Book Recommendations by Tabi Mudaliar

Patrick Chamoiseau the French author, born and raised in Martinique, gives us what is arguably now a literary classic. Texaco, winner of the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize, traces one hundred and fifty years of postslavery Caribbean history. It is a novel about self-affirmation and memory. The story is told by MarieSophie Laborieux, the daughter of a slave. She recounts her father’s story and her own as well as informing the reader of the history of the Caribbean and the slaves who were transported there.

Translated and published in English in 1997, it is immersing the reader in an environment that none of us have experienced and frankly, would never want to, and yet, it gives us invaluable often gut-wrenching insight. After a busy day, so many of us want to curl up with a soft charming book but sometimes it is good to break out of that comfort zone and read about the darker side of life.

Texaco has been on my husband’s bookshelves since the 90s and I dug it out after reading a book review on it from our friends at CAMPLELINE.

This is not your standard rock music biography and not for the faint hearted, but neither were Cosey Fanni Tutti and her fellow performing artists, all members of the band, Throbbing Gristle, the band described as ‘wreckers of civilisation’ by Nicholas Fairbairn the erstwhile Tory MP.

Art Sex Music isn’t just a memoir but an opportunity for Tutti to clear up the misconceptions about her career. She described this as a chance to reclaim her own narrative and she does so with brutal honesty. This is an extraordinary account of an incredible creative woman who challenged authority and broke down barriers and ideologies at great personal cost. The Guardian wrote, “Creativity and a rejection of social norms was at the core of their existence, yet Tutti, as the only woman in the group, was run ragged, taking on office work to bring in money and working on COUM projects while being solely responsible for the cooking, cleaning and washing.” This is a book about being a woman, an artist, breaking rules, and not accepting ‘NO’ from a bunch of self-obsessed men.

Cosey Fanni Tutti prevailed despite constant and endemic negative media, emotional and physical abuse, public misconception, and misogyny. At times it is is a dark and uncomfortable read but I would recommend it to any young emerging artist; I’ve certainly recommended it to my daughter as a ‘must read’.

“In Houston, Texas, there is a frozen vault that preserves the original NASA photographic film of the Apollo missions. For half a century, almost every image of the Moon landings publicly available was produced from a lower-quality copy of these frozen originals. Over the last few years, NASA image restorer Andy Saunders has been working hard. Taking newly available digital scans and applying pain-staking care and cutting-edge enhancement techniques, he has created the highest quality Apollo photographs ever produced. Neverbefore-seen spacewalks and crystalclear portraits of astronauts in their spacecraft, along with startling new visions of the Earth and the Moon, offer astounding new insight into one of our greatest endeavours.”

We managed to get tickets to see the iMax presentation and lecture by Andy Saunders at the Glasgow Science Centre this winter, and I am so glad we did! What a breath-taking collection of images from the Apollo space missions and what a labour of love to restore them. For me this book is a beautiful photographic record of human bravery and man’s passionate need for exploration. Forget the stars and stripes, and instead, look with wonder at the expressions on the astronauts’ faces, and the beauty of our dear precious planet Earth.