[Recommended] Love in the Making

Valentine's Day may be over, but love is still in the air!  Roisin Meany, two-time La Muse attendee, has a new novel out, and it's already a bestseller in Ireland. We can't wait to get our hands on Love in the Making, and urge you to pick up a copy as well.  

Profile: Róisín Meaney

We're grateful to Róisín Meaney for contributing this week's profile. Róisín is a bestselling Irish novelist and children's book writer. Her newest novel, Love in the Making, comes out in February and we can't wait!  

1) What do you consider most valuable about your time at La Muse? The fact that I'm distanced from the distractions of home is wonderful - and the fact that a myriad of beautiful walking trails are on my doorstep comes a close second.  

2) Tell us, in a sentence or two, about the project you were focused on while at La Muse. I had two projects. One was putting a new children's book together, aimed at the six to eight year olds, and the other was coming up with a plot for my seventh adult novel. I got the children's book written, and I've got the bones of a plot that I think will be fairly easy to flesh out (she said hopefully).

3)    What advice would you give future attendees? Lap up the scenery, walk in the forests, breathe in the clean mountain air, drink the spring water. Relax, unwind and recharge - your work will be the better for it. 

4) Describe the best meal you ate while at La Muse. Roast chicken cooked by Peter, our resident foodie. Stuffed with fresh tarragon, smashed garlic, chopped lemon. Massaged all over with a slab of butter, slathered with olive oil, salt and freshly-cracked peppercorns, and well-basted all the way through. Tender, moist, delicious, mmm. Thanks Peter.

5) What’s your one must-pack travel essential? Jasmine perfume - hey, I'm a girl!

Roisin added this question to our wild-card list: 

6) What one piece of kitchen equipment would you add to the La Muse kitchen? An electric beater. 

Roisin made a mean meringue even without an electric beater; we wonder at what she could whip up with one! 

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November Book Swap

As this session comes to a close, we thought it was high time we shared the November book swap contributions! Roisin Meaney, a novelist and children's book author from Ireland, and Peter, the Pitch Doctor, Rush discuss their picks in their own words below. On an only semi-related note, we'd like to say in advance how much we'll miss Roisin's amazing baked goods and Peter's top-notch dinners. As sorry as we'll be to return to our own devices in the kitchen, at least now we have a chance at once again buttoning our pants.

Roisin on her donations:

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín evokes rural Ireland of the 1950s, and introduces the reader to Eilis Lacey, a young woman who emigrates reluctantly to New York, more out of a sense of familial duty than a real desire to spread her wings. This simple-sounding story, written from Eilis's viewpoint in Tóibín's usual sparse style nevertheless manages to convey pathos, sharp observation, and humour, while avoiding sentimentality as the heroine moves from Ireland to America, adapting as best she can to her changing circumstances. It's an easy and, in my opinion, rewarding read.   

William Trevor's fourteenth novel Love and Summer is also set in rural Ireland of the mid twentieth century, but there the similarity ends. The 82-year old 'master of quiet, Irish brooding' (the Guardian) has produced a doomed love story of sweetness and poignancy, steeped in end-of-summer sunshine and peopled with subtly drawn and very recognisable characters (recognisable to this Irish reader, at any rate!) Love and Summer will linger in the memory long after the last page has been turned. 

Peter discusses his picks (The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda, A Pathway to Peace by Gerry Adams, and The Big Book) in the video below.

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The library grows lovelier with each and every book swap, and the bedside to-read stack grows taller, too.