Book Review - To Paradise - Hanya Yanagihara
Hanya Yanagihara’s latest spans two hundred years and 720 pages. It’s large in scope and at times unwieldy and this is my attempt to review it. Is it any good? As long as it is, best not to read if you are entering isolation……….
Book Review - Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
Claires Keegan’s Novella is that thing of rare beauty, a short, honest, heartbreaking book set around Bill Furlong, a coal Merchant making deliveries during a cold Christmas in Ireland, 1985.
Book Review - Utopia For Realists (And how we get there) - Rutger Bregman
A review of Rutger Bregman’s ‘utopia for realists’ which is an engaging call to arms for a new utopia, with ideas such as the end of poverty and the creation of a 15 hour week. Time to get off the hamster wheel.
Book Review - Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen
Franzens brilliantly written saga, set in the seventies, is a warm, deep and funny exploration of the family dynamics of the Hildebrandt clan and the choices they make in their lives and their relationship to each other and God.
Book Review - Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
In this superb novella by Edith Wharton, a man arrives in Starkfield, Massachusetts and is intrigued by the figure of Ethan Frome, a man of whom the townsfolk say little. Later, the man is forced to spend the night in the Frome household and learns more about his earlier life…...
Book Review - The Monk - Paul Williams
The story of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, one of Irelands most enigmatic crime figures and locked in a deadly feud with the Kinahan Cartel. Grim reading at times, but recommended for any fans of true crime.
Book Review - The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Nora Seed has had enough and wants to die. She then finds herself in the midnight library, where she can access all the lives she could have had. It could have been incredibly twee, but instead Matt Haig has written a book with empathy and hope at it’s heart.
Book review - The Nothing Man - Catherine Ryan Howard
Superior Irish thriller about a survivor who decides after 18 years that she wants to hunt for the serial killer who murdered her family.
Book review - Rememberings - Sinéad O’Connor
A rollercoaster of an autobiography by the protest singer, Sinéad O’Connor, from her troubled childhood through to her singing career and mental health troubles. Raw, honest and revealing.
Snowflake - Louise Nealon - Book Review
An accomplished debut by young Irish writer, Louise Nealon, about 18 year old Debbie growing up in rural Ireland before moving to Dublin, about family, mental health and relationships.
Book Review - Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race - Reni Eddo-Lodge
An essential book about race relations in the UK today. A major contribution to the discussion of anti racism.
Book Review - Listen- How to Find The Words for Tender Conversations - Kathryn Mannix
A wise and compassionate book on the act of listening from Kathryn Mannix, a medical practitioner and therapist with over 30 years experience in palliative care. A vital and moving read.
Book Review - Say Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe
Remarkable work of narrative non fiction that focuses on the abduction and murder of Jean McConville to tell the story of ‘the troubles.’
Book Review - A Furious Devotion: The Authorised Story Of Shane MacGowan - Richard Balls
The engrossing story of one of Ireland’s national icons, from his formative years in England, trips home to Tipperary and how they shaped him, Punk rock through to the wild years of the Pogues.
Book Review - The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
The story of two twin sisters born in the strange town of Mallard, with its own system of racial purity. They escape, but their lives take two very different courses.
Book Review - The Survivors - Jane Harper
A review of Jane Harper’s ‘The Survivors’, set in a Tasmanian beach town. How does it compare to her previous bestselling thrillers?
Book Review - The Way Home: Tales from a life without technology - Mark Boyle
Mark Boyle’s story of how he gave up electricity for a year and living a life familiar only to our distant ancestors.
Book Review - Northern Protestants On Shifting Ground
An enlightening and thought provoking book on Northern Protestants over the last twenty years, with Brexit and talk of a United Ireland increasing.
Book Review - Nightmare Alley - William Lindsay Gresham
A dark, lurid, hard boiled bleak nightmare of a book with a seedy underbelly and a complicated and fascinating main character.
Book Review - Beautiful World, Where are you - Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney’s third novel focuses on the friendships and loves of four people finding their way in the modern world.
