Once upon a time in a land far far way (1884 in Thomas Street and Capel Street to be precise) Dublin's first two municipal public libraries were opened. And now, 150 years later, you're using QR codes and phones to open our website.
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Idaho wins the 2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award
American author Emily Ruskovich has won the 2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award for her novel Idaho. Set in the Idaho Pandandle it tells the sory of the impact of an shocking act of violence on a family. The winning novel was chosen from a total of 141 titles, nominated by libraries in 115 cities across 41 countries. Idaho was nominated by the public library in Brugge, Belgium.The Award is organised and sponsored by Dublin City Council and at €100,000 is the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English. Emily Ruskovich is the fourth American author to win the prize in its 24-year history.Uniquely, the Award receives its nominations from public libraries in cities around the globe and recognises both writers and translators. The winner was announced at a ceremony in Dublin's Mansion House today.Emily Ruskovich grew up in the Idaho Panhandle, on Hoodoo Mountain. Her fiction has appeared in Zoetrope, One Story and the Virginia Quarterly Review. A winner of a 2015 O. Henry Award and a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she now teaches creative writing at the University of Colorado, Denver. Idaho is her first novel. Speaking at the winner announcement, Lord Mayor & Patron of the remarked; ‘The International DUBLIN Literary Award is a great Dublin success and a great international success - and our thanks go to all who are involved in making the Award work – writers, translators, publishers, librarians, and the administrative staff of the City Council.’The 2019 judging panel, which includes Irish author Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, commented:‘At the heart of Emily Ruskovich’s haunting debut novel is the inexplicable. A young couple, Jenny and Wade, move from the prairies to the utter loneliness and unexpected isolation of the Northern Idaho mountains where they carelessly bought a piece of wooded land on a steep mountainside. As yet, they know nothing about the winter that will entrap them: masses of snow, no plow, no neighbours, the next settlement eight miles away. This is not an idyll. Years go by. They build a house with their own hands; two children are born – May and June. Then, all of a sudden, in a brutal flash, with no warning, their happiness and their love are destroyed forever.Ruskovich’s masterful achievement is to narrate with consummate skill the complex series of events covering a time-span of more than fifty years. Empathy and love stand next to cruelty and crime. Individual guilt, trauma and pain are looming as large as eventual forgiveness and the ability to live in half-knowledge. Ultimately, Idaho evolves into a masterpiece on the redeeming and regenerative potential of music, poetry, literature and art.’ The other judges were Ge Yan, Evie Wyld, Martin Middeke and Hans-Christian Oeser. The non-voting chair was Judge Eugene Sullivan.Copies of the winner, the shortlist and the full list of novels nominated for the 2019 award available to borrow from Dublin Public libraries at https://dcpla.ie/Idaho
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.
I've fallen so far behind with my book reviews (being amply complimentary to myself in calling them such!) that I had to revisit the archives in order to discover when I last posted and about what. In fact it was back in late May, and in my defence I declare that work and life has been too 'involving' and not afforded me the time to indulge myself in the pleasurable pursuit of putting on paper (metaphorically speaking) my thoughts on the books I read and then sharing those here on the library blog.While I have read quite a few crime novels over the past couple of months, I will restrict my mention here to five of those, in so doing jumping from southern Europe to northern Europe and finally to the southern portion of the African continent.First the get a mention is 'The Crocodile' by Italy's Maurizio De Giovanni, the second such title I have read by this author (the first being 'I Will Have Vengeance' which is set in 1930s Naples). This one involves Detective Inspectore Giuseppe Lojacono in the hunt for a killer of teenagers on the streets of modern-day Naples. Lojacono has been transferred to Naples after a career setback involving the Sicilian Mafia, his desk assignment now meant to sideline him and keep him away from criminal investigations. But he is soon brought on board in the hunt for this methodical killer of teenagers when his insights into the case are overheard by the attractive Assistant District Attorney Laura Piras. He doesn't buy the organised crime angle, but the pressure is on to find whatever link there might be between the victims that will lead to the discovery of the killer before he strikes again. The young victims all appear innocent of any sort of major wrong doing, so Lojacono, working closely with the Assistant District Attorney, investigates the possibility of links other than between the victims themselves. All the while you the reader know who the killer is, but the insights you periodically get by way of letters he writes to someone dear to him are never quite enough to reveal the why of his actions. The killer's full intent and motive eventually becomes clear as the story culminates in a race against time to save his next intended victim. This story is well crafted, well written and suspenseful right to the end, bitter or otherwise I will not say! And I can highly recommend it, as I did the first.Next I head north, to Iceland in fact. 