Adventures in Reading

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

The Reader, by Ali Smith: Constable & Robinson
Featuring a wide range of writers whose work Ali Smith has loved at different points in her life, and for very different reasons, The Reader is both a treasure trove of rare treats and a unique literary autobiography. It is full of pieces from wonderful writers - Plath, Spark, Grace Paley, Yeats, Atwood. But also full of lesser known writers about which readers will be very happy to hear, like Joseph Roth, and Clarice Lispector. Also full of pieces by brand new wonderful writer and full of surprises,

Leaving Tabasco, By Carmen Boullosa: Grove Press
This lovely coming-of-age novel is full of humour and touched by magic. Raised by her mother and grandmother, in an all female home, Delmira Ulloa comes into adulthood with a wicked sense of humour and a delightful imagination. As Delmira becomes a woman she will search for the missing stranger who fathered her, and in choosing her own allegiances make a choice that will force her to leave home forever. In terms of the A penetrating sense of humanity infuses the prose and poetry of Carmen Boullosa. A book which is as effortlessly accessible as it is profound.

All that Blue, by Gaston-Paul Effa: Arcadia Books
At the age of five, Douo, a Cameroonian boy, is given in (traditional) sacrifice to the local French church by his father. Deprived of contact with his family, he is ensconced in a convent for the rest of his childhood. Aged 15 he is sent to become a monk in a monastery in Paris. As an adult he looks back at the nine years he spent in the convent school and the pain that has compelled him ever since to seek his absent father through the teaching of priests—and his mother's love in the arms of every woman he seduces.

Winners in CBF Bookmark Competition

Our congratulations and best wishes go to the Galway Winners of the Children's Book Festival Bookmark Competition for 2007. Michelle Heffernan, who is a library member in Oranmore Library who's bookmark on the left was selected as the Under 10 winner. Lisa Hannon from Headford Library won the 11 years and older section. Their entries now go forward to represent Galway in the National Finals. Best of luck to them!

Gareth O’Callaghan launches Short Story competition in Loughrea

The writer and broadcaster, Gareth O’Callaghan launched the Home-Start Short Story Competition in Loughrea Library on Tuesday 30th of October. The competition is open to all parents in County Galway. Entries may be written or oral and must begin with the line “I am a parent, I never thought that being a parent would feel so …..”

The prize for the best entry is a Family Holiday in France:country-region, Spain:country-region or Italy, country-region, sponsored by Kelair Campotel in Ballinasloe.

Home-Start is a voluntary organisation with a dedicated group of trained volunteers who visit parents at home, while the children are young and while their need for support is greatest. Each volunteer offers friendship, emotional support and practical help for as long as the parent chooses.

For further information on the competition, on Home-Start support for families or on helping as a volunteer, please contact
Michael Stapleton,
Home-Start Co-ordinator,
ADC House,
Station Road,
Athenry.

Donation of books to Loughrea Library honours the memory of the late Senator Bobby Burke.

Bobby Burke, a Senator who represented the Labour Party
and who was a member of Galway County Council in the 1940s was honoured in Loughrea Library on Tuesday night October 15th. Senator Burke was a man who believed strongly in working on behalf of the poor and the marginalised.

On the initiative of his niece, Claire Besnoye, a special collection of books to mark his memory has been placed in the Loughrea Library. This collection is a tribute to the life and work of Bobby Burke, and the books reflect the political and social philosophies by which he lived and the historical tradition from which he emerged. The collection was donated by Claire Besnoye and by friends who wished to honour the work of the former senator.

At the launch of the collection both Professor Gearóid O Tuathaigh, Professor of History at NUI Galway and Dr. John Cunningham, lecturer in history at NUI Galway gave short lectures on Bobby Burke.

Senator Burke established a co-operative farm near Tuam and the men who were working on the co-operative farm in Tuam were ordinary agricultural labourers.

Senator Burke could have employed the labourers in the ordinary way, and paid them a day's wages when they worked and let them remain idle when he did not require their services. Instead of that, he brought them in on his land, built houses for all of them, and gave them a voice in the running and management of the farm. He believed in giving the worker a share in the management of the farm. To him this was exceedingly desirable because of the sense of responsibility which it develops and because, he believed, "it places at the disposal of the employer the genius that is often found latent in a man in a humble position. It gives the worker greater interest in life and makes him feel that he is not merely a wage slave, that his opinion is valued and that, if he has any good ideas, they can be exploited to his own and his employer's advantage."

