-
Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes (Hardcover)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
America’s most popular sports media figure tells it like it is in this surprisingly personal book, not only dishing out his signature, uninhibited opinions but also revealing the challenges he overcame in childhood as well as at ESPN, and who he really is when the cameras are off.
Stephen A. Smith has never been handed anything, nor was he an overnight success. Growing up poor in Queens, the son of Caribbean immigrants and the youngest of six children, he was a sports-obsessed kid who faced a number of struggles, from undiagnosed dyslexia to getting enough cereal to fill his bowl. As a basketball player at Winston-Salem State University, he got a glimmer of his true calling when he wrote a newspaper column arguing for the retirement of his own Hall of Fame coach, Clarence Gaines.
Smith hustled and rose up from a high school reporter at Daily News (New York) to a general sports columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer in the 1990s, before getting his own show at ESPN in 2005. After he was unceremoniously fired from the network in 2009, he became even more determined to fight for success. He got himself rehired two years later and, with his razor-sharp intelligence and fearless debate style, found his role on the show he was destined to star in: First Take, the network’s flagship morning program.
In Straight Shooter, Smith writes about the greatest highs and deepest lows of his life and career. He gives his thoughts on Skip Bayless, Ray Rice, Colin Kaepernick, the New York Knicks, the Dallas Cowboys, and former President Donald Trump. But he also pulls back the curtain and talks about life beyond the set, sharing authentic stories about his negligent father, his loving mother, being a father himself, his battle with life-threatening COVID-19, and what he really thinks about politics and social issues. He does it all with the same intelligence, humor, and charm that has made him a household name.
Provocative, moving, and eye-opening, this book is the perfect gift for lovers of sports, television, and anyone who likes their stories delivered straight to the heart.
₵570.81 -
Uphill: A Memoir (Hardcover)
One of Oprah Daily‘s Best Fall Nonfiction Books of 2022
An empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by the Atlantic journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter coanchor about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life’s battles might be.Jemele Hill’s world came crashing down when she called President Trump a “white supremacist”; the White House wanted her fired from ESPN, and she was deluged with death threats. But Hill had faced tougher adversaries growing up in Detroit than a tweeting president. Beneath the exterior of one of the most recognizable journalists in America was a need―a calling―to break her family’s cycle of intergenerational trauma.
Born in the middle of a lively routine Friday night Monopoly game to a teen mother and a heroin-addicted father, Hill constantly adjusted to the harsh realities of not only her own childhood but the inherited generational pain of her mother and grandmother. Her escape was writing.
Hill’s mother was less than impressed with the brassy and bold free expression of her diary, but Hill never stopped discovering and amplifying her voice. Through hard work and a constant willingness to learn, Hill rose from newspaper reporter to columnist to new heights as the coanchor for ESPN’s revered SportsCenter. Soon, she earned respect and support for her fearless opinions and unshakable confidence, as well as a reputation as a trusted journalist who speaks her mind with truth and conviction.
In Jemele Hill’s journey Uphill, she shares the whole story of her work, the women of her family, and her complicated relationship with God in an unapologetic, character-rich, and eloquent memoir.
₵550.98Uphill: A Memoir (Hardcover)
₵550.98 -
Ahafo and the Bono Regions of Ghana: Accomplishment & Honours of ‘Brilliant Achievers’ (Hardcover)
This book is a one-of-a-kind compendium of profiles of some distinguished citizens from Ahafo and the Bono Regions of Ghana. The book contains nuggets of inspiring biographical information that brings to the fore some men and women who have dared the oddities of life to challenge the debilitating issues of human existence.
The book is a guiding light for young people to emulate many successful Ghanaians, some of whom had humble beginnings but braced the odds to emerge as champions in their respective callings.
In addition, it is a must-read for professionals desiring to excel in their chosen careers and parents who want to inbue their children with a higher sense of confidence, patriotism and hope.
The first section of the book covers the profile of eminent natives of the Ahafo and the Bono regions who have contributed significantly to the development of the nation in all sectors, including chieftaincy, banking and finance, trade and industry, hospitality, diplomacy and farming, among others.
