Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week we'll be seeking out books by Irish authors. Here's hoping a bit of the luck of the Irish rubs off from reading great works!

A few links to seek inspiration:
Irish Literature genre page: https://www.goodreads.com/genres/iris...
Best Irish Literature: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6...
Female Irish Authors: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Irish YA: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Irish Crime Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

What are you reading this week? What Irish authors can you recommend?

The Land of Spices - Kate O'Brien
This book as been on my TBR the longest of any other.

These Days - Lucy Caldwell
Just bought this year.

A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne
Have wanted to read this since I loved his book, The Heart's Invisible Furies

Either The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne or something by Iris Murdoch.

This Is Happiness by Niall Williams

I'm reading Ulysses since I read The Odyssey this year

I'm reading Trespasses by a Northern Irish writer, Louise Kennedy, and Days Without End by an author from the Republic, Sebastian Barry.

My wife and I are spending two weeks in Ireland in 2025 to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary so this prompt feels very appropriate!

I’ve read a lot of great Irish authors the last couple years - Maggie O'Farrell, Sally Rooney, Jo Spain, Sara Baume - so I don’t have a lot left on my bookshelves. One of my remaining options is The House of Ashes by Stuart Neville.

@dalex - what a fantastic trip to look forward to! I’ve been to Ireland once, but it was 35 years ago and for work, so I only had one day to go see anything. But it was still wonderful:) Happy 10th Anniversary in advance❣️

I'm planning to read Gulliver’s Travels and/or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and/or When You Are Old: Early Poems and Fairy Tales - all on my physical shelves, so I'll see what I'm in the mood for when the time comes.

Tana French is my go-to Irish author, I'll be reading The Secret Place.

My other option would've been This Charming Man by C.K. McDonnell, who is the only other Irish author I think I've got on my TBR.

Marie, I'm also planning to go with Tana French. I've been trying for years to get to The Likeness.

Also, if anyone likes sick and twisted (but well-written), I can recommend In the Forest by Edna O'Brien.

Tracy wrote: "@dalex - what a fantastic trip to look forward to! I’ve been to Ireland once, but it was 35 years ago and for work, so I only had one day to go see anything. But it was still wonderful:) Happy 10th Anniversary in advance❣️"

Thank you! It's a Bucket List check off for both of us and we are so excited!

Maybe I'll finally read The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

I have been meaning to read a Tana French book for ages, so this prompt looks like a great time to do it! I would highly recommend Dervla McTiernan or Maeve Binchy.

My favorite books by Irish authors (which i wouldn’t mind rereading) include:
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
When All Is Said by Anne Griffin
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
Several books by Maeve Binchy


My top choices for 2025:
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch - Booker, Dayton Peace Prize
This Is Happiness by Niall Williams
History of the Rain by Niall Williams
A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

The Hunter by Tana French was selected as a 2025 read for my library's book discussion group so I will probably use it here, even tho' I have read The Searcher yet. Hopefully, I can find another prompt to use for The Searcher especially if The Hunter is read later in the calendar year.

I just finished Brooklyn so I'd like to read Long Island

I read Time of the Child by Niall Williams with my book group. I think it's easily one of my top ten books read in 2024. I heard about two more books by Irish authors on a YouTube channel last night and I've added both to my list of authors to read next year:
The Coast Road
Night Swimmers (can also be used for waves on the cover prompt).

I read Sing, Wild Bird, Sing by Jacqueline O'Mahony (finished 1/4)

The author is from Cork, Ireland.

I ended up reading The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan, and it was excellent. It is part of a series, and I have really enjoyed all of the series, but this one was extra good.

Misty wrote: "I ended up reading The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan..."

Based on your recommendation at some other time, I picked up the first book in the series to read for this The Ruin

I'm also a big fan of Graham Norton and his fiction is actually quite good! I've read Holding, Home Stretch, A Keeper, and have Forever Home yet to read.

Gail W wrote: "Based on your recommendation at some other time, I picked up the first book in the series to read for this The Ruin."

Hey - that's really cool! I hope you enjoy it.

I read a book from the Republic of Ireland, set in Dublin, The Van by Roddy Doyle, and a book from Northern Ireland, set in Belfast, A Good Hiding by Shirley-Anne McMillan.

The second is a young adult book and the first is most definitely adult, but both are really about friendship in difficult times.

For this prompt, I read:
Godwin by Joseph O'Neill - 4* - My Review

Joseph O'Neill was born in Cork, Ireland.

I read The Picture of Dorian Gray

I will be reading Beyond the Green Hills. by Anne Doughty. I can recommend Edna O'Brien, and Maeve Binchy, two very different authors. Also Roddy Doyle.

This one proved challenging, and I commend that. I went down the list only saw a lot of authors that I hadn't heard of and a few that I had already read.

And then I went boring and picked The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis

I was having trouble deciding between several books for this prompt, but my IRL book group ended up "deciding" for me. Another book by this author was on my list, so I was happy to try another of his instead.

I read Time of the Child by Niall Williams.

This was an unusual experience for me. I went from almost DNFing this book, to giving it 5 stars! What allowed me to get into the book was moving from print to audio. This is very unlike me as I usually can mostly only do audio if it's a memoir read by the author. This book is SO poetic and descriptive that the print version was putting me to sleep (15 pages on just leaving church after the service?). But with the beautiful narration that benefitted from an Irish lilt, I was firmly in the setting and able to feel all the warmth of the story.

Any initial downgrading of rating of this book was solely based on the fault of this reader. Even though I usually prefer character driven books over plot heavy books, this book was so character driven (you might even call it Setting Driven?) that I just needed to learn how to relax into enjoying "the view" and not worry too much about what comes next.

I ended up reading These Days by Lucy Caldwell, a story about the blitz in Belfast, Northern Ireland during World War II. It's excellent.

I finished Ulysses after 2.5 months. I cannot not recommend this book strongly enough.

I only finished it because I'm stubborn.

Dubhease wrote: "I finished Ulysses after 2.5 months. I cannot not recommend this book strongly enough.

I only finished it because I'm stubborn."

OMG! That is amazing! Bowing down!

I did John Boyne's The Elements. So good! But then lots of his books are.

Claire Keegan writes wonderful books, which are also short:

Small Things Like These and Foster

I read The Green Road by Anne Enright

I read Hey, Zoey. This wasn't what I was expecting at all but I thought that it was a well told exploration of our protagonists life and how it lead to her current situation. Including her husbands purchase of a AI Sex Doll. I think I was expecting something light hearted but it ended up being pretty serious with some dark moments. I feel like I should add a triger warning (view spoiler)[sexual assault (hide spoiler)] but it is also a plot point that isn't explored fully until well into the book.