Summer Stars runs from Tues 4 June to Sat 31 August. Get Reading! Now that school is over you can still spark your imagination, join in activities and take part in our exciting Summer Stars challenge.
Three book recommendations from our colleagues that may whet the appetite in these strange days. Grapple with James Joyce, or dip in and out. I'm doing that! What have you got to lose? A ghost story that is good any time of the year. Sure some of us are having Jaffa Cakes for breakfast. And a novel that teaches us about the importance of human relationships. We all understand that now with social distancing and lockdown. Just some ideas to be getting on with. All you need is your Dublin City Library card and PIN and off you go...Miss walking through the streets of Dublin? Our colleague Eileen from Dolphin’s Barn Library asks: why not try Ulysses?I was reminded of it when Stephen King recently tweeted “Well, I finally got around to ULYSSES, the James Joyce joint”. So… before you roll your eyes and reach for the reins of your literary high horse, King can write, loves libraries and dogs, and is sceptical about the current federal power. Back to Ulysses, King’s description is probably the most accurate: if you know the streets of Dublin, you will feel very at home with this book; and if you’re Irish, you will completely relate to the lingo in the dialogue. I read it in my late twenties, I didn’t “get” all of it back then but when I’d finished, I felt like getting a t-shirt printed saying “I’ve read Ulysses”, like people who get t-shirts printed listing all the marathons they’ve run. Look, you’ve got the time. It will be like taking a walk through Dublin (which you can’t do at the moment!). You might not finish it or understand all of it, but at least you will have tried. And in the words of the great Samuel Beckett (another sometimes hard to “get” Irish writer): “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Enjoy!How Fear Departed From the Long GalleryThis short ghost story by E.F. Benson is a little gem and comes recommended by our colleague Lucy in Rathmines Library. It’s a Christmas tale and so not exactly seasonal, but it’s one than can be appreciated any time of the year. It begins bright and funny, but then changes tone. It is poignant with a confident use of language to describe the different reactions of the Peveril family to the ghosts. Benson can be severe on his characters if they digress. His tone is cool but he really makes you care and wonder how you would have measured up had you been one of his characters. E. F. Benson was the writer of the Mapp and Lucia series.In Search of Silence“What seems to be coming at you is really coming from you” – Rabindranath Tagore; India’s first Nobel laureate. This quote is taken from this book and neatly summarises the kernel of it. Bringing the reader on an inward and outward journey, the author reflects on and processes her life before and after the death of her husband by suicide. In a thought-provoking, poetic and witty manner, she deals with issues such as grief, mental health, identity, living alone, womanhood, ancestral heritage and beliefs. Describing her travels to places off the beaten track in India, Nepal and New Zealand, her journalistic eye is apparent with the close attention to detail given. This same attention, with the findings of various sociological studies also discussed, is simultaneously turned on her inner landscape as she finds her way back to “the fire inside” for love and living. In its essence, this book is a meditation on the significance of the relationship with both oneself and others.It come highly recommended by our colleague Mairead from the relief staff panel.Watch our how to video on Borrowbox.Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN.Members of other library authorities will need to access BorrowBox using a different link.
BorrowBox has a great range of all kinds of different eBooks and eAudiobooks. Jessica from Cabra library is going to be picking out some poetry for us to listen to. All you need to access BorrowBox is your library card and PIN. There is no better way to experience poetry and the power of language and words than hearing it spoken aloud.Here are some of her favourite poetry eAudiobooks:From Shakespeare, with Love, The best of the sonnets by William Shakespeare, Read by David Tennant and Juliet Stevenson.She is Fierce Brave, bold and beautiful poems by women, Collected, by Ana Sampson Read by Adjoa Andoh.Gerard Manley Hopkins (Selected Poems) by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Read by Jeremy Northam.Emily Dickinson (Selected Poems) by Emily Dickinson. Read by Teresa Gallagher.Or perhaps you prefer to consume poetry on your own terms, with your eyes rather than your ears? There are plenty of fabulous collections, anthologies and histories to browse and borrow. Warning: You may find yourself whispering/chanting the words of something that particularly catches your eye or takes your fancy! Here is just a small selection of some of the eBooks available to borrow:Dancing By The Light of The Moon, over 250 poems to read, relish and recite, by Gyles Brandreth.Poetry for Millennials, A collection of wise and wonderful words for every #Millennial Problem, Edited by Tamsin King.Dog Poems by the world’s greatest poets.She Must Be Mad by Charly Cox.BorrowboxAccess eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN. Watch our how to video on Borrowbox. Members of other library authorities will need to log in using a different link.