Senator Burke followed through on this philosophy in full measure. He gave these men comfortable homes. He formed them into a management committee where he had only one vote, the same as they. They meet periodically to decide in regard to various operations on the farm. He made himself an allowance for his work as he did for his men. Allowance was made for seeds, manures and so on and, at the end of the season, the accounts were made up and the profits were divided in equal measure amongst all.

The staff of Loughrea Library, Ms. Anne-Marie Callanan, Mary Donnellan and Sheila Kelly ensured that the event was well-attended, well-organised and that it ran smoothly.

Adventures in Reading

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

Lost, by Hans-Ulrich Treichel, Random House
A boy's parents never get over the loss of their older son, whom they last saw while fleeing from the Russian army in 1945. There is virtually no dialogue, and the deliberately slow progress of the plot makes you anticipate a big finale that doesn't arrive. What you get instead is a paradoxical conclusion, that makes sense for the little boy if not for the other characters. This kind of "sober" narrative will surely get critical acclaim in academia, but it is also recommended to anyone attracted to the theme of the fragile nature of the human mind.

Antigua and My Life Before, by Marcela Serrano, Random House
The day the Berlin Wall fell. Everything began that November 9, 1989, with the fall of the Wall. Who could have imagined how much more would come down with it. Which was what I told Violeta Dasinski that day. I ought to have been a witness: if only I'd paid more attention. In the photograph there is a forlornness in her expression I hadn't noticed until now. As if her consciousness were dissolving in her eyes. The date of the beginning of Violeta's public life was the day her name appeared on the front page of the Santiago newspapers: November 15, 1991. (Opening paragraph)

In the Wilderness, by Manuel Rivas, Overlook Press
"There were three hundred crows.... and there was a girl and a church." The lady of the manor, Misia, accounts how the three hundred crows are poet-warriors of the last king of Galicia. A priest, Don Xil, explains to a young peasant, Rosa, that the paintings of beautiful women which are discovered on the walls of the church are sinful portraits. Rivas's "delicate, restrained magical realism, deploys Galician folklore to lend a mythic resonance" to a story about Spain's reluctant transformation to a modern urban lifestyle.

We are not alone...anymore

Our congratulations go to the new Watch House Cross Community Library (Limerick City Library Service) for developing what is now the second Public Library Blog operating in Ireland. You can find out what they are writing about here.

Their new, state of the art branch library at Watch House Cross was officially opened on Thursday 31st May.This new branch library will serve the north side of Limerick City, especially the communities of Moyross, Ballynanty and Kileely.

Adventures in Reading

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

A Coin in Nine Hands, by Marguerite Yourcenar; University of Chicago Press
During the space of a day in Rome in 1933, a ten-lira coin passes through the hands of nine people—including an aging artist, a prostitute, and a would-be assassin of Mussolini. The coin becomes the symbol of contact between human beings, each lost in private passions and nearly impenetrable solitude. Within a few pages we have met half the major characters in this haunting, brilliantly constructed novel. . . . The studied perfection, the structural intricacy and brevity remind one of Camus. Yet by comparison, Yourcenar's prose is lavish, emotional and imagistic.

Selected Stories, by Robert Walser; NewYork Review of Books
Robert Walser lived on the fringes, an urban migrant working at menial jobs, rejecting adult relationships for the ever more total isolation in which he poured out poems, plays, novels, and hundreds of brief, brilliantly unpredictable prose sketches. He a writer of considerable wit, talent and originality, and for much of his later life an institutionalized madman who could be surprisingly lucid. He loved his food, his beer, and his freedom to ramble in both the Swiss and German countryside. Here are stories to be read slowly and savoured, a volume filled with lovely and disturbing moments that will stay with the reader for some time to come.





America's Magic Mountain, by Curtis White ; Dalkey Archive Press
An unassuming young man was travelling north by train from his home in Downstate , Illinois. He knew little of the world outside of the absurdly narrow purview provided by textbooks in what was called Industrial Psychology. To understand his capacities one has only to imagine the possibility of a young man whose life consisted of being shoved from box to box. That he never ventured forth from any of these boxes - until this momentous trip by train - says something about his willingness to trust and, yes, his essential timidity. At any rate, break forth he had now, for he planned a two-week stay at a recovery spa. (Opening page).

