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 Essex Serpent' brings the reader gently but inexorably into a fervent narrative. What is the Essex Serpent? Is it real? A scientific wonder from an earlier age, or is it a legend? A buried secret churning upwards? In this world, women and men do not meet in any clichéd way, but find shared purpose in the mystery surrounding the sightings. Sarah Perry gives us no easy answers and we learn a great deal about some of the medical advances of the time, and see what it might have meant to be subjected to them and survive. Meantime the serpent spins its self onto drawings, hides under pillows, represents the Leviathan from the Bible, and refuses to be pinned down. Twisty and atmospheric, with a couple of gruesome scenes, our colleague Lucy enjoyed this book and she hopes that you will too.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.
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.
Everything is basically on hold for the time being. But as anyone who's currently working from home has realised by now, it's good to keep some habits alive, to ensure some sense of normality. This blog is brought to you by Ronan, avid sport's fan turned narrator. Missing sport? Then borrow one of the many sports titles available on audio book or ebook from BorrowBox on our website.Get your fix here.The following are some recommendations that may interest you:Seabiscuit by Laura HillenbrandSeabiscuit was not expected to be a successful race horse. However, with the help of a visionary owner, a brilliant trainer and a down-on-his luck jockey, Seabiscuit started winning races and became the most famous horse in the world. The author tells the story of the many ups and downs on the way to success, the famous rivalry with War Admiral and she also details the world of US horseracing in the 1930s. On the Seventh Day Thirty Years of Great Sports Writing from the Sunday Independent edited by John GreeneThis is a great book to dip in and out of. The chosen articles cover a wide range of sports. It includes Paul Kimmage’s coverage of the 2002 World Cup campaign and David Walsh’s interview with Aidan O’Brien. Other writers that are featured in the collection include Eamon Dunphy, Joe Brolly, Cliona Foley and Mick Doyle. It’s a celebration of some of Ireland’s greatest sporting successes as well as the great sports writing that told the stories.Game Changer by Cora StauntonIn her autobiography, Cora tells the story of her remarkable career, from becoming the highest-scoring forward in the history of Ladies Gaelic Football to moving to Australia to play for a team in Sydney. She also recounts how the game helped her cope after the death of her mother and about the challenges that she and her teammates experience in the world of female sport. Ali A Life by Jonathan EigSometimes, the problem with wanting to read about someone as famous as Muhammad Ali is trying to choose among the many, many books written about him. This biography, by Jonathan Eig, is one of the more recent books to be written about Ali’s life and is based on a lot of new research including over 500 interviews. This is a much-praised book about Ali’s astonishing life and career.Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing by Bob Mortimer and Paul WhitehouseBob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse have been friends for 30 years. Not only have they shared similar careers in comedy, they have both suffered from heart disease too. To help Bob recuperate from heart surgery, Paul encouraged him to go fishing with him. They have fished together for many years since then and this book accompanies their BBC television series. You don’t have to have watched it to enjoy this book. There are chapters on how to fish, recipe collections and also about their friendship, how they battled heart disease and much more. Written mostly as a conversation between the two, this is a book about life, friendship and the joys of fishing. Into the Silence by Wade DavisThis book tells the story of the many British expeditions to Everest in the 1920s, including the 1924 attempt by Mallory and Irvine. The author explains the motivations of the climbers. Also examined is the cultural importance of climbing the mountain by focusing on British imperialism in the wake of the First World War. This is a fascinating book.The Munich Disaster the true story of the fatal 1958 Air crash by Stephen MorrinBy February 1958, Manchester United were the best football team in England. On their flight home from a European Cup match, the plane crashed while attempting to take off from Munich. 23 passengers and crew were killed, including 8 of the Manchester United team. One the players who died was Liam Whelan from Dublin. The author tells the story of how manager Matt Busby built the wonderful team that sadly became victims of the devasting crash. He also focuses on the aftermath of the crash and the story of James Thain, the captain of the plane and his struggle to clear his name.
