Good Books

[Pikeman]

Coming to that time of year where I splash out on a rake of Sports books.

Definitely getting this one by Christy O’Connor-his Last Man Standing was very good.

Anyone read it yet?

http://www.penguin.com.au/Covers/9781844882526.gif

In 1999, the hurlers of St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield won the All-Ireland club championship. That winter, they became only the second club in history to win successive Munster club titles, and the following March they became the only Munster club to reach successive All-Ireland club finals.

Ten years on, St Joseph’s is in a totally different place, well down the pecking order not just nationally, but in County Clare. The senior team is still spearheaded by many members of the 1999 All-Ireland winning team, who are raging at the dying of the light.

At the beginning of the 2009 season, the team, club and parish were deeply wounded by two family tragedies. One of those tragedies – the sudden death of one member of the 1999 team – cut deep into the soul of the senior team. And that was not the last tragedy to strike the club …

As part of the healing process, the senior team made a pact to honour the memory of those lost by defying the odds and becoming county champions once again. A campaign fuelled by emotion and pain began promisingly, but slowly began to unravel into one of the stormiest and controversial in the club’s history.

The story of St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield is unique; but it is also a story that anyone connected with one of the 1,700 other GAA clubs will relate to. From player infighting to player-management stand-offs, team-bonding and on-pitch battles, The Club is a chronicle of the 2009 season told with unflinching honesty by Christy O’Connor, who covers GAA for the Sunday Times and who has been the St Joseph’s senior team goalkeeper for 20 years.

This is a story like no other, a fly-on-the-wall tale of the effort, agony and struggles that define the journey undertaken every season by every club side. This is grass-roots GAA at its purest and rawest, a great story brilliantly told.

[Watch_The_Break]

@Pikeman

Coming to that time of year where I splash out on a rake of Sports books.

Definitely getting this one by Christy O’Connor-his Last Man Standing was very good.

Anyone read it yet?

I might get it today. Read a review on it in the tribune on Sunday and it sounds good - http://www.tribune.ie/sport/article/2010/nov/07/meet-play-love-an-insiders-guide-to-the-complex-wo/

[Watch_The_Break]

Anyone read either of those Waterford books? Saw an interview with Shanahan last week and he came across as an alright sort, but I don’t think I’d be bothered reading what he has to say.

[KIB_man]

@Pikeman

Coming to that time of year where I splash out on a rake of Sports books.

Definitely getting this one by Christy O’Connor-his Last Man Standing was very good.

Anyone read it yet?

I’m looking forward to getting it. I know a few of the players and they are dreading it. Should be fun.

freakeconomics is a good book - parts of it not worth reading but some interesting theories

[myboyblue]

2010 Irish Book Awards

The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year: Room by Emma Donoghue.

RTE Radio 1′s The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award: Come What May by Donal Og Cusack.

The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year: Dark Times in the City by Gene Kerrigan.

The Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year: A Coward If I Return, A Hero If I Fall by Neil Richardson.

Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year: The Oh My God Delusion by Ross O’Carroll Kelly.

Energise Sport Irish Sports Book of the Year: A Football Man by John Giles

Irish Newcomer of the Year: JFK in Ireland: Four Days That Changed A President by Ryan Tubridy.

International Education Services Best Irish Published Book of the Year: Good Mood Food by Donal Skehan.

The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children’s Book of the Year: On the Road with Mavis and Marge by Niamh Sharkey (junior winner); Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil by Derek Landy (senior winner).

[KinvarasPassion]

Coming to the end of one of the best books I ever read.

Papillon.

Inspirational stuff, i’ll miss it when I finish it.

[caoimhaoin]

The Club turned out to be nothing special. I’d say he fell out with a few lads alright, if they are the types to take things from Hurling/Football personally.

[myboyblue]

Top 100 selling books of all time acc to Guardian stats

Never read the Stieg Larrson books, might give them a rattle in the near future. Currently reading a biog of Robert Downey Junior, he’s lived some life to say the least.

[Watch_The_Break]

Reading a book at the moment called ‘One Soldier’s War in Chechnya’ by Arkady Babchenko. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. The lives of Russian soldiers go way beyond what you might normally think of as misery. There’s a bit near the start where they kill a friendly dog, then cook and eat him as a kind of stew with a tin of tomatoes or something. You think it’s horrible but within a couple of chapters you start to look on it fondly as a rare moment of levity. The accounts of the continuous beatings in the army is unbelievable. The author is beaten nearly to death on several occasions, and it’s a completely acceptable part of life in the military.

