Books

This one, 'Cockroaches' by the fantastically named 'Scholastique Mukasonga' is an absolute gut-punch of a book. One of the most upsetting and harrowing reads I've had in a while.

It's about the Rwandan genocide in the early 90's and follows the author, who is a Rwandan Tutsi, covering her life from childhood in the 60's/70's and what it was like growing up as a member of this oppressed minority, to when she was smuggled out to Burundi at the orders of her parents, the Genocide itself when she was living in France, finally to her return to Rwanda in 2004 searching for what fate befell the 31 family members she lost.

There's this theme she speaks about, the idea of 'closure' and being able to move on from such a traumatic event and what prevented her from doing so.
The lack of any hope for justice, when it was nearly and entire country that was killing its own people to not knowing the final fate of her parents and even where their bodies are to mourn them. There's a powerful passage with her questioning whether some of the un-named bones in the memorial crypt near her childhood home could be them, whether they still lie in an as yet undiscovered mass grave or if scavaging animals got to them.

Later, as she travels back to Rwanda and hears some of the frankly horrific fates that befell some of her other family members and friends (the details of her younger sisters death probably ranks as one of the most awful things I've ever read ), a new question arises - "Is it better to know or not to know"

Despite being pretty short at 160 pages, this is a very tough one to read in terms of the content, but I think an important one given this year marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide.




Something a bit more light hearted next methinks

Do you guys know where I can find books on internal validation? I have found out that I have done external validations and perfectionism and self compassion as well. I found out that most books I have read lack what thoughts actions or mantra or affirmations you can take whenever you are in a stressful situations or when your self esteem is being tarnished by toxic people or by bullies. All they contain are a bunch of texts but they don't reveal what steps I need to take to tackle it.

I wrote a book - can buy on amazon www.amazon.co.uk/Path-Tom-Yelland-ebook/dp/B08W3R1KFY

Firstly, how ace is that cover?


I really enjoyed this. A proper unrelenting story with some crazy moments and set pieces that kept me hooked.

The story follows 3 main characters, a former knight turned brigand, a disgraced drunken priest and an orphan girl as they travel from Normandy to Avignon in 14th century France during the Black Death in search of redemption.

It frames the Black Death as an actual war between heaven and hell, so as well as brigands and cut-throats they also have to contend with the corrupted fallen angels and their hellspawn during their travels.

It has a real dark vibe and atmosphere as they wander through dead, plague stricken villages littered with corpses and infested with some really creative and nightmarish foes.
I really enjoyed the characters as well.

Big recommend from me

TJY001 said:

I wrote a book - can by on amazon www.amazon.co.uk/Path-Tom-Yelland-ebook/dp/B08W3R1KFY

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Dude, neat! And You wrote two by the looks of it,

Jetflag said:

Dude, neat! And You wrote two by the looks of it,

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The other one is a short story but I love it as well

TJY001 said:

The other one is a short story but I love it as well

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You lucky dog - you even have found someone special too. Happy for you.

Progrez said:

You lucky dog - you even have found someone special too. Happy for you.

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Thank You!

We are very happy. She's absolutely gorgeous

Picked up Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' just before Christmas and just got around to reading it.
I've seen the film, which is extremely bleak, but the book takes the sheer desolation to the next level doesn't it?
Despite knowing what happens at the end it still did me in

I know his writing style can be off putting for some, but I've really grown to enjoy it between this and Blood Meridian, so will definitely be going through more of his back catalogue in the future.

John Krakauer's 'Into Thin Air' next. The guy who wrote 'Into The Wild' (I have a copy on order) which the movie of the same name was based on.

This is about the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster in which three separate expeditions were caught in a storm and faced a battle against hurricane-force winds, exposure, and the effects of altitude, which ended the worst single-season death toll in the peak's history.
I believe the writer, Krakauer, was a member of one of these expeditions himself. Heard it's an intense read, so looking forward to this one.

Archon said:

The Sunset Limited by McCarthy can fuck you up if you're in the mood for it. Watch the movie; it's like reading/watching the play, but better.

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I'll add that to my list.
I'm an absolute masochist for disturbing, upsetting and harrowing books for some reason.
I guess the extremes of the human condition and survival against the odds (Especially in non-fiction) fascinates me in a morbid way.

Horror has the best cover art of all book genres

Completely obsessed with this author at the moment.
He’s a young, Scottish author and is completely self published. He’s a massive nerd for 70’s & 80’s Horror, b-movie reels and exploitation cinema and these themes are the basis for his stories. Even the covers look like old VHS covers.

The Haar follows Muriel, a woman in her 80's who lives in a small coastal village in Scotland which is currently being aggressively bought up by an obnoxious American billionaire called Patrick Grant who plans to build a golf course in it's place. Muriel is one of a handful of residents who have refused the buy-out offers from Grant, who has now resorted to bully tactics to convince them to sell up.

One day a thick fog, known locally as a Haar, rolls in and Muriel finds a strange sea creature washed up ashore (essentially an amorphous jelly blob with one gigantic eye in the middle) and she takes it home to nurse it back to health in her bath tub and in return it offers to protect her.

Rotten Tommy follows Becky, a late diagnosed autistic woman, who while renovating the family home finds 3 mysterious video tapes concealed inside a wall. On these tapes are episodes of a disturbing 80’s kids TV show called ‘Rumplejack’ and in one of the episodes she see’s her mother, an actress who disappeared 40 years earlier and vows to solve the mystery of her disappearance. However, in watching these videos, Becky has unwittingly woken up ‘Rotten Tommy’, an unstoppable killer who’ll stop at nothing to reach her.

Both are very darkly funny and excessively violent. Superb characters in both and some of the most over the top violence I’ve ever read, the kind where you don’t know whether to recoil in horror or laugh out loud.
Rotten Tommy had a scene with a guy being dragged up a flight of stairs by his genitals like they were “a suitcase handle”

Both a ludicrous amount of fun. Big recommend!