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.
‘The book is better’ is a well rehearsed librarian’s film review. Well usually the book is better, but in this case, ‘Jaws’ is the original summer block busting film and a watershed (pardon the pun) in cinema history. You can’t turn on the television these days without ‘Jaws’ or the sequels being screened on one station or another. Everybody can quote the lines, wear the t-shirt, and play the theme tune on the piano. But what of the book from which it originated?To some extent the success of the film resulted in the book being eclipsed and latterly somewhat dismissed. But the novel sold 5.5 million copies in USA by the time the film was even released. Written by Peter Benchley, published in February 1974, ‘Jaws’ spent 44 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The film rights to the book were bought before it was even published, with the film directed by Steven Spielberg shot and released shortly after in June 1975. So it’s got to be worth a read right?FilmThe characters are recognisable from the film, but differ in many regards. Similarly the story varies on major areas of plotline, not least who survives to tell the tale, and the fate of the fish. The story is pretty much akin to the film - a great white shark is dining on bathers off the coast of Amity a seaside resort town, Long Island, New York.The local police chief tries to temporarily close the beaches to keep bathers from harm, and figure a way to deal with the shark. He finds there are more slippery fish to deal with on land than the one in the water. Particularly in wrangling corrupt Mayor Vaughan and his selectmen who want to retain those tourist dollars and keep the beaches open for financial health of Amity.The chief must hire Quint and Hooper’s expertise, leave his wife and kids, and take to the seas to deal with his community’s pest control issues. So far so familiar, but there are key differences which make this an edgier take than the film, and may for some, be unpalatable.Chief Martin Brody born and bred in Amity is a blue collar cop, wary of the well healed out of towners who invade the island every summer. He is a man of duty and pragmatism in service to his community. Quite a lot of the films lighter moments are channelled through Spielberg’s chief Brody. But Benchley’s Brody is sullen; he wears his working class roots in earnest, his police stripes with great pride, and his authority with dedication. Benchley’s Brody is wracked with self doubt and insecurities about his worth and potency. He is driven by a will to prove his value and protect those around him.BookBook version Ellen Brody is a different fish to the film version Ellen Brody. Benchley’s Ellen Body is to an extent a trophy wife. She’s a step up for Brody from his own people. She’s missing her life before marriage and children. She fears she settled for Martin Brody. Her need to feel vital sees her turn sexual predator, her flirtations leading to subsequent infidelity that will either drive her away from or back into her husband’s arms. She’s not the Spielbergian archetypical Mom and certainly won’t be offering anyone coffee ice-cream.Mayor Larry Vaughan is willing to sacrifice consumers to keep beaches and business open. Exploiting the coastal environment in which he exists, he maintains devotion to the almighty dollar. Benchley doesn’t give Vaughan a moment of humanity – he’s not a crazy anchor motifed suit wearing caricature. There is no ‘My kids were on that beach too’ moment of redemption here. Vaughan is the villain. In fact it transpires in the book Vaughan is actually protecting a real estate deal with mafia investment. To Mayor Vaughan the shark is an economic problem, not a public health issue. Benchley’s Mayor Larry Vaughan is the manifestation of rogue materialism. Vaughan eventually cuts his losses and does a runner.Ichthyologist Matt Hooper is a charmless man. He is a rich graduate, slick, egotistical and unlikable. He is a man of science, but conversely not a man of reason. Potentially he may be able to control nature, but as we see he cannot even curb his own desires. His dalliance with another man’s wife, in satisfying his lust and realising his blinkered selfish will, is a harbinger of wherein lies his fate. His scientific equipment and college earned education are all there is between him and the shark. There is no bottle of red and white wine, this Hooper doesn’t care about anyone except himself.Quint is a professional shark hunter the skipper on a small vessel called the Orca. Quint is the indigenous sage. He knows things about his local environment. He has learned through experience not books. Quint though is driven by his will to conquer and master all he surveys. He uses instinct and brute force. Quint in the book is particularly