Yearly Archives: 2024

Ramayana, Mahabharata In Arabic: PM Modi Meets Translator & Publisher, Signs Epics In Kuwait

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“Masterful achievement” – Irish Book of the Year for 2024 revealed

“Heart, Be at Peace” by Donal Ryan was announced as the overall An Post Irish Book of the Year 2024 during a ceremony on December 19.
Ryan’s book was among six titles competing for the accolade, all of which were category winners at the recent 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards.
The six books were shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book of the Year on the principle that they secured the highest number of votes during the shortlist voting process across all categories.

Ryan’s book “Heart, Be at Peace” was unveiled as the An Post Irish Book of the Year during a one-hour special television show aired on RTÉ One on December 19, hosted by broadcaster Oliver Callan. The title won the Eason Novel of the Year Award at the recent An Post Irish Book Awards and was chosen as the overall An Post Irish Book of the Year 2024 winner by a distinguished panel of judges.
The six nominated titles competing for the An Post Irish Book of the Year award were category winners of the Eason Novel of the Year, the Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior), the Ireland AM Popular Fiction Book of the Year, the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year, the Eason Sports Book of the Year and the Dubray Biography of the Year:

“Heart, Be at Peace” by Donal Ryan (Doubleday, Penguin Random House)
“Fia and the Last Snow Deer” by Eilish Fisher, illustrated by Dermot Flynn (Puffin, Penguin Random House Children’s
“Frankie” by Graham Norton (Coronet)
“A Stranger in the Family” by Jane Casey (Hemlock Press)
“Obsessed: The Autobiography” by Johnny Sexton with Peter O’Reilly (Penguin Sandycove)
“Nature Boy: A Journey of Birdsong and Belonging” by Seán Ronayne (Hachette Books Ireland)

Described by the Irish Times as an “absorbing, emphatic story of a community in trouble,” Donal Ryan’s “Heart, Be at Peace” received a chorus of positive reviews upon publication.

Told in 21 voices, “Heart, Be at Peace” is a heartfelt, lyrical novel that delves into themes of grief, healing, and the complexities of human emotions. It can be read independently, or as a companion to Donal Ryan’s multi-award-winning novel “The Spinning Heart.”

The WINNER of the 2024 An Post Irish Book of the Year is ‘Heart, Be At Peace’ by Donal Ryan!
A beautifully lyrical novel that captures the complexities of a rural Irish town through 21 distinct voices.
Congratulations to Donal & all at @DoubledayUK!#APIBA #IrishBookOfTheYear pic.twitter.com/D93W1hedOn

— An Post Irish Book Awards (@AnPostIBAS) December 19, 2024

Ryan is an award-winning author from Nenagh, Co Tipperary, whose work has been published in over twenty languages to major critical acclaim. “The Spinning Heart” won the Guardian First Book Award, the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland), and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2012. It was also shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize, and was voted ‘Irish Book of the Decade’ by the Dublin Book Festival.
His fourth novel, “From a Low and Quiet Sea,” was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2018, and won the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature.
Ryan lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick, and lives with his wife Ann Marie and their two children just outside Limerick City.

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The overall An Post Irish Book of the Year 2024 winner was decided by the following judging panel:

Maria Dickenson, Judging Chair – General Manager of Dubray and Board Member of the An Post Irish Book Awards
Madeleine Keane – Literary editor of the Sunday Independent, lecturer at University College Dublin and Chair of Children’s Books Ireland 
Cyril McGrane – A certified public accountant by profession, Cyril has worked with An Post for the last 27 years, holding a succession of senior roles in retail, operational and logistics management. Cyril is An Post’s key liaison lead with IPC and UPU and he is leading An Post’s Customs 2020 and Brexit programmes
Elaina Ryan – CEO of Children’s Books Ireland and Co-Artistic Director of Tower and Tales Children’s Books Festival in Co. Wexford
Alex Clark – A critic, journalist and broadcaster, Alex is patron of the Cambridge Literary Festival and has judged many literary awards, including the Booker Prize

Maria Dickenson, Chair of the Judging Panel, said: “’Heart, Be at Peace’ was the unanimous choice of the judges from among the fantastic array of titles shortlisted this year.
“Donal Ryan’s writing has earned him a place among the greatest names in Irish literature and this lyrical novel speaks to the very heart of modern Irish society.
“Weaving 21 voices together, Ryan portrays the passions, frailties and sorrows of one Irish town with compassion and clarity.
“‘Heart, Be at Peace’ is a masterful achievement and we congratulate Donal warmly on winning this award.”