Liz Buckley here reviews If Walls Could Talk; An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley, available as an eBook from Borrowbox. If on loan, you can reserve a copy.I read this book at the start of the Corona virus pandemic in Ireland. I was really fascinated to learn of the dire consequences that ignorance, myth and misinformation had on world health down through the ages. Poor sanitation in the home and at local level was behind several pandemics throughout history and the spread of germs from person to person or animal to person is an ongoing battle and often misunderstood.If Walls Could Talk; An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley reflects how the basic practices of hygiene good or bad have always meant life or death for the individual. The saddest place and most rife of germs and disease was at local level and the author’s portrayal of the birthing bed proves the risky business of childbirth and accounts for the outrageous death rate of mother and child over time.The author demonstrates the dark subject of infection and disease very well throughout her book. Worsley is an outstanding historian with an eye for detail and a gifted storyteller who can draw the reader in. The book is colourful with many excellent illustrations and her wry sense of humour make what is essentially a history lesson, uniquely entertaining.Some may think the subject matter “heavy duty” but the book is successful in that it manages to prevail as a light-hearted and humorous look at the history of the home, comparing Tudor, Georgian, Victorian, and homes of the present day. She captivates life from both ends of the spectrum describing the homes of the rich and the lives of the people who worked in them. She explores societal changes in behaviour through the prism view of a functioning household and she often chooses the Big House to begin with, and then introduces the reader to the lives of the servants.The history of the bedroom and bathroom or privy is explored with hilarious revelations as lots of people pass through for all kind of reasons other than sleep, sex or simply to do one’s business and compares public forwardness to today’s great and urgent call for privacy. Toilets and toilet roll, nickers and drawers, house fashions and utensils are examined to give the reader a real feel of the era and you can share some of the bygone practices with younger members of your family who will be astounded and unbelieving. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and if you have seen the BBC series of the same title you will hear the quirky voice of the author as you read and appreciate her wry yet factual account of how we lived in times gone by.
Science fiction provides the perfect outlet to escape from everyday life, nothing beats picking up a novel and being transported into a new world. Some of these are classics that you will know but others are excellent works that may have been flying under the radar. Add the unfamiliar ones to your TBR list.Though science fiction is truly out of this world, the stories in these books always connect to the present day. The story lines are often metaphors used to critique society. The book cover opening this blog is from Philip K. Dick, he was an American writer known for his work in science fiction. He produced 44 published novels and approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime.George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century. Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. A dystopian novel where our culture has become the victim of government surveillance and public manipulation.Altered Carbon is set in a future where interstellar travel is done by “sleeving” one’s consciousness into new bodies, the story follows a private investigator whose past collides with his present as he attempts to solve a rich man’s murder. A dark and gritty cyberpunk experience.So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-thug and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldn't be surprised. Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society. It is also Netflix series.Brave New World imagines a future where people are divided into castes chosen before birth and kept docile through the use of drugs. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress. Heavily relying on references to Shakespeare, it offers scathing criticisms of capitalism, utopian ideals and conformity.War and pollution have taken their toll on Earth, leaving it very nearly uninhabitable. Those who can afford to do so have fled off-world, leaving what’s left to the not so fortunate, like Rick Deckard. Rick, who makes his living eliminating renegade androids, is prompted to question his work, and even his own identity, during a particularly challenging assignment. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an amazing novel, and perhaps one of the most approachable of Dick’s many works.In Ender's Game, an alien threat is on the horizon, ready to strike. And if humanity is to be defended, the government must create the greatest military commander in history.The brilliant young Ender Wiggin is their last hope. But first he must survive the rigours of a brutal military training program - to prove that he can be the leader of all leaders.On 12 October 1979 the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor (and Earth) was made available to humanity - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. For sheer absurdist audacity, imagination, bombast, and pure fun, The Hitchhiker’s Guide is tough to beat. It’s an utterly irreverent and wildly imaginative adventure that simultaneously skewers and builds on the tropes and confines of traditional sci-fi. It’s biting satire and pure absurdist humor, all shot through with a vein of cynicism and a surprisingly firm internal logic. Basically, there’s nothing quite like The Hitchhiker’s Guide and you really should read it.Andy Weir’s The Martian is the sort of novel that grips a reader from its very sentence. With his debut novel, Weir deftly balanced a truly thrilling story of survival with laugh-out-loud doses of black humor and real, cutting edge science. Weir tells the story of Mark Watney, a fictional NASA astronaut stranded on Mars, and his difficult mission to save himself from potential doom in the harsh Red Planet environment. It was made into a movie starring Matt Damon and released in 2015.William Gibson revolutionised science fiction in his 1984 debut Neuromancer. The writer who gave us the matrix and coined the term 'cyberspace' produced a first novel that won the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards, and lit the fuse on the Cyberpunk movement. One of the seminal works of cyberpunk, Neuromancer taps into the counterculture movements and excitement about computers found in the 1980s to tell a story of a world where hackers and cyborgs work together to perform daring heists against massive corporations.The Time Machine is a must-read for any science-fiction fan. In this classic, the time-traveling protagonist is propelled by his machine to the distant year of 802,701 AD. To his horror, he finds only a decaying Earth that is being gradually swallowed by the Sun, where two strange species— the delicate Eloi and the fierce, subterranean Morlocks—inhabit an eerie dystopia.Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a French author and a pioneer of the science-fiction genre. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, this thrilling adventure tale by the 'Father of Science Fiction', three men embark on an epic journey under the sea with the mysterious Captain Nemo aboard his submarine the Nautilus. Over the course of their fantastical voyage, they encounter the lost city of Atlantis, the South Pole and the corals of the Red Sea, and must battle countless adversaries both human and monstrous. Verne's triumphant work of the imagination shows the limitless possibilities of science and the dark depths of the human mind.A description like “Inception meets True Detective” should be enough to pique any science fiction fan's curiosity. The Gone World, follows a woman who is a member of the elite Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Set in the 1990s, Shannon Moss is trying to solve the mystery of a grisly murder of a Navy SEAL's family and is flung into possible versions of the future to try and find answers. This 2018 novel by Tom Sweterlitsch is truly unlike anything else out there in the genre right now.This is Sue Burke’s first novel and a first-contact story about humanity meeting an alien race and trying to coexist with it on a planet that they’re attempting to colonize. It’s the first part of a two-book series. It's a duology worth following as Semiosis was a finalist for several prizes for science fiction novels. Escaping conflict on Earth, an idealistic group of settlers arrive on a distant planet – Pax – with plans for a perfect society. The world they discover is rich with life, but this is not the Eden they were hoping for. The plants on Pax are smart – smart enough to domesticate, and even slaughter, its many extraordinary animals.
Welcome to the ninth entry of our blog series 'Lost in the Stacks' - with recommendations by Dublin City Libraries staff exploring our first-rate catalogue, links provided, nudging you towards making an inspired selection. Short story collections usually get short shrift but this is not the case today in this quirky blog written by staff member, Brian, from our Relief Panel. Are you sick and tired of short stories parading the underbelly of life? – if so, try cocktails by the pool with John Cheever. As a bonus you’ll get the wonderfully wicked rant ‘The Worm In The Apple’ and in ‘The Swimmer’ get a brilliant description of Burt Lancaster’s torso.Celebrated opening lines of novels include “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know” from Albert Camus’ ‘The Outsider’ and from ‘Murphy’ by Beckett “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new”. Perhaps less celebrated but my personal favourite begins the short story ‘An Interest In Life’ (from ‘The Collected Stories Of Grace Paley’) – “My husband gave me a broom one Christmas”. What follows is a story opening both perfectly put together and hilarious.I recently re-read the story ‘The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood’ from ‘Island : collected stories’ by Alistair MacLeod. I was beguiled again by MacLeod’s huge sense of a small place, by his divination of the familial ties that bind us and by his plainspeak about the unspoken.On listening to ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ recently I thought to myself that, with no offence to Morrissey and the boys, I’d prefer to be re-reading a paragraph from the short story ‘ Smorgasbord’ (collection ‘The Night In Question’) by Tobias Wolff that ends with the line “I let the light go out”. I don’t know where to start going on about this collection so I won’t. Just read.
