Bath and North East Somerset Libraries

Popular psychology, Natural history

Rocks and mountains have withstood aeons of life on our planet – gradually eroding, dissolving, recycling, shifting, solidifying, and weathering. We might spend a little less time on earth, but humans are also weathering: evolving and changing as we’re transformed by the shifting climates of our lives and experiences. So, what might these ancient natural forms have to teach us about resilience and change?

In a stunning exploration of our own connection to these enduring forms, outdoor psychotherapist and geologist Ruth Allen takes us on a journey through deep time and ancient landscapes, showing how geology – which has formed the bedrock of her own adult life and approach to therapy – can offer us a new way of thinking about our own grief, change and boundaries.

Popular science, Biography

Even in the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is still harder for women to make a career in science than men. Two centuries ago, however, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when science as we know it was just getting started, the situation was far worse. Then, the very notion of a female scientist would have been regarded as something of an oxymoron.

From bestselling and award-winning science writers John and Mary Gribbin, Against the Odds highlights the achievements of women who overcame hurdles and achieved scientific success (although not always as much as they deserved) in spite of male prejudice, as society changed over about 150 years, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century.

There is Eunice Newton Foote, who discovered the carbon dioxide greenhouse effect; Chien-Shiung Wu, who discovered the law which allows matter to exist in the Universe today; and Barbara McClintock, who discovered how genes turn on and off.

With a foreword from astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, this book is not only a cautionary tale about the stifling effects of prejudice against women in science, but a celebration of those who achieved success against the odds – and an inspiration for the next generation.

Biography

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her — from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it — in her own words and on her own terms.

Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations — and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Self-help & personal development, Memoirs

Feeling bone-tired, anxious and overwhelmed by the rolling news cycle and the pandemic age, Katherine May seeks to unravel the threads of a life wound too tightly. Could there be another way to live – one that feels more meaningful, more grounded in the places beneath our feet? One that would allow us to feel more connected, more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Craving a different path, May explores the restorative properties of the natural world and begins to rekindle her sense of wonder.

Children’s Non-fiction

The books in this series introduce readers to real women from history, like Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie, Mary Anning, Rosa Parks, and Frida Kahlo. Each themed book gives short, accessible snapshots of their lives and what they’re known for, with illustrated pages that make their stories easy to dip into. It’s a straightforward, friendly way for younger readers to discover a mix of explorers, scientists, artists and activists.

Adult Non-fiction

In August 2021 a women’s creative writing group in Afghanistan shared news of political turmoil and the Fall of Kabul. These women were in the process of publishing a short-story collection when their world was turned upside down by the Taliban

In staying connected via WhatsApp messages, they established a lifeline; a vital space to keep their creativity alive, support each other and bear witness to the events unfolding around them. ‘My Dear Kabul’ is their story, and a collective diary of a year living under the Taliban.

Climate change, Political activism

In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day. Her actions ended up sparking a global movement for action against the climate crisis, inspiring millions of pupils to go on strike for our planet, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

This book brings you Greta in her own words, for the first time. Collecting her speeches that have made history across Europe, from the UN to mass street protests, this is a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel. Our future depends upon it.

Biography

What would it be like to sit down for an impassioned, entertaining conversation with Hillary Clinton?

In ‘Something Lost, Something Gained’, Hillary offers her candid views on life and love, politics, liberty, democracy, the threats we face, and the future within our reach. She describes the strength she draws from her deepest friendships, her Methodist faith, and the nearly fifty years she’s been married to President Bill Clinton – all with the wisdom that comes from looking back on a full life with fresh eyes.

She takes us along as she returns to the classroom as a college professor, enjoys the bonds inside the exclusive club of former First Ladies, moves past her dream of being president, and dives into new activism for women and democracy.

Climate change, Political activism

It seems like an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed that the world has never seen, in the face of vast and powerful forces – not just oil tycoons and governments, but the changing climate system itself. The odds are against us, and we are running out of time. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Around the world, geophysicists and mathematicians, oceanographers and meteorologists, engineers, economists, psychologists and philosophers have been using their expertise to develop a deep understanding of the crises we face.

Greta Thunberg has created ‘The Climate Book’ in partnership with over one hundred of these experts in order to equip us all with this knowledge.

Biography, Science

For decades Marie Curie was the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings, and despite constant illness she travelled far and wide to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined.

She is still the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her ingenuity extended far beyond the laboratory walls; grieving the death of her husband, Pierre, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne, devotedly raised two daughters, drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and inspired generations of young women to pursue science as a way of life.

Memoir, Second World War

In June 1940, a covert new force – the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – was set up to wage a secret war. Its agents were tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and over the course of the next five years, 470 special agents would be sent into France. Only 25 female SOE agents would return.

None before have told their story in their own words. This is the astounding true story of Phyliis ‘Pippa’ Latour, one of the last female SOE agents to get out of France alive after its liberation in WWII.

Classical History

Spanning 3,000 years, from the birth of Minoan Crete to the death of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome, a magisterial new history of the ancient world told, for the very first time, through women.

For centuries, men have been writing histories of antiquity filled with warlords, emperors and kings. But when it comes to incorporating women aside from Cleopatra and Boudica, writers have been more comfortable describing mythical heroines than real ones. While Penelope and Helen of Troy live on in the imagination, their real-life counterparts have been relegated to the margins.

In ‘The Missing Thread’, Daisy Dunn inverts this tradition and puts the women of history at the centre of the narrative.

Biography

This is the story of Joe Rantz, a charismatic young man born dirt poor in the woods of Washington State, who dreams of escaping the challenges of the Great Depression, and a complicated family life full of painful memories

What follows is an extraordinary journey, as Joe and 8 other young men exchange the sweat and graft and dust of ordinary life for the purer rigours of sport at its very highest level – a journey at the end of which lies a gold medal rowing race at the Berlin Olympics of 1936, in front of Hitler himself.

Biography

As a young boy, growing up in the Home Counties and watching his parents’ marriage fall apart, Nick Hornby had little sense of home. Then his dad took him to Highbury. Arsenal’s football ground would become the source of many of the strongest feelings he’d ever have: joy, humiliation, heartbreak, frustration and hope.

In this now-classic book, he vividly depicts his troubled relationship with his father, his time as a teacher, and his first loves (after football), all through the prism of the game, as he insightfully and brilliantly explores obsession, and the way it can shape a life.

Fiction

Kate and Zoe are friends but also ardent rivals – athletes at the top of their game, fighting to compete in the world’s greatest sporting contest. Each scarred by tragedy, and each with a great deal to lose, they must choose between family and glory and ask themselves: what will I sacrifice?

Gold captures the extraordinary effort and dedication that go into the pursuit of victory. But this life-affirming novel is about more than sport. It is about human endurance, motherhood and love, and what enables us all, in our different ways, to achieve the remarkable.

Biography

In 2008 Jessica thought her career might be over when she was injured on the eve of the Olympic Games in Beijing. But she overcame this setback to rebuild her career and technique, becoming the world and European champion in successive years.

‘Unbelievable’ is the story of how the girl next door became London’s poster girl, and how an ordinary woman used an extraordinary talent to claim the title of the world’s greatest all-round female sports star.

Biography

Gareth Thomas had it all. He was a national hero, a sporting icon. He was a leader of men, captain of Wales and the British Lions. To him, rugby was an expression of cultural identity, a sacred code. It was no mere ball game. It gave him everything, except the freedom to be himself.

This is the story of a man with a secret that was slowly killing him. Something that might devastate not only his own life but the lives of his wife, family, friends and teammates. The only place where he could find any refuge from the pain and guilt of the lie he was living was on the pitch, playing the sport he loved. But all his success didn’t make the strain of hiding who he really was go away. His fear that telling the truth about his sexuality would lose him everything he loved almost sent him over the edge.

The deceit ended when Gareth became the world’s most prominent athlete to come out as a gay man. His gesture has strengthened strangers, and given him a fresh perspective. Gareth’s inspiring and moving story transcends the world of sport to tell a universal truth about feeling like an outsider, and facing up to who you really are.

Biography

The full, definitive life stories of ice-skating legends Torvill & Dean.

When Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean collapsed to the ice at the climax of their routine to Bolero in the 1984 Winter Olympics, the judges could find no fault, awarding them 12 maximum scores of 6.0, while 24 million viewers watching at home in Britain simply looked on in amazement.

