Reid All About It

The Special Relationship (2010) is one of my favourite films. Set between 1997 and 2001, it portrays the UK-US relationship between Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bill Clinton – wonderfully played by Michael Sheen and Dennis Quaid. It depicts Blair’s massive, 179-seat majority win in the May 1997 UK general election, and a subsequent state visit by Bill and Hillary Clinton. In a private meeting, Bill maps out the political future to an awe-struck Tony:

“Progressive centre-left politics is the future … There’s nothing we can’t accomplish. We have a unique opportunity to put right-wing politics out of business for a generation. I’ve got three more years. Al Gore, that’s eight years right there. In Europe, you’re just getting started.”

Tony is equally enthusiastic: “There’s Persson in Sweden, Schroeder in Germany, beyond that Cardoso in Brazil. You’re right!” Clinton sums it up:

Tuesday July 27 1998, Sydney: Labor Party luminaries gather to celebrate the launch of ALP opposition leader Kim Beazley’s biography by Peter FitzSimons, with a foreword by Tony Blair who has lauded Beazley as “this principled man ... I am proud to call a friend”. The federal election is just two months away. Beazley has been opposition leader unopposed since 1996, following Labor’s election loss to John Howard. Two years later, Beazley seems to be Prime Minister-in-waiting following the decline in Howard’s popularity after breaking a commitment not to introduce a goods and services tax.

I was travelling in Germany – meeting my future wife – and voted at the Australian Consulate in Bonn. I had received a postcard from a good mate in Melbourne with a prediction that “Labor would scrape back in on public loathing of the GST.”

Big Kim could have been forgiven for feeling the same. Alas, the results saw the ALP gain a 215,000 majority of the twoparty-preferred vote (50.98% to 49.02%) over the LiberalNational Party Coalition – a 4.5 % swing, a gain of 14 seats – and fail to win office. Beazley would continue as ALP leader and suffer a second loss in 2001. Yet at that July launch anything must have seemed possible. A time when it seemed that Kim Christian Beazley was about to join the Political Leaders Club on the “right side of history”.

Early Readers

Football Fever 4: Gala Day

Kristin Darell

The eyes of the world will be on Australia and New Zealand as they host the ninth FIFA Women’s World Cup this July and August. Football Fever 4: Gala Day, which arrives just in time for kick-off, is the fourth instalment in the Football Fever series and tells the stories of the players in the Under 11s Merridale Fever as they strive to win against all odds. $15

Fiction

The Unlikely Heroes Club

Kate Foster

$17

Underdogs 5: Fish for Trouble

Kate and Jol Temple

The Underdogs are overdue for a holiday! So when the Mayor of Cape Dog asks for help catching a mysterious sea monster that is terrifying the citizens – the Underdogs head for the coast! Will they be able to catch this mystery monster? Will they find the missing Top Dogs? And will Carl get to go on the Splashinator ride at the brand-new Wet Dog Waterpark? Join the crew as the Underdogs set sail on ruff seas in their fishiest mystery ever!

Sunshine on Vinegar Street

Karen Comer

$17 Walker

Eleven-year-old Oli is spending his school holidays at Heroes Club, where kids can build friendships and learn about their emotions, but Oli just wants to be home, where it’s familiar, not-so-boring and he can play his favourite game. But when Oli and the other kids at the club see a stray dog who keeps disappearing into a soon-to-be-demolished building across the street, he and his four fellow heroes hatch a daring rescue plan to save the dog before it’s too late.

TALES AND TAILS

WHEN 8 July, 10:30 am WHERE Foley Park, opposite Gleebooks

$18

Freya’s world is turned upside down when she and her mum move to inner-city Melbourne. Freya is afraid of lifts and the new apartment is on the 11th floor. She’s stuck in a new basketball team where not everyone likes a new star player and she’s stuck in a classroom of kids who don’t know she is a donor-conceived baby. Being the new girl makes Freya feel like a dark cloud on a summer’s day. This is a sweet and emotional novel about friendship, family and accepting change.

Join author Mick Elliott for a free storytime day out as he reads his book Dads and Dogs. All parents and pooches are welcome – and anyone else who loves picture books, reading and having fun. It will be a barking good time for all!

