The Reading Room with Melanie Walker

So - you thought books were harmless? South African columnist/advertising copywriter/online book club convenor - and most importantly, author - Paige Nick’s tenth and latest novel, Book People, delves into a world of book clubs, both in-life and online, social media backlash, cancel culture, and Author’s Behaving Badly. Joining (not just ‘In Conversation With') Melanie Walker to chat about how cha...

Just what is Uncultivated Food in the bigger scheme of things? Author Nikki Brighton takes the reader on a journey about this growing way of viewing those plants that are growing in the 'wrong' place (ie. weeds) and shows us how to forage, and what you can garner from not just your garden, but from wild spaces in your area, to add to your pantry. Wild About Weeds is an easy guide to the most commo...

Getting a Grip on Cancer and Positivity. “This book is an honest recollection of my childhood - the good and not so good. Some of the stories I share, not even my husband or my children knew about, and they struggled to read past it. I have hidden it for so long, as I was scared and ashamed. Alcoholism, poverty, hardships, violence, unforgiveness, but now that I have dealt with it, forgiven them,...

Literary and Physical Journeys in South Africa. "Before it can ever be a repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock." – Simon Schama So starts a journey into the mind, not just yours or the author’s but into 9 South African writers and their characters and creations. Justin Fox, author of 24 books in varyin...

Has the Mining Industry in South Africa collapsed? In 1994, the South African mining industry was a world leader; in 2010 it had descended into a state of both anarchy and paralysis. This book tells the story of the disintegration of the South African mining industry over a period of more than a quarter of a century since the ANC's accession to power. Author and mining expert Dr Ian Robinson lays...

Sometimes cookery books aren't just about cooking, they're about a whole lot more; the ingredients and where they come from, the ancestors who hold the lore surrounding them, preserving wild foods (in nature, not just in jam jars), and the heritage of indigenous ingredients. It's about the stories that come with the 'lekkerness', the 'mnandi-ness' of the people and their culinary culture. Gregory...

A guide to the best decade evah - The 80s! The 80s were a time of hope and frustration for teens and 20-somethings in South Africa, but there was a whole lot of boogying going on. Drummer (and wannabe frontman!) of such iconic SA bands, such as eVoid, Petit Cheval and Wonderboom, Danny de Wet takes us back on a memory trip through the fogs of time, to an era that not only those that lived through...

“Sometimes I think that the point of birdwatching is not the actual seeing of the birds, but the cultivation of patience. Of course, each time we set out, there's a certain amount of expectation we'll see something, maybe even a species we've never seen before, and that it will fill us with light. But even if we don't see anything remarkable - and sometimes that happens - we come home filled with...

Social Media Musings and Going Viral. While people all over South Africa were hunkered down in their homes baking banana bread, coming up with ways to find gin, bemoaning the fact that they couldn't go for a walk, while finding new ways to navigate this strange new walk of Life, one Facebooker kept a host of other flounderers mentally intact with her pithy, insightful posts, not just about her jou...

Our Guest: Mike Nicol (Author: Poet: Writing Instructor) Getting the tips of the trade from the Crime Meister in half an hour is fairly speedy, but you won't want to miss the workings of the inner mind of one of South Africa's top authors. Whether it be his way of getting into the character of Mace Bishop or Fish Pescado, or into the lives of some of South Africa's top icons, Mike Nicol blurs the...

Making SA as Sexy as the Scandies! Deon Meyer (Storyteller / Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres) "It’s never good when your phone rings in a meeting you were never invited to." Happily we called, and Deon Meyer answered. The King of SA Crime-writing chats about his process, his ties to France, his inspirations and his flawed hero, Bennie Griessel ahead of news of more TV and film projects getting i...

Let’s Unpack It. The time to be adaptable has come. Are you scared of moving forward? Are you having problems changing your mindset? “Amateurs hack systems, professionals hack people.” And professionals when it comes to asking the right questions, Hack It authors, Rinus Le Roux and Rikus Viljoen have put up the tools you need to get the right answers on how to give yourself a mental upgrade. Audio...

Step out of Survival Mode with Erik Kruger Erik Kruger (Author / Founder - Modern Breed) It’s time to get out of your comfort zone - especially if it isn’t the most comfortable place to be. Being Dangerous doesn’t mean being reckless - it’s about posing a danger to those things that do not add to your life. Erik Kruger tells us about how even if threats about, you can do something about them. Take...

