Dead or Alive – Tom Clancy

Release Date: 7th December.

Jack Ryan, Jr., and their colleagues have waged an effective campaign against terrorists such as the mastermind, Emir. These dudes are on his trail and intend to bring him in… Dead or Alive. I wonder where the inspiration for the title came from?

Read this Next – Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark

Release Date: 2nd December.

From the authors of How NOT to Write a Book comes a book for those who struggle with the question: “What shall I read next?”. Anyone else like the cover?

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici – C.W. Gortner

Release Date: 6th January.

Gortner (The Last Queen) vividly depicts the life of one of the most notorious, yet misunderstood, women in history. Then again, aren’t most people in history misunderstood? Especially the notorious. I should know…

The Holmes Affair – Graham Moore

Release Date: 6th January.

For over a century, the secrets of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s missing diary have lain buried. Now all that’s about to change with the stories “Victorian London” and “Modern-day New York”… Apparently…

This Christmas is going to be a one for belt-tightening for many of us – but this doesn’t mean that gifts need to consist of socks alone! There are many books, both new and old, which will bring a smile to the face of a loved one of any age.

For the Mother:

Working the Red Carpet – Lorraine Keane

Some critics have already asked how many people would be interested in the autobiography of a former AA RoadWatch presenter – but the proof that there’s some scandal worth reading in this recent book was the venomous reaction by TV3. Having left the station’s Xposé programme in circumstances which were strained, to say the least, Keane seems determined to have the last laugh. Let the Irish Mammy be the judge of that, says I.

Delia (Ebury)

Delia’s Happy Christmas – Delia Smith

The paragon of Christmas cooks, Delia Smith has celebrated her ruby anniversary of cookbook-writing with this wonderful new publication. Delia’s Classic Christmas Cake recipe has been in print for over 40 years and I am told it has never been bettered, but the wonderchef has also created Chestnut Cupcakes recipe to satisfy modern tastes. She also includes a supposedly foolproof recipe for a Traditional Roast Turkey and all the trimmings, as well as that staple of Stephen’s Day –what to do with leftovers. What the lads mightn’t know about Smith is that she took a five-year career break in 2003 to concentrate on Norwich Football Club, where she remains a director – so you can take comfort from the impeccable credentials of your recipe-giver!

For the Father:

Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories – Simon Winchester

“Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.” This questionable quote by Dionysius Lardner, 19^th Century Irish scientific writer and lecturer, opens this epic book which seeks to chronicle the “pond” from just about every angle imaginable. Drawing on more biography than one might think possible in a book which is essentially geographic in nature, Winchester manages to make his subject engaging and genuinely exciting, for anyone with an interest in either (or, preferably, both!) history and storytelling. From the arts to politics to geology to war, there is little in the history of our western aquatic neighbour which is missed. Hopefully dads all over Cork will agree.

For the Little Brother:

Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex – Eoin Colfer

This book is the latest in the fantastic series by the Wexfordian author. While he might have been playing with fire in his recent attempt to write a new book for the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” franchise, he certainly is more than at home when fleshing out the fairy-inhabited world of his teenaged genius, Artemis Fowl. An intelligent, mischievous and, above all, bloody well-written addition to a series which has yet to disappoint.

Skullduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil – Derek Landy

A second for the little bro, because if he’s anything like I was at that age (and God help you if he is!) then he’s going to spend much of the Christmas break devouring any book he lays his hands on. Irishman Landy’s fifth and latest offering in the Skullduggery Pleasant series comes less than a year after “Dark Days,” the previous title, and for that alone it attracted some attention. If your sibling conforms to the stereotype of the tweenage boy who loves everything zombie, skeleton and generally bump-in-the-night-related (innuendo aside…) then he will love this tale of mages and Soul Catchers. Beware, however, for as with Artemis Fowl, you may find that you’re now expected to keep buying the little darling the latest in the series as they come out…

For the Adrenalin Junkie:

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption – Laura Hillenbrand

Adrenalin junkies are always a hard group to buy a book for, since they won’t sit still long enough to unwrap it, let alone read it. That’s why this true story, newly-published by the author of Seabiscuit, might just fit the bill. Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie Zamperini – a juvenile delinquent, turned-Olympic runner, turned-Army hero. After a crash into the Pacific, the three years of his life that followed became a tale which is almost too catastrophic to believe. Having talked to the man himself, and taken more than seven years painstakingly fact-checking and doing background work, Hillenbrand has served up a treat for any would-be Castaway.

For the Grandfather:

Autobiography of Mark Twain: Vol. 1

Mark Twain is his own greatest character in this brilliant self-portrait, the first of three volumes. It is published complete for the first time, now, a century after his death – Twain wanted his more honest (read: scalding) opinions kept under wraps until anyone affected by them was only a memory. Twain meanders from observation to anecdote and between past and present. There are Tom Sawyeresque reminisces; acid-etched profiles of friends and enemies, and umpteen tales of the author’s own foibles, including his slide(s) into bankruptcy. Twain’s memoirs are a masterpiece from which his vision of America–half paradise, half swindle–emerges with indelible force.

Last month saw the release of the hotly anticipated Book 13 of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. The Wheel of Time (WoT) franchise first hit the shelves in 1990, and since then has become a huge success with fantasy lovers worldwide. Robert Jordan’s masterpiece consists of fourteen volumes, with the final out next year. The series alone has sold over 44 million copies and has appeared numerous times on the bestsellers list worldwide. The books share similar details with J.J.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings; however Robert Jordan’s series features a far more detailed and larger world, and I feel, is better written, with the most complex and engaging plot ever told. The plot is far too intricate to write about in a single review, it would literally take pages upon pages to simply scratch the surface of WoT. So I cut it down to the bare bones.

At the dawn of time, the Creator forged the universe and the Wheel of Time, which, as it turns, spins all lives. The Wheel has seven spokes, each representing an age, and it rotates under the One Power, which flows from the True Source. Essentially composed of male and female halves in opposition and in unison, this power turns the Wheel. Those humans who can use this power are known as channelers; Aes Sedai. The Creator imprisoned its antithesis, Shai’tan (or Dark One), at the moment of creation, sealing him away from the Wheel. However an Aes Sedai experiment inadvertently breached the Dark One’s prison, allowing his influence into the world. He rallied the powerful, the corrupt and the ambitious to his cause and these servants began an effort to free the Dark One fully from his prison, so he might break the Wheel of Time and end existence. The series follows about a dozen characters as they try to overcome madness, corruption and the dark one once and for all.

When I first began reading the series in 2008, I wondered how could there possibly be fourteen books of the series, with each book spanning from 700-1000 pages; it was another “Lost”, I convinced myself. However, just finishing book thirteen I find myself wondering how can there not be thirteen books of the series? In fact, if anything, thirteen books are too little, the sheer size and scope of the Robert Jordan’s world is unparalleled to anything else. Each book improved on the previous and while the plot is the most complex I’ve ever read, it makes complete sense. Although Robert Jordan died two years ago, his final volume is continued by Brandon Sanderson. Thankfully Mr. Jordan left such highly detailed notes and audio tapes on the final volume that Sanderson was able to finish his masterpiece.

The Wheel of Time series is one of the greatest stories of all time and I urge anyone interested, whether you like fantasy or not, to read this remarkable series. You won’t regret it, I promise: the series will take you on a journey that you’ll never forget.

Recent winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize, The Finkler Question is, strangely, a step away from the ‘normal’ winners of the prize. It is, in fact, a funny novel. Fail to comprehend my meaning? “Funny; adj; affording fun, mirth-producing, comical, facetious” (courtesy of OED online). I can almost hear you saying “ah” in understanding. Obtaining a 3-2 vote (in quite an intense brisk hour), it became the first humorous novel to win the Booker.

Since the announcement was made on the 12th of October, the most common question has been “is it really a funny book?”. It may not be ‘laugh out loud’ fiction, but it is witty at times (not as funny as it is claimed to be by many critics and even the author himself, it must be admitted). Revolving around the three main characters’ different lives, Jacobson has produced a clever comic-tragedy: a funny yet melancholy creation questioning life, love, loss, and fear both as a Jew and as a Gentile.

