These are my top recommendations of the year for every genre – perfect for the Christmas break or to gift to book lovers …
I adored Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel Fleishman Is In Trouble. She seems to be continuing the tradition of the great American novel through her own distinctly arch female perspective. Her second novel LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE (Wildfire, €15.99) tells the big messy intergenerational story of a wealthy American family. In 1980, Carl Fletcher is kidnapped and held for ransom. A week later he is returned to his family. But the trauma nestles deep inside Carl, and 40 years later, he is forced to reckon with the event that has become a defining force not just in his life but in his wife and children’s lives too. Brodesser-Akner’s sharp insight is in full force as she tackles themes of family, wealth, privilege, success and failure in the US.
FUNNY STORY (Viking, €15.99) is the latest novel from this fizzy, acerbic writer. It tells the story of heartbroken Daphne, whose fiancé has jilted her for his childhood best friend, Petra. Petra’s ex Miles, meanwhile, can relate to how Daphne is feeling. When the two hatch a plan to show their exes what they’re missing, could they both end up believing the charade? A smart and enjoyable romantic read.
THE HUSBANDS (Chatto & Windus, €19.60) by Australian computer game designer Holly Gramazio is one of the quirkiest novels I’ve read in a long time. It has a highly original and entertaining concept where Lauren, a single woman, returns home one night to her apartment to find a strange man claiming to be her husband. Lauren has no idea who he is but she soon discovers that her attic is a husband-generating portal, spewing out endless potential husbands. It’s great escapist fun that also questions the idea of finding The One.
Rachel Cusk, best known for her Outline trilogy, is rightly revered for her writing. Her latest novel, PARADE (Faber, €21.75), is told over four sections with four different characters, and delves into some of Cusk’s favourite themes of art, what it is to be an artist, identity and gender, among others. Cusk’s crystal-clear prose is always emotionally confronting and psychologically complex, but always deeply thought-provoking too.
Joseph O’Neill made a literary splash with his 2008 debut novel Netherland. The book won the Kerry Prize and was longlisted for the Booker. His latest novel, GODWIN (Fourth Estate, €16.99), his first in ten years, tells the story of Mark Wolfe and his half-brother Geoff. Mark is a technical writer living in Pittsburgh, while Geoff lives in the UK and is a football talent agent who wants to sign the next Messi, a young African player known only as Godwin. As always with O’Neill, this novel explores the complexities of blended families, identity and post-colonialism, all in precise, elegant language.
Two Irish writers who both emerged from the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair competition have also just released debut novels, both written in very different Irish vernaculars. Kilkenny author Orla Mackey won the 2022 Novel Fair with her debut novel, MOUTHING (Hamish Hamilton, €16.99) a polyphonic novel that tells the story of a small rural Irish village through its inhabitants. Spanning 40 years, Mouthing is darkly funny and heartbreakingly moving at times as it takes in Ireland’s dark history and rapid social progress of the past six decades.
Estelle Birdy’s RAVELLING (Lilliput Press, €18), set in Dublin’s Liberties, also uses an exuberant multi-character format to tell the stories of a group of teenage boys living in inner-city Dublin trying to negotiate their Leaving Cert, sports commitments and emotional development alongside drugs, family problems, trauma, poverty and violence.
THIS IS HOW YOU REMEMBER IT (Canongate, €14.99) is the second novel from Catherine Prasifka, who also happens to be Sally Rooney’s sister-in-law. Prasifka has a writing talent and style all of her own, as proved with her debut novel None Of This Is Serious. This Is How You Remember It is a chillingly pertinent novel about the impact of the internet on the generation who were raised with it, all shown through the experience of Prasifka’s compelling protagonist.
Rising Chilean author Alia Trabucco Zerán’s novel CLEAN (Fourth Estate, €20.30) is just the ticket. Zerán was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize for her debut novel, The Remainder and has won prestigious prizes for her non-fiction too. Clean is told in the voice of Estela, the maid of a wealthy family whose daughter has died. She has worked for the family for years and in doing so has learned all of their secrets and observed every disagreement and act of unkindness. Through Estela’s account of her own story and that of the family, Zerán explores class and entitlement in a tense page-turner.
Crime queen Karin Slaughter faithfully delivers a new novel every single year and THIS IS WHY WE LIED (HarperFiction, £14.99) is her latest. It returns to her long-running characters detective Will Trent and medical examiner Sarah Linton, who are now married to each other and honeymooning in a luxury mountain resort called McAlpine Lodge. Any hopes for a peaceful honeymoon are quickly dashed when a young woman, Mercy McAlpine, is found dead. As always, embedded in Slaughter’s gripping stories are sharp analyses of misogyny and violence against women.
