" musician, and becoming guitar-mad himself. A memoir of family, music, and highly inventive profanity, Toy Fights is an unforgettable account of the years we all spend in rehearsal for real life.

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  Tomorrow's Here Today -...

  Ian Broudie

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  A Louder than War Book of the Year A Waterstones Book of the YearA Rough Trade Book of the YearA Resident Book of the Year 'All Ian Broudie's great gifts as a songwriter - melody, vulnerability, empathy, hope - turn out to be in his prose too. A lovely read' - DAVID BADDIEL'Full of heart and sparkling melancholy' - THE IFew musicians have lived a musical life as rich as the songwriter and producer Ian Broudie.From recording the glorious uplifting psychedelic pop of his band the Lightning Seeds to producing bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and the Fall, Ian has journeyed from the energy and potential of the 1970s punk scene to the madness of '90s indie - and out the other side.Throughout nearly fifty years of making music, he has had a front-row seat working with generations of fantastic musicians in the creation of countless groundbreaking records. In Tomorrow's Here Today, he reveals what he has learnt about creativity, how to work with musicians touched by genius and what it is like to stumble through an exploding industry without losing sight of your dreams.Along the way, Ian shares how he wrote the million-selling album Jollification and how - along with the comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner - he wrote and recorded the only single in chart history to reach number one in the UK on four separate occasions. 'Three Lions' has since become the undisputed unofficial anthem of English football, soundtracking heartbreaking defeats as well as the wondrous victories of the Lionesses.Following 2022's long-awaited Lightning Seeds comeback, Ian reflects on a life of cosmic adventures spent in thrall to the power of music.

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  Antarctic Basalt - An Antarctic...

  Lewis Juckes

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  "By 1st February the unloading had been completed, and when the ice anchors had been recovered the ship drew slowly away from the ice edge. The dull weather could not suppress the thrill that pulsed through me – this was the real start of my adventure. Up till then I could at any time have turned back. It might have been embarrassing, inconvenient, or expensive, but it had been possible. Now there would be no more direct contact with the outside world until the ship returned for another brief week or so in a year's time. There was no air link, established or even planned. Was any other workplace in the world as isolated? Even in the Antarctic, did any other base have so fleeting a relief? Together with my companions I was irrevocably committed."
  Lewis Juckes describes the many new experiences that lay ahead over the next two years, first while living in huts buried deep within the snow and then in the field with dog teams for transport and tents for accommodation. Thrills and rare sights were there, as well as scares and dangers – and tragedy within the close-knit group. This was Antarctica in the mid-1960s.

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