She

by

Matthew Mokoena

She was a strong,
black,
loveless woman.
She said,
"He doesn't love me no more.
He doesn't hold me down or beat me against the concrete floor, doesn't hit me with concrete thoughts as he slams the bedroom door.
He doesn't deliver fists as gifts that fit my tits nor feeds the kids with love from lips, nor takes my hints not to brake my ribs, he's got skills but kills my emotions when he breathes from gills, HE doesn't love me no more."

She was the type who bragged to friends
about his jealousy, his strength and the power in his hands.
Yet the same hands transformed into fists, fists that tore her body into bits, bits that disfigured her body kits.
His hands transformed into fists that beat, bruised, abused and used her face as a comfort zone.
His hands... landed on her ribcage,
but she wasn't on the same page.
So his rage landed on her ribcage,
told her her friends, "This is love,"
but her friends weren't on the same page.
"Dump the bastard he's got rage,
like an animal he belongs inside of a cage."
"No, no, no," she said.
"He's my man and...
without him I'd go mad and..
he didn't get love from an early age."
Her excuses made him and exclusive explosive in her existence, but her persistence will ensure that woman like her face exstinction.

You see, if beating a woman was a test,
this man had passed it with distinction.

Every night neighbors had front row seats, if they missed it today, tomorrow the movie repeats.
This piece depicts,
how on a daily basis a womans life depletes, how the cycle of her life becomes complete.

See, she grew up in a society where heart attacks were a result of a very fat attack caused by ignorance of bioslim.
A society where woman believed a knife should be used for cutting, buttering and terminating unborn life.
I prayed that this type of woman would never be my wife, but had Eve aborted...
maybe, just maybe,
the Cain's in us wouldn't have survived.
He doesn't love her no more...

Finding out more about the poet was a little bit of a challenge, but I am a bit of a bloodhound and too stubborn to give up easily, so here goes :


Kunalati Matthew Mokoena was born and raised in the East rand & relocated from Tembisa to Spruitview in the late 80's. He attended Germiston High where he ultimately fell in love with Word. He completed his B-Tech in Finance and Accounting at T.U.T. where he was a member of the T.U.T Drama Society from 2004-2006. He has performed at many events, including the NASDEV cultural festival held in conjunction with Macufe and

the in 2004.

He was an official member of the T.U.T Street Poets Society from 2006-2007 and was the organisations chairperson in 2007.
A co-founder and former member of a band/a group/a movement known as

Matthew is currently involved with www.spokenmind.net "...is a home for the unique minds of poets, graphic artists, musicians and cinematographers.Through the special strategic collaborations and partnerships it has formed with other sharp role players, the Spoken Mind is also determined, through social responsibility projects, to change the lives of the millions of citizens of our beautiful country."

“Our word, your word, changing lives for the good.”

"I am by the Word, for the Word, In the Name of the Word."

Shosholoza

I thought that, with all the fuss and excitement we have seen over the last couple of days with regards to the Springboks and The Rugby World cup, I would post the song Shosholoza since it appears to be quite strongly associated with the Springbok team.

The song gained further popularity after South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and is a favourite at sport events in South Africa.

The following information is largely taken from the entry in Wikipedia :

Shosholoza is a Ndebele folk song that originated in Zimbabwe but was popularized in South Africa. The song was sung by all-male migrant workers that travelled by steam train from their homes in Zimbabwe to work in South Africa's diamond and gold mines. The sound "sho sho" uses onomatopoeia and is reminiscent of the sound made by a steam train. Stimela is the Zulu word for steam train. Zulu workers on the mines later took up the song to generate rhythm during group tasks and to alleviate boredom and stress. The original author of the song is unknown.
The song is so popular in South African culture that it is often referred to as South Africa's second national anthem.