At a different holiday resort is Tom Hindle’s enjoyable murder mystery MURDER ON LAKE GARDA (Century, €16.99). This tells the story of the Heywood family, who have travelled to a private island on Lake Garda to celebrate their son’s marriage to an Italian influencer. But just as the ceremony is about to begin, a murder interrupts proceedings. Perfect for fans of locked-room mysteries and authors like Lucy Foley and Richard Osman.
THE WORLD’S END (Poolbeg, €16.99) is the debut crime novel from Irish author Karen Fitzgibbon. Set in a luxurious holiday home (the World’s End of the title), it follows the story of Grace Doran who travels there with friends but when the group take a boat trip to a nearby island, one of them doesn’t return. One year on, private investigator Lana Bowen returns to the island in an attempt to find out what happened.
Susan Muaddi Darraj is best-known as an award-winning author of children’s novels but with BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA (Swift, €22.68) she makes her fiction debut for adults. In it, Muaddi Darraj, an American-Palestinian writer, weaves the story of three Palestinian immigrant families making their way in America. The wealthy Ammar family employs young Maysoon Baladi as a cleaner for their spoiled children, while Marcus Salameh, whose aunt is married into the Ammars, is preoccupied with his sister “dishonouring” his family. An enjoyable family saga offering insights into the Palestinian immigrant experience and Palestinian culture.
Hanna Pylväinen’s novel THE END OF DRUM-TIME (Macmillan, €16.20) was a finalist for the National Book Award last year and it’s easy to see why this sweeping love story captured judges’ imaginations. Pylväinen is American with Finnish ancestry and grew up in a conservative Finnish Lutheran faith. The book is set in 1851 in a remote village in the Arctic Circle, where a Lutheran minister tries to convert the local reindeer herders. (Pylväinen spent six months with reindeer herders in Finland while researching this book.) While one senior herder converts, his son has a different type of awakening when he meets the Lutheran minister’s daughter, Willa.
In non-fiction, Nicole Louie’s debut OTHERS LIKE ME (Dialogue, €22) explores childlessness through the stories of 14 different women from all over the world. It’s also a part-memoir of Louie’s own reasons for seeking out these women – and what she has learned from them. An uplifting read about finding fulfilment outside of motherhood.
Fans of Joni Mitchell will be keen to read NPR music critic Ann Powers’ new biography, TRAVELLING: ON THE PATH OF JONI MITCHELL (Harper Collins, €16.99). Mitchell is one of the most iconic, talented and elusive musicians of the last 50 years and her singular voice and guitar playing continues to influence new generations of songwriters. Powers interviews many of Mitchell’s contemporaries, including Judy Collins and David Crosby, to give an insight into this beguiling singer, and also examines Mitchell’s development as an artist up to the present day. It’s a delight to learn more about this female musical trailblazer.
Another trailblazer about whom I will never tire of reading is Joan Didion. Cory Leadbetter was studying English in Columbia University in New York when he took on a job as assistant to an unnamed writer. The writer turned out to be Didion and the pair became so close that Leadbetter even moved in to her Manhattan apartment. In his memoir, THE UPTOWN LOCAL: JOY, DEATH AND JOAN DIDION (Fleet, €21.45), Leadbetter describes his own difficulties in life and how he coped with the death of a close friend and the imprisonment of his father for fraud. It turns out Didion was not just a great writer, but apparently a great person too.
GOOD SISTERS (Penguin Sandycove, €16) sees author Sinead Moriarty return to her characters the Devlin sisters, who also featured in previous novels Me and My Sisters and The Secrets Sisters Keep. It’s a decade on from those novels and now the sisters are dealing with the death of their mother while facing the many challenges of middle age, from juggling motherhood to looking after family and trying to be good sisters to each other. A heartwarming contemporary take on family life.
THE BOOKSHOP LADIES (Head of Zeus, €14.99) is Faith Hogan’s ninth novel, a saga of friendship, love and betrayal. When Joy receives a deathbed confession from her husband it sends her in search of Robyn, who lives in a tiny town on the west coast of Ireland. Joy’s husband was an art dealer and has bequeathed a painting to Robyn. But Joy needs to know why.
