The Language of Cat, Rachel Rooney

Perhaps the mark of a skilful children’s poet is that they can be enjoyed (without embarrassment or condescension) by adults as well. This is certainly the case with The Language Of Cat, Rachel Rooney’s first book of collected poems. In it, as the title suggests, we are invited to view the world from unusual perspectives. These could be those of an animal, an imaginative poet, or indeed an autistic or dyslexic child. (We are told that the poet trained as a special needs teacher.)
This is a book brimming with witty invention. ‘Signature’ tells the tale of a boy with unfortunate initials, whilst in ‘Boast’ people are said to swallow inanimate objects, thus taking on their properties: “I’ve got a friend who swallowed a lamppost./He lives down our street.” There are droll narratives such as ‘Post‘, in which a queen plans to swap places with a commoner, and ‘A Greengage is a Type of Plum‘, a true story (we are told) and a warning against the over consumption of that particular fruit!
Word games, shape poems and quasi-mathematical riddles abound, each page acting as a playground for new ideas. Rooney never underestimates what children can absorb, or, over ninety one pages, rests on her laurels, producing the merely cute or twee. Hence ‘Calculation’ documents the mathematics of love in four shrewd lines, ‘Acceleration’ offers a kaleidoscopic vision of aging, ‘Elizabeth Quinn’ details the perils and pleasures of sensitivity (“There’s a girl that we know called Elizabeth Quinn/Her eyes are too big and her skin’s too thin”), and ‘Target‘, in the closing pages, is a bold manifesto of poetic intent. 
The stylised pen and pencil illustrations by Ellie Jenkins are, although effective, perhaps less impressive than the poetry, on the whole. The best do make a strong visual impact however, enhancing the poems they accompany.
All in all then, a great debut boasting an embarrassment of riches that will have readers young and old purring with pleasure and gratitude. 10-12 yrs 



ALAN MURPHY 

Newly purchased Irish eBooks now available to download from DLR Libraries

You’ve asked for more Irish content, so we’ve obliged! Below is a list of recently purchased titles, now available to download at http://digitallibrary.dlrcoco.ie/

To download a title, all you need is your library card number and PIN.

