Normal People... About the Book: Winner: 2019 Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, and the 2018 Costa Novel Award: Sally Rooney set the books world buzzing in 2017 with her debut Conversations With Friends. Normal People is a girl-meets-boy story with a difference, interrogating the difficulties of … Continue reading Book Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney
Irish Fiction
#BookBingo – Round 6
One of the things I love about book bingo is that I often get to feature for a second time books I have recently appreciated and highly recommend. None more so than this week's selection. Themes of Culture: A River in the Trees by Jacqueline O'Mahony ‘It was already completely bright in the room; the … Continue reading #BookBingo – Round 6
New Release Book Review: When All is Said by Anne Griffin
When All is Said… About the Book: Five toasts. Five people. One lifetime. 'I'm here to remember - all that I have been and all that I will never be again.' At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He's alone, as usual - though tonight is … Continue reading New Release Book Review: When All is Said by Anne Griffin
New Release Book Review: A River in the Trees by Jacqueline O’Mahony
A River in the Trees... About the Book: A fierce and gripping novel about families, secrets and the impossibility of ever coming home. Two women. Two stories. One hundred years of secrets. 1919 Ireland is about to be torn apart by the War of Independence. Hannah O'Donovan helps her father hide rebel soldiers in the … Continue reading New Release Book Review: A River in the Trees by Jacqueline O’Mahony
Book Review: The Year that Changed Everything by Cathy Kelly
The Year that Changed Everything... About the Book: Three women, three birthdays, one year that will change everything... Ginger isn't spending her thirtieth the way she would have planned. Tonight might be the first night of the rest of her life - or a total disaster. Sam is finally pregnant after years of trying. When … Continue reading Book Review: The Year that Changed Everything by Cathy Kelly
New Release Book Review: Grace After Henry by Eithne Shortall
Grace After Henry… About the Book: Grace sees her boyfriend Henry everywhere. In the supermarket, on the street, at the graveyard. Only Henry is dead. He died two months earlier, leaving a huge hole in Grace's life and in her heart. But then Henry turns up to fix the boiler one evening, and Grace can't … Continue reading New Release Book Review: Grace After Henry by Eithne Shortall
New Release Book Review: The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal
The Trick to Time... About the Book: Birmingham, 1972. Mona is a young Irish girl in a big city, with the thrill of a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. On her first night out in town, she meets William, a charming Irish boy with an easy smile … Continue reading New Release Book Review: The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal
Novel to Film Review: Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Brooklyn... About the Novel: Young Eilis Lacey dreams of life beyond the confines of her tiny Irish village, but unlike her beautiful sister, Rose, Eilis' gifts are of a more practical nature: she has a head for numbers, and is a loving and dutiful daughter. Yet her ambition cannot be hidden and soon is noted … Continue reading Novel to Film Review: Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
My Reading Life: Maeve Binchy
Welcome to a new series, My Reading Life, where I revisit the authors and novels that have shaped me into the reader I am today. To kick this series off, I'm beginning with the Queen of Irish fiction, the late Maeve Binchy. I can still remember buying my first Maeve Binchy novel, way … Continue reading My Reading Life: Maeve Binchy