Children's Book Festival 2007 in Galway City

Here are some more details of events taking place around Galway City as part of the Children's Book Festival . Please contact each library for details.

Galway City Library, Augustine St.
Monday 22nd October: Matthew Noone a travelling storytelling musician from Australia will recount adventures from around the
world. 11.05-12.00
Tuesday 23rd October: Author and storyteller Pete Mullineaux will tell
tall tales and recite rhymes. 10.00-10.45 and 11.00-11.45
Wednesday 24th October: 'Larry the Lion'. Arts and Crafts - Create a happy lion!
Thursday 25th October: Storyteller Clare Murphy will weave her magic with some
enthralling tales. 1.15pm-2.00pm

Ballybane Library
Tuesday 23rd October: Chess Tournament. 11.00 -1.00
Thursday 25th October: Storyteller Clare Murphy, suitable for junior/senior infants.
Friday 26th October: Twilight Stories...stories based on African folklore.
Three Sessions: 10.30-11.30, 11.30-12.30 and 1.30-2.30

Westside Library
Wednesday 24th October: Mask making for 7to 10 year olds. 4.00-5.00
Thursday 25th October: Storytelling with Clare Murphy, suitable for junior/senior
infants
Friday 26th October: Pete Mullineaux with an interactive storytime with rhymes
and song. For 3-5 year olds. 3.00-3.45

Oranmore Library
Wednesday 24th October: Arts & Crafts for 6 to 10 year olds. 3.00-4.30pm
Thursday 25th October: Interactive story time with Clare Murphy for 1st class.
11.15-12.00
Children's Fancy Dress. 4.00pm

Children's Book Festival - Around Galway

As the Children's Book Festival continues into it's final week, we include here details of events forthcoming in Galway Libraries. Also, some images from last week in Gort Branch Library, including Michael Carroll reading from his book "The Quantum Prophecy" which is the first book in his New Heroes science fiction series.

Eyrecourt Library
Friday 19th October: Author visit Kate McMahon. 10.00- 11.00 and 11.15- 12.15
Map of Europe Jigsaw Competition. 3.00-4.00

Athenry Library
Friday 19th October: Make and Do with Tina 11.30 – 1.00pm
Tuesday 23 October: Table Quiz for Primary Schools 11.00 – 12.30
Wed 24th October: ‘I can animate’ Workshop 11.00 – 12.30
Thursday 25th October: Storytelling with Tina 11.00 – 12.00

Gort Library
Friday 19th October: Storytime for Preschoolers. 11.00
Tuesday 23rd October: Deadline for Bookmark Competition
Friday 26th October: Baloonmania and announcement of Bookmark Competition Nominees

Portumna Library
Friday 19th October: Teddy Bear’s Picnic with Hayley
Fancy Dress Parade 4.00

Author visits - Children’s Book Festival 2007

The month of October is a busy month throughout Galway County Libraries. Children’s Book Festival is in full swing.There are all kinds of events from the traditional Table Quizzes, Chess, Draughts, Story and Poetry Competitions etc.
It is a great opportunity to promote the Library to children.

Author Visits
Galway County Libraries will host 5 Children’s Authors during Children’s Book Festival.
Malachy Doyle will visit Galway City, Ballybane, Westside and Oranmore on Thursday 11th October.
Friday 12th Oct, he will visit Ballinasloe and Portumna
Malachy Doyle was born and brought up in Northern Ireland. He went to College in Lancashire and then worked for some time as a teacher and also in advertising. At thirty years of age he moved to a small farm in Wales with his wife and family. He worked as a care assistant in a special school and then began to write.
He is a prolific writer and has received many awards.
His Picture Books include Big Pig, The Dancing Tiger, Hungry Hungry Hungry, When a Xyder met a Zeeder. The Football Ghost for beginner readers, Amadans and amadans alert for young readers and Georgie his award winning novel for Young Adults.