1. A Compact History of Ireland by Sarah Healy
2. A Short History of Ireland by Sean McMahon
3. A Walk Through Rebel Dublin 1916 by Mick O'Farrell
4. Agus Rud Eile De by Louis de Paor
5. An Fear a Phleasc by Micheal O Conghaile
6. An Irish Soldier's Diaries by Michael Moriarty
7. An Unsung Hero by Michael Smith
8. Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent by Alan Early
9. Blasket Spirit by Anita Fennelly
10. Brian Boru by Roger Chatterton Newman
11. British Voices by William Sheehan
12. Brothers in Sport by Charlie Mulqueen
13. Buen Camino!    by Peter Murtagh, Natasha Murtagh
14. Buille Marfach by Anna Heussaff
15. Byrne’s Dictionary of Irish Local History by    Joseph Byrne
16. Carrauntoohil & Macgillycuddy's Reeks by Jim Ryan
17. Coffin Ship by  William Henry
18. Colm & the Lazarus Key by Kieran Mark Crowley
19. Courage and Conflict by Ian Kenneally
20. Cré na Cille by Mairtin O Cadhain
21. Dan Breen and the IRA by Joe Ambrose
22. Darling Sweetheart by    Stephen Price
23. De Valera's Irelands by Dermot Keogh, Gabriel Doherty
24. Dead Hairy by Debbie Thomas, Stella MacDonald
25. Decoding the IRA by Tom Mahon
26. Diarmait by Nicky Furlong
27. Divided Paradise by David Lynch
28. Do You Want a Miracle by Willie Hughes
29. Donegal and the Civil War by Liam Ó Duibhir
30. Don't Mention the Wars by Tony Connelly
31. Dublin Wit by   Desmond MacHale
32. Dying to Survive by Rachael Keogh
33. Eamon Kelly by Eamon Kelly
34. Eating Scenery by Allanah Hopkin
35. Fables and Legends of Ireland by Maureen Donegan
36. Famine   by William Henry
37. Feckers by John Waters
38. Fourfront by Micheál Ó Conghaile, Pádraic Breathnach, Dara Ó Conaola, Alan Titley
39. From the Earth, a Cry   by Ian Kenneally
40. Funding the Nation by Michael Keyes
41. Gaffers  by Trevor Keane
42. Green & Gold    by John Travers
43. Green, Blue and Grey    by Cal McCarthy
44. Haughey's Forty Years of Controversy by T. Ryle Dwyer
45. Hidden Belfast by Raymond O'Regan
46. Hidden Cork by Michael Lenihan
47. Hidden Dublin  by Frank Hopkins
48. Hitler's Irishmen by Terence O'Reilly
49. Homecoming by Cathal O Searcaigh
50. Hugh O'Flaherty by Alison Walsh
51. I Signed My Death Warrant by Ryle T. Dwyer
52. I'll Stop Tomorrow by    Paul Campbell
53. Impact  by Jenny McCudden
54. In Search of the Missing by Mick McCarthy, Patricia Ahern
55. In Search of the Promised Land by Gary Murphy
56. IRA Jailbreaks   by Florence O'Donoghue
57. Ireland by Vincent McDonnell
58. Ireland in World War Two by      Dermot Keogh, Mervyn O'Driscoll
59. Ireland's Garden Birds by Oran O'Sullivan, Jim Wilson
60. Irish Apartheid by Sarah Burke
61. Irish Signs and Notices by Des MacHale
62. Irish Soldiers in Europe by George B. Clark
63. Irish Trees by Niall Mac Coitir
64. Irish Wild Plants by Niall Mac Coitir
65. King Dan by Patrick M. Geoghegan
66. Lady Gregory by Judith Hill
67. Let This Be Our Secret by Deric Henderson
68. Liberator by Patrick M. Geoghegan
69. Liffey Ships and Shipbuilding by Pat Sweeney
70. Little Fighters by Angie Benhaffaf, Edel O'Connell
71. Mairtin O Direain by    Mairtin O Direáin, Eoghan O hAnluain
72. Michael Collins by Vincent McDonnell
73. Michael Collins and the Making of the Irish State by Gabriel Doherty, Dermot Keogh
74. Michael Collins and the Women Who Spied For Ireland by Meda Ryan
75. Missing in Action by Ralph Riegel, John O'Mahony
76. My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland by Fr. Sean McManus
77. New York City Girl by Eithne Loughrey
78. News From a New Republic by Tom Garvin
79. Nine Lives by David Courtney
80. Northern Ireland by Helen Fairbairn
81. O Chosta go Costa by    Frank Reidy
82. Ocean Fever by Damian Foxall
83. On My Honour by Brendon Colvert
84. On the Run by   Micheál Ó hAodha
85. Our Grannies' Recipes by Eoin Purcell
86. Our Struggle for Independence by Terence O'Reilly
87. Padraic O Conaire Rogha Scealta by      Padraic O Conaire, Diarmuid de Faoite
88. Patrick Kavanagh and The Leader by      Pat Walsh
89. Pawns in the Game by    Barry Flynn
90. Peeler  by Kevin McCarthy
91. Petticoat Rebellion by  Patricia Groves
92. Prisoner 1082   by Donal Donnelly
93. Raids and Rallies by    Ernie O'Malley
94. Rebel Ireland   by Sean McMahon
95. Renegades by    Ann Matthews
96. Riotous Assemblies by William Sheehan, Maura Cronin
97. Scread Mhaidne by Joe Steve Ó Neachtain
98. Seán Lemass by Bryce Evans
99. Seascapes: Tom MacSweeney by Tom MacSweeney
100. Shadow of the Brotherhood by Barry Kennerk
101. Shepherd's Pie  by George Mordaunt
102. Short Back and Sides    by Peter Quinn
103. State Violence  by Raymond Murray
104. Superstitions of the Irish Country People by    Padraic O'Farrell
105. The 5 States of Success by Brendan Foley
106. The Battle for Kilmallock by    John O'Callaghan
107. The Bombing of Dublin's North Strand by Kevin C. Kearns
108. The Burren & The Aran Islands by Tony Kirby
109. The Civil War in Kildare by James Durney
110. The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian by Pat Walsh
111. The Devil is an Irishman by Eddie Lenihan
112. The Donegal Awakening by Liam O Duibhir
113. The End of the Party by Bruce Arnold, Jason O'Toole
114. The Fall of Dublin by   Liz Gillis
115. The Fenian Anthology by Joe Ambrose
116. The Fethard-on-Sea Boycott by Tim Fanning
117. The Legacy of History by Martin Mansergh
118. The Making of the Irish Constitution 1937 by Dermot Keogh, Andrew J. McCarthy
119. The Noughties by Brenda Power
120. The Paupers' Graveyard by Gemma Mawdsley
121. The Phoenix Park Murders by Senan Molony
122. The Real Chief - Liam Lynch     by Meda Ryan
123. The Reluctant Taoiseach by David McCullagh
124. The Runners by Fiachra Sheridan
125. The Ship of Seven Murders by Alannah Hopkin, Kathy Bunney
126. The Song at Your Backdoor by Joseph Horgan
127. The Squad by    T. Ryle Dwyer
128. The Story of Tomás MacCurtáin by Fionnuala MacCurtain
129. The Unknown Commandant by Denis Barry, Cathal McSwiney Brugha
130. The Vatican Pimpernel by Brian Fleming
131. The Whiz Quiz Book by Cork West Branch of the NPC
132. The Yin & Yang Complex by Brendan Foley
133. Tom Barry by    Meda Ryan
134. Tom Crean –Ice Man        by Michael Smith
135. Unlikely Rebels by Anne Clare
136. Walter Macken by Ultan Macken
137. Watering the Desert by John Callanan
138. When Bobby Met Christy by       Declan Colley
139. With the IRA in the Fight for Freedom by The Kerryman Newspaper
140. 1916 by Gabriel Doherty, Dermot Keogh, Garret Fitzgerald

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Boxer, Beetle
by
Ned Beauman

Prepare yourself for an intense read with Ned Beauman's debut novel "Boxer,Beetle".
There's a lot going on in a relatively short novel - two different time lines for a start as well as plenty of beetles, boxers (and fascists).

The action moves between a 21st century paranoid thriller involving the shady world of Nazi memorabilia collectors and the 1930's where the lives of boxer Seth Roach and gentleman entomologist Philip Erskine violently intersect.

The genre shifts and changes in narrative are handled well.

To say anymore would risk giving away some of the plots and turns-it's no mean feat to maintain the tension between the two side by side plots and then to resolve everything with a final flourish.

This is a well-written,funny book that I found compulsively readable.

