Patricia Bosworth  
Jane Fonda : the private life of a public woman
(London : Robson Press, 2011.)
Patricia Bosworth re-assesses the life of Hollywood filmstar Jane Fonda, once dubbed 'Hanoi Jane' for her outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War. Fonda has espoused many causes in a career which spans fifty years, and vowed in the seventies that she would only make movies on themes that mattered. She has largely lived up to that, with films like Coming home, The morning after, and Julia. She has won many awards, including two Oscars, for Coming home, and Klute. Bosworth knows Fonda well since their time together at the Actors Studio, and has previously written biographies on Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and the photographer Diane Arbus.

Kevin C. Kearns
Ireland's Arctic siege : the Big Freeze of 1947
(Dublin : Gill and Macmillan, 2011)   
Our recent 'Big Freeze' of last winter was merely an inconvenience compared to that of 1947 when freezing conditions lasted from January to March, and were followed by devastating floods which threatened spring planting of food crops. Kearns' book makes extensive use of oral testimonies from those who lived through the freeze, and highlights in particular the hardships faced by Dublin tenement dwellers, many of whom had to burn furniture, and even floorboards, for fuel when coal exports from Britain were curtailed. Kearns is an American social historian who has written extensively about social conditions in Dublin in the twentieth century. 

Vikram Seth
The rivered Earth
(London : Hamish Hamilton, 2011)
Vikram Seth first came to public notice for The Golden Gate, a whimsical but finely-observed novel in sonnet form, set in San Francisco. Since then he has published the brilliant A suitable boy, one of the most widely-read novels of recent times. In The Rivered Earth he returns to poetry in a collaboration with the composer Alec Roth, with a set of four libretti (or longish poems if you like) which Roth has set to music. Themes range from translations of classical Chinese poetry to meditations on George Herbert, the Hindu creation hymn the Rig Veda, and a suite of poems on the traditional four elements. 

Karl Marlantes
What it is like to go to war
(London : Atlantic Books, 2012)
Karl Marlantes served as a U.S. Marine in the Vietnam War, and this is his personal narrative of Vietnam, which has haunted him ever since, and which he also deals with in the acclaimed novel Matterhorn, published in 2010. A graduate of Yale University, Marlantes was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and two Navy Commendation Medals for Valor during his time in the Marines. This is one of a handful of war memoirs which transcends the genre, and would be good to read in conjunction with Matterhorn, which is also in stock at Cork City Libraries.  

Philip Larkin
The complete poems, edited by Archie Burnett
(London : Faber, 2012)
A new edition, including some hitherto unpublished pieces and short verses from Larkin's letters, this volume is remarkable for the comprehensive notes on the contexts in which the poems were written, including many comments from Larkin himself. Notorious for his disgruntled public persona, Larkin's output has been described as 'a piquant mixture of lyricism and discontent', but he is generally regarded as one of the major poets of the postwar generation in Britain, and was named Britain's best-loved poet of the previous fifty years in a 2003 survey. This handsome book is an excellent way to rediscover him.

Nick Cohen
|You can't read this book : censorship in an age of freedom
(London : Fourth Estate, 2012))
Observer columnist Nick Cohen warns us readers and citizens to maintain vigilance in an age when despite unprecedented personal freedom in the West, censorship is still alive and well in the form of draconian libel laws, religious bigotry, political correctness and repressive anti-terrorism legislation. In 2006 Cohen was one of the signatories of the Euston Manifesto, which called on the Left to oppose terrorism and anti-Americanism. His 2008 publication 'What's Left' was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing.

Ken Livingstone
You can't say that : memoirs
(London : Faber, 2011)
The memoirs of the veteran British Labour politician and first Mayor of London in modern times, long known in the popular press as Red Ken, give a fascinating insight into the way British politics works and the battle for the soul of Britain, first under Margaret Thatcher and later under Tony Blair, who opposed Livingstone's candidacy for the Mayorship, leading to Livingstone's expulsion from the Labour Party after he ran successfully as an Independent.