Jon Berkeley will visit Galway City Libraries on Monday 15th Oct.
Jon Berkeley was born in Dublin and travelled extensively before settling in Catalonia with his wife and family. His novel The Palace of Laughter was shortlisted this year for CBI/Bisto award. His second book is due out this month The Tiger’s Egg.

Michael Carroll will visit Galway City Libraries on Tuesday 16th Oct.
On Wednesday 17th he will visit Gort, Athenry and Tuam.
Michael Carroll was born in Dublin, left school at sixteen and worked as a postman for 3 years. He then worked in the computer industry for a number of years. He writes for adults and children. He writes science fiction and his children’s series The New Heroes are proving very popular. The titles include Quantam Prophecy, Sakkara and Absolute Power.

Maeve Friel will visit Tuam and Dunmore Libraries on Thursday 18th oct. Oughterard and Headford on Friday 19th Oct.
Maeve Friel was born in Derry.She grew up in a house filled with books. She has a great interest in myths and legends and they tend to find a way in to her books. Her first novel The Deerstone was published in 1992. She writes for all age groups. Her Witch-in-Training Series are very popular with the younger age group.

Baboro The International Festival for Children have organised Oisin McGann to read in Killimor and Loughrea Libraries on Friday 19th October and on Saturday 20th the Storyteller Andrew Mc Kenna will entertain children in Glenamaddy and Tuam Libraries.

Children's Book Festival in Tuam Library

The Children's Book Festival is a nationwide celebration of children's books and reading, which this year will be taking place from October 3rd-26th. The following are details of events happening in Tuam Branch Library during the festival.

Tuesday 16th October – Jewellery making and bead workshop with local artist Karena Ryan, 10.00 – 11.00 & 11.15 -12.15

Wednesday 17th October – Author Michael Carroll will read from his ‘new hero’s’ book series at 3.15 – suitable for children aged 10+.

Thursday 18th October - author Maeve Friel will read her latest spellbinding story from her “witch-in-training” series suitable for 1st and 2nd classes. 9.45—10.30, 10.45 –11.30 & 11.45—12.30.

Friday 19th October - Jewellery making and bead workshop with local artist Karena Ryan, 10.00 – 11.00 & 11.15 -12.15

Saturday 20th October – Australian performance storyteller Andrew McKenna will tell stories from around the world with the use of words, mime, music, gesture and masks.

Monday 22nd October: Print workshops with the National Print Museum… Participants will work with artefacts from the Museum's collection to hand set and print their names in metal type. The participants will learn basic composing skills to construct their names, which will then be inserted into a 'WANTED' poster, and printed on The Farley Proofing Press, a key working piece of the Museum's collection.
Hand Folded Printers Hat
The second half of the workshop will show participants how to make old style printers hats, using Origami techniques. They will then have the opportunity to decorate their printers hats.
Suitable for 5th and 6th classes
9.30—11.00 & 11.30—1.00.

Tuesday 23rd October: Story time with local storyteller Gerry King; suitable for pre-schools and junior infants. 11.00—12.00

Wednesday 24th October: Galway based story teller Clare Murphy takes us on a magical journey with her amazing stories from around the globe; 9.45—10.30 & 10.45—11.30 & 12.00—1.00.

Thursday 25th October: Table Quiz for 3rd and 4th classes
Friday 26th October: Table Quiz for 5th and 6th classes

Lessing wins Nobel Literature Prize

British author Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy has announced.The academy described Lessing as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny." Few had tipped Lessing for the prize. At 87, she is the oldest person ever to win, and only the eleventh woman since it was first awarded in 1901.

Lessing is widely respected by her contemporaries as one of the most cerebral novelists of her generation. Author Margaret Drabble once described her as "one of the very few novelists who have refused to believe that the world is too complicated to understand.''

Born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), race and empire are themes frequently explored by Lessing. In her debut novel, The Grass is Singing (1950), she examines the relationship between a white farmer's wife and her black servant.

Lessing's breakthrough came with The Golden Notebook (1962), a book that became a favourite for the feminist movement for its examination of the male-female sexual relationship from a woman's standpoint. Lessing herself has said she does not want to be viewed as a feminist icon. She caused controversy in 2001 when she said she found herself "increasingly shocked at the unthinking and automatic rubbishing of men which is now so part of our culture that it is hardly even noticed."

