February / March Read - Cootehill Reading Group

“If You Were Me” by Sheila O’Flanagan

On a sultry summer evening in Seville, anything can happen...

Carlotta O'Keefe is happily engaged, and the wedding plans are coming together. She's clear about her future path, both personally and in her busy career. Maybe Chris doesn't make her heart race every time she sees him, but you can't have that feeling for ever. Can you?

Then, on a trip to Seville, Carlotta runs into Luke Evans. Luke broke her heart so long ago she'd almost convinced herself she'd forgotten him. Now, he's not that boy any more, but an attractive and intriguing man. And he can explain everything that happened way back when. 

Suddenly Carlotta's not so sure of anything anymore. Except that what she decides now will shape the rest of her life...

February's Read: Bailieborough Reading Group

Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh

The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.

February's Read: Belturbet Reading Group

Sleeping Dogs by Mark O’Sullivan 

Gangland boss Harry Larkin has taken three bullets and lies dying in a Dublin hospital. Amongst his delusional ravings to Senior Ward Nurse Eveleen Morgan, one name stands out: Detective Inspector Leo Woods. Harry's message for his old 'friend' Leo: find my daughter Whitney. Leo is drawn into the murky world of the Larkin family, a hell he thought he had escaped from thirty years earlier. With the help of Detective Sergeant Helen Troy, his search for Whitney turns up more questions than answers, more darkness than light. Who shot Harry Larkin? What secrets are the Larkins hiding? Is there a connection with the young hit-and-run victim lying beside Harry in the intensive care unit? Why is a Libyan intern at the hospital taking such an interest? And is Leo himself compromised by his past affair with Harry's wife, Liz? While Woods and Troy struggle with the truth about a family built on deception, the search for Whitney becomes increasingly desperate. Leo is looking to the future, and a tentative relationship with Eveleen - but the past won't let him go that easily.

February's Read - Cavan Reading Group

David Nicholls - Two Titles - "One Day” and “Us”

'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.' He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.' 15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY. Award: Winner 2010 Galaxy Book of the Year.

Douglas Petersen may be mild mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that, against all odds, seduces beautiful Connie into a second date.. and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades after their relationship first blossomed in London, they live more or less happily in the suburbs with thier moody seventeen-year-old son, Albie. Then Connie tells Douglas that she thinks she wants a divorce. The timing couldn't be worse. Hoping to encourage her son's artistic interests, Connie has planned a month-long tour of European Capitals, a chance to experience the world's greatest works of art as a family, and she can't bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead with the original plan is for the best, anyway? Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage, and may even help him to bond with Albie.

Long-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.