XXth Monthname 2025
Books
Titles not to miss in October
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This year’s top autumn titles range from branding guru Mary Portas’ second memoir to an in-depth history of the LA Aqueduct. Caroline Sanderson reports
Memoir
Mary Portas ( 1) I Shop, Therefore I Am: The 90s, Harvey Nicks – And Me Canongate, 2nd, £20, HB, 9781837264414
Ten years ago, businesswoman and sustainability activist Portas provided an entertaining account of her early career in Shop Girl. This page- turning new memoir takes up the story in 1989 when 20-something Portas was hired to revitalise department store Harvey Nichols. What follows is Absolutely Fabulous fun – quite literally. But it is also about the serious business of following one’s instincts, taking creative risks and negotiating inflexible (male) managers.
1 Travel
Chiara Barzini ( 2) Aqua: A Story of Water and Lost Dreams Canongate, 23rd, £16.99, HB, 9781837265046 In 1913, William Holland completed the Los Angeles Aqueduct: an engineering marvel that transported water across the California desert to a barren place that later flowered into the home of filmmaking. In a blend of travel writing, memoir and cultural history, Barzini traces the aqueduct’s history from its source as she reckons with her own personal history. As Olivia Laing notes, it is also about the environmental consequences of our burgeoning consumption of water.
Memoir 3 14
Julian Brave NoiseCat ( 3) We Survived the Night: An Indigenous Reckoning Profile, 16th, £20, HB, 9781788169370 As an infant, NoiseCat’s father was found abandoned in a dumpster. Against the odds, he survived and later made it out of his impoverished British Columbia reservation only to abandon his own son. As an adult, that son – a Sundance award-winning, Oscar-nominated writer and film-maker – began to delve into his family’s First Nation past. This enthralling blend of memoir and reportage grapples with trauma that cascades through generations while also highlighting the Indigenous cultural, environmental and political movements that are reshaping the future.
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Books New Titles: Non-Fiction
EMILY KASSIE
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