My Irish Jeweler's Summer Reading Recommendations, 2026.

It's that time again...

Hello and welcome to our Notes From Home this month!

June’s here, the sun’s sort of out - in between torrential rain showers - and most of us have taken, or are planning to take, some time off soon. I must admit, I hit the jackpot on this, taking the last week of May as annual leave. It was gloriously sunny and hot all week until the Bank Holiday weekend, whereupon it poured unceasingly. Which tells you everything you need to know about the spitefulness of weather systems, honestly. Not to mention being wholly typical of Irish Bank Holidays.

A happy interlude

I spent my week and a bit pottering about at home in Cavan, interspersed with a couple of trips down to Dublin to meet up with family and friends. On two out of three trips to the city, I <cough> happened to find myself in Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street, as one does. Ireland’s oldest bookshop, Hodges Figgis, has been selling books since 1768, albeit at different locations around the city, and it’s a veritable treasure trove. It's thought to be the third-oldest bookshop in the world! Naturally, I didn’t leave empty-handed. In addition to adding to my TBR pile (which definitely isn’t teetering in the most alarming manner, thank you very much), it was a timely reminder that we got a great response to last summer’s reading recommendations. In 2025, we focused solely on Irish writers, but this year, I’m opening the field to all and sundry, because why not? I’m sure there will still be some Irish authors among the entries here.

A special mention

One book got a triple recommendation, so I'm giving this pride of place in our list! Ciarán, Jane and Ruth all loved Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. We know it's not a new release, but it clearly made an impression. Since hearing their thoughts on it, Gemma's also bought the book, so we can't wait to hear what she thinks!

Ruth said, "I love a coming-of-age story. It was grim, heartbreaking and somehow still funny. Also, I found it interesting that a 60-something year old woman was able to write a teenage boy so convincingly. It was inspired by David Copperfield by Charles Dickens...but I haven't read that."

Jane said, "Demon Copperhead is excellent. Terribly sad in places but also wholly engrossing. I read Demon Copperhead after reading David Copperfield and thought they were both great."

Ruth and Jane's other choices

Ruth also mentioned the memoir Walk Through Walls by Marina Abramović: "...it's a must-read too. She is so fascinating as an artist and a person. I went on a Marina binge after reading that and went back to watch The Artist is Present. I would have loved to sit across from her in that piece in MoMA, but I don't think I would have survived the hours and hours of waiting in line. How did she sit there almost motionless every day for 3 months!!! As a bonus - listen to her on Louis Theroux's podcast. He sounded terrified the whole time he was speaking to her. She is a very imposing talk show guest!"

Jane nominated Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood. "I started the year with this, and I think it will be hard to top. Reading it feels like she is in the room chatting with you. I had to keep stopping to read out bits to Ciarán. I recommend it for any fan of her books."

Gemma's lineup

Heart The Lover - Lily King: "I literally just finished it last night. Peter came home from work and found me in tears. He doesn't normally come home from work to me crying. It's relatively shorter than most books I've read. It's only 249 pages. It fits so much into those 249 pages, so full of emotion. I'm still not the better for reading it."

Take My Hand - Dolen Perkins-Valdez: "Another one that took its toll on me, but it was such a good read! Set in 1973 in Montgomery, AL, it's about a Black nurse who discovers that terrible things are happening to her young patients."

All the Broken Places - John Boyne: "This is actually a sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I wasn't sure what to expect of this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was definitely not ready for the twist at the end."

The Lotus Shoes - Jane Yang: "I loved this book. It's such a divide in society where status and traditions mean everything and therefore decide your future, which doesn't always go the way you want it to!"

Your Every Move - Sam Blake: "Very timely with all these series on TV about high-end estate agents! This is about an Irish estate agent working with luxury properties in London who gets targeted by a stalker. Can you tell I like books that keep me awake at night?!"

Lying in Wait - Liz Nugent: "This was so compelling - I had a hard time putting it down, and it was very twisty! It's set in Dublin in the 1980s about an outwardly perfect family, and is a psychological thriller that grabs you from the first page. I have her newest book on my to-read list, too."

