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Mary Burnham's voracious appetite for reading and her delight in sharing her book knowledge with our customers made her the natural choice when we wanted to appoint a Book Club advisor.


19.8.2010

Your Health is Your Wealth

Teach Us To Sit Still coverTeach Us to Sit Still: A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing by Tim Parks is a must-read for anyone who suffers from pain or ill health without any discernable cause. The definition of ill health is “a condition of inferior health in which some disease or impairment of function is present but is usually not as serious in terms of curtailing activity as an illness.” Tim Park, a successful author and university lecturer, developed chronic ill health over a period of time; he lived with crippling pain for which any amount of doctors could find any particular cause or cure. That didn’t stop a well-intentioned surgeon reaching for the scalpel with an exploratory operation in mind, just in case there was something that could be excised from Tim’s uncooperative body.

We follow Tim with his declining ill health, from visits to various health professionals, treatments that hardly touch his problems, the threat of going under the knife, until he finally confronts himself to become a reluctant visitor in the world of gurus and meditation and finally, as a convert learning how to sit still and allow his body to heal itself. His journey to better health is written with great humour and honesty and should serve to make every reader consider their place in the rat race and the toll it takes on the mind and body.

I was so impressed with this book that I have decided to take fifteen minutes out of every day so that I too, can learn to sit still and breath and allow the relationship between mind and body rebalance itself.

Teach Us To Sit Still coverWide Awake by Patricia Morrisroe is a memoir of insomnia that takes you into a twilight world of hypnotherapists, mattress salesmen, sleep laboratories, psychiatrists, and experts in fields I never imagined existed. Patricia, who suffered for years from insomnia, attended a conference on, Sleep Disorders: All you Ever Wanted to Know about Sleep, in Las Vegas where it seems that absolutely nobody sleeps, and if they do, their sleep is interrupted by the continuous noise in hotels and casinos, the streets clogged with traffic, day and night, carting desperate gamblers to and from their chosen gaming hall where they will lose far more than a good night’s sleep.

We meet wonderful characters such Dr Troell who is board certified in sleep medicine but also does facial-fat grafting, liposuction, and lip augmentation on the side – or should that be the other way around? With over 8.6 million Americans working night-shift it’s no wonder that there are so many problems associated with sleep such as sleep apnoea (pauses in breath during sleep), bruxism (grinding your teeth), restless leg syndrome and far more than you ever wanted to know about.

If I ever miss out on a good night’s sleep I develop a vile condition called FBH (Foul Bad Humour) that can last right up to the following day. This can have a devastating and deleterious effect on my family and anyone unfortunate enough to be within spitting distance: loud music, slamming doors, and talking above a whisper are all kept to a minimum after a certain hour to ensure this sleeping dog is left undisturbed! Oh, I never realised how lucky I am to be able to put my head on the pillow and nod off without the aid of drugs or therapy or a myriad of other curious interventions.

Teach Us To Sit Still coverDown Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician by Michelle Williams, a zippy title that trips off the tongue - but only if you’re sober. I couldn’t resist, I had to read what life is like for those dedicated souls who work with the lifeless. The results of not looking after ones health can occasionally cause a premature departure from this earthly coil and the cause of death must be determined before any final journey can be made.

Michelle, however, is a down to earth character looking for employment in the health service after years working as a care assistant. When she lands the position of Mortuary Technician she celebrates with a pint or two before going home to her loving partner and two beloved dogs; she moves with ease between her ordinary domestic life and her duties with the dead. She tells bizarre and hilarious stories that will make your hair stand on end but she will also move you to tears as you read about the death of a granddaughter and the grief felt by the family. She meets a salubrious cast of characters: coroners, pathologists, and undertakers, all dedicated souls whose day job would send a shiver up and down your spine. We can’t live without them, and we certainly can’t die and be buried without their expertise and dedication.

The work of a mortuary technician is not something we like to think about, not unless you have a gruesome curiosity about the other side of medicine but it’s all grist to the mill for anyone who enjoys crime fiction. The hard reality though, of working in a cold, smelly mortuary is perhaps a step too far for this intrepid reader.


30.6.2010

And Not A Leprechaun In Sight

Strangest Genius coverAs soon as Strangest Genius: The Stained Glass of Harry Clarke by Lucy Costigan and Michael Cullen arrived in the shop I knew that my sister Jacinta, a portrait artist, would give her eye teeth for a copy, so I promptly put one aside and while Dubray Books do indeed take book tokens, I don’t think that eye teeth are an acceptable form of currency, as yet! Even though this is an expensive book, it will, I’m sure, become a collector’s item. There are vivid colour plates on every page showing all of Harry Clarke’s work with detailed descriptions throughout. Everything you ever wanted to know about this artist is within the covers of this book.

