It's that time of year again, when you could be walking out of the Metro or into a coffee shop, minding your own business, and someone will hand you a free book. And not ask for a donation or if you've been saved. Solas Nua is holding it's 4th annual Irish Book Day tomorrow, March 17. Given the generally appalling way St. Patrick's Day is marked in many places around this fine country of ours (just ask anyone who was in Hoboken for the St. Patrick's Day parade two weeks ago), I find Irish Book Day a very nice tradition. According to Solas Nua, this year’s books will include titles by Colum McCann, Colm Toibin, Anne Enright, Alf MacLochlainn, Brigid Brophym, Chris Agee and Brian Lynch (who will be reading from his novel, The Winner of Sorrow, at the Arts Club of Washington on March 31).
For another option Tuesday night that's a bit less cerebral, Solas Nua and Washington Improv Theater are jointly offering "Craicdown! A Hooley of Epic Proportions" night at the Source Theatre (1835 14th Street, NW), for $15, with a reception following. Here's what you can expect:
Scenes from Solas Nua's 2008 hit Trad will be reprised complete with live music, the O'Danny Girls will perform their signature bawdy songs, and WIT will give us an improvised wake and a Limerick chain. Plus mash ups of Solas and WIT actors, a So you think you're Irish? quiz, Irish accent and Riverdance contests and much more! Start working on your Michael Flatley mullet and get ready to join in the fun.
You can buy tickets in advance here. Finally, Solas Nua's production of Pumpgirl, a play by young Irish playwright Abbie Spallen, is running through March 22 at Flashpoint (916 G Street, NW).
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Speaking of Irish literature, on the way home from work tonight I heard R.L. Stine, author of the children's book series Goosebumps, begin an essay in NPR's "You Must Read This" series with the following:
Every once in a while, I read a sentence or paragraph in a book that is so lyrical, so well-crafted — so shockingly perfect — that I have to stop reading and take a short break. I'll blink a few times, and then read the words again.
I thought, exactly! That's why I'm the second slowest reader on the planet! (I defer to Dubliner for first place.) Even better, he went on to say "This happened to me on page after page of Sebastian Barry's heartbreaking World War I novel, A Long Long Way." Sebastian Barry is a wonderful author, and A Long Long Way, one of my very favorite books. You can read (or listen to) the rest of Stine's essay on NPR's website. He quotes his son, a music producer, as saying about the book that "It's not like reading a novel. There's music on every page." When I wrote about it in 2006 I described it (quoting Barry out of context) as "a singing book." So between the two of us it must be true.
Photo courtesy of Solas Nua.
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