About the Book: Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple - they go together like bread and butter, gin and tonic, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Every year for the past decade, they have left behind their lives to drink far too much wine and soak up the sea air with their favourite people in … Continue reading Book Review: Happy Place by Emily Henry
Books from Abroad
Book Review: Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon
About the Book: Neither of them expected to fall in love. But sometimes life has other plans. When Wren realises her fiancé is in love with someone else, she thinks her heart will never recover. On the other side of the world, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move … Continue reading Book Review: Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon
Book Review: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
About the Book: It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the … Continue reading Book Review: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Book Review: The Witches of Vardo by Anya Bergman
About the Book: Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. When Zigri, desperate and grieving after the loss of her husband and son, embarks on an affair with the local merchant, it's not long before she is sent to the fortress at Vardo, to … Continue reading Book Review: The Witches of Vardo by Anya Bergman
Book Review: Forever Home by Graham Norton
About the Book: Carol is a divorced teacher living in a small town in Ireland, her only son now grown. A second chance at love brings her unexpected connection and belonging. The new relationship sparks local speculation: what does a woman like her see in a man like that? What happened to his wife who … Continue reading Book Review: Forever Home by Graham Norton
Book Review: The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
Translated by Ann Goldstein About the Book: The Story of the Lost Child is the concluding volume in the dazzling saga of two women — the brilliant, bookish Elena, and the fiery, uncontainable Lila. Both are now adults, with husbands, lovers, aging parents, and children. Their friendship has been the gravitational center of their lives. Both … Continue reading Book Review: The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
Book Review: Haven by Emma Donoghue
About the Book: Three men vow to leave the world behind them. They set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. What they find is the extraordinary island now known as Skellig Michael. Haven, Emma Donoghue's gripping and moving novel, has her … Continue reading Book Review: Haven by Emma Donoghue
Book Review: The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
About the Book: It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko in an apartment in an abandoned hotel and lying on the floor at her grandparents: daydreaming, playing Tetris, and listening to the sounds from the street above. The heat rises; the days slip by. The plan is … Continue reading Book Review: The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
Book Recommendation: The Making of Her by Bernadette Jiwa
About the Book: Dublin 1966. When Joan Quinn, a factory girl from the Cranmore Estate, marries Martin Egan, it looks like her dreams have come true. But all is not as it seems. Joan lives in the shadow of a secret – the couple’s decision to give up their first daughter for adoption only months … Continue reading Book Recommendation: The Making of Her by Bernadette Jiwa
Book Review: The Night Ship by Jess Kidd
About the Book: ONE SHIPWRECK. TWO MISFITS. THREE CENTURIES APART. 1629. Embarking on a journey in search of her father, a young girl called Mayken boards the Batavia, the most impressive sea vessel of the age. During the long voyage, this curious and resourceful child must find her place in the ship’s stratified world. She … Continue reading Book Review: The Night Ship by Jess Kidd
Theresa Smith Writes 