Jessica

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

How could you not love Alan Bennett? An institution, a national treasure, a genius. He has lengthily documented his life and if you wish to read his full memoirs then Untold Stories is where to go. We can’t possibly list all his work here but our personal favourite is probably The Uncommon Reader, a brilliant imagining of what would happen when if Queen fell in love with reading; and if you’ve never read Talking Heads then you really should, they’re each tiny masterpieces.

Recommending memoirs and autobiographies is never easy as it does rather depend on ones interest in the subject. So we’re simply going to recommend a handful of great autobiographies and then recommend a couple of writers who if you might want to discover if you don’t already know them.

So, a few other brilliant memoirs by brilliant writers: Moab is My Washpot by Stephen Fry, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, Toast by Nigel Slater. Tragically I was an Only Twin by Peter Cook, Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes, Miracles of Life by JG Ballard, Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens

One writer we’d particularly like to recommend to Alan Bennett fans is Gervase Finn. An ordinary Yorkshire man who made his living as a schools inspector before turning to writing, he has the warmth, wit and humour of Bennett and his books are a delight. Start with Out of the Woods But Not Over the Hill.

And the only other writer we think of in Bennett’s league is the great Michael Frayn. A reasonably close contemporary of Bennett’s (interestingly they both learnt Russian together at Cambridge for National Service as part of what the KGB dubbed ‘Spy School’ – who wouldn’t give a lot of money to hear them reminisce about that?), Frayn’s excellent Spies feels memoir-ish and all his work is worth exploring.

And so our off the wall suggestions are in honour of Bennett’s Russian fluency:

Death and the Penguin by Andrei Kurkov

The Master & Margarita by Mikhael Bulgakov

Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Why I Love My Library
by
Patrick Roche

When my family immigrated to England back in the 1950's I was a young lad of thirteen and totally unprepared for the culture shock involved. I hated the change from the flexible regime of the Irish Secondary School I had attended in Dublin to the regimented traditions of the English grammar school in which I was now enrolled. The transition had a detrimental effect on my studies and I began to retreat into a world of my own spending many hours of the school day dreaming while studying the changing hues of the ivy that grew prolifically on the red brick mock gothic walls of the college.

I had always loved drawing and painting and to my delight my new school curriculum included a forty minute art class once a week. A real artist, a Polish émigré who had fled the Nazis and settled in London during the war,taught the class. He often used lavishly illustrated art books to show how the artists of the past had used colour,line and form to express their thoughts and feelings. I longed to own such books myself and asked my teacher if I could borrow some. He refused my request and suggested that instead I join the local Library which had a particularly good Art section.

That library became my second home and I would spend most of my free time unearthing its treasures. Here I came to understand and appreciate the great masterpieces of art from the earliest cave paintings to the challenging work of the painters of the twentieth century. In the book scented warmth of that library my loneliness was forgotten in the company of genius.

I did eventually adjust to my new school and I have many fond memories of the English grammar school system I first so hated. Indeed it was almost with reluctance that at the age of eighteen I returned to Dublin as my Mother had patriotically decided that the family should return to our native land.

I enrolled in the National College of Art, which was located right beside the National Library of Ireland on Kildare Street. For a young art student this was a fantastic resource. If inspiration flagged when painting in the studios of the art college the short trip to the great domed reading room of the national library was a great reviver for the spirit. I well remember the feeling of privilege and anticipation while waiting for the books I had ordered to be delivered.

Books on anatomy, books on aesthetics, books on technique,biographies - the wealth of information was at first a little daunting but one soon became skilled in researching the library catalogue and finding material relevant to ones needs. I learned far more in that library than I did in the art college and will always be grateful for the gap it filled in my artistic education.

When I bought my first house I was thrilled as it was located at the top of Library Road the home of the Dun Laoghaire Library. This meant that I was never more than a few minutes from one of my favourite places and during the many years I have lived in Dun Laoghaire that short walk down the Library Road laden with my book returns has never lost its special magic.Those recently read books always raised questions to be answered, the desire to read more of a particular author or another new subject to be researched. The anticipation of an hour or two browsing for my new selection of books has lifted my mood even on the dullest of days.

Now that the library has entered the digital age the online services it provides enables me to search for, renew and reserve books from the comfort of my living room. The library even has the courtesy to send me an email warning that my books are due for renewal or return within three days. I'm sure this decency has deprived the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council of a revenue stream from absent minded readers like me. I can even skip my little stroll down Library Road and download ebooks,audio books, music and video directly onto my computer.

On the first Saturday of each month I meet a wonderful group of people at our book club hosted by the DL library. The staff cordon off an area for us where we can discuss our latest read in relative privacy and comfort. Each month we make a request for a title to read for the following month and the librarian checks to see if enough copies are available within the DL Rathdown branch libraries. If so our book choice is ready for collection at our next meeting.This service is much appreciated by our group and also has introduced me to reading material way outside my comfort zone.

This short piece on why I love my library would never have been written but for the six-week on creative writing taught by Mary O'Brien and hosted by the Dundrum Library as part of the Bealtaine programme for 2006.Here I was inspired to express myself in yet another form and am pleased to say that I and most of the members of that class are still goin strong.We have established ourselves as"The Writeaway Writers Group" and meet bi-monthly in Dundrum Library. For more information please visit our web site at http://arthack.com/writing_group/index.php

Patrick Roche

DLR Libraries would like to thank Patrick for this piece @ Why I Love My Library

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Come Thou Tortoise
by
Jessica Grant


Before you ask-yes, this novel contains a tortoise,called Winifred.Who gets her own narrative voice. But fear not,this book isn't drowning in whimsy but is an entertaining read written with a light and deft touch.
This is mostly a book about families, the stories they tell each other and how each family builds its own myths and rituals to protect and cherish each other.