Time to unravel - online knitting and crochet resources
Take a moment to have a look at all our great online knitting and crochet resources. Delve in for concise tutorials, how-to guides from experts and designers, and beautiful patterns for clothes, toys and accessories. You’ll find projects suitable for people of all ages and abilities, from knit novices to old hands. Our library e-resources are full of options to get you started, and best of all, they’re free. Submitted by Betty from Cabra Library. Betty has a number of crochet projects on the go, and is currently reading ‘Why Women Read Fiction’ by Helen Taylor.Our library e-resources are full of options to get you started, and best of all, they’re free..Universal ClassIf you want to learn how to knit, then Universal Class has just the course for you. Knitting 101: This course is designed to teach beginners the basics of knitting but it is also useful to those knitters that might need a refresher class. Eleven lessons provide history, discussion of the tools, how to read and understand patterns and color charts, and of course how to start knitting. This course will finish up with some simple knitting projects to practice and complete; access Universal Class online, register with your library card number and email address..PressReader.For a wonder selection of knitting and crochet magazines, check out Press Reader.• Simply Crochet• Simply Knitting• The Knitter• Crochet!• Creative Knitting• Crochet gifts for all occasionsRegister for Press Reader, select Categories, and then Crafts & Hobbies.RBdigitalFor even more magazines with all the patterns, hints, tips and expert guidance that you could want, check out the following titles from RB Digital.• Knitting & Crochet• The Knitter - Lace Collection• Knitscene• 150 Thrifty Knits• Interweave Crochet• 50 Baby KnitsRegister for RB Digital magazines. Watch our how to video here.BorrowboxAnd last but not least, BorrowBox has some great titles for you as well. Just place a reserve on the titles you want, and you’ll get a notification when it’s ready for you to borrow.• Ultimate Crochet Bible• Ultimate Knitting Bible• Beginner’s Guide to Colorwork Knitting• Designer Knit Home• Crochet in a Day: 42 Fast and Fun Projects Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN. Watch our how to video on Borrowbox. Members of other library authorities will need to log in using a different link.Happy knitting!!!
Some more recommended reads on BorrowBox, this time from our colleague Brian.Common literary examples of nonfiction include expository, argumentative, functional, and opinion pieces; essays on art or literature; biographies; memoirs; journalism; and historical, scientific, technical, or economic writings (including electronic ones).The titles listed below are available on BorrowBox; see more on how to access BorrowBox at the bottom of this post.Limmy: Surprisingly Down To Earth and Very Funny. This autobiography from Scottish comedian Brian Limond (aka Limmy) is an extremely candid, hilarious look at his life, dealing with his adolescence in working class Glasgow, along with issues such as mental health, drug use, initial success and the peaks and troughs of life as a comedian. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. Part memoir, part training log, celebrated writer Haruki Murukami documents his training for the 2005 New York City Marathon, while reminiscing on his memories of writing and athletics.What I loved about this book is how Murukami successfully interconnects both the worlds of writing and athletics and vividly evokes the feelings and experiences that both these world can bring to us. David Bowie: The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Melville House/David Bowie. This collection of interviews with David Bowie (including his last) discusses everything from the creative process, and musical influences, to his spirituality, drug use and sexuality. The book gives frank and personal insights into how Bowie changed creatively and personally over a five-decade period. If you’re a huge Bowie fan, like me, or just have a passing interest, this is an essential read.Accessing BorrowBoxWatch our how-to video on Borrowbox. Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN.Members of other library authorities will need to access BorrowBox using a different link.
