Episode 7

The Accidental Tourist was published in 1985 and made into an Oscar winning film starring Geena Davis, Kathleen Turner and William Hurt. By turns dark, heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud hilarious, The Accidental Tourist tells the tale of William Leary who writes travel guidebooks for people who hate to travel. It has been a year since the murder of his 12 year old son. The story opens with William's wife, Sarah, announcing that she is leaving him after which follows his descent into a kind of domestic madness where all the systems he has put in place for protecting him from the world no longer seem to work. Enter dog-trainer extraordinaire, Muriel Pritchett, ostensibly to put manners on William's troubled dog, Edward. Despite his rigorous barriers, William finds himself drawn to the outrageously unsuitable Muriel who represents everything in the world William has been at pains to avoid. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, The Accidental Tourist is one of our favourite of Anne Tyler's twenty-four novels. We hope you enjoy!

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Episode 6

The VanOn this episode we re-read Roddy Doyle’s, The Van.Shortlisted for The Booker prize, it is the last novel of his superb trilogy about the Rabbitte family of North Dublin. Two old friends who are down on their luck and short on options decide that fast food might be the best way to make some fast cash! So Jimmy and his best friend Bimbo buy an old fish and chip van and go into business in Dublin, in the 1990’s … but not everything goes exactly to plan. An ingenious look at the triumphs and indignities of family life, wonderfully funny, touching with a lot of grease thrown in. We hope you will enjoy!

The Van by Roddy Doyle.

Maeve's first novel, Light A Penny Candle is as fresh now as when it was first published, over 40 years ago.

Re-reading Maeve's debut novel made us fall in love with her all over again and we're pretty sure you will too. An epic tale of two friends who meet when they are ten. Aisling is an Irish country girl and Elizabeth is a refugee from London during the blitz. In spite of their many differences - cultural, political, religious - the pair become great friends and their friendship sustains them throughout the twenty years the novel spans.

Light A Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy

It's so hard to pick our favourite Marian novel but if we had to, Rachel's Holiday might be it!!

Rachel Walsh can't be a drug addict? Surely she'd be thinner! First published in 1997, Rachel's Holiday should come with a health warning: you may puke with the laughing. But lurking behind the laughs is a compelling and dark tale of drug addiction told with an authenticity that is as refreshing now as it was back then.

Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes

Book Birds talk about Edna O'Brien's classic debut novel which was banned, burned and denounced from the pulpit on its explosive release, back in 1960.

At 90, Edna O'Brien is an undisputed icon of Irish literature. But this wasn't always the case. On publication of her first novel, The Country Girls, Edna - living in London by then - was vilified by Irish patriarchy, Church and State. Back then, in 1960, Irish people read her in secret, passing the dog-eared book from one feverish hand to the next, beneath school desks. It has been our pleasure to re-read this little gem of a novel, a little over sixty years after it was published. Like all brilliant classics, The Country Girls not only stands the test of time, but gets better and better with each re-read. If you're expecting sex, drugs and rock and roll, you won't find it here. What you will find is a coming-of-age story of two friends from the wilds of Co. Clare, as they gather their courage and their wits about them and take their first tentative steps out into the world.

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

Book Birds talk about Northern Irish writer, Sharon Owens' smash hit debut novel, published in 2003. 

Are you hungry? Do you need something to warm the cockles of your heart? Well, step inside the Tea House on Mulberry Street. Like many of us after lockdown, the Tea House is in need of some attention and TLC and Sharon Owens gives it just that in her wonderful debut novel that's as delectable and delightful as the cherry cheesecake that her collection of unforgettable characters feast on, in the Tea House. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll feel hungry (read with a bountiful supply of treats!).

'The Tea House on Mulberry Street' by Sharon Owens

Book Birds talk about the much loved debut novel, 'City Girl' by Patricia Scanlan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the publication of this debut novel by one of Ireland's most treasured writers.

Meet Maggie, Devlin and Caroline all over again. It's been thirty years but they haven't changed a bit!

'City Girl' by Patricia Scanlan

Ciara Geraghty and Caroline Grace-Cassidy read books and talk about them.

Trailer

Some birds say life's too short to re-read the books you love. We're not those birds. We're Book Birds. 

We've decided to re-read the novels we fell in love with, all those years ago. What was it we loved about them? Do we still feel the same way? Have those characters changed for us? We have a lot of questions. We need answers!Artwork by Becca Kelly (Find her on Instagram @sexybexyart)Music by Eugene Peelo

Book Birds

Social Media

Follow

Your Hosts

Ciara Geraghty

Caroline Grace-Cassidy