In her latest novel, The Cleft (2007), Lessing continues her exploration of the relationship between the sexes by constructing a mythical all female world into which men are suddenly introduced.Under My Skin (1994) and Lessing's other autobiographical book Walking in the Shade (1997) are widely regarded as the high-point of her career. They were praised for capturing the last days of the British Empire.

Also notable is Shikasta (1979), which marked a venture into science fiction, something of which the Swedish Academy was rumoured to disapprove. This was blamed by some for Lessing missing out on the prize in the past.

Galway Public Libraries hold over 40 of Lessing’s works across it's library network, There are approximately twenty five titles held in Galway City Library. All of these titles may be borrowed by library users either directly, or through their local library branch.

Adventures in Reading

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

Passion Perfect, by Annie Ernaux
Annie Ernaux has written eloquently about loss. Now she writes of another kind of loss, the loss of herself in a love and then the loss of the love itself. In spare, beautiful language, she writes of the end of an affair, the coming to terms with it’s close and with the person she has become because of it. A stunning story, despite its detachment and the careful exclusions of any excess, that pulsates with the very passion Ernaux so truthfully describes. Small, but abundantly wise.

Antichrista, by Amelie Nothomb
With their hoodies and their attitude, teenagers have become the terrifying, foul-mouthed behemoths of adult society. Blanche is just such a teenager. She is bad at friendship and good with books. Enter Christa, another precocious 16-year-old, but one with social skills. How can Blanche possibly interest her? Amélie Nothomb is an artist like no other. She emerges from the multitude thanks to the perfume of her authenticity, her audacity, her conscientiousness and a humility which for her is a mark of honour.

The Lost Grove, by Rafael Alberti
Autobiography of Rafael Alberti, writer and poet, whose life and work remained interconnected with profound social and political change that occurred in Spain throughout the 20th Century. This book evokes all the joys, the sorrows, the embarrassments, and the longings of a boy growing up, and it unashamedly presents all the pleasant and all the bitter reflections of a man looking back on himself as a youth. By turns reflective and confessional, Alberti's reminiscences recreate his strict Jesuit upbringing, adolescence and struggles as both painter and poet.

2007 Frank O'Connor Short Story award winner

Miranda July has won the 2007 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, presented in Cork and sponsored by Cork City Council and the Munster Literature Centre in association with the Irish Times . She is the third winner of the richest short story prize.

Her collection, No One Belongs Here More Than You (Canongate) was praised as "a book of original genius", "a book which we believe will endure for a long time."

In this debut collection of short stories, July introduces the possibility of a moment that can change everything. July's characters are awkward and often remote, yet they are also profoundly sympathetic. With great compassion and generosity she reveals the idiosyncrasies, vulnerability, longing, and odd logic that govern our lives.

Previous winners of this prestigious award were Yiyun Li for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005) and Haruki Marukami for Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2006).

MIRANDA JULY grew up in Berkeley, California, where she began her career performing her plays at the local punk club. She is now an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and performing artist. She wrote, directed, and starred in her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Camera d'Or at Cannes, among others. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

Ballybane Library photographic exhibition celebrating Traveller culture and way of life

Anne-Marie Stokes of the Galway Traveller Movement speaking in Ballybane Library at the opening of a photographic exhibition celebrating the culture and joy of life of the traveller community.

'The history behind each photograph tells its own story. There is a very close family bond within each family and I think Derek Spiers has really captured this in these photographs.

Religion is a big part of Traveller culture. Our faith and our belief in God has kept us strong in spite of all we have come up against in the past.

We are very proud of old customs and traditions, but now some of our traditions are dying out. Travellers no longer seem to travel as they did in bygone days; we now look forward to meeting up with old friends and relatives during the summer.

Travellers have many skills; they are creative people. Poetry, drawing and story telling are just some of the skills that Travellers possess.

These photographs show many aspects of Traveller life - happiness, sadness, faith. We are very proud of our identity and culture and I think these pictures capture this. I hope you will enjoy the exhibition and hopefully we answer any questions you may have.'