Shosholoza
Shosholoza
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' South Africa
Shosholoza
Shosholoza
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' South Africa
Wen' uyabaleka
Wen' uyabaleka
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' South Africa

The lyrics, roughly translated, mean :

Go forward
Go forward
on those mountains
Steam train from South Africa
Go forward
Go forward
on those mountains
Steam train from South Africa
You are running away
You are running away
on those mountains
Steam train from South Africa

Personally my favourite version of the song is the version by Dan Moyane, however, I cannot find an audio file of it on the internet.I am not a sports fan, I don't even know how you play rugby, so I cannot really appreciate the video (especially the 2 shots of dead animals), however, this is a very nice version of
Shosholoza & Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika
(click above to listen)Here is a link to the Peter Gabriel version of the song (click on the image) :

The Knifemakers' Guild of Southern Africa Annual Show, September 2011

Hello Folks, it is that time of the year again and Tall Stories will be exhibiting at :

The Knifemakers' Guild of Southern Africa Annual Show

The Show Venue and Dates :

Friday 2, and Saturday 3 September 2011.

Mosaïek Lifestyle Centre, Communio Exhibition Hall,
Danielle Street, Fairlands, Gauteng.
GPS co-ordinates, X: 27d56.1069m, Y: 26d08.7500m

Conveniently situated next to the N1 in Roodepoort to the
west of the city of Johannesburg, the premises are easily
accessible from the 14th Avenue off ramp, and offer secure
parking with access control.

The Exhibitors :

At the Guild Show, approximately 45 knifemakers exhibit, plus allied crafts and materials and equipment suppliers. All types of knives are usually on display, from miniatures to swords, folders to hunters, art daggers to kitchen utilities. Materials range from hi-tech steels to own forged damascus, mammoth ivory to micarta, and horn, bone and unique African hardwoods. South African knifemakers have developed a well deserved reputation for quality at international shows all over the world.

The exhibition runs over two days but is preceded by a 'preview' which is held on the Friday before the public exhibition on Saturday. This preview is intended to honor our most loyal supporters and offer the opportunity of inspecting or acquiring items from the current year's offerings, in a more leisurely and less crowded atmosphere. The attendance is by invitation to real enthusiasts. Welcome drinks and snacks are served and a bar service is available. Competition results are announced and the winning knives may be seen and handled, providing a good indication of current achievements and guide to the location of some of the noteworthy items around the hall. This preview invitation will normally be extended to all foreign visitors.

The above information is taken from the guild's website : http://www.kgsa.co.za/

Do come us and visit us there, we shall be selling various different books related to collecting knives.

Tall Stories

____________________________________________

• Fine Books for Discerning Readers •

August Newsletter

Hello All,

This letter has been a long time in coming out, so we thought we would start things out with a bit of literary fun.

Something that we thought was quite fun which we would like to share with you is a recent topic which was generated by @RandomHouse via the social networking site of Twitter, which asked people to come up with the food equivalent of some classic literature titles, but with a food theme instead, so for example : Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun also Rises" became "The Bun also Rises". Please note that we have not given accreditation to various people for their originality, so if anyone feels maligned, we do apologise in advance. We thought we would share some of the more funny #FoodieLit translations with you :

Leek House - Bleak House by Charles Dickens, which was our contribution to the game.

The Thyme Traveller's Wife - The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenigger, which was also our contribution as well as The Time Traveller's Knife.

Peter Panini - Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.

The Lord of the Onion Rings - Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

For Whom the Bellpepper Tolls - For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, along the same thought was : Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar* which became The Bellpepper Jar

Little House on the Praline - Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Grapes of Broth - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Watercress Down - Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Merry Chives of Windsor - The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Midnight in the Garden of Food & Weevill - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Yeast of Eden - East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Bury My Heart at Wounded Ghee - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

If you send in your #FoodieLit contributions, which have to be original & are not copied from the list,: #foodielit the most original title will win a gift voucher to the value of R100.00 from us. The winner will be notified on the 2nd of September, 2011.

* As an interesting afterthought for those of you who are interested in collecting Modern First Editions, The Bell Jar was not originally published under the name of Sylvia Plath but rather under the name of Victoria Lucas.

If you are at all interested and you use Twitter, you can visit us @TallStoriesBook , we give almost daily updates relating to the book world.

