Achieving the Impossible is an inspiring and thrilling memoir of adventure and achievement from an internationally recognised endurance swimmer and ambassador for environmental awareness.

In July 2007, Lewis Gordon Pugh became the first person to swim at the North Pole, in temperatures that would kill a normal person, primarily to raise awareness of climate change. Nicknamed ‘the human polar bear’ for his ability to raise his body’s core temperature at will, he has pioneered swims in the world’s most hostile waters, redefining what it is possible to achieve in terms of endurance.

A maritime lawyer and former member of the SAS, Lewis tells his fantastic story here for the first time. Chapters cover his childhood, growing up with his ‘hero’ Surgeon Rear Admiral father, his early life in South Africa, his training in the army’s elite corps, his inspiration and, of course, plenty of action/adventure stories, chronicling his many nail-biting endurance swims. He also shares his secrets on how to achieve the seemingly impossible.

With practical lessons taken from his own life, Lewis explains how recognising one’s passions and taking calculated risks is essential for anyone looking to fulfill their goals. The book will also cover his next and most dangerous expedition yet in May 2010. His story is inspiring, entertaining and thrilling in equal measure, and its 38-year-old author is a much needed role model for our times.

Red Pepper Price: R 195.00
Delivery time: 3-4 days
ISBN-13: 9781868423408 (ISBN-10: 1868423409)
Format: Paperback
No of Pages: 304pp
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers SA
Publication Date: 01 Jun 2010
Country of publication: South Africa

Click here to order your copy online and save 10% off this price…

About the author

“I always wanted to be a pioneer swimmer – to swim in places where nobody had swum before. Much of my inspiration came from explorers like Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott, and Edmund Hillary. Twenty-three years on, I have now pioneered more swims around famous landmarks than any other swimmer, and I am the only person to have completed a long distance swim in every ocean of the world.

But I’m probably best known for becoming the first person to undertake a long distance swim across the Geographic North Pole in 2007.”

Click here to read more at Lewis Gordon Pugh’s website.

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We’ve had great fun putting together our latest book recommendations – from business and motivational to fiction, to general interest and audio books, plus a great new selection of Afrikaans books, all at up to 15% off!

Remember that we offer free delivery on all orders over R375.00 too!

Click here to see more or type www.redpepperbooks.co.za into your web browser!

This week we’re highlighting the irreverant Pieter-Dirk Uys‘ latest book, Evita’s Kossie Sikelela!

If the road to reconciliation runs through a country’s belly, Evita’s cookbook provides its recipe for peace.

Evita invites the whole country, the whole world to her table where everybody can feast on dishes like green bean bredie and cumin chicken with sweet potatoes. Who’ll be able to moan and groan between mouthfuls of walnut balls and pampoenkoekies, or baked apple clowns?

Truly, there’s nothing like a generous helping of rabbit in red wine or guinea fowl with sultanas & hanepoot to bring forth brotherly love. And liewe aarde, you will definitely want to be best friends with the orange trifle and Tannie’s melktert. Evita is always well prepared and includes recipes for diabetics and vegetarians, Halaal and Kosher dishes, and even recipes to keep as fit as she does.

 Whether she entertains her grandchildren, caters for a picnic or plans a Christmas menu, Evita cooks up a storm.

Available in English and Afrikaans! Click here to order now from Red Pepper Books for only R135!

About the author:

Pieter-Dirk Uys is a South African satirist, active as a performer, author, and social activist. He is the son of a Calvinist Afrikaner father and Berlin-born Jewish mother and had an NG Kerk upbringing. Uys is particularly well known for his character Evita Bezuidenhout (also known as Tannie Evita), a white Afrikaner socialite and self-proclaimed political activist.

Uys says, “Humour goes a long way to make a serious point. There is no need to be hysterical or sensationalist.”

Hello! Sawubona! Molo! Dumela! Ever wanted to know how to say the basics in the 11 official languages of SA? The Hello South Africa phrasebook will tell you how!

This new remarkable pocket size phrasebook is so comprehensive, well-researched and easy-to-use that it should be made mandatory for every South African and visitor to South Africa to have one. Hello South Africa™ translates more than 600 phrases in 30 topics into each of our official languages, making it an essential communication tool to help South Africans – and visitors to the country – converse, on a basic level, with any South African in his/her mother tongue.

It holds huge credibility as the translations, pronunciation guides and pseudo-phonetics have been done by top academics in the African Languages Departments of distinguished South African Universities.