Julian Treslove, labelled a “sentimental psychopath”, tends to fall in love with every woman he meets with a pulse. Libor Sevcik, the aging Czech, consistently reminisces about his dead wife, Malkie. The second most common question has been “what the hell is a ‘finkler’?”. Simple answer: a Jew. “Why such a strange word?”. Finkler is the surname of the third protagonist, and was mentally coined by Julian in his observations of his old school friend, Samuel Finkler, who is a renowned philosopher, widowed Jewish anti-Zionist, and a leading member of an organisation called the ‘ASHamed Jews’ (huh?). The three protagonists share one thing in common: their bad luck in relationships.

After all three of them meet one particular evening, Julian is mugged – effectively in broad daylight. The unfolding of the incident occupies his mind, and shame prevents him from reporting it, or even telling his friends; a middle-aged man mugged by a woman near the BBC (which he fervently loathes).

“Why did she want, of all peoples balls, his balls?”. His persistent examination of the crime leads him to conclude it was an act of anti-Semitism – but he isn’t a Jew. This is the opening of the integral question to the book: what does it mean to be a Jew in the twenty-first century?

Both Libor and Samuel are Jews and frequently discuss Israel, Palestine, and worldwide opinions of Jewish people. Julian, of course, feels excluded and fascinated by them: how are they so much more intelligent and sharply witty? What way do they think? He thus endeavours to learn their “secrets” and customs in modern London society.

An entertaining, yet sometimes overly-political, novel which confronts the anti-Semitism in society, the darker side of humanity, and the nature of friendships, it won Jacobson a tidy sum of £50,000. It won’t be to everyone’s liking – in fact it’s not really my ‘type of book’, yet I still enjoyed it – but it does offer a good read (a great read to some). If this book doesn’t seem like your choice, pick up a copy of Emma Donoghue’s Room or any of the other books shortlisted for this years Booker. The Finkler Question may have seemed like the ‘underdog’ of the six books to many people, but, nevertheless, it is an illuminating and gently funny creation.

Originally appeared in the November 2010 issue of Motley

© Vintage

It is little wonder that this novel by the Japanese-born, British-raised, Kazuo Ishiguro was shortlisted for the Booker Prize – an award which he had previously won with his 1989 novel, The Remains of the Day. This is a particularly “Bookerish” book: understated, discomforting, occasionally sparse and even downright cold – yet without ever being bleak. To borrow a phrase from Auden, this is a work which “speaks quietly, but does not mumble,” and, in so doing, it is chillingly effective at provoking thought in the reader.

This book is primarily a study of relationships, and it throws the relationships of the three main characters into sharp relief by its setting. We are told that this is “England, late 1990s,” but it quickly becomes apparent that it is a skewed take on the real thing, where the rules of human existence are not as we know them, and where a key element of our humanity is missing. Written as a reminiscence by our narrator, Kathy (who is now a 31-year-old carer, and trying to put some order on her thoughts as she enters the next phase of her life), we are side-by-side with her as she uncovers the darker realities of life outside of her boarding school, Hailsham.

Never Let Me Go is a book which seems to be caught between two worlds, each with their own distinctive light. The one is the harsh, uncompromising glare of surgical lights, while the other is the contrasting, muted warmth of the light from a half-dead fire. It is this contrast, between homeliness and foreignness, nostalgia and shame, which provides the spirit of the tale. As the mysteries of our characters’ lives begin to clear up for them, equally we begin to see the pieces of the jigsaw fall into place. Thus, a sub-text emerges, one of lost innocence, and this sub-text makes us view the relationships of the characters as merely a vehicle for this more subversive message.

Comparatively speaking, there is an odd resemblance between this work and that of the Irishman John Banville – the author who won the Booker for The Sea in 2005, the year in which Never Let Me Go was shortlisted. Interestingly, the Times of London reported at the time of the 2005 award that the panel had whittled the shortlist down to those two novels, and it was only the chair John Sutherland’s casting vote that decided the winner. Moreover, 2005 was the second occasion on which the two authors each had a book considered by the Booker panel – the first being Ishiguro’s 1989 award, where he held off Banville’s The Book of Evidence.