The first piece of work by Harry Clarke that I came across was in Bewley's Café on Dublin's Grafton Street where my mother and I, after a hard morning’s shopping, would sip China tea and eat the most wonderful cakes and cherry buns from a tempting platter laid out on each table. The afternoon sun would burst through these six incredible windows throwing light and colour throughout the café.

I later came to discover that Dublin born Harry Clarke (1889 – 1931) was the greatest of all Irish stained glass artists, as well as a talented painter and illustrator. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London and went on to win many gold medals in Ireland and Britain for his work. He produced almost 150 stained glass works including the controversial Geneva Window that illustrated Irish writers and artists such as WB Yeats, AE Russell and JM Synge - commissioned by the Irish Free State as a gift to the League of Nations in Geneva.

Crummey v Ireland coverCrummey v Ireland by Frank Crummey has the sentence, "A Thorn in the Side of the Establishment," emblazoned across the front cover and a picture of Frank’s smiling face looking out at you under the imposing facade of the Four Courts where he fought many a good fight, and won. Frank was one of the few ordinary people of this country who stood up to the State and the Church whenever he felt that justice was not being served. He successfully sued the Irish Censorship Board and the Attorney General for banning an educational booklet, Family Planning: A Guide for Parents and Prospective Parents that had been published by the Irish Family Planning Association. He fought against corporal punishment in schools and for the legalisation of contraception.

I remember hearing a hilarious story about Frank being stopped at Balbriggan by the Gardaí doing a routine arms checks. As they opened his car boot it revealed a cache of 40,000 condoms that Frank had just purchased in the North of Ireland. Seemingly, he assured the Gardaí that the whole lot was for his personal use and was let go on his way to distribute them to the women of Dublin. I can imagine the chuckling Gardaí thinking that this slim young Dubliner must have been a bit of a stallion! He was far from it, mind you, as a loving and devoted husband to Evelyn and proud father of five children. Crummey v Ireland is as informative about how Ireland behaved towards its people as any history book with a hero who helped to make this country a far better place for its citizens to work and live. Thank you, Frank!

Where Are You Really From coverWhere Are You Really From? by Tim Brannigan is a story that could only be true. Peggy Brannigan, a married woman from a devoutly Catholic Belfast family, became pregnant after an affair with a black junior doctor. The result was Tim who was instantly put into a baby home only to be adopted one year later by his natural mother. They often say that fact is stranger than fiction and this autobiography certainly bears that out. In Where Are You Really From? Tim Brannigan tells what it was like growing up in Belfast in the 70s and 80s (hard enough without being a different colour to everyone else), how he spent five years as a Republican prisoner and his eventual coming to terms with the circumstances of his birth. Amazing!

While in Belfast doing research for his book, Tim found himself talking to a local shopkeeper and I’m sure this is a question asked many times over:

‘Can I just say, son, your English is perfect. Where are you from?
‘Beechmount, Falls Road’, says Tim.
‘No, where are you really from?’
‘Beechmount’, he said as he walked out of the shop.

It reminded me of the ‘Welcome to Ireland’ given to an Algerian friend of mine as if he had just landed on the last boat over. Thanks a million, he said, I’ve lived here for over twenty years, but it’s nice of you all the same!

An Anthology of Modern Irish Poetry edited by Wes Davis stands thick and fit to bursting with the writings of Louis MacNeice, Samuel Beckett, Brendan Kennelly, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Paul Durcan, Medbh McGuckian, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Gerald Dawe and many many more Irish poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; the list is impressive, the work is wondrous. This volume is something we should buy for ourselves to reach for in times of reflection.

The preface reminds us how Leopold Bloom (James Joyce’s Ulysses) imagines that it takes a special set of circumstances to produce poetry – a dreamy disposition, homespun linens, a vegetarian diet, a beard if you’re a man or, if you happen to be a woman, stockings that fall loose around the ankles. I must ask one of our local poets when they next come in to browse our shelves if there’s a ring of truth to that or if it’s just a load of old boxty!

Power Cut by Seamus Deane

Any dogsbody can sit up all night
And work in a cube of electric light
With only a little spilt ink of shadow
Under the hands and feet. This is a slight
On creativity, the whiter-than-white
Hope to be in there with the black
Shadow-boxers of the past. It’s too neat,
Too easy, and it can’t be right.