cruel and nihilistic- a harpoon too far in the books case. (I have to say at this point that Robert Shaw’s ‘Indianapolis Speech’ is the best scene in ‘Jaws’ bar none, maybe even the best film monologue ever. ‘So eleven hundred men went in the water, 316 men came out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb’. But Benchley didn’t write it).The shark is dispassionate, a cold eyed monster, with no anthropomorphic traits, its motivation is pure survival. The shark can be read as anti-capitalist allegory, the shark as a basic threat to profit that must be eradicated. Or the shark may represent the unpredictable force/ mans primal fear of nature. Or some sort of castration symbolism and comment on modern manhood. Or whatever you’re having with your chips and mushy peas. The shark in the book ‘Jaws’ doesn’t have the same fate as the film.The shark hunting in the book is a matter of livelihood, and prestige. The relationship between the men on the Orca is tense and terse – ego reigns. They do not get along and seem to really hate each other. There is no bonhomie, no joining together. They are all motivated by separate drives. If they just put aside ego and operated as a collective, for the greater good, they might stand a better chance of survival. But with this individualism - who lives, who dies is unpredictable – can they redeem themselves?Book versus filmSo why bother with the book if the film is so good? Well the book is a solid page turner and a great summer read. It is a rawer take on all scores than the film. ‘Jaws’ can be read in COVID-19 days as a teaching on the pandemic, the economy, on political mistrust. A basic indiscriminate force of nature threatens death upon a society already beset by problems. Politicians protect the economy ahead of public health. Business as usual reigns in the hopes the contagion will kill only a few in its lifetime and burn itself out.Alright it may be regarded as a dime store read but it actually has a literary lineage. ‘Jaws’ greatly resembles Henrik Ibsen’s play ‘An Enemy of the People’ in which the mayor of a small spa town copes with a water contamination that might drive away the tourists and the town’s chance of survival. The comparisons to Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ too are inevitable, with the pursuit at all costs of a large fish. And it’s not so far-fetched as you’d imagine either - the book is reminiscent of the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, where fatalities numbered 4, and 1 seriously injured by a bull shark.‘What had once seemed shallow and tedious now loomed in memory like paradise’, Peter Benchley.Submitted by Sleeve Notes Drumcondra Library.
Now that you have seen almost every movie and TV show ever made you have probably realised that it is no coincidence that great books, in the right hands, often make great movies and television.From Normal People, and Game of Thrones, to The Lord of the Rings and The Godfather, now is a great time to read the original book versions.
For the love of libraries: The Library Book by Susan Orlean
On the morning of 29 April 1986 a fire broke out in Los Angeles Public Library. It became the biggest library fire in American history: it raged for more than seven hours, destroying more than 400,000 books and badly damaging the building. The people of Los Angeles were distraught because they loved their library.When Susan Orlean, a writer and journalist with ‘The New Yorker,’ moved to Los Angeles in 2011, this crime was still unresolved: how did the fire start? Was it set deliberately and if so, why would someone want to burn down a library?Orlean was fascinated and launched her own investigation into the fire. She reviews the police files, studies the physics of fire and the investigation of arson while at the same time referencing the history of library fires. She re-examines the case of the potential suspect and talks about her own love of libraries, merging true crime with history, biography and investigative journalism.What she discovers is truly fascinating but ‘The Library Book’ is much more than just a crime story: it is a declaration of love for libraries.In trying to understand the fire and its impact on Los Angeles, Orlean delves into the world of libraries. She writes about all the things libraries do, the people who use them and the library staff who work there, introducing the reader to this ‘intricate machine, a contraption of whirring gears’ and the role it plays in the lives of people and communities.To me, this book feels like a warm hug for library lovers everywhere. I absolutely loved it. So if you are like me and love libraries and want to find more about them, this is the book for you.Submitted by Charlotte from Kevin Street LibraryAccess 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.