The book not only helps its readers to communicate in all official languages but it also serves as a full colour souvenir giving insight into the rich linguistic and cultural make-up of South Africa and her people. It boasts fascinating introductions on the history of language in South Africa and on the varied cultures, written by leaders in the fields of Linguistics and Social Anthropology.

The phrasebook is complete with language distribution maps showing users where the various languages are predominantly spoken, practical travel tips and photographs that celebrate South Africa’s scenic splendour and unique cultural textures.

 The Phrasebook includes:

· Over 600 phrases in 30 topics in each of South Africa’s 11 official languages
· Colour-coded contents system to help you find the right phrase quickly
· Comprehensive pronunciation guide for each language
· Easy-to-pronounce pseudo-phonetics below each phrase
· Refreshing insight into South Africa’s languages and cultures
· Photos celebrating South Africa’s scenic splendour and cultural diversity
· Quick-reference language distribution maps
· Practical travel tips for the visitor
· South Africa’s National Anthem

Click here to order your copy from Red Pepper Books today for only R170.00!

Kitty Kelly’s Oprah: A Biography has set tongues wagging all over the world. For the past twenty-five years, no one has been better at revealing secrets than Oprah Winfrey. Now Kelly turns the spotlight onto Oprah herself in this controversial unauthorized biography…

On what is arguably the most influential show in television history, Oprah has gotten her guests-often the biggest celebrities in the world-to bare their love lives, explore their painful pasts, admit their transgressions, reveal their pleasures, and explore their demons. In turn, Oprah has repeatedly allowed her audience to share in her own life story, opening up about the sexual abuse in her past and discussing her romantic relationships, her weight problems, her spiritual beliefs, her charitable donations, and her strongly held views on the state of the world.Kitty Kelley has, over the same period of time, fearlessly and relentlessly investigated and written about the world’s most revered icons: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, England’s Royal Family, and the Bush dynasty. In her #1 bestselling biographies, she has exposed truths and exploded myths to uncover the real human beings that exist behind their manufactured facades.

 Red Pepper Price: R 225.00
Availability: Ships from Red Pepper Books’ Offices within 3-4 days
ISBN-13: 9781868423255
Format: Hardback
No of Pages:
Publisher: Jonathan Ball
Publication Date: 15 May 2010
Country of publication: South Africa

Click here to order your copy online from Red Pepper Books and save 10% off this price…

Red Pepper Books and The Pepperazzi Reports bring you weekly highlights to keep you up to date with the hottest titles that publishing has to offer! This week’s highlighted title is “Hooked” by Melinda Ferguson.

In Hooked, Melinda Ferguson follows her powerful drug memoir Smacked with a brutally honest account of her post-addiction addictions – from self-help fads, to Oprah, to 12 step meetings, to men, to Facebook.

Hooked: Secrets and Highs of a Sober Addict
Author: Melinda Ferguson

What can be more difficult than breaking a drug habit? Simple: staying clean. How does an addict deal with a world in which instant gratification has become the norm? How does an addict break the cycle of use and abuse that has been their life for so many years? How does an addict balance kids, a career and a relationship while fighting to stay clean? How does an addict fill the hole in the soul? In this no-holds-barred account of her life after drugs,

Melinda Ferguson reveals just how easy it is for recovering addicts to slip back into the patterns of behaviour that led them to use in the first place. Provocative and often darkly humorous, she takes us to those ‘dangerous’ places that all addicts battle to avoid and shows us just what it takes to come back from the brink.

To see what you’re in for, click here to read an abstract of the book, published in The Sunday Times (online)…

Red Pepper Price: R 220.00
Delivery time: In Stock – Ships within 24 Hours

ISBN-13: 9780143026365 (ISBN-10: 0143026364)
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books (SA) (Pty) Ltd
Publication Date: 01 May 2010
Country of publication: South Africa

Click here to order your copy online from Red Pepper Books and save 10% off this price…

About the author

Melinda Ferguson is a recovering drug addict whose life became a nightmare in her twenties when she began shooting heroin. She recounted her harrowing story of drug addiction in her memoir, Smacked. She headlines the Radio 702/Cape Talk Crime Line initiative, and she was a finalist in the First for Women/Triba Women of Courage award. Currently, she works as a features editor for True Love magazine.

Ferguson says, “I’m one of those people who went out there, lived a life and came back to write about it, and I’m blessed to be alive to do this.” Click here to read her blog.

Pepper Regards,
Phillipa and the Pepperazzi team at Red Pepper Books

 
Mother’s Day 2010 falls on Sunday the 9th of May. Why not give the special woman in your life the gift of choice by giving her a book voucher this year? 