When I have been able to focus my eyes through the biting cold, I have been reading The Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littel. A hugely interesting book, and one that gives the lie to any piece of advice you have ever seen about succesful creative writing. It is a tome of more than 950 pages about a bisexual German officer in the Einsatzgruppe of the SS during the Second World War, and has been met with howls of pleasure and outrage wherever it has been published.

Written in French by an American (son of one of my favourite spy authors, Robert Littel) and originally published in France, it won the Prix de Goncourt and sold more than 700 000 copies there. The books' American publisher paid $1 000 000 for the rights, and it has sold well all over the world. Not the stuff best sellers are made of, at all, it concentrates on the evil of the nazi extermination policy in Europe. Where Hannah Arendt described the same as the banality of evil, Littel's approach examines its bureaucratic nature. Max Weber introduced the concept of bureaucracy as an attempt to standardise administrative procedure. In the nazi system this degenerated into a rational, efficient system of murder that shifted, warped and changed the world's definition of what it meant to be human, and inhuman.

The main character is deeply unpleasant, and no-one, aside from those you or I would not want to know, can identify or sympathise with him. Yet the book is magnificent, and even crammed with historical detail to the point of redundancy and beyond, keeps you enthralled. It's description of the battle of Stalingrad is grippingly, horrifyingly real and leaves you shaken and thoughtful.

The next time you see a press of generic, mass market novels, do not despair – on occasion publishers will still print the exceptional. We live in hope.

P.S. We did ask Agatha-Panther, our book cat, to contribute to this newsletter. She only wanted to talk about food and how to take a marathon nap, and we deemed it not appropriate.

Our Unused Book

Specials for this Month.

*whilst stocks last.

Spa Wars

by
Chris Manby

When Emily Brown's life and business is turned around by a surprise visit from Carina Lees, immaculately-groomed reality TV star, she can't believe her luck.With just one other member of staff to help her out at her Essex salon The Beauty Spot, Emily is pushed for time as well as money, and so Carina's patronage and the subsequent financial success of the salon is more welcome than a sunbed session in December. But even with the assistance of skilled-yet-shabby new girl Natalie, things start to go mysteriously wrong, and it soon becomes clear that someone's got it in for the salon. And with tactics dirtier than a gardener's fingernails, the battle of the beauticians commences. For under all the make-up and manicures, Carina is not who she seems, and although confronting the past can be more painful than a bikini wax, Emily eventually has to stare the truth in the face and realise it's what's inside that really counts ...

Published Price : R185.00
Tall Stories Price :

R 95.00

More Unused Book Specials for this Month.

*whilst stocks last.

Special Air Service Rhodesia : The Men Speak

by
Jonathan Pittaway

Tall Stories Price : R450.00

Until now little has been known about the Rhodesian contribution to the history of the SAS. Now at last the men themselves tell their own stories of the exploits of that elite Special Forces unit during the Bush War and the years before.

Soft cover 590 pages, profusely illustrated in both colour and black & white.

This comprehensive volume starts with the birth of the SAS during the Second World War. Men from the British Commonwealth of the then Southern-Rhodesian joined the new parachute regiment, the Long Range Desert Group and the SAS.

Later chapters cover Malaya, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Southern Rhodesia and finally Rhodesia up to the birth of Zimbabwe and disbanding of the Rhodesian SAS.

As it is written by those involved it is very evocative.

This is how Trooper Geoff Turner-Dauncey describes service in the jungles of Malaya:

“From the moment we stepped into the jungle until we returned to base we got soaked, and stayed wet... . With our operational dress torn and rotting... it was common practice to burn our clothes on returning to base. For a while troops returning to base from operations looked rather like clowns: wearing just PT shorts, sandals and berets, their bodies lavishly painted with mercurochrome, gentian violet and Whitfield's Lotion until their skin problems healed.”

Please Note :
Orders will be taken for this book, with a 2 week waiting period.

Our Featured Book for this Month.

* The History of the Zulu War and Its Origins.