Some amazing stuff in it. It honestly makes the boys in Generation Kill look like a bunch of absolute pussies.

[caoimhaoin]

@Watch The Break

Reading a book at the moment called ‘One Soldier’s War in Chechnya’ by Arkady Babchenko. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. The lives of Russian soldiers go way beyond what you might normally think of as misery. There’s a bit near the start where they kill a friendly dog, then cook and eat him as a kind of stew with a tin of tomatoes or something. You think it’s horrible but within a couple of chapters you start to look on it fondly as a rare moment of levity. The accounts of the continuous beatings in the army is unbelievable. The author is beaten nearly to death on several occasions, and it’s a completely acceptable part of life in the military.

Some amazing stuff in it. It honestly makes the boys in Generation Kill look like a bunch of absolute pussies.

Thats because they are absolute pussies.

[fenwaypark]

Dunwoody’s method in my madness is a good read.

[Fagan_ODowd]

Been on a bit of a reading spree this summer.

I enjoyed the following

The three Quirke novels by good Wexican Benjamin Black aka J Banville. Important to read them in sequence and start with Christine Falls. Who knew there was so much sex in 1950s Ireland.

The Wallander books

Red Plenty a fact based novel about the Soviet economic miracle is a tough but interesting read.

Scorecasting a kind of a Freakonomics for Sport is a very interesting read. Analyses things like referee bias and home advantage and draws some interesting conclusions.

[Rocko]

I read both Freedom and Corrections by Jonathan Franzen recently. Both very good, preferred Freedom.

Trying to read A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz at the moment but not loving it.

Waiting to get Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which is about the factors that contribute to excellence and sounds boring and self-helpy when I put it like that but it’s supposed to be a good read.

[Fagan_ODowd]

Outliers is a very good read Rocko

@Rocko

I read both Freedom and Corrections by Jonathan Franzen recently. Both very good, preferred Freedom.

Trying to read A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz at the moment but not loving it.

Waiting to get Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which is about the factors that contribute to excellence and sounds boring and self-helpy when I put it like that but it’s supposed to be a good read.

[Julio_Geordio]

@Rocko

I read both Freedom and Corrections by Jonathan Franzen recently. Both very good, preferred Freedom.

Trying to read A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz at the moment but not loving it.

Waiting to get Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which is about the factors that contribute to excellence and sounds boring and self-helpy when I put it like that but it’s supposed to be a good read.

Gladwell wrote the Tipping Point didn’t he?
That was a decent enough read even though I’ve read a few things which suggest some of his examples may have been off.

[Fagan_ODowd]

Another very good novel is One Day by David Nicholl which is about to be made into a blockbuster romcom. Don’t let that put you off. It’s a great book for people who remember the 80s and 90s.

A shit book for people who remember the 80s and 90s is Reelin in the Years by radio DJ Mark Radcliffe. Idea is good. He picks a tune from every one of his 55 years and riffs on it for a few pages. But the execution of the idea is really bad.

[Rocko]

I hated One Day. I thought every reference to the years in question was horribly forced and jarring. I was raging reading it.

[Fagan_ODowd]

@Rocko

I hated One Day. I thought every reference to the years in question was horribly forced and jarring. I was raging reading it.

Ah well. I thought it was bang on.

[Fagan_ODowd]

Eightball Boogie by Declan Burke. Raggedy enough plotline but ridiculously good dialogue. Does dialogue like an Irish Elmore Leonard. Basically about a private eye in medium sized West of Ireland town. Somewhere miserable like Ballina or Carrick on Shannon.

[Thrawneen]

@Rocko

I read both Freedom and Corrections by Jonathan Franzen recently. Both very good, preferred Freedom.

Trying to read A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz at the moment but not loving it.

Waiting to get Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which is about the factors that contribute to excellence and sounds boring and self-helpy when I put it like that but it’s supposed to be a good read.

Read Freedom there recently. Fucking phenomenal. Shed a tear when I finished it.
Reading Robert Fisk - The Great War for Civilisation on the bog at the minute. Marvelous stuff but I’m in the market for a decent novel. Might just plump for Franzen’s Corrections.