The Books Dylan read

Bob Dylan's memoir, Chronicles, offers a way to understand the mind and art of its author at a crucial juncture, when Dylan is finding the voice that speaks to and for a generation. Over several pages of the volume, Bob Dylan discusses all the books which influenced him as a very young man. The list of books which he read is astonishing: Rousseau, Ovid and Poe; the Greek classics, Lord Byron, Shelley and Balzac; Dostoevsky and Dickens; the Inferno.
"The books were something," Dylan writes. "They were really something." One can see how his early saturated lyrics must have come out of this intense period
of reading.
On Tuesday evening October 9th Galway City Writer in Residence, the poet Michael O'Loughlin, will be present in the City Library to introduce and talk about Dylan's favourite books and their possible influence on his lyrics and music.

Gerry Hanberry, poet and musician, will be present to sing a few Bob Dylan songs and will examine some of Dylan's references to Tacitus, Gogol, Dickens, Machiavelli, Dante, Ovid and Howl.

Galway City Library
Tuesday 9th October 2007
7.00pm

Adventures in Reading

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:


A Sultan in Palermo, by Tariq Ali; Verso
Ali's characters are masters at negotiating their complex society whether as Muslims in a Christian regime, peasants in a feudal system, or women in a patriarchal world. Their power, though contingent and temporary, comes from solidarity - it is by banding together and considering the common good that Ali's characters are able to effect meaningful, if short-lived, change. In the end, this novel speaks to the power of human ingenuity to find non-violent means to subvert the hegemonic order. -Liz Winer




Landscapes of War, by Juan Goytisolo; City Lights
For over three decades now, Juan Goytisolo's war against conformity has been a beautiful and courageous thing to behold. Whereas Spanish readers can read Goytisolo regularly, the provincial character of contemporary Anglophone culture deprives us of his observations on Islamic culture and society. Goytisolo's reflections make disturbing reading. They could not be further removed from the banal homilies on the plight of particular peoples that grace the Western media in times of crisis and are forgotten. (Intro.)





Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac, by Carol Ann Harris; Chicago Review Press
This is a fascinating look at the mega-success of Fleetwood Mac in the mid-1970s, after the former British blues band recorded the laid-back rock songs of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks that made the album Rumours one of the most popular of its era. Buckingham was arguably the most talented member of the group, as well as its most unstable. At once arrogant and insecure, he was lost in a haze of substance abuse and ego in 1977 when the band's magnum opus, Rumours, made them international megastars.

Books which help define the dignity of a working life.

The writer Harriet Rubin in a wonderful piece in the New York Times on July 21st 2007 quoted the chairman of an international company as saying

“Poets are our original systems thinkers. They look at our most complex environments and they reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand.”

Harriet Rubin is a great believer in the power of words and language. On her website she tells us that her favourite sources of information are not business books at all but histories, biographies, works of fiction and poetry. “The reason is that the language is richer, more evocative. When language is richer, I believe, one’s mind opens in new ways.”

The chairman of an international company she is writing about is Dr. Sidney Harman, Executive Chairman of Harman International Industries.

Harriet Rubin reports that Dr. Harman could never could find a poet who was willing to be a manager. So Mr. Harman became his own de facto poet, quoting from his volumes of Shakespeare, Tennyson, and the poetry he found in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Camus’ Stranger to help him define the dignity of working life — a poetry he made real in his worker-friendly factories.

“Mr. Harman reads books the way writers write books, methodically over time. For two years Mr. Harman would take down from the shelf The City of God by E. L. Doctorow read the novel slowly, return it to the shelves, and then take it down again for his next trip. ‘Almost everything I have read has been useful to me — science, poetry, politics, novels. I have a lifelong interest in epistemology and learning. My books have helped me develop a way of thinking critically in business and in golf — a fabulous metaphor for the most interesting stuff in life. My library is full of things I might go back to.’ ”

Harriet Rubin’s most recent book is Dante in Love. She tells us that the journey through The Divine Comedy may seem daunting, but the rewards are well-worth the struggle. The goal is to become a writer and poet, with Dante as our guide. He has already made the journey, and he's left behind is his guidebook, The Divine Comedy.

Adventures in reading

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

An Iliad, by Alessandro Baricco, Vintage
One of the greatest stories of all time is briskly retold. Baricco tells of his realization that the poem "as it has come down to us was unreadable." Well, yes and no. But there's much to be said for Baricco's skilful distillation of Homer into a trim narrative. The story is told as a kind of oral history spoken (from beyond the grave) by the combatants, and by their sorrowing women. Both celebration and condemnation of war, this Iliad manages to speak to yet another generation that needs desperately to hear its message. (Kirkus Reviews).

