Checking It Twice

There’s something about being in a bookshop in this, the final countdown to Christmas, that restores your faith in the book reading public. Grandparents are out in force bewildered by a glittering array of touchy feely titles suitable for book biters to get them started on a lifelong reading habit; aunts and uncles with lists comprising Angelina Ballerina, Horrid Henry and Captain Underpants for those mischievous little nieces and nephews; parents filling stockings with Eoin Colfer, Derek Landy, Sarah Webb, and J.K. Rowling. There are husbands and wives trying to remember what their other half has read and would possibly like to read. And for everyone else there’s always book tokens creating our January customers by the bucket load.

My youngest daughter has instructed me to buy her beloved the graphic novel, Lucifer, and a few silly joke books that should keep him chortling all day long. For herself, the Harry Potter CD, The Prisoner of Azkaban, complete and unabridged, that will give her hours and hours of pleasure. I found a wonderful new cookery book that I think my eldest daughter will appreciate, Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-about Bakery by Erin McKenna as she’s always looking for inspiration in the kitchen. I sent my son in Liverpool, My Shit Life So Far by Frankie Boyle (Dermot in work said he’d laughed his way through the entire book); and his long-suffering partner (yes, she is!) something good to read, The Brave by Nicholas Evans.

That just leaves me. Well, I have my Christmas book already lined up. It’s a proof copy of Sarah Gruen’s latest novel due out in February 2011. If The Ape House is anything as enjoyable as Water for Elephants I’ll be delighted. Watch this space for a review as soon as humanly possible and in the meantime, buy a book this Christmas and keep your local booksellers in business for yet another year.

Missing Julia

I love it when I know I’m in safe hands with a good book. From the opening paragraph of her latest novel, Catherine Dunne eases the reader into a thoroughly enjoyable story that is perfect for early nights tucked under the duvet. This is Julia’s world where we meet the people who give her life colour and friendship. There’s her life partner, William, a steady man who never doubts his feelings for this woman who has just disappeared; Melissa, her irritating daughter, who never understood her mother and is fuming about this latest turn of events; Sorcha and Alicia, friends through thick and thin who are there for her whatever happens. It’s one of those books that you’ll lend your friends, knowing that they’re going to enjoy it too.

A Fit of Pique!

When someone’s anger is directed towards me, the burning light that keeps me focused and energised gets snuffed out, like a candle merrily blazing away suddenly gutted by an unexpected gust of wind. You’d think I’d have a tough old skin and wouldn’t let it upset me when someone close vents their feelings without thought for mine, but sadly, I don’t. This year, Santa may have to put a few extra copies of Anger Management For Dummies under someone’s Christmas tree!

Everyone has an off day, no one manages to be cheerful and charming twenty four seven. But give a thought to your nearest and dearest, to shop assistants everywhere, workers in call centres, the dole office, the passport office, the post office workers without whom we’d none of us post or even receive a card at this time of year, the workers on strike and the young man begging for spare cash to feed his wife and two kids in my home town today.

Life can be tough, for some more so than for others. Perhaps we all need to learn how to take stock, keep our frustrations and irritations to ourselves, and enjoy the company of family and friends while we have them. Earlier today I watched a documentary celebrating the life of Dublin born Jim Stynes who has became a sporting legend in Australia. He’s having a tough time of it right now but through all of his trials he manages to be an inspiration to all who know him.

Watch the full documentary here, available until December 28th

A Load of Books

He came up with a list of ten books that he wanted to give his beloved wife for Christmas; great titles, all new, all recently reviewed so he’d certainly done his homework. He knows what she has read, and he also knows what she would like to read so this list was no haphazard pick of possibilities. This was a careful, thoughtful, mindful gift that will remind her why she married him when Santa plops down the chimney with her luscious literary lot.

I’m not going to spoil her surprise so I’ve come up with my own list for someone special in your life:

1. The Brave by Nicholas Evans
2. The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt
3. One Day by David Nicholls
4. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
5. The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
6. Nemesis by Philip Roth
7. Lovesong by Alex Miller
8. The Sickness by Alberto Barrera Tyszka
9. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
10. Room by Emma Donoghue

Mimetic Desire

Tony Judt strikes envy in my literary heart. Each word that he writes matters, every phrase swings delightfully, each paragraph encapsulates thoughts and emotions in such a way that we, the readers, can envelope ourselves in his outpourings. I know he departed this mortal world earlier in the year, but Judt has left us a fabulous body of work: history, politics, and now, memoir in essay form with The Memory Chalet.

‘According to the literary theorist, René Girard, we come to yearn for and eventually love those who are loved by others. I cannot confirm this from personal experience – I have a history of frustrated longings for objects and women who were palpably unavailable to me but of no particular interest to anyone else. But there is one sphere of my life in which, implausibly, Girard’s theory of mimetic desire could be perfectly adapted to my experience: if by “mimetic” we mean mutuality and symmetry, rather than mimicry and contestation, I can vouch for the credibility of his proposition. I love trains, and they have always loved me back.’

I too, love trains. I appreciate cars, tolerate buses, get a kick out of air planes, enjoy my bicycle, fancy a scooter, abhor skateboards (only because I have no balance), but loooooove trains. Hmmmm. I think Tony Judt puts it better!