...and other stories Ted Botha grew up between Washington D.C. and Pretoria, and his writings are as diverse as his living circumstances over the years. He has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, and was an editor for Reuters in Manhattan. His books include 'The Girl with the Crooked Nose' and 'Flat/White,' about living in a crazy tenement in...

The Beatles got the Beat. The Beatles have been a worldwide phenomenon for decades - and show no sign of slowing down. Although they were only a band for less than a decade, their imprint on the music industry will last many lifetimes. The TV documentary series, Get Back, and Paul McCartney’s double volumes - The Lyrics: 1956 to the present - gets behind the stories that went into the songs, and t...

it's all about getting your Mind over Mountain.... Guest: Robby Kojetin (Author and Extreme Sports Motivator) From not landing on his feet, to landing up motivating others to get up on theirs, Robby Kotejin has gone from climbing the roof of the world, to wallowing in the depths of despair. But deciding to pull his two broken ankles up by his bootstraps, came back from the precipice to scale not o...

Actress, teacher, author - No longer an author in Waiting! Meet Rosie Fiore (Author and most fabulous Gurlfrend) Born in good old Joburg, Rosie Fiore left our sunny shores to follow a literary life in London some 21 years ago. Having studied drama and working as a writer in TV, theatre and comedy - pretty much anything you could write for, Rosie did! - the dream of being a Proper Author took hold....

The Anatomy of a Southern African 'Death' series Meet Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip (authors - co-writers under the pseudonym Michael Stanley) Critically acclaimed across the world for their series of original crime/mystery books, Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip are the writing duo, Michael Stanley. Featuring their African "Columbo", Detective 'Kubu' Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigat...

Female Thriller Writers Taking over the Murder/Mystery World Long kept in the shadows, female mystery and thriller writers are coming to the fore, not only worldwide, but here in South Africa. Sarah Key, author of 5 books in the genre, chats to Melanie about being a female in what many perceive to be a Man's Domain, how to come up with a great idea, the Theatre of the Mind and how we're getting ba...

Adventurer and Mental coach Jo Rust circumnavigates Africa - SOLO Meet Jo Rust - World Record Holder. Author. Mental Health Activist. Jo Rust is the embodiment of the word 'gumption'! Which is what you'd need to ride around the whole African continent on 2 wheels - a woman alone with her motorsickle. Women over the decades have been blazing trails across the world, especially those women motorcycl...

Join Paige Nick (novelist, columnist and advertising copywriter) as we discuss what's worth reading and appreciating On South African authors, the art of short story writing, who's really who in the literary world, and what's worth listening to! Paige Nick has her finger on the pulse of words, how they're compiled and their meaning - and has piles to prove it! Share the joy on The Good Book Apprec...

How Heritage and the Past inform our Future In less than a century, the jumble of shabby tents and lean-tos that constituted Johannesburg's first settlement grew into a modern metropolis of towering office buildings and sprawling suburbs. This is the history of Johannesburg's rise compiled in one glorious picture book. Marc Latilla's research into the heritage of our strange City Of Gold brings ne...

Highly effective reading habits of a Successful Reader Bronwyn Williams (Economist / Trend Analyst / Futurist) What insights can this voracious reader impart? Well - Listen Here! If you are at a loss as to what to read that can make your mind take a quantum leap into the future, Bronwyn Williams has a number of interesting insights that will yield quantifiable results! What is she reading? What is...

And 100 of them you should get to know! Megan Emmett Parker (author and senior producer in the environmental world) With a Masters in environmental management, a conservation degree and a decade working as a senior producer on 50/50 on tv, Megan Parker has a solid grounding on all topics environmental. Her book, Game Ranger in your Backpack, has been selling out and reprinted yearly since release...

How Has the Cloud Moved? Jean-Marie Jullienne (Entrepreneurial Author) For centuries, visions and beliefs of and in "God" have been obscured in many ways, oftentimes through mistranslation of the original texts that make up the Scriptures, holy books and teachings. To many, religion seems to be either something which is divisive or not relevant to them in this day and age. But looking at the Writi...