A staff member reviews our most borrowed books from the Crimes and Misdemeanours section, one of our most popular sections, and we include links to the catalogue perhaps nudging you towards making an inspired selection. These books can also be found in our Crimes and misdemeanours book displays. If you'd like to borrow any of the books discussed below, simply click on title to be taken to the reservation page. You will need your library card and PIN to request the book.The Alphabet Murders - Lars Schütz No.53☆After a body of a brutally murdered man with an “A” tattooed on him is found in a wildlife park, criminal profilers Jan Grall and Rabea Wyler are thrown into a brutal game of cat and mouse. Later, more people are found with letters tattooed on their skin - it's obvious that this serial killer loves his ABCs and won’t stop till his set is complete.I liked the concept of this story. I thought it was inventive, and I hoped the story reflected that too, but I was sorely disappointed to find out that it wasn’t. Killing is my Business - Adam Christopher No.43 ☆This book is a sequel to “Made to Kill” by Adam Christopher. It's about an alternate universe set in the 1960’s, LA Noir style. Or robot LA Noir style. This is about the last robot left in working order in the world - our protagonist Raymond Electromatic, a former private investigator turned hitman. I liked the mashup of Sci Fi and Noir. If you’re a fan of either one of these genres, this is a good book for you. Murder at Greysbridge - Andrea Carter No.34 ☆Solicitor Benedicta O’ Keefe has been invited to her friend Leah’s wedding, at the newly restored Greysbridge Hotel - the perfect paradise with a private beach and a stunningly beautiful pier. But the festivities are cut short when a young visitor staying at the hotel drowns in full view of the wedding guests. As more and more deaths occur, Ben finds herself and her fellow guests at the center of a murder mystery.I would highly recommend you reserve this if you’re a fan of Agatha Christie’s or love a good old-fashioned murder mystery. A Noise Downstairs - Linwood Barclay No.24☆Eight months ago, Paul Davis discovered two dead bodies in the back of his co-worker Kenneth’s car. After he attends therapy, at night things get much worse, he starts to hear things. Paul thinks he’s losing his mind. Is he? Or does someone want him to believe he is? Gripping and hard to put down. The Death House - Sarah Pinborough No.15☆Taken from his family, our young protagonist Toby now lives in what is now called “The Death House”, an out-of-time existence far away from our own existence, where he and others like him are carefully studied for any sign of sickness by the mysterious and spine-chilling Matron and her team of “nurses”. As soon as they show any sign of sickness, they are taken to the sanatorium. No one returns from the sanatorium. Five stars.
Welcome to the eigth entry of our blog series 'Lost in the Stacks' - with recommendations by Dublin City Libraries staff exploring our first-rate catalogue and perhaps nudging you towards making an inspired selection.This entry comes from one of our new Librarians, Sofia, and she is from Portugal so naturally enough focuses on Portugese authors available to borrow via our catalogue at Dublin City Libraries. If you'd like to borrow any of the books discussed below, simply click on the book cover or title to be taken to the reserves page, where you'll need your library card and PIN to request the book.1. The Piano Cemetery by Jose Luis PeixotoThe Lázaro family are carpenters who would rather be piano-makers. In the dusty back room of their carpentry shop in Lisbon is the 'piano cemetery', filled with broken-down pianos that provide the spare parts needed for repairing and rebuilding instruments all over the city. It is a mysterious and magical place, a place of solace, a dreaming place and, above all, a trysting place for lovers. Peixoto weaves the tragic true story of the marathon-runner, Francisco Lázaro, into a rich narrative of love, betrayal, domestic happiness and dashed hopes.2. Learning to pray in the age of technique Lenz Buchmann's position in the world by Goncalo M. TavaresIn a city not quite of any particular era, a distant and calculating man named Lenz Buchmann works as a surgeon, treating his patients as little more than equations to be solved: life and death no more than results to be worked through without the least compassion. Soon, however, Buchmann's ambition is no longer content with medicine, and he finds himself rising through the ranks of his country's ruling party . . . until a diagnosis transforms this likely future president from a leading player into just another victim. In language that is at once precise, clinical, and oddly childlike, Gonc¸alo M. Tavares—the Portuguese novelist hailed by Jose´ Saramago as the greatest of his generation—here brings us another chilling investigation into the limits of human experience, mapping the creation and then disintegration of a man we might call “evil,” and showing us how he must learn to adapt in a world he can no longer dominate. 