Feeding time by François Bloemhof will make you nibble your peanuts in record time. Two of our novels highlight community issues in KwaZulu-Natal and for the younger readers we cover environmental issues, a monster pizza, heart transplants, ghosts, safety on the internet, terror in an aquarium and Sci-Fi. For our mature readers there is a book about internet dating.
Fiction
Halley se komeet
Hannes Barnard
Druknaam: Wenkbrou
Literêre fiksie
9780799395464
R320,00
This book will raise eyebrows. The beginning contains crude k-words and many other things from which the reader would want to run away.
Then, thankfully, the character grows up and changes.
The novel is set in the South Africa of 1986. Pete de Lange is a 16-year-old Afrikaner boy from Dannhauser, a small village in Natal. Pete wants to play rugby and he wants to smooch girls. Now that he is in standard eight, he thinks that the first rugby team has an opening for him, the seniors’ bus has hockey girls for him and that life is beautiful.
A brutal incident changes his life forever. For a few frightening minutes, he believed that he was going die before he would even be able to kiss a girl.
The problem is, living can sometimes be more difficult than dying. Especially if you stand in the shadow of PW Botha’s finger and you got yourself into deep trouble; together with a black boy (Petrus) and an Indian girl (Sarita).
Even when they try to be normal, it is not possible. In the words of Sarita: “This is awkward, not so? Look at us, pretending. As if this is normal.”
Will Pete become a man during 1986? Or will this year pass by as a tiny blob, as did Halley’s Comet?
This book cuts deep, very deep.
The end is momentous, but it takes the reader to dark and troubled times before offering an end that is likely to leave even the toughest reader in tears.
Dooiegety
Bets Smith
Druknaam: LAPA
Spanningsroman
9780799395679
R285,00
The body of a much-loved resident is found in a tidal pool near a peaceful coastal town. Her friend, Daleen, a professional photographer, realises that this is no ordinary drowning, because Nerina suffered from hydrophobia. In her search for motives, Daleen discovers that the town is not quite as innocent as it first appeared.
Already ill at ease, Daleen is becoming increasingly concerned about the safety of her teenage daughter, Dalri.
A cryptic warning that she receives reveals the culprit’s discomfort about her hobby: time-lapse photography of the night sky. It implies that she might be closer to answers than she realises. But what those answers are, remain a mystery.
The small town, Makulu Manzi in KZN, is fictitious, but those who know the coastline, will enjoy picking up references to real towns.
The Mula shop that serves the community by means of a recycling project and a communal vegetable garden, has its roots in a real-life example from the eastern cape.
This is a crime novel with soul.
Feeding Time
Francois Bloemhof
Imprint: Imbali
Thriller
9780639911021
R297,00
After an absence of four years, Carl McGregor returns to Cape Town’s northern suburbs. His plans are to save his younger brother from the claws of The Zoo. That is how people refer to the other three inhabitants of the house:
- the sly Maxie Thorpe with her cosmetically-enhanced face,
- her son Leo, with his tendency towards violence,
- her daughter Mandy, with her playful but troubled disposition.
Maxie Thorpe is Carl’s aunt, the recently widowed matriarch of the house, and the mastermind behind the family fortune. She also controls all that goes on in the basement of their Durbanville mansion known as ‘The Zoo’.
Carl and his younger brother Robbie had moved in with their wealthy aunt and uncle after the brutal farm murder on their parents. As Carl grew up, he slowly discovered how they REALLY made their money.
After leaving school, he tried to get away for a few years, but the guilt of leaving his brother behind, forced him to return as a young adult in the hope of rescuing Robbie. Robbie has now finished school, but to Carl’s horror, he is working for the Thorpes – and has fallen in love with their rebel daughter Mandy.
Shocking secrets are exposed as Carl tries to rescue Robbie. This is a dark, disturbing novel with some shocking twists and is not for the prudish or faint hearted.
The book is available in Afrikaans as Dieretuin (9780639911014).
Non-fiction
Seks, leuens en die internet
Erla-Mari Diedericks
Druknaam: Wenkbrou
Niefiksie
9780799393415
R280,00
Funny, heart breaking, unsettling and yet classy, this is the story of one woman’s journey into the world of online dating at the age of 50; it is a territory filled with sex and lies.
Armand kook kaal – die maer uitgawe
Armand Aucamp
Druknaam: LAPA
Kookkuns
9780799396072
R295
Last month we launched the English equivalent called Nude. Prof. Tim Noakes says of Nude: “Unquestionably one of the very best low-carb recipe books available anywhere in the world.”Nude is a banting and keto adventure. Banting has become a household term. The even more intense version of Banting is becoming the latest buzzword; keto is short for ketogenic.
For the younger reader
Oopmond
Jan Vermeulen
Tienerfiksie
Ouderdom: 17+
9780799389319
R200,00
Sometimes, hearts find each other even after centuries have passed!
Seven months after her heart transplant, Madelaine Taaibosch suspects that something is wrong. She is convinced the donor heart beating in her chest, is a broken heart. The doctors assure her that nothing is wrong, but she starts seeing strange things: things from the past and things from the future.
Then there is Brand, the computer and history geek who is doing research into his family tree. Brand’s deceased girlfriend’s heart is now beating in Madelaine’s chest.
While Madelaine and Brand are slowly but surely unravelling the mysteries of the past, they are caught up in a race against time before the heart in Madelaine’s chest stops beating.
This riveting young-adult novel by Jan Vermeulen blurs the borders between dreams and reality, past and present.
Spooksoeker: Die geheime lêer van Warno
Francois Bloemhof
Tienerfiksie
Ouderdom: 13+
9780799395037
R200,00
Warno is ordinary, dead ordinary, as ordinary and boring as cold toast. Yet, he has one big secret: He keeps detailed logs on all the ghosts in his town. This book will give you the creeps!
Z-A-K: Die Blou Planeet
Theresa van Baalen
Wetenskapfiksie
Ouderdom: 13+
9780799394054
R185,00
Mitch and Lionel must save the inhabitants of Deltaville from an alien abduction, but soon they meet Imke, who is part Earthling and part Zenkionian. Can the three teenagers save the two planets from destruction?
’n Grootwordgids vir meisies
Anita Naik & Phil Wilkinson
Illustrasies: Sarah Horne
Niefiksie vir jongmense
Ouderdom: 11+
9780799393941
R135,00
A book every teenaged girl should read when puberty knocks on her door.
’n Grootwordgids vir seuns
Anita Naik & Phil Wilkinson
Illustrasies: Sarah Horne
Niefiksie vir jongmense
Ouderdom: 11+
9780799393934
R135,00
A book every teenaged boy should when puberty knocks on his door.
Lea lief seeskilpaaie: Avonture by die akwarium
Cecilia Steyn
Illustrasies: Elanie Bieldt
Kinderfiksie
Ouderdom: 9+
9780799395716
R125,00
Lea loves turtles and adores visiting the aquarium where she learns many new things while having the adventure of her life.
Webslim: Hoe om aanlyn veilig te bly
Ben Hubbard
Illustrasies: Beatriz Castro
Vertaler: Jaco Jacobs
Niefiksie vir jongmense
Ouderdom: 9+
9780799393958
R140,00
This is a fun way to inform the younger reader about safety when using online apps and social media.
Stalmaats Omnibus 4
Lize Roux
Kinderfiksie
Ouderdom: 9+
9780799394085
R185,00
This is the fourth collection in the Stalmaats series by Lize Roux, the alter ego of Jaco Jacobs.
Cowboy Koekemoer van die Klein Karoo en die soutwatergogga
Henry Ferreira
Illustrasies: Alistar Ackermann
Kinderfiksie
Ouderdom: 7+
9780799394887
R125,00
Cowboy Koekemoer and his trusted giraffe, Shorty, are ready to take on the salt-water bug! No criminal will stand in their way, even while they are enjoying beach holiday.
Monsterpizza
Jaco Jacobs
Illustrasies: Yolandi Prins
Kinderfiksie
Ouderdom: 7+
9780799395730
R115,00
Zia’s dad has the coolest job in the world. He works for Planet Pizza! The two of them have to deliver the biggest monster pizza you can think of, then strange things happen on their way.
Romanza
Hartsbesit
Anna van Tonder
SuperRomanza
9780799395617
R240,00
Minni Minnaar suddenly finds herself unemployed when she has to close down her small business. While visiting the farm of her best friend’s parents, the surly German widower, Wolfgang Falkenrot and his four-year-old daughter, touch her heart.
Web van liefde
Rykie Roux
Romaza-Omnibus
9780799395648
R240,00
Web van liefde is a compilation of three of popular Rykie Roux’s previous Romanzas.
Tweede kans op geluk
Sophia Kapp
Romanza
R95,00
9780799395495
Nanette goes back to her in-laws’ farm, Geluk. Her pain and suffering is real, but is it only one side of the story? Unsettled, she discovers that her brother-in-law, Barry, is someone who knows what love is and how deep it can reach.
Altyd net jy
Elsa Winckler
Romanza
R95,00
9780799395525
For over a decade Leah has guarded her heart to ensure that no one can hurt her. But within a few hours, Max breaks through all her barriers because he knows her better than anyone else. Is he her soulmate?
Liefde is wynrooi
René van Zyl
Romanza
R95,00
9780799395556
Karista has been cheated on by a rugby player and she’s determined that she won’t ever be caught up in that kind of game again, but then gorgeous Gareth O’Neill strides into her life; he is a rugby player!
Aandsterbelofte
Judy Troskies
Romanza
R95,00
9780799395587
Abby knows that true love requires trust and she struggles to move past the hurt of many years ago; then two men try to woo her.
