Room by Emma Donoghue, and some useful links

I read Room, by Emma Donoghue, a couple of months ago. It's one of the books that stick in my mind, like the Life of Pi, or Sunday at the Pool in Kigali - well written, well driven and to reuse an oft-mentioned word, compelling. Room tells the story of a young boy who lives with his mother in a small room - this is (for most of the book) the entire realm that these 2 characters exist in.

The story is told from Jack's 5-year old viewpoint, so everything has a character and is anthropomorphised in the way that 5-year old boys do (well, as far as I can remember anyway) so well. But you can probably guess that Jack and Ma aren't in the room naturally, so to speak, though as usual I'm loathe to give away much of the plot as if you haven't read it I'll spoil it on you.

This book raises your heartbeat and is truly edge of your seat reading. I read it in one sitting, pretty much, only putting it down half way through to catch my breath. Definitely one for the must-read pile. Shouldawundabooker.

So, while you're reading that curled up next to a fire while the weather outside continues to freeze and snow and do unspeakably wintry things to us, you might be looking for some information on roads and stuff. These links below might be of use:

Kildare Co. Co. Emergency News webpage

Bus Éireann's travel information

Met Éireann's interactive 5-day forecast (winds, precipitation and temperature)

Irish Weather Online

Dept. of Transport Scary Weather Information Page with other links and stuff

AA Roadwatch (as if you didn't know this one already)

RTÉ's weather and transport feed

Monasterevin in the Snow

Well, I've been taking some pictures around town whilst the snow is all nice and white and fluffy, some can be seen here. It was cold today, but thanks to my layers I was able to stand it.

Now that I've been enjoying the library again for a couple of weeks, I've been thinking about a reading challenge for myself - I'm going to try and read as many of the Booker Prize winners as I can, though I've already found some aren't available in the library. At this stage I've gone through 1 or 2 so far (though that includes that blasted The Sea thing that won a couple of years ago), so maybe i can capture my thoughts here.

The list is taken from ye olde wikipedia, if you want to have a look. Where I can't find a year's winner, I'll read one of the others.