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My Month in Books: June and July 2025

Love in Exile by Shon Faye In Love in Exile Shon Faye examines the different ways society politicises and excludes people from heteropatriarchal romantic ideals of love. When asked to describe this book to my friends, I simplified it down to ‘it’s like Everything I Know About Love turned thirty and went back to school to get a masters.’ Drawing on her own experience of exclusion as a trans…

My Month in Books: May 2025

Passing by Nella Larsen Nella Larsen has been a new discovery for me this year and I’m so glad I’ve finally found her. Passing is the story of two childhood friends whose lives take very different paths. Irene and Clare are both light-skinned black women living in America in the 1920s. But while Irene has married a black man and has a rich and fulfilling life ensconced in Harlem’s thriving black…

My Month in Books: April 2025

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson We Have Always Lived in the Castle has one of the best opening paragraphs I’ve ever read and the fact that it’s up hill from there is a testament to the craftsmanship of the inimitable Shirley Jackson. Our narrator is Mary Katherine ‘Merricat’ Blackwood, a young woman trapped in a magical-realist prison of her own making, burying hoards of…

My Month in Books: February and March 2025

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson As mentioned in my previous blog, I was dragged kicking and screaming out of my Stormlight Archive reading streak by some ARCs and a book club book, but I knew that Dalinar Kholin would want me to keep my oaths and so I did the right thing and took a break from the series. And given it’s the last book in the series (at least for now), it’s probably for the…

My Month in Books: January 2025

The Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson My love affair with The Stormlight Archive continues and my feelings grow more ardent with each passing book. I love the way that Sanderson creates space for his heroes to grow in ways that are new and unexpected (i.e. everything about Kaladin’s arc in this book), while also giving characters who have traditionally been sidelined their time in the sun…

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My Month in Books: November and December 2024

The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Tales by H.P. Lovecraft It says a lot about me that I was thrilled to receive this as a birthday gift and even more about my husband (and how well he knows me) that he got it for me. Lovecraft is an acquired taste but one that I definitely have. A pioneer of the horror genre, this compendium of short stories and novellas is a great introduction to his creepy…

#book recommendation #book review #books #brandon sanderson #cosmere #fantasy #fiction #hp lovecraft #lovecraft #oathbringer #reading #sci fi #science fiction #the call of cthulu #the stormlight archive #words of radiance

My Months in Books: August, September and October 2024

Michael Collins: The Man and the Revolution by Anne Dolan and William Murphy There was recently a plaque but above a very bougie furniture shop in my neighbourhood, noting it as the site where Michael Collins was inducted into the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1909. For those who didn’t come up through the Irish education system, Michael Collins may not be a familiar figure to you but he looms…

My Month in Books: June and July 2024

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe Sometimes it takes seeing something written out in black and white to fully to fully comprehend its magnitude. Growing up in Ireland, the names Jean McConville and Gerry Adams have always been known to me and I even studied the Troubles in school as part of my Leaving Cert exams but there’s something very…

My Month in Books: May 2024

In The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani In The Country of Others is a lyrical and character-driven historical fiction novel, loosely based on the life of Slimani’s grandmother. During World War II, Mathilde, a passionate and rebellious Frenchwoman, falls head over heels for Amine, a dashing Moroccan soldier who is serving in the French army. When the war ends, the young lovers marry and move…

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My Month in Books: April 2023

A Promised Land by Barack Obama When I was a little girl Barack Obama came to Dublin and my mum took me and my little brother to hear him speak. Even then, it was impossible not to realise that you were listening to a master of storytelling, though he had only used his skills to win elections at that point. In A Promised Land he instead uses his talents to tell one of the biggest stories that…

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My Month in Books: March 2024

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon If you love epic fantasy and strong female characters, you need to get yourself a copy of The Priory of the Orange Tree ASAP. It weaves together multiple narratives that span continents to tell the story of a world divided between those who loath and fear dragons in the West and those who worship and fight alongside them in the East. In the West,…

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#book recommendation #book review #books #crying in h mart #fantasy #fiction #japanese breakfast #memoir #michelle zauner #mikhail bulgakov #mislaid in parts half-known #reading #roots of chaos #russian literature #samantha shannon #seanan mcguire #the master and margarita #the priory of the orange tree #wayward children

My Month in Books: February 2024

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab A Conjuring of Light was going to go one of two ways; either it would live up to the promise of A Darker Shade of Magic or fall into the same traps of cliche and loose plotting that caught its predecessor, A Gathering of Shadows. Disappointingly it was the latter. All of the basic bones of a really good story were there but Schwab seemed to keep getting…

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My Month in Books: January 2024

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson One of my favourite gifts that I received this year for Christmas is this new translation of The Iliad by Emily Wilson. The Iliad is a poem I have spent huge chunks of my life studying and obsessing over but it had been a long time since I last kicked back and read it purely for pleasure. For those who aren’t aware, The Iliad tells the story of a…

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My Month in Books: November and December 2023

Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman I spend a lot of my time at work thinking about the UK’s political system (and to be honest way too much of my free time as well) so I was excited to get a slightly more outside perspective on the workings of Westminster. While the book is probably a little bit basic for hardcore politics nerds (though I was thrilled to see a whole section…

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My Month in Books: September and October 2023

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein Autumn means a lot of things to a lot of different people. For some it means scary stories around a campfire, for others it means pumpkin spice lattes and cozy scarves. For me, it will always mean Hobbits. Nothing feels more natural to me as reaching for Tolkein as soon as I see the leaves start to change colour. I won’t insult your intelligence by…

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My Month in Books: August 2023

Angela Carter’s Book of Wayward Girls and Wicked Women by Angela Carter As my book club ventured forth with the rest of womankind to see Barbie together, we wanted to choose a book that was on theme. So, naturally, we landed on this collection of short stories that were chosen by Angela Carter as a a love letter to all the bad girls out there who won’t get in their box and do as they’re told.…

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My Month in Books: July 2023

Infamy: The Crimes of Ancient Rome by Jerry Toner Normally I’m always quick to pick up a book on the ancient Romans, but I grabbed this one double quick because Jerry Toner was actually one of my supervisors at university. He’s a fantastic teacher who runs a course on Roman popular culture and under his wise guidance I got to study (and write very long essays on…) everything from graffiti to…

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