Fantasy and Science-Fiction eBooks and eAudiobooks
For many of us, it may not be easy to wind-down if currently at home or self-isolating and the current global situation can be a little grim and worrying; so why not take the opportunity to indulge in some escapism and get away from it all with the wonderful selection of Fantasy & Science-Fiction eBooks and eAudiobooks available through our online resources with BorrowBox.Relax and let Dublin City Libraries help you escape (if only for a few hours) to myriad, diverse worlds of mystery, magic, miracles, monsters and mayhem!To help you get going, here is a selection of 10 otherworldly titles to try.Please note that you will need your Dublin City library card number and PIN and also to download the BorrowBox app. Watch our how-to video on Borrowbox.The Painted Man Peter V. BrettThe initial installment of the five volume Demon Cycle from New York author Peter V. Brett showcases a world devastated by the Corelings, mysterious, violent elemental entities that nightly arise to ravage and destroy once the sun sets. Humankind has been reduced to shrinking, isolated enclaves of people sheltering desperately behind the failing protection of runic wards but these fragile magical barriers are beginning to fade and the future looks hopeless unless a way can be found to fight back. The Demon Cycle has enjoyed phenomenal international success and Peter V. Brett's work has sold millions of copies and been translated into twenty-three languages.The Beauty of the Wolf Wray DelaneyWray Delaney is the nom de plume of internationally renowned, multi-award winning children's writer Sally Gardner whose title Maggot Moon was the recipient of the Carnegie Medal in 2013. Beauty and the Wolf is a role-reversing, lavish, gothic retelling of Beauty and the Beast, for adults, which challenges our received perceptions of gender roles and beauty and is set in an Elizabethan England where magical curses are real and where appearances can be very deceiving. This is Gardner's second adult novel following her debut title An Almond for a Parrot.The Sky People Terry Goodkind Before they disappeared the Sky People mandated on the Sun People one unbreakable commandment, one tenet that must never be broken; not to take life. Although it has left them at the mercy of rival tribes, who loot and pillage with impunity, unhindered by such a constraint, the Sun People have kept their word and exercised pacifism, until now. Raging River, Priestess of her Tribe, fought back and the son of the chieftain of the Wolf People tribe lies dead at her hands. Facing the extirpation of her kin because of her actions, Raging River must do the unthinkable and find the long-missing Sky People. This is the Sci-Fi debut from internationally best selling American fantasy novelist Terry Goodkind whose sixteen Sword of Truth novels have earned him countless legions of fantasy-fiction fans across the globe.The Little Snake A.L. KennedyThis novella is a sparkling, modern day fable of greed, death, war and friendship whose chief protagonists are Mary, a child growing up in a city of 'sad, tiny houses of the squashed-in people' and 'tall, sparkling buildings full of crocodiles and meadows' and her friendship with her 'immensely handsome' friend Lanmo, a talking golden snake. Touching and frequently deeply humorous and wry The Little Snake is one of the most unusual, moving and fabulous (in every sense of the term) pleasures you will encounter. It springs from the mind of A.L. Kennedy a Scottish comedian, author and academic whose work has received huge critical acclaim and garnered numerous prestigious awards. The Three-Body Problem Cixin LiuA Chinese radio-scientist transmits an interstellar message and eight years later receives a reply. A mysterious group of 'gamers' has embedded themselves in virtual reality to play a game that spans aeons and always ends in destruction. A fabulously wealthy environmentalist creates a ruthless, faction-riven, secret society that spans the globe. A nano-tech expert seeks to find out why renowned scientists are dying in incomprehensible circumstances. Across the globe the nations secretly rally to avert an event 450 years in their future that will spell disaster for all of humanity but which cannot be prevented. An imaginative tour-de-force on an epic scale which defies the imagination The Three-Body Problem (the first installment in a trilogy) by Cixin Liu was the first ever recipient of the Hugo Award by a Chinese author.Spinning Silver Naomi NovikWhen a young woman tries to salvage over her father's failing moneylending business she finds that she can 'turn silver into gold' but her success comes at a price as she comes to the attention of an other-worldly monarch who holds her fast to her boast. If she can increase his riches she will have his hand in marriage, if she cannot then she will die. Very loosely a re-imagining of Rumpelstiltskin, Spinning Silver is a enchanting tale, expanded from a prior short story penned by Naomi Novik. Spinning Silver was the winner of the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, as was the author's previous smash hit, Uprooted.The Book of M Peng ShepherdAcross the globe people's shadows are disappearing and in their absence the populace begin to succumb to amnesia. Although, in isolation, they have managed to avoid this fate for two years Max discovers one day that her shadow too has now been lost. Fearing her impending erosion of identity and frightened that the erasure will imperil her husband, Orlando, Max secretly flees. Desperate to find her, Orlando embarks on a dangerous journey to track her down aided by an array of recorded messages she left behind; but will he find answers in New Orleans, or is the woman he loves gone forever even if he can locate her? This debut novel is magnificent near-future dystopia concerning the power of memory, identity and love.The Tiger and the Wolf Adrian Tchaikovsky In this first installment of the Echoes of the Fall series we are introduced to Maniye a girl torn