Monthly Archives: June 2010

by

My Book Recommendation : The Private Life of Plants

Author: Sir David Attenborough

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Princeton University Press (Aug 1995)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0691006393

ISBN-13: 978-0691006390

Product Dimensions: 25.1 x 18 x 3.3 cm

“The Private Life of Plants has already been viewed by 60 million Britons….And they stayed riveted for…five weeks to watch plants digest mice alive, strangle their hosts, trick male bees into copulating with their flowers, or ignite forest fires with chemicals to give their seedlings a better start in life. Vivid lives of hectic, electrifying action emerged, and even the hundreds of botanists consulted for the series found themselves gaining new insights into plant behavior.

by

My Book Recommendation: The Truth Commissioner

Author: David Park

Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2 Feb 2009)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0747596336

ISBN-13: 978-0747596332

Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm

Product Description

Henry Stanfield, the newly arrived Truth Commissioner, is troubled by his estrangement from his daughter, and struggling with the consequences of his infidelities. Francis Gilroy, veteran Republican and recently appointed government minister, risks losing what feels tantalisingly close to his grasp. In America, Danny and his partner plan for the arrival of their first child, happily oblivious to what is about to pull him back to Belfast and rupture the life they have started together. Retired detective James Fenton, on his way to an orphanage in Romania with a van full of supplies, will soon be forced to confront what he has come to think of as his betrayal, years before, of a teenage boy. In a society trying to heal the scars of the past with the salve of truth and reconciliation, these four men’s lives become linked in a way they could never have imagined.

About the Author

David Park has written six books, most recently the hugely acclaimed Swallowing the Sun. He was the winner of the Authors’ Club First Novel Award, the Bass Ireland Arts Award for Literature and a twice winner of the University of Ulster’s McCrea Literary Award. In June 2008 he was awarded the American Ireland Fund Literary Award for his contribution to Irish literature. He lives in County Down, Northern Ireland with his wife and two children.
by

My Book Recommendation: Personally I Blame My Fairy Godmother

Author:Claudia Carroll

Paperback

Publisher: Avon (5 Aug 2010)

ISBN-10: 1847562086

ISBN-13: 978-1847562081

Product Description

The fairytale ending was just the beginning…

Jessie Woods absolutely believes in fairytale endings. So would you if you had a recession-proof career as a daredevil TV host, a palatial pink mansion, and the dream boyfriend.

But, quicker than you can say Cinderella, her life falls to pieces and suddenly her prince isn’t quite so charming, her party-loving friends disappear and even her faithful friend Visa no longer loves her…

Utterly heartbroken and jobless, Jessie is forced back home, to live with her stepmum and two evil stepsisters.

Is it time for her to give up on the dream – or will Jessie learn that happy endings can come in the strangest of places?

Avon’s hot new acquisition presents a tale of princes who turn out to be frogs, Manolo Blahnik glass slippers and not-so-happily-ever-afters…

About the Author

Claudia was born in Dublin, where she still lives and where she has worked extensively both as a theatre and television actress.

by

My Book Recommendation: The Builders

 
Authors: Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan

Paperback: 320 pages

Publisher: Penguin (28 May 2009)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0141037806

ISBN-13: 978-0141037806

Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm

Product Description

In the past fifteen years, Ireland has gone from being one of the poorest countries in the EU to one of the richest in the world. Of all the factors in this extraordinary transformation, none has been more prominent than the astonishing boom in construction. In The Builders, Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan tell the stories of these men and of the changes – physical and psychological – they have brought about. The story of Ireland’s property developers has been the great untold story of the boom – until now.

About the Author

Frank McDonald is Environment Editor of the Irish Times and author of books including The Destruction of Dublin and The Construction of Dublin. Kathy Sheridan is an Irish Times staff journalist.
by

My Book Recommendation: House Rules

 
Author: Jodi Picoult

Hardcover: 576 pages

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (27 April 2010)

ISBN-10: 0340979054

ISBN-13: 978-0340979051

Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.6 x 4.8 cm

Product Description

Jacob Hunt is a teenager: brilliant at maths, wicked sense of humour, extraordinarily organised, hopeless at reading social cues. And Jacob has Asperger’s. He is locked in his own world – aware of the world outside, and wanting to make a connection. Jacob tries to be like everyone else, but doesn’t know how.

When his tutor is found dead, all the hallmark behaviours of Jacob’s syndrome – not looking someone in the eye, odd movements, inappropriate actions – start looking a lot like guilt to the police. And Jacob’s mother must ask herself the hardest question in the world: is her child capable of murder?

About the Author

Jodi Picoult grew up in Nesconset, New York. She received an A.B. in creative writing from Princeton and a master`s degree in education from Harvard. Her previous novels include Keeping Faith, The Pact, and Mercy. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.
by

My Book Recommendation: The Tree of Seasons

 
Authors: Stephen Gately and June Considine

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (13 May 2010)

Language English

ISBN-10: 1444706527

ISBN-13: 978-1444706529

Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.4 x 3 cm

Product Description

Stephen Gately brought joy to many millions of fans throughout the world. In the months before his tragic death, he wrote this, his first novel, The Tree of Seasons.

When Josh, Michael and Beth Lotts catch sight of some mysterious lights one summer’s evening, they are drawn into a dense forest near their home where no one dares ever go. What they find there is incredible.

The Tree of Seasons is a doorway into another world. There are four kingdoms in this world, each forever stuck in spring, summer, autumn and winter and each with its own ruler. The tree and the world it conceals have existed for hundreds of years and have never been uncovered by anyone, until now.

