Frost Editor Catherine Balavage To Be Interviewed By Orla Barry On The Green Room

Frost Magazine’s editor, Catherine Balavage, will be interviewed about her new book by Orla Barry on The Green Room this Saturday between 9-11pm. The interview will air on Newstalk 106-108FM (Winner-PPI Radio Station of the Year 2013). Irish readers can catch the interview live while a link to the podcast will be posted for non-Irish residents. 

acting, acting advice, how to be an actor, how to be a successful actor, hollywood, castings, auditions, casting directors.

Orla Barry is a BBC World Service Broadcast Journalist, Broadcaster of The Green Room Culture Show on Newstalk 106-108FM, Columnist and Documentary Maker.

Catherine will be taking about her new book, How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur, which has been selling well and getting rave reviews. Grab a copy if you are an actor or want to be.

Other guests Orla has interviewed include actors George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Jessica Chastain. Comedians Ricky Gervais, Phil Jupitus, Ruby Wax, Bill Bailey and Monty Python’s Terry Jones.  Film Directors Mike Leigh, Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan, Kathryn Bigelow, Guillaume Canet, Morgan Spurlock and Michael Apted.  Authors, Joyce Carol Oates, Man Booker winner Howard Jacobson, Hanif Kureishi, John Banville, Jo Nesbo, Michael Palin and Garrison Keillor. Photographers Greg Marinovich, Steve McCurry, Giles Duley and performers Kristen Hersh,  Neil Hannon, Emmy-Lou Harris, Seun Kuti, Lisa Hannigan and Stevie Nicks.

So our editor is in good company!

 

 

Autumn Book Special

So many books, such little time. Don’t know what to read? Here is our little guide of books to read this Autumn. Each one is a corker.

autumnbookspecial

 

Festive In Death J.D. Robb

 

The kitchen knife jammed into his cold heart pinned a cardboard sign to his well-toned chest. It read: Santa Says You’ve Been Bad!!! Ho, Ho, Ho!

It’s Christmas, but Lieutenant Eve Dallas is in no mood to celebrate. While her charismatic husband Roarke plans a huge, glittering party, Eve has murder on her mind.

The victim – personal trainer Trey Ziegler – was trouble in life and is causing even more problems in death. Vain, unfaithful and vindictive, Trey had cultivated a lot of enemies. Which means Eve has a lot of potential suspects. And when she and Detective Peabody uncover Trey’s sinister secret, the case takes a deadly turn.

Christmas may be a festival of light, but Eve and Roarke will be forced once more down a very dark path in their hunt for the truth.

Nora Roberts published her first novel using the pseudonym J.D. Robb in 1995, introducing to readers the tough as nails but emotionally damaged homicide cop Eve Dallas and billionaire Irish rogue, Roarke.

With the In Death series, Robb has become one of the biggest thriller writers on earth, with each new novel reaching number one on bestseller charts the world over.

This is a thrill-seeking unputdownable thriller. A great read from beginning to end. We loved it.

 

 

Festive in Death is available here. Out on September 11th.

 

Seven Wonders Ben Mezrich

 

From the New York Times bestselling author Ben Mezrich comes Seven Wonders, a globe-trotting thriller in the vein of The DaVinci Code – rife with historic secrets, conspiracies, intrigue, and a whole lot of adventure.

When the reclusive mathematician Jeremy Grady is murdered, it’s up to his estranged brother Jack to find out why. His search leads him on a far-flung journey – from Brazil, India, Peru, and beyond – as he unravels the mystery that links the Seven Wonders of the World, and discovers that Jeremy may have hit upon something that has been concealed for centuries. With the help of scientist Sloane Costa, they discover a conspiracy to hide a roadmap to the Garden of Eden – and the truth behind a mythological ancient culture.

With a heart-pounding pace and panoramic backdrops, Seven Wonders is an electrifying read, and will be the first in a trilogy.

A fast-moving thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Enjoyable and a huge credit to the imagination of Ben Mezrich. This book is the first in a trilogy so if you enjoyed it as much as we did, you will have more books coming along soon. It is also being turned into a film directed by Brett Ratner.

Seven Wonders is available here. Out on September 11th.

 

The Last Boat Home Dea Brovig

 

Explosive, dark and tender, The Last Boat Home is a devastating novel about sacrifice, survival and a mother’s love. If you loved The Light Between Oceans or The Snow Child, this is for you.

On the wind-swept southern coast of Norway, sixteen-year-old Else is out on the icy sea, dragging her oars through the waves while, above her, storm clouds are gathering. Surrounded by mountains, snow and white-capped water, she looks across the fjord and dreams of another life, of escape and faraway lands.