'Strange Shores' by Iceland's Arnaldur Indridason is the latest, and possibly the last, in the series featuring Detective Erlendur of the Reykjavik police. I say possibly, for the ending certainly leaves room for speculation, and I think too that that is the author's intent, so don't be surprised if like Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole you see another in the series. In this Erlendur revisits a haunting event from his past, namely the disappearance of his younger brother during a snowstorm, in an attempt to bring some closure. Erlendur survived that snowstorm and largely blames himself for his brother's disappearance. That event has served to haunt him ever since. Erlendur is absent from the previous two titles in the series (Outrage, Black Skies); it might in fact be that events here happen in parallel with the storyline of the previous title.While his primary concern is his brother's disappearance, he finds himself investigating another disappearance, that of a young woman in somewhat similar circumstances during the war. Her disappearance during a blizzard occurred the same evening that a number of British servicemen were lost while on military manoeuvres, an unusual aspect of this storyline is that the event involving the British servicemen was in fact a real life occurrence. This investigation, while unofficial, takes him back and forth between a number of individuals still living who had associations with the woman in question. Erlendur is like a dog with a bone when it comes to solving a mystery, in particular when some doubt raises its head as to what in fact happened to her given that her body was never recovered. And dragging up the past is not to the liking of all. Meanwhile the activities of a now dead fox catcher is perhaps the only tenuous link and therefore hope for Erlendur in maybe finding his brother's remains.Much of the story too involves Erlendur looking back on events of that fateful night where we meet really for the first time the young Erlendur and his parents, and where we get too a real sense of the tragedy that befell them and shaped the rest of their lives.This is yet another class work from Indridason. A well constructed plot is at its core, but of equal measure is the character of Erlendur and the long time effect of his brother's disappearance on him. Indeed personal loss and its effect on people are central to the story, and you can't help but be engrossed in this well written story from start to finish. I can highly recommend it. Staying north, but heading due east for my next title, this being 'The Double Silence' by Sweden's Mari Jungstedt. Now it's always a pity to say that a book disappointed, particularly when the author's previous titles all proved reasonably satisfying reads. I started reading this confident that it would please, but soon found myself fighting the urge to put it down and not pick up again. I was one hundred or so pages into the book before it marked itself out as a crime novel, but even long before that I was struggling with it. I have rarely not finished a book and it was only the faint hope that things might improve that kept me going, but alas this book ultimately failed to satisfy.'The Double Silence' sees a group of close friends (a rather unreal closeness in fact) take a holiday together on a remote Swedish island, only for friendships to unravel once a series of fatal mishaps befall them. Like I said, I was one-third of the way into the book before a body showed up, by which time I had grown weary of the over concentration on the group members' family and personal lives and relationships. To the point of tedium. Whole passages could be given over to child feeding, nappy changing, domestic chores and trivial conversations, making me want to fast forward, but to where? Inspector Knutas, the principal investigator, is not so prominent in this as in the previous books, more's the pity, but as for his welling up with tears at one point, aaagh! Journalist Johan Berg, who plays a major part in the previous titles in the series (this being the seventh), also has a lesser role here than normal. One other criticism I would level at the book is that the chapters are too short, resulting in you being thrown from one scene to another with far too much frequency.The basis for the crime element is sound enough, jealousy and a shared secret past, but too much of the story is given over to matters of little interest or relevance for me to have really cared at any point. Enough said, not all reads can be rosy!Needing some warmth after recent ventures up north, I headed due south, thousands of miles in fact, to South Africa and a writer who indeed warmed me with the first book of hers that I read (Daddy's Girl). And glad to say, my second experience of Margie Orford, 'Water Music' , was equally warming. This is the fifth book involving Dr. Clare Hart, a civilian profiler working in Section 28, Cape Town’s Child Protection Unit. Section 28 is named after the clause in the South African constitution that lists the rights of children.In 'Water Music' an unconscious, emaciated three-year old girl is found abandoned and close to death on a lonely bridle path in Cape Town. Soon after, a grandfather appeals for help when his grand-daughter Rosa, a gifted nineteen-year old cellist, goes missing. Hart embroils herself in both cases, even though Rosa's is strictly outside her remit as Rosa is not a child in the eyes of the law. While pursuing the dual investigations in her usual stubborn and dogged manner, Clare has to deal with an unwanted and unwelcome pregnancy. As if this was not enough grief, Clare has to deal with those in the police force who do not welcome her involvement and who are in fact set on disbanding her unit. Consequently Clare pursues her investigations very much as a sole operator, this despite her romantic involvement with Captain Riedwaan Faizal, an undercover police officer who has his own difficulties with his superiors. He