Tom's treasures of fiction, poetry, literature and more...

Hello everyone. Today's blog post is going to be yet another review. This time I am reviewing Kazuo Ishiguro's short story  ‘A Village After Dark’ (2001). Published in The New Yorker , this short story follows a man who returns to a village when it is dark, having clearly been away from the village for several years. For me, I found I had my doubts about the protagonist/narrator. Often, I asked myself what he had done that other characters had done; or what was it that made some see him as a bad influence on younger characters. Throughout this short story, I was in anticipation over whether the questions I had circling my mind, would actually get answered. I never got there with some but I suppose it allowed the ending to be open to one's own interpretations. Further to this, I liked this short story a lot. It was nice to see a multitude of characters react to the narrator's unexpected arrival differently. The other thing I liked about this short story was how it remind...

Hello all, here I am again. Today I am giving you a review from author of the month, Kazuo Ishiguro. This time, it is his booker prize-winning best selling novel, The Day of the Remains  (1989). Some novels I seem to get through rather quickly. This one was not. Now it was a good book, though personally for me, it was not something I would naturally get drawn to. I thought the novel was good because I liked how the protagonist, Stevens experiences things for the first time. HIs character is different I guess to others around him are. For instance, I find it amusing how he does not quite understand banter. He seems to find it crucial to maintain a correct level of banter. Something else I like is how he moves backwards and forwards to tell his story, even admitting when he gets too carried away with a story. On the other hand, this novel to me, seemed to drag at times. I often wanted to know what would happen next or whether Stevens would accomplish what he had originally set out to...

Hello everyone. Today's blog post is going to be my monthly bookshop visit. This month saw me in the county of Kent, in the town of Maidstone. I decided to visit the Oxfam Bookshop in Maidstone. It's a nice bookshop set across two floors. I like the selection they have and how they have laid out the shop. All the fiction books are on the ground floor. For me, if I go in there, I go for the fiction more than anything else. Of course I have been for other stuff aside from fiction. This time I went recently, though I went to have a browse through the fiction section. I was after two specific books each by a different author and various books from another author. When I could not find anything I was after, I concluded that I would go back again some time in the future. I like it in there and the staff are friendly. One of the books I was after, I had hopes might be in there. I had previously seen the book in another second hand bookshop but I was not prepared to pay £4.50 for the b...

Hello all. I wanted to say that I am aware I have missed some blog posts. I have not been well recently and have not completed all the posts I wanted to. I decided to spread out the completed posts I did have. I am feeling a little better now though and have decided this week is going to be a mega week. I am going to publish a new post every day this week. It will only be for this week and next week will revert back to my normal posting schedule of Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I hope this all makes sense. Thank you all for you understanding. Until next time, Thomas.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to my blog. Today I am going to reviewing Kazuo Ishiguro's screenplay  The Gourmet , which was written in 1987 for television. This screenplay is a gothic which sets about one man trying to find a ghost that he has told tastes good. I am unsure as to how and why he decides to go through with this. The screenplay was good but I kept getting confused. Throughout the screenplay I kept thinking how interesting alongside also asking myself what was going on. Yes it was clear to me when there were many men waiting in a line though I could not understand the significance of what was happening. It was when I got to the end that I started to seize a better grasp of understanding. The ending was a little chilling, though that is a common trope of the gothic genre. I somehow worked out what was going on there and then at one point. I think it was the ending that started bringing it together. Then as if, I questioned how it moved one scene to the next. I struggled ...

Today I am sharing a poem that I have made entitled 'Racism'. People of colour are subject to racism often. I wanted to highlight this a little with a poem. Enjoy my poem. Racism. A racist white woman rants online She thinks people should burn down hotels with immigrants Racists go and burn down hotels with immigrants. A middle-aged white man causes chaos and carnage crashing through Liverpool city. Many Reform UK MPs and other far right people protest and lie that it was an immigrant, a Muslim, a terrorist. Reform UK wanted to ban the burka because of safety. But no mention of banning of nun's habits and wimples. No mention of banning the balaclava. Racism has led to Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock trying to be excluded from albums tracks and photos with fans. Racism has led to Keisha Buchanan from Sugababes having suffered from being labelled as a bully and singled out and called angry by the media. The media who called a brown female MP a terrorist because they disli...

Hi everyone. As the title of this blog post suggests, I am reviewing a second short story from author of the month, Kazuo Ishiguro. This time I am reviewing his 1983 short story ‘Summer After the War’. The short story follows the narrator who has a closeness with his grandad. Every morning he gets up to sit outside in his grandad's garden, just to watch what his grandad does. He also sits and talks to his grandad when his grandad is immersed in a steamy bath. This repetitive nature creates a special bond between them and as a reader was rather charming for me to read. When things disrupted the normal order it changed how I saw the story going. I was worried I would get an unhappy ending. When I did get to the ending, I was surprised because I I found it unexpected. The short story is entitled ‘Summer After the War’ and there was a consistent mentioning of war throughout. I thought that somehow, something related to the grandad's war life would have seeped through. That did not ...

Hi all. I hope you are well. My next offering on the blog, is a review from  Rosewater  (2023) by Liv Little. This is her debut and currently only novel. Although, it seems another one may be on the way. For now, we can roll around in the joy that is  Rosewater . This novel is complex, sexy, exhilarating and zesty. At times it had me feeling the heat, intensely! There was one moment where I was gasping, then I was gagged (in the best way possible) and then found I had my legs crossed, both tightly gripped to one another. You probably think I'm weird and I do too a little bit. But the novel had me feeling a certain type of way! I'm still trying to ask myself - is it possible for a book to turn you on? Rosewater  tells the story of Elsie trying to keep it together as her life crumbles around her. As she navigates how things in life are going wrong, she finds comfort in having Bea who is more than just her co-worker. I won't even go on about her best friend Juliet, of w...

Today blog readers I am supplying you all with the first author of the month review. I give you my thoughts on Kazuo Ishiguro's short story ‘A Family Supper’ (1983). I read this short story and thoroughly liked it. First of all, the short story was only nine pages long which made easily manageable for anyone to read. Even with it being nine pages though, it nevertheless carried a strong narrative through which I could follow. The short story often moved back to reminisce on past events and thoughts, which helped to bind the short story together. As far as the nameless narrator is concerned, I find him to be unsure as a character. This for me was interesting. He was similar to his sister in this retrospect though had a juxapositional personality to that of his sister. Where his sister came across as bright and fun, he came across as dull and mellow. It is clear that his relationship with his father is somewhat strained so perhaps that has a bearing on how he is as a person. Anyway, ...

Hello all, I am here to dive into what I have been reading the month of July. I thought I would post at the beginning of August as I ran out of blog post space to post it last month. This month is filled with the usual regulars as well as some great new reads! 1: French. Every day I learn a bit of French and my reading is getting quite good. I am at 552 days so far. But there's not stopping me! I will keep listening to French, speaking it, reading and writing (or rather typing it) on my phone, with the app I use. 2:  Q+A  (2005) by Vikas Swarup. I read and reviewed this book as it is the debut novel of Vikas Swarup, who was author of the month last month. Do read my review to find out exactly what I thought of the novel. 3: Instagram and Facebook. Despite maybe not wanting to, I feel it is useful and needed. I find so much out. Although I always like to fact check stuff where I can. I believe it is never good to just take one post and to see it as "truth". If something is...

Hello everyone, August is upon us! I hope this month treats you well.