Books Make Great Gifts This December
The Restless Shepherd
My Journey from Rural Ethiopia to America—and Back Again
Author: Adugnaw Worku
A good autobiography has a strange effect on a reader, at least this one. As I read Adugnaw Worku’s riveting life story, I found that I was putting myself in his shoes. After a few chapters, I was imagining that I had lived his odyssey and shared in his struggle for an education. That’s the impact of a successful writer. As I reflected on his choice to both honour and defy his parents, to love his homeland and to adopt new citizenship, I thought I understood.
To a reader just picking up this book, allow me to adopt Adu’s persona and speak in his voice:
“A reader of my story begins with certain handicaps,” I might say in his voice, putting my words in his mouth. “But those handicaps can disappear. You are entering an alien world in which road signs have been removed or changed, a world in which assumptions and proverbs are not the same as the wisdom that is taken for granted by present-day Americans or Europeans. Words like ‘peasant’ or ‘patriarchy’ or even ‘tradition’ may, for you, my readers, obscure as much as they reveal.
“Even my Ethiopian-American sons have a hard time understanding, I suspect, a time and place where abduction and love could overlap, where sex is unavoidably rooted in procreation, where male and female are simply defined by nature, and where old age brings authority.
Surrounded by Idiots:
The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand Those Who Cannot Be Understood)
by Thomas Erikson
You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was 'surrounded by idiots', communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people.
Originally published in Swedish in 2014 as Omgiven Av Idioter, Erikson's Surrounded by Idiots is already an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide, of which over 750,000 copies have been sold in Sweden alone. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with in and out of the office - based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way(s) we speak and share information.
Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication and advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or indeed shut up. Packed with 'aha!' and 'oh no!' moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and influence those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension.
Will:
The Sunday Times Bestselling Autobiography
by Will Smith
One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.
Will Smith's transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic tale of inner transformation and outer triumph, and Will tells it astonishingly well. But it's only half the story.
Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn't see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn't signed up for. It turned out Will Smith's education wasn't nearly over.
'Wild Women and the Blues'
by Denny S. Bryce
In 1925 Chicago, the jazz capital of the world, Honoree is trying to dance her way to the top at Dreamland Café, where she socializes with celebrities. In 2015, grieving film student Sawyer Hayes seeks out the 110-year-old Honoree to get answers for his thesis on the legendary filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux. As the past meets the present, it’s a final chance for Honoree to truly be heard and seen before it’s too late.
Lights Camera Jemuru:
Ethiopia through the lens of a community film school Paperback – 20 Feb. 2018
by Robert Davi
Robert David quit a career in the high-flying world of advertising in London to go and teach in a back-street, community film school in Addis Ababa. Lights, Camera, Jemuru is the remarkable story of the young Ethiopian film-makers of Gem TV, and how their films are transforming lives all over Ethiopia. It’s also a vibrant portrait of Ethiopia; a land of biblical history, diverse ethnic peoples, staggering natural beauty and deep-rooted culture. Sometimes sad, often funny and always moving, Lights, Camera, Jemuru banishes the heart of darkness image of Africa and shows what young people all over the developing world can achieve if given the chance. And for the millions of people all over the world who watched Live Aid and wandered whatever happened to Ethiopia, it’s a fascinating answer.