The Great Alone - Kirsten Hannah: "Really emotional book, and not an easy read. It's semi-autobiographical about a troubled family who move to the Alaskan wilderness to live and realise that it's much harder than they thought. Probably not one for the beach, honestly..."

Deadly Evidence - Marie Cassidy: "Marie Cassidy was the State Pathologist in Ireland from 2008 to 2014, and you can only imagine the things she saw...though you probably wouldn't want to! She wrote her autobiography first, then went on to write novels about a female pathologist based in Dublin. Sort of a Patricia Cornwell path, I guess. This really kept me guessing right the way to the end."

Ciarán's books

Topographica Hibernia - Blindboy Boatclub: "My favorite short story from Blindboy's wild collection is The Poitín Maker, which imagines the pre-modern life of an Irish man trying to make a living and support his daughter Cáit in an unforgiving world. Beware the Irish ability to use...colourful language if you do decide to pick this up!"

James - Percival Everett: " This book tells the story of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's point of view. The prose is fresh and vital, and the story, and sadly, the horror, zips along."

Gareth's nominations

Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape - Manchán Magan - "Probably the best known of Manchán’s books, but a beautiful, lyrical piece of writing that requires time to absorb. I listen to a lot of books, but you need to sit with this one and really drink it in."

Room to Dream - David Lynch and Kristine McKenna: "Brilliant book that I keep re-reading and enjoy every time. It always inspires me."

Werner Herzog - The Future of Truth: "All his books are great, but I loved this one!"

Even the Good Girls Will Cry: My 90s Rock Memoir - Melissa Auf Der Maur: "Perfect for those of us who grew up in the ‘90s; more like reading a magazine than a book, with loads of insights into a fascinating time in music."

Margaret's suggestions

My Husband's Wife - Alice Feeney: "This is great easy reading; it moves at a pace and lots of twists, really entertaining."

Broken Country - Clare Leslie Hall: "I loved this; it felt like a proper old-school love story. Hooked from page 1!"

The Road to Tender Hearts - Annie Hartnett: "A road trip book with a mismatched bunch of characters and a cat. I needed to get over the cat's skills in the first chapter, and then got into it. It’s a feel-good and happy/sad. Think Little Miss Sunshine."

A Stranger in the Family - Jane Casey: "Loved it, didn't want to finish it. So good."

The Hike by Lucy Clarke: "I really enjoyed this; it's a perfect switch-off book, so definitely one for the holidays. I love her writing style."

Jill's favourites

A Knock at the Door - Rob Parsons: "This was the tag-line that first made me pick up this book and read it:

Christmas 1975 and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is riding high in the charts. In a residential street just outside Cardiff, a persistent knocking breaks the stillness of the evening…

…sure, how could I resist!
This is the true story of Ronnie Lockwood, a homeless man who knocked at someone’s door one night with his belongings on his back and a frozen chicken in his hands. He was invited in and ended up staying there as part of their family for 45 years.
But the story isn’t just about Ronnie, it’s about the young family who took him in and how the course of their lives was changed by Ronnie’s journey. I found this book kind of heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time, but it leaves your faith in humanity fully restored by the end of it!"

We Were Rich and We Didn’t Know It: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood - Tom Phelan: "I wasn’t sure what to make of this book when I started it, but it’s a book that just takes off whether you are ready or not and I love books like that. The language is simple and it just keeps moving along. It’s Tom Phelan’s memoir of growing up in rural Ireland in the 1940s, he lives in New York
now.

I love books that transport me back in time to feel what life was like back then, before electricity or telephones, cars or proper toilets. Turkey eggs were hatched in the kitchen cupboard, and Tom doesn’t hold back on detail when he describes how they got their animals from the field onto their
fork, so this one may not be for the fainthearted, but it’s good to revisit the reality of life only a few generations before us, especially today when we have everything and need for nothing. I found it grounding. It reminded me of Alice Taylor’s ‘To School through the Fields’."

The Coast Road - Alan Murrin: "It is set in Donegal in 1994, the year before divorce became legal in Ireland. It’s a novel about a woman, Colette, who left her husband and sons in Donegal to take up with a married man in Dublin
and then returns to try to reclaim her old life, but is faced with the consequences of moving against the tide in a small, closed community run by gossip. She finds herself caught between her old life and the freedom that she risked everything for. She seeks help from another mother, Izzy, and their
friendship sends them each on a path, one to self-discovery and the other to tragedy.