The Lotts find that peace has been shattered in this magical world. One ruler, who bears a remarkable resemblance to their aunt is intent on power at all costs. She causes destruction and suffering that threaten to tear worlds apart. Josh, Michael and Beth have arrived just in time to take part in the battle that the other three kingdoms have to fight in order to survive.

The Tree of Seasons is a beautiful story of good and evil and a vividly imagined portrait of a world beyond our own.

About the Author

Stephen Gately was born in 1976 in Dublin. One of five children, he always dreamed of being famous as a young boy. Together with Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy, he formed Boyzone who went on to be one of the biggest boybands of all time. Together they enjoyed phenomenal success with over 40 million copies of their albums sold worldwide. In 2000, the band took some time out to concentrate on solo projects and Stephen enjoyed his own top ten hits before taking to the stage and starring in Joseph and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in London’s West End. Boyzone were reunited in 2007 and their greatest hits album was released in 2008. Together, the band were working on new material and Stephen was writing this, his first novel when died at his home in Majorca in October 2009.
by

My Book Recommendation: The Speckled People

 
Author:Hugo Hamilton

Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Fourth Estate; New Ed edition (6 Oct 2003)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0007148119

ISBN-13: 978-0007148110

Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2 cm

Product Description

The childhood world of Hugo Hamilton is a confused place. His father, a brutal Irish nationalist, demands his children speak Gaelic at home whilst his mother, a softly spoken German emigrant who escaped Nazi Germany at the beginning of the war, encourages them to speak German. All Hugo wants to do is speak English. English is, after all, what the other children in Dublin speak. English is what they use when they hunt down Hugo (or “Eichmann” as they dub him) in the streets of Dublin, and English is what they use when they bring him to trial and execute him at a mock seaside court. Out of this fear and confusion Hugo tries to build a balanced view of the world, to turn the twisted logic of what he is told into truth. It is a journey that ends in liberation but not before this little boy has uncovered the dark and long-buried secrets that lie at the bottom of his parents’ wardrobe.

About the Author

Hugo Hamilton was born and grew up in Dublin. He is the author of five highly acclaimed novels: ‘Surrogate City’, ‘The Last Shot’ and ‘The Love Test’ (Faber); ‘Headbanger’ and ‘Sad Bastard’ (Secker); and one collection of short stories. He has worked as a writer-in-residence at many leading universities, including most recently at Trinity College, Dublin. He has just returned to Ireland from a DAAD scholarship in Berlin.
by

My Book Recommendation : The Way We Were

 
Author:Elizabeth Noble

Hardcover: 464 pages

Publisher: Michael Joseph (13 May 2010)

ISBN-10: 0718155351

ISBN-13: 978-0718155353

Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.4 x 4.4 cm

Product Description

Susannah and Rob were childhood sweethearts. But as with most early love affairs, they broke up, moved on and now find themselves in very different places. And not entirely happy – who is? A chance meeting between them sends shockwaves through their lives. What happens when your first love makes a surprise reappearance? Is fate telling you it’s time for a second chance . . . or should you simply walk away and let the past become ancient history? But Susannah and Rob just aren’t able to forget the way they were . . . and the world is about to realize the consequences of their reunion.

About the Author

Elizabeth Noble lives in New York with her husband and two daughters. Her five earlier novels, The Reading Group, The Tenko Club, Alphabet Weekends, Things I Want My Daughters to Know and The Girl Next Door were all Sunday Times bestsellers, with The Reading Group reaching Number One.
by

My Book Recommendation: At Home

 
Author: Bill Bryson

Hardcover: 544 pages

Publisher: Doubleday (27 May 2010)

ISBN-10: 0385608276

ISBN-13: 978-0385608275

Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.7 x 4.6 cm

Product Description

In “At Home”, Bill Bryson applies the same irrepressible curiosity, irresistible wit, stylish prose and masterful storytelling that made “A Short History of Nearly Everything” one of the most lauded books of the last decade, and delivers one of the most entertaining and illuminating books ever written about the history of the way we live. Bill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote a lot more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business – eating, sleeping and merely endeavouring to get more comfortable. And that most of the key discoveries for humankind can be found in the very fabric of the houses in which we live. This inspired him to start a journey around his own house, an old rectory in Norfolk, wandering from room to room considering how the ordinary things in life came to be. Along the way he did a prodigious amount of research on the history of anything and everything, from architecture to electricity, from food preservation to epidemics, from the spice trade to the Eiffel Tower, from crinolines to toilets; and on the brilliant, creative and often eccentric minds behind them. And he discovered that, although there may seem to be nothing as unremarkable as our domestic lives, there is a huge amount of history, interest and excitement – and even a little danger – lurking in the corners of every home.

About the Author

Bill Bryson’s bestselling travel books include The Lost Continent, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods and Down Under. His acclaimed book on the history of science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, won the Aventis Prize for Science Books and the Descartes Science Communication Prize. He has written on language in Mother Tongue and Made in America, and his latest bestsellers are Shakespeare and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. http://www.billbryson.co.uk.
by

My Book Recommendation : Envy

Title: Envy
 
Author: Coleen Nolan

Paperback: 336 pages

Publisher: Pan (4 Jun 2010)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0330516981

ISBN-13: 978-0330516983

Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 3 cm

Product Description

With its glamorous characters and captivating heroine, “Revenge” is a sexy, unforgettable read.

Book Description

With its glamorous characters and captivating heroine, “Revenge” is a sexy, unforgettable read.

About the Author

Coleen Nolan is a much-loved presenter on Loose Women whose television credits also include The Truth About Beauty, This Morning and The Wright Stuff. She writes a popular weekly parenting column for the Daily Mirror and has a weekly column in Woman magazine.