LEISURE
BOOKS
Three new releases to kick off your spring reading…
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SPRING READING NOT TO MENTION: A NOVEL BY VIVIAN DE KLERK
SECURE YOUR RETIREMENT BY BRUCE CAMERON AND WOUTER FOURIE
As her 21st birthday approaches, Katy Ferreira
Pensioners are facing a major
has not left her bedroom for
fallout from South Africa’s
close on two years. In fact,
downgrading to junk status and
solutions to guide pensioners
she has not left her bed – at
the plummeting of the rand as a
to better financial outcomes. It
360 kilogrammes, she simply
result of government corruption.
gives advice for women, who are
can’t.
On top of this, the COVID-19
particularly at risk, and it deals
pandemic and the economic
with the rising costs of healthcare
indomitable spirit, Katy tries to make the best of a
lockdown have hit retirement
and the increasing threat of
bad situation. She does the crossword in the Herald
savings hard, and their effects
dementia. Written by award-
newspaper her mother brings home, consumes the
will continue for a long time.
winning author Bruce Cameron
food she craves – biscuits, pies, doughnuts, litres
Secure Your Retirement unpacks
and leading financial planner
of fizzy drinks – and waits in hope for insulin and a
the challenges facing pensioners,
Wouter Fourie, and based on
solution to her plight. To pass the time she begins
and outlines what they can do
research by the country’s largest
to compile her own crossword in one of the Croxley
to improve their situation. The
pension fund administrator,
notebooks that have been unused since she dropped
book explains how to avoid the
Alexander Forbes, as well as life
out of school. Within each cryptic clue is a message,
pitfalls that cause pensioners
companies Just SA and Sanlam,
an attempt to explain how it feels to be ‘the fat girl’,
to run out of money. It provides
this book is essential for anyone
how taking comfort in sweet things as a grieving and
guidance about selecting the right
concerned about their financial
lonely child escalated into a deadly relationship with
pension products and offers other
future in this worrying time.
Characterised by an
food and a psychological and physical disease. The process triggers splintered memories of dark family secrets and hints of culpability. As Katy finds her voice – quirky, macabre, devastatingly astute and viciously funny at times – the notebooks fill up. Not to Mention is part diary, part memoir, part love-
A LIFE ON OUR PLANET BY DAVID ATTENBOROUGH I am David Attenborough. At time of writing, I am 93 years old. I’ve had an extraordinary
hate letter to the mother who fuelled her daughter’s
life. It’s only now that I appreciate how
addiction as steadily as the world ostracised her.
extraordinary. As a young man, I felt I was
The destructive power of shame and society’s harsh
out there in the wild, experiencing the
judgement of people who are ‘different’ is matched
untouched natural world – but it was an
by the immense courage of a young woman who is
illusion. The tragedy of our time has been
determined to be heard.
happening all around us, barely noticeable
Vivian de Klerk is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at Rhodes University, where she devoted
from day to day – the loss of our planet’s wild places, its biodiversity. I have been witness
30 years to teaching and research before becoming
to this decline. A Life on Our Planet contains my witness statement, and
dean of students in 2008. She received the vice
my vision for the future – the story of how we came to make this, our
chancellor’s Senior Distinguished Research Medal
greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. We have
and, in 2019, was the recipient of the Kraak Writing
the opportunity to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the
Grant. Not to Mention is her first novel.
wonderful world we inherited. All we need is the will to do so. •
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SILVER DIGEST // SPRING 2020
