Born in the early years of the Soviet Union, Svetlana Stalin spent her youth inside the walls of the Kremlin. Communist Party privilege protected her from the mass starvation and purges that haunted Russia, but she did not escape tragedy—the loss of everyone she loved, including her mother, two brothers, aunts and uncles, and a lover twice her age, deliberately exiled to Siberia by her father. As she gradually learned about the extent of her father’s brutality after his death, Svetlana could no longer keep quiet and in 1967 shocked the world by defecting to the United States—leaving her two children behind. But although she was never a part of her father’s regime, she could not escape his legacy. Her life in America was fractured; she moved frequently, married disastrously, shunned other Russian exiles, and ultimately died in poverty in Wisconsin. With access to KGB, CIA, and Soviet government archives, as well as the close cooperation of Svetlana’s daughter, Rosemary Sullivan pieces together Svetlana’s incredible life in a masterful account of unprecedented intimacy. Epic in scope, it’s a revolutionary biography of a woman doomed to be a political prisoner of her father’s name. Sullivan explores a complicated character in her broader context without ever losing sight of her powerfully human story, in the process opening a closed, brutal world that continues to fascinate us. Illustrated with photographs.
Staying Alive is at once heartbreaking and heartwarming, a brilliant rendering of the emotional and psychological shadows cast on both the afflicted and the family members who support them. It is a story of sisters, of mothers and daughters, and also the men who loved them. In the end we are inspired by the extraordinary strength of these women, by their will to fight the disease, and the power of love in survival.
Everyone says they would like to retire early, but Rodney Rothman actually did it -- forty years early. Burnt out, he decides at the age of twenty-eight to get an early start on his golden years. He travels to Boca Raton, Florida, where he moves in with an elderly piano teacher at Century Village, a retirement village that is home to thousands of senior citizens.Early Bird is an irreverent, hilarious, and ultimately warmhearted account of Rodney's journey deep into the heart of retirement. Rodney struggles for acceptance from the senior citizens he shares a swimming pool with, and battles with cranky octogenarians who want him off their turf. The day-to-day dealings begin to wear on him. Before long he observes, "I don't think Tuesdays with Morrie would have been quite so uplifting if that guy had to spend more than one day a week with Morrie."Rodney throws himself into the spirit of retirement, fashioning a busy schedule of suntanning, shuffleboard, and gambling cruises. As the months pass, his neighbors seem to forget that he is fifty years younger than they are. He finds himself the potential romantic interest of an aging femme fatale. He joins a senior softball club and is disturbed to learn that he is the worst player on the team. For excitement he rides along with a volunteer police officer on his patrols, hunting for crime. But even the criminals in his community seem to have retired.
The book chronicles the author's childhood in apartheid-era South Africa and the turbulent years preceding Nelson Mandela's presidency in 1994. It details his subsequent move to Australia, where he has lived for over thirty years, exploring the raw challenges, interesting figures, and unique opportunities that come with migrating between two vastly different countries.
The Dressing Station is a book from the medical front line which shatters any preconceptions we may have about the nature of surgery. Kaplan describes what its like to face pain and death on a regular basis and plunges the reader into the frenetic world of the operating theatre.
Benjamin Gilmour is an Australian paramedic who, for fifteen years, has worked with ambulance services in England, Iceland, Macedonia, Mexico, Pakistan, The Philippines, South Africa and Thailand. This is a brilliant collection of his wild adventures with coworkers from all corners of the globe.
R75,00Original price was: R75,00.R65,00Current price is: R65,00.
The story centers on Claire Ryan, a woman who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. As her memory begins to fade, she starts writing a "Memory Book" – a scrapbook of mementos and stories – as a way to preserve her life and memories for her daughters and husband. The narrative explores the emotional journey of Claire and her family as they deal with the devastating effects of the disease, highlighting the importance of family and cherishing memories.
Product code: 9780091951375
R75,00Original price was: R75,00.R65,00Current price is: R65,00.
This book offers a critical and witty account of the dark side of Los Angeles, including its public and private personas, celebrity culture, and the entertainment industry.
The book is a heartwarming story detailing how headmistress Marie Stubbs transformed St George's, a struggling inner-city comprehensive school in London, which had been threatened with closure after a damning Ofsted report and the murder of its previous headmaster in 1995. She implemented a combination of discipline, imagination, and modern management techniques to improve attendance and examination results.
The book recounts Margaret Powell's journey starting at age fifteen as a kitchen maid, the lowest rank in the servant hierarchy. She details the grinding labor, which began at 5:30 am and ended after dark, involving tasks such as scrubbing vegetables, blacking stoves, and even ironing bootlaces. Born into a poor but loving family in Hove, she was forced to leave school despite passing an exam for a grammar school scholarship due to financial necessity. Her memoir is a collection of anecdotes and observations from the various houses where she worked, highlighting the strict class system, the often harsh treatment by employers and senior staff (like the cook above her), and the limited opportunities for social mobility. She eventually worked her way up to the position of cook before leaving service, marrying a milkman, and later pursuing education and a writing career.
The book is a non-fiction thriller that recounts the dramatic and chilling story of outbreaks of highly lethal viruses from the tropical rain forest, most notably the 1989 emergence of an Ebola virus in a monkey house in suburban Washington, D.C.. It details the efforts of American laboratory workers and scientists to identify and contain the deadly pathogen close to the US capital.
The book is a searing memoir of Dianna Ortiz, an American Ursuline nun who was abducted and brutally tortured by Guatemalan security forces in 1989 while working as a missionary. The narrative details her personal journey of healing and her work as a human rights activist, advocating for victims of torture worldwide and highlighting the U.S. government's complicity in the repressive Guatemalan political system.
Viv Prince was an iconic and notoriously wild drummer, best known for his time with the band The Pretty Things in the mid-1960s. His eccentric and debauched behavior garnered significant publicity for the group and reportedly influenced other drummers, such as Keith Moon of The Who.
The book is a personal account of his experiences, which included a tumultuous music career and struggles with alcoholism. He largely retired from music in the 1970s and moved to Portugal. Prince passed away in September 2025 at the age of 84.
The book is a personal account of the U.S. Air Force Pararescue Jumpers (PJs), America's elite military rescue unit. It details their rigorous training, dangerous missions (including the real-life rescue attempts during the "Perfect Storm" incident), and the emotional toll on the PJs and their families.
The book tells the story of 230 women of the French Resistance who were sent on a train to Auschwitz in January 1943. It details their experiences, focusing on their friendships and struggle for survival in the death camp.