The setup of "Come Thou Tortoise" is in many ways a conventional coming of age story: Audrey Flowers gets a phone call that her father is in a coma and flies back to Newfoundland (leaving her tortoise behind) where she was raised by her father and uncle. The novel is both the story of what happens after this and a recounting of events that led up to this point. Audrey, nicknamed Oddly, is a quirky and likeable narrator with her own unique outlook on life and a lot of anxiety about almost everything.

There are mysteries in Audrey's life- things she hasn't quite figured out about her past, and while she reaches some conclusions by the end of the book, one of the great strenghts of this novel is that not everything is spelled out for the reader. There are clues scattered throughout the book about various characters and their history-you may find yourself going back and rereading some sections in light of various plot developments.

There's also an immortal mouse!!


Jessica

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

The Paris Wife
by
Paula McLain



Paula McLain was motivated to write this wonderful book after reading Ernest Hemingway's memoir"A Moveable Feast" a book about his early Paris years. In this book Hemingways description of his first marriage and his line"I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her" moved Mclain by its poignancy and she developed a strong interest in Hadley Richardson. During her research into Hadley, Paula Mclain found that hundreds of letters existed written between Hemingway and Hadley Richardson. She admits that she fell in love with Hadley Richardson, whose charecter and her marriage to Hemingway inspired this simply beautiful book.

I would recommend this book to anyone but think it would make a great bookclub choice


Elaine

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

The Other Side of Truth
by
Beverley Naidoo

The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo was an interesting read.It tells the story of Femi and Sade,children to the noted Nigerian journalist, Folarin Solaja,who is one of a few who deems it necessary to tell the truth in his articles. It delves into the importance, but also the consequences of telling the truth. The children have been raised to understand the power of the truth and how it affects mankind,but then they realise that to tell the truth it takes real courage,courage that Femi and Sade don't think they have. To Femi and Sade, its far easier to tell a lie than to tell the truth...but is it ever really?

Filled with very real and important themes in the modern day,yet narrated by a child,it plunges straight in,starting with a family murder, a chilling threat and a hasty escape. So many questions thundering around in the children's heads and then, they are deserted. They realize that telling lies gets you in far more trouble than the truth and how tight a grip the truth has on society.

Tell a lie,play with fire. But don't complain about the smoke!

With their mother's words guiding them, and their father's love helping them,can they overcome a world that tries so hard to oppress the truth?

Mia Ní Challarán

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Age 14
by
Geert Spillebean

Patrick Condon lives in Watrford city in 1913,but he is bored of his everyday life and dreams of joining the army. However there is one complication,he's 12 years old. Deciding he can't wait any longer, Patrick enrols using his 17 year old  brother's name John Condon.

12 year old Patrick is obviously not even nearly 17 but nobody seems to care and he fits right in. He loves the military life and works hard,but when World War one begins in 1914 he gets more than he asked for.Poor Patrick Condon suffers a gruesome death,choking on poisonous gas at age 14.

This novel is based on a true story. John Condon was killed at age 14 in World War One,but John would have been 18 thatyear,which goes to say that there's a good chance that Patrick Condon was killed in Belgium, at age 14.

I this story has a very interesting plot. However the author didn't quite pull the actual creative writing together well enough for such a good plot.I think that the same ideas just with a different writer would have been better.I didn't think the descriptions were as good as the plot and all the ideas and events in the novel.

However it  was definitely a good and inteesting book and I would recommend it

Katie Ni Dheá

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Michael Ondaajte interview for Mountains to the Sea Festival 

By

Sarah

Michael Ondaatje was interviewed last night as part of the DLR Mountains to Sea Book Festival by the wonderful Belinda McKeon. His interview fell on the first night of the festival and what a magical opening launch it was. Belinda introduced Michael describing his writing as "achieving an unparralled dream like quality" which is very apt. Michael read from his new novel (The Cat's Table) enchanting the whole audience and proved in the interview to be just as interesting and grounded a person as his books are.

Sarahsbooks is looking forward to Michael's new offering and invites reviews from anyone who has read it already!

Sarah

With thanks to Sarah @Sarah'sBooks

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Our Mountains to Sea Round Up
by
Aoife Murray CBI

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside! Especially when there are children's book events taking place. So Mountains to Sea Festival,held in the beautiful maritime settings of Dun Laoghaire, was just the ticket!

Wednesday saw us head to The Mill Theatre for Meg Rosoff(There is No Dog) and Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls) in conversation with Dr Pádraic Whyte of Trinity College. Meg and Patrick had the assembled audience of local school students rolling in the aisles and pondering some cerebral thoughts!

Thursday morning saw us revisit The Mill Theatre again for a reading and Q&A session with national treasure Roddy Doyle. He read from his new novel for children A Greyhound of a Girl and answered many questions from the school pupils present including "what year were you born?" and "how many cars do you have?" (1958 and one respectively!)

Sunday was our CBI field trip to Dun Laoghaire, which saw us at County Hall bright and early for"Stuck on Books" -picturebook whizz Oliver Jeffers in conversation with our very own Inis co-editor David Maybury. Oliver gave a fascinating look at his work and work process via powerpoint (who said powerpoint is boring?!) and after a quick chat with David, Oliver answered questions from picture book fans in the audience.

