Book of the Month - May 2021
Date Added: 06/05/2021
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
When you leave Ireland aged 22 to spend your parents' money, it's called a gap year. When Ava leaves Ireland aged 22 to make her own money, she's not sure what to call it, but it involves:
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A badly-paid job in Hong Kong, teaching English grammar to rich children;
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Julian, who likes to spend money on Ava and lets her move into his guest room;
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Edith, who Ava meets while Julian is out of town and actually listens to her when she talks;
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Money, love, cynicism, unspoken feelings and unlikely connections. Exciting times ensue.
Our book of the month is Exciting Times, an intelligent and witty debut novel from Irish writer Naoise Dolan. You can request a copy now, for collection with Select and Collect. Not a member? You can join online here. Forgotten your PIN? Get it sent to you here.
The British Book Awards
The announcement of the winners of this year’s British Book Awards, aka The Nibbies, will take place on 13 May. The British Book Awards, first launched in 1990 and now run by The Bookseller, aim to showcase and celebrate the best books, the best bookshops and the best publishers. They shortlist their books of the year in a range of categories, including audiobook, fiction, crime and thriller, fiction debut, children's fiction, children's illustrated and non-fiction, lifestyle non-fiction and narrative non-fiction.
This year they’ve also introduced a new shortlist for Pageturner, a category aimed at popular fiction titles from across the board, from fantasy to saga to coming-of-age. There’s also a new shortlist in the trade awards, designer of the year. As a recent Observer article discusses, book design is becoming more important in the age of social media. You can see all of the shortlists on The Bookseller website.
If one of the shortlisted books grabs your fancy, find and request a copy through our library catalogue Arena. Look out for some of the shortlisted audiobooks on our complementary audiobook services, Libby and BorrowBox.