John Krull: Books and the pages of time

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One of life’s underrated pleasures is that of reading an old, old book.For the past few days, I’ve been working my way through an aged copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Representative Men.”This particular volume I picked up at a used bookstore in Concord, Massachusetts. Its artfully ribbed spine caught my eye when it sat on the shelf. When I plucked it from its spot, its decorated leathery cover and pleasing heft seduced me.
It was published as part of a set of Emerson’s works by a London house, George Routledge and Sons, Limited, in 1899. On the inside of the front cover, there is a bookplate—presumably from the original owner, one Elisha Rhodes Brown.A little bit of research told me that Brown was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on March 28, 1847. He was part of the family that helped build Providence and lent its name to Brown University.He migrated to Dover, New Hampshire, late in his adolescence. He worked for a short time as a printer, then briefly clerked in a store before becoming a teller at the Stafford National Bank.From that perch, he climbed the ladder until he became president of the bank when he was 50, a position he held until he died on Christmas Day, 1922, when he was 75.The most prevalent photo of him shows a severe-looking gentleman wearing wire-rim glasses and a dark suit of material that looks as heavy as a tarp. His hair is parted in the middle, and he has a trimmed Lincoln-style beard with no moustache.He looks every inch the sober 19th-century man of business.He must have been a bookish fellow, too. Emerson’s writing never has been the stuff of light diversion.I haven’t read Emerson since my graduate school days decades ago.Back then, I didn’t care much for Transcendentalism’s sage. His almost promiscuous use of semi-colons made his prose seem distant and affected, so arch that it made it difficult for me to engage with his thinking.Now, though, that I’ve moved to a later season of my life, I find Emerson’s style less dense and more inviting. This makes it easier to appreciate his insights, the movement of his agile mind at work and at play.His breakthrough thought, of course, was a sense that the divine was not something separate from us, but something all around us and part of us. In other words, God was transcendent, embodied in every aspect of creation.Thus, he elevated a walk in the woods to being a spiritual act. A hike became an ambulatory form of prayer.Emerson’s inclusive theology sparked a kind of revolution in the 19th century, one that spread across the faith traditions and lingers to this day.

Americans are reading less — and smartphones and shorter attention spans may be to blame. 7 tips to help you make books a joyful habit.