The second section talks about non-natives who had over the years also made a tremendous contribution to the regions and the nation while section three is a photographic presentation containing pictures of people such as female educationists, lawyers, ministers of state, regional ministers, sports personalities and some significant activities and events.
Additionally, the book contains photographs of all the chiefs and queen mothers of the former Brong Ahafo Region before it was carved into three regions.
It also has a six-page epilogue which contains the authors’ thoughts and also features all ministers of state who hailed from the regions.
₵250.00 -
Absolute Radio: The Inspiring Story of the First Private Radio in Ghana’s Western Region
*Available from 6 September 2022
From the heart of Africa, a spellbinding true story of entrepreneurship, media, culture and tradition, all tastefully rolled into one! Absolute Radio is an authentic story of girls and boys who became women and men – and heroes – on the wings of a radio station. Running the course of 25 years, the story comes from the culturally stylish twin city of Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana, with global footprints.
It is the most tantalising and ground-breaking body of work about Ghana’s private broadcasting industry. The author, former journalist Phillip Nyakpo, is himself an eye-witness and a participant in these true events.
From his base in Perth, Australia, Phillip interviewed women and men across four continents who made it happen over a quarter of a century.
The result is that he opened up to the world, a character and spirit of Africa that is all too often missing.
In telling the story, he writes a compelling narrative that is delicate, witty, eye-opening and wonderfully inspiring.
₵250.00 -
The Dreamer – Komla Dumor: The Boss Player In His Own Words (Hardcover)
This is a collection of the personal writings of Komla Dumor a young man, very intellectually vibrant, an erudite communicator, a passionate patriot and an emerging Pan Africanist. The book highlights experiences he had had during his worldwide travel pursuing his career as a Broadcast Journalist.
These essays rekindle hope and offers opportunities for his generation to build on his dream and the dream of the precursors of African Renaissance. This book raises the question about what constitutes his legacy which would lead us to celebrate him. The book shows clearly that Komla was an icon of International Broadcast Journalism working across different platforms. In his writings he exhibited the audacity of faith, from which emerges his unassailable courage to stand on an international digital platform, as an African, telling his own story and stories of old. The book also shows Komla’s stature, versatility in media practice on radio and television broadcasting, as well as the print media.
Komla was a stage performer with style and substance. His scholarly work was punctuated with extreme humor. In spite of his status, he remained amazingly humble. But the most outstanding passion in his writings was his concern for the future of his country Ghana and the African Continent.
This book presents balanced images of Ghana and Africa. But implicitly, it compels everyone to ask the question “Are we satisfied with the images we see? He lays the foundation for every Journalist of African decent to insist on accountable and transparent governance. He ends the story on racism, ethnic and tribal divisions showing clearly his uncompromising, progressive rejection of these divisions which have been historically and culturally conditioned and presents a new hope and opportunity for Africans to dream again. Here we have The Dreamer – Komla Dumor: The Boss Player in His Own Words.
Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Komla Dumor Foundation.
₵250.00 -
Komla Dumor: In His Element (Hardcover)
This story is about Komla Dumor’s meteoric rise to the enviable position of an icon in International and African Broadcast journalism. The story is largely woven on at least three fundamental principles. Namely journalism as a vocation and a calling, journalism and its practice is driven by only one ideal standard.
Journalism is defined both in theory and in practice as defined by an ethical compass and the discipline of verification. It is the adherence to these tenets of journalism that placed Komla at the top of the pile. Indeed Komla argued passionately that, to be a successful journalist within the context of the new digital enterprise, one must accept journalism as a vocation a gift of grace and must make a total commitment and be willing to put his or her hands on the spokes of the wheel of the new African History.
Secondly, Komla believed that the practice of journalism is driven by only one ideal standard that cuts across nations within the global system. This ideal standard and the pursuit of it create the contours for best practices. Those who pursue the ideal standard comprising unethical compass, the discipline of verification are the ones who reach the top of the mountain where the sheep and the goats are separated.