They turned professional and would eventually spend eight years working on ITV’s ‘Dancing on Ice’, but still much of their story remained unknown. Now, they finally open up about the challenges they have faced and the pressures of life in the public eye: Jayne speaks candidly about her struggle with husband Phil to start a family, while Chris reveals the heartache in his family story.

Fiction

A heartbreaking novel, inspired by a true story, about a Somali girl who is willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill her dream of becoming a champion runner.

It is based on the life of Samia Omar, a girl who grows up in war-torn Somalia determined to be a world-class sprinter. She sleeps with a photo of Mo Farah by her bed, trains hard despite the violence and prejudice around her, and makes the national team

But with the war encroaching on their family, her sister is forced to make the treacherous journey to Europe by boat. Samia, scared for her life and for her dreams, decides to join her, which means putting her life in the hands of traffickers.

Fiction

Rosemary has lived in Brixton all her life. But now everything she knows is changing – the library where she used to work has closed, the family fruit and veg shop has become a trendy bar, and her beloved husband George is gone.

Kate has just moved and feels alone in a city that is too big for her. She’s at the bottom rung of her career as a journalist on a local paper, and is determined to make something of it. So when the local lido is threatened with closure, Kate knows this story could be her chance to shine. And Rosemary knows it is the end of everything for her.

Together they are determined to make a stand, to show that the pool is more than just a place to swim – it is the heart of the community. Together they will show the importance of friendship, the value of community, and how ordinary people can protect the things they love.

Memoir

Bryony Gordon was not a runner. Yet somehow, as she began to recover from the emotional rollercoaster of laying her life bare in her mental health memoir ‘Mad Girl’, she started to realise that getting outside, moving her body and talking to others for whom life was also an occasional challenge, might actually help her.

As she began to run further she started to see the limitations she had imposed on her life more clearly. Maybe rather than sitting on the sofa watching the world go by, fulfilling your dreams was just about standing up and taking that first step. Maybe you can do it too.

In April 2017, less than a year after she had weighed herself at over 16 stone but stepped off the scales and started training anyway, Bryony Gordon ran all 26 and 3/4 miles of the London Marathon. Here, she shows us how extraordinary things can happen to us all, no matter what life throws at us, if we’re willing to keep going.

Biography

With his unforgettable medal-winning performance in the 2012 London Olympics, double world champion Tom Daley captured the heart of the nation. This year’s Games in Tokyo will be his fourth, and Tom is embarking on them with a renewed sense of perspective about what matters in life.

Over the years, we have watched Tom go from strength to strength professionally, gathering record-breaking achievements and countless awards along the way. But we have also seen him grow into the man he’s become today: a husband, a father and a role model.

In this book, Tom explores the moments and experiences that have shaped him. With each chapter, he reveals a lesson learned along the way, from the resilience he developed competing at world-class level, to the courage he discovered while reclaiming the narrative around his sexuality, and the perspective that family life has brought him.

Non-Fiction

‘A Woman’s Game’ explores the history of women’s football from the Victorian era – with players in high-heeled boots – to the present day. It is the story of a rise, fall, and rise again: from the game’s first appearance in England in the late 19th century; through the incredible teams which at their height in 1920 drew 53,000 spectators to Goodison Park; to its 50-year ban in the UK and the aftershocks when that ban was lifted.

Now, as the women’s game is once again on an unstoppable upward trend, with internationally renowned players and a record 11.7m viewers for England’s semi-final match against the USA in the 2019 World Cup, Suzanne Wrack considers what the next chapter of this incredible story might be.

From its relationship to the worldwide fight against oppression, to its ability to inspire change in the wider world, this is both a history of football as played by women, and a manifesto for a better game.

Biography

From the football cages of East London to broadcasting to millions, the engine powering Alex Scott’s remarkable journey has always been her resilience. But thanks to a ‘push-through mentality’ the world has only ever seen the ‘strong’ side of Alex Scott. Now Alex is ready to lower the shield.

In this book, Alex shares the lessons that have shaped her, from finally confronting the legacy of a tumultuous childhood to tarnished truth behind the gleaming football trophies. With raw honesty, Alex shows how she’s tackled life’s challenges and that sometimes the strongest thing you can do is show your most vulnerable side to the world.

