2012 Update

To bring you up to date, 2012 has been a busy year for our little bookclub.

We started 2012 with a January bookclub to overcome those post-Christmas blues in Balbriggan hosted by Anne Marie. We had a very tasty lunch and the nicest chocolate pie. The book we discussed that meeting was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. We all enjoyed the book and loved the circus setting but the ending was a bit of a let down.

Our next meeting was on April 28th hosted by Kathryn in her new house in Goatstown. A lovely sunny day, Kathryn treated us to burritos. Our book for that meeting was One Moment, One Morning by Sarah Rayner. We all agreed the book was a little depressing.

The next time we met was on May 26th hosted by Vally in Ashtown. We had a new member join us, Adrienne, always nice to have someone new in the group as it livens things up a little. We also had a mini bookclubber join us, Ella Rose and we did our first bookclub photo shoot. Another lovely sunny day but unfortunately trying to organize eight women and get them all looking at the camera proved challenging!

Our next meeting was in July 4th in the Exchange Restaurant in the Westin Hotel. They do bring your own wine on a Wednesday of which we took advantage. There was at least a bottle of wine per person! Cue much laughter and the next day many a sore head but what fun we had! The book up for discussion for that meeting was Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. I pitied our poor waiter and our fellow diners especially those on dates! We all agreed that we started off with Fifty loving it and ended up feeling fed up and annoyed. Neither of the characters are particularly likeable and after a while, the writing started to grate and the sex scenes got boring! Only a few of us ended up reading book two and even fewer finished the trilogy.

We decided to have bookclub’s first away night and the location was Graiguenamanagh, co. Kilkenny. They host a Festival of Books in September but we choose the summer season and August 11th was the chosen date. We had so much fun – we rented bikes and cycled to St. Mullin’s; stayed in the Waterside and spent the next day in Inistioge. Read all about it by on Girl From The Hills blog.

Our new member, Adrienne, hosted the next meeting and decided to have a movie night inspired by our bookclub away and so the ‘circle of friends’ evening was held on the 21st September in Raheny. We never did get round to watching the movie – too much to talk about! Adrienne cooked chicken curry and beautiful fairy buns. Her cooking and baking skills mean she is now a lifelong member! The book was Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, author of a previous book we all enjoyed - Shadow of the Wind. All those who read the book agreed it was a great read. Our book for the next meeting due to be held in November is Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan.

World Book Night: 5th March 2011

The Largest Book Give-Away Ever Attempted!

The inaugural World Book Night will take place on Saturday, 5 March 2011, two days after World Book Day! It is intended to celebrate books and encourage reading. A growing list of high-profile figures from publishing, media and the arts are lending their support to this ambitious initiative by becoming Patrons of World Book Night including Damon Albarn, Dave Eggers, Colin Firth, David Gilmour, Antony Gormley, Seamus Heaney, Damien Hirst, Nigella Lawson, Mary Portas, J.K. Rowling and Tilda Swinton.



Jamie Byng, Chairman, World Book Night says: “World Book Night is a unique collaboration between publishers, booksellers, libraries, writers and individual members of the public and one that I think is going to have an enormously positive impact on books and reading. There are few things more meaningful than the personal recommendation and having one million books given to one million different people on one night in this way is both unprecedented and hugely exciting.”



With the full support of the Publishers Association, the Booksellers Association, the Independent Publishers Guild, the Reading Agency with libraries, World Book Day and the BBC, one million books will be given away by an army of 20,000 passionate readers to members of the public across the UK and Ireland! And I am one of the lucky givers, the book I will be distributing is Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. I have decided to offer the first five to my blog readers so if you want a free book, send me your details by e-mail and I will post out the book to the lucky few. The rest will be distributed locally or I will be broke!



To get involved, you can check out their Facebook page.



World Book Night will take place on Saturday 5 March 2011 and will be broadcast in partnership with BBC Two.

A Million Books for Free: A Culture Show Special, BBC2 Saturday @ 7.30pm

Presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, this half-hour film tells the story of World Book Night. The film follows the preparations for the night, as a million books are printed and distributed to 20,000 givers, who have volunteered to hand out 48 copies of their favourite book, which features on World Book Night's list of selected titles. With 25 different books on the special list, there is something for everyone to enjoy, from Nigel Slater's Toast and Seamus Heaney's New Selected Poems to The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John le Carre. World Book Night is about sharing, through word of mouth, the pleasure of reading. In the film, famous and non-famous readers talk about the books they really love.



And for those lucky enough to live in London - there is a ticketed event in Trafalgar Square the night before hosted by Graham Norton. This event will be covered on BBC2, at which appearing on the night will be a great line up of well-known authors, actors and musicians who will be reading from books they love. Organisers said they expected an audience of around 10,000 people at what they described as "a glittering celebration of the written word".

Dublin Book Festival: 2nd - 6th March

Publishing Ireland is delighted to announce an extended programme at this year’s Dublin Book Festival. Author events will be held from Wednesday, 2nd March – Sunday, 6th March 2011, in a variety of venues throughout Dublin City including the National Library of Ireland, The Gutter Bookshop, Cube at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin City Libraries and, as with previous years, Dublin’s City Hall.

You can DOWNLOAD THE 2011 PROGRAMME here.
This is the 4th Dublin Book Festival bringing together the best of Irish publishing, offering a chance for the voices of both established and up and coming authors to be heard to celebrate Dublin’s designation as a UNESCO City of Literature.


Some of the highlights include the following:

Firstly the Up For Discussion programme has a great mix of topics and speakers, though the Business, Current Affairs, Political Reform and Tomorrow's Women ones all stand out. Secondly, the Be Inspired lunchtime events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday talking real life stories, poetry and fresh voices. Finally there's an evening's entertainment on Saturday 5th at the Project Arts Centre with writing, poetry and comedy performances. It seems to be a bigger and better festival this year, with its own literary pub crawl, lots for children and a line-up of over 60 of Ireland's leading authors, poets and journalists. There are over 50 readings, debates, book launches and workshops and most events are free. A great way to celebrate Irish writing.