Maybe, it’s because of the time of the year, the first week of October see the launch of an incredible number of title worldwide as large, small and medium companies try to launch a christmas bestseller, but this weeks the news is flowing!

Brian Cody and Brian Cowen got a brief mention in the Independent becuase of Cody’s new Autobiography.

Showtime: The Inside Story of Fianna Fail in Power, by Pat Leahy also had a review in Saturday’s Independent, as did Barry Duggan’s Mean Streets: Limerick’s Gangland.
For the week what’s in it, the Herald has a decent look at Banned & Censored Books in Ireland:

Most of us are aware of books that were banned here in the past — Madonna’s Sex is a book some of us will remember, outlawed in 1994, before finally being permitted on the shelves in a lewd silver wrapper.
But the list of writers banned in Ireland with the introduction of the Censorship of Publications Act in 1929 is real hand-over-the-mouth stuff. From Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms banned in 1939, to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, outlawed in 1953, we really did pick on some classics, as well as condemn our own, like Liam O’Flaherty in 1930.
Ulysses, contrary to popular belief, was never actually banned in Ireland. A 1967 film adaptation by director Joseph Strick was, however, outlawed. Apparently, it’s pretty awful.

Sarah Webb has a nice round up of the October Children’s Book Festival.

Adding to the weight of books that are rooting out the causes, connections and elites responsible for our current economic woes, Matt Cooper’s book, Who Really Runs Ireland? The Story of the Elite who led Ireland from Bust to Boom — and back again, is reviewed in the Irish Independent.

The Indo also carried a note on a biography of recently deceased Fianna Fail minister, Seamus Brennan.

O’Brien’s new Gerry Bradley book gets some interesting coverage:

He spoke out last night, saying some republicans had even compared him to murdered ex-Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, who was shot dead in 2006 a year after admitting he was a British spy.
“This is a pro-IRA book,” insisted Bradley from Dublin, where he has gone to “clear his head” from negative reaction and to publicise the book.
“I’m still a republican. There has been a knee-jerk reaction to coverage of the book with people jumping to the conclusion that Gerry Bradley is telling the Brits everything.”

Just to remind us. How touch the economy can be on book publishers, the Gill & Macmillan results are not good. That said, G&M is an impressive company that will no doubt rebound with the economy and, it should be noted, they still made a profit, despite the economy.

As I said, lots of news.
Eoin