This was the April book choice of our reading group. Prompting a lively discussion, it proved to be an overall enjoyable read, described by the group as ‘a complex read, very sad and tragic but beautifully written’.

Barry tells the story of Roseanne McNulty who having spent most of her adult life in Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital and nearing her 100th...

This is a lively and entertaining story of an American woman living in Paris with her French boyfriend and how they learn to live happily ever after...well, most of the time!

This is the Paris of residents and newcomers and is a story of fitting in. Food is the central theme, and it helps ease the transition from American woman to French woman. The recipes sound delicious but very French,...

“A complex, intriguing and evocative story set in the recent past but with echoes of the gothic classics.  The story maintains credibility throughout despite occasional mystic elements which serve to enhance the tales slightly macabre aura”. This is how Patrick from Larne Reading Group sums up the novel, which created much discussion, one in which none of us could even imagine the...

I was taught to crochet granny squares by, surprise surprise, my granny many years ago. She just sat me down beside her and showed me what to do. She didn’t tell me the name of the stitches, in fact I am not sure that she knew herself, but I really enjoyed it. As I really only know a couple of stitches I was afraid this book would be too advanced but the instructions are very...

Julia was asked to be bridesmaid at her cousin's wedding at the age of eight. Shortly after the wedding she did something she regretted.  It was small, ordinary act carried out with good intentions and with all the innocence of a child but it had devastating consequences. Julia couldn’t admit to this or being part of what happened and so continued to carry this terrible guilt around with...

Searching for a document in the landing cupboard, Glynn finds a family group photograph that changes his world. His beautiful late wife Kath and her brother in law Nick are secretly holding hands behind their backs You can imagine the questions that raced through his mind. Were they  having an affair? Was it serious? Did it last long? Were they in love? How come he never knew? Did...

So the 'unfilmable novel' turned out to be filmable after all. I didn’t want to see the film version until I had read the book. An admirable notion perhaps, but one to which I don't always adhere. On this occasion it was worth it. I love episodic books and this award winning novel possesses six such inter-linked yet stand-alone stories spanning hundreds of years from nineteenth century South...

The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry

One morning a middle-aged female librarian arrives at her place of work and prepares to open the Geography section in the basement of the building. This is the section of the library, we discover, of which our main character is in charge. The librarian has worked at the library for twenty five years and she finds the peace and...

All of Belfast author Lucy Caldwell’s stars seem to have come into perfect alignment right here and right now. Not only has her third novel All the Beggars Riding recently featured as Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime, but it has been chosen as Belfast’s ‘One City, One Book’ running throughout May 2013, and has also been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish novel of the...

The Grapes of Wrath follows the story of the Joad family who are forced off their farm in Oklahoma during the great depression of the 1930’s. It details their journey across America to California in an attempt to make a better life for themselves. It describes their hopes and dreams for the future, it highlights the struggles that they face on their journey and it identifies the bitterness,...

In many ways this book is a challenging read. On the surface it is a love story between an older established yet damaged artist and a young, unknown idealistic one. Roderick has survived his demons, and his marriage break-up to start again with Julia. The supporting characters colour and give life to this book, making it a much more demanding read. It’s about...

A wonderful book, a meticulously researched treasure trove of Irish folklore and mythology, covering the well known Cú Chulainn, Fionn Mac Cumhail, Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget to more obscure subjects such as as Flidais (apparently a deer goddess). It traces the development of various gods, goddesses, heroes, ghosts and fairies, using linguistic and literary evidence to...

A Da Vinci-code style thriller, concerning the Medusa Amulet, the Italian artist who created it and an American art historian hired to find it - who hopes to use it to save his dying sister. An engaging work, shifting back and forth across the centuries from Medieval Florence, through Revolutionary and Occupied France. Lots of thought-provoking questions on art and beauty, life and death,...

A riotous hoot of a novel, charting the continuing insanity of the unhinged Mystery Man, a crime-fighting Belfast bookshop owner, whose latest case superficially involves uncovering the identity of a mental patient, The Prisoner of (Nurse) Brenda, but which really involves psychotic mothers, a hypochondriac son, a new baby, shady property developers, Latin curses, arson and even bouts of midnight...

I had not read this book when first published - somehow the title put me off and all the hype about the Ewan McGregor Hollywood film didn’t inspire me either! Then I was given the book as a gift and now I want to encourage others to read it because it is very funny, thought-provoking and poignant ... besides focussing a spotlight on political spin and politicians - a very...

A personal memoir of the three years that Sarah Brown spent at 10 Downing Street with husband Gordon and their two young children.

She is clearly an energetic, committed, likeable, independent and resourceful woman who was determined to carve out a role for herself as WPM (wife of the Prime Minister, this reminded me of The West Wing, which I love, with POTUS and FLOTUS and there...

This powerful saga moves between rural England in the nineties and apartheid South Africa and Bechuanaland as it was then called thirty years earlier.  It is about love and loss, the  possibility of forgiveness, deception, goodness, the  hold that the past has on us and much more.

All of these combine to threaten the tranquility of the lives of Ralph and...

The subtitle of this life affirming true account of a year in the life of a 40  year old mother is 'Breaking out of locked-in syndrome'. And that is exactly the story that this book tells. Kate seems to have it all. She lives in the affluent village of Dore in England's Peak District, has three children, a host of friends, a good social life, a career she enjoys, a loving husband, a passion for...

I am slightly surprised to find myself writing a blog post about this talking book as after two chapters I had decided not to. But at no stage did I consider not listening to the end, it really grew on me and I finished it in two days, an unusually short time for  me with a talking book. So it clearly has something!

Before I explain why I enjoyed it, let me tell you...

After military service in Bosnia, Bruno becomes Chief of Police in sleepy St Denis in the Dordogne.  He is conscientious but doesn't let the job get in the way of his rugby, tennis and enjoyment of good food. In fact he hasn't needed to because St Denis is not exactly a hotbed of crime; indeed Bruno has worn his gun to work just 3 times in his 10 years in the job  - when the President visited...

Set in 1963, John F. Kennedy’s historical visit of Ireland is only weeks away. Ireland’s politicians are determined that his visit will be without incident. So when three foreign nationals with shady pasts are found murdered, the mess needs to be cleaned up as quickly as possible. It transpires that they were ex-Nazis who had sought sanctuary in Ireland after World War Two after escaping...

The main character Lev comes to London from Eastern Europe to find work.  The story flows back and forth between the family and friends he has left behind, and the people he meets while trying to make a living for himself.  Most of the reading group found the book very enjoyable, and some could relate to Lev’s experience of working in another country. In general it’s a good book...

With the announcement that his next novel, The Quarry, will be his last after bravely telling the world about his terminal illness, Iain Banks' legions of fans will remember him as someone who, whether writing as himself, or as Iain M. Banks for his science fiction novels, wrote with the blackest of wit and an inventiveness that few of his peers could hope to match.

His 2012 novel,...

If you thought that Sweden only produced dour and depressing crime books, then think again. The story begins on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Without giving too much away, Allan decides to do a bunk from his nursing home in order to avoid his hundredth birthday party (which he never really wanted anyway) and in the process accidentally steals a gangster's suitcase containing fifty...