It’s the Sound of the Thing

Maxine Beneba Clarke

This extraordinary collection celebrates the joy of language with relatable poems about everyday life through haiku, sonnets, narrative verse, rhyming couplets, limericks and free verse. There are poems about candy, peanut butter and pets; about a big brother’s messy room, a grandfather’s fading memory and a grandmother’s garden magic. Maxine Beneba Clarke invites readers to fall in love with the wonder that is poetry.

My Heart Was a Tree

Inspired by the woods around his home, and by the mighty forests that support our life on Earth, this book is Michael Morpurgo’s love letter to trees. There are stories from an ancient olive remembering Odysseus and Penelope, and from a eucalyptus that gave shelter to a koala; from a piece of driftwood that was made into a chair, and from a tiny sapling carried by a refugee as a reminder of home. These are poems and stories that will amuse, move and energise readers of all ages.

One Little Duck

Katrina Germein and Danny Snell

HarperCollins $23

Oh no, Mother Duck has forgotten how to quack! Every day she tries a new barnyard call, and every night Little Duck returns with a new farm friend. The classic Five Little Ducks meets We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and I Went Walking in an irresistibly fresh, cute and clever picture book that preschoolers will love. From award-winning duo Katrina Germein and Danny Snell.

The

Mermaid Moon

Briony May Smith

Walker $28

Merrin has never been to Molly’s house; how can she visit when she is a mermaid, and has to stay underwater? But then comes the night of the Mermaid Moon, when sea creatures can fly through the air. Together, she and Molly visit the Mermaid Moon festival, eat ice cream, and ride on a swing in Molly’s garden. But trouble arises when it is time for Merrin to leave. If she doesn’t get back home before the moon sets, the Mermaid Moon magic will disappear from the earth forever. This magical picture book is perfect for all young mermaid lovers.

That Bird Has Arms

Kate and Jol Temple

Hardie Grant $23

Roy is an ordinary bird in every way. He is not the biggest, or the smallest. His squawk is not the loudest or the quietest. He even follows the same football team as everyone else. He was very normal except for one thing – he has ARMS. Absolutely nobody knows – and Roy would like to keep it that way. That Bird Has Arms is a story about difference and identity. It’s about learning to see that what sets you apart is what makes you strong, and it’s about pride in your own uniqueness.

This Is Not My Home

Vivienne Chang and Eugenia Yoh

Hachette $30

When Lily’s mum announces their family must move back to Taiwan to take care of her elderly Ah Ma, Lily is devastated to leave behind her whole life for a place that is most definitely not her home. But Lily soon realises, through the help of her family and friends, what home means to them. And perhaps someday – maybe not today, but someday – it might become her home too.

Once Upon a Book

Grace Lin and Kate Messner

Hachette $30

Alice loves to imagine herself in the magical pages of her favourite book. So when it flaps its pages and invites her in, she is swept away to a world of wonder and adventure, riding camels in the desert, swimming under the sea with colourful fish, floating in outer space, and more. But when her imaginative journey comes to an end, she yearns for the place she loves best of all. Paired with vibrant illustrations, this lyrical, expressive story invites the reader to indulge in the power of imagination.

The Gardening Dog

Cindy Wume

The gardening dog is never chosen to go home with anyone who visits the rescue centre where she lives. Instead she spends her time quietly growing beautiful plants. Then one day she meets a boy called Lewis, who much prefers drawing to running around with all the other children. Working together, Lewis and the gardening dog create a wonderful community garden for everyone to share – and as new shoots grow outside, they build a deep friendship that leads to a new start for them both.

Bidhi Galing: Big Rain

Anita Heiss

Simon & Schuster $25

Wagadhaany loved dancing in the rain and listening to her father, Yarri, tell her stories about life on Wiradyuri ngurambang. When white people started building on the floodplains, Yarri was worried. He knew the power of the bila and tried to warn the strangers, but they would not listen. Years later, the big rains came. This is the story of the Great Flood of Gundagai in 1852 and the Wiradyuri heroes, Yarri and Jacky Jacky, who paddled bark canoes through raging floodwaters, risking their lives to save countless others.

Feelings Are Wild

Sophy Williams and Gavin Scott

Allen & Unwin $20

Whether we are grumpy or glad, brave or sad, with a big hug, a kind word, or a little time we can embrace all our wild and wonderful emotions. With gorgeous illustrations and a delightful rhyming text, Feelings Are Wild is the perfect invitation for kids to talk about all the ways they feel.

