For Book’s Sake: 12 Of Our Top Picks To Add To Your Reading List

Six Novels You’ll Want To Read Right Now

Our Little Cruelties, Liz Nugent

Liz is one of Ireland’s best mystery writers, unspooling tangled tales of secrets and lies over three bestselling books. Her fourth novel follows three brothers who grew up competing for their mother’s love. Their rivalry continues into adulthood, with each betraying the others over and over again, until one of them is dead – but which brother killed him? Nail-biting stuff.

Grown Ups, Marian Keyes

Our Marian is back! And Grown Ups is one of her best yet, creating another memorable family saga. The glamourous Caseyes are known for being very close – brother Johnny, Ed, and Liam, their wives and all of their children spend a lot of time together. But when Ed’s wife Cara gets a concussion and starts spilling private matters, their perfect facade begins to unravel.

The Cutting Place, Jane Casey

There’s nothing like a good detective novel, is there? The Cutting Place is the ninth in Jane Casey’s addictive Maeve Kerrigan thrillers, going inside an elite London gentlemen’s club that holds dark secrets. When a young journalist investigating the club disappears, Maeve must try and find out the truth about what happened to her.

 

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Q, Christina Dalcher

Christina Dalcher’s first novel, Vox, explored a dystopian America in which women are allowed to speak just 100 words a day. Her newest effort pictures a world in which every child must undergo routine tests for their ‘quotient’, Q, which determines how their lives will pan out: Attend a top school and secure a gold future, or be shipped off to a government boarding school with few prospects afterward.

In Five Years, Rebecca Serle

With a proposal and a new job on the horizon, New York lawyer Dannie Cohan is sure she’s on track to achieve her five year plan. However, a vision of an alternative future in which she’s dating a different man leads her to second-guess everything she thinks she knows about her future. This weepy-yet-witty romance will have you hooked.

Big Girl, Small Town, Michelle Gallen

Described as a cross between Derry Girls and Anna Burns’ Booker Prize-winning Milkman, this keenly-observed debut centers on Majella, an ‘odd’ woman in a small, gossip-fuelled town on the Northern Irish border. When a death in the family shakes up her days working in the local chipper and nights watching Dallas reruns, Majella has to find a new path for herself.

Six Amazing Non-Fiction Books To Sink Your Teeth Into

Open Book, Jessica Simpson

Few celebrity memoirs have made quite the splash Jessica Simpson’s has made. The singer and business mogul has opened up about her turbulent life in the public eye, first as a teenage pop sensation, and then as one of the world’s first reality TV stars on Newlyweds (“Is this chicken or fish?”). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to give her a huge hug. The Simpsonaissance is here.

Jump, Daniella Moyles

You might know Daniella from her days presenting on Spin 103.8 – she left that job in 2017 to spend two years backpacking around the world, gaining a new perspective on life in the process. This memoir details how she found contentment through rejecting what was expected of her. Inspiring and life-affirming.

SkinCARE, Caroline Hirons

Skincare Queen Caroline Hirons has been an authority on the beauty industry for many years now, and has finally compiled her vast knowledge into a book. SkinCARE explains the facts about the stuff we put on our faces in Caroline’s signature no-nonsense style, from how to read ingredients lists to choosing the perfect products for you. (Out April 30th)

 

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Lost, Found, Remembered, Lyra McKee

When Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee was murdered in Derry last year aged just 29, she left behind a wealth of work. This anthology brings together the pieces that marked her as a writer to watch, along with unpublished material, to form a beautiful tribute to a powerful voice, lost far too soon.

Okay, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea, Patrick Freyne 

If you have ever hooted with laughter at Patrick’s column in The Irish Times, his new book of essays will be right up your street. He charts his life through a series of his most stupid ideas – letting a horse out of a field at the age of five, jumping out of a plane for charity at 19 – touching on everything from music to love to loss. (Out May 14th)

Uncanny Valley, Anna Wiener

Finally, the Silicon Valley memoir we deserve. At 25, Anna Wiener moved from New York to San Francisco to take a job at a startup, and for a while, felt like part of something special. However, once she began to see the misogyny at the heart of the industry, there was no turning back. Hailed as a stunning critique of the tech world, it’s a must read for anyone who has eagerly followed the Theranos and WeWork scandals.

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