Your Family – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 107

ONTHESHELF

PHOTOS: DANIEL KEITH DANCKSWERTS

FORTHEKIDS

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Cul-de-Sac by Elsa

Joubert (Tafelberg)

Written in her 95th

year, this brutally

honest, powerful

• but often tender


• memoir explores
  the vicissitudes of
  old age, with all its indignities, losses
  and limitations. It also demonstrates
  the gifts of advanced age and a level
  of wisdom that comes from having
  observed human relationships and
  realised that ultimately, our needs
  are very simple: affirmation, love and
  containment. De Beer sprinkles her
  narrative with jocular asides about
  her fellow residents in a cosmopolitan
  Cape retirement home and searing
  flashbacks to the seminal events in
  her life: her sister’s premature death,
  rivalry with her brother, family
  holidays and her love of gardens.
  Highly recommended.

The Book of Malachi

by TC Farren (Kwela)

Mute, socially alienated

Malachi Dakwaa is the

victim of warlords, who

massacred his family

and left him maimed

years ago. His luck

changes when he’s

offered a job as a warder on a top-

secret organ farming project. In return,

Frasier Pharmaceuticals will graft a

new tongue for him. Elated, he accepts

the post. Out at sea, he finds himself

among the same kind of bandits who

traumatised him in the past. They’re

now being held captive for use in the

company’s medical experiments, but

Malachi begins to question whether

they really deserve their fate. A

marvellous thriller with a compelling

moral edge.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

(Jonathan Ball)

In 1940 – the early

stages of World War

II – 19-year-old Vivian

Morris, who’s flunked

every study course

she’s ever enrolled

for in her home town

of Vassar, is sent to New York by

her parents to make her way as a

seamstress: the only aptitude she’s

ever shown. She’s duly employed

as the wardrobe attendant at the

disreputable Lily Playhouse, owned

by her aunt. Vivian, however, finds

more than work there – she also finds

a circle of adoring friends, with whom

she embarks headlong into hedonistic

pursuits. But she soon learns that

reckless pleasures exact a price and

that, like a garment, her life must

be altered to fit her true desires. A

delightful read.

The Book of Dreams by Nina George

(Scribner)

When Henry Skinner

• a cynical ex-war
  reporter – is on the
  way to meet his
  long-estranged
  13-year-old son Sam,
  he’s run over by a car.
  Lying comatose in hospital, he floats
  between dreams and memories,
  reliving his childhood and the bitter
  experiences he’s spent his life trying
  to forget. Sam – who has a genius
  IQ – sits at his father’s bedside, where
  he encounters Eddie Tomlin, one of
  Skinner’s old flames, as well as Madelyn
  Zeidler, who’s also a coma patient.
  In their individual battles, these
  four people form a close and cathartic
  bond and learn crucial lessons
  about themselves.

Why Mummy Doesn’t Give a F#&%$!

by Gill Sims

Well, of course, Mummy

does give a f#&%$ –

but in Sims’s hilarious

rant, she weighs the

endless battles of

motherhood against

her longing for peace

and quiet. From the wails and sleepless

nights of babyhood to the tantrums

of the ‘Terrible Twos’, the picky eating

of pre-teens and the laziness and

rebellious moodiness of adolescence,

she wonders: ‘So when do these

“phases” end and when do I get my life

back?’ A wickedly truthful, candid read

that any mom will sympathise with.

Prepare for farmyard fun with a difference! The

CHAIN Animal Welfare Charity is hosting a DUCK

RACE down a river, where you and your little one

can ‘adopt’ a duck and watch it trying to beat its

rivals to the finish line. The cost is R100 per entrance

(plus one duck). You can adopt as many more

ducks as you like for the event, at R50 each – the

more you have, the better your chances of winning

the grand prize of R5 000. The dress code for

the event is gumboots, plus the most imaginative

outfits you and your kids can find (there’s a prize for

the Best-Dressed). There’ll also be a food market,

live music and kids’ entertainment. The event takes

place at Essere Lodge in Tulbagh on 14 September

and all the proceeds go towards animal sterilisation

in the Witzenburg Valley. Visit: Web.facebook.com/

dayattheduckrace/ Tickets at Webtickets.co.za

Bring your tweens and teens to the popular COMIC

CON AFRICA multi-genre festival of entertainment,

comic books and all other elements of pop culture,

such as cosplay, anime, manga, films and series,

games (including video and esports), books and

authors. The event will showcase the latest in

animation, toys, gadgets, clothing, collectible card

games, webcomics and fantasy novels, and there’ll

also be the ever-popular Artists’ Alley, professional

gaming tournaments, celebrity panel discussions,

seminars, workshops and autograph sessions.

21-24 September at the Gallagher Convention

Centre, 19 Richards Drive, Halfway House, Midrand,

Johannesburg. Admission is R160 for a single day

pass or R500 for all four days from Computicket.