So, around the time I published my most recent blog about Irish authors, I put out an APB to the members of my book group and asked them to list some of their favorite books/authors. I wanted to get my blog out as soon as possible, so published. Soon, though, the answers from the group started trickling in. Some of the books they recommend are repeats of mine (so will not include again), including The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan and This is Happiness, by Niall Williams. Others are by authors I don’t know, and still others are by authors I’ve read somewhere along the way but for some reason didn’t return to. As they so kindly took the time, I am going to give you their books as well. I am unable to guide you on most of these suggestions, so you may want to take them out of the library first.
In addition, after I published my blog, my niece the marketed guru suggested that I supply links to purchase the books and/or the authors. Great idea, right? Why didn’t I think of that? So I learned how to create links on WordPress, and you will find if you open my blog again, the links are there in blue. I will also link to the books below. I am linking to an independent bookstore when I possibly can, to bolster their sales. Jeff Bezos doesn’t need the money from my paltry suggestions. Some books I have to link to Amazon, and obviously if you have a Kindle, you’ll need to go that route, too.
Finally, I wanted to leave you this time with an image of the blackberries ripening. In the poem Seamus Heaney wrote, which I quoted at the end of my blog, he says, “At first, just one, a glossy purple clot/among others, red, green, hard as a knot.” Here is an image of just that. On that particular walk, I picked enough blackberries to keep me occupied. Soon, there will be a riot of rich black globes and I will eat and eat to my heart’s content. I do love September for this. What a great gift!
MY BOOK GROUP SUGGESTIONS
Emma Donoghue – Room (an astonishing, difficult read), Akin, The Pull of the Stars (among others)
John Boyne – The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky, by the author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Liz Nugent – Unraveling Oliver
Louise O’Neill – