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Books of the year: 2025’s best offerings that highlight political strife, pain, and injustice
Books of the year: 2025’s best offerings that highlight political strife, pain, and injustice
JP O’Malley reveals his picks for books that tell true stories of those who lived in difficult and challenging times, both in the present day and the past

Fri, 12 Dec, 2025

Heather Clark by Beowulf Sheehan
Books of the year: Four brilliant page-turners you’ll want to give to friends
Sue Leonard selects her best books of the year, featuring inter-generational guilt, a harrowing depiction of coercive control, and no shortage of wonderful prose

Fri, 12 Dec, 2025

Costa Book Awards 2015
'Confessions of a Shopaholic' novelist Sophie Kinsella dies aged 55
The ‘queen of romantic comedy’ has died 18 months after announcing her brain cancer diagnosis

Wed, 10 Dec, 2025

Books of the year: Three titles that tugged at the very fabric of Irish history
Books of the year: Three titles that tugged at the very fabric of Irish history
Diarmuid O’Donovan reveals his must-read releases this year for those riveted by Ireland’s past

Sat, 06 Dec, 2025

Book review: Collection provides new insight into mind of acclaimed writer
Book review: Collection provides new insight into mind of acclaimed writer
One of the collection’s great joys is reading the author’s accounts of how other writers have shaped her as an artist and a person

Sat, 06 Dec, 2025

Tupac Shakur
Book review: Intriguing read probes many faces of controversial rapper
By the end of this excellent biography, you may not like Tupac Shakur, but you certainly know him

Sat, 06 Dec, 2025

Beginner's pluck: Retired doctor Geraldine Osborne 
Beginner's pluck: Retired doctor Geraldine Osborne 
Atmospheric memoir sees couple take their three small children to tiny Arctic settlement in 1989, from where they adventured across the frozen sea

Sat, 06 Dec, 2025

Russia Obit Gorbachev
Book review: Vernacular voices in story of Soviet Union’s implosion
Author weaves lives of die-hard apparatchiks with the dreams of young Russian musicians more inspired by Dylan than Dostoevsky, more moved by Lennon than Lenin

Sat, 06 Dec, 2025

Book review: Investigating the personal struggles of investigators
Book review: Investigating the personal struggles of investigators
Although the crime at the centre of the book drives the plot and sparks many twists and revelations, it is the personal struggles and inner battles the main characters face that linger long after you have finished reading

Sat, 06 Dec, 2025

Two children on the floor read a book in a room with Christmas
12 books of Christmas that will make ideal gifts for young readers
Ruth Concannon takes a look back through some of the best books published in each month of 2025

Fri, 05 Dec, 2025

Book review: The battle to birth a republic
Book review: The battle to birth a republic
In 'From Crown to Harp', the story of Ireland’s development from dominion to republic is diligently outlined by David McCullagh

Sat, 29 Nov, 2025

Book review: Confessions of a sentient AI algorithm
Book review: Confessions of a sentient AI algorithm
The dystopian AI potboiler appears to be ubiquitous, but Paul Bradley Carr wisely got in ahead of the rush — 'The Confessions' depicts a world gone slightly madder than ours

Sat, 29 Nov, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Multimedia journalist Adam Maguire
Beginner’s pluck: Multimedia journalist Adam Maguire
'The Bailout Babies' asks what has become of the generation, born in the boom, who had to contend with the crash?

Sat, 29 Nov, 2025

Book review: Behind Michael J Fox’s iconic double act
Book review: Behind Michael J Fox’s iconic double act
This book is more than a memoir, it’s a piece of film history, told with humour and fun about one of the world’s most beloved films

Sat, 29 Nov, 2025

Author interview: Orlean’s open approach provides rich insight into storytelling world
Author interview: Orlean’s open approach provides rich insight into storytelling world
'Joyride' is a hugely entertaining and engaging account of Orlean’s adventures in writing written in her own imitable and impeccable style

Fri, 28 Nov, 2025

ICE Raid Louisiana Racetrack
Author interview: Eerie parallels in treatment of immigrant communities
Shifting demographics in the US partially explains why the Republican Party have turned further to the right in recent years — especially on immigration

Fri, 28 Nov, 2025

Manchán Magan 16/3/2025
Revealed: Manchán Magan and Michael D Higgins among winners of Irish Book Awards 2025
Former President Michael D  Higgins was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his impact on Irish art and culture

Thu, 27 Nov, 2025

Book review: Little criticism or juicy gossip, but Miriam’s memoir still worth the wait
Book review: Little criticism or juicy gossip, but Miriam’s memoir still worth the wait
Miriam O’Callaghan’s 'Life, Work, Everything' can be read as a social and political history of Ireland

