Fallen Star Stories

 Hi! Welcome! I am so excited to be here! A little while ago, I was invited by O'Brien Press to participate in the "Stand By Me" Blog Tour celebrating Judi Curtins' latest(and 25th!) book; Stand By Me . Judi Curtin? Friendship? Time-travel? I'm there! So following Sarah Webb ( https://www.sarahwebb.info/ ) and her wonderful chat with Judi about their longstanding friendship and writing life; and Jenny( https://thebookstheartandme.wordpress.com/ ) with her marvelous commentary on the book itself.... (go ahead, take some time and play catch-up, if you haven't seen them already. They are fab!) , it's my turn! ( I do want to say, they are hard acts to follow.) Here are some questions I had for Judi. I hope you find the answers as fun and interesting as I did. - The time-honoured theme of friendship figures prominently in this book, as with all your others. I was wondering if you could give me a personal view on the importance of this kind of friendsh

On the 7th of September, an extraordinary book was published by Little Island; Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan . It is a completely enchanting book. Beautiful to hold with it's 'packaging' that reminds us of those wonderful volumes of old and lavishly illustrated by Karen Vaughan in a style reminiscent of Arthur Rackham or Harry Clarke, Tangleweed and Brine offers so much, and it does not disappoint. The tales retold; Cinderella becomes Slippershod , Rumplestiltskin is Meet the Nameless Thing and Call It Friend , Bluebeard - The Tender Weight etc; give the reader a deeper, powerful, more enticing reading that takes us deeper into the hearts and minds of the characters, revealing the intimate and deeply personal within the story. It twists and turns the stories back onto themselves and leads out again to destinies that are more felt than realised. It gives comfort and is unsettling at the same time. The language is poetic, dreamlike and flowing as each story

  Big news here! As I had mentioned in my previous entry, I am utterly pleased and over the moon to be part of the O'Brien Press 'Stand By Me' Blog Tour. Starting tomorrow, five Irish bloggers; Fallen Star Stories included; will be celebrating the publication of Stand By Me by Judi Curtin. This is book two in her Molly and Beth series (book one being 'Time After Time' ) AND her 25th book to be published. No...I'm not going to give anything away, yet. I'm just inviting you all to jump on the blog tour bus. Starting tomorrow, there will be a blog a day, beginning with the one and only Sarah Webb and finishing up on Friday with vlogger Fred Weasley Died Laughing. All the information you need is one the graphic above, so please, join us! You'll have a great time, learn a lot about Judi, her books and her writing life and I know you'll want to read 'Stand By Me' ! https://www.obrien.ie/stand-by-me http://www.judicu

September is promising to be a fairly full-on month for me...lots of events and lots of new books. It's all very exciting! Here's a brief run-down of what's on in September.... The first thing is actually happening tomorrow! The 13th of September is always Roald Dahl Day (because it is Roald Dahl's actual birthday. And tomorrow is the 101st celebration of his birth!) Dahl gave us 22 completely wonderful books for children, plus his adult books, plays, screen plays...such a gift! But back to the childrens' books and the day...Tomorrow morning I will be celebrating Roald Dahl Day at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop with the invited classes from St Nicholas Parochial School. We'll work out our 'Roald Dahl names', have a look at Dahl's amazing invention of words,involve ourselves in a few other Dahl-esque activities and I'll be reading from some of the books, including the newly re-published Billy and the Minpins , illustrated by the one and only Quenti

Wow! Time flies...here we are, almost in the middle of September. So much has been happening inthe world of books, I hardly know myself. I thought I'd start by giving you all a quick glimpse of some of my bestsellers of the summer.... so here they are! My summer best-sellers One of my great joys in working at Charlie Byrnes Bookshop is that, not only do I get to recommend wonderful brand new childrens' and YA books, but I have access to a steady supply of the not-so-new-but you-have-to-read-it-right now books. The twelve in the photograph on the left were my best-sellers of the summer. Letters From The Lighthouse and The Bookshop Girl ran a competitive race for the number one slot, but all the others were not far behind. And, I also have to add the Kapheus series by Marguerite Tonery to the list. So many people, both young and old are really plugged into Elisa and Jamie's story as they navigate between their daily life in the west of Ireland and Kapheus, the fantasti