There’s something special, even magical, about getting lost in a good book. But for a growing number of Americans, both adults and adolescents alike, interest in reading books — and the stamina it can take to finish them — is waning.An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 Americans found that 46% didn’t finish any books last year, and it’s part of an ongoing trend: A 2023 National Endowment for the Arts report called out the “sharp decline” in reading over the last decade. Americans now read an average of 12.6 books per year, according to a 2022 Gallup poll — “a smaller number than Gallup has measured in any prior survey dating back to 1990.” The biggest shift is in “the most voracious readers” — college graduates, women and older Americans — who are still reading, but the amount of books has dwindled.As writer Jeremy Anderberg, who reviews books on his Substack Read More Books, puts it: “We’re reading more words than ever before, but we’re reading fewer books.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNewsletter: The YodelTrusted news and daily delights, right in your inboxSee for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.That doesn’t mean people aren’t buying books — in fact, Barnes & Noble is making a comeback, opening more than 60 new locations, and Publishers Weekly is reporting a 7% increase in industry-wide sales this year — but they aren’t necessarily reading them. (There’s even a Japanese name for people who buy books and never get around to reading them: tsundoku.) In trying to understand it, one writer quipped: “Our eyes have been bigger than our attention spans.”Teachers are also seeing a generational shift in the reading habits of students, including some Gen Z-ers who reportedly don’t view reading as important. Younger students are impacted too: An Education Week Research Center survey asked educators how the reading stamina of students in third through eighth grade has changed since 2019. The survey found that 53% reported that reading stamina in students decreased a lot and 30% said it decreased a little, compared to only 10% saying it increased a little or a lot. Meanwhile, professors are saying that students are arriving at college unprepared, baffled and overwhelmed by having to read multiple books cover-to-cover.Why are people reading less?There are several reasons why reading books is on the decline. But a big part of the problem is likely staring you in the face right now: your smartphone. Along with TV, smartphones unlock a constant stream of dopamine-inducing content and allow you to immediately switch to something else the second whatever you’re doing gets remotely boring. It’s often too tempting to resist — and along with the constant notifications, it’s impacting our attention spans. Even the mere presence of a smartphone is distracting. “We’re a country addicted to our smartphones and we all know it,” Anderberg tells Yahoo Life.Jen Miller, a middle school librarian who talks about books to her more than 670k followers on TikTok, agrees. “In a time when there is so much for us to consume and it’s all right at our fingertips, usually on our phones, it is easy to opt for the immediate gratification of scrolling on social media or streaming a show,” she tells Yahoo Life.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt doesn’t start out that way, though. Kathryn Starke, a national literacy consultant, reading specialist and founder of Creative Minds Publications, says that every young child is “naturally excited” about learning to read. “However, if a child struggles to learn to read or is not presented with a variety of engaging and interesting books, they often stop reading,” she tells Yahoo Life. “I believe that fewer adolescents and adults are reading books because of the above points, which begin in elementary school. I also believe that you have to make time to read books, and many people — especially adolescents — put their time elsewhere.”What counts as actual reading is also changing. “I think both adolescents and adults think reading something quickly on your phone, tablet or social media is equivalent to reading a book when, in fact, it’s actually often skimming and scanning information or stories,” says Starke. Shorter attention spans cause more people to want to read quickly, she says, which only makes sustaining longer books more of a struggle.Students are increasingly using individual computers at school where, she says, they’re reading a variety of short digital texts and not entire novels or books. “Reading stamina must be built often, so if students aren’t learning how to read entire books at home or school, that habit often carries into adulthood,” she says.The surprising benefits of reading booksNot reading means missing out on a slew of benefits, beyond boosting language skills and vocabulary: It’s basically a workout for your brain. Engaging in reading keeps your memory and critical thinking skills sharp and fosters problem-solving. It also lowers your heart rate, reduces stress and eases muscle tension. Curling up with a book before bed can help you sleep better. It can even help you live a longer life; one study found that book readers had a 20% lower risk of dying over the next 12 years compared to non-book readers thanks to the cognitive engagement books provide.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd that’s just scratching the surface. “It broadens our horizons,” Nadia Odunayo, founder and chief executive officer of the StoryGraph, which offers personalized recommendations based on your reading history, tells Yahoo Life. “It teaches us things. It makes us more empathetic, as we step into different characters’ shoes. It provides an escape from our day-to-day, so it’s good for our mental health and well-being.”Miller echoes that sentiment: “Reading is an escape and a time to relax.”She quotes Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s metaphor of reading as a mirror, window and sliding glass door: “Reading helps the reader see themselves in books, which is empowering and validating. Reading also allows the reader to build empathy while reading about others’ life experiences that are much different than their own. It provides a window into someone else’s world. And reading also allows for that escape to enter another world for a time, letting the world they are in disappear for a little while.”7 tips on how to read more booksWant to try reading more? “The obvious answer is to put down your phone and pick up a book,” says Anderberg. “It’s easy to say, but it’s very hard.” Instead, putting a few strategies in place makes it more likely that you’ll actually reach for a book — rather than your smartphone or TV remote — and carve out some time to read. Here are some suggestions that experts swear by:Find your matchThink you’re not much of a reader? It’s more likely that you just haven’t found the right book. “When I have a reluctant reader approach me about getting a book, I try to find their match,” says Miller. “My thought is that individuals that do not like to read just have not found the right book for them.