Back on shore, her father sits alone in his boathouse with a jar of homebrew. In the Best Room, her mother covers her bruises and seeks solace in prayer. Each tries to hide the truth from this isolated, God-fearing community they call home.

Until one night changes everything.

More than thirty years later, the return of an old friend forces Else to relive the events that marked the end of her childhood.

Explosive, dark and tender, The Last Boat Home is a devastating novel about sacrifice, survival and a mother’s love.

This is an intriguing, dark novel. It really grabbed us and would not let go. A very good debut novel, fresh and definitely worth a read.

 

The Last Boat Home is available here. Out on August 14th.

 

Ghost Child Caroline Overington

 

From the bestselling author of I Came to Say Goodbye. Can you ever escape the secrets of your past? Perfect for fans of Susan Lewis

The photograph shows four smiling children. But look closer and you can tell that one of the boys has been crying.

Weeks later, that little boy is dead. His mother and her boyfriend are in prison for his murder, and his brother and sisters have been fostered to separate families.

No one knows for sure what happened that day, except, possibly, the three remaining children, and they’re not talking.

But the past cannot be buried forever, and years later, when the truth about what happened is revealed, will it bring a final healing? Or will the legacy of fear that the children have lived with for so long, finally destroy them?

An amazing story told in an original way. A very good read and the characters are written so well. Recommended.

 

 

Ghost Child is available here. Out on September 11th.

 

Five Days Left Julie Lawson Timmer

 

Destined to be a book club favorite, a heart-wrenching debut about two people who must decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice for love.

Mara Nichols is a successful lawyer, devoted wife, and adoptive mother who has received a life-shattering diagnosis. Scott Coffman, a middle school teacher, has been fostering an eight-year-old boy while the boy’s mother serves a jail sentence. Scott and Mara both have five days left until they must say good-bye to the ones they love the most.

Through their stories, Julie Lawson Timmer explores the individual limits of human endurance and the power of relationships, and shows that sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go.

This is a deeply moving debut. This book is about heartbreak and human endurance. Unforgettable, thought-provoking and controversial. A brilliant debut.

 

 

Five Days Left is available here. Out on August 28th.

 

Which ones will you read?

 

 

Scottish History For Dummies Book Review

Scottish History For Dummies is a rather relevant book to review, with the Scottish Independence vote less than a month away.  As history goes, Scotland may be a small country on the edge of Northern Europe, but it has always punched above its weight. No, I am not just being biased because I am a Scot myself, although I am very proud of my country.

scottishhistoryfordummiesbookreview

This book is nothing if not comprehensive. It charts the entire history of Scotland from the Stone Ages up until modern times (the year 2000).  William Wallace (clearly not a Mel Gibson lookalike) and Robert The Bruce feature of course, that most often talked about part of history told via the historically inaccurate Braveheart, which is now the bane of all Scots who have to put up with ‘Ye cannae take our freedom’ quotes.

The Stewart Dynasty is well covered and the chapter on the renaissance of Scotland is particularly fascinating. It covers 1460-1542 and in late medieval Scotland, life was short. When someone died all of the windows would be opened to let the spirit out. The clocks would be stopped and not started again until after the burial. Families would drape themselves in white, only the great houses draped themselves in black. Then a wake, known as the Lykewake, would happen and last two or three days. Funeral expenses could impoverish the poor so they used a coffin which had hinges that allowed the body to be dropped straight into the grave so they could reuse it. All very interesting.

I also love the chapters on modern Scotland. 1945-2000 is full of great information. Although it does stop there, this book is still brilliant and a must have for anyone interested in Scotland and its history.

The Parts of Tens are as good as ever: basically lists of tens. The one on Ten Things Scotland Has Given to The World was my favourite. They were: the flushing toilet, The King James Bible, criminal fingerprinting, whisky, colour photography, anaesthetic, raincoats, golf, Dolly the sheep and For Auld Lang Syne. A good list, but just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Scottish History For Dummies is available here.

 

 

 

The Girls From Corona Del Mar By Rufi Thorpe Book Review

The Girls from Corona del Mar review

The Girls From Corona Del Mar immediately hooks you. Brilliantly written, it draws you into a nostalgic haze. It is a brutally honest and sometimes uncomfortable read about the friendship between two women. This books takes a long, hard look at female friendship and reveals how little we can know someone, how life gets in the way and how fate can deal hands that are unfair and unbalanced. It reminds us that life is brutal and hard, but also beautiful and kind. The story is narrated by Mia as she describes her friendship with Lorrie Ann.