Tamarra, A Story of Termites on Gurindji Country Anthology

Hardie Grant $30

Created as a collaboration between more than 30 First Nations and non-Indigenous contributors, the story and artworks explore how termites and their mounds connect different parts of Country, from tiny Gurindji babies and their loving grandmothers, to spiky spinifex plants growing in the hot sun.

This Book Thinks Ya Deadly!

Corey Tutt

Hardie Grant $35

This Book Thinks Ya Deadly! is an illustrated compendium that celebrates the diversity and success of First Nations People. It features the profiles of more than 70 Blakfellas who are doing deadly things across sport, art, activism and science, through to politics, education and literature. It showcases the careers and personal stories of First Nations people who have done great things, including Professor Marcia Langton, Miranda Tapsell, Danzal Baker (Baker Boy) and Adam Goodes.

Graphic Novel

Ember and the Island of the Lost Creatures

Jason Pamment

Allen

Fitting in can be hard when you’re as small as Ember. He’s hoping his luck changes when Lua, a sea turtle, escorts him across the ocean to a school on a wondrous island. Ember learns that first days can also be hard – especially when they involve fantastical cave-dwellers, storms and classmates that don’t want to make friends. As he struggles to adapt to his school, Ember finds himself at the heart of an otherworldly mystery, facing a strange monster from the deep.

Gleebooks book club

The World’s Most Atrocious Animals

Philip Bunting

The third title in the series from Philip Bunting is filled with facts about some of the scariest creatures in the world. Meet the enormous murder hornets of east and south-east Asia, the poisonous blue-ringed octopus, Africa’s hungry but deadly hippos and some shocking electric eels, among many more. This guide to terrifying animals contains diagrams and fabulous facts that will teach kids about the animals we fear and whether their reputation is deserved.

Stone Age Beasts

Ben Lerwill

From the woolly mammoth to the fearsome sabre-toothed cat, and from the giant eagle to the six-metre snake slithering along the forest floor, this is an awesome introduction to prehistory’s biggest beasts. Featuring 18 animals from all over the world, illustrated by Kate Greenaway Medal-winning illustrator Grahame Baker-Smith, and packed with jawdropping facts, this is an absorbing journey through the Stone Age world.

Teen fiction & YA

We Didn’t Think It Through Gary Lonesborough

Jamie lives in Dalton’s Bay with Aunty Dawn and Uncle Bobby. After another episode of racist harassment from the local bullies, Jamie, Dally and Lenny decide to retaliate by vandalising their car. Then Dally changes the plan. But it’s a bad plan: Jamie ends up in the youth justice system where he must find a way to mend his relationships with himself, his friends, his family and his future.

Calling all bookworms: we want to hear about your favourite reads! We’d love to feature more of our wonderful book clubbers in our Gleaner magazine. So if you’ve got a book you’d love to review or if you want to write about an author that’s visiting, send us an email at rachel@ gleebooks.com.au. We have exciting giveaways waiting for you!

Hamlet Is Not OK R.A. Spratt

Selby’s parents have found out she hasn’t read any books for her English class and sentence her to hard labour – working with Dan, a tutor, to try and catch up. Dan doesn’t just make Selby read Hamlet, he makes her read it out loud. And that’s when magic happens: Selby and Dan are drawn down through the words and into the play itself. They become characters in the heart-wrenching story, buffeted about in the storm of Shakespeare’s language and ideas. Equal parts funny, shocking, clever and thought-provoking, Hamlet Is Not Ok is a unique story where Shakespearean moral dilemmas meet the contemporary teenage experience.

Penguin

$40

The Feminist Killjoy Handbook

Sara Ahmed

Do colleagues roll their eyes in a meeting when you use words like sexism or racism? Do you refuse to laugh at jokes that aren’t funny? Then you are a feminist killjoy, and this handbook is for you. Drawing on her own stories and those of others, especially Black and brown feminists and queer thinkers, Sara Ahmed combines depth of thought with honesty and intimacy. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook unpicks the lies our culture tells us and provides a form of solidarity that can be returned to over a lifetime.

What the Greeks Did for Us

$42

Cambridge University Press

$38

Our contemporary world is inescapably Greek. Whether in a word like “pandemic” or a replica of the Parthenon in a Chinese theme park, ancient Greek culture shapes our lives. Tony Spawforth explores our classical heritage and reveals its legacy in everything from religion to popular culture and examines the darker side of Greek influence – from the Nazis’ obsession with Spartan “racial purity” to the elitism of classical education.