Colenso Frances E.
&
Durnford, Lieut.-Colonel


Imprint: London, Chapman and Hall, Limited, 1880
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback

Royal Octavo. 491 + 24 pp (publisher, Chapman & Hall's catalogue dated February 16, 1880).Folding coloured map at rear. Some acid tape repairs. Some creases and tears to the map. Recased, with new headbands and end-papers. Recasing has original cloth laid down onto the boards. A good job as a recasing, although the end-papers are too white. Ink name on the half-title page with a small ( 5 cm) tear in the top edge of the page. Some light foxing around the title page. Overall a good copy. The authors deal with the background to the War from the Zulu perspective and are critical of Frere and his policy towards Cetywayo and the ultimatum which was presented to him. A scarce and important title. Hard Cover. Book Condition: Very Good. Binding: Olive Cloth. Jacket: No Jacket

Stock number:01470.

R 9000.00
Buy Now

&

January Highlight in the Africana Section. (Unused Book)

Africa - Altered States, Ordinary Miracles
by Richard Dowden with a Foreword by Chinua Achebe


Hardcover, 576 pages,
Published by Portobello Books Ltd

Published Price : R 367.00

Tall Stories Price : R 150.00

Richard Dowden, one of the world's leading Africa correspondents delivers, after a lifetime's close observation of the miraculous continent, a landmark book on life and death in modern Africa.Dowden has now, after 35 years on the continent, written a memoiristic history of its peoples' experiences in the wake of the European withdrawal and the superpowers' arrival. He has been present at each of the continent's major crises and writes illuminatingly about them, but he is as passionate about the warmth, wisdom and joy he has encountered in peacetime, and the diversity of habits, attitudes and purposes to which he has been Britain's best witness. His book is no less than a benchmark publication on this most misunderstood and mishandled of continents.




Image of Chinua Achebe

NOVEMBER, 2010 NEWSLETTER.

And We Are Back !

After an absence of a year, just one second before the tidal wave of despair engulfed you, just a breath before the last shred of hope curled up and died, a heartbeat before giving up and submiting to the horror of SABC tv, the Tall Stories Newsletter arrives. After a long silence due in part to aliens, vampires, sulphur pits and badly adjusted underwear, it returns. Huzzah, and hark the trumpets and the angelic choirs.
During said long silence, many things happened. Many did not, but that's another story.

Those of you who regularly attend the shop will have met the newest bookdealer. A ferocious(ly cute) cat called Agatha-Panther, she has been hard at work helping us in the shop by being nice to customers, demanding food and attention, and sitting in the windowsill, staring at the passing parade.
She arrived as a small bundle of kitten fur, and has grown into a seasoned and well-travelled book cat, handsome to behold and regal in her acceptance of the adoration in which she is held by all.

We were also pleased to witness Mario Vargas Llosa, a long favourite author, be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. For an interesting read and some background on this author, go to: http://bit.ly/cwJrXd

We were also pleased to learn that Bill Bryson is back in the United Kingdom, and has been appointed vice-chancellor of Durham University. An entertaining interview with him is found here: http://bit.ly/bKHWDL

It has been fifty years since the landmark Lady Chatterly's Lover judgment in Penguin Books' favour. For legal and literary interest, read this: http://bit.ly/8Y1U2X

Collections of Books for Sale :

We have two collections of books that we are going to be selling by themselves,in otherwords,the collections will not be broken up.
The first comprises approximately 129 titles, all about Aviation. From Vlamgat to Aircraft of the S.A.A.F. via Air War Flanders 1918 to I Flew For the Fuhrer.The second collection is comprised of around 96 titles, all about Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. From Contact to When a Crocodile Eats the Sun via Troopiesongs and Rhodesia Before 1920.If you are interested in either set, either contact us in the shop or at :
tallstories@megaweb.co.za

Our Unused Book Specials for this Month.
*whilst stocks last.

