Stewartsreadingcircle's Blog

ONE DAY by David Nicholls

stewartsreadingcircle — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:49:16 +0000

We are reading One Day for our next meeting on 7th Feb @5pm. Copies are availble now from the library.
“a totally brilliant book about the hearbreaking gap between the way we were and the way we are…the best love story since The Time Travellers Wife. Every reader will fall in love with it and every writer will wish they had written it. ” Tony Parsons

First book club meeting of 2012 is at 5pm on Tuesday 3rd January.

stewartsreadingcircle — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:19:04 +0000

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

Her name was Henrietta lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells-taken without her knowledge-became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Balancing the beauty and drama of scientific discovery with dark questions about who owns the stuff our bodies are made of, this is an extraordinary detective story in search of the soul and story of a real woman, whose cells live on today in all four corners of the world

Recent winners in this years Bord Gais Book Awards

stewartsreadingcircle — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:25:20 +0000

Bor

Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 2011

Announced on the evening of November 17th, 2011, the following are the main categories and winners

Irish Novel of the Year – Mistaken by Neil Jordan
RTE !’s The John Murrary Show Listeners’ Choice – How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Crime Fiction Book of the Year – Bloodland by Alan Glynn
Non-Fiction Book of the Year - Easy Meals by Rachel Allen
Popular Fiction Book of the Years – All For You by Sheila

Author Visit to Stewarts Library, Palmerstown on 6th December

stewartsreadingcircle — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:22:11 +0000

Book club are reading “A type of beauty. The Story of kathleen Newton” by Patricia O’Reilly. It is a dramatised account of the life of Kathleen Newton (1854-1882) whose affair with the painter, Jacques Tissot scandalised Victorian society. The author, who is also a lecturer, a native of Dublin will attend the next meeting. Copies of the book can be borrowed from the library now

IMPAC 2012

stewartsreadingcircle — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:21:12 +0000

THREE IRISH NOVELS NOMINATED FOR 2012 INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD. 147 TITLES NOMINATED BY LIBRARIES WORLD WIDE

Three Irish novels are among 147 titles that have been nominated by libraries worldwide for the €100,000 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award, the world’s most valuable annual literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English. The 2012 Award was launched today, by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr. Andrew Montague, Patron of the Award, at a ceremony in The Dublin City Library & Archive. The Irish titles are:

Room by Emma Donoghue, nominated by libraries in Ireland, England, France, Maldives, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
Faithful Place by Tana French, nominated by Lincoln City Library, USA.
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, nominated by libraries in Ireland and the USA

Readers Day -12th November

stewartsreadingcircle — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:44:04 +0000

Readers Day 12th November 2011 @ The Maldron Hotel

Joining Dermot Bolger this year will be Sebastian Barry, David McWilliams, Gerard Stembridge, Claire Keegan, Eoin McNamee & Keith Donald and Anna May Mangan. So it promises to be a fantastic day! Take a look at the brochure to find out more about the day and all of the authors. Booking takes place online at the Southdublinlibraries.ie from Monday 24th October at 10am, so watch this space!

Julian Barnes wins the Man booker Prize 2011 with The Sense of an Ending

stewartsreadingcircle — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:43:48 +0000

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.

Now Tony is in middle age. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody.

Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove. The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past.

Laced with trademark precision, dexterity and insight, it is the work of one of the world’s most distinguished writers.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”

stewartsreadingcircle — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:01:25 +0000

The book club is presently reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier for the next meeting on 1st November at 5pm. Copies can be borrowed now from the library.

Author visit scheduled for December meeting. Details later

ORANGE PRIZE 2011

stewartsreadingcircle — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:29:15 +0000

Serbian/American author Téa Obreht has won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction with her debut novel The Tiger’s Wife (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). At 25, Obreht is the youngest-ever author to take the Prize.

Celebrating its sixteenth anniversary this year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world.

Let the Great World Spin by Dublin author Colum McCann, has won the 2011 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award.

stewartsreadingcircle — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:51:21 +0000

The judging panel commented.

“This is a remarkable literary work, a genuinely 21st Century novel that speaks to its time but is not enslaved by it. The human condition, the kindness and cruelty shown from one man to another, the ways in which we suffer and triumph, are subjects which have resonated through fiction for centuries. In each generation, writers explore these themes and rephrase the questions that our humanity asks of us. There are few answers in this novel. Its beguiling nature leaves the reader with as much uncertainty as we feel throughout our lives, but therein lies the power of fiction and of this book in particular.

In the opening pages of Let The Great World Spin, the people of New York City stand breathless and overwhelmed as a great artist dazzles them in a realm that seemed impossible until that moment; Colum McCann does the same thing in this novel, leaving the reader just as stunned as the New Yorkers, just as moved and just as grateful.”