Now that we're halfway through the year, I wanted to give a shout out to the top three books that have both gripped and moved me thus far in 2026! 📚
— Land by Maggie O’Farrell. It's been days since I finished reading this book and I'm still thinking about it. As someone who's had the privilege of working with and cataloguing the folklore recorded by John O'Donovan and his ordnance survey crew over the past year while I worked as a research assistant for the Fionn Folklore Project, I was so moved by this thoughtful rendering of such a painful and complex period of Irish history.
— Now I Surrender by Álvaro Enrigue, translated beautifully by Natasha Wimmer. Every time I pick up a book by a Mexican writer, it seems I am left breathless by their writing (and of course, the translator's stunning ability to capture its essence in English. One day I will read the original Spanish!!). Part-revisionist western, part-autofiction, I was continuously captivated by Enrigue's evocation of and engagement with the Apache's fight for survival and the formation of the American West from a multitude of underexplored perspectives.
— Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. A fascinating and riveting exploration of tradwife culture and the structures the 'tradwives' play into, as well as the American right's reconstruction of their 19th century past. This is a little side note, and I'm not entirely sure if Burke meant this on purpose though I hope so, but I thought her suggestion that the name Maeve/Medb appropriate for someone who is "soft and watchful and sweet" to be the perfect subtle dig at that sect of Irish-Americans who've completely separated themselves from Irish culture (Medb, of course, being the great warrior queen of Irish literature) in order to assimilate their Irishness into the dominant white Anglo American culture.
A bonus shout out as well to Tolka Journal – I adored Michela Esposito’s moving non-fiction piece “Circuit [Howl Howl Howl Howl]” in their latest issue which is available here and throughout numerous bookshops in Ireland.