With over 100 young adult books under her belt, Jacqueline Wilson is an undisputed queen of teen fiction, who tackles all sorts of taboo issues. Many of Wilson’s original readers are now in their 40s, so it makes sense that Wilson has written her first novel for adults using some of her most beloved teen characters. In THINK AGAIN (Bantam, €16.99) Ellie, Magda and Nadine (from the Girls series) are still friends. Ellie lives in a small flat with her 19-year-old daughter Lottie and their cat Stella. As Ellie turns 40, she knows that she is lucky in her life, but she is also lonely and longs for something exciting to happen. A must-read for fans of the original books.
Paula Hawkins’ The Girl On The Train (2015) was one of those books that simply took over the public imagination. Everybody seemed to be reading it. Hawkins has gone on to have a stellar career and her latest thriller is an intriguing novel called THE BLUE HOUR (Doubleday, €16.99). Hawkins says she was inspired by a holiday she took to the Côte de Granit Rose in France, a place where presqu’îles or “almost islands” are cut off from the mainland by the tide for a certain amount of time every day. On a walk along the coast, she spotted a single lonely house on an island and knew that she would write about it. In The Blue Hour, Eris is one of these almost islands cut off from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day. It has one house with one owner. The house used to belong to a famous artist, whose philandering husband disappeared 20 years ago. Now Grace lives there. It’s not the kind of house where people just drop by. But one day, a visitor comes calling.
Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series has made him the best-selling adult author of the decade. Now, he is taking a break from that series as it is adapted into a film for Netflix, and has turned his attention to a new cast of characters in his latest book, WE SOLVE MURDERS (Viking, €15.99). The book follows the story of retired policeman, Steve Wheeler, and his daughter-in-law, Amy, who is a bodyguard to billionaires. Amy’s client, Rosie D’Antonio, just happens to be the biggest-selling crime author in the world. Steve is happy with a quiet life, but when Amy needs his help, he is forced out of retirement.
Niall Williams is one of my favourite Irish authors. From his 2006 novel, Four Letters of Love, right up to his last novel, This Is Happiness, his delicate, compassionate stories of Irish life, love and community are beautifully insightful and uplifting. His new novel, TIME OF THE CHILD (Bloomsbury, €15.99), sees him return to the fictional Irish town of Faha. It’s 1962 and the widowed Dr Troy lives with his unmarried daughter, Ronnie. When an abandoned baby is left in their care in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the story becomes about whether Ronnie can keep this unexpected gift, but it is also a larger account of a particular time in Irish history.
Among the longlisted books on this year’s Booker Prize is Richard Powers’ PLAYGROUND (Hutchinson Heinemann, €15.99). I really enjoy this Pulitzer-winning author’s philosophical novels – he always makes me question what it is to be human. In Playground, he looks at the idea of creating floating cities on the world’s biggest ocean. It sounds like something Elon Musk might have in the works, but it’s also a thought-provoking story about where our world might be headed.
Unlike many celebrity novelists, Graham Norton has proven he is the real deal when it comes to writing. FRANKIE (Coronet, €15.99) is Norton’s fifth novel. It tells the story of an elderly woman looking back on her life and recounting tales to her young male Irish carer. Through Frankie’s recollections, we learn about her life in post-war Ireland, and her experiences as an immigrant in New York, all told in Norton’s warm and heartfelt style. It’s a moving story about how every life, no matter how big or small, is intensely felt by each of us and how human connection is at the heart of everything.
Another Irish powerhouse, Cecelia Ahern, is back with a new novel, INTO THE STORM (Harper Collins, €15.99). Enya, a middle-aged doctor, is struggling with her busy life. On a stormy night, she stops to help with a hit-and-run accident. She saves the young boy’s life, but the experience throws her own life into turmoil. She takes a job in rural Ireland, leaving her husband and son in the process, in an attempt to gain some understanding into her own life. A character that will resonate with many women.
Michael Connelly is one of the best crime novelists writing today. The former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist has created many beloved characters, including LAPD detective, Harry Bosch, and Lincoln lawyer, Micky Haller. His latest novel, THE WAITING (Orion, €17.99), sees detective Renée Ballard investigating a cold case. When a young man is arrested, his DNA links him to Ballard’s 20-year-old case; a notorious serial rapist who terrorised LA before disappearing off the radar. Now, detective Ballard finally has the evidence she needs to make an arrest. But it’s never as straightforward as that with a Connelly book. Ballard drafts in Harry Bosch to help her, while Harry’s police officer daughter, Maddie, has her own reasons for getting involved with the case.