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMiller knows that firsthand. Her students are typically “shocked” to learn that she didn’t find books she liked and that resonated with her until she graduated from school. “I think people assume that as a librarian, I have always loved to read, when in fact, I did not start reading for pleasure until I was an adult,” she shares. “It just took the right book to start me down a path of reading and then ultimately the path to librarianship.”It’s harder for adolescents who are mainly reading what’s assigned to them in school. But when students have the opportunity to choose their books and read for pleasure, Miller says that increases the chances that they’ll find genres they click with and ultimately enjoy reading. “Finding that joy in reading is so important for keeping readers and avoiding the drop-off in reading that occurs for many young people after elementary school,” she says.Anderberg agrees, explaining that if you can learn to cultivate your love for reading, then you won’t have to discipline yourself to read. “You’ll want to pick up a book because you’re interested and want to turn the page to find out what happens next,” he says.Starke says that “there is the perfect book for every reader.” So how to begin finding it? She recommends starting by figuring out your favorite genre or topic of interest and visiting the library to check out at least three to five books that match. Most libraries give you two to four weeks to read a book, so Starke says the time crunch can help motivate readers who want to know the ending of a book before having to hand it in.AdvertisementAdvertisementAnderberg also recommends sampling a whole bunch of books. “Find those airport bestsellers — try out pop history, murder mysteries or rom-coms — to find what you like,” he says. “You’ll know it when you find it because you’ll want to sit down and read it.”For seasoned readers who find themselves in a slump, return to a book you loved in the past. “Curl up with an old favorite,” Suzanne Skyvara, vice president of marketing and editorial at Goodreads, tells Yahoo Life. “It’s like comfort food for your brain.”And don’t be afraid to ditch a book you don’t likeNo reading strategy will stick if you’re slogging through an unenjoyable book — and really, unless you’re a student on assignment and have no choice, life’s too short for that. “Stuck on a book that’s just not clicking? Don’t let it derail you,” says Skyvara. “It’s totally OK to put it down and try something else. There are so many amazing stories out there waiting for you.”Anderberg’s rule of thumb before quitting a book: “100 minus your age is how many pages to give a book” before deciding it isn’t for you. “If I’m not feeling it, I feel free to put it down.” Maybe you’ll revisit it later or maybe you’re too busy for this particular book or you’re not in the right headspace, he says, adding: “Your mood and circumstance have to fit the book sometimes and when those don’t match, it’s OK to put the book down.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAnd if you feel guilty about it, remember this: You’ve already supported the author by buying or checking out the book.Schedule in reading timePut time on your calendar to read each day, suggests Odunayo. “It can be just five to 10 minutes, but have it there and stick to it,” she says. “Work your way up to a focused hour of reading each day.”If an hour isn’t realistic for you, find an amount of time that works. For Atomic Habits author James Clear, it’s reading 20 pages first thing in the morning every day. Anderberg, who reads more than 100 books a year, also has a reading routine. “I wake up before the kids, make a cup of coffee and read for 30 to 45 minutes,” he says. “And at night, I read for 30 minutes before lights out. It’s an hour a day every day.”AdvertisementAdvertisementHe recommends aiming to carve out 30 minutes to read daily, whether it’s over a lunch break or sometime in the middle of the evening or if that’s not possible, binge reading over the weekend. “You can even set a timer on your phone or watch for 30 minutes and say, ‘It’s OK for me to not pay attention to my phone or computer for the next 30 minutes, and I’m not going to stop until the timer is up,” he says. “It’s going to be very hard at first, but as you practice it gets easier and easier.”Take your book to goAssume the identity of a reader, suggests Odunayo. “When you go out, always have a book or e-reader on you,” she says. That will help you take advantage of the surprising number of daily, hidden opportunities to squeeze in some reading time, whether it’s cracking open a book while waiting in line at the post office or while on eternal hold with your cable company. Having your book with you means you can easily fit in a mini-reading session while making the time pass by faster.Or create an easy-to-follow rule around reading: “I have a rule right now where whenever I’m commuting or on the subway or on a bus, I say to myself, ‘You cannot use your phone. You have to read,’” says Odunayo.Read with othersJust as you’re more likely to show up at the gym or yoga class if a friend is meeting you there, you’re more likely to crack open a book if people are counting on you to read it. “Starting a book club with family, friends or neighbors is another great way to ensure that you are reading a whole book,” says Starke. “Then you are rewarded with the opportunity to gather socially and share — book-themed décor and snacks are always encouraged.”Set goals and challenge yourselfThere’s nothing quite like a challenge to fire up that motivation. “A fun way to motivate yourself to read is the Goodreads Reading Challenge,” Skyvara says. “You set your own goal — most people aim for 11 to 25 books a year, or about one to two per month. It’s so satisfying to mark books as read and watch your progress bar move closer to your goal. And don’t worry; if life gets crazy, you can always adjust your goal so you maintain your motivation.”AdvertisementAdvertisementOr simply set a stretch goal: Whether it’s reading a few extra sentences or five more pages than you normally would or striving to complete a chapter, setting goals that allow you to stretch yourself can help improve reading stamina. Choosing a book series is another effective way to keep reading and rereading, says Starke, “thus building the stamina to read more and more lengthier books.”Model being a readerIf you’re a parent, one of the best ways to encourage your kids to read more — along with choosing books, including comics and graphic novels, that align with their interests and passions — is to read more yourself. “They’re not seeing the adults in their lives reading,” says Anderberg. “There’s something very powerful when a kid sees you make a choice to sit down with a book instead of doing busywork or pulling out your phone.”