in fact faces exile of a sort with his unit too being disbanded and he sent far from Cape Town for his sins, thus affecting his ability to assist Clare however he can.This is a well-plotted, atmospheric, fast-paced thriller with twists and a climactic ending. But it is not just a thriller: it is a story of corruption, of a police force less than willing to tackle issues; it is too about darker topics such as enslavement, child abuse and male domination; it is about the challenges women face in a male-dominated environment such as that in which Clare operates; and it is about that other challenge woman are often faced with (but rarely men) - maybe having to decide between parental desires and other life/career ambitions.Following on 'Daddy's Girl' (read review), this book keeps Margie Orford firmly on my list of authors to watch out for. Thankfully there are a number of other titles by her that I have yet to read and which are within easy reach. You can add her to your list now too!Staying on the African continent, 'A Deadly Trade' is the second title from the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip but my first to read. Essentially a police procedural, it is based in Botswana and features, as in the first book, the rather rotund food-loving Detective Kubu. The story centres around two murders committed in a tourist camp in northern Botswana close to the border with Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Local officer Tatwa Mooka calls on the help of the more experienced Kubu from the capital, Gaborone, but as the investigation proceeds the plot thickens. The fact that one of the recently murdered men has been dead for many years does not simplify matters. The book hints at Agatha Christie in fact, as each of the characters has his or her own secret, or so it seems, but it does too have action and, probably its strongest aspect, Botswana and the recent troubled history of the wider region at its centre. There are hints at drug-running, war crimes and political interference. The book in fact mixes the serious with the light, humour and light-heartedness being brought by Kubu, his demeanour, and his love of food and desire to consume biscuits at every opportunity. But he is too a strong and resolute officer, as his response to the threat to his family will testify. 'Kubu' in fact means 'Hippo' in Setswana, the language of Botswana.Despite it being set in the warm, nay hot, climes of Botswana, I however found it hard to warm to this book; it felt overly long, the story didn't flow, there was a certain tedium in terms of detail, events being dragged out and indeed re-visited and re-capped. I was always conscious of it being the work of two authors, and reading it, it read like such. To my mind it needed some editorial intervention. In saying that, I found it hard to find a reviewer on the web who felt as I did about it!Botswana, if you are not already aware, is also the country in which the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, by Alexander McCall Smith, is based. If pressed as to which I preferred, McCall Smith would get my vote by some margin.Beware: this book is sold in the USA under the title 'Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu'.Happy reading!
70 years ago today the Allied forces landed on the Normandy beaches, thus beginning the Allied invasion of German-occupied Western Europe (Operation Overlord). The Normandy landings on D-Day, codenamed Operation Neptune, involved the largest seaborne invasion in history. A myriad of books have been written about the war, the events of June and afterwards, and a myriad of documentaries and films have appeared on our TV screens ever since.Utah, Gold, Omaha, Juno, Sword - the names of the Normandy beaches where thousands of landing craft poured ashore. Over 160,000 soldiers crossed the English Channel on D-Day, and many soldiers lost their lives before they even left their landing point. Then too there was the airborne assault, with thousands of planes involved, soldiers landing behind enemy lines in order to secure bridges and other strategic points.There are many truths, and many myths, surrounding D-Day, and to help you get a clearer picture of what actually happened, and to help you understand the true nature and horror of war, we have compiled a list of books and films readily available in or via our branch libraries.One of the best known military history books has to be The Longest Day by Irish-born war correspondent Cornelius Ryan and first published in 1959. This remarkable history sometimes reads like a novel, but is based on the experiences of real people and entailed a huge amount of research. A 1962 film based on the book, and featuring many leading actors of the time, is also called The Longest Day. Unfortunately copies of the book are in short supply and we don't have the film version, but don't let that stop you requesting it and we will see what we can do.Right: Cover of first edition of The Longest Day.Other titles to seek out include:D-Day, the battle for Normandy by Antony BeevorD-Day by Martin GilbertD-day, piercing the Atlantic wall by Robert KershawTwo sides of the beach, the invasion and defence of Europe in 1944 by Edmund BlandfordThe D-Day companion, leading historians explore history's greatest amphibious assault, editor, Jane PenroseSix armies in Normandy, from D-Day to the liberation of Paris, June 6th-August 25th 1944 by John Keegan ...and DVDsThe World at War Box set (11 DVDs, 1343 mins) Episode 17: The development and execution of Operation OverlordBrothers in Arms - The Real Band of Brothers (1 DVD) Useful WebsitesThe Royal British Legion Facts & Figures of D-Day.The D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery (Portsmouth).Below: The front page of the Irish Press, 7th June, 1944.You can access the Irish Newspaper Archives online at any branch of Dublin City Public Libraries free of charge.
