Every year, on the 3rd Sunday in June, we celebrate Father’s Day. An opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all our dads, father figures, pet daddies, uncles – whoever you’ve got in your life that makes you feel safe and sheltered.
If you are looking for a few ‘last minute’ Father’s Day gift ideas, I’ve got you sorted!
The Dad Who Loves to Cook
Beer Country’s Pots, Pans and Potjies by Greg Gilowey and Karl Tessendorf
About the book: (from Penguin Random House South Africa)
“In today’s insta-everything world, cast iron reminds us of a simpler time. A time when things were built to last, not break within a year. A well-seasoned pan is a cooking Swiss Army knife. A solid flat pot is the ultimate campfire jack-of-all-trades, and the humble potjie pot is more than just a pot. It’s our version of low and slow and it has some important lessons to teach. It forces you to relax and enjoy the ride, and to realise that the best things really are worth waiting for. It’s a delicious goal for friends and family to come together and work towards over the course of the day – the ingredients prep, the fire prep, the building of flavour layers and watching the potjie’s bulging belly whisper away. These are steps required for a great potjie day, and the best part is that you get to do it while chatting and laughing with a beer in hand.”
Here are a few recipes from this book, to whet your appetite:
Stacked Mustard and Cheese Potato Bake
Credit: Penguin Random House South Africa
Photo Credit: Penguin Random House South Africa
Paperback
Recommended Price R360.00
Published June 2022
The Dad Who Stays on Top of Current Affairs
Spoilt Ballots by Matthew Blackman and Nick Dall
About the book: (from Penguin Random House South Africa)
“‘With their trademark wit, levity and meticulous research, Nick Dall and Matthew Blackman have told the stories of South Africa’s long history at the polls in a compelling and entertaining way, bringing narratives to life through the protagonists and the juicy sideshows.’ – Mandy Wiener, journalist and author
If you paid even a moment’s attention during high-school history lessons, you probably know that 1910 brought about the Union of South Africa, that the 1948 general election ushered in apartheid, and that the Rainbow Nation was born when Madiba triumphed in the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.
Spoilt Ballots dishes the dirt on these pivotal events in our history. But it also sheds light on a dozen lesser-known contests, starting with the assassination of King Shaka in 1828 and ending with the anointing of President Cyril at Nasrec in 2017.
Spoilt Ballots is as much about the people who voted in some of our most decisive elections as it is about those who didn’t get to make their mark. It explains why a black man in the Cape had more political rights in 1854 than at any other point in the ensuing 140 years and how the enfranchisement of women in 1930 was actually a step back for democracy.
The book will leave you wondering if Oom Paul Kruger’s seriously dicey win in the 1893 ZAR election might have paved the way for the Boer War and whether ‘Slim Jannie’ Smuts really was that slim after all. It shows how the Nats managed to get millions of English-speakers to vote for apartheid and why the Groot Krokodil’s attempt to co-opt coloureds and Indians into the system backfired spectacularly.
Entertaining and impeccably researched, Spoilt Ballots lifts the lid on 200 years of electoral dysfunction in our beloved and benighted nation.”
Read an extract here
Paperback
Recommended Price R300.00
Published February 2022
The Dad Who Enjoys Thrills
Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka
About the book: (from Penguin Random House South Africa)
Their mission is murder. His is revenge. A propulsive thriller from the prizewinning author of Bullet Train.
Suzuki is just an ordinary man until his wife is murdered. When he discovers the criminal gang responsible he leaves behind his life as a maths teacher and joins them, looking for a chance to take his revenge. What he doesn’t realise is that he’s about to get drawn into a web of unusual professional assassins, each with their own agenda.
The Whale convinces his victims to take their own lives using just his words.
The Cicada is a talkative and deadly knife expert.
The elusive Pusher dispatches his targets in deadly traffic accidents.
Suzuki must take each of them on, in order to try to find justice and keep his innocence in a world of killers.
Read an extract here.
Paperback
Recommended Price R320.00
Published May 2022
These three titles are all published by Penguin Random House South Africa and available from all major booksellers.
