Great holiday reads

From aikido adventures to the high seas to sex games – save room in your tote bag for these riveting summer books!
By jacqui l’ange

The Swordmaster’s Apprentice

by Edward Burke (Penguin)

What’s it about:
The subtitle, “Or how a broken nose, a shaman, and a little light dusting may point the way to enlightenment”, captures only some of this potentially life-changing book, which charts Edward Burke’s journey from the collar-and-tie world of high finance to the white-cotton gi-clad world of an aikido apprentice.

Besides scrubbing floors, Burke’s training involved hitting the mat – literally – more times than a body should handle. But his tutelage under the legendary Chiba Sensei, one of the greatest living aikido teachers (and arguably the toughest), is about much more than withstanding humbling pain, absorbing Zen philosophy or mastering ancient swordsmanship; it’s about the relationship that will teach him that the greatest mastery of all is that of self.

Why we like it:
“When you hit the floor you know you’ve no further to go.” Still, this book goes all over the world, from Burke’s childhood karate school in Joburg to London’s financial district; from ancient Japanese Buddhist temples to Brazilian Capoeira rodas; and finally to San Diego, where Chiba Sensei has his HQ. Throughout the journey, Burke’s dry wit, gentle humour and joyful compassion make him an entertaining travelling companion. Colourful characters abound, not least of them the Sensei himself: he’s tough love personified. (But “If you’re not afraid, you aren’t pushing your boundaries.”) A great read for anyone who is stuck in a rut, or whoever took the hard way out of one.

Season to Taste – How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way

by Molly Birnbaum (Portobello)

What’s it about:
Birnbaum was training to be a chef when the accident happened. One minute she was a 22-year-old with a head full of dreams (and recipes), and a place at a prestigious cookery school; one speeding car later she was lucky to have her life. But the resulting head trauma had destroyed her sense of smell, and with it her ability to taste, and her desire to cook.

Why we like it:
Given the terrible choice, most people would sacrifice smell rather than sight, hearing or touch. People, that is, who don’t plan to make their living with food. This immensely readable story is a reminder of how sense-bound we are, and how smell is not just about enjoyment,
but survival. Fire? Gas? Rotten food? If you can’t smell or taste it, how do you detect
it until it’s too late? Not to mention pheromones – where would we (or our sex lives) be without our ability to sniff them out? It’s also a testament to the body’s miraculous ability to heal, and a reminder to stop and appreciate the roses (and the coffee, and even the onions) while we can.

Caterpillar Seas

by Robert Fridjhon (Zebra)

What’s it about:
A mere 10 months after leaving the University of Cape Town and setting off for the high-seas adventure of a lifetime, a young man finds himself stranded and alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with the mast torn off his boat and no way to reach landfall before his food runs out.
How did this possibly happen?
If only he hadn’t hitched that lift on the California highway, got on the wrong side of the Russian mafia, witnessed that murder, and stolen this damn boat…

Why we like it:
Truth can be wilder than fiction, and this tale of high jinx is gritty and gripping from the get-go. It’s also full of humanity and humility, a coming-of-age confession that took 40 years to tell.
When Fridjhon finally got it down on paper, the manuscript wooed his wife-to-be. You too will fall in love with this story. It’s a great gift for the man in your life (and guaranteed to keep him from setting off on the high seas any time soon).

Forty Beads: The Simple, Sexy Secret for Transforming Your Marriage

by Carolyn Evans (Running Press)

What’s it about:
It started as a dare, turned into a birthday gift for her husband, and saved their marriage. In a
nutshell: 40 days of straight sex. Or not quite consecutively straight – no matter how much Men Love Sex (chapter one), you have to allow for days off. Which is where the bead tokens come in.

Why we like it:
“The method uses sex as a vehicle to create wholeness in a relationship – sometimes you have to use the physical to get to the spiritual.”

Evans came up with the Forty Beads Method by accident, but the results were profound. It brought the physical spark back to her marriage – and the sense of intimacy and spontaneity that happens, she says, when both people are looking in the same direction. Her tone is fun and candid. Her methods are backed up by experts, from Kinsey to Freud to a growing coterie of “beaders” who’ve have used the method to get out of their own relationship ruts.