March Read: Cootehill Library Reading Group

The Hand that First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell

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Winner of the Costa Novel Award for 2010.

A gorgeously written story of love and motherhood, this is a tour de force from one of our best loved novelists. When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Elina struggles to reconcile the demands of motherhood with sense of herself as an artist, and Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood that don't tally with his parents' version of events. As Ted begins to search for answers, an extraordinary portrait of two women is revealed, separated by fifty years, but connected in ways that neither could ever have expected.

March Read - Cavan Library Reading Group

The pianist: by Wladyslay Szpilman

Thee extraordinary story of one man's survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 / with extracts from the diary of Wilm Hosenfeld 

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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.

March Read: Bailiebrorough Reading Group

This month we are revisiting a Classic! 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.

This weeks recommended read!

The Terrace by Maria Duffy

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Nestled in the tangled streets of Dublin city lies St Enda's Terrace, a small row of terraced houses. Everybody knows that the residents of St Enda's look out for each other and it isn't long before the little terrace comes to the attention of a New York production company making a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Ireland to be aired on St Patrick's Day. They want to film a real, old-fashioned Dublin community and St Enda's is the perfect location. But then, two days before the camera crews arrive, five of the residents of St Enda's win one million euro in the lotto. Trouble is that nobody can find the ticket ...Almost overnight, a once perfect community is brought to its knees. Secrets are discovered, lies exposed and a sequence of unfortunate events ensures that Enda's will never be the same again. Would you want to risk losing everything that's dear to you to become a millionaire? One thing is for sure - it seems that somebody in Enda's would!

February Read - Cootehill Reading Group

This month our Cootehill Group are discussing the works of Catherine Dunne. Why don't you join them. Click here to browse and reserve Catherine's work on our Catalogue!

Date for your diaries - We are being joined by Catherine Dunne on International Women's Day, 8th March. Find out more...

New to our Local and Reference Collections

The Great Famine is possibly the most pivotal event/experience in modern Irish history. Its global reach and implications cannot be underestimated. In terms of mortality, it is now widely accepted that over a million people perished between the years 1845-1852 and at least one million and a quarter fled the country, the great majority to North America, some to Australia and a significant minority ((0.3 million) to British cities. Ireland had been afflicted by famine before the events of the 1840s; however the Great Famine is marked by both its absolute scale and its longevity. It is also better remembered because it was the most recent and best documented famine. 

This atlas comprising over fifty individual chapters and case studies will provide readers with a broad range of perspectives and relevant insights into this tragic event. The atlas begins by acknowledging the impossibility of adequately representing the Great Famine or any major world famine. Yet by exploring a number of themes from a reconstruction of pre-Famine Ireland onwards to an exploration of present-day modes of remembering; by the use of over 150 highly original computer generated parish maps of population decline, social transformation and other key themes between the census years 1841 and 1851: and through the use of poetry, contemporary paintings and accounts, illustrations and modern photography, what this atlas seeks to a achieve is a greater understanding of the event and its impact and legacy. This atlas seeks to try and bear witness to the thousands and thousands of people who died and are buried in mass Famine pits or in fields and ditches, with little or nothing to remind us of their going. 

The centrality of the Famine workhouse as a place of destitution is also examined in depth. Likewise the atlas seeks to represent and understand the conditions and experiences of the many thousands who emigrated from Ireland in those desperate years. Included are case studies of famine emigrants in cities such as Liverpool, Glasgow, New York and Toronto. A central concern of the atlas is to seek to understand why a famine of this scale should occur in a nineteenth-century European country, albeit a country which was subject to imperial rule. In addition, it seeks to reveal in detail the working-out and varying consequences of the Famine across the island. To this end, apart from presenting an overall island-wide picture, Famine experiences and patterns will be presented separately for the four provinces. These provincial explorations will be accompanied by intimate case studies of conditions in particular localities across the provinces. The atlas also seeks to situate the Great Irish Famine in the context of a number of world famines. To achieve these goals and understandings, the atlas includes contributions from a wide range of scholars who are experts in their fields - from the arts, folklore, geography, history, archaeology, Irish and English languages and literatures.

This fantastic new book is available for public viewing in Johnston Central Library, Cootehill Library and Bailieborough Library. 

This Week's Recommended Read

The Time Keeper by  Mitch Albom

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From the author who's inspired millions worldwide with books like Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes his most imaginative novel yet, The Time Keeper--a compelling fable about the first man on earth to count the hours. The man who became Father Time. In Mitch Albom's newest work of fiction, the inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time. He returns to our world--now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began--and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so. Told in Albom's signature spare, evocative prose, this remarkably original tale will inspire readers everywhere to reconsider their own notions of time, how they spend it and how precious it truly is.