Three Trios: Poems, by Judith Hall, Northwestern U.P
Brings together, for the first time, translations of two ancient texts. The Apocryphal Book of Judith may be the more familiar one. Less familiar may be the possibility that hidden within this narrative is another older sequence, a pagan one. It is possible that the Book of Judith was such a disguised book of common pagan prayer. Three Trios is composed out of this audacious possibility. "Each book of Judith Hall's has been astonishing, the writing like that of no one else; elegant, resonant, a bright surfacing from the depths of language, experience, and imagination, all conveyed with a sure, original artistry." --W. S. Merwin

Always Astonished: selected prose by Fernando Pessoa, City Lights
"The awakening of a city, whether in fog or otherwise, is always for me more appealing than the radiant dawn over country meadows. A sunrise in the country makes me feel good: a sunrise in the city makes me feel better than good. Yes, because the great hope it possesses brings me, like all hopes, that faraway and bitterly-longed-for taste of not being reality. Morning in the country exists; morning in the city promises. One makes for life; the other makes for thought. And I will always feel, like those great damned souls, that thinking is worth more than living." (Extract)

Books and Reading and Empowerment and the rock star Nick Cave

"As I grew older and entered my teens, my now-deceased father decided it was time to pass on to his son certain information. Here I was thirteen years old and he would usher me into his study, lock the door and begin reciting great bloody slabs of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, or the murder scene from Crime and Punishment, or whole chapters form Nabokov’s Lolita. My father would wave his arms about, and I could tell by the way it empowered him that he felt he was passing on forbidden knowledge. I would sit and listen to all these mad words pouring from his mouth, happy to be invited into his strange, anomalous world. I would watch my father lose himself in the outpourings of his own creative energy and although he would have laughed at this notion, what my father was finding in his beloved literature was God. Literature elevated him, tore him from normality, lifted him out of the mediocre, and brought him closer to the divine essence of things. I had no notion of that then, but I did see somewhere that art had the power to insulate me form the mundanity of the world, to protect me. So I set about writing some really bad poems."
(The Flesh Made Word, by Nick Cave for BBC Radio 3, July 1996)

Adventures in Reading

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

Good Blonde and Others, by Jack Kerouac
Beat doesn't mean tired, or bushed, so much as it means 'beato' the Italian for beatific: to be in a state of beatitude, like St. Francis, trying to love all life, trying to be utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart. How can this be done in our mad modern world of multiplicities and millions? By practising a little solitude, going off by oneself once in a while to store up that most precious of golds: the vibrations of sincerity. ( Jack Kerouac, who coined the phrase 'the beat generation.')

The Disappearance: A Novella and Stories, by Ilan Stavans
These provocative stories read almost like newspaper dispatches, conveying facts and stopping short of analysis. Stavans believes that "writing isn't about finding any words to express myself but about finding the right words. There is a plethora of examples to be found in the local bookstore - good ideas that have been poorly articulated. I'm allergic to verbal excess. What can be said at all can be said clearly. Complex ideas can be expressed with simplicity. This conviction of mine may be the result of my love affair with dictionaries. It may be a reaction to the obtuseness of academia, where language conceals rather than reveals meaning."

Dreams of Dreams and the Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa, by Antonio Tabucchi
Tabucchi has imagined the dreams of twenty artists whom he loved from Pessoa to Caravaggio, from Goya to Garcia Lorca. Elaborately imagined, this book is a mini-catalogue of great artists' dreams and also the author's interpretation of the last three days in the life of Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Tabucchi's rich language and his magical-realist charm tinge the volume with a visionary glow. A lovely little book that keeps ringing in your head long after you've finished it.

Man Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist

Nicola Barker, Anne Enright, Mohsin Hamid, Lloyd Jones, Ian McEwan and Indra Sinha are the six authors shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2007.