Rufi Thorpe’s true talent is how believable the book is, even with the twists and turns, the slights of fate. She has a beautiful way of writing that is almost poetic. But the book is also haunting and brutal. The story may be of friendship but it is a particularly broken one. It is easy to be best friends when you are a teenager, but life gets in the way later, as does judgement and life choices. It is a friendship of guilt, love and jealousy. Mia defines her entire identity against Lorrie Ann, referring to her as her ‘opposite twin’. She always thought she was the bad one, Lorrie Ann the good one. It is love, but it is messy.

The book can give a brutal look at being a woman. Abortion and the regret of having one plays heavily, childbirth is grisly and awful- actually stomach churning. It charts friendship through different countries, reversal of fortunes and personal faults. It is a wonderful book that stayed with me, if even occasionally for a haunting and brutal story. The Girls From Corona Del Mar is haunting, beautiful and hard to put down.

Why did Lorrie Ann look graceful in beat-up Keds and shorts a bit too small for her? Why was it charming when she snorted from laughing too hard? Yes, we were jealous of her, and yet we did not hate her. She was never so much as teased by us, we roaming and bratty girls of Corona del Mar, thieves of corn nuts and orange soda, abusers of lip gloss and foul language.”

An astonishing debut about friendships made in youth, The Girls from Corona del Mar is a fiercely beautiful novel about how these bonds, challenged by loss, illness, parenthood, and distance, either break or endure.

Mia and Lorrie Ann are lifelong friends: hard-hearted Mia and untouchably beautiful, kind Lorrie Ann. While Mia struggles with a mother who drinks, a pregnancy at fifteen, and younger brothers she loves but can’t quite be good to, Lorrie Ann is luminous, surrounded by her close-knit family, immune to the mistakes that mar her best friend’s life. Then a sudden loss catapults Lorrie Ann into tragedy: things fall apart, and then fall further—and there is nothing Mia can do to help. And as good, brave, fair Lorrie Ann stops being so good, Mia begins to question just who this woman is, and what that question means about them both.

A staggeringly honest, deeply felt novel of family, motherhood, loyalty, and the myth of the perfect friendship, The Girls from Corona del Mar asks just how well we know those we love, what we owe our children, and who we are without our friends.

 

 

The Girls from Corona del Mar is available here.  

 

 

You’re A Big Girl Now By Neil Gordon Book Review

yours-a-big-girl-now-book reviewUpon reading the inlay for You’re A Big Girl Now I was immediately hooked. It has a lot of the stuff I am interested in: politics, privacy, human rights, journalism. I was not disappointed. It grabs you from the start and I also feel like Neil Gordon really knows his stuff. As he should of course, this is his fourth novel and he is also Professor of Writing at The New School and Professor of Comparative Literature and Dean of The American University in Paris. Add in that he is the literary editor at the Boston Review and you have a man who knows a lot about writing. This certainly comes across in his novel.

This novel is a sequel but I only realised that after reading the blurb on the Pan Macmillan website. Despite this, you can read this book as a standalone novel and still understand and enjoy it.

It is a gripping thriller that holds you. It has plenty of twists and turns. The main character, Isabel Montgomery, is not necessarily a likeable person. She is over-privileged but she knows it, gets work because of her family name but knows it, is a drug addict and a flake, but she knows it. I didn’t know if I liked her but the fact is, Isabel Montgomery certainly would not care whether or not I liked her. There is an echo of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo here. I must admit that sometimes I struggled with her character. I don’t know why female characters have to be so broken sometimes. The drug use annoyed me and I couldn’t relate to it. She is in her late-twenties and is still blaming her family for her problems, all whilst making a living trading off their name.

But she has her good points. She is an excellent writer, ballsy, opinionated. If it wasn’t for the drug use and the alcoholism she could actually be a heroine. She just lets her demons overcome her, not realising that many people have had a much worse life then she has.

The book is excellent, relevant and tells an important story about surveillance and politics. It is an enjoyable and educating read, even if Isabel annoys you sometimes.

 

A contemporary literary thriller, You’re A Big Girl Now is the gripping sequel to The Company You Keep, recently adapted into a major film directed by and starring Robert Redford, alongside Shia LeBoeuf and Susan Sarandon.

In 1995, Isabel Montgomery was abandoned by her father in a downtown Manhattan hotel room, and the world of her childhood fell apart. After years undercover, he was exposed as one of America’s most wanted fugitives, for his role in violent anti-Vietnam protests.

In 2011, Isabel is a twenty-seven-year-old star reporter – despite a bad attitude and a substance-abuse problem – and she’s about to put her career on the line by writing a New York Times front-page story on the Obama administration’s unconstitutional surveillance of its citizens.

