My Life in Books: 'Book on 1920s America still resonates now'
Dave Hannigan is the author of several non-fiction books, including 'Terence MacSwiney: The Hunger Strike that Rocked an Empire' and 'The Big Fight: When Ali Conquered Ireland'.
A professor of history at Suffolk County Community College in New York, Dave Hannigan is the author of several non-fiction books, including and .
His latest book, , has just been published by Merrion Press.
Mick Herron’s . I’m not as fanatical about the e series as some people yet still find myself devouring each one. Barbara Tuchman’s . I teach Medieval Europe and constantly revisit this to unearth entertaining yarns for my students.
I love to pick up either or , two anthologies that offer proof the Scot was the finest sportswriter of all time. Just wonderful to dip in and be transported to a ringside or pitchside long ago when he was in his breathtaking pomp.
Blasphemy for somebody whose day job is teaching history but I couldn’t get through by Yuval Noah Harari. Still on my shelf taunting me.
When I was in UCC, I read Eamon Dunphy’s about Matt Busby and Manchester United. I loved the way he seamlessly wove so much social history of the city into a sporting narrative. Arguably the best book written about the club.
I own a cherished signed copy of WP Kinsella’s , which I first read in the 1990s but passages of which I return to constantly, mostly for the beauty of the prose and the warmth of his writing about the power of memory.
I recently read Timothy Egan’s . Non-fiction at its very best. Set in 1920s America, the depressing part is that a lot of what was happening then seems to be happening now.
Buzz Bissinger’s . Long before the movie or TV show, it made me understand high school sport, community and small-town American values (or lack thereof). Vital knowledge for when I moved here.
by Carol Dweck. Taught me to stop moping about problems I cause myself and to take ownership of my mistakes and learn from them.
An oral history of Roy Keane in the style of Thomas Hauser’s classic .
. All human life is there. And his contains the greatest last line of any story ever.
Although despised by many baseball purists, I love , Hollywood’s take on WP Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe book. Kevin Costner and Burt Lancaster in a movie-stealing cameo, note perfect for sappy old fools like me.
I don’t get into The Strand in New York as often as I’d like but every time I do I while away a couple of wondrous hours in the never-ending stacks. The vibe always reminds of when I fell in love with reading accompanying my father to Mrs Coffey’s, a tiny shop at the foot of Barrack St, where the eponymous owner peddled secondhand paperbacks and comics.
Complete and utter chaos. About once a week I stand and stare at a bookshelf somewhere in the house, trying to remember where I put a book as my sons mock my growing frustration.
Sean Duffy, the Liverpool-supporting, weed-smoking, poetry-loving, whiskey-chugging Catholic RUC detective from the Adrian McKinty Ulster noir canon.
BOOKS & MORE
Check out our Books Hub where you will find the latest news, reviews, features, opinions and analysis on all things books from the Irish Examiner's team of specialist writers, columnists and contributors.