A book voucher is the perfect gift for that woman who has everything, including the kitchen sink, and gives her the opportunity to buy something that SHE really wants, and probably, unbeknown to you, she has had her eye on for a while now!

Simply purchase a book voucher online and either have the voucher emailed to you, or your mum (or any magnificent woman in your life who deserves to be spoilt on Mother’s Day), or have it posted or delivered at a nominal fee. 

For last minute shoppers in the Gauteng area, please remember that you are more than welcome to collect your book voucher from us in-store between 8am and 4pm, Monday to Friday. 

 We have vouchers in the following denominations:
R150, R200, R300, R400, R500, R600, R700, R800, R900 and R1000.

 We accept payment by credit card, EFT and direct deposit.

As an added bonus, and as our way of thanking YOU for spoiling your mum, we will give you a R25 book voucher to be used against your next online book purchase from Red Pepper Books. Your R25 bonus book voucher will be emailed to you within minutes of you placing your order for a Mother’s Day book voucher.

Click here to order your virtual book voucher from Red Pepper Books today…

“There are thousands of leadership books, but only one you really need to read. This one.”

– Matthew May, author of In Pursuit of Elegance, a BusinessWeek “Best Innovation” book

  

What do many of the world’s richest people and companies like Nike, FedEx, General Electric and Microsoft all have in common? They have quietly discovered a powerful system that the best use to create spectacular results and breakthrough wins.

For over 15 years, Robin Sharma, one of the world’s most widely read authors on leadership and personal success with blockbusters like The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and The Greatness Guide – has been quietly sharing a proprietary success formula with his clients that has made him one of the most respected leadership advisors and success coaches in the world (he’s currently featured in SUCCESS magazine and in a survey of 22,000 business people was ranked in the Top 5 leadership gurus globally).

Now, for the first time, Robin makes his proprietary process available to you in his wildly anticipated new book The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable On Real Success In Business and In Life (already an international bestseller!).

This game-changing book will help you take your work life and your personal world to a whole new level of wow and show you exactly how to play at your absolute peak.

In The Leader Who Had No Title, you will learn how to create spectacular results, awaken your inner leader and have the professional and personal life you have always wanted.

Specifically, you will discover:

1. How to work and influence people like a superstar, regardless of your position
2. A method to recognize and then seize opportunities in times of deep change
3. What the superrich and wildly successful do in their private moments
4. An instant strategy to build a great team as well as become a “merchant of wow” with your customers
5. Hard-hitting tactics to become mentally strong and physically tough to lead your field
6. Real-world ways to defeat stress, build an unbeatable mindset, unleash energy and balance your personal life
7. Tools to shift from victimhood into leadership

Regardless of what you do within your organization or the current conditions of your life, it is absolutely essential for you to remember that you have the power to show leadership where you are now planted – and shine at brilliance in all that you do. This powerful book shows you how to claim that staggering power.

Buy this book for you, your boss and EVERY person on your team – especially those who are playing victim versus showing leadership. It really is that powerful!

Available as a book (for R153) and an audio book (for R299.70) from Red Pepper Books today – Click here!

Taking a trip on the Rovos Rail has always been a dream of mine. When the price of a ticket on this steam locomotive could be traded for a small car for your teenage son, you can well imagine that taking a trip on this luxury 5-star train comes along but once in a lifetime, unless of course you frequent large banking institutions dressed in balaclavas and boasting pointy devices in ones pocket on a regular basis.

Fortunately we were not required to rob a bank, as the bank, Absa Bank that is, came to us with the trip on silver platter, quite literally. As part of the Absa Rewards Program, Red Pepper Books (represented by myself, Phillipa Mitchell and my partner, Ceri James) were one of 72 fortunate guests at this once in a lifetime event.

We were so excited that we could hardly contain ourselves. Arriving at Rovos Rail’s headquarters, Capital Park Station in Pretoria, we were ushered into a beautiful colonial-style lounge where we were treated to tall glasses of sparkling champagne, while the beautiful sounds of a cello and a violin dancing in musical harmony with each other filled the air.

After we had all been welcomed on to the Rovos Rail and the details of our trip, as well as the required “rail etiquette” had been explained to us, we were invited to board the train.

The sight of exquisite Edwardian furniture surrounded by rich, dark wood panelling greeted us as we boarded, and we were invited to take a seat in one of the coaches. After exploring each carriage we finally settled at the pub which was situated adjacent to the Observation Deck at the back of the train. Travelling at a slow pace by today’s standards at a mere 40km per hour, the train had departed and slowly chugged and snaked its way through the outskirts of Pretoria and towards Warmbaths.

