An Anthropologist on Mars

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Unless I am allowed to tell the story of my life in my own way, I cannot tell it at all
Mary Seacole – traveller, nurse, businesswoman and radical for her time – defied a prejudiced British government to care for soldiers wounded during the Crimean War.
This ground breaking account, written by Seacole in 1857, brings to life her incredible journey from Jamaica to Central America and England, and then on to modern-day Ukraine, where she acted as nurse to injured soldiers while running her business, the 'British Hotel'. A witness to key battles, she gives vivid accounts of how she coped with disease, bombardment and other adversities during the Crimean War.
In this extraordinary autobiography, Seacole shows how she navigated her way through racial injustice, poverty and ignorance to become the first woman of colour in Britain to publish her memoirs. It is a testament to her enduring legacy.

When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too?

Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked.

Speaking with women across America about their experiences as the generation raised to 'have it all,' Calhoun found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. Instead of their issues being heard, they were told instead to lean in, take 'me-time' or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order.

In Why We Can't Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X's predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss - and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them.

An instant feminist classic, and perfect gift for all parents, women, and people working towards gender equality. Here is a brilliant, beautifully readable, and above all practical expansion of the ideas this iconic author began to explore in her bestselling manifesto, We Should All Be Feminists.

A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking how to raise her new baby girl a feminist.
Although she has written and spoken out widely about feminism, Adichie wasn't sure how to advise her friend Ijeawele. But as a person who'd babysat, had loved her nieces and nephews, and now, too, was the mother of a daughter herself, she thought she would try. So she sent Ijeawele a letter with some suggestions--15 in all--which she has now decided to share with the world.
Compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive, Dear Ijeawele offers specifics on how we can empower our daughters to become strong, independent women. Here, too, are ways parents can raise their children--both sons and daughters--beyond a culture's limiting gender prescriptions. This short, sharp work rings out in Chimamanda's voice: infused with deep honesty, clarity, strength, and above all love. She speaks to the important work of raising a girl in today's world, and provides her readers with a clear proposal for inclusive, nuanced thinking. Here we have not only a rousing manifesto, but a powerful gift for all people invested in the idea of creating a just society--an endeavour now more urgent and important than ever.

A physician, professor of neurology and author, Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) has been described by the New York Times as 'a kind of poet laureate of contemporary medicine'. His books are made up of case histories of his patients, and explore both their neurological disorders and the strategies they adopted to cope with them.In Seeing Voices, a journey into the world of the profoundly deaf, Sacks examines the consequences of living in silence, including the different ways in which the deaf and the hearing learn to categorize and convey the experience of their respective worlds.