We pay tribute to Miss Read!

Dora Jessie Saint MBE (17 April 1913 – 7 April 2012), née Shafe, best known by the pen name Miss Read, was an English novelist, by profession a schoolmistress. Her pseudonym was derived from her mother's maiden name. She is best known for two series of novels set in the British countryside - the Fairacre novels and the Thrush Green novels.

Click here to go to our catalogue where you can read (again) the Miss Read classics!

The Terrifying True Story

Trafficked: the terrifying true story of a British girl forced into the Sex Trade by Sophie Hayes

He'd been her friend for years. He said he loved her. Then she realised she didn't know him at all! When Sophie went to stay for a few days with Kas in Italy, he was kind and caring, as he'd always been. But three days after she arrived, everything changed. His eyes were cold as he described the things he expected her to do 'for love'. But soon Sophie's bewilderment turned to fear as he punched and shouted at her and threatened to kill her adored younger brothers if she didn't do exactly as she was told ; to sell her body on the streets to pay off Kas's debts. Terrified of Kas, the police and the men whose pleasures she was forced to satisfy, Sophie worked seven nights a week for the next six months on the dark and lonely streets of a town in northern Italy.

Masterchef fever at Cavan Library

This book features everything you need to become a MasterChef in minutes. "Everyday MasterChef" takes all the inspiration from the hit BBC1 show and turns it into recipes for cooking in the real world. John Torode himself dons the white apron to show you how you can adapt favourite recipes from the show into delicious simple meals you can make in minutes including instant spice rubs, simple sauces and impressive spun-sugar crowns. With tips and tricks, step-by-step MasterClasses on essential kitchen skills and meal ideas that work for every family fridge or store cupboard, you can enjoy the wisdom of the MasterChef professionals in one accessible book. Everyone loves the drama of the show, but no one wants a drama in their kitchen so for recipes that you can enjoy impressing your friends with time after time, "Everyday MasterChef" is the cookery book that you need on your shelf.

2011 Costa Book of the Year

Pure by Andrew Miller

A year of bones, of grave-dirt, relentless work. Of mummified corpses and chanting priests. A year of rape, suicide, sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love...A year unlike any other he has lived. Deep in the heart of Paris, its oldest cemetery is, by 1785, overflowing, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it. At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.

Something New, Something Fun!!

Check out some new titles hitting our shelves. Click on the book images to go to our catalogue and request a copy!

The woman who sent to bed for a year by Sue Townsend

The day her gifted twins leave home for university, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, "Stop! I want to get off." Finally, this is her chance. Perhaps she will be able to think. Her husband Dr. Brian Beaver, an astronomer who divides his time between gazing at the expanding universe, an unsatisfactory eight-year-old affair with his colleague Titania and mooching in his shed, is not happy. Who will cook dinner? Eva, he complains, is either having a breakdown or taking attention-seeking to new heights. But word of Eva's refusal to get out of bed quickly spreads. Alexander the dreadlocked white-van man arrives to help Eva dispose of all her clothes and possessions and bring her tea and toast. Legions of fans are writing to her or gathering in the street to catch a glimpse of this 'angel'. Her mother Ruby is unsympathetic: 'She'd soon get out of bed if her arse was on fire.' And though the world keeps intruding, it is from the confines of her bed that Eva at last begins to understand freedom.

The best exotic marigold hotel by Deborah Moggach
When Ravi Kapoor, an over-worked London doctor, is driven beyond endurance by his obnoxious father-in-law, he asks his wife: 'Can't we just send him away somewhere? Somewhere far, far away.' His prayer seems to have been answered when his entrepreneurial cousin, Sonny, sets up a retirement home, recreating a lost corner of England in a converted guesthouse in Bangalore. Travel and set-up are inexpensive, staff willing and plentiful - and the British pensioners can enjoy the hot weather and take mango juice with their gin. The "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is a brilliant comedy of manners, mixing acute observation with a deeper message about how different cultures cope in the modern world.

April Read: Bailieborough Reading Group

Wladyslay Szpilman

The pianist

Originally published in Poland in 1945 but suppressed, this memoir of survival in the Warsaw Ghetto joins the ranks of Holocaust memoirs notable as much for their literary value as for their historical significance. The author brings realism and clarity to the banalities of ghetto life, especially the eerie normalcy of some social relations amid catastrophic upheaval.

April Read: Cootehill Reading Group

Susan McKay

Bear in mind these dead

Susan McKay’s book explores the difficult aftermath of the violence for families, friends and communities. By interviewing those who loved the missing and the dead, as well as some who narrowly survived, McKay gives a voice to those who are too often overlooked in the political histories. She has found grief and rage, as well as forgiveness. Some long to forget, others cannot rest until they find out the truth. Some demand a measure of justice. They face formidable odds, for there are those with strong interests in keeping parts of the history of the Troubles in the dark. The devolved government in Northern Ireland is working towards a new future for all the people. This book is a moving and important contribution to that process. Only by confronting the brutality of the past can there be any hope that the dead may finally be laid to rest.

April Read: Cavan Reading Group

Jennifer Johnston

Shadowstory

A compelling novel of complicated love, from one of Ireland's greatest living writers. It is the Second World War, and tragedy strikes many families in Ireland. But it is also a thrilling time in which to be a child and Polly, spending months at her grandparents' house by the sea, barely notices the adults' grief and their efforts to escape the tyranny of religion and family expectation. However, in time Polly too will have a secret. No one else knows the location of her beloved uncle, Sam, barely older than Polly herself, who is meant to be in Cambridge but is dreaming of Communist Cuba, while his decimated family fears losing another son. And, as Polly shyly approaches womanhood, her love for Sam turns into something more explosive.