Books
O'Toole wrote the biography of the former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen: The Path to Power (published by Transworld, a division of Random House, in October 2008). An excerpt from the book appears in the Lord of the Files anthology published in November 2011 by the Institute of Public Administration (IPA).
O'Toole edited an anthology on new Irish fiction, entitled Off The Edge (2006), with an introduction by author Lee Dunne.
His book Crime Ink, a collection of his Hot Press journalism, was released in July 2009. It went straight into the top 10 best-sellers list in Ireland on its release; it includes the first ever interviews with some of Ireland's and UK's most notorious criminals and IRA figures, such as: John Gilligan, Paddy "Dutchy" Holland, Alan Bradley (aka Fat Puss), Paddy McCann (Ireland's longest serving prisoner for double murder), Ian Strachan (the Royal Blackmailer) and IRA bosses John Noonan and Gerry Kelly. The book was selected as part of the Be Inspired: Great Irish Book Week, and a chapter from it was included in the anthology Gems from Irish Publishing.
O'Toole also wrote The Last Days of Katy French (2009, Merlin), which the Irish Independent wrote was “well written and non-judgmental”, adding that “maybe the book should be required reading on the Leaving Certificate curriculum”. Over 18 months after its release, the book surprisingly reentered the bestsellers charts at number 5 in non-fiction category in January 2011, according to the Nielsen figures published by the Sunday Independent on 22 January 2011.
O'Toole co-wrote The End of The Party with Bruce Arnold, published in November 2011 by Gill and Macmillan. The book was selected as one of the top ten Irish books of the year by Joe Duffy's RTE show Liveline The show described the book as "gripping"; while the Irish Independent described the book as the "angriest yet" on the meltdown of the Irish economy. Writing in the Sunday Independent, political writer John Drennan stated: "...this reads like a fast-paced thriller crossed with scenes of farce that would be more appropriate to Halls Pictorial Weekly. End of the Party lifts the lid off the crypt of internal politicking and political ambition that buried Fianna Fail and the country. In particular, for the first time, it fully unveils the alcohol-induced inertia that hollowed out a once uniquely successful party."
O'Toole has a co-author credit on Jimmy Magee's memoir, "The Memory Man", published in Sept 2012 by Gill & Macmillan. The book entered the bestsellers charts at no 2 in the hardback non-fiction category. It was short-listed for the Irish Sports Book of The Year Award, organised by Bord Gais.
He wrote "Katie Taylor: Journey to Olympic Gold", to be published in October 2012 by Gill & MacMillan.
Read more about this topic: Jason O'Toole (journalist)
Famous quotes containing the word books:
“Writers ought to be regarded as wrongdoers who deserve to be acquitted or pardoned only in the rarest cases: that would be a way to keep books from getting out of hand.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“My books and instruments shall be my company,
On them to look and practise by myself.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Like dreaming, reading performs the prodigious task of carrying us off to other worlds. But reading is not dreaming because books, unlike dreams, are subject to our will: they envelop us in alternative realities only because we give them explicit permission to do so. Books are the dreams we would most like to have, and, like dreams, they have the power to change consciousness, turning sadness to laughter and anxious introspection to the relaxed contemplation of some other time and place.”
—Victor Null, South African educator, psychologist. Lost in a Book: The Psychology of Reading for Pleasure, introduction, Yale University Press (1988)