SPEEKERBOXX

Book Reviews

From Harty 2 McCarthy

This book was written by five students of Midleton C.B.S. for the Midleton C.B.S. Junior Achievement Mini Company. The book is written in honour of the great hurlers who won both the Dr.Harty Cup with Midleton C.B.S and the Liam McCarthy Cup with Cork. The book contains exclusive interviews with the Trainers and Players who guided Midleton C.B.S. to Dr.Harty Cup glory in 1988 and 1995. The book contains the road to victory for the Rebel County in 1999 and 2004 and also Pat Walsh a member of the “95 Harty winning and Paudie O’Brien a member of the “88 Harty winning team recall their memories of the Harty Cup. The book also contains memorable picture’s of other C.B.S. Harty teams and accounts of different members of the “88 and “95 teams. The book also looks at young prospects within Midleton C.B.S.

Joseph O' Connor – Star of the Sea

In the bitter winter of 1847, a ship named Star of the Sea sails from Ireland, bound for New York. Thousands are fleeing, after selling everything they owned to buy passage to America. And thousands are perishing in the attempt.

Tragedy is a word too often used. Nevertheless, in Star of the Sea Joseph O'Connor manages to achieve a real sense of the tragic, as personal dramas of the most distressing kind play themselves out against the background of the Irish potato famine and the almost equal nightmare of the mass emigration that it caused. As passengers die of starvation and disease in steerage, a drama of adultery, inadvertent incest and inherited disease plays itself out in first class.

Bankrupt aristocrat Meredith is emigrating, pursued by the hatred of his tenants and the memory of his mad-hero father. His children's nurse, Mary, has memories of lost love to torment her, as well as of the husband and child who died of hunger. And the ballad singer Mulvey has both his monstrous past and the certain promise that he will be tortured to death by the Liable Men should he not kill Meredith.

'Dramatic story of a sea crossing at the time of the famine. Gripping stories of diverse characters whose lives are connected by more than just being on the same boat. Dramatic and emotional and embedded in real events of history.'

A dramatic, intricate tale that draws you in with believable humane and ironic look at life. The author has a great sense of humour. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, written with the musical lilt of the Irish and a hint of the Erin impishness. O'Connor didn't simply write this book - he choreographed it. A must read.

Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a fast-paced, well-plotted murder mystery that takes the reader through the Louvre, a long night of murders and a police chase out of Paris to a wet morning in London. There the identity of the evil “Teacher” who masterminded the killings is revealed in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey.

Using as his prime piece of evidence Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” Brown proposes that the figure on Christ’s right is not the beloved disciple but Mary Magdalene, who married Jesus and bore him a child. She was the Holy Grail for his blood and Jesus wanted her to succeed him in leading his followers. The official church suppressed the truth about Mary’s relationship with Jesus and did its best to belittle her as a prostitute.

Since the 12th century, a secret society called the Priory of Sion, has safeguarded the “real,” explosive secret of the Holy Grail: that Jesus was married to Mary Magadalene and that their bloodline continues today. Threatened with the loss of their personal prelature at the hands of a new, liberal pope, the bishop who leads Opus Dei promises help to the secretary of state, curiously called the “Secretariat Vaticana.” A numerary of Opus Dei, a reformed killer, is set loose to recover from the leaders of the Prior of Sion the cryptex that contains the sensational secret about Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

There is to be no killing, but the plan goes astray. The mysterious Teacher provides the numerary with a gun and prompts him to kill four top officials of the priory and a nun who tries to defend a hiding place in the Church of Saint-Sulpice.

High on suspense, the novel concentrates on six major characters: a fanatical but ingenuous bishop of Opus Dei; Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor; Sophie Neveu, an attractive French cryptologist, Silas, a huge albino killer; Sir Leigh Teabing, an immensely wealthy seeker of the Holy Grail; and Bezu Fache a French detective whose toughness conceals a heart of gold. A love affair develops between Robert and Sophie. But before they enjoy a week together in Florence, Robert returns to Paris to locate the resting place of Mary Magdalene, now disclosed as being under the Louvre Pyramid.

The chapters in The Da Vinci Code are short, usually not more than a couple pages. Most of them end with a cliffhanger that immediately catapults you into the next chapter. So grab this book, sit back, and prepare to be entertained and educated. It's well-written, it's intelligent, and best of all, it's fun.  

Dan Brown – Angels and Demons

As we join the story we find that a famous scientist is brutally murdered in CERN (research facility in Switzerland). Robert Langdon is called to identify the mysterious symbol seared onto the dead man's chest. His rather odd conclusion that it is the work of a secret brotherhood thought extinct for hundreds of years: the Illuminati - reborn to get revenge on their sworn enemy, the Catholic Church. In Rome, a new pope is being elected by the college of cardinals. However, a bomb of unknown power counts down to destroy Vatican City. As the seconds tick by, Langdon joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, the daughter of the murdered scientist, to decipher the labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome to the long forgotten Illuminati lair - which is the key to save the Vatican. But, with each revalation comes another twist, another turn in the plot, which leaves Langdon and Vetra reeling and at the mercy of a seemingly invisible enemy...