Kildare Library Service

The Language of Kindness by Christie Watson 

Synopsis: We watch Christie as she nurses a premature baby who has miraculously made it through the night, we stand by her side during her patient’s agonising heart-lung transplant, and we hold our breath as she washes the hair of a child fatally injured in a fire, attempting to remove the toxic smell of smoke before the grieving family arrive. In our most extreme moments, when life is lived most intensely, Christie is with us. She is a guide, mentor and friend. And in these dark days of division and isolationism, she encourages us all to stretch out a hand.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook & eAudiobook format.

How to Fail by Elizabeth Day 

Synopsis: “This is a book for anyone who has ever failed. Which means it’s a book for everyone. If I have learned one thing from this shockingly beautiful venture called life, it is this: failure has taught me lessons I would never otherwise have understood. I have evolved more as a result of things going wrong than when everything seemed to be going right. Out of crisis has come clarity, and sometimes even catharsis.”

Part memoir, part manifesto, and including chapters on dating, work, sport, babies, families, anger and friendship, it is based on the simple premise that understanding why we fail ultimately makes us stronger. It’s a book about learning from our mistakes and about not being afraid. Uplifting, inspiring and rich in stories from Elizabeth’s own life, How to Fail reveals that failure is not what defines us; rather it is how we respond to it that shapes us as individuals. Because learning how to fail is actually learning how to succeed better. And everyone needs a bit of that.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook format.

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

Synopsis: Despite mounting scientific evidence, denialism is surging in many wealthy countries, and extreme fossil-fuel extraction gathers pace. Exposing the work of ideologues on the right who know the challenge this poses to the free market all too well, Naomi Klein also challenges the failing strategies of environmental groups. This Changes Everything argues that the deep changes required should not be viewed as punishments to fear, but as a kind of gift. It’s time to stop running from the full implications of the crisis and begin to embrace them.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and author of the international bestsellers, The Shock Doctrine and No Logo. She is a member of the board of directors for 350.org, a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, and a former Miliband Fellow at the LSE. She holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of King’s College, Nova Scotia.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook format.

Bold, Brilliant and Bad by Marian Broderick 

Synopsis: Marian Broderick is back to explore the histories of remarkable Irish Women in history. These women made a difference to the world in a variety of ways and paved the way for women today.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook format.

The Choice by Edith Eger

Synopsis: In 1944, sixteen-year-old Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. There, she endured unimaginable experiences, including being made to dance for the infamous Josef Mengele. Over the coming months, Edith’s bravery helped her sister to survive, and led to her bunkmates rescuing her during a death march. When their camp was finally liberated, Edith was pulled from a pile of bodies, barely alive.

In The Choice, Dr Edith Eger shares her experience of the Holocaust and the remarkable stories of those she has helped ever since. Today, she is an internationally acclaimed psychologist whose patients include survivors of abuse and soldiers suffering from PTSD. She explains how many of us live within a mind that has become a prison, and shows how freedom becomes possible once we confront our suffering.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook & eAudiobook format.

When the Hangman Came to Galway by Dean Ruxton

Synopsis: Galway, the winter of 1885. The violent murders of John Moylan, killed in a dark boreen, and Alice Burns, shot dead in the dining room of the Royal Hotel, have shaken the county. Now, following painstaking investigations and charged courtroom drama, justice beckons for the guilty parties. James Berry, the notorious executioner who ended the lives of over one hundred criminals in Victorian Britain and Ireland, has come to town. The paths of a secret paramour, a jilted lover and a reluctant hangman are about to cross.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook & eAudiobook format.

People Like Me by Lynn Ruane 

Synopsis: A force of nature from the day she was born, Lynn Ruane grew up in a loving home in Tallaght. But in her early teens things began to unravel, and she fell into a life of petty crime and chaotic drug use. By age fifteen – pregnant with her first child, no longer attending school and still reeling from a series of shocking incidents in her personal life – Lynn decided she had enough of running away from herself and set about rebuilding her life.

Inspired by her daughter, she returned to education and, with the help of some brilliant mentors, slowly began to heal the hurt of her younger years. She began campaigning on behalf of the people society had left behind by developing addiction services, becoming an activist in Trinity, and then as a senator in the chamber of the Seanad. But as the debate around consent gained pace, the lines between personal and political were redrawn, and Lynn was called to reckon with her past in a new and frightening way. Intimate and brave, People Like Me is the exhilarating story of one woman’s journey to the brink and back, emerging as a leading light for change in Ireland and an inspiration to women everywhere.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook format.

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park 

Synopsis: Yeonmi Park was not dreaming of freedom when she escaped from North Korea. She didn’t even know what it meant to be free. All she knew was that she was running for her life, that if she and her family stayed behind they would die – from starvation, or disease, or even execution. This book is the story of Park’s struggle to survive in the darkest, most repressive country on earth; her harrowing escape through China’s underworld of smugglers and human traffickers; and then her escape from China across the Gobi desert to Mongolia, with only the stars to guide her way, and from there to South Korea and at last to freedom; and finally her emergence as a leading human rights activist – all before her 21st birthday.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook format.

The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma 

Synopsis: This is the incredible story of Julian Mantle, a superstar lawyer whose out-of-balance lifestyle leads him to a near fatal heart attack in a packed courtroom. His collapse brings on a spiritual crisis, forcing him to seek answers to life’s most important questions. Hoping to find happiness and fulfilment, he embarks upon an extraordinary odyssey to an ancient culture, where he discovers a powerful system to release the potential of his mind, body and soul, and learns to live with greater passion, purpose and peace. Brilliantly blending the timeless spiritual wisdom of the East with the cutting-edge success principles of the West, this truly inspiring tale has shown millions of people around the world how to live with greater courage, balance, abundance and joy.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook & eAudiobook format.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean 

Synopsis: After moving to Los Angeles, Susan Orlean became fascinated by a mysterious local crime that has gone unsolved since it was carried out on the morning of 29 April 1986: who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library, ultimately destroying more than 400,000 books, and perhaps even more perplexing, why? With her characteristic humour, insight and compassion, Orlean uses this terrible event as a lens through which to tell the story of all libraries – their history, their meaning and their uncertain future as they adapt and redefine themselves in a digital world. Filled with heart, passion and extraordinary characters, The Library Book discusses the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives.

Available on Bolinda BorrowBox in eBook format.