Is “Spark Joy, an Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying” really a life changer or just another fashion trend? Is the ‘queen of tidying’ deserving of her title? Marie Kondo’s chuck it if it doesn’t spark joy method of tidying is a great way to tackle the often tumultuous job of tidying providing a guide to the decision making necessary in choosing the things you really want to bring with you into the future.Kondo has made tidying her life’s work. She did a thesis on tidying in college and went on to become a successful author and business woman with her own American TV series. The KonMari method of tidying is based on a simple philosophy of love it or chuck it but she has never said it was easy. Taking a journey with Kondo involves commitment, visualisation and discarding along with master classes in folding, sorting and storing. Tidying by category and sticking with the work order and the criterion promises to bring about a new order not just in the home but across life. The book is beautifully illustrated with simple but effective childlike drawings.By following the KonMari method of tidying a value system is developed that simply cannot exist with accumulating clutter and therefore becomes a plan for life. Kondo helps people hone into their feelings to identify the items that ‘spark joy’ breeding confidence in deciding what they should keep and what to let go. She believes that for successful tidying a transfer of concentration from what you want to get rid of to what you want to keep is necessary. The result is a positive mindset and a perspective which when applied regularly in the home transfers across to all life allowing a new setting and a joyful future.As a self professed tidying freak Kondo found that restoring order in the home was a way to relieve anxiety. In these Covid times as we are spending more time then ever in the home and garden we have an opportunity to look around us and take care of our possessions. Many have taken to tidying with gusto but it can be overwhelming. Kondo explains tidying as the act of self confrontation achieved by facing the mess we have created head on allowing for the restoration of order. As mess and clutter are often indicators of unhappiness, practising the KonMari method of tidying can result in a change in outlook.Kondo, always respectful of the individual, insists that a person should never be forced to tidy if they don’t wish to.There is a deeply spiritual dimension to Kondo’s simple philosophy on tidying. She approaches her work with a grace and reverence rarely seen in the western world. Her driving force is her wish to share her message and bring joy into peoples lives, a laudable ambition. There is a history in Japanese culture of treating things with special care. Kondo often startles people when she goes on her knees to thank the house before embarking on a tidying spree. She recommends thanking each item individually for service rendered before discarding referring to the Japanese tradition of treating things with reverence acknowledging “the pathos of things.”She believes that by taking the time to sense an entity’s essence and it’s transience we can connect and be touched by nature, art and the lives of others. Reconnecting with the world is empowering and stimulates empathy enabling us to be kinder to ourselves and each other. In the western world we live in a consumer based society which often ceases to recognise our basic needs as social beings for a happy life resulting in high anxiety, a growing phenomena of our age. Perhaps if we put our houses in order we’ll arrive at a place where we can care for the things and the people who serve us well not only in this time of pandemic but in the everyday.Marie Kondo has earned her title of ‘the queen of tidying’ and her claim that adherence to the KonMari system of tidying as life changing is true. Submitted by Liz, Pearse Street Library.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.
Robin Stevens is an American-born English woman author of children's fiction, best known for her Murder Most Unladylike series. She has spoken of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction as an influence on her work.First Class Murder Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are holidaying on the famous Orient Express. No sooner have the girls boarded the train than it becomes clear that all the passengers in first class have something to hide. Then out of the blue, a piercing scream can be heard from one of the cabins, and a wealthy heiress is found dead. The heiress’s cabin was locked from the inside, the killer has vanished and the girls are called into action! However, the girls aren’t the only detectives onboard. There is tough competition from the other sleuths, who are just as determined to crack the case and save the day!Top Marks For MurderDaisy and Hazel are back at Deepdean, just in time for the schools fiftieth anniversary. Plans are being made for a weekend of celebrations and everyone is looking forward to the weekend’s festivities. However, trouble is brewing. In the girls’ absence, Deepdean has changed. Daisy has lost her title to a new girl-and many of Hazel and Daisy’s old allies have become their sworn enemies! Then, to make matters worse, the girls find themselves witnesses to a ghastly crime, in the woods beside Deepdean. Certain that the crime is linked to the school’s anniversary, the girl’s find themselves in a race against time to save their beloved school. Top Marks For Murder is the perfect book to keep kids occupied this summer. A great read for junior sleuths everywhere. I really enjoyed it!Death in the spotlight No sooner are Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells back from their recent adventures in Hong Kong than their detective skills are called upon once more. Hazel and Daisy are just about to embark on a brand new challenge: acting! But it’s not long after the duo arrive at London’s Rue Theatre that disaster strikes! Jealousy, threats and horrible pranks quickly spiral out of control- then a body is found. There’s a killer on the loose. Now the girls must solve the case before the murder strikes again.Arsenic for TeaHazel Wong and Daisy Wells are spending the holidays at Fallingford, Daisy’s family home. It’s Daisy’s birthday and Daisy’s mother is throwing a tea party to celebrate. The whole family is invited, even eccentric Aunt Saskia and dashing Uncle Felix. No sooner have the guests arrived than Daisy realises the party isn’t for her at all. Naturally, Daisy is angry. Then, one of the guests takes seriously ill. Things don’t add up- and the girls soon realise that everything points to poison! To make matters worse, no one can leave Fallingford because of the heavy storm. With no help in sight, the Detective Society must do everything they can do uncover the truth. They must be careful though, because no one is quite who they seem.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.
This book describes a study of the culture and influences which affect our individual sense of self and worth. With a focus on family, education, religious and work organisations the author provides an analysis of how the ethos within each system contributes to our wholly developing the various aspects of self -physical, social, emotional, creative, intellectual and spiritual.According to the author an imbalance in “contemporary society which worships at the altar of success and lauds “ ‘having’ rather than ‘being’ ” has lead us to lose “conscious sight of our true nature”. Drawing on his extensive career as a psychologist he outlines a path (via a greater examination of self) back to a re-discovery or re-birth of our authentic selves. This journey is a necessary one he believes in order to reach our greatest potential as individuals and as a society.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.Submitted by Mairead from the relief staff panel.
Charles Dickens, one of the most popular and accessible novelists died 150 years ago in June 1870. His novels are still popular and they have been adapted for television and cinema. They have been turned into popular musicals on stage and screen. Many novelists have acknowledged his influence and expressed admiration for his novels.At the age of twelve he was sent to work in a blacking factory by his affectionate but feckless parents. From these unpromising beginnings, he rose to scale all the social and literary heights, entirely through his own efforts. When he died, the world mourned, and he was buried - against his wishes - in Westminster Abbey. Yet the brilliance concealed a divided character: a republican, he disliked America; sentimental about the family in his writings, he took up passionately with a young actress; usually generous, he cut off his impecunious children.Dickens created an array of memorable characters - Miss Havisham dressed in her wedding finery every day since she was jilted at the altar in Great Expectations. The contrasting characters Mr. Micawber and Uriah Heep in David Copperfield. In David Copperfield, the novel he described as his favorite child, Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure. One of the most swiftly moving and unified of Charles Dickens’s great novels, Oliver Twist is also famous for its re-creation through the splendidly realized figures of Fagin, Nancy, the Artful Dodger, and the evil Bill Sikes of the vast London underworld of pickpockets, thieves, prostitutes, and abandoned children. Victorian critics took Dickens to task for rendering this world in such a compelling, believable way, but readers over the last 150 years have delivered an alternative judgment by making this story of the orphaned Oliver Twist one of its author’s most loved works.His novels were originally published in instalments in weekly or monthly magazines. This is the reason there are some dramatic “cliffhanger” scenes which made the reader want to know what happened in the next instalment. This helps to make them “pageturners” for modern readers. (It also allowed Dickens to get feedback from his readers about what they thought of his stories and characters before he had finished his novel!)There are 24 ebook and eaudiobook copies of Dickens’ novels available on Borrowbox and you will also find there an excellent biography of the author by Claire Tomalin.Claire Tomalin is the award-winning author of eight highly acclaimed biographies, including: The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft; Shelley and His World; Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life; The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens; Mrs Jordan's Profession; Jane Austen: A Life; Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self; Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man and, most recently, Charles Dickens: A Life. A former literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times, she is married to the playwright and novelist Michael Frayn.Submitted by Philip in Finglas Library.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.