Between 1845 and 1850, out of a population of approximately 8.2 million, some one million died and another million were forced to emigrate. By 1881 the population had fallen to 5.2 million and continued to fall for many more years.
While Nordic authors and settings seem to dominate my crime reads, the list is not exclusively Northern European I am glad to say. I have even endeavoured to go beyond wider Europe, taking in the US of A, the Middle East, south-east Asia, and even Africa. And it is to Africa that I travel in this post, with two authors to mention, South Africa's Deon Meyer and Zimbabwe's Alexander McCall Smith.
Best selling American crime writer Patricia Cornwell is in Dublin today, here to take part in one of the opening events of the Bram Stoker Festival, happening this weekend. The event, The Anatomy of Fear - From Stoker to Scarpetta with Patricia Cornwell, takes place in Trinity College, and the author will be introduced by the state pathologist, Dr. Marie Cassidy! Very appropriate given the subject matter and the significant role forensic science plays in her Dr. Kay Scarpetta series.Cornwell has sold over 100 million copies of her books worldwide, and wouldn't you know it, you can borrow her books in our branch libraries and read away to your heart's content (check below).Right: Patricia Cornwell in Trinity College, 26th October 2012 (click thumbnail to enlarge)The 20th novel in the Scarpetta series (The Bone Bed) has just been published (25th October in fact), so while not yet on our bookshelves is on order and soon to arrive. In this latest, Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta returns to solve the mysterious disappearance of a palaeontologist.But don't despair, unless you are a Cornwell fanatic and have already read the other nineteen in the series, you have plenty to keep you going in the meantime. So check the links below for availability of the series titles in the library catalogue:Post-mortem (1990)Body of Evidence (1991)All That Remains (1992)Cruel and Unusual (1993)The Body Farm (1994)From Potter's Field (1995)Cause of Death (1996)Unnatural Exposure (1997)Point of Origin (1998)Black Notice (1999)The Last Precinct (2000)Blow Fly (2003)Trace (2004)Predator (2005)Book of the Dead (2007)Scarpetta (2008)The Scarpetta Factor (2009)Port Mortuary (2010)Red Mist (2011)The Bone Bed (2012) (just published, to come)In the following video clip, the bestselling author is talking about her 18th Kay Scarpetta thriller, 'Port Mortuary'.Visit the Patricia Cornwell website.
101 things you thought you knew about the Titanic.
The book "101 things you thought you knew about the Titanic.... but didn't" is a fascinating study of some of the myths and half-truths that have arisen since that fateful morning of April 15th 1912. (Growing up in Cobh, I reckon I've heard 99 of them!) Author Tim Matlin dispels many of these popular legends using primary sources such as the US Inquiry and the British Inquiry, both of 1912. He also shows that many of these stories are indeed true. The myths are neatly separated into categories such as: The Ship, Omens, Passengers, Collision, S.O.S etc.Below are a few examples to whet your appetite:Titanic was genuinely believed to be unsinkable. This is true as she was designed to stay afloat with any of her two watertight compartments flooded. The glancing blow Titanic received from the iceberg was not foreseen, as it had never happened before according to maritime records.Titanic was filled to capacity on her maiden voyage. False; she was about half full carrying 1,308 passengers out of a total capacity of 2,603.If Titanic had struck the iceberg head-on, she would not have sunk. This is true according to evidence given by Edward Wilding, one of Titanic's designers. He cited the case of the Arizona, which 34 years previously hit an iceberg head-on and survived. Titanic's bows would have been crushed in for 80 or 100 feet but she would have remained afloat according to Wilding. Titanic broke in half as she sank. Yes. This was not discovered until 1985 when her wreck was found on the seabed. Her bow section lay 650 metres North of her stern section.More women were saved from the Titanic than men. False. 338 men were saved and 316 women. This is because only about 25% of the people (passengers and crew) were women.You can find more books on the Titanic in our catalogue.