27.5.2010

 

A Sense Of Other Places

No And Me coverNo et Moi, translated from French by George Miller as No and Me, is one of the most delightful stories that I have read in a long time. I was completely taken by the character Lou Bertignac who has an IQ of 160 and troubles of her own. She becomes aware, through a school project, that 2000,000 people sleep rough in France every night and as a result she takes a personal interest in No, a young homeless girl who has become a statistic, one of the forgotten. Much to Lou’s surprise, her parents agree when she asks, tentatively, if No can come and live with them. The interplay between the various characters that inhabit Lou’s world makes this a wonderful story that will be enjoyed by readers of all ages

Delphine de Vigan (Paris, 1966 -) is the author of several novels. No and Me, is her first novel to be published in English; it was a bestseller in France, where it was awarded the Prix des Libraires (The Booksellers’ Prize) in 2008, and was also a bestseller in Italy.

The Winner Stands Alone coverO Vencedor está Só, translated by Alan R.Clarke as, The Winner Stands Alone, is set during the Cannes International Film Festival and is played out over 24 hours. Ewa has divorced her wealthy Russian businessman husband, Igor, and is now married to Hamid, a famous fashion designer. But Igor is still insanely jealous and has followed his ex wife and her new husband to Cannes with the intention of causing as much violence and destruction as possible. This novel is a fast-paced thriled with elements of social satire on a celebrity and money obsessed culture. As always, there is a message deep inside this story, a moral that will explain itself in the universal language of love, and honesty and truth.

Paulo Coelho (Rio de Janeiro, 1947 -) knew that he wanted to become a writer from a very young age. His parents were horrified by what they saw as an abberation and at the tender age of 17, Paulo was committed to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. This remarkable writer said, "It wasn't that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn't know what to do... They did not do that to destroy me, they did that to save me.” Coelho tried to accede to his parents’ wishes and enrolled in law school but after one year he dropped out and left Brazil to travel, eventually to return and become the world renowned writer that he is today.

Hotero Airisu coverHoteru Airisu, translated into English by Stephen Snyder and known as Hotel Iris by Japanese author Yoko Ogawa describes life in a rundown establishment run by a tight-lipped widow and her daughter, Mari. Seventeen-year-old Mari spends her afternoons behind the desk at reception watching, and waiting, for something to happen. That is, until she meets an older man, ejected from the hotel late at night for uncouth behaviour not at all befitting his age. There is a mystery surrounding this ageing Lothario (though we discover pretty quickly that he is a translator, from Russian into Japanese) and before long Mari becmes embroiled and enmeshed into the darkness of his island life. There are rumours that he may have murdered his wife and as the police begin to close in, events come to a dramatic conclusion.

Yoko Ogawa (Okayama,1962 -) has written over twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. Two of her novels have been made into movies and she has won most of the top literary awards in Japan. Ogawa writes with the eye of a keen observer on the minutae of ordinary life and the tone of her work is often surreal, sexually explicit, and occasionally humorous.

The Snowman coverSnømannen, translated by Don Bartlett as The Snowman, was written by Norwegian Jo Nesbø and this crime novel has been greeted with great enthusiasm by critics of the genre. A young boy wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Outside, in the garden, stands a snowman with his mother’s pink scarf wrapped around its neck. The case is handed to Inspector Harry Hole who discovers that an alarming number of women have gone missing over the years and soon he uncovers a link that may tie them all together. This is a tautly written thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat right up to the finale so I don’t recommend you read this one in bed!

Jo Nesbø (Oslo, 1960 -) is a very successfull crime novelist but when he is not scratching away with his pen he grabs the mike on stage and struts his stuff as the main vocalist and songwriter for the Norwegian rock band Di Derre.

No And Me coverEl Corazon Helado is translanted from the Spanish by Frank Wynne and comes to us with the title, The Frozen Heart, by Almudena Grandes. A young woman appears at a funeral but no one knows who she is or why she has come. Alvaro recognises something but he can’t place her, and before he has the chance to enquire, she disappears. In this small town, Torrelodones, the death of such an influential and wealthy man causes ripples that take the family he has left behind on a journey to Russia where many Spaniards fled the Civil War. This is a wonderfully sweeping saga that hangs on the secrets of Julio’s past where questions of faith and loyalty are asked and families are torn apart.

Almudena Grandes Hernández (Madrid,1960 -) writes with great realism about the Spanish people of her generation. She studied at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is married to the poet Luis García Montero. There is much more to this writer but I don’t have the services of a translator here to transcribe her biography from Spanish into English!