May's Book Newsletter

May's Newsletter is now available with details of the month's new releases and a roundup of book news and interviews. Email us for your copy.

The City and The City Wins Arthur C Clarke Award

China Mieville's The City and The City has won the prestigious Arthur C Clarke Award. The annual award is presented for the best science fiction novel of the year. You will recall that I reviewed the book in March of last year and it provided one of the most interesting and thought provoking reads of the year.

Mieville commented afterwards

"One of the many reasons this means so much to me is that I tried to draw on different literary inspirations than I had previously done, to write in a different voice, to channel a different kind of 'weird'. Trying to do something different was a huge pleasure and excitement, but of course there's no guarantee that you'll do a good job. To have the effort received like this means an incredible amount."

Mieville's follow up book Kraken has just been released and has made it to my TBR pile already.

#1b1t2010 - American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The winner of 1 book 1 twitter is, as predicted, Neil Gaiman's American Gods. All that remains is for everyone to get reading and tweeting their thoughts on the book in 140 characters or less.

If you've read the book let us know what you thought of it in our comments section, where you can use more than 140 characters!

#1b1t

Fancy being part of a global book group, then head over to http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/one-book-one-twitter-let-the-voting-begin/ to find out which book has been chosen for the global read. As I write voting is still open - just. The likely outcome is that the book will be American Gods by Neil Gaiman, closely followed by Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Those on Twitter will be able to comment on the read and share their thoughts on the book - in 140 characters or less.

I'll be trying to fit the book into my TBR pile and will let you know what I think.

PS. Putting the final touches to next months Book Newsletter, if you want a copy sent to your email then email us.

Exciting Book News

We have not been posting as we should, partly because we are doing technological stuff and partly because I got tired. I didn't get tired of reading, just trying to keep up with new books.

However I am now to receive proof copies of books due out later in the year so I should be able to get ahead of the game! I am reading something due out in August and very funny and slightly twisted it is to - reviews will be posted in July but I will also try and post about my other reading, be it new or old, literature or genre fiction (I have had a strange addiction to science fiction recently).

On my TBR pile

The border between Maine and Canada is porous. Anything can be smuggled across it: drugs, cash, weapons, people. Now a group of disenchanted former soldiers has begun its own smuggling operation, and what is being moved is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men's hearts. But the soldiers' actions have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other, the killer known as the Collector ...

Acclaimed as one of the funniest and most assured Irish novels of recent years, "An Evening of Long Goodbyes" is the story of Dubliner Charles Hythloday and the heroic squandering of the family inheritance. Featuring drinking, greyhound racing, vanishing furniture, more drinking, old movies, assorted Dublin lowlife, eviction and the perils of community theatre, Paul Murray's debut novel is a tour de force of comedic writing wrapped in an honest-to-goodness tale of a mann and a family - living in denial.

If I die before I wake ...A grisly murder is committed at a health resort situated in a recently renovated farmhouse, which turns out to be notorious for being haunted. Attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir is called upon by the owner of the resort -- the prime suspect in the case -- to represent him. Her investigations uncover some very disturbing occurrences at the farm decades earlier -- things that have never before seen the light of day ...MY SOUL TO TAKE is a chilling, dark and witty crime novel, and a welcome return for Thora, the heroine of the highly-acclaimed LAST RITUALS.

Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes along much less often than once in a
lifetime: a perfect, and perfectly preserved, giant squid. But what does it mean when the creature suddenly and impossibly disappears?
For curator Billy Harrow it's the start of a headlong pitch into a London of warring cults, surreal magic, apostates and assassins. It might just be that the creature he's been preserving is more than a biological rarity: there are those who are sure it's a god.
A god that someone is hoping will end the world.

Fits and Giggles

Thomas in our Fermoy shop is organising a charity comedy night in aid of Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Society.

A host of Cork's finest comedians will gather to raise money for this very worthy cause. All comedians have generously donated their time for free which means every cent made is going to charity. If you can make it it you're in for a great night.

This night of fun is on the 7th May in the LV Bar on MacCurtain Street Cork. Tickets are €5 on the door. For more info email Thomas at fermoybooks@eircom.net

TELL YOUR FRIENDS!