Sunday afternoon saw the CBI team report for duty at The Family Table Quiz, our specialist subject being....children's books!
Well done to the winning team who won a fab gift bag courtesy of quiz mistress extraordinaire Judi Curtin!
Oh and a special congratulation are due to David again for handling the quiz with aplomb

Aoife

Thanks to Aoife Murray CBI

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

The Missing
by

Tim Gautreaux

This is a wonderfully atmospheric book, which is beautifully written, full of vivid evocations of the sights, sounds and smells of the American South.

Louisiana is the setting for this riveting story about a kidnapped little girl and Sam Simoneaux, the man on her trail.

Feeling honour bound to find the missing child, Sam gets a job on a pleasure boat, that travels up the Mississippi, entering a wild world of lawlessness and jazz,topped up with moonshine.

The book is  an enthralling story about loss, vengeance and redemption, set in the early 1920's it reads very much as though it was actually written there and then.

Borrow this book from your local library it WILL DELIGHT YOU.

Elaine

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Paul Howard,Novelist, Playwright and Journalist, has chosen the following five books as having a major influence on him. These books had a positive literary influence on him, both as a lover of literature and as an author.

Thank you so much to Paul for sharing his five favourite books with us:

The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris

Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser

The Comedians by Graham Greene

Guys and Dolls and Other Stories by  Damon Runyon

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

Paul Howard

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Cutting for Stone

by

Abraham Verghese

In his commanding novel Cutting For Stone, Abrahm Verghese skilfully brings to life the dichotomy that was Addis Ababa during the 1960's,'70's, and '80's an era of horrendous political upheaval, and  social unrest, that transformed the ancient hidden Christian African empire of King Haile Selassie into the Stalinist revolutionary misery under Mengistu, to the final collapse of Mengistu's regime of terror. This is the background to a story of a family, living through these turbulent times. It is a story of love and betryal, death and survival, broken promises and shattered lives, but most of all love.

This novel is the story of twin brothers born in unusual circumstances and the bonds that bind them. The story tells their incredible life journey and what a fasinating journey it is.

There is a lot of medical detail in the novel which might not be to everyone's taste ( not as pretty as ER) but I feel that this adds to the dept of the story lending it more credibility. Prior to reading this book I knew less than nothing about Ethiopia and I was enthralled by the background of Ethiopia's political convulsions during the middle of the twentieth century.

This book has been a huge hit in the US,on this side of the Atlantic it has been less successful, however I believe it is one of those superb books that slowly builds it popularity through word of mouth and friend recommendation. It would make an excellent choice for any book club.

Quite simply I Loved it!

Elaine

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Once again a big thanks to Sarah for the following review!!

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

by

Rhoda Janzen

I would love to meet Rhoda Janzen. When I finished "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" (which is written with fantastic candidness and panache) I felt like I had been into Rhoda's life, read her diary, looked at her credit card statements, seen the contents of her fridge, listened in to her phone calls, gone through her wardrope, lookedat her photo albums...and whats worse I want to know more! The more an author lets you in the deeper a reader will want to go into a story. What is even better than her honesty in this story is the fact that as a person and in her writing Rhoda is unaffected and charming and the same can be said for the story itself.

With fluid humour and light self-deprecation " Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" is a super page turner of a book. Rhoda Janzen, a former poet laureate in the University of California, English Lecturer and all round academic, writes her life story so far (she is only forty-three) in this memoir of growing up in and returning to the Mennonite Community in which she was raised.

Atlantic Books have been great for quirky accessible human interest stories( Cockeyed, Ryan Knighton, Fortune's Daughter, Elizabeth Keogh and God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens) so it was very easy to make the decision to pick this one up.

Rhoda's husband of fifteen years leaves her for a man named Bob whom he met on Gay.com. In the same week Rhoda is involved in a terrible car crash. Her physical and emotional injuries send her back home to the Mennonite Community from once she fled. Where she begins a sabbatical from her lecturing post. Nursing her broken bones and heart Rhoda reflects on her life spent with a bipolar husband who makes insane impulse purchases like a $385 pair of gloves on Rhoda's credit card. She also reflects on the heavy traditions of the Mennonite Community in which she grew up where everything from dancing to convenience food was banned but where love was abundant.

Rhoda's writing had me sniggering and snorting ungracefully with outbursts of laughter. She is the kind of funny that can only be achieved with candid honesty and an appreciation for the unique problems that simply being human bring. Many stories are worthy of being told but only a select few make it to the New York Times bestseller list and this book did I think because how much the reader is allowed in. There is nothing more fascinating than reading in delicious detail about someone else's life decisions, finances and love life.

I highly recommend this wonderful story, it is so uplifting and bright I almost want to fashion a petticoat and bonnet... Sarah Sarah's Books.com

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Beach House " Teen Dream" ( Bella Union, 2010)

Beach House's third album, Teen Dream was rated very highly in many listeners polls of 2010 and it's easy to hear why.
The Baltimore duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand released their exceptional second album called Devotion in 2008 and Teen Dream delivers on it's predecessor's promise in a massive way.
It's an altogether more punchy and hi-fi follow-up, establishing just how Beach House have quickly emerged from the shadowy indie underground and are busy announcing themselves as a major new force in popular music.