Biography

Oksana Masters was born in the shadow of Chernobyl, with one kidney, a partial stomach, six toes on each foot, webbed fingers, no right bicep and no thumbs. Her left leg was six inches shorter than her right, and she was missing both tibias. Relinquished to the orphanage system by birth parents daunted by the staggering cost of their child’s medical care, Oksana encountered numerous abuses, some horrifying. Salvation came at the age of seven when Gay Masters, an unmarried American professor who saw a photo of the little girl and became haunted by her eyes, waged a two-year war against stubborn adoption authorities to rescue Oksana from her circumstances.

In America, Oksana endured years of operations that included a double leg amputation. Still, how could she hope to fit in when there were so many things making her different? As it turned out, she would do much more than fit in. Determined to prove herself and fuelled by a drive to succeed that still smouldered from childhood, Oksana triumphed in not just one sport but four – winning against the world’s best in rowing, biathlon, cross-country skiing and road cycling competitions. 

Fiction

Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters.

Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo. But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.

Fiction

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one.

She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach. But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the ‘Battle-Axe’ anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did.

Biography

Cyclist Beryl Burton dominated her sport much as her male contemporary Eddy Merckx, but with a longevity that surpasses even sporting legends like Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams and Sir Steve Redgrave.

She was practically invincible in time trials, finishing as Best All-Rounder for 25 consecutive years and setting a world record in 1967 for the distance covered in 12 hours that beat the men. But her achievements were limited by discrimination from the cycling authorities, and by her strictly amateur status against state-sponsored rivals from the Eastern Bloc.

In ‘Beryl’, Jeremy Wilson examines one of the most compelling characters in cycling history.

Memoir

One woman. One bike. One world. In 2018, over the course of 18,000 miles, amateur cyclist Jenny Graham smashed the round-the-world cycling record by nearly three weeks, finishing in 124 days and 11 hours. But her real achievement was a new relationship with herself and with the world.

Alone and unsupported, Jenny left family and friends behind in Scotland to complete her mission: a solo lap of the planet by bike. Her inspiring story swerves from terrifying near collisions on the Russian roads and weather extremes in the southern hemisphere to the beauty of the Mongolian landscape and exhilarating wildlife encounters in North America.

As she battles the physical and mental challenge to race against the clock, Jenny gradually opens up to the joy of the adventure itself and all its daily discoveries, and gives in to her impulse to connect with people.

Biography

A one-club legend of Leeds Rhinos, who has now crossed codes as a defence coach for Leicester Tigers, Kevin Sinfield is a rugby icon. But in recent years has shown heroism of a very different kind through his selfless and extraordinary fundraising for motor neurone disease (MND), the terminal illness that has affected his best mate and former teammate Rob Burrow.

Told with Sinfield’s characteristic warmth, dry wit and inspirational leadership, ‘The Extra Mile’ is the story of an astonishing life, of an enduring friendship, and of a remarkable, humble human being who has defied the odds.

Biography

Louise Minchin went from presenting BBC Breakfast to competing for the GB Team in triathlon in World and European championships, a journey she charted in her first book ‘Dare to Tri’.

In ‘Fearless’ she sets out to push herself even further, alongside trailblazing women who are breaking down barriers, smashing records and challenging stereotypes. In every chapter Louise goes on an adventure with a different woman to tell their story and to test herself.

She free dives under the ice in the dark in Finland with the first female to swim a mile in the Antarctic Circle; she cycles across Argentina with one of the world’s most famous female endurance runners; she swims from Alcatraz with two teenage sisters who have braved the shark infested waters over 70 times. With her natural empathy and sense of humour, Louise forms close bonds with these incredible women exploring what drives them.

Memoir

What do you do when your world changes in an instant? For Jon Harvey, it meant turning to the thing that had given him support, joy and a lifetime of memories: sport, in all its myriad sublime and ridiculous forms.

A kaleidoscopic twelve months took him from London Olympia to ancient Olympia, from rugby balls to Rubik’s Cubes, Wimbledon tennis to Wimbledon greyhounds, Monaco to Frimley Green, Roger Federer to Martin ‘Wolfie’ Adams, and much, much more. ‘A Fan for All Seasons’ is a celebration of a life shaped by sport and the ultimate season ticket.