Anne Scott 
18 Bookshops
( Dingwall, Scotland : Sandstone Press, 2011)
If you love libraries, you probably love bookshops too, and you will certainly like this little gem, in which Scottish writer and lecturer Anne Scott describes her reading life in portraits of eighteen bookshops she has loved. Two Irish shops are featured, the famous Kenny's of Galway and, surprisingly, a shelf of secondhand books in a Connemara grocer's shop. Anne Scott's son is Mike Scott, the lead singer and chief songwriter of rock band The Waterboys.

Maurice Craig
Maurice Craig : Photographs
(Dublin : Lilliput, 2011)
This is Maurice Craig's own selection of the best of his photographs of architectural subjects in Ireland, and the book has been the subject of a travelling exhibition hosted for a few weeks by Cork City Libraries earlier in the year. Black and white, taken over several decades, and covering all kinds of buildings from grand mansions to humble cottages, bridges, ancient monuments and streetscapes, these photos record much that has now sadly passed away forever. Craig, originally from Belfast, has been an advocate of architectural conservation all his life, and is best known for his book Classic Irish houses of the middle size, published in 1976.

Steven Pinker
The better angels of our nature : the decline of violence in history and its causes
(London : Allen Lane, 2011)
Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, argues that modernity is making us better people, and that, despite what we might think in the light of the Holocaust and two devastating world wars, the twentieth century has been the least violent in history. Pinker draws on his wide knowledge of many fields of human endeavour in a comprehensive study which is sure to give the reader plenty of food for thought.

John D. T. White 
Irish devils : the official story of Manchester United and the Irish
(London : Simon & Schuster, 2011)
Belfast-born White has been a fan of George Best all his life, and the Red Devils have been his first love...he was a founder member of the biggest  supporters' club in Ireland, the George Best Carryduff Manchester United Supporters Club. Here he details the life stories of the many Irishmen who played for United, starting with John Peden, born in 1865, who was a team member when United was still known as Newton Heath, and moving on to stars like Johnny Carey, Frank Stapleton, George Best of course, and Cork's own Roy Keane.

Peter Popham 
 The lady and the peacock : the life of Aung San Suu Kyi
(London : Rider, 2011)
'The lady' has become the most potent symbol worldwide of non-violent revolution since the death of Mahatma Gandhi. Under house arrest in Burma for fifteen years, and only recently freed, her steadfast stand for freedom and democracy against the junta of Generals who have ruled her country, now officially known as Myanmar, has been an inspiration for democrats everywhere. This is her story. The author has toured Burma as an undercover journalist several times in recent years, and works for the London Independent.  

Christa Wolf 
One day a year, 1960-2000
(New York : Europa Editions, 2007)
In 1960 the East German novelist Christa Wolf was invited by a Moscow newspaper to describe in detail one day, September 27th. Inspired by the project she went on to describe her thoughts, experiences and impressions on that day for the next forty years. Collected here, and translated by Lowell A. Bangerter, the pieces portray her own and her family's life, her literary pursuits, daily life in the former German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, and her reaction to German reunification in 1990, which she opposed. Wolf lived in East Germany and was for a short time in the 1960s an informer for the Stasi, though she was later critical of the GDR leadership, and became herself the object of surveillance by the Communist authorities. She died in 2011.

Marc Eliot
Steve McQueen : a biography
(London : Aurum Entertainment, 2011)
Steve McQueen was once the highest-paid actor in Hollywood and was dubbed 'The King of Cool' by the media. In his heyday he played many macho roles in films like The Magnificent Seven and Bullitt, and starred with Ali McGraw, whom he later married, in the 1972 blockbuster The great escape. Eliot's book covers all the films, his three marriages, his lifelong interest in racing cars and motorbikes, and his generally conservative political views. Eliot has previously written biographies of several other entertainment personalities including Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and The Eagles.