Sipping on a cup of tea (at the bar, have you ever!) we joined in the conversation with our new found friends, Tim and Amanda and laughter filled the air.

At 12pm we were invited to join our fellow 70 guests in the dining car where we were treated to a sumptuous 5-course lunch. We quaffed some of the best South African Chardonnays and Chenin Blancs as we were served mouth-watering plates of Ostrich carpaccio, butternut soup, salmon, and desserts that would make any heart-surgeon cringe. Lunch was rounded off with delicious platters of cheese and biscuits, finished off with Cognac and filter coffee. I must admit that lunch felt like something of a blur after I was unable to count how many glasses of wine I had consumed, but the food and the company of our fellow travellers, especially Rani (Absa Rewards) and her husband Ruben Pillay at whose table we dined, made the afternoon incredibly memorable.

At about 2pm we arrived in Naboomspruit and disembarked the train. Some of us had to hold on to the railings to stabilise ourselves, but I will not digress and go into too much detail on that front. It was with much sadness that we were informed that the remainder of the trip would take place by bus, and we sadly bade farewell to the steam locomotive that had brought us safely to our destination. Boarding the bus, we settled in while some of the passengers having lost their stage fright ambled their way to the front and competed with each other on the joke front as if we were at Jo Parker’s comedy club. Ceri and I even went as far as using my Blackberry to look up the words to the Rocky Horror Picture Show song that ended with the words “und I did” and proceeded to sing it to our unfortunate fellow travellers at the top of our lungs. The effects of that last glass of Cognac had clearly not worn off…

After about 45 minutes we arrived at Legends Golf and Safari Resort where we were greeted by awaiting game viewing vehicles which took us on one of the most special game drives that I have ever experienced in this country. With Michael as our chauffeur we were taken into the beautiful Entabeni Safari Conservancy and private game reserve (Entabeni meaning “Place of the Mountain”) at the foothills of the Waterberg Mountains. Zebra, Kudu, Blesbok, Warthog and Impala roamed the planes and stopped in their tracks as we crept past them, looking on in curiosity, some snorting at our impoliteness at interrupting the otherwise peacefulness of their afternoon. Michael picked off branches from nearby trees and invited us to taste their leaves, explaining how they were used for their medicinal properties. At that point I wondered whether there were sponges growing on any nearby trees that could assist in mopping up the copious amounts of Chardonnay that I had consumed…

We were fortunate enough to see a mother white rhino and her baby within about 10 metres of the open 4×4 from where we sat and it was fascinating to watch how she protected her baby from us, the strangers who had trespassed into their area.

We headed back onto the main dirt road and up to the white lion conservancy. This, to me, was the real highlight of the trip as we were treated to a visit to two young white lion cubs as well as an adult male and female, one of whom had been found on a dirt road – almost dead as a tiny cub but had been rescued and hand reared and was now an oversized, friendly, hairy feline. One of the guests, Trish, had at one point bent down to take her camera out of her bag, only to be greeted by a huge paw with claws extended as it groped through a hole in the fence. The one side of her bag was ripped open and we all jumped backwards as we realised that this seemingly cute and cuddly lion was very much a wild animal and deserved some serious respect.

With our tails between our legs we left the lion enclosure and Michael took us on a short game drive around the giant cheetah enclosure as the sun set behind the Waterberg Mountains. I watched in awe as two of these regal creatures emerged from the bush and watched us from the distance. We were incredibly lucky to see a lioness with her three three-and-a-half-week old cubs. This was a particularly special moment as we watched through holes in the fence as the cubs clambered over their mother and played with their siblings. Complete with fat tummies and short legs, these were the most precious little things I had seen all day.

Feeling completely at peace with the world, dusk settled around us and we were taken down to the local Pedi village where we were welcomed with the sound of drums and traditional dance and song of the colourfully dressed Pedi villagers. A feast of culinary delights awaited us and we all tucked in with relish, wishing that we could turn back the clock and start the day all over again.

Alas we could not, and at about 18:00 we were whisked back to our awaiting busses. The lights were dimmed, conversation hummed quietly in the background, and weary heads rested on heavy shoulders as the bus began its two hour journey back to Pretoria. I closed my eyes, smiled, thanked the Universe for the beautiful gift we had been given that day, and revelled in how fortunate we are to be part of this beautiful country we call South Africa.