FICTION: Room Little Darker, By June Caldwell , New Island Books, €11.95
HISTORY/ECONOMICS: The Retreat of Western Liberalism, By Edward Luce, Little, Brown, €19
Biography: Believe Me – A Memoir Of Love, Death And Jazz Chickens: By Eddie Izzard, Michael Joseph, €20
Medicine: Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery, By Henry Marsh, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, €23
Essays: The Boy Behind The Curtain, By Tim Winton, Picador, €23
On the advent of the 20th anniversary of the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Aileen Hickie celebrates the spellbinding series by JK Rowling
For his book Al Brittania, My Country, the journalist took a journey through Muslim Britain. What results is an absorbing, timely read that explores cultural commonalities and differences
FICTION: The Idiot, By Elif Batuman, Vintage, €14.95
Current Affairs: Faster, Higher, Farther: The Volkswagen Scandal, By Jack Ewing, WW Norton & Co, €17.25
Fiction: Joyride to Jupiter, By Nuala O’Connor, New Island, €11.50
As Joycean aficionados don their straw boaters, round spectacles and Victorian outfits for Bloomsday this Friday, a new book authored by the eminent judge Adrian Hardiman shortly before his death explains the links between Joyce’s literature and the law
Cutesy, sentimental, poorly structured, unconvincing and desperately eager to please
It takes some beating as an outlandish tale, but those hoping for catharsis or answers may be left wanting
Strout proves herself an adept chronicler of the everyday miseries that sometimes add up to a life not so badly lived