Mr. and Miss Anonymous

College senior Lily Madison is on her own and desperate to pay for her last semester of school. With nowhere to turn, she makes the difficult decision to donate her eggs to a fertility clinic. Sam Parker is also a penniless student who supplements his tuition money by visiting a sperm bank. One day, Lily and Sam meet at the clinic and talk about their secret. They agree that the clinic gives them an odd feeling, as if all is not as it seems. Despite their obvious attraction, Lily and Sam go their separate ways. Twenty years have passed and Lily often wonders if she has a child somewhere in the world. She also thinks a lot about Sam. Now a wealthy entrepreneur, Sam never forgot Lily either, and when he sees her in an airport one day, he falls for her all over again. But while they enjoy their unlikely reunion, a story on the news has them riveted. Two teenage boys are missing and their disappearance may be linked to the fertility clinic Sam and Lily visited in college. In a shocking twist, one of the boys looks exactly like Sam. Lily and Sam are now determined to find out what really went on at the clinic all those years ago. When the whole story comes out, the truth will be more than they bargained for. But they will discover that letting go of their secrets from the past is the best way to build a future worth fighting for...
Published Price : R185.00

Tall Stories Price :
R 95.00

Fern Michaels (born Mary Ruth Kuczkir) is an American author of romance and thriller novels, including nearly 50 best selling books with more than 70 million copies in print.

More Unused Book Specials for this Month.
*whilst stocks last.
Samurai Swords - A Collector's Guide to Japanese Swords

For 700 years Japanese civilization was dominated by a single warrior caste. This project looks at the weaponry & clothing of Samurai men and women over the centuries.
Fascinating history, detailed technical information, advice on collecting and preservation - all in a single volume. The pages are beautifully illustrated with dynamic paintings, specially taken photographs, detailed diagrams and maps
Tall Stories Price : R280.00

Hand colored Albumen print of a Samurai circa 1890 (photograph coutesy Wikipedia)

Samurai in armour, 1860s. Hand-coloured photograph by Felice Beato
(photograph coutesy Wikipedia)

A Sammurai katana in Koshirae
(photograph coutesy Wikipedia)

This Months Featured Book

* Beyond the Light Barrier *

Originally published in 1977 in Germany, the first two editions were sold out within weeks. This is the autobiogrpahy of Elizabeth Klarer, a Cambridge educated meterologist. who believed that she had had an affair (which resulted in a child) with an extraterrestrial being. It deals primarily with this affair with Akon, a male astrophysicist living on Meton, one of the planets of Proxima Centaur, which is apparently Earths' closest stellar neighbour, at a distance of 4.2 light years away from us. According to the author, she was taken, via spacecraft to Meton, where she lived with Akon and his family for four months. She apparently gave birth to their son whilst on Meton. Akon apparently continued to visit Klarer until 1963, when his work in this part of the galaxy was completed. Akon explained to Ms. Klarer the workings of the light-propulsion system used in his spacecraft. She in turn conveyed this information to the U. S. National Aeronautical and Space Administration as well as the S. A. Air Force authorities. This information is also documented in the book.

Imprint: South Africa, Howard Timmins, 1980
Edition: First South Africa Edition.
Binding: Hardback , with Dustjacket
Book Condition: Very Good. Jacket: Very Good
Binding: Blue Boards.Octavo.191 pp. Illustrated with black and white photographs. Slight spinal lean. Ink name of a previous owner on the front free end paper. Base of the boards slightly rubbed. Small chips in the top edge of the rear panel of the dust-jacket. Flaps of the dust-jacket creased. Closed tear in the rear panel of the dust-jacket (25mm). Slight wear to all edges of the dust-jacket.
R 650.00

STOCK CLEARANCE SALE

Hello Folks !

We are having a bit of a stock clearance sale which will last until Sunday 21st November, 17 : 00, or, whilst stock lasts.

Titles on Sale include :

Pretty Dead Things

Barbara Nadel
Paperback, 373 pages, August 2008
Published by Headline Book Publishing

When Emine Aksu, the flamboyant wife of an Istanbul style guru, suddenly goes missing, Inspector Cetin Ikmen's investigation leads him deep into her strange and colourful past. Emine was a hippie when she was younger, who wholeheartedly enjoyed the liberated lifestyle that swept across Istanbul in the sixties. Her husband suspects that she was visiting an old friend at the time of her disappearance. Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is called to a terrifying scene at the art deco Kamondo Stairs in the old banking district of Karakoy. The skeleton of a woman has been discovered in one of the large plant containers. Could these two bizarre incidents be linked?

