Books of the Month
Staring
at Lakes by Michael Harding
Published by Hachette Books Ireland in 2013
Michael Harding was born 1953 in County Cavan. He is an Irish short-story writer, novelist, playwright and Irish Times columnist and member of Aosdana.
In his memoir, he talks with openness and honesty about his journey from his childhood in Cavan, leaving the priesthood when he was in his thirties, settling in Leitrim with his artist wife, through his breakdown and the months of depression after which he cried for a year, to his eventual recovery.
Teenage Book of the Month
Valentina
by Kevin Mc Dermott
Published by Little Island, 2012
Valentina lives a privileged life along with three hundred Elite families in the safely located Citadel at the heart of the Green Zone. She is a president’s daughter, sheltered, spoilt and arrogant. Switch location then to the Badlands, where there is burning and flooding and where gangsters and terrorists, control a miserable life of danger, disease and violence.
A dystopian fantasy set in Ireland, the story is full of obvious similarities to our politics and history and to our beliefs and attitudes and is a very worthwhile read for teenagers.
Children's Book of the Month
The Terrible Thing That
Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne
Published by Doubleday, 2012.
Mr. and Mrs. Brocket pride themselves in being normal respectable parents and have very little time for anyone who in their eyes, isn’t.
Barnaby defies the laws of gravity and can float since birth. His parents simply cannot accept how different he is from their other two children and after trying really hard to cope they decide, quite literally, to “let him go”
And so begins a series of adventures for Barnaby in his efforts to get back home.