All the female characters in this book are so complex and real that you find yourself rooting for them as if you knew them personally. I kept forgetting the book wasn’t written by a woman."

The Correspondent - Virginia Evans: "This is a story about a 73 year old woman who is losing her eyesight and is always writing letters to
people for one reason or another … but there is one letter she has never dared to send. I won’t ruin the story for you, but this letter draws on a dark time in her life that she has to first reconcile herself with and find forgiveness!

This book sounds a bit sad, but it is beautifully written, and you come out of the end of it feeling fulfilled and that everything is settled. It’s about a small life finally standing tall and transforming itself.

What interested me about Virginia Evans is that she lives in North Carolina now, but she studied at Trinity College Dublin under authors such as Claire Keegan, who I love."

Vicky's list

With apologies in advance, because this may be longer than I intended!

There Are Rivers In The Sky - Elif Shafak. I read this book in January 2025, and I still think about it at least every other day, to the point where I'm seriously contemplating a related tattoo! I loved it so much that I’ve given copies to friends as gifts, and while I don’t know if they were as enraptured as I was, I know it’s one of those books which will always stay with me. In essence, the book is about four disparate people linked by the life cycle of a water drop and their various ties to Nineveh, the ancient Upper Mesopotamian city, now within the bounds of Mosul in Iraq, while living in Victorian times and the modern day.

The Places Inbetween - Rory Stewart. I listened to this book on Audible towards the end of last year, but I plan to get a paper copy, too. If you haven’t encountered Mr Stewart, well, I’d start with his Wikipedia entry because, objectively, there’s a lot to say about the man. He’s written several books in between all his other endeavours, and while I don’t always agree with all his politics, I appreciate that he’s a decent human being who has a lovely way with words and a vast wealth of experience to draw on. This book reduced me to tears in several places, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing! His 2001 - 2002 travels on foot across Iran, Pakistan, the Himalayas, and subsequently Afghanistan, which this book recounts, have clearly had a profound effect on him. (If you have any interest in British politics, his 2023 book Politics On The Edge about his experience as an MP is marvellous. I’d pair it with Ian Dunt’s book, published the same year, called How Westminster Works ... and Why It Doesn't.)

Patriot - Alexei Navalny. Another complex but fascinating man, Alexei Navalny’s autobiography is both a study in bravery, which one could argue veered into foolishness, and someone whose sense of purpose was unstoppable. In writing this account of his life and work, not to mention his time in various Russian prisons, he’s never shy about giving credit to his wife and colleagues for buoying his actions and purpose. We get to meet a man of fierce determination and a great sense of humour that helps to offset an inevitable slight arrogance. Bonus tip: if you’re a listener, the audiobook is narrated by Matthew Goode, whose voice is a perfect match for Navalny’s wry observations.

A Hut At The Edge Of The Village - John Moriarty, edited by Martin Shaw. If you want a sampler of Mr Moriarty’s work, this is an excellent place to start, but not necessarily a quick read. (I found I could only read it in relatively small chunks if I wanted to give it the attention it deserved.) He died in 2007, but he was a writer, philosopher, fervent Christian, ecologically minded, and wildly witty, with all the skill of a true seanchaí - a keeper of stories, histories, and mythologies. I was wholly unaware of this gem of humanity until I discovered this chat he had with the inimitable (and then very young!) Tommy Tiernan in 2002.

If you’d like more, or perhaps a gentler introduction, the sorely missed Manchán Magan - who’s definitely worth reading; see Gareth's list above - put out a podcast sharing conversations he’d had about Moriarty’s work. It’s called The Bog Shaman: Manchán Magan on Moriarty, and it’s definitely worth a listen. All the more so if you've a grá for some strong Irish accents!