You Can’t Always Say What You Want

Dennis Baron

The freedom to think what you want and to say what you think has always generated a pushback of regulation and censorship. We are living in a free speech paradox: powerful speakers weaponise their rights in order to silence those who oppose them. To what extent does free speech endanger speech protection? This book examines calls for speech legislation and places it into perspective using examples from the past 200 years. By understanding how things have changed, we can stand up to threats to the freedom of speech.

Cosmography and Geography of Africa

Johannes Leo Africanus

$27 Penguin

In 1518, al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan, a Moroccan diplomat, was seized by pirates while travelling in the Mediterranean. Brought before Pope Leo X, he was persuaded to convert to Christianity, in the process taking the name Johannes Leo Africanus. Acclaimed for his learning, Leo would in time write his masterpiece, The Cosmography and the Geography of Africa. It was the first book about Africa, and would remain central to the European understanding of Africa for more than 300 years. This is the first new translation in more than 400 years of one of the great works of the Renaissance.

On Our Best Behaviour

Elise Loehnen

Lust. Gluttony. Greed. Sloth. Wrath. Envy. Pride. These so-called deadly sins, consecrated as an essential pillar of divinity, have been used by the patriarchy to control women, in particular, and keep them small throughout our history. For instance, a fear of gluttony drives us to ignore our appetites and an aversion to greed prevents us from negotiating a better salary. What would happen if we stopped trying to be good? A bold and daring denouncement of that which has been used to condemn badly behaving women, On Our Best Behavior asks: what does it mean to be good, particularly as a woman, in today’s world?

On Women

Susan Sontag

On Women brings together Susan Sontag’s most fearless and incisive writing on women, a crucial aspect of her work that has not until now received the attention it deserves. For the most part written in the 1970s during the height of second-wave feminism, Sontag’s essays are strikingly relevant to our contemporary conversations. At times powerfully in sync and at others powerfully at odds with them, they are always characteristically original in their examinations of the “biological division of labour”, the double-standard for ageing and the dynamics of women’s powerlessness and women’s power.

The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing

Hannah Dawson

The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing is a global anthology examining the diverse and often contradictory ways in which women have written of their pain and exclusion, the strategies they have employed to fight back, and the joy, power, and sisterhood that they have won. Beginning in the 15th century with Christine de Pizan, who imagined a City of Ladies that would serve as a refuge from the harassment of men, the book reaches around the whole earth and through history to us, now, splashing about in the fourth wave. It goes beyond the usual white, Western story, attentive also to class, capitalism and colonialism, and to the other axes of oppression that intersect with sexism.

Selected Poems

$15

Little published in her lifetime, Lesbia Harford died young in the late 1920s. Her short lyrical poems about social justice, revolution, free love, feminism and the experience of women display a candour and dynamism unusual for her time and place. This essential new selection of her finest work, chosen and introduced by Gerald Murnane, reaffirms Harford’s position as one of Australia’s preeminent modern poets.

Super Infinite

$45 Bloomsbury

Why Beethoven: A Phenomenon in 100 Pieces

Norman Lebrecht

$35

In his myriad lives John Donne was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, a priest, an MP – and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language. Along the way he converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, was imprisoned for marrying a 16-year-old girl without her father’s consent; struggled to feed a family of 10 children; and was often ill and in pain. He was a man who suffered from black surges of misery, yet expressed in his verse many breathtaking impressions of electric joy and love. This is a sparkling and very modern biography.

Bird’s Eye View

$33 Black Inc

$20

Flying high above us, or landing at our feet; chattering in the park and wheeling in the air; in the forest and the plain, the land and the sea, the city and the country, birds live alongside us, with our world, and their world, touching and meeting in a special kind of many-voiced, many-winged magic. Bird’s Eye View is an enchanting, short collection of poetry and prose by award-winning writer Sophie Masson, with vivid pictures by acclaimed illustrator Lorena Carrington.

Coastal Poetry

Libby Hathorn and Elizabeth Cummings

Local writers Libby Hathorn and Elizabeth Cummings were unusually busy during Covid, exploring the coastal wonders of some of the eastern coastline of Sydney. They responded in poetry to time spent at beaches and on boardwalks from Yarra Bay to Watsons Bay; and Coastal Poetry with its artful photographic depictions of each beach is the result. This unique publication gives insight into the by-the-sea treasures of life in the writers’ local environment celebrating the wonders of nature by the sea.