between two worlds; that of her father's Wind Runner Wolf Tribe but she also holds within her the heritage of her mother's people, the Tigers, as a result of the rape of her mother while held as a prisoner of war. In this bronze age fantasy milieu people can 'step' or channel the totem animal spirits of their tribal deities and Maniye must flee the clutches of her cruel fathers plans to gain power over both tribes and make her way in a world where clan is set against clan. Whilst she tries to reconcile the warring animal spirits within, she faces danger and betrayal at every turn. Meanwhile, there are storm clouds gathering to the south. Bestselling fantasy author Adrian Tchaikovsky has been a conferee of both the British Fantasy Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Somewhat interestingly, given the animalistic elements of this trilogy, he has a background in zoology.Shadowless Hasan Al ToptasHasan Al Toptas is one of Turkeys most acclaimed postmodern authors and a winner of the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize, the Cankaya Literature Prize among many others. Shadowless is a surreal, dreamlike, kaleidoscopic enigma which recounts the mysterious disappearances of a local girl, Guvercin, and a barber, Nuri, from a rural Anatolian village. The latter, it appears has been translocated, by means unknown, to a distant city where he has little recollection of how he got there. Is magic at play? Has some kind of evil eye been placed on the village? Are people being abducted and will they return? Shadowless is the second of the author's novels to have been translated into English, in this instance, by Maureen Freely and John Angliss.Golden State Ben H. WintersIn the near future territory of Golden State (roughly analogous to contemporary California) Laszlo Ratesic is an investigator working for the Speculative Service with an innate talent for discerning lies who is called upon to examine the death of a worker in a rooftop fall ,while aided by a promising, enthusiastic junior, Aysa Paige. Abilities such as his are highly valued in the state as wilful falsehood and untruth there is a crime, punished with great severity. In a society where almost every detail of everyday life is ubiquitously monitored, recorded and surveilled their suspicions are aroused when they discover the deceased's Day Book (the continuous chronicle of their daily lives) may have been tampered with. Winters has created a hugely detailed and persuasive dystopia which neither shies away from exploring what happens when a recognised good, honesty, is taken way beyond logical extremes nor detracts from a compelling story that functions as a classic detective mystery.
Recommended on BorrowBox - Wilding by Isabella Tree..
Please read on for a listening recommendation from our colleague Eileen. One of the many perks of working in a library is that it’s like being in a constant book club, all kinds of books are at hand, books that you would never dream of buying or looking at. I have discovered so many books by just holding and looking through what our borrowers have returned. As George Martin wrote in one of the Game of Thrones titles, a man who reads lives a thousand lives. I saw this book when it was returned to the library and I liked the cover (yes, we all judge a book by its cover, it’s been proven that it makes it easier to choose what you like). So I flicked through it and I liked the pictures (yes I’m very shallow) of deer and flowers and wildlife. I thought I’d bring it home as I was working on a drawing of flowers, and when I started reading it, I was immediately sucked into a family’s life of trying to sustain a working farm.As I progressed my way through the pages, I noticed how beautifully it was written, and so I looked up the author and discovered that she has some highly recommended travel books. So I continued with this book which blends scientific facts and figures with graceful insights into nature, animals and the very soil, which creates and feeds us. This is a must read for any hobbyist gardener, bird watcher, animal lover, any professional botanist, farmer or geologist. Or if you just want a change from fiction, try this non-fiction book. I really can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s an exquisite odyssey through the very ground we walk on and our part in preserving and respecting it.It’s available on BorrowBox and is ideal to listen to while gardening!Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN.Members of other library authorities will need to access BorrowBox using a different link.
The e-resource featured in this week’s blog is World Book Online. A suite of three websites from the publishers of the famous World Book encyclopedias. Supplying you with accurate information at age appropriate levels in a controlled safe learning environment.From pre-primary to secondary school – from the wobblers and toddlers to tweenies – World Book provides fast and accurate information at every level in an immersive learning environment. The information is reliable, age-appropriate, and easy to read and comprehend.· Early World of Learning for ages 3 to 6 years: this is a resource for preschoolers and children in early primary education. Developed with experts on early childhood education, it offers rich resources designed for the younger child.(An example of a webpage on World Book Online)· Kids for ages 7 to 11 years: this is a premier reference website developed especially for young students. It features an intuitive user interface, thousands of easy-to-read articles packed with stunning illustrations, videos, interactive maps, and a wealth of engaging games and activities.(Example of the search function on World Book Online)· Student for ages 12 to 15 years: this contains numerous tools to engage users in 21st-century education and blended-learning practices.(Further example of the search function on World Book Online)And best of all, it’s free with your Dublin City Public Libraries membership card.See World Book Online for more details.