Irish writer Martina Devlin is best known as an incisive columnist, but she is also a novelist and her second historical novel, CHARLOTTE: A NOVEL (The Lilliput Press, €16.95) tells the story of Charlotte Brontë’s life through an Irish lens. Brontë spent a brief time in Ireland honeymooning with her Irish husband, Arthur Bell, but she died nine months into their marriage. Bell eventually left England and returned to Ireland, where he married his cousin, Mary Nicholls. Nicholls had been one of the people who originally met Brontë on her honeymoon trip to Ireland all those years before, so Devlin uses this character to give a fresh perspective on the story of one of literature’s most fascinating writers.
Japanese writer Yoko Tawada was made famous by her novel, The Bridegroom Was A Dog, but she also wrote a much-loved book about a group of friends called Scattered All Over The Earth. In SUGGESTED IN THE STARS (Granta, €13.92), she returns to the characters of Hiruko and friends, as they search for someone who speaks Hiruko’s native language. When they finally find a sushi chef who knows the language, they discover he has lost the power of speech, and they set out to help him regain his voice.
As winter draws in, my reading habits tend to get a little darker too. A new novel from superb mystery writer Jane Casey is just the thing for the encroaching chill. While fans of Casey’s brilliant Detective Maeve Kerrigan series are waiting with bated breath for the next instalment (due March 2025), Casey has kindly given us a new standalone novel that is still very much connected to Maeve. THE OUTSIDER (Hemlock Press, €9.81) follows Maeve’s mysterious ex, the undercover cop Rob, who is intent on bringing down a notorious crime family by infiltrating their ranks. Like some of the best crime writers, Casey has an eye on societal change and here she tackles racism and immigration, but we also get new insights into Maeve Kerrigan.
Icelandic mystery writer Ragnar Jónasson has become a global superstar with his Ari Thor detective series. His latest novel, DEATH AT THE SANATORIUM (Penguin, €15.99), is a classic closed-room mystery (Jónasson happens to be the Icelandic translator of Agatha Christie’s works). The book is set in a decommissioned sanatorium where a handful of doctors and nurses carry out research. When one of the nurses is found murdered, the only suspects are the remaining five staff members. Despite this, the case is never solved, but years later, a young criminologist takes an interest in the case.
If you haven’t read Freida McFadden’s thrillers yet, you’re in for a treat. She is described as a cross between Gillian Flynn and Lisa Jewell and her breakout book, The Housemaid, spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller chart and was the mostsold eBook on Amazon.com in 2023. Her third title in the series, THE HOUSEMAID IS WATCHING (Bookouture, €9.49), was released earlier this year and can be read as a standalone if you don’t want to go back to the start of the series. Millie was a housemaid to the rich and glamorous but now she is married with children and looking for a quiet life in suburbia. But her peaceful neighbourhood is not as quiet as she had hoped.
Jo Nesbo’s BLOOD TIES (Harvill Secker, €21.60) is another wintry thriller about two brothers who have risen to the top of their small town through criminal means. One of them runs a hotel spa, while the other wants to open an amusement park. But the local sheriff has other plans for the family.
Speaking of dark stories, Tramp Press has obligingly stepped up to the plate with a new collection of lost Irish horror stories, part of its “recovered voices” series. YOUR OWN DARK SHADOW (Tramp Press, €16), edited and introduced by academic Jack Fennell, includes lesser-known classic Irish horror stories from writers like William Carleton, Henry de Vere Stacpoole, Mildred Darby and more.
Meanwhile, historian Sarah Clegg takes us on a journey through Europe in midwinter to explore the dark folk tales that inspire the traditions of our festive season. In THE DEAD OF WINTER (Granta, €21.75), Clegg explores the lesser-known Christmas traditions like murderous plays enacted in the Cotswolds or the Nordic Lussinatt festivities, where a young woman is crowned with candles as the martyred St Lucy, who is both a chaste Christian girl and a rampaging witch – fun!
FIRE (Doubleday, €13.99) is the third instalment in John Boyne’s Elements quartet of novellas, which deals with the subject of abuse. Water, Earth and now Fire all approach the subject from differing perspectives – the wife of a perpetrator, a bystander, a victim. The books are all loosely interconnected, so that a minor character from one book might show up in the next book. Fire tells the story of Freya (who appeared briefly in Earth as a member of the jury). She is a successful and wealthy surgeon, but beneath the glossy surface is hidden a dark past that reaches back to a traumatic childhood experience. Boyne asks the question whether cruel abusers are born or created. When Air is released next spring, I plan to go back and read all four in one go.
