Well-known figures such as Fiona Shaw, Joe Duffy and Sonia O’Sullivan tell Richard Fitzpatrick about the reads they’ve been most impressed with in 2019.

This year’s selection of children’s books features stories with universal themes, cute dogs and reindeer, superb illustrations, and iconic Irish settings, says Emmet Arrigan

Irish writer, Kevin Barry, who was the only Irish author on the longlist for his novel Night Boat to Tangier, did not make the shortlist.

Five novels have been shortlisted for the 2019 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year at Listowel Writers’ Week, with a shared prize fund of €19,000, one of the biggest in Ireland.

Here's all you need to know this lunchtime.

Child-friendly characters and superb artwork combine to ensure there are loads of books on offer for younger children this festive season, writes Mary Arrigan

After college in Dublin, Orlagh worked in the production department for various films, then she left for London and worked in the city in IT recruitment.

The latest book reviews for kids.

Mary Arrigan has some great books for children this week.

Mary Arrigan has got some great ideas about books for the young-ones.

Available now Richard Ford, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Independence Day, explores non-fiction for the first time with a biography of his parents.

Ella Queen of Jazz by Helen Hancocks (Frances Lincoln, €13.90 HB)

Hug Me Please by Przemyslaw Wechterowicz (Words And Pictures, €14.20 HB)

Lift the Flap and Colour- Ocean and, Lift the Flap and Colour-Jungle by Alice Bowsher (Frances Lincoln, €7.10 each)

Vinnie Goes To Vegas by Stephen Walsh and Marita O’Donovan (O’Brien, €8.99)

AN epigraph from the Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi is a fitting opener to Jhumpa Lahiri’s most recent book on the joys and difficulties of learning Italian.

* Danny Brown and The Monster Toothbrush by Brianóg Brady Dawson (O’Brien, €6.99)

For Simon Barnes the Sacred Combe is the Luangwa Valley in Zambia. It is a place to which he returns regularly, sometimes for up to two months. 

Check out our selection of children’s books for this week, reviewed by Mary Arrigan.

It is only 22 years since 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda, most of them hacked to death in an orgy of violence that focused the attention of the world’s media on the tiny, landlocked African nation.

Ryle Dwyer reads a trilogy that traces the life and crimes of the tyrant responsible for the deaths of millions of his fellow countrymen. 

 

My First Animals by Aino-Maiji Metsola (Wide Eyed, €8.20 HB) 

* Will You Be My Friend? by Molly Potter (Featherstone, €11.50 HB)

When Michael Peppiatt stepped inside the French House, a dark, dank Soho pub, one busy lunchtime in June 1963, he could hardly have anticipated how life-changing an impact the next few hours would afford him.

Hannah Stephenson grills industry experts about the hotly-tipped new titles for 2017.

There’s Broccoli In my Ice Cream by Emily MacKenzie (Bloomsbury €8.20)

Mary Arrigan has a few titles for children that may just get your kids interested in reading. Check out her thoughts on The Glump And The Peeble, Giving Thank and Munch, Crunch, Pirate Lunch!

* The Enchanted Wood, and The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (Egmont, €14.40 HB) 

* Sir Dancealot Timothy Knapman and Keith Robinson (Bloomsbury, €8.20)

Polly Samson loves to write, but hates sitting at her desk. She tells Colette Sheridan why she finds the short story to be the ideal form.

Oscar Wilde was the most famous — and notorious — of his family but they were already a wild bunch long before his scandalous downfall. Mary Leland reads between the lines of a chronicle of fortune and misfortune.

Why Do I Have To Eat My Greens

Lulu and the Noisy Baby by Camilla Reid and Ailie Busby (Bloomsbury, €8.30) 

The Great Dragon Bake Off By Nicola O’Byrne (Bloomsbury, €8.20)

* The Truth According to Arthur by Tim Hopgood (Bloomsbury, €8.40) 

The Homeless Bumblebee and Me by David Greaves