#donal ryan

[wordshaveteeth]

Language was unwieldy at the beginning: I had to learn to marshal it, to make it do my bidding. And when I had the language leashed, the characters were suddenly beyond my control. They were crazy! The things they said and did. The wild joy I felt. The rightness of it all.

- Donal Ryan, heart, be at peace

[llovelymoonn]

donal ryan the queen of dirt island

kofi

[dk-thrive]

It feels like all the things I’m worried about come together in one ball and the ball fires itself at me and hits me right in the center of myself

There’s this thing that happens me now nearly every day. It feels like a stab of something in my middle, not pain exactly, just a kind of a force that takes the air out of me so that I have to stop what I’m doing for a few seconds until it passes. It only comes on me when I let my thoughts drift. It feels like all the things I’m worried about come together in one ball and the ball fires itself at me and hits me right in the center of myself… I got a good trick from the internet. This four-seven-eight breathing thing. It actually kind of works. I breathe in for four beats, hold it for seven, and exhale for eight. I feel things settling on the exhale, slowing and regularizing, my heart calming.

— Donal Ryan, "Heart, Be At Peace" (Viking, May 20, 2025)

[mrdirtybear]

Irish writer Donal Ryan (born 1976) photographed staring into the middle distance, the way popular new writers get photographed. He is now a full time author, but in an earlier life he would have worked for the Irish Civil Service. In some recent images of him he has shaved his beard off, but here is a 2022 video of him in full flow, beard intact, in front of a delighted audience.

[lakecountylibrary]

Read -> Reading -> To-Read

An inside look at what's on librarian Beth's shelf lately:

Read: Happy Place by Emily Henry

I'm at the point that Emily Henry is on my list of to-read anytime she has a new book come out! Full of sweet and hilarious scenarios, her books are must-reads for those enjoying a quirky romance with lots of feels. Happy Place did not let me down!

Reading: The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan

I just started this one which was recommended to me by a co-worker and is set in Tipperary, Ireland, so clearly it belonged on my TBR list!

To Read: I Swear Politics is Messier than my Minivan by Katie Porter

I don't know anything about Representative Katie Porter but the title got me. As a minivan driver and someone who tries to be civically-minded, this seems like it will be a humorous but realistic look at what goes on in Congress by someone who is "one of us."

See more of Beth's recs

[dare-g]

Books 11-20 of the year 📖!

[ahosia3]

Sierpień to początek jesieni. Pewne sprawy dojrzewają w sierpniu, opiwszy się słońca przez całe lato. Inne zaczynają obumierać i opadają w nicość. W sierpniu czuć pierwsze ukłucia chłodu. Za dnia, podczas meczu, człowiek może spiec się na raka, ale po powrocie do domu tego samego dnia wieczorem słońce, zmęczone walką, pozwala zimnemu, blademu księżycowi przegonić się za wzgórza. Słońce jest w sierpniu słabsze, jakby rozwodnione, nie potrafi utrzymać ciepła przez całą dobę.

~Donal Ryan:"Taki właśnie jest grudzień"

[cmacaulays]

— Donal Ryan, “from a low and quiet sea”