Genevieve Wheeler’s debut novel ADELAIDE (Head of Zeus, €14.50) comes with breathless praise and is described as perfect for fans of Sally Rooney, Meg Mason and Coco Mellor. This young American author’s debut follows the titular Adelaide, who also happens to be a young American expat living in London, and her love affair with Rory. Adelaide is convinced that Rory is the one but he’s emotionally unavailable and scared of commitment. This is a mature reflection on grief and the age-old and compelling question that women often find themselves asking – how much of themselves should they give to relationships?
Jodi Picoult’s latest novel, BY ANY OTHER NAME (Michael Joseph, €16.99) tells the story of two women, one modern-day and one in Elizabethan England. Melina is an aspiring playwright living in Manhattan in 2023. Desperate to get her big break, she submits her play for a festival competition under a male pseudonym. The play is about Melina’s ancestor, Emilia Bassano, who happened to be the first female published poet in Britain, but Melina also suspects her ancestor of being the real writer behind Shakespeare’s plays. Picoult has sold over 40 million copies and has had five of her books made into movies. I wolfed this one down. I loved how she used Shakespeare’s work to fit her narrative, and the delicious enemies-to-lovers storyline. Think Maggie O’Farrell given the Hollywood treatment.
Following on from her sumptuous An Invitation To The Kennedys, Emily Hourican returns to the same characters for her latest novel, A KENNEDY AFFAIR (Hachette Ireland, €16.99). When the last book ended, war was about to break out and Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy had left London knowing that the man she loved, Billy Cavendish, could never marry her. But with the devastation of war, life and the rules of society have changed. Kick returns to a blitzed London to work with the Red Cross, and with the hope of reconnecting with Billy. Meanwhile, Lady Brigid Guinness has moved from hosting society dinners to looking after wounded soldiers. When a young Irish girl arrives into the Guinness family, the three women’s lives become entwined as Hourican expertly weaves her elegant fictional magic.
Every new Haruki Murakami novel is cause for celebration. THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS (Harvill Secker, €25) is Murakami’s first book in six years and sees him return to the landscape of one of his early short stories. In this book, a 45-year-old man is still pining for his teenage girlfriend from his adolescence. In a bid to find her, he sets off on a quest to find the imaginary city where he believes her true self disappeared. So far, so Murakami. You’re either a fan or not, and this novel will infuriate as many as it beguiles with its questioning of memory and reality.
THE TRUNK (Doubleday, €12.99) is a 2015 novel by Korean writer Kim Ryeo-ryeong which is just getting published in translation now because of an imminent Netflix adaptation. The high-concept story follows a 30-something woman, Inji, who starts working for a top-secret corporate matchmaking company that provides short-term contract wives, mostly for wealthy businessmen. Inji has already been married five times and is not looking for love. But when one of her ex-husbands hires her as his contract wife, Inji’s past comes back to haunt her.
Another book in translation is BRIGHTLY SHINING (Grove Press, €15.41), which was a huge success in Scandinavia for its Norwegian author Ingvild Rishøi. A debut novel, the rights have already been sold in 20 international territories and it is being compared to Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These. The story looks at two young sisters whose father is sliding into alcoholism, putting them at risk of being taken into care. As Christmas approaches, in desperation, the girls find their father a job selling Christmas trees, but when he fails to show up, they decide to take it on themselves.
Hisham Matar’s novel MY FRIENDS (Penguin Viking, €18.75), was one of my favourite books of 2024. Matar was born in New York City to Libyan parents, spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his adult life in London. His 2016 memoir The Reurn, about his return to Libya in search of his father, won the Pulitzer Prize. My Friends is set between Edinburgh, London and Libya and deals with many of the themes explored in Matar’s memoir. It tells the story of three friends, Hosam, Khaled and Mustafa, whose lives are changed when they attend a protest at the Libyan embassy in London where the government officials open fire on the protestors. This is a moving study of friendship and the effects of living in exile on a person.
Another one of my favourites this year and a beautiful book to read over Christmas is Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín’s long-awaited sequel to his bestselling novel Brooklyn. LONG ISLAND (Picador, €13.99) is set decades after Eilis emigrates to America. She has been married to Tony for 20 years, they have two children together and she lives a comfortable life on Long Island. But, in the opening pages, a knock on her door delivers unwelcome and explosive news and she begins to reassess her whole life, including her marriage and the decision she made to leave her family and her home all those years ago. This is a masterly meditation on love, home, longing, regret and the “sliding doors” moments of life, as well as the things people will do to get what they want.