3. Raised from the Ground by José SaramagoThis early work is deeply personal and Saramago's most autobiographical: following the changing fortunes of the Mau-Tempo family – poor, landless peasants not unlike the author’s own grandparents. Saramago charts the family's lives in Alentjo, southern Portugal, as national and international events rumble on in the background – the coming of the republic in Portugal, the First and Second World Wars, and an attempt on the dictator Salazar's life. Yet, nothing really impinges on the farm labourers' lives until the first stirrings of communism.As full of love as it is of pain it is a vivid and moving tribute to the men and women am Saramago lived among as a child. 4. The Book of Disquiet by Fernando PessoaFernando Pessoa was many writers in one. He attributed his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves, each of which had a distinct biography, ideology, and horoscope. When he died in 1935, Pessoa left behind a trunk filled with unfinished and unpublished writings, among which were the remarkable pages that make up his posthumous masterpiece, The Book of Disquiet, an astonishing work that, in George Steiner's words, "gives to Lisbon the haunting spell of Joyce's Dublin or Kafka's Prague." Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century. 5. Equator by Miguel Sousa TavaresIt is Lisbon in the year 1905 and our hero, Luis Bernardo Valenca, a 37-year-old bachelor and owner of a small shipping business, is revelling in the luxury of Lisbon's high society. Intellectually curious, he writes about politics in his spare time, believing that Portugal's vast empire is having a civilising effect on the far-off lands it has colonised. But his life is turned upside down when King Dom Carlos asks him to become governor of Portugal's smallest colony, the tiny island of São Tomé e Principe, stuck out in the Atlantic off the coast of equatorial West Africa, whose economy rests almost entirely on its cocoa plantations. However, the English believe that slavery still exists illegally in São Tomé and intend to send a diplomatic envoy to check it out. (Of course the English, with their rival cocoa plantations in Africa, have their own reasons for trying to prevent the export of cocoa from Sao Tome.) As a gentleman used to a softer urban life, Luis Bernardo is ill-prepared for the challenges of plantation life, and he is shocked by the conditions under which the Angolan workers labour - although he is more than willing to engage romantically with the wife of the English consul, one of several candidates for his attentions.
Welcome to the third entry in our blog series 'Lost in the Stacks' - recommendations by Dublin City Libraries staff exploring overlooked gems and helping you find your next read!Our entry today comes from one of our wonderful librarians, Jessica, and looks at some of the best essay collections in our libraries!Essay CollectionsIs there a greater joy than settling comfortably with a beverage of your choice and reading a well-crafted essay?There is a particular form of literary alchemy that takes place in the best essays - the fusion of the personal with social commentary combined with a stylistic elegance. Often offering a unique perspective on a cultural moment or a brief window into another world, a good essay has a habit of staying with you long after the pages have turned and the book is closed.Here is a selection of the very best essay collections for you to enjoy. If you'd like to borrow any of the books discussed below, simply click on the book cover or title to be taken to the reserves page, where you'll need your library card and PIN to request the book.1. Pulphead: dispatches from the other side of America by John Jeremiah SullivanPulphead is a fascinating collection of essays exploring pop culture and subcultures of American life fused with memoir and aspects from the writer’s own life. Written with a gentle wit and probing intelligence, it is hard to resist reading the entire collection in one go.2. Changing my mind: occasional essays by Zadie SmithThis is a fabulous collection of Zadie Smith’s book reviews, film reviews and non-fiction prose. Witty, honest and refreshing, it is a pleasure to dip in and out of.3. Naked by David SedarisDavid Sedaris has cornered the market in humorous memoir based essays. The stories here are sardonic, wry and darkly hilarious with a touch of pathos and just the right amount of hindsight and self-knowledge to balance the comic absurdity.4. Men explain things to me by Rebecca SolnitThe title essay of this book has gained iconic status since it was published but each of the essays in this book are powerful reminders of why we need feminism. Essential reading.5. This is the story of a happy marriage by Ann PatchettAnn Patchett is best known as a novelist but this book collects her earlier non-fiction articles. This is a fabulous collection of personal essays and memoir pieces that explore key moments in her life. Her writing is warm, engaging, and shining through with humour and kindness.
Welcome to the second edition of our new blog series 'Lost in the Stacks' - recommendations by Dublin City Libraries staff exploring overlooked gems and helping you find your next read!This entry comes from one of our most prodigious blog contributors, library assistant Marc and focuses on some of the new comics available to borrow at Dublin City LibrariNew books! New books! Batten down the hatches! Here’s what’s new in Dublin City Libraries ever-expanding catalogue of comics. If you'd like to borrow any of the comics discussed below, simply click on the book cover or title to be taken to the reserves page, where you'll need your library card and PIN to request the book.Lauren Myracle’s Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale is a 200 page graphic novel based on Gotham’s favourite teenage catburglar. Artist Isaac Goodhart uses a single colour of ink, mostly blue with shades of purple for flashbacks and fantasies, to stunning effect. I don’t read Catwoman regularly; even Ed Brubaker’s take on Batman’s frenemy left me cold but Myracle’s background in young adult melodrama makes all the difference in this iteration. It’s unclear right now if Myracle is going to continue with her interpretation of Selina Kyle but I hope she does. Joe Quinn’s Poltergeist is the new graphic novel from acclaimed children’s author, David Almond. No one believes Joe Quinn has a poltergeist in his house, even kids who have seen the flying crockery with their own eyes. Our protagonist, Davie, is the only one who can see what the Quinn’s see. The new priest in town, who is fond of a drink, sympathises too. Almond’s writing is unsurprisingly moving and realistic. Combined with Dave Mc Kean’s artwork, the story is gripping and effecting. Like their previous collaborative work, The Savage, it says more about death, and our relationship with it, than is ever stated in the text. Mc Kean’s merging of traditional and digital art forms is the perfect foil for Almond’s efficient storytelling. Joe Quinn’s Poltergeist is as beautiful as it is unsettling.In the wake of Robert Rodriguez’ film adaptation earlier this year, a deluxe edition of the classic manga, Battle Angel Alita has arrived. What’s that, you say? A cyborg bounty hunter in a post-apocalyptic future? Could this BE any more ‘90s? BAA originally ran from 1990 to ’95 and is known in Japan as Gunnm or Ganmu. I get the feeling that something is lost in translation. There are many visual non-sequiturs. Perhaps it reads better in the original Japanese. Nonetheless, despite the fact that it is a quarter of a century old, the characterisation and twisting plot lines have aged well. Battle Angel Alita reads like a classic ‘80s 2000AD tale, worthy of Alan Moore or Grant Morrison at their most creative, daring, and exciting. If we know one thing about Rodney Barnes, it’s that he loves portmanteau titles for his comics. Not satisfied with Killogy and Killadelphia, his latest offering is Quincredible. Quinton West is a reluctant superhero. He became invulnerable in the aftermath of a natural disaster in New Orleans, and now he must deal with neighbourhood bullies, police brutality, and controlling parents. Many modern comics try to inject a dose of realism into their superhero origin stories and Barnes does a good job of it here. A pair of glasses were all Clark Kent needed to preserve his secret identity but Quincredible is rumbled when a local hood recognises his running gait. Can Quin rescue his family, pass his exams, get the girl, and become a legitimate crime-fighter? You’ll have to read it yourself to find out.