Blackrock Library Reopens On Bloomsday!

An Cathaoirleach Cllr. Marie Baker with Zoe Healy of Zenith PR Cllr. Deirdre Donnelly, County Librarian Mairead Owens and Cllr. Seamus O'Neill Colm Keegan, dlr Writer in Residence for 2014-2015, chatting with local poet Gerard Fanning at Blackrock Library Blackrock Library opened to the public yesterday on June 16th, Bloomsday, at 10.00am! We welcome back all our library users! Come and see the beautifully updated, modernized and extended library on the site of the Town Hall complex which also accommodates the Blackrock Further Education Institute (BFEI).  Architects McCullough Mulvin carried out the redesign and refurbishment. An Cathaoirleach Cllr. Marie Baker said " I am delighted that the people of Blackrock and the wider dlr Library community can avail of this bright, spacious library with its enhanced public internet and self-service facilities and most importantly the extended selection of books, CDs and DVDs. The attractive Reading Room area will undoubtedly be a much sought after space for regular book clubs, storytelling sessions and for students and readers alike." We look forward to welcoming everybody back to this much loved local library over the next few weeks. A formal launch will take place later in the summer. For more information check out our website: http://www.dlrcoco.ie/library/

Tune In To Some Great New Downloadable Audiobooks

Give your shell-likes a treat in the new year!

We've been busy adding some fantastic new titles to our downloadable audiobooks available from OneClick digital through dlr libraries.

There are over 100 new titles for your perusal, including some of the best fiction from 2012. Why not listen to the new novel by Marian Keyes - The Mystery of Mercy Close, an engaging and romantic page turner or A Lady Cyclists Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson, a haunting and beautifully written debut novel about unconventional women.

Anyone who likes a good thriller won't want to miss the latest by James Lee Burke - Creole Belle, featuring his popular hero Dave Robicheaux as he battles to save the land and people he has sworn to protect.


If it's real life stories that interest you, check out the biography of Apple co-founder and iconic businessman Steve Jobs. Or read about the fascinating history of finance in Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money.

There's new junior and teen titles too - suitable for a wide range of ages.


Each dlr borrower is allowed 12 digital loans and fortunately there's no danger of overdue fines - after three weeks the digital loans will automatically delete from the library card. It's also worth noting that the OneClick app allows you to download audiobooks directly onto your Smartphone.
 

Click here to connect with OneClick digital at dlr Libraries

NEW TITLES

XO by Jeffery Deaver
A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve
A Foreign Field by Ben MacIntrye
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
A Ship of War by Sean Thomas Russell
A Time of Mourning by Christobel Kent
A Wife for a Westmoreland by Brenda Jackson
And She Laughed by Liz Holliday
Angel's Day by Molly Brown
As One Devil to Another by Richard Platt
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
Beekeeping for Beginners by Laurie R King
Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell
Billionaire Baby Dilemma by Barbara Dunlop
Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
Blood Atonement by Dan Waddell
Bryant and May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler
Burial by Neil Cross
Burn by Nick Brownlee
Bye Bye Baby by Allan Gutherie
Christmas by Mark Timlin
Cinderella's Wedding Wish by Jessica Hart
Cockroach by Rawi Hage
Cold in Hand by John Harvey
Coming up Roses by Catherine Anderson
Creole Belle by James Lee Burke
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Dark Water by Caro Ramsay
Darkness Rising by Frank Tallis
Devil for Sale by E.E Richardson
Eyes of Prey by John Sandford
Far Cry by John Harvey
Fear in the Forest by Bernard Knight
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
Forgetting Zoe by Ray Robinson
From a Clear Blue Sky by Timothy Knatchbull
Fury by Elizabeth Kay
Geezer Girls by Mitchell Dreda Say
Grave Stones by Priscilla Masters
Gun by Ray Banks
Gypsy Boy by Mikey Walsh
Hell's Fire by Chris Simms
Home to Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
Hot Flush by Helen Fitzgerald
Indian Takeaway by Hardeep Singh Kohli
Killer Tune by Mitchell Dreda Say
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Londoners by Craig Taylor
Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas
Mr Toppit by Charles Elton
Night Watch by Linda Fairstein
No Holds Barred by Lyndon Stacey
One Day I will Write about this Place by Binyavanga Wainaina
Ravens by George Dawes Green
Run Rabbit Run by Kate Johnson
Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn
Scouting for Boys by Chaz Brenchley
Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris
Shakespeare's Landlord by Charlaine Harris
Sir Michael Caine: The Biography by William Hall
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson
Stumps by Mark Morris
The Accidental Family by Rowan Coleman
The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson
The Blood Crows by Caro Ramsay
The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk
The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver
The Cave by Kate Mosse
The Creed Legacy by Linda Lael Miller
The Dangerous Lord Darrington by Sarah Mallory
The Day You Saved My Life by Louise Candish
The Dragon and Pearl by Jeannie Lin
The Jewel Box by Anna Davis
The Killing by David Hewson
The Killing, Book 1 Parts 7-14 by David Hewson
The Labyrinth of Osiris by Paul Sussman
The Liar's Gospel by Naomi Alderman
The Life and Soul of the Party by Mike Gayle
The Look on Her Face by Andrew Klavan
The Man in the Yellow Doublet by Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Many Conditions of Love by Farahad Zama
The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger
The Prime of Miss Brodie by Murial Spark
The Princess Test by Shirley Jump
The Rapture by Liz Jensen
The Running Sky by Tim Dee
The Shoemakers Wife by Adriana Trigiani
The Stepmothers' Support Group by Sam Baker
The Streets by Anthony Quinn
The Untied Kingdom by Kate Johnson
The Yard by Alex Grecian
This is How by MJ Hyland
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
To Turn Full Circle by Linda Mitchelmore
Two for Texas by James Lee Burke
Useless Things by Maureen McHugh
Vicar's Daughter to Viscount's Lady by Louise Allen
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT

Crowded Out at Silver Street Farm by Nicola Davies
Dragon's Breath by E.D Baker
Fire Dreamer by Webb Beth
Getting Away With It by Anne Cassidy
Hero.com: Virus Attack by Andy Briggs
How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini by Elen Caldecott
Jeannie of White Peak Farm by Berlie Doherty
Nemesis: Into the Shadows by Catherine MacPhail
Pea's Book of Best Friends by Susie Day
The Pickle King by Rebecca Promitzer
The Return of Johnny Kemp by Keith Gray
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
The Twice-Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones by Susie Day
The White Horse Trick by Kate Thompson
Them and Us by Bali Ria
Torn by Margaret Haddix

SELF HELP

15 Minutes of Total Relaxation by Anne Marshall

15 Minutes on Inner Confidence by Anne Marshall
15 Minutes on Positive Thinking by Anne Marshall
Coach Your Family to Better Health by Anne Marshall
Engage Your Inner Coach by Anne Marshall
Inner Calm in the Evening by Anne Marshall
Mind Skills for Weight Loss by Anne Marshall
Positive Thinking for Kids by Anne Marshall
Retirement Coaching by Anne Marshall

New audiobooks and ebooks available now

We've got some great new audiobooks and ebooks available to borrow through Overdrive digital downloads - you just need your dlr library card number and pin number.

Here's a selection of some of the most popular titles for your perusal.........

New fiction ebooks:

 The Slap by Christos Tsiolkos

 Restless by William Boyd

 Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

 No and Me by Delphine de Vigan

 The Crimson Petal and the White byMichel Faber

 The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

New fiction audiobooks:

The Absolutist by John Boyne

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

The Deportees by Roddy Doyle

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Smut By Alan Bennett

The Orphan Master's Son By Adam Johnson

New non-fiction audiobooks:

Wait For Me! by Deborah Devonshire

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Did You Really Shoot the Television by Max Hastings

New non-fiction ebooks:

Beginning Mindfulness by Andrew Weiss

The Game by Neil Strauss

Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens

A Hundred and One Days by Asne Seierstad

Mrs Robinson's Dirgrace by Kate Summerscale



New children's and teen audiobooks:

The Worst Thing About My sister by Jacqueline Wilson  

There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff

Sunny the Yellow Fairy by Daisy Meadows

The Slime Squad by Steve Cole

Monster Mission by Eva Ibbotson

New children's and teen ebooks:

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Larklight by Philip Reeve

Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells

Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

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

 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

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

 The Big Switch

By Nicholas G Carr

In this Book Nicholas Carr looks at the development of utility or cloud computing, simply defined as computing servies provided over the internet as opposed to those locally hosted, and how it will change society.

The first half of the book compares the development of cloud computing to that of electricity as a utility (The First Big Switch) in late  nineteenth and early twentieth century America.

The second half of the book looks at the social consequences of this revolution and leans rather to a dystopian view of the future, with some trenchant comments on privacy, ownership and access.

Carr is also pessimistic about the future of cultural life. Believing that the Internet is resposible for a tidal wave of freely available mediocrity (such as book reviews on library websites) produced by enthusiastic but talentless amateurs.

A fasinating read, but not a particularly cheerful one.

David Hughes

DLR LIBRARY BLOG

MAGIC UNIVERSE BY NIGEL CALDER.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in a condensed explanation of many topics in cosmology, biotechnology, physics etc.

Each chapter conveys a specific topic,but at the end it shows the links to other chapters which cover further information associated. This greatly eases the task of expanding the information just learned.

So good , that my poor daughter had to brave Ryanair's baggage restrictions to bring home a copy.

Alan Squire