Pause is a compilation of Thabo’s pearls of wisdom and lessons about life, God, money, relationships, parenting and, most importantly, self-mastery. His knowledge has been acquired by reading other philosophers’ views on life and love, from interviewing entrepreneurs and entertainers about self-sufficiency, and preachers and teachers about self-mastery. This, you may say, is his ‘bible’; to drive his life, and a lens through which he views his existence. Thabo shares what he knows, what he practises and what still challenges him. It’s a book that everyone, from teens to adults, should read for a glimpse, and as a guide, to living a life that is meaningful.

Self-mastery is the pinnacle of self-effectiveness. It is the reset button that puts you back in control of your life and helps you make healthy choices in both your personal and business life. If you’ve ever experienced anxiety, loss, self-doubt, confusion, procrastination, helplessness, lack of self-control and impatience, then Servings of Self-Mastery is for you. With self-mastery you are able to coach yourself out of the negative mind-states that hold you back. This book will help you recognise the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that stand in your way of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fulfilment. It will equip you with the agency to reframe these barriers into positive energy that will catalyse and catapult you into action.

There is a vast wealth of innate wisdom in the wild, if we would only listen. Humanity today, while technologically advanced, is so busy doing that they have forgotten how to be. They have lost heart. The Book of Samson contains deep truths that come from the hearts of the animals. These truths, explained from the perspective of wildlife, are very easy to grasp. Truths that, with courage, will make an immense difference.

On 1 January 1999, Travis Gale (aged 17) and Stephen Bonaconsa (aged 27) left Johannesburg on a mission to cycle across four continents and raise R1 million for children living with, and affected by HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal. They pedalled out of Johannesburg, riding mountain bikes equipped with panniers, carrying the basic requirements for an adventure. They rode unsupported. No Instagram or Facebook. It was just the two of them and the open road. The pair successfully cycled over 16 000 kilometres, across four continents, through 16 countries, raising R1.7 million for their cause.

The world is driven by ambition, dreams, expectations, wishes and desires. We all believe we are the obvious choice to be selected, noted, identified, appointed or anointed. We may think and believe we are the obvious choice in many areas of our lives, but the reality is that this is not the case. When your boss informs you that you are not getting that role you assumed was in the bag (and you’d already informed your family and friends that it was yours – and had even bought the attire to go with it), you ask: what happened? What happened when you were bypassed for the lead role in a project? You believed in your potential and you believed that everyone in your organisation and circle saw you as the main person, the leader or the ‘go-to person’, and yet you were bypassed and someone else in your team was selected. You were the obvious choice, weren’t you?

Beyond the Secret Elephants is Gareth Patterson’s long-awaited sequel to The Secret Elephants, published in 2009. Beyond the Secret Elephants is the continuing story of Gareth Patterson’s almost two decades of research into the secretive Knysna elephants. Significantly, however, it also reveals his startling discovery of a much more mysterious being than the elephants – a relict hominoid known to the indigenous forest people as the Otang.