The six shortlisted books were chosen from a longlist of 13 and are:

• Darkmans by Nicola Barker (4th Estate)
• The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
• Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction panel commented on each of the titles as follows:

Darkmans – an ambitious and energetic contemporary ghost story with a vibrant cast of characters, set in modern day Ashford.
The Gathering – a very accomplished and dramatic novel of family relationships and personal breakdown in Ireland and England.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – this is a subtle and thoughtful examination of the raw meat of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, and one man’s personal response to working within it.
Mister Pip – Mr Pip is well-rooted in dramatic and frightening events in Papua New Guinea, with vivid characters and a fascinating literary frame of reference.
On Chesil Beach – a tight and beautifully written narrative which sustains high emotional tension throughout.
Animal’s People – Indra Sinha is an engaged campaigning novelist. The book clearly draws from real life events in Bhopal, but is a sustained imaginative creation in its own right, with intriguing parallel use of new media.

The winner of The Man Booker Prize 2007 will be announced on 16 October 2007

Clifden Arts Week 30th Anniversary

The 30th Clifden Community Arts Week takes place from 20 - 30 September. As part of the festival the following events will be taking place in Clifden Library.

On the 20th of September a Reading by poets Kevin Higgins and John Walsh.
Kevin’s first collection ‘The Boy With No Face’ was published by Salmon in 2005 -‘a master of the grin and bearing it’. John’s collection, ‘Johnny Tell Them’ (Guildhall Press) ‘gives us an insight into the twists and turns of his personal journey’. They are joint organisers of the successful North Beach Poetry nights. Admission €5. Clifden Library, 1:00pm

21 September
Reading by poet Enda Coyle-Greene
Enda Coyle-Greene lives in County Dublin. Published widely in journals and anthologies, her work has also been broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and Lyric FM. Her first collection, Snow Negatives, received the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 2006 and is forthcoming in 2007 from Daedalus Press.
Clifden Library, 1:00pm

Reading by poets Gerardo Gambolini & Jorge Fondebrider
Poetry reading by two visiting Argentinian poets Gerardo Gambolini and Jorge Fondebrider. Gerardo has published three collections of poetry and is currently translating the stories of John Mc Gahern while Jorge has published many collections and, also with Gerardo, the first bilingual anthology of contemporary Irish poetry published in a Spanish speaking country. The reading will be chaired by Joseph Woods, director Poetry Ireland. Arts Week would like to thank Joe and Poetry Ireland for their help over many years.Admission €5
Clifden Library, 4:00pm

22nd September
Children’s Workshop: Members of the highly acclaimed Fidget Feet Company will conduct this year’s Children’s Workshop.
Clifden Library, 12:00pm

24th September
Reading with poets Eamon Grennan & Sean Lysaght
Eamon’s latest book is ‘The Quick of it’ and a new collection, ‘Out of Breath’ is forthcoming. Sean Lysaght, whose latest collection ‘The Mouth of a River’ was published in 2007 will also read. The readings will be introduced by Michael Coady. Admission: €5. Clifden Library, 1:00pm

25th September
Honouring the centenary of the birth of sculptor Seamus Murphy (1907-1975): Padraig Trehy gives a talk on the making of his acclaimed documentary ‘Words into Stones’ about the artist. Sponsored by Chris Shannahan. Admission: €5.Clifden Library, 1:00pm

Talk by Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill
Marking the centenary of Marconi’s wireless station at Derrygimla - a talk by writer and local historian Kathlenn Villiers-Tuthill. Admission: €5.Clifden Library, 4:00pm

26th of September
Reading with poets Nessa O’Mahoney, Michael Coady and Tony Curtis
Nessa has just completed her Ph.D. in creative writing at the University of Wales, Bangor. Her collection ‘Trapping a Ghost’ was published in 2005. Tony is a popular Irish poet. He has published seven collections and his latest book is ‘The Well in the Rain’. He is a member of Aosdana. Michael Coady is a long time associate of Arts Week and also a member of Aosdana. He has received a number of awards in Ireland and the U.S.A. His most recent book of poetry, photographs and prose is ‘One Another’. Sponsored by Mary Downe. Admission: €5.
Clifden Library, 1:00pm

Talk by Jim Carney
To mark the centenary of his birth: Louis MacNeice and his Connemara roots, a talk by journalist and broadcaster Jim Carney. Admission: €5.
Clifden Library, 4:30pm

27th of September
Reading with Letterfrack Writers’ Group
Clifden Library, 1:00pm