April's Read: Cootehill Reading Group

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

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One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.

While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning.

April's Read: Bailieborough Reading Group

Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall

When an innocent trip to see the play Peter Pan gives Kitty's four brothers an excuse to deny her access to her much-loved nieces, she finds herself in a skewed, vividly colored world where children become emblems of hope, longing, and grief. Still reeling from the loss of her own child that never was, Kitty is suddenly made shockingly aware of the real reason for her pervasive sense of non-existence. Suddenly, her family's oddness, the secrets of her mother’s life and death, and the disappearance of her sister come into a startling new focus—one that leaves Kitty struggling to find own identity.

April's Read - Cavan Library Reading Group

Astray by Emma Donoghue

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The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Emma Donoghue's stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters, lovers old and new. They are gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross other borders too: those of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito or under duress. With rich historical detail, the celebrated author of Room takes us from puritan Massachusetts to revolutionary New Jersey, antebellum Louisiana to the Toronto highway, lighting up four centuries of wanderings that have profound echoes in the present. Astray offers us a surprising and moving history for restless times. 

"The Hunt" was short-listed for the 2012 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.

March Read - Cavan Reading Group

Tenderwire by Claire Kilroy

Eva Tyne leaves her home in Ireland for New York to play in the New Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra. She collapses after her solo debut, checks herself out of the hospital prematurely, and embarks on a chaotic and dangerous odyssey. She falls in love with a mysterious man and becomes obsessed with a rare violin of dubious provenance, for which she must pay in cash. But consumed by obsession, her pursuit of the violin becomes a nightmare of paranoia: Haunted by the ghost of her father, racked with jealousy, and unsure whom she can trust, Eva is pitched into a desperate psychological conundrum as her desires threaten to destroy her.

The Nameless Dead by Brian McGilloway

'You can't investigate the baby, Inspector. It's the law.' Declan Cleary's body has never been found, but everyone believes he was killed for informing on a friend over thirty years ago. Now the Commission for Location of Victims' Remains is following a tip-off that he was buried on the small isle of Islandmore, in the middle of the River Foyle. Instead, the dig uncovers a baby's skeleton, and it doesn't look like death by natural causes. But evidence revealed by the Commission's activities cannot lead to prosecution. Inspector Devlin is torn. He has no desire to resurrect the violent divisions of the recent past. Neither can he let a suspected murderer go unpunished. Now the secret is out, more deaths follow. Devlin must trust his conscience even when that puts those closest to him at terrible risk ...

The Baileys Women's Prize For Fiction long list is announced!

The annual book award for fiction celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women  throughout the world.

The Long List 2014

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah

Margaret Atwood - MaddAddam

Suzanne Berne –  The Dogs of Littlefield

Fatima Bhutto - The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

Claire Cameron –  The Bear

Lea Carpenter - Eleven Days

M.J. Carter - The Strangler Vine

Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries

Deborah Kay Davies - Reasons She Goes to the Woods

Elizabeth Gilbert - The Signature of All Things

Hannah Kent - Burial Rites

Rachel Kushner - The Flamethrowers

Jhumpa Lahiri - The Lowland

Audrey Magee - The Undertaking

Eimear McBride - A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing

Charlotte Mendelson - Almost English

Anna Quindlen - Still Life with Bread Crumbs

Elizabeth Strout - The Burgess Boys

Donna Tartt - The Goldfinch

Evie Wyld - All The Birds, Singing

100 Books on Tour

Our “100 Books with a Difference” project has captured national interest. We are delighted to announce that our project is on the programme for the Ennis Book Club Festival, following a well received presentation at the Kildare Reader’s Festival in October.

The Ennis literary weekend, celebrating its eighth year, is a festival of national significance and is aimed specifically at readers and readers groups. A very sociable event, book club readers from all over Ireland get together to talk about and celebrate the world of books.
Authors and speakers in this year’s programme include Martin Sixsmith, Dervla Murphy, Donal Ryan, Rachael English, Michael Murphy, D J Carey and Niall MacMonagle. Cavan Library’s Josephine Brady and Teresa Treacy will take to the stage in the Temple Gate Hotel on Saturday 8th March at 5.30pm to promote the project.
On Sunday 9th March at 12.15pm, again in Temple Gate Hotel, Clare Youth Theatre will perform “O to the Hours” a literary adaptation inspired by Cavan’s 100 Books project.
Why not join us at the Festival. Read all about it on ennisbookclubfestival.com.

Dialogues for Literature

Join us for a “Dialogues through Literature” event on Saturday 5th April at Enniskillen Library.

What’s planned?

Meet Crime Writer Brian McGilloway and discuss his writing with readers from other counties, north and south. Enjoy a Buffet lunch and a guided tour of Enniskillen Castle and Museum. A bus will leave Johnston Central Library at 9am on Saturday 5th April. Pick up points at Belturbet and Derrylin may be provided, subject to demand.

Interested? Places are limited so early booking is essential. A non refundable deposit of €10 is payable on booking. You can book at the following libraries from Wednesday 5th March

• Johnston Central Library - Kathleen Brady on 049 4378500
• Bailieborough Library - Marleen Kennedy on 042 9665779
• Cootehill Library - Sinead McArdle 049 5559873
• Ballyconnell Library - Mary Prior at 049 9526844