Mon, 24 Nov, 2025

2021 Booker Prize For Fiction: Shortlist Photocall
Book review: Wayward connection in chaos
For those new to Lockwood, 'Will There Ever Be Another You' will be a challenging and, at times, frustrating read as incidents and characters from previous books are referenced without explanation or context

Sat, 22 Nov, 2025

Harper Lee
Book review: Pinhole view into icon’s life
Harper Lee über-fans and readers interested in examining early work from a noted literary figure will likely get a kick out of the fiction here — but the stories are uneven

Sat, 22 Nov, 2025

Crime writer Michael Connelly: I???m definitely not finished with Harry Bosch
Book review: Poignant tale centred on the perils of AI
In Michael Connelly’s latest, Mickey Haller is representing the mother of a teenage girl murdered by her ex-boyfriend who claims he was encouraged to do so by a chatbot

Sat, 22 Nov, 2025

Donald Trump in Helicopter
Book review: Familiar names in colourful, gritty romp across 1980s New York
Jonathan Mahler’s enthralling overview of the city benefits and suffers from the fact we know many of the dramatis personae because they remain in the public eye

Sat, 22 Nov, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Journal.ie columnist Carl Kinsella
Beginner’s pluck: Journal.ie columnist Carl Kinsella
This collection of funny, thought provoking essays investigate the way millennials relate to the world

Sat, 22 Nov, 2025

Author interview: From family fortunes to scandals, real-life drama of Dunnes dynasty
Author interview: From family fortunes to scandals, real-life drama of Dunnes dynasty
Matt Cooper’s new book reveals how the owners of retail empire have had triumphs but also turmoil over years, from kidnapping and addiction to a bitter battle for succession

Fri, 21 Nov, 2025

Booker Prize 2025
Overdue Booker nod brings Szalay in from the margins
A unique talent with a track record of challenging work, David Szalay creates worlds that are full of despicable characters and delectable prose

Fri, 21 Nov, 2025

Booker Prize 2025
Colin Sheridan: The Booker shows what we're willing to celebrate — a new, questioning, masculinity
The 'death of the introspective male novel' has been greatly exaggerated — see Karl Ove Knausgaard’s newest nine-volume, 6,000-page meditation on the misery of being alive

Thu, 20 Nov, 2025

FRANCE-LITERATURE-PORTRAIT
Book review: A fresh view on international politics
Exploring the parallel rise to power of amoral autocrats and tech billionaires, and the chronic inability of our political structures to do anything about the ascendancy of either

Sat, 15 Nov, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Researcher and ambassador for Shine Cathy Shah
Beginner’s pluck: Researcher and ambassador for Shine Cathy Shah
'Rabbit Hole and Rainbows' charts Cathy’s mental health struggles; her trauma, her moments of stigma, silence, and despair, as she battles addiction and dysfunctional relationships

Sat, 15 Nov, 2025

Book review: Shocking downfall of a legend
Book review: Shocking downfall of a legend
DJ Carey was the game of hurling's first great superstar but there was always something that suggested his spirit was in some way troubled

Sat, 15 Nov, 2025

Book review: Witty, robust defence of the power of sentimentality to effect change
Book review: Witty, robust defence of the power of sentimentality to effect change
The central thesis of Ferdinand Mount's 'Soft' is compelling: Sentimentality is a form of mass soft power that steers us towards a better, more humane world

Sat, 15 Nov, 2025

Book review: Get clued up on Irish slang
Book review: Get clued up on Irish slang
Colm O’Regan’s entertaining account of the Irish version of the English language is an etymologist’s delight, being nicely scholarly, but it wears its learning lightly, which means it’s accessible to all of us

Sat, 15 Nov, 2025

Young girl reading a book by the fireplace
Children's book reviews: Books to warm up the imagination as autumn comes to a close
Children’s Books Ireland has some recommended stories which can perfectly fill the gap before the Christmas winter period takes full effect, writes Ruth Concannon

Fri, 14 Nov, 2025

Author interview: Youth facing challenges need ‘revolutionary changes’
Author interview: Youth facing challenges need ‘revolutionary changes’
Sara Cullen hopes her novel, 'Blood Red Sky', will cause policymakers and adult readers to reflect on how we as a society view young people who get into trouble

Fri, 14 Nov, 2025

Book review: No need to shop around for this story of Dunnes’ burgeoning retail empire
Book review: No need to shop around for this story of Dunnes’ burgeoning retail empire
From the 1960s, Dunnes Stores, or family members, have been embroiled in some of the most infamous disputes and scandals