Forced into hiding after the story breaks, she takes refuge in her grandparents’ abandoned home. There, surrounded by the past she’s run from for years, she makes a discovery that sees her turn her investigative skills on her own family to finally understand the truth about everything that led her to this moment.

You’re A Big Girl Now is a gripping, intelligent thriller that questions the morals and politics of America in the contemporary Age of Surveillance.

You’re a Big Girl Now is available here.

 

 

Kay Cunningham: Wedding Make Up Artist | Weddings

On the day of my wedding I had not only spent the previous night without any sleep, but only had three hours sleep at most on the eve of my wedding. None of this mattered because of the magic of Kay Cunningham. An incredibly talented make up artist who did my wedding make up. None of my guests noticed I was basically a zombie and said they could not tell I had such little sleep. Everyone said I looked radiant. I didn’t, but the make up sure did.

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, wedding make up artist, London, wedding planning

Photo credit: Holly Thomas

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, wedding make up artist, London, wedding planning

Photo credit: Michael Yardley

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, wedding make up artist, London, wedding planning

Photo credit: Holly Thomas

Kay is very talented and has worked for pretty much everyone of note, including Trish McEvoy, Versace Cosmetics, Guerlain Cosmetics, Prescriptives, Chanel, Dior and Givenchy. She was very friendly and it was great having a girlie chat with her. She is also a fashion designer and is a senior writer and beauty editor of www.l3magazine.com, which is published in the USA. Wow. Multi-talented.

She made me look amazing on my wedding day and my skin looks great in all of the wedding photographs. No mean feat considering the lack of sleep and the stress of the day. She is amazing. Snap her up now.
www.makeupbykayce.com

Kay is interviewed in The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity, the only wedding planning book you will ever need, written by our editor Catherine Balavage.

 

 

London Wedding Venues: The London Rowing Club | Weddings

As weddings go, choosing the right venue is incredibly important. In fact, not much can be done without a venue. The choices however are (almost) limitless. It can be overwhelming but, fear not, if you are getting married in London I have a recommendation for you: The London Rowing Club.

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

Credit: Vanessa Bailey

I got married here on the 24th of July and many of our guests said it was the best wedding, and wedding venue, that they had ever been to. Olivia from the London Rowing Club is a life-saver. She makes sure the day goes smoothly, does the schedule during your consultation and deals with all of your suppliers. The rest of the staff were also amazing. Even our registrar, Jackie, said it was her favourite wedding venue and had high praise for Olivia.

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

Credit: Holly Thomas

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

Credit: Vanessa Bailey

This beautiful venue is on the river and it is more than likely that some Canadian Geese, swans and ducks will come to your wedding if you have your pictures taken by the river.

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

Credit: Vanessa Bailey

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

Credit: Holly Thomas

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

You get exclusive use of the club across three beautiful rooms, a cake stand and knife, china, glassware and cutlery, an events manager, tables and chairs, table linen with white linen napkins, a master of ceremonies and a licensed bar with a bar manager. There is also an option to only book the club room or members room.

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

Photo credit: Michael Yardley.

It is a very beautiful venue which is easy to get to and in a stunning location on Putney Embankment. We can highly recommend it.

wooden_floor-1

 

Embankment, Putney, London, SW15 1LB
(020) 8788 1400 lrc_office@londonrc.org.uk
London Rowing Club Website

The London Rowing Club is interviewed in The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity. It has great advice on finding your perfect venue and is written by our editor, Catherine Balavage.

 

 

Federated Films: Excellent Wedding Videographer | Weddings

wedding, weddings, wedding venue, london rowing club, wedding planning

Photo credit: Michael Yardley.

It can be very hard to find a good wedding videographer but I certainly managed to get lucky. Federated Films not only made an amazing wedding video, but also managed to get it edited and to my new husband and I in record time. All at a very reasonable price.

On the day they were unobtrusive and friendly. Everyone loved them. Kevin from Federated Films talent was obvious in his shots and focus. Check out the videos on his website for more at Federated Films He really is talented.

We can highly recommend Federated Films. They make amazing wedding videos at a very reasonable price.

This is the testimonial that we gave them after our wedding: “Federated films were an absolute joy to work with. Not only are they friendly but they were also unobtrusive. We looked at a lot of different videographers and Kevins work stood out. We were not disappointed. The finished result was astounding and well edited. We could not have gotten a better videographer. A++++” – Catherine & James

They are based in Brighton but are happy to travel, as they did for our wedding in London. Capturing your wedding day is incredibly important and a video is something that you can watch forever. It is one of the main things to not skimp on.

Federated Films: website.

Kevin from Federated Film is interviewed in The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity. It has great advice on planning your perfect wedding and is written by our editor, Catherine Balavage.