Preferring to describe their music as "make-out jams", Beach House sound like they're pitched somewhere between Mazzy Star, Big Star, ABBA and Air. They're nostalgic, melancholic at times but often strident and blazingly optimistic. Open, emotive,anthemic and earnest but never mushy or maudlin.
Soaring slide guitar and pealing keyboards weave into often majestic choruses led by Legrand's impassioned, throaty tones.

Particular highlights include the stellar "10 Mile Stereo" (currently rotating on prime-time TV as the new Guinness ad song), "Norway" and the sublime opening gambit, " Zebra".
But drop the laser anywhere on"Teen Dream and you'll find it's an album chock-full of highlights and a bold,resounding artistic success all round.

G.M.

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

 Sincere Thanks to Bert Wright for the following book review:

John Giles
A Football Life.

Most soccer biographies are a complete waste of time. Superficial,sensationalised and self-serving they add more to the so-called superstars bank balance than they do to the store of knowledge of the beautiful game. Because it is the opposite of all these things, Johnny Giles' biography, A Football Man, is a book to savour, a frank and understated account of what it was like to be a professional footballer in the days before the tsunami of TV money washed in and began to erode the values embraced by Giles and his contemporaries.

Johnny Giles was and remains Ireland's greatest football man. As a player, national team manager and pundit, his work has been distinguished by a tough uncompromising honesty that has in recent years earned him the status of national treasure. But it wasn't always this way. Opponents who had their shins corrugated by Giles in his Leeds United heyday might have seen it differently and one of the interesting aspects of the book is Giles' anxiety to defend Revie's Leeds from the always partial complaint that they were a dirty team. Predictably,Giles pitches in his tuppence on David Peace's novel The Damned United which, he protests,played fast and loose with the facts. Still, wouldn't you loved to be a fly on the wall when Cloughie first confronted the Wild Bunch?

Giles was part of a generation of young post-war footballers who came up the hard way,learned their skills on the streets,left home as little more than children, and ended up living in digs in grimy Northern English towns. In the mornings they trained hard and cleaned the senior pros' boots. Because they were paid buttons,their leisure time rarely featured activities any more racy than coffee bars and snooker halls but you get the impression Giles accounts himself luckier than today's ego maniacal millionaires.

As RTE pundit Giles constant theme is commitment, hard work and honest endeavour;even if a player has limited talent,that's the very least a player owes his employers and his fans. As on TV, so in the book and fans will be fascinated by the exacting standards Giles sets for the "great players"; x qualifies but y doesn't because he squandered his talent. He is equally frank in his assessment of icons of the game such as Busby and Shankly who, though great men in their achievements,were far from flawless(Busby was tight with money and Shankly regarded player injuries as a form of betrayal).

Football has been good to Johnny Giles and his gratitude for enjoying the enormous stroke of good fortune his talent bestowed on him is written in every page of this terrific sports-read.
ENJOY

Bert Wright
Curator Mountains to Sea
Curator Irish Book Awards

















 

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

North and South

by

Elizabeth Gaskell

It's probably a bit cheeky reviewing a classic, but for those who worked their way through Austen and the Brontes during the Winter and find themselves at a loss, Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South might just do the trick.

Margaret Hale is uprooted from her idyllic life in  Helstone in the rural South of England to the dirt, deprivation and industrial unrest of a mill town in the North.

Margaret initially despises the change of setting, pace and most particularly manners. As she befriends workers in the mills, she starts to adapt to her new life and becomes accustomed to her reduced surroundings.

One steadfast is her derision for the factory owners,most especially her father's friend John Thorton, who has become her admirer against his better judgement and the wishes of his domineering mother.

Gaskell is as capable as Austen of clever plotting and wry dialogue. Yet she can create characters and scenes as forbidding as any of the Bronte's ( with whom she was friendly,in fact she wrote a biography of Charlotte Bronte). The setting in a town in the midst of industrial unrest and great change gives the novel a greater sense of urgency and energy than pastoral Austen.

Be warned there is the occasional hint of puritanical mores-at play-it is mildly squeamish about poor people and mobs and bordering on hysterical about poor people in mobs. Also worth noting is Gaskell's portrayal of the imported Irish mill workers which is fairly hilarious in its casual racism, though typical of much of the writing of the era.

At the very least Gaskell attempts to offer a complete snapshot of life for all the social strata of an industrial Northern town.

Overall North and South is an engaging novel to escape to while the long evenings are still with us.

Dympna Reilly

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

The Slap

by Christos Tsiolkas

We recently read this book for our Book Club and Oh my God it "so doesn't do as it says on the tin"!

I have never done something like this before but people must beware of the reality of this book. It is not about The Slap of a 3 year old boy, which by its' title lulls every poor unsuspecting reader into it's vile clutches.

It is about everything reprehensible in an end of the world type depiction of "The Modern Family".

To sum it up it is a vulgar,racist,sexist,bigoted read. With the apparent relish of the writer it touches on everything vile from"the smashed jaw and teeth" of a wife of one of the characters, to drug and alcohol abuse, multiple extra marital affairs,sex scenes that make you feel personally violated as as abused as the characters, to borderline paedophile undertones.

If this is the"modern family" or "modern living" in Australia well God love them

Avoid this book as you would the Ebola virus!

Carmel- Co.Dublin

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

The Long Song

by

Andrea Levy

Andrea Levy's fifth book The Long Song is a clever, consuming read worthy of its place on the Man Booker shortlist last year.

