Books - Recommended Reading for Adults

Saturday 5th December 2009
Stephen Boylan of Easons, Dr Eibhear Walsh, UCC School of English and Tom Doorley, food writer & restaurant critic with their recommended reading (or for gifts) for Christmas -

Tom recommends (cookery books)
"Forgotten Skills Of Cooking" by Darina Allen (publ Kyle Cathie)
"Eat Good Things Every Day" by Carmel Somers (publ Atrium)
"River Cottage Every Day" by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall (publ Bloomsbury)
"The Big Fat Duck Cookbook" by Heston Blumenthal (publ Bloomsbury)
"The Moro Cookbook" by Sam & Sam Clark (publ Ebury Press)
"Arabesque: A Taste Of Morocco, Turkey & Lebanon" by Claudia Roden (publ Michael Joseph)
"Cliff House Hotel Cookbook" by Kajuiter Martijn (publ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Eibhear recommends (fiction & history)
"Brooklyn" by Colm Tóibín (publ Viking)
"Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel (publ Harper Collins)
"Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters (publ Virago)
"In A Place Apart" by Phil Young (publ Wordsonthestreet)
"Love & Summer" by William Trevor (publ Viking)

Stephen recommends (biographies/light entertainment)
"Come What May", Donal Óg Cusack (publ Penguin Ireland)
"Eyewitness: Padraig & Joan Kennelly's Images Of Ireland 1953-1973" (publ Collins Press)
"The Beaut.ie Guide To Gorgeous" by Aisling McDermott (publ Gill & Macmillan)
"Bankers" by Shane Ross (publ Penguin)
biographies of Bertie Ahern, Albert Reynolds and Mr Tayto

Saturday 18th April 2009
Authors Dermot Bolger and John Boyne with their recommended reading for springtime -

Dermot recommends
"All Names Have Been Changed" by Claire Kilroy
"The Love Of Sisters" by Eugene McCabe
"The Pleasant Light Of Day" by Philip O'Ceallaigh
"Gerald Dawe: Earth Voices Whispering", an anthology of Irish war poetry, 1914-1945

John recommends
"Bog Child" by Siobhan Dowd
"The Housekeeper & The Professor" by Yoko Ogawa
"Strangers" by Anita Brookner
"American Adulturer" by Jed Mercurio

Saturday 21st February 2009
Whether you want to read books with recessionary themes or just for escapism, Dr. Eibher Walshe, School of English, University College Cork and Mary O'Sullivan, Features editor with the Sunday Independent had some suggestions -

Dr Eibher Walshe (recession)
"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck
"Memoir" by John Mc Gahern
"The Way We Live Now" by Anthony Trollope

Mary O'Sullivan (escapism)
"A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth
" The Sum of Our Days" by Isabel Allende
anything by Jane Austen
"Heartburn" by Nora Ephron

Saturday 17th January 2009
Authors John Boyne and Dermot Bolger with their recommended reading for the new year -

Dermot recommends
"The Silence and the Sea" by Peter Cunningham
"A Good Day for a Dog" by Carlo Geber
"Leaving Ardglass" by William King
"A Bad Day in Blackrock" by Kevin Power

John recommends
"The American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld
"One Morning like a Bird" by Andrew Miller
"The Wolf" by Joseph Smith
"The Road Home" by Rose Trenaire

Saturday 28th June 2008
recommended summer reading from Mary Burnham and Richard Aldous -

Fiction
"Take A Look At Me Now" by Anita Notaro
"De Niro's Game" by Rowi Hage
"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson
"The Glassblower Of Murano" by Marina Fiorato
"The Outcast" by Sadie Jones

Non-fiction
"The Last Campaign: Robert F Kennedy & 82 Days That Inspired America" by Thurston Clarke
"Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years With Brian Clough" by Duncan Hamilton
"The Rest Is Noise: Listening To The 20th Century" by Alex Ross
"The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes And Why" by Amanda Ripley

Saturday 3rd May 2008
Writer John Boyne with his recommended reads -

"The Sea Trilogy" by William Golding (includes "Rites of Passage", "Close Quarters" & "Fire Down Below")
"Old School" by Tobias Wolff
"The Talented Mr Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith
"The Silver Sword" by Ian Serailler (suitable for young adults)

John's latest novel is "Mutiny On The Bounty"
His other books include "The Thief Of Time", "The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas" and "Congress Of Rough Riders"