Published Price : R82.00
Now : R 30.00



Memorandum - A Story with Pictures

Marlene Van Niekerk
Hardcover, 136 pages, November 2006
Published by Human & Rousseau

In this title about a hospital experience the text and visual images offer parallel narratives that resonate poignantly with each other. Adriaan van Zyl's series of more than 20 paintings portrays a patient's experience from waiting room to ward giving a quietly disturbing view of the soullessness of hospitals in general. Marlene van Niekerk's accompanying story is a narrative by JP Wiid, a lonely man who is diagnosed with cancer of the liver just before his retirement. The night before a scheduled operation he starts writing a "memorandum" about an experience he had during his first stay at the hospital - sharing a ward with two enigmatic men in a state of postnarcotic euphoria, he overheard their strange conversation, one which was to have a profound effect on his life. He writes how, in the ensuing four months, he becomes a regular visitor to the library, anxious to learn more about the diverse concepts he had been exposed to for the first time. Everything new which Wiid learns about the world comforts him and helps him to accept his fate. Most importantly he makes a friend for the first time - an eccentric but very helpful librarian. While writing the memorandum, Wiid makes a life-changing decision - not to have the operation the next day. He chooses instead to make the rest of his life worth living by filling it with knowledge about cultures, structures, histories, literature and music. In the process he discovers his true self - and his true vocation.

Published Price : R300.00
Now : R60.00

The Duel - Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power

Tariq Ali
Hardcover, 304 pages, September 2008
Published by Simon & Schuster

Pakistan, the likely home of Osama Bin Laden and safe house for the Taliban forces fighting NATO in Afghanistan, stands on the front line of the war against terror. Yet, as recent events have shown, this long-time ally of the West and recipient of $10 billion of American aid in the past decade, is in deepening crisis. As President Pervez Musharraf struggles, with ever-diminishing success, to cling to power through states of emergency and imprisonment of his opponents, a range of forces are attempting to fill the vacuum that surrounds him: (before her death) Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, both previous presidents themselves and, Ali, argues, more corrupt than Musharraf himself; a lawyers movement that has taken to the streets demanding adherence to the constitution and the rule of law; and the Islamists in Waziristan and the North West Frontier whose increasingly effective assaults on the Pakistan army threaten to tip the country into full-blown civil war.With customary verve and acuity, Ali parses the prospects for these contending groups, drawing on extensive first-hand research and personal knowledge of many of the key players involved to assess the causes and consequences of Pakistan's rapid spiral into political chaos.

Published Price : R255.00
Now : R60.00



Kydd : The Admiral's Daughter

Julian Stockwin
Paperback - Trade, 324 pages, October 2007
Published by Hodder & Stoughton

In the eighth book of this popular series, Thomas Kydd and Nicholas Renzi return to England in 1803 after tumultuous episodes on the other side of the world to find England in peril of starvation and bankruptcy. Kydd is placed back in command of his beloved vessel, "Teazer," but he barely has time to prep her for the sea when he is sent on an urgent mission. Smugglers, enemy privateers, and treacherous sea conditions await Kydd on his journey to northern France on the eve of war, but equally worrisome events are occurring ashore. A growing attachment to the admiral's daughter curbs Kydd's blissful reunion with "Teazer" and he is forced to make a terrible decision that may cause the end of his friendship with Renzi--or the end of his naval career.

Published Price : R 145.00
Now : R 45.00

Patrick Parker's Progress (New Edition) Mavis Cheek Paperback, 320 pages, March 2005 Published by Faber & Faber Patrick Parker, child of bomb-devastated Coventry, adored and encouraged by his mother, fulfils his dream destiny to be a great architect and bridge builder. Audrey Wapshott, born at the same time, feels her dream destiny is to become Patrick's wife. But ambitious Patrick has other plans and Audrey, abandoned, is left to follow her own, random path to self-fulfilment beginning with Paris, and sinfulness, in the arms of a much older man. Mavis Cheek's eleventh novel will delight her many fans with its fast-paced, funny and insightful story of ambition, love and revenge. Published Price : R 102.00 Now : R25.00