Set in Jamaica in the 19th century it tells the story of July, born into slavery on the sugar plantation of Amity and who eventually sees its abolition.

July's story loosely abides by some of the conventions of the slave narrative genre. The original slave narratives were the testimonies of freed slaves distributed by abolitionists and were a powerful propaganda tool. The true-life stories of ex-slaves such as Frederick Douglas and Mary Prince are, like The Long Song, riviteting and harrowing but because of their intended audience the slave narratives were restrained and formulaic. The Long Song as a work of fiction is not so reserved-in fact it's all energy and emotion.

Through July Levy explores how a bigoted and brutal system warps the attitudes and aspirations of those subjugated by slavery. The most depressing passage of the novel is July's description of how the colour of children can be "raised" through the generations so that " a mulatto who breeds with a white man will bring forth a quadroon; and a quadroon that enjoys white relations will give forth to this world a mustee; the mustee will beget a mustiphino and the mustiphino's child with a white man for a papa will find that each day...welcomes them with a smile,as they at last stride within this world as a cherished white person"(p187.)

Thus July, a mulatto, is ecstatic when her beauty brings her to the attention of the young new master at Amity. And for a time she gts a glimpse of her heart's desire only to lose it all in the most callous way, but despite it all July is determined to get her happy ending.

Levy manages to pull off the tricky manoeuvre of creating an occasionally unpleasant central character but keep you reading notheless. She does this by evoking a brutal environment in which one must draw on and develop their nefarious side in order to survive. In spite of July's flaws and the subject matter be assured this is not a miserable read. July's endless optimism, resilience and vivacity leads you to root for her throughout her long song.

Dympna Reilly

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Thanks to Sarah @ Sarah's Books.com, for the following review:

What to Look for in Winter: A Memoir in Blindness

by

Candia Mc William

I would as a reader generally shy away from reading memoirs and biographies as even the most interesting stories are so heavily grounded in narrative they become disengaging. Candia McWilliams memoir What to Look for in Winter is movingly different. She sets the narrative of her suffering at the loss of her sight against the often tragic but beguiling story of her life producing a well paced and plotted memoir.

Mc Williams was judging the Booker Prize in 2006 when she first began to lose her sight and when we meet her in the book she is Cambridge educated, part of the English aristocracy, has been married twice once to an Earl and emerged out of these relationships with three children and a wicked drink problem.

I believe in person there is an other worldliness quality about McWilliams and a striking beauty, the same can be said about her writing. Her memoir has a detached tone when describing her experiences which mirrors McWilliams own withdrawal from the world. Throughout her life she gains and loses many things; husbands,homes,health,self respect....she probes each experience with her beautiful literary eye pulling together the sense of her life with the aid of a Cambridge inspired vocabulary. Her strong sense of self is paraded out through confident prose and language, meaning becomes jewelled in language.  In one particularly beautiful scene McWilliams daughter asks her why she likes the royal family and her explanation encapsulates the ideology of the royal family with a very clever perspective.

Her experiences at times are physical (the loss and re-gain of her sight, horrific battles with alcohol), at times they are heavily emotional self-destructive, ugly,romantic poignant but the eye with which McWilliams looks at her own life is so probing that all these experiences and battles with herself are beautiful because they are self aware.

It is with deep self-awareness this memoir is written and thats what sets it apart from the others. That and the extraordinary life McWilliams has so far led. One reviewer of Mc Williams describes her like"a northern princess gazing out of a cold castle onto icicles and pale eyed wolves" and this is truly apt.

Sarah
Sarah's Books.com

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Any Human Heart

by

William Boyd

Logan Mountstuart, 1906 - 1991, A life well lived. Logan Mountstuart, author, spy, husband, father, student, son, lover, adulterer, rich man, poor man, human.

Any human heart is told to us through Mountstuart's journals. This is the story of a life, lived to excess, but also the banal of the ordinary everyday that makes up all our lives.  Mountstuart's story is a journey through the twentieth century.

I adored this book, reading it virtually non stop over a three day period. While I cannot say I liked Logan Mountstuart, sometimes I positively disliked him, at the end of the book (the end of his life) I mourned his loss.

William Boyd, writes as if Mountstuart was a real person, who lived this story, and this rings completely true. It was fascinating how Boyd weaved real people into Mountstuarts's journals.

Brilliant storytelling

Elaine

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

For those who have run out of Skulduggary Pleaseant to read Helen recommends these five you might like:

Darren Shan-----Lord Loss ( The Demonata)

Felix Bogarte----Dead and Unburied ( The Dead Detective)

Jonathan Stroud---- The Amulet of Samarkand ( The Bartimus Trilogy)

F.E. Higgins--------The Eyeball Collector.

Anthony Horowitz----Raven's Gate ( The Power of Five)

Helen Power

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Sister
by

Rosamund Lupton

When Beatrice gets a frantic call to say that her younger sister Tess is missing she drops everything and gets the first available flight home to London.

The police, Beatrice's mother and fiance all accept that Tess is gone, Beatrice however refuses to accept and refuses to give up on her much loved sister. She is determined to uncover the truth,no matter what the cost.

This is a compelling and highly original psyclogical thriller. It is written with a powerful voice, that defies the fact that it is  Rosamund Lupton's debut novel.

The strong love between Bea and Tess shines out of the pages.

I would concur with the Daily Mail that said its devastatingly good, and announces the arrival of a truly original talent"

Great Read!!