Sebastian Barry is an Irish novelist, playwright, and poet, he was named laureate for Irish Fiction 2019-2021. He is noted for his literary writing style and is one of Ireland’s finest writers. His book Secret Scripture won the 2008 Costa Book of the year. He also won the Costa Book of the year in 2017 for his book, Days without End, becoming the first novelist to win the prestigious prize twice. Each of his novels imagines and expands the history of one of the author's ancestors and he mines his colourful family history for stories.Secret Scripture by Sebastian BarryThis is the story of Roseanne McNulty who is nearing her hundredth birthday in the mental hospital where she was committed as a young woman. The hospital is about to close and her psychiatrist finds himself intrigued by the story of his elderly patient. This book charts her life. The author writes about loss, broken promises, and failed hopes. This is a beautiful and disturbing book to read. It’s an astonishing story told with sadness and grace and illuminates the history of the skeleton in the cupboard, it is an incredibly moving and emotional story of love, grief, religion, and life in Ireland. This is a novel about the damage done by men to women and also to themselves. The act of telling her story is redemptive.The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian BarryThis is a story of a man with good intentions that have some disastrous consequences. He is exiled from a country that rejects him but which he loves nonetheless. Eneas McNulty lives his life in the shadow of the sentence haunted by his memories and by strong ties to a place that he is barred from forever. He is forced to flee Sligo, his friends and family. This is a heartbreaking story about the gentle Eneas McNulty caught up in the deadly politics that came with Irish Independence. Barry does a great job of creating the atmosphere of the time following the end of World War One. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty recounts the history of a lost man. The author vividly creates Eneas’s warm humanity and his tenderness is powerfully portrayed and casts a gentle light on the hardship around him.Days Without End by Sebastian BarryWinner of the Costa Book Award this story is about two young Irish men leaving the great Irish famine behind them to travel to America. Thomas McNulty takes us through American history with his best friend, and partner, John Cole - joining the army to make a living. They experience hardship together where hunger and no shelter is hard to bear but they survive and grow deeper in love. It’s a violent lyrical vision of America in the making. Sebastian Barry has created complex individuals who find themselves caught up in the horrors of war. It’s a masterpiece of atmosphere and language It’s a novel you will not forget. There are two main threads in this novel: the love story between Thomas and John, and America.Submitted by Geraldine in Drumcondra Library.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.
In this episode of the DCLA podcast, Michelle Read reads the first three stories featured in The Long Gaze Back. Michelle Read, is an actor and voice artist and an advocate of reading aloud for adults. She reads ‘The Purple Jar’ by Maria Edgeworth; ‘Frank's Resolve’ by Charlotte Riddell; ‘Poisson d'Avril’ by Somerville and Ross.
Every year there are approximately 9500 people reported missing in Ireland. Most of these cases are solved. Some aren’t. Unfortunately, at the end of every calendar year, some people become part of the long-term missing persons statistic.Since 1950, there have been more than 870 long-term missing persons cases in the Republic of Ireland. Many of these cases are not suspicious, but sadly, some are. RTÉ journalist Barry Cummins has spent much of his career following some of the most high profile missing persons cases in Ireland. In this new and updated edition of his book, Barry Cummins examines some of the most high profile missing persons cases in the state, including cases of women who were abducted and murdered during the 1990’s under strangely similar circumstances. He examines the possibility that a serial killer may have committed some of these crimes, has managed to evade justice and might still me at large. Could they strike again?Missing by Barry Cummins is an authoritative and well-researched account into some of the most high profile abductions and murders in the state.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