The book Komla Dumor: In His Elements explores Komla’s practice of journalism in Ghana and the United Kingdom against the tested values including personal moral responsibility to the public, personal integrity and the commitment to finding the truth and protecting the public interest. In essence this book is an illumination and exploration of Komla’s journey into the incomparable iconic status – the Icon of International Broadcast Journalism. It is indeed Komla Dumor in His Elements.
Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Komla Dumor Foundation.
₵250.00 -
Plenty Talk Dey 4 Ghana: Radio Eye, Plural Broadcasting & Democracy
*Available from 16 March 2020
Few places on earth have the broadcast density as Ghana does. Every hour of everyday, different tongues articulate different topics on air. Expectedly, the nearly five hundred commercial stations have significantly dynamised the national narrative. Or have they? One thing is remarkable, though. Just over two decades ago there was not a thing as private radio or TV.
Focusing on the very intriguing story of Radio Eye, this commemorative publication historicises the nation’s relationship with the electronic media. Two insightful interviews – one with the maverick who broke the glass ceiling; the other with the man who took up the baton to consolidate private broadcasting – provide a rare but enjoyable insight. Enriching the discourse further are six well-researched, peer-reviewed articles that provide a 360-degree perspective on plural broadcasting as a critical development factor.
Plenty Talk Dey 4 Ghana is a well-curated, retrospective and introspective panorama of an African country’s media landscape. What makes it a keepsake for the local and global audience is how the book demonstrates the workings of plural broadcasting to the realisation of democracy.
₵225.00 -
My Media Journey
This book is the autobiographical account of a young Ghanaian man’s unplanned entry into his country’s vibrant broadcasting industry at the turn of the century, and his largely triumphant yet occasionally tumultuous journey through it.
Although his father, Sam Clegg, had been a fixture of journalism as a formidable national newspaper editor for nearly a decade, from 1983 to 1992, Robert Nii Arday Clegg wasn’t drawn instinctively to the media. Young Clegg appeared to have fallen some distance away from the old tree that fruited him. It took a fair bit of coaxing and cajoling to bring him round to broadcasting, initially as a university campus studio cub, transitioning subsequently into the major leagues of radio talk show hosts in Ghana. The obstruction all along, he reveals, was his first love – no, not Mimi his beloved girlfriend who he was to marry later, but the Law profession.
My Media Journey is candid, completely unencumbered by flattery or camouflage. Clegg doesn’t dress b.s. up in make-up and polite synonyms. Excuse the Trumpian expression, but spades aren’t tremendous cutlery. What he sees as corporate shenanigans and acts of meanness are laid out unlaundered in the public square for readers, but so are acts of kindness and brotherly charity warmly and generously recounted.
From chapter to chapter, Clegg’s character emerges of a focused, self-confident and fiercely stubborn young man with an unwavering sense of political independence. He demonstrates this in his on-air and editorial encounters at Radio Gold and Starr FM, both broadcast stations based in the capital, Accra, and which have politician owners. His values-based approach to broadcasting is evident when on multiple occasions he rejects, with ease, offers of under-the-table monetary rewards from newsmakers for work done in the regular line of duty, as well as from unnamed government officials. The title of this book notwithstanding, Clegg throws in his love of sports and regales us with his own prodigious exploits at hockey and the sprints, and how that passion helps to open the doors to his media journey.
Also, he makes no pretence of his pride in his academic achievements borne out of intelligence, hard work and self-belief which, consequently, put him top of his law faculty class and reward him with a long-held dream — a place at Harvard Law School.
As Shimon Peres put it in his foreword to Start-Up Nation – the Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, this book should be taken as an “interim report” on the evolving life and career of Clegg. It is but a small chapter in a much fuller story that is still writing itself.
— FOREWORD BY KWAKU SAKYI-ADDO
₵150.00My Media Journey
₵150.00 -
When Strong Women Cry
“There is nothing more painful for a strong woman than when she is told to be strong or applauded for being strong, when in actual fact, she is broken and dying silently inside, hoping and wishing she could let it all out. It really hurts, especially, when she has been projecting herself, personally, as a strong woman”. Oheneyere Gifty Anti.