Saturday 2nd February 2008
Dermot Bolger with his recommended reads -

Non Fiction
"Dreams From My Father: A Story Of Race & Inheritance" by Barak Obama, published by Canongate 1995
"The Whisperers: Private Life In Stalin's Russia" by Orlando Figes, published by Allen Lane/Penguin 2007
"Follow Me Down To Dublin: The City Through The Voice Of It's People" by Deirdre Purcell, published by Hodder Headline Ireland 2007

Fiction
"The Deportees & Other Stories" by Roddy Doyle, published by Cape 2007
"Foolish Mortals" by Jennifer Johnston, published by Headline Review 2007
"Julius Winsome" by Gerald Donovan, published by Faber 2006
"The Springs Of Affection" by Maeve Brennan, published by Mariner Books 1998

Saturday 15th December 2007
Ficton & Non-Fiction, recommended by Mary Burnham of Dubray Books, Dun Laoghaire and coffee table and 'how to' books recommended by Quentin Fottrell -

Fiction
"The Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennett (€13.99)
"Fox Swallow Scarecrow" by Eilish Ní Dhuibhne (€13.85)
"Water For Elephants" by Sarah Gruen (€12.30)
"One Thousand Splendid Sons" by Khaled Hosseini
"With My Lazy Eye" by Julia Kelly
"Notes From An Exhibition" by Patrick Gale

Non-fiction
"I Was Vermeer: The Forger Who Swindled The Nazis" by Frank Wynne (€9.99)
"The Christmas Letters: The Ultimate Collection Of Round Robin Letters" by Simon Hoggart

Coffee table and 'how to' books
"My Secret: A Post Secret Book" by Frank Warren (€20)
"Morecambe & Wise Untold" by William Cook (€25)
"The Audrey Hepburn Treasure" (photos & biography) (€40)
"War Posters: Weapons Of Mass Communication" by James Aulich (€30)
"Nigella Express - 130 Recipes For Good Food, Fast" by Nigella Lawson (€37)
"Further Adventures In Search Of Perfection" by Heston Blumenthal (€30)
"The Irish Times Book Of The Year" edited by Peter Murtagh
"National Gallery Of Ireland 2008 Diary - Costume In Art"

Saturday 17th November 2007
Recommended reading from the author John Connolly -

Fiction
"What The Dead Know" by Laura Lipman
"The Tin Roof Blow Down" by James Lee Burke

Non-Fiction
"Imperial Life In The Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" by Rajiv Canderasekaran

Classics
"Bleak House" by Charles Dickens

Saturday 20th October 2007
Recommended reading from the author Joe O'Connor -

Fiction
"The Gathering" by Anne Enright (winner of 2007 Man Booker)
"Walk The Blue Fields" by Clare Keegan (7 short stories)
"Divisadero" by Michael Ondaajte
"Diary Of A Bad Year" by JM Coetzee

Non-fiction
"Dead As Doornails" by Anthony Cronin

Saturday 14th July 2007
Recommended reading from the author Dermot Bolger -

Fiction
"Redemption Falls" by Joseph O'Connor
"12.23 (Paris 31st August 1997)" by Eoin McNamee
"A Small Part Of Me" by Noelle Harrison

Non-fiction
"Rough Ride" by Paul Kimmage
"Left To The Wolves: Irish Victims Of Stalinist Terror" by Barry McLoughlin
"The Ledwidge Treasury" from New Island Press, with an introduction by Seamus Heaney & afterword by Dermot Bolger

Saturday 17th February 2007
Recommended reading from Eoin McHugh from Easons and Colette Cotter, O'Mahony's Bookshop in Limerick -

Fiction
"The Song Before It Is Sung" by Justin Cartwright
"The Tenderness Of Wolves" by Stef Penney
"The Lion's Game" by Nelson DeMille
"Keeping Faith" by Jodi Picoult
"The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox" by Maggie O'Farrell
"The Four Courts Murder" by Andrew Nugent

Non Fiction
"Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
"Murder In Amsterdam" by Ian Buruma
"The Power Of Now" by Eckhart Tolle
"Showtime Or Substance? A Voters Guide To The 2007 Elections" by Noel Whelan

Saturday 20th January 2007
Recommended reading from Eoin McHugh from Easons and John Cotter from The Book Centre in Waterford -

Fiction
"In The Company Of The Courtesan" by Sarah Dunant
"The Steep Approach To Garbadale" by Ian Banks
"Two Caravans" by Marina Lewycka
"Whitethorn Woods" by Maeve Binchy
"Salmon Fishing In The Yemen" by Paul Torday
"The Dream Life Of Sukhanov" by Olga Grushin

Non-Fiction
"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins
"Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky
"The Torso In The Canal" by John Mooney
Biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese pro-democracy activist