Book buys: Best of year lists, and our critics pick their favourites
Shane MacGowan, Lisa McInerney and Stanley Tucci feature among our critics' books picks of 2021.
A coming-of-age story, Snowflake sees Debbie White leave her family’s dairy farm in Co Kildare to study at Trinity College. Debbie struggles to find herself in a new environment and struggles to shake off roots.
Wrapping up McInerney’s Cork-based trilogy, The Rules of Revelation is a satisfying conclusion to the story of Ryan Cusack. For a bumper Christmas present, add the previous novels The Glorious Heresies and The Blood Miracles.
It’s the book that was everywhere this autumn upon its release and Sally Rooney’s third novel is sure to please any reader who may have missed it. It focuses on Alice and Eileen, two best friends approaching 30 and in vastly different situations.
A striking tale of hope and heroism, Keegan’s new novel is dedicated to the women and children who “suffered time” in the Magdalene laundries. It is a simple but powerful story.
An ambitious book, The Magician is a sweeping historical fiction that follows the life of real-life German novelist Thomas Mann from the Nobel Prize winner’s 1890s childhood up until his death in the mid-20th century.
A crime novel set during the first lockdown of 2021 might not be your idea of escapism, but Ryan Howard crafts a masterful tale filled with twists and turns.
Everyone loves Aisling and now she’s off to New York. Follow our heroine as she discovers the Big Apple and grapples with dating, friendships and love across the pond - until a crisis in Ballygobard looms.
This is a heartwarming and uplifting read about Allegra Bird, who picks the people to shape her life after a stranger tells her we are all the average of the five people we spend the most time with.
Putting a spin on wedding stories, each wedding of a glorious summer brings a new surprise for Delphie, who has the chance to reshape her future.
Following three couples on one therapist's couch, About Us reveals the private part of their lives as each couple tries to be honest with each other.
The lack of output in recent years, coupled with the seven million drunken nights of a previous era, have somewhat obscured the fact that the Pogues frontman is one of our greatest ever songwriters. He inevitably makes for a fascinating subject, with Richard Balls delving into the highs and lows of a man who has miraculously made it thus far, and celebrates his 64th birthday on Christmas Day.
Another music figure whose combination of talent, attitude and fragile mental health make for irresistable reading. A truly unique character in the Irish music world, we read of early mistreatment by her mother, having her interest in music piqued by a nun, and also tales from her star years, not least the infamous Pope picture-ripping incident in the US in 1992.
A memoir of the promoter and record store owner who blazed a trail in the Irish music scene in the 1970s and '80s. [See staff picks below]
Quite possibly the closest we'll ever get to an autobiography from the former Beatle. Written with the help of Irish poet Paul Muldoon from conversations the two men had over five years, it delves into lyrics from 156 of McCartney's songs through the decades. It's not cheap at €80, but the market for the book has probably been greatly expanded by the recent Get Back documentary.
There's a general feeling that the era of the genre is already passing, but this book makes a staunch defence of their importance. Rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance and pop are all looked at in terms of how they create a sense of identity and community among fans.
Book Fight Or Flight: My Life, My Choices by Keith Earls, with Tommy Conlon
We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958 by Fintan O’Toole
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Séamas O’Reilly
Everyday Cook by Donal Skehan
Décor Galore by Laura De Barra
The Coastal Atlas of Ireland by Val Cummins, Robert Devoy Barry Brunt, Darius Bartlett, Sarah Kandrot
A Hug for You by David King, illustrated by Rhiannon Archard
The Summer I Robbed a Bank by David O’Doherty, illustrated by Chris Judge
Stanley Tucci writes exactly as he talks and as I read this delicious memoir in a single weekend I heard him speaking to me in my head the whole time. This book is responsible for reigniting a love of cooking that had been well and truly burnt out thanks to nearly two years of covid. For a full week after I finished, I ate rigatoni with Tucci tomato sauce in the evening, and I make a full pot of it every week now because it is THAT good. If you have lost your passion for food and love a good yarn, this is for you.
This gorgeous debut novel wouldn't normally be one I'd pick up, the cover wouldn't do it for me, or the subject matter - or so I thought. I'm so glad I did. It's laugh-out-loud funny - a rare thing and a precious one this year. The protagonist Pam has admirable taste in chocolate, not so much in men, and reading this book was like sitting down and having the chats with her over a cup of coffee and a giant muffin. It's so bloody honest and cringey and real; I devoured it in one sitting (with said muffin, actually.) The author is Liz Jones, and ex-editor-in-chief of Marie Claire and while there, she orchestrated a campaign to ban skinny models. This is her debut novel, and it revolves around goddamn weight and that elusive quest for happiness. She looks for it through marriage, family, work and of course food - or lack thereof. It made me think, it made it laugh, I may even have wiped a little tear away. Doesn't get much better than that.
This lived up to the high expectations Lisa McInerney set with the first two books of her Cork-set trilogy, The Glorious Heresies and The Blood Miracles. I hadn't reread the previous novel since it first came out in 2017 and worried I might need to leaf through it occasionally for reminders given how rich McInerney's tapestry of the city's streets is, but I was easily swept back into Ryan Cusack's world of music, love and crime in Cork city. Add it to your Christmas reading list if you haven't read it yet.
In this golden age of Irish essay collections, Derry writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh's debut shines bright as she blurs genre, writing simultaneously about nature and growing up around the Troubles. Born on the border, she writes of the thin places in between worlds, reflecting on identity amid the looming shadow of Brexit. The writing and descriptions are sumptuous, while Ní Dochartaigh's life story seeks identity She writes: “Places do not heal us. Places only hold us; they only let us in. Places only hold us close enough that we can finally see ourselves reflected back.”
Though he's been eclipsed by major players such as MCD and Aiken Promotions in recent years, Egan was the trailblazing promoter who brought the likes of Queen and Bob Marley to Ireland. As well as offering a potted history of the Irish music industry, he also dishes up plenty gossip and honest opinion of many of the people he's encountered through the years. Hint: they weren't all great. A great gift option for anyone involved in the scene at any stage over the past few decades.
Just like in our own lockdown lives, new cardigans and herbal teabags are super important to some of the main characters in Richard Osman's The Man Who Died Twice — and I love it. It's the sequel to the bestselling Thursday Murder Club which follows a bunch of senior citizens who live in a Kent retirement community. They have teamed up to dodge jigsaw and yoga activities and instead solve murders. There are murders, of course, but it's the full-0f-life characters and observations that absolutely make it so real and such fun. Who would have thought multiple murders could feel like a catch-up with old friends? And best of all, there's a mention of The Thursday Murder Club 3 at the end of this book.
Coal merchant Bill Furlong plies his trade in the winter of our memories — frosty air, wisps of smoke over rooftops, and snow thick on tree branches — in Claire Keegan’s elegant, slim Small Things Like These. He is haunted by the past and as the book unfolds, we are haunted by his present — the dark Ireland of our shameful past. Quietly devastating and utterly beautiful, this is the fiction book of the year for me.