History aside, the reason that the resemblance between the pair seems odd is that there is no sign

in Never Let Me Go of the gleeful (and almost characteristic) use of extended and obscure vocabulary in which Banville so evidently revels. On the contrary, Ishiguro presents us with a vocabulary which is conversational, limited, and almost as damaged as the characters themselves. The comparison, then, is to be seen in the aforementioned admirable crafting of tempo, and, above all, the sense of place. It appears that Kazuo Ishiguro has succeeded in doing that which Andrew Motion states is the object of poetry: “I want them to feel they’re in a world they thought they knew, but which turns out to be stranger, more charged, more disturbed than they realised.” It is this which leads this reviewer to conclude that this book has the potential to be a quiet classic.

Some other works by Kazuo Ishiguro:

A Pale View of Hills

An Artist of the Floating World

The Remains of the Day

The Unconsoled

When We Were Orphans

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October 28^th: The Confession – John Grisham

An innocent man is about to be executed. Only a guilty man can save him. Sound familiar?

October 28^th: A Year With Aslan – C.S. Lewis

This daily reader contains 365 selections from The Chronicles of Narnia – providing daily inspiration, solace and guidance. Or so we’re told…

November 9^th: Full Dark, No Stars – Stephen King

Another new collection of four never-before-published stories from Stephen King. How many stories can a man have? That may be another story for Mr. King…

“This is the mortal world. It is a world where nothing is lost, where all is accounted for while yet the mystery of things is preserved” and this is certainly true of the parallel world set in John Banville’s The Infinities. A quasi-tragedy laced with meditations, this novel offers a clever creation, bawdy yet erudite humour, and a delightfully unusual read.

Old Adam Godley, a renowned mathematical genius, is comatose after a stroke (induced by a difficult bowel movement) and is brought home to die by his wife Ursula and their troubled daughter Petra. While “going about his dying”, old Adam’s son and daughter-in-law arrive to wait with the rest of the family. But they are not the only ones to attend the cottage.

An unconscious father who proved the existence of multiple worlds, an alcoholic mother who hides her empty bottles in a laurel hedge, an eccentric sister who is committed to compiling an almanac of ailments, an illiterate cowman besotted at the old-fashioned housemaid, an aging dog, and two guests who have come to pay homage to the dying man greet young Adam (old Adam’s son, of course) and his wife Helen at the country cottage.

While the mourners-in-waiting anticipate the hour of Adam’s death, the mischievous Greek gods come to play. As always, Zeus – that’s ‘Dad’ to you, Hermes, our dynamic narrator – ‘has his way’ with the beautiful Helen and is pining for her like a lost puppy. That wily god should thank the Fates that his wife didn’t find out…

The mysteries of being mortal are one of the key focuses of this novel: love and life, grief and regret, death and ageing. Despite the looming presence of death in the cottage, this novel is full of life. In fact, it is a reflection on life: the wonderful and wicked predicament of being human. Why do we not notice that at dawn “darkness sifts from the air like fine soft soot and light spreads slowly out of the east”? What does it mean to be a part of this world?  Even the gods are jealous of our mortality; they linger for eternity and occasionally watch us, their creations, for entertainment – but they cannot experience nor comprehend love, and are hence fascinated by it.

Banville flourishes his skill with narration and language in this novel: every image, every glance, every thought, every feeling is beautifully presented in a world where the human and divine spheres collide from dawn to dusk with unpredictable consequences. As readers of Banville’s previous works will know, he really likes his words. Approach this book with a dictionary for words such as ‘matutinal’!

Despite its verbosity, the impact of Banville’s powerful use of language is neither burdened nor diminished. Prose becomes stunning poetry, and the narrative voices of characters are seamless. Even the names of the characters enhance certain facets of their personalities: “Godley”, pronounced as ‘godly’; “Adam”, the biblical figure of the first man; and “Helen”, an echo of ‘Helen of Troy’, the most beautiful woman in Greece.

Banville’s revival of the Pantheon of old gods is certainly to be admired; it is artful, elegant, and entertaining. Who says that the old gods are dying, or are already dead?

Unless Hera hasn’t read The Infinities and divorced Zeus (at last), I’m sure the craftsman John Banville has a reserved seat at Olympus next to the lightning-bolt hurler and The Infinities has earned a place on the shelves of Olympus’ library.

Some other works by John Banville

Doctor Copernicus

Kepler

The Book of Evidence

Ghosts

The Sea

©- Picador