Book Lounge Events

As per usual the Book Lounge has a fantastic line up of events for this week. Do temember to keep an eye on their events calendar.

Wednesday September 5th, 5.30 for 6pm – Bekendstelling van Die Neus deur Deborah Steinmair
‘n Verbeeldingryke speurroman of ‘n swart komedie; hoe mens dit ook al lees, hierdie verhaal met sy fantasmagoriese oomblikke beweeg teen ‘n vaart wat lesers sal meesleur en vermaak. Die eksentrieke hoofkarakter met die haakneus, Agathe Gruber, het uitsonderlike psigiese opspoorgawes maar sy is nogal menssku. Gelukkig word die dinamiese, charismatiese eks-sanger Jesse haar bondgenoot. Die ontrafeling van die moord op Aga se ma, Rosalie Schwarzbraun, en op die olfaktoriese wetenskaplike Boas Birkenbaum, haar biologiese pa, geskied boonop met die hulp van Claude, die rowwejack mechanic-buurman wat nooit op sy mond geval is nie. Die intrige spin vinnig ‘n web wat selfs die Chinese Mafia insluit en beweeg van ‘n klein Vrystaatse dorpie na Pretoria. Ongewoon en boeiend.
Kerneels Breytenbach sal in gespreek wees met Deborah Steinmair. Published by Human & Rousseau

Thursday September 6th, 5.30 for 6pm – Launch of The Hungry Season: Feeding Southern Africa’s Cities by Leonie Joubert and Eric Miller
The food we eat is as diverse as the cultures and lifestyles of the people consuming it. But the issues underlying food run much deeper than the whims of our cultures or palates. Until now, the subject of food security has mostly been viewed as a rural issue, with research and development work honing in on subsistence farming. But with the massive influx into cities, the focus needs to shift to the metropolis.
The Hungry Season takes science writer Leonie Joubert and photographer Eric Miller to eight different cities and towns around southern Africa as they explore the complex issues around food security.
Ultimately, The Hungry Season looks at the crisis of hunger and malnutrition surrounding us in the city, hidden behind layers of affluence and comfort. It tackles the fundamental question: Why is it that in southern Africa we produce enough calories and nutrients to keep the region full, satisfied and well nourished, and yet we still have such high levels of hunger and malnutrition?
Leonie will be in conversation with Don Pinnock. Published by Picador Africa.
 
Friday September 7th, 5.30 for 6pm – Launch of Thinking Up a Hurricane by Martinique Stilwell
In the spring of 1977 Frank Stilwell launched Vingila, 17 tons of welded together 11-millimetre steel plates, in Durban harbour. An electrician by trade, Frank’s experience of sailing amounted to not very much – an unpleasant spell on a Scottish fishing trawler as a young man and a brief holiday on someone else’s yacht off the coast of Mozambique a couple of years before. Never one to be daunted by a challenge or to be resisted in any way, he took his nine year-old twins, Robert and Nicky, out of school, persuaded his wife Maureen that they would all learn how to sail and cope with life on the open seas as they went, and prepared to follow his dream of circumnavigating the world.
Facing real danger from the elements and at first having to live more by their wits than their skills, the Stilwell family set off boldly, determined to become part of a community of sailors and adventurers who spend more time on the ocean than they do on dry land.
In this unique coming of age memoir Martinique Stilwell’s recounting of her true life gypsy childhood is poignant and funny and heartbreaking all at the same time. With the wisdom and innocence of a child’s point of view, it is a powerful yet tender story of physical and emotional adversity, of family dysfunction and the ties that bind, and of the shackles and exhilarating freedom of growing up different. Introduced by Justin Fox. Martinique will be in conversation with Alison Lowry. Published by Penguin Books.
 
To rsvp or to reserve copies of these (or any other) books, please contact 021 462 2425, or mail on booklounge@gmail.com. For further details of these and other events, please visit our website on www.booklounge.co.za.