Showing titles in Cultural & Regional

From New York Times bestselling author Amy Tan, a memoir on her life as a writer, her childhood and the symbiotic relationship between fiction and emotional memory. In Where the Past Begins, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan is at her most intimate in...

Raised in 1980s Madrid in the streets of San Blas, which bore the devastating scars of heroin addiction and crime, Jonathan Tepper's childhood was anything but ordinary. Born into a family of American missionaries driven by unwavering faith, Jonathan's home became a sanctuary for society's most...

The “brilliantly wry” (Lena Dunham) and “lovably awkward” (Mindy Kaling) New York Times bestseller from the creator of HBO’s Insecure. In this "delightfully deadpan" (Essence) bestseller named for her wildly popular web series, Issa Rae waxes humorously on what it’s like to be...

Closing Ranks tells of an illustrious career, giving a behind the scenes look at the workings of the Metropolitan Police. One of the founder members of the Black Police Association Charitable Trust, Leroy Logan has had firsthand experience of race relations in modern-day Britain, and he relates how his strong Christian faith helped him persevere in a frequently hostile work environment.

 Historian Sunil Khilnani, Professor of History and Politics at Ashoka University, takes listeners on an immersive, whirlwind journey from ancient India to the 21st century through the life stories of 50 remarkable individuals, exploring their surprising legacies and illuminating both the wonders and the urgent conflicts of India today. 

Compiled by bestselling author susan abulhawa, an Arabic-English bilingual anthology of true stories from eighteen young Palestinian writers trying to survive the genocide in Gaza. In early 2024, writer and activist susan abulhawa managed to enter Gaza twice through the Rafah crossing. There, at...

Bloomsbury presents Walking through Fire by Nawal El Saadawi, read by Nadia Albina In Walking through Fire, Nawal El Saadawi, author of Woman at Point Zero and one of the Arab world’s greatest writers, tells the story of the later years of a life which shaped an iconic voice in global feminism...

In her inimitably funny and feel-good way, social media star Kacie Rose offers a refreshingly honest take on navigating a new life abroad in You Deserve Good Gelato, covering everything from travel fails and homesickness to the joy of culture shocks and the power of doing the s*** that scares you. Because life is too short not to.

Has anyone ever tried to throw a cash register at you? Have so many irritating and inane questions caused you to develop a poker face so strong that a sledge hammer wouldn’t break it? Have you seen every dark impulse man possesses? Do you know every demon by name? Yes? Then you’ve probably worked retail, and this book is for you. No? Then you’ve probably never worked retail, and this book is for you.

In letters addressed to their friends, to members of their family - both biological and chosen - and to fellow storytellers, Akwaeke describes the shape of a life lived in overlapping realities. Through heartbreak, chronic pain, intimacy with death, becoming a beast, this is embodiment as a nonhuman: outside the boundaries imposed by expectations and legibility. This book is an account of the gruelling work of realignment and remaking necessary to carve out a future for oneself. The result is a black spirit memoir: a powerful, raw unfolding of identity.

Brought to you by Penguin. In 1971, two years after the launch of Monty Python’s Flying Circus made his comedy troupe global superstars - and made all their lives a little more complicated - Eric Idle decided to buy a ramshackle property in the south of France. In search of a simpler, quieter...

A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Powerful . . . a coming-of-age story with a twist' Guardian 'Heart-wrenching . . . We need accounts like this haunting, compelling book' Telegraph 'A profound and moving tribute . . . It is Lana's inside perspective on what it was like to grow up within this society...

“Defiance takes my breath away. A nail-biting tale of astonishing courage.” —Jeannette Walls #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle “A heartbreaking account of a young woman’s struggle for freedom against the rampaging forces of fanaticism and tyranny...

In his essay about the life of Irish writer John McGahern, Tóibín reveals the tones of melancholy and amusement within both art and the artist. In his extraordinary essay on his cancer diagnosis, Tóibín unpicks the word 'battle', and illuminates the distress, horror and blankness of his experiences. From the shades of light and dark in a Venice without tourists, to the streets of Buenos Aires riddled with disappearances and tied up with dictators and politics, we find ourselves considering law and religion in Ireland as well as in Marilynne Robinson's fiction.

Aikau's legendary life and legacy, a pipeline into the exhilarating world of surfing, and an important chronicle of the Hawaiian Renaissance and the emergence of modern Hawaii. In the 1970s, a decade before bumper stickers and T-shirts bearing the phrase Eddie Would Go began popping up all over the Hawaiian islands and throughout the surfing world, Eddie Aikau was proving what it meant to be a "waterman." 

Brought to you by Penguin. The Roma is a profoundly personal portrait of a people and their on-going journey, shedding new light on their history and what it means to be Romani in Europe today. It is a history that is not widely known and understood, and that invisibility has created a space...

With the success of the critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-winning film “The Fighter,” the world stood up and cheered for the inspiring true story of Micky Ward—a heart-and-soul warrior who overcame the odds to make history in the ring. But that was only part of the tale… Now, in his...

What if the voice that nearly broke you was also the one that drove you home? Kunle Bademosi grew up under the shadow of a brilliant, intimidating father where love felt conditional, approval felt earned, and one sentence shaped everything: “You’ll never be successful.” From the outside, his life looked impressive. On the inside, it was fear in a suit, shame, performance, and a constant need to prove his worth. Each reinvention worked… until it didn’t. The Long Way Home is a raw memoir of family pressure, culture shock, ego, collapse, and rebuilding.

The astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street. At the age of twenty, Chris Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine...

Andrei Tarkovsky: A Life on the Cross by Lyudmila Boyadzhieva is an intimate portrayal of the renowned Soviet filmmaker’s life, struggles, and artistic legacy.