books & reading

This week I must get a gift for my niece’s birthday. Of course it will be a book as nothing else will please her so much. She will be 13, quite a young lady now. She has a lovely reading voice and she often reads aloud to her little brother and sister, and sometimes to her mother and her fashionable friends. She enjoys poetry and she loves the Newbery books, which arrive fresh from London in crisp new editions. She has a whole set of them in her room, Goody Two Shoes has been her favourite for years. Her aunts and uncles buy them for her for Christmas, New Year and Easter.

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On the 6th June last, TV3 visited Cabra Library where they filmed the teen book club discussing 'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins! The five minute piece was broadcast on Tuesday, 26th June on Ireland AM at approximately 9.20am, and you can as of now still watch it over on the TV3 3player.

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It's time to update you on some of the crime novels I have read in recent times. Hard not to notice that Nordic writers are ever present, no apologies, I am still working my way through the expansive library of Nordic crime fiction. But nice too that some of those Nordic authors mentioned here were new to me, as was the South African Deon Meyer. Always interesting to find someone new. But mentioned here too is one of my perennial favourites, Colin Cotterill. 

First up is 'At Night All Wolves are Grey' (1986)  by Gunnar Staalesen. Read more »

The do1thing campaign encourages us to read a book about the refugee experience. One of the best children's (or adult's) books on the subject is 'The Unforgotten Coat' by Frank Cottrell Boyce. I wrote a story here on the blog on a previous occasion highlighting the UNHCR do1thing campaign, which again this year is taking place in libraries across the country, starting June 18th. 

'The Unforgotten Coat' is available in every branch library in Dublin City - check the link for availability - or call in to your local library - it's a brilliant read! As promised in my previous story, Frank Cottrell Boyce did indeed visit Dublin last October as part of the Children's Book Festival 2011. Read more »

There is a band you have probably never heard of called The Rock Bottom Remainders. However you will probably know a few of the members pretty well. Stephen King, Amy Tan and Mithc Albom to name a few. They got their name from a publishing term "remainders" which is left over stock of titles which are sold off at discount prices. All proceeds from their gigs and recordings go to charity. Another novelist who has turned the pen to music is Michel Houellebecq. His novel 'Atomised' won the International IMPAC Dublin literary Award in 2002. He released a single called Le Film Du Dimanche (The Sunday Film). It has been likened to Gainsbourg and Jack Brel, a huge compliment!

Now for the other way round, Nick Cave the Australian musician who is famous for his gothic styled music and lyrics (he also released an album of 'Murder Ballads') has written two novels, 'And the Ass saw the Angel' and 'The Death of Bunny Munroe'. He also wrote the screenplay for the film The Proposition. It's a violent outlaw film set in the colonial Australian outback, definitely worth a watch. Read more »

It's being billed as 'an historic moment in children's literature', as Patrick Ness wins the CILIP Carnegie Medal for his novel 'A Monster Calls' (Walker Books). Read more »