Reading Ireland Month (The #Begorrathon26) had a good run this year, with ebooks and audiobooks read and reviewed. Surprisingly, although Waking the Titanic was supposed to be on Netflix, I gave up looking for it, as it was obviously taken down at some point. Then, in quick succession, we gave up on Derry Girls, Lies We Tell, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
Back when I published a number of my grandfather’s books, I tried creating a book trailer or two and made one for Cocos Island Treasure using one of Marc Gunn’s songs.
Of course, I always recommend my favorite Irish podcaster, Marc Gunn’sIrish and Celtic Music Podcast. This year’s St Patrick’s Day podcast included one of his own songs that I thought I’d share.
Years ago, I also posted a St Patrick’s article regarding one of his more interesting poems, The Bonny Bell from Yarn Four.
By now you’ve read my chuckle-fest St Patrick’s Day post that I titled Beans, Beans…(A St Patrick’s Day Revisited). Check it out if you haven’t seen it before. And don’t forget that special Irish Soda Bread recipe from one of our favorite Irish authors, Jean Granger.
We only use Netflix on the internet along with our antenna, so don’t have a large selection of streaming services but did enjoy The Siege of Jadotville. Hope you got to view that or have it on your view list.
I already mentioned the lone movie we were able to get and highly recommend. As always, one of those long-buried stories taken from history worthy of public note, The Seige of Jadotville deserves a look-see.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast is a fast and furious, bordering on fantasy, dark comedy series, and I suspect, for those who enjoy a unique and wild ride with their whiskey.
The ebooks and audiobooks were a bit of a disappointment, though I enjoyed my ebook copy of Carlene O’Connor’s Murder in an Irish Churchyard.
We do have fun with this every year and it usually gets me out there researching and finding stuff I had no idea was available. Hope you read or listened to one of these books or movies, and if you did, I’d love to know.
Reading Ireland Month (The #Begorrathon) returned for the twelveth year in March and will be my eighth. It is hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. Please check out her page and you’ll find all kinds of suggestions for reading, listening, or music on her spotify list. (Of course, I always recommend my favorite Irish podcast, Marc Gunn’s Irish and Celtic Music Podcast.)
Use the hashtags #readingirelandmonth26 or #begorrathon26 if you plan to participate.
I’ve dug right in and started reading, listening, and viewing all things Irish with some success. I usually try for an ebook or two, an audiobook or two, and maybe a movie or series I can glean from our lone streaming service, Netflix. I previously posted a graphic of my initial list, but I’ve since refined it to note updates.
Today I’ll review Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare
Book Blurb:
Sometimes friends hold you together.
Sometimes they’re why you’re falling apart.
Harley, Róise, and Maggie have been friends for ages. After meeting in primary school years ago, the women are still together, spending their nights on the sticky dancefloors of Belfast’s grungiest pubs. Each woman is navigating her own tangle of entry-level jobs, messy romantic entanglements, and late nights, but they always find their way back to each other, and to the ramshackle house they share. And amidst the familiar chaos, the three are still grieving their fourth housemate, whose room remains untouched, their last big fight hanging heavily over their heads.
The girls’ house has witnessed the highs and lows of their roaring twenties—raucous parties, surprising (and sometimes regrettable) hook-ups, and hellish hangovers. But as they approach thirty, their home begins to crumble around them and the fault lines in their group become harder to ignore. In the wreckage, they must decide if their friendship will survive into a new decade—or if growing up sometimes means letting go.
Brimming with heart and humor, Thirst Trap is an exuberant ode to friendship, to not having it all figured out, and to ordering just one more round before heading home.
My Review:
Okay. Well, that cover, if nothing else, might have been the hint that this book would not be for me and I ignored it.
Maggie, Harley, and Róise are pushing thirty, still share a house and a pet turtle. They had a fourth in their little clique, Lydia, who died in a car crash leaving lingering guilt and grief that now sits somewhere in the gut along with increasing alcohol intake and unsuccessful therapy session angst.
Each are educated and battling a number of little narcissistic quirks; Maggie with panic attacks, Harley the profound pessimist, and Róise, who loves her boss who in turn is clueless.
Thirst Trap cover – UK
It’s a dispassionate insight study of women at odds with facing a mature age and the folly of maintaining an immature stance on life. Too much booze, too many hangovers, unfulfilled love lives, lack of direction, and too few goals or the attainment of any.
Close friends whose friendship should have matured along with their age, but didn’t. They use Belfast’s nightlife as the glue that keeps them together until the reality of the loss of Lyndia’s death anniversary slaps them upside the head.
They have one life, not promised tomorrow, and what are they doing with it?
It’s a lot of tell, not show, but I gotta give it to the narrator, Susan Crothers, who kept the dialogue dynamic with realistic and appropriate voice inflection and kept me listening. Sarcasm, yes, but sarcasm has often been offered as a joke, but in veiled and targeted verbal irony. In this case, not humor, pushing barbed satire. And I didn’t find it that funny.
I realize my problem is probably a generational as well as cultural one with this novel. So, take my comments with a grain of salt and if young, swinging adult fiction is your vibe, go for it.
Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.
The Author:Gráinne O’Hare is a writer from Belfast based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She received a Northern Debut Award for Fiction from New Writing North, and was awarded funding by the Arts Council for the development and completion of her first novel. Her short fiction has been published in the London Magazine, Extra Teeth, and Gutter. She has a PhD on eighteenth-century women’s life-writing from Newcastle University. [Photo courtesy Goodreads]
Rosepoint Publishing 