Without Beethoven, music as we know it wouldn’t exist. There would be no Wagner, Verdi, Mahler, Nina Simone, Michael Jackson or Ed Sheeran. Norman Lebrecht asks: Why? Who was this titan of world culture? In 100 recordings, freely available on Idagio and YouTube, Lebrecht brings to life the composer as we have never seen him before. Unruly, offensive and hopeless in his housekeeping, yes, but devoted to his art: conquering deafness to pen the Missa Solemnis. In this salacious and salutary biography, Beethoven emerges as the cornerstone of the world.

Half Deaf, Completely Mad

Tony Cohen and John Olsen

Masterful music producer-engineer Tony Cohen defined Australia’s punk and rock sounds in the late ’70s and ’80s. His long and celebrated career took him from the studios of Melbourne and Sydney to West Berlin and London’s Abbey Road, working with innumerable bands up until his death in 2017. In candid reflections, Tony remembers his decades-long relationship with Nick Cave along with behind-thescenes anecdotes of classic recordings by The Ferrets, Laughing Clowns, Models, The Reels, The Go-Betweens, Hunters & Collectors, Cold Chisel, Beasts of Bourbon, The Saints, the Cruel Sea, Paul Kelly and so many more. Half Deaf, Completely Mad is an exuberant, hilarious, tragic and triumphant memoir that reveals a chaotic genius who lived hard and LOUD.

Human Frailty: Hunters & Collectors

Jon Stratton

Released in 1986, Hunters and Collectors album Human Frailty is one of the most important Australian albums of the last two decades of the 20th century. It was pivotal in the group’s career and marked a move into pub rock. The album challenged traditional understandings of Australian masculinity while playing music to predominantly male audiences. The second track on the album, Throw Your Arms Around Me has become an Australian standard. Jon Stratton takes a look at Human Frailty and examines the legacy of an album that transcended the critical categories of its time.

$120 Abrams

Chronorama

Conde Nast Archive

“Chrono”, referring to space-time, and rama, referring to sight, are the cornerstones of this notable art record that depicts the third decade of the 21st century, a decade that had the potential to be another Roaring 20s, and during which, Condé Nast Publications experienced meteoric growth. Taken from the pages of Vogue, Vanity Fair, House & Garden, GQ, and Glamor, the nearly 400 stunning original vintage prints and illustrations are by top photographers such as Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton, Eduardo Garcia Benito, Horst P. Horst, George Hoyningen-Huene, and Arthur Elgort. It’s an unprecedented showcase of some of the most important works ever to be produced for the magazine page.

Tiny Living Spaces

Lisa Baker

Portraits 1964: Eyes of the Storm

Paul McCartney

$80

The trend towards the Tiny House – and also the Micro Flat – is more than just a short-term hype. It is an attitude towards life, a contemplation on the essentials to which more and more people are attracted. All over the world, houses and housing units in mini format are en vogue. For many, they are the only way to fulfil the dream of owning one’s own home. These carefully selected projects show how space can be gained by concentrating on substantial, intelligent floor plans and well thought-out storage solutions. They highlight in very different ways that great living quality can be wonderfully made possible in a small space through a clever design.

Ai WeiWei: Making Sense

Justin McGuirk

Artist, film-maker, architect, activist, collector – whatever mode Ai Weiwei is in, he is trying to tell us something about the state of the world. Confronted by the rapid pace of change in his country, Ai became fascinated by Chinese antiquities. His vast collections of historical artefacts, from Stone Age tools to broken teapot spouts, attest to the way the language of objects speaks across the ages. Is this a classic tale of technical progress, or have we lost crucial qualities with the march of time? Ai invites us to make sense of these objects as he explores the tensions between past and present, hand and machine, precious and worthless.

In 2020, an extraordinary trove of nearly 1,000 photographs taken by Paul McCartney was rediscovered in his archive. The photographs are McCartney’s personal record of the beginning of Beatlemania, when he was, as he puts it, in the “eyes of the storm”. The book of the same name presents 275 of McCartney’s photographs, including never-before-seen portraits of John, George and Ringo.

