Book Review - Before my heart actually breaks - Tish Delaney
Funny and moving story about Mary Rattigan, a young Irish woman with plans who finds life taking a different turn. Engaging storytelling with lyrical prose.
Bad Relations - Cressida Connolly
Wonderfully written and well paced multi generational story that moves from the Crimean battlefields to an English summer in the seventies. An evocative, well paced story with interesting characters in a book I devoured in a couple of days.
Book Review - The Quiet whispers never stop - Olivia Fitzsimmons
Strong debut about a young girl trying to escape her claustrophobic home town, but dealing with a distant father, a mother who walked out on them and a deadly attraction to an older man. Vibrant storytelling dealing with some dark topics.
Book Review- Ghosts of the Tsunami - Richard Lloyd Parry
Fascinating and moving work of non fiction on the 2011 Japanese tsunami, focusing on a small village school where 74 children died, where unfathomable grief turns to anger.
Book Review - The Island - Adrian McKinty
Rip roaring and fun thriller about a family on a trip to Australia who just want to see some Koalas. What could go wrong?
Book Review - The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel tells the story of a Native American tribe via a varied cast of characters and their fight to resist eviction from their ancestral homeland, and the problems they faced during the 1950’s.
Book Review-Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is an wonderfully immersive work of fantasy, set inside a world of halls and vestibules, water and statues, that soon grabs you with its strangeness. Wonderfully compelling.
Book Review - Grand Hotel Europa - Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
A book which uses the faded glory of the Grand Hotel Europa to tell a story of how the continent trades on it’s past but at the expense of what? Also looks at populism and tourism, it’s a long book but informative and readable.
Book review - This is Vegan Propaganda (and other lies the meat industry tells you) - Ed Winters
A powerful and persuasive book about how we can transform the world we live in by changing what we eat. I don’t think it’s possible to read this book and not become vegan.
Book review - Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
After the world collapses following a devastating pandemic, this book follows the lives of some of the survivors and how their lives intersect. A moving and thought provoking book that contains moments of real beauty.
Book Review - Sweet home - Wendy Erskine
Eleven perfectly pitched short stories set in Belfast by acclaimed writer, Wendy Erskine.
Book Review - Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart
‘Shuggie Bain’ was an immersive reading experience, set in the Glasgow in the 80’s. ‘Young mungo’ takes place in the 90’s, but in the same setting. How does it compare?
Book review - Songbirds - Christy Lefteri
‘Songbirds’ tells the story of Nisha, a migrant worker who leaves her homeland to work as a nanny and maid in Cyprus, but who vanishes one evening. A book about the plight of the vulnerable and invisible in society.
Audiobook Review - The Science of Storytelling - Will Storr
This is a fascinating and useful book looking at the neuroscience and cognitive psychology behind storytelling. Another excellent addition to books about writing.
Book Review - Lincoln in the bardo - George Sanders
This is an unusual story about the death of Lincoln’s son, told via snippets from historical sources and a chorus of characters who remain in the ‘bardo’. Not like anything else I have read in some time.
Book Review - The Law of Innocence - Michael Connelly
The latest instalment in the Mickey Haller series is an engrossing legal thriller, with ‘The Lincoln lawyer’ finding himself on the opposite side of the law, facing a desperate fight for his freedom.
Book Review - On Bloody Sunday - Julieanne Campbell
Julieanne Campbells powerful book, using oral testimonies from survivors, eye witnesses and relatives, tell the the story of the terrible events of the 30th of January, 1972 and its aftermath.
Book Review - I am an Island - Tamsin Calidas
A tough but inspiring memoir about surviving grief, loss and extreme loneliness on a remote Scottish Island.
Book Review - Trespasses - Louise Kennedy
Powerful, evocative and incredibly readable story of a love affair told against the backdrop of Ireland’s troubles.
Audiobook Review - The end of the affair - Graham Greene, read by Colin Firth
Graham Greenes story of a love affair in Post War London is masterfully narrated by Colin Firth.