₵120.00When Strong Women Cry
₵120.00 -
Ahwene Pa Nkasa: Standing with JDM
Standing with JDM is quite clear in this title that it does not intend to undermine the former president’s image but to burnish it. What is not clear is whether it was written to coincide with the 2020 Election Year.
It is in two parts, “The Homeland Briefs” and the “Diplomatic Briefs”. Independent of each other, they are held together by what the author calls the “Mahamarabilia” thread – a word he invented to describe his privileged proximity to the 4th president of the 4th Republic of Ghana.
Part One has 42 chapters that highlight events like Dumsor, Gitmo 2, Montie 3, Cheating at Elections, Lying and Blaming it on Mahama, Destroying friends and Family and much, much more…It also has intellectual discourses on Traditional Governance and the Ballot Box, Kigali (dangers that could be awaiting Ghana in this Election Year), Ebola and Covid-19 and the history of Ghana’s “coodetas” in new lights that would surprise and reveal…
Part Two, with 25 chapters, is devoted entirely to the author’s diplomatic service and reads sometimes like a coursebook on practical diplomacy and other times like a travelogue with intriguing insights. We come across his encounter with a sex change person (man to woman) and how his life was nearly cut short when his official car and ostrich crashed into each other on the highway from Windhoek to Gaborone. Part Two is so suffused with humour that it is difficult to tell whether he is pulling the reader’s leg or stating facts.
Most of the chapters are illustrated with unique pictures that could stand on their own as stories. It is a beautifully designed book, well laid out reader-friendly. For the first time, a modern version of adinkra, called adinshia, has had a public airing in the book…
Whatever your political persuasion is, your intellect will make you love this beautiful book on Mahama.₵120.00 -
-
Fifty Nuggets @ 50
Sharing priceless lessons, Fifty Nuggets @ 50 is a memoir documenting success, pain, betrayal, faith, fear and a fervent desire for the reader to find strength to live a purposeful life.
₵100.00Fifty Nuggets @ 50
₵100.00 -
How to Turn Your Talent into a Successful Career
Dreams only come alive when we are able to identify who we are and what we are able to do in bettering our lot. From the knowledge stock of a great industry colossus comes yet again another compelling book titled , “How To Turn Your Talent Into A Successful Career”. In a narrative that clearly seeks to inspire young minds on how to maximize their talents, the author sets the stage for individual talents to be utilized by recounting his personal life experiences. The carefully selected words are meant to be thought provoking and serve as a guide. With only six chapters, the language is simple and genuine. Reading should come with a price and that surely would be ‘growth’.
₵80.00 -
Manuwa Street
“Lagos brings you alive. Lagos kills you. Here, you’ll be wrong about everything. Here, you won’t have anything to worry about. Lagos creates as many millionaires as it sends poor people to the mat. Here, Nature abounds as much as it self-destructs. And never, you humans, despite your beliefs and certainties, have you ever wanted to live so much. In the midst of this overflow, this too many people, this too much waste, injustices, parties and excesses. Of everything you’ve tried to ignore until now.”
French journalist Sophie Bouillon documents living in Lagos in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown. As a journalist, she gets out of her night to go and write the dispatch that will announce to the world that Africa, in turn, is affected by this “white virus” that is bringing the West to its knees.
In this thoughtful narrative non-fiction, Bouillon explores everyday life in Lagos through experiences from her career and personal life. In one unforgettable year, the city was rocked by explosions, evictions and protests. A city that never sleeps put to bed by the pandemic. Manuwa Street is the impressive story of a year that will end with the uprising of a people. It is also and above all a hypnotic and luminous dive into a city that never lets up, meeting men and women struggling with the din of the world.
But Manuwa Street isn’t just a disinterested documentation of a foreigner’s impression of Lagos; it is about love, uncertainty, hope and survival.
₵75.00Manuwa Street
₵75.00
