‘My Greatest Race’ – memoir of European champion diagnosed with stage four cancer
This week it’s non-fiction books for the holidays, a proper dozen, with some fascinating titles to take to the beach, the back yard or the bed.
CTRL: Essays on Video Games Ed by Dean Fee (Lilliput €16.95) is what the title says it is. Which might not grab you straight away until you read the list of contributors, including Roisin Kiberd, John Patrick McHugh, Rob Doyle, Lisa McInerney, Sheila Armstrong and more. These are the names of some of our best younger writers and this collection is fascinating. Are games art? Are they a waste of precious time? Dip in and find out, it’s quite a ride.
Lesley Bond’s Blasket Bound (Gill €18.99) tells the story of the author and her partner, the first couple to be chosen as six-month caretakers on Blasket. Forget about Peig Sayers, oh ye of a certain age, this is no chronicle of misery. But there were times when their stay was hard, when they were tired but had to continue, when long nights didn’t bring sleep. It’s still a celebration, though, of heritage and history and peaceful, reflective living.
Patricia Cornwell’s True Crime: A Memoir (Sphere €35) is an engrossing look back at the life of one of the world’s most famous thriller writers. She endured a childhood of abuse and neglect and was for a time in horrendous foster care. She always overcame the huge obstacles in her life, becoming a police reporter first, then working on research in a medical examiner’s office and eventually writing fiction. It’s been an extraordinary life, and this is an inspiring story, as engrossing as any of her novels.
Kelly Geoghegan’s Sleep Baby Sleep (Gill €18.99) promises to deliver on a proven, routine-based method of getting your baby to sleep being practised successfully worldwide. Gone are the harsh routines of ‘self-soothing’; this is a much kinder approach to getting the little ‘uns into a rhythm that will guarantee they’ll sleep and, crucially, stay asleep for longer periods. A perfect gift for new parents.
Simon Rogers’ What We Ask Google (Penguin €23.99) is subtitled ‘A surprisingly hopeful picture of mankind’ and in it he explores, through data analytics, the most frequently asked questions directed at the search engine. Rogers reveals that loneliness is most keenly felt at night, that human connection tends to happen in daylight hours, that love, parenting and health matter more to us than politics, and that across cultures and continents, our concerns are universal. A most welcome and fascinating look at not so much the internet as the human race.
Susan Bennett’s One Year (Gill €18.99) follows the author and her husband, who, incredibly, were both diagnosed with MS in the same week. What to do? Well, this pair take off in their trusty camper van, taking a year out of their busy lives to explore Europe. The reader follows them through getting lost, the pain of dealing with French doctors, engine breakdowns, Spanish flu and a whole lot more. A life-affirming story of stopping in order to start again.
For the history fans, Liam O’Connor’s The Sailor and the Seamstress (Gill €18.99) tells the story of O’Connor’s great-grandparents in 19th century Ireland. William Kennedy joined the Royal Navy in 1854. Norrie Grady survived the Famine and worked as a domestic in Trabolgan House, where her needlework skills were noted. They married in 1859, were posted in various coastguard stations and eventually settled in Dingle. An important record of family and work life in a time of great social and political upheaval.
Katja Hoyer’s Weimar (Allen Lane €35) is another must for history fans but also for readers in general. We associate the name Weimar with Hitler’s regime, but it is, of course, a city in central Germany, home to the likes of Goethe and Schiller, Nietzsche and Liszt. Hoyer follows the town’s history from 1919 through to 1939, as Hitler rose to the height of its powers. How did a city that dreamt so fondly of a better world become such a cradle of evil? It’s a harrowing and compelling read.
Miriam Mulcahy’s Walking to the Foot of the Sky (Eriu €16.99) follows the author on a 700km hike on the Beara Breifne Way, from Cork to Cavan. She encounters problems, but nothing like those encountered by Domhnall Cam O’Sullivan Beare and his followers, as they fled the murderous Crown Forces of Elizabeth I. A story about walking, about history and about personal reckoning.
Marie Gleeson’s Be Like The Sea (Gill €19.99) is an inspiring memoir from one of Ireland’s first female navy captains. From her beginning in a gruelling training bootcamp through to leading an operation that seized €700m worth of drugs, she was a leader among men and embraced every challenge along the way. She took her survival skills into her personal life, where she was to overcome the greatest challenge of all.
Dr Alan Desmond’s What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You About Food (Yellow Kite €18.99) is a gastroenterologist’s examination of why, in the wake of our best ever healthcare, chronic illness is rising and our metabolic health is collapsing. Our modern food system is driving poor health, he insists, and we need to change it. How? What we eat is the answer. But it’s not a diet book, it’s a roadmap to a longer, better, healthier life.
Ciara McGeean’s My Greatest Race (Gill €22.99) is the memoir of a European Champion who, in the height of her elite athletic career, was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Written with Cliona Foley, it follows Ciara’s journey to world-class athletics and then to the diagnosis that would change her life. Her recent interview with Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ1 garnered a huge outpouring of love and support and this book sparks the same effect.
Footnotes
It’s Hinterland all the way this coming weekend in Kells. Don’t miss it. See hinterland.ie for details.
And another reminder: Mullingar Lit Fest is the following weekend, July 3 to 5. Don’t miss that one either, see mullingarliteraryfestival.com for details.
Further afield, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival runs from June 26 to July 5 and there are some big names in the lineup. See westcorkmusic.ie for details.