Elaine

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

The Breakdown Lane

by

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Julieanne Steiner loves her life, she is a devoted wife and mother, who writes an advice column for a Wisconsin newspaper. As an agony aunt she dishes out advice to people who need answers to intimate situations and questions in their lives. Little does she know that her happy family life is about to be shattered and that she will need all her inner strenght to cope with the deserting of her family by her husband and the devastation of the diagnosis of a debilitating disease.

Jacquelyn Mitchard has written an excellent story about love, loss and renewal. The book has two main voices Julie and her son Gabe. We follow the story by reading both Julieanne's and Gabe's personal journals.

This is a good read.

 I would also recommend other novels by Jacquelyn Mitchard, for example: Deep End of the Ocean. Mitchard writes about ordinary people who face life changing events and how this impacts on their lives and the lives of those around them.

If you like the novels of Jodi Picoult, you will like Jacqulyn Mitchard's books.

Elaine

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

No and Me

by

Delphine De Vigan

Lou is a thirteen year old girl living in Paris. She is an exceptional student with an IQ of 160 who is excelling in school.But Lou lives a lonely life with a mother who is suffering with depression and a father who is caught up taking care of her mother. She is a tiny girl, much shorter than her schoolmates,who is neglected by her parents and forgotten about by her classmates. Her intelligence however affords her a freedom on a higher level and Delphine De Vigan uses this to narrate a story on homelessness set against the backdrop of one of the most grandiose and beautiful cities in the world-Paris.

Tenderly written, Delphine De Vigan tackles the issue of homelessness using the voice of Lou. It is a beautiful idea that such a little girl can take on the large problem of homelessness. Lou meets an older homeless girl called No with whom she strikes up a friendship and eventually No comes to live with Lou and her parents. This book gives the reader philosophical insights into how society can continue to let people live on the streets and Lou's innocence generates a powerful narrative. De Vigan tackles the issues head on and her language is simple. These two methods lend the novel a strong emotional foundation.

No and Me topped the bestseller charts in France where it was the bookseller choice in 2007. Bloomsbury is publishing two editions for adults and for teenagers. I didn't know beginning the book that it was a crossover novel but it became clear very quickly. It is highly recommendable for young teenagers, a coming of age story and a good introduction to philosophy.

An interesting read and a super translation from the original French story.

Sarah

Sarah's Books.com

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Picture Books about the Navity:

Nicholas Allan ----Jesus's Christmas Party

Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen__The Fox's tale: Jesus is born

Kate Weston and Ameila Rosato---Granny goes to Bethlehem

Michael Foreman ---Cat in the Manger

Jan Pienkowski---The First Christmas

Helen Power

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Those of you who have run out of Diary of

a Wimpy Kid to read, might like:

Henry Winkler----Niagara Falls-or Does it? ( Hank Zipzer the world's greatest underachiever.

Louis Sacher ----Kidnapped at Birth (Marvin Redpost)

Rachel Renee Russell----The Dork Diaries

Lincoln Pierce-----Big Nate: The Boy with the Biggest Head in the World

Pete Johnson----Help I'm a Classroom Gambler


Helen Power

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Skippy Dies

by

Paul Murray

If comedy is tragedy...

I read an article with Paul Murray in which he said he finds writing difficult at the best of times....I'm afraid that this novel betrays that sentiment entirely Mr Murray! Skippy Dies is exemplary fiction. It is a whopping novel at six hundred and sixty one pages but the turn of each page reflects fluid and very accomplished storytelling. Bravo to its publisher Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Books) who bravely published the novel divided into three separate books (called Hopeland, Heartland and Ghostland) in a beautiful slipcase. Paul Murrays last novel An Evening of Long Goodbyes was published back in 2003 and was shortlisted for the Whitbread prize.

The title of this novel opens the first scene where Skippy, a border at Seabrook College for boys in Dublin, dies in a doughnut eating race with his roommate. Skippy Dies hosts a range of characters but the main protagonists are Skippy a very gentle and quiet boy, his roommate, Ruprecht Van Doren, a grossly overweight genius who is single handedly raising the GPA of every other student at Seabrook and their somewhat ill-fated History teacher Howard the Coward.

Skippy dies is highly accomplished. What makes it different from other fiction books out there? It's the fact that Murray interweaves and uses to great effect seemingly opposing philosophical, scientific and mythological ideas in the story. He effortlessly fuses the magic of Irish folklore with science as if folklore was a way all along to explain unexplainable scientific theories like M Theory and String Theory.He uses cosmology as a way to illustrate the beauty of human endeavours and as an antithesis to human behaviour with a potent and lyrical effect.

There is great comic timing in this novel. I never saw myself chuckling at the foul mouthed and sex driven antics of school boys but I did frequently and often when reading it. However it's these same characters that take you to the dark side of life also and you'll find yourself willingly going there with them.The twists and turns of their young lives set up a plot with a vast range facilitating the exploration of ideas and many dark subjects such as bereavement, domestic violence, abuse and self harm. These are subjects that cannot be simply touched upon and Murray's novel commits itself to their investigation through his characters development.

Finishing each book you begin to ask more and more just why Skippy dies...and the answer is just as intricate and fascinating as the title implies. It's like tripping into the light fantastic with these characters whose life lessons and beginnings of self awareness, which are often so witty, take you to some very dark places. If comedy is truly tragedy Paul Murray has hit the nail on the head with this novel.

Sarah

Sarah's Books