Sat, 08 Nov, 2025

Missing person Tina Satchwell case
Book review: Rushed mess that badly needed an edit
That the nuts and bolts of story are revealed in the eight-page prologue almost makes wading through the subsequent 355 pages unnecessary

Sat, 08 Nov, 2025

Book review: Answers from a life well lived
Book review: Answers from a life well lived
In her 33rd novel, 'Weathering Storms', Alice Taylor reflects on her nostalgic childhood while coming to terms with her own mortality

Sat, 08 Nov, 2025

Book review: Witty jab at smartphone era
Book review: Witty jab at smartphone era
Anika Jade Levy's 'Flat Earth' is very good at illustrating how very differently men and women experience the world

Sat, 08 Nov, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Copywriter and translator Patrick Doherty
Beginner’s pluck: Copywriter and translator Patrick Doherty
'Pure Innocent Boy', which started as a short story, is a powerful, poignant account of deep dissociation

Sat, 08 Nov, 2025

The Children’s Booker Prize will be a boon to young readers everywhere
The Children’s Booker Prize will be a boon to young readers everywhere
The announcement has sparked great excitement in the realm of children’s literature, with the prize sure to shine a light on some of the best stories available for young and eager readers, writes Deirdre McArdle

Fri, 07 Nov, 2025

FILE PICS: Former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald is understood to be seriously ill in hospital.
Book review: Class, corruption, and rivalry at the birth of modern Ireland
Eoin O’Malley’s thesis is that the rivalry between these two individuals shaped the Ireland that was to evolve after they had both departed the frontline

Fri, 07 Nov, 2025

Zadie Smith Receives WELT-Literaturpreis 2016 In Berlin
Book review: Incisive Smith offers insights on creativity in random collection
Through 'Dead and Alive', Smith retains her crown as one of the sharpest, sanest, perceptively unpretentious minds of our generation

Sat, 01 Nov, 2025

IRELAND-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE-NATURE
Beginner's pluck: Poet, cinematographer and rewilder Randal Plunkett 
Part biography, part a treatise on rewilding, 'Wild Thing' is an insightful and inspirational read

Sat, 01 Nov, 2025

Book review: Explore faith and psyche in ‘The Vanishing Place’
Book review: Explore faith and psyche in ‘The Vanishing Place’
This mesmerising thriller plunges the reader straight into the murky New Zealand wilderness and pulls back the curtain on what can happen in the isolated, rural darkness

Sat, 01 Nov, 2025

Book review: Witty, wry, yet poignant and thought-provoking
Book review: Witty, wry, yet poignant and thought-provoking
This is a self-deprecating, insightful and humorous collection of stories where it feels like journalist Carl Kinsella is trying to understand the world, and himself

Sat, 01 Nov, 2025

Book review: An engaging, if chastising, judgement on the foolishnesses we indulge
Book review: An engaging, if chastising, judgement on the foolishnesses we indulge
Anthony Gardner's satire may not be a cure all, but it is a wonderfully enjoyable tonic for our current reality

Sat, 01 Nov, 2025

Soccer - Barclays Premier League - Fulham v Reading - Craven Cottage
Book review: Cameras, microphones, and money used to isolate Al-Fayed’s victims
The Monster of Harrods: Al-Fayed and the secret, shameful history of a British institution

Fri, 31 Oct, 2025

Prince
Book review: Extensive portrait of a Prince of music invites questions
Prince bestrode popular culture during the late 20th century and his legacy extends far beyond his considerable mainstream commercial success.

Fri, 31 Oct, 2025

Priscilla Presley In Conversation "Softly, As I Leave You"
Book review: Reflection of a ‘Burning Love’
In this candid memoir Priscilla Presley comes across as a kind, compassionate woman, who is forgiving towards those who hurt her

Sat, 25 Oct, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Educator, writer, and language activist Mollie Guidera
Beginner’s pluck: Educator, writer, and language activist Mollie Guidera
'The Gaeilge Guide' explains Irish in a fun, joyful way. Mollie interlaces stories and her own biography with useful words and phrases

Sat, 25 Oct, 2025

Book review: How the housing crisis has created Ireland’s unique bailout babies
Book review: How the housing crisis has created Ireland’s unique bailout babies
The bailout babies were born in Ireland between 1990 and 2007. Those born in 2007 are 'officially the last cubs of the Celtic Tiger'

Sat, 25 Oct, 2025

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