In non-fiction, A THOUSAND FEASTS by Nigel Slater (4th Estate, €19.99) is a beautiful memoir of sorts, made up of entries from Nigel’s food and travel notebooks. Each entry describes a memory connected to food but also inspires a deep philosophical reflection in the reader. These evocative little entries are only a page long but are deeply affecting. He calls the book a “ragbag collection of some of the happiest of times, the small moments of joy that have been the seasoning in this cook’s stew”. It’s a lovely book to dip in and out of, and a very enjoyable reminder to savour good times and share good food with others, particularly at this time of year.
Diarmaid Ferriter is one of Ireland’s best-known historians and with his latest book, THE REVELATION OF IRELAND 1995-2020 (Profile Books, €24.99), he moves into the era of living memory to examine one of the most fascinating, turbulent and revolutionary periods of Irish history. Ferriter tells the story of modern Ireland from the Celtic Tiger boom to the seismic social changes wrought by the divorce, gay marriage and abortion referenda. He also takes in the changing make-up of our population, the increased dominance of our culture both at home and abroad, and the end of war in Northern Ireland along with the waning of the in? uence of the Catholic Church. It is fascinating to read, particularly if, like me, you are old enough to remember pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland.
Author of global bestseller Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari turns his attention from humankind to information systems with NEXUS (Vintage, €28). Harari examines the history of information systems, and how we moved from stories to books to the internet to where we are now, at AI. Harari uses meticulously researched historical systems to illustrate what might happen next, but he also makes the case that AI differs from everything we have known before. It’s a dense tome but a rewarding one. Perfect for anyone interested in history, politics, power and how the world is shaped.
THE HISTORY OF SOUND (Swift Press, €14.99) is a collection of twelve stories by Ben Shattuck, which are elegantly linked throughout this book. The title story is being made into a film starring Paul Mescal and it tells the story of two men who meet in a bar and spend a summer together in Maine. In a linked story set decades later, a woman finds recordings of that summer when she is clearing out her new home in Maine. Artefacts from the past resurface in the present, highlighting how the past is never quite dead but links people through generations.
One memoir I am really looking forward to reading is CHER: THE MEMOIR PART ONE (Harper Collins, €18.99). In fact, her life has been so eventful that her memoirs require two volumes. She was the only woman to top the Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award (for Moonstruck), an Emmy, a Grammy and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and she is an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Part One follows her beginnings in life, from her childhood as a dyslexic girl who dreamed of becoming famous and her often chaotic family life, to her meeting and marrying Sonny Bono and their complicated relationship that made them world famous. Part Two will follow in 2025.
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a new Ross O’Carroll Kelly book and this year’s instalment, DON’T LOOK BACK IN ONGAR (Sandycove, €14.99), is a bittersweet one because it is the final book in the long-running million-selling Irish series by comic genius Paul Howard. As Ross turns 40, he is in a reflective mood. He is out of work and facing divorce, his mother is in a nursing home and his sister-in-law is about to have a baby (which might be Ross’s), and worst of all Castlerock College might be turning co-ed. Fans will love this perfect ending to such an iconic series.
ROYALLY GOOD READS
As Jilly Cooper’s Rivals finally got a long-overdue modern-day adaptation this year, we are in the mood for some aristocratic reads. Charlotte Coote’s interior design book The Flower Room is a beautiful guide to creating interiors inspired by nature. It covers colour, pattern, florals and botanicals, textiles and, of course, how to work with actual flowers and foliage. Coote was born into the family business – her father was the Australian designer John Coote (late of Bellamont Forest in Cavan) who was known for his high-profile international design projects. India Hicks writes the foreword for The Flower Room (incidentally her father David and Charlotte’s father were great friends) and she has her own fascinating book out at the moment, a biography of her mother, Lady Pamela. Lady Pamela Mountbatten, to give her her full name, is a member of the British Royal family. Hicks explores her mother’s life of privilege and all the challenges that came with it. What elevates this biography is Hicks’ personal perspective on her mother’s character and their relationship.
Crown Princess of Greece, Marie Chantal, has put her extensive knowledge into a book, Manners Begin At Breakfast. Etiquette guides may seem archaic but good manners are never out of style! Marie Chantal emphasises the importance of good manners in making a positive first impression, as well as in building relationships and respect. She even offers relatable advice on the contemporary minefield that is social media.
Finally, Craig Brown’s book A Voyage Around The Queen takes a look at one of the best-known figures of the 20th century, the late Queen Elizabeth II, in this entertaining collection of essays.
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