Portraits

$140 Penguin

Text Publishing

$65

Australian designer W. H. Chong is a wellknown book designer, but he is also a master of the portrait. The 300 works in this book are taken from drawings and paintings he has made over the past five-to-10 years and include Benjamin Law, David Malouf, Gareth Liddiard, Gerald Murnane, Helen Garner, Jack Charles, Kate Grenville, Les Murray, Michelle de Kretser, Paul Kelly and more. Portraits is a joyous love letter to those who have followed their passions down less-travelled roads, our culture-makers in all their inspiring variety.

How Ideas Are Born

Miguel Angel Perez Arteaga

$70

An insightful and visually rich book about illustration and the origins of creativity featuring the work of 26 illustrators. The visual elements are complemented by revealing interviews with each artist in which they discuss what compelled them to become illustrators, their inspirations, and the research, methods, personal philosophies and work processes that allow them to transform a creative impulse or an emotion into an idea, and an idea into a work of art.

$35 Penguin

The Well-Lived Life Gladys McGarey

The Well-Lived Life offers a counterintuitive approach to living a rich, full, and purposeful life that isn’t about conserving energy, but rather about spending it wildly. By inspiring readers to find their ”juice” and live in alignment with their true purpose, offering them healing at the deepest level – in body, mind, and spirit and by sharing stories of miraculous healing from her patients as well as from her own extraordinary life, Dr. Gladys will transform how readers think not only about health and healing, but ultimately a satisfying life.

Bringing Up Boys Who Like Themselves

Kasey Edwards & Christopher Scanlon

$30 Scribe

The Autists

Until the 1980s, autism was regarded as a condition found mostly in boys. Even in our time, autistic girls and women have largely remained invisible. When portrayed in popular culture, women on the spectrum often appear simply as copies of their male counterparts – talented and socially awkward. In The Autists, Clara Tornvall reclaims the language to describe autism and explores the autistic experience in arts and culture throughout history. She examines what it might mean to re-read creative works through an autistic lens – what we might discover if we allow perspectives beyond the neurotypical to take centre stage.

$35 Penguin

Following the success of Raising Girls Who Like Themselves, Kasey Edwards and Dr Christopher Scanlon have written a muchrequested book about raising boys. With their trademark warmth, wit and positive outlook, the authors offer techniques to help your boy prepare for whatever life throws at him. It’s an indispensable guide to supporting boys to grow up to be emotionally intelligent, thriving young men.

Your Brain on Art

Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Canongate

$40

Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross offer compelling research that shows how engaging in an art project for as little as 45 minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, and just one art experience a month can extend your life by 10 years. Featuring conversations with artists such as David Byrne, Renée Fleming, and evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson, Your Brain on Art weaves research and insights from people who are using the arts to enhance their lives.

Deeper Mindfulness Mark Williams and Danny Penman

In this follow-up to the million-copy bestseller Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World, Professor Mark Williams and Dr Danny Penman reunite to show readers how to use the foundations of mindfulness to rediscover calm and reclaim your life in our chaotic world. Proven effective at treating anxiety, stress and depression, the practices in Deeper Mindfulness offer a new and more fruitful direction for both novice and experienced meditators. $35

In Praise of Failure Costica Bradatan

Squarely challenging a culture obsessed with success, an acclaimed philosopher argues that failure is vital to a life well lived, curing us of arrogance and self-deception and engendering humility instead. Our obsession with success is hard to overlook. Everywhere we compete, rank, and measure. Yet this relentless drive to be the best blinds us to something vitally important: the need to be humble in the face of life’s challenges. Costica Bradatan mounts his case for failure through the stories of Simone Well, Mahatma Gandhi, Emil Cioran and Yukio Mishima who led lives of impact and meaning, and assiduously courted failure. Their struggles show that engaging with our limitations can be not just therapeutic but transformative.

Being You: The Body Image Book for Boys

Charlotte Markey, Daniel Hart and Douglas Zacher

From early childhood boys often feel pressured to be athletic and muscular. But what impact does this have on physical and mental well-being through their teens and beyond? What can we tell our boys to help them feel happy and confident simply being themselves? Being You is an easy-toread guide to developing a positive body image for boys aged 12+. It covers all the facts on puberty, diet, exercise, self-care, mental health, social media, and everything in between. Boys will find answers to the questions most on their mind, the truth behind many diet and exercise myths, and real-life stories from other boys.