How The Irish Saved Civilisation - Thomas Cahill. This is a bit of a follow-on from our visit last summer to the National Museum of Ireland’s Words on the Wave exhibition, as it’s largely based on the idea that the Dark Ages didn’t really happen in Ireland. We’re talking here about a period from around 5 - 10 CE, where the collapse of the Roman Empire had a massive effect on most of Europe. Because the Romans never crossed the Irish Sea, however, Cahill argues that Ireland can legitimately claim to have kept western civilisation running through the influence of its monasteries, which were active centers of learning. This is probably a bit of a stretch, not to mention an over-simplification, but it’s an easy and enjoyable book to read. In January, I started to read Alice Roberts’ Domination, which is specifically about Christianity and its development after the fall of Rome, but unfortunately, it turns out that, well, the Roman Empire just isn’t my Roman Empire, and I’ve yet to finish it.

Awareness - Anthony de Mello. I think I first read this when I was about 15 years old. My boyfriend at the time loved it and, when he finished it, told me that it was a really great book and that I should read it. I did, and it was indeed a great book that had a significant effect on me at an age when it was deeply beneficial. An Indian Jesuit who studied in Spain and the US, de Mello developed a distinctive practice after learning how Eastern paths, especially aspects of Buddhism, could relate to his own faith. Sometime towards the end of last year, I had a longing to read this book again and, unable to find my copy, searched on Audible. Imagine my delight in hearing a recording of the man himself speaking the words in their original setting! (A series of workshops he was running in the US went on to form the basis for this book.) It’s a relatively old recording, but the lessons land even better when spoken in de Mello’s wonderful, melodic voice. I thoroughly recommend both as bringers of much wisdom and joy, regardless of your religious affiliation or lack thereof. He has a way of bringing our shared psychological nonsense into the light of day and showing us just how ridiculous it really is. I don't know about you, but I need that in my life!

Lest this all sound too worthy, I should say that I've had a great time listening to some of my favorite series again over the last year. I live in the countryside, and our nearest village is about a 10-minute drive. Getting into Cavan town takes 20-30 minutes, depending on how many tractors you get stuck behind, and my trips to Sandyford take at least an hour and three-quarters. Thankfully, I love driving, but I'm always listening to something in the car. Usually, that's a book. My poor husband tells me I spend most of my life with headphones on when I'm not working, too, because I also listen when I'm cooking, cleaning, ironing, or whatever else! These are my suggestions for people who want series to really get stuck into, and where I've found the narration has become integral to my enjoyment of the stories.

The Rivers of London series - Ben Aaronovitch: Currently comprising 10 novels and 5 novellas, this is the Metropolitan police meeting urban fantasy with masses of London history built in so effortlessly that you hardly notice. With a genuinely wonderful cast of characters and written by a man who loves London in his bones, these books are very funny, very current, and extraordinarily sad on occasion. They're probably second on my top five list of book series. I have these in paperback and on Audible, and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is the perfect narrator for these stories.

The Charlie Parker series - John Connolly: I know I mentioned them last year, but I re-listened to all of these books in anticipation of the release of the 23rd in the series, A River Red with Blood, which I devoured when it came out in early May. Connolly's a Dublin-born writer, although these books are based primarily in Maine and its surroundings, and they're detective noir with a dollop of the supernatural. His writing is delicious, and his characters are all wonderfully nuanced - as in life, no one is ever all good or all bad.

The DC Smith series - Peter Grainger: Unlike the other two series, I've only listened to these books. I think they were originally published on Kindle and have only recently been released in paperback. In short, they delighted me. They're very English, set in a mid-sized fictional city called Kings Lake, though one book ventures to Belfast, and the narration is chef's kiss perfect. Police procedurals and detective fiction are my constant go-tos when it comes to reading, but I found these exceptionally good. There are currently 17 books in the series, which is very exciting because I didn't know the 17th had been released - I'm off to order it now!

Now we want yours!

So, I don't think it's a stretch to say there's something for almost everyone on our list this summer, but now we'd love to hear from you. Whether you're reading books by Irish or international authors, what's been your favourite over the last 12 months? Have you rediscovered old favourites, or been working on your brand new TBR pile? Either way, we'd love your recommendations. Don't be shy: pop them in the comments below, and we'll look forward to exploring them for ourselves!

Whatever else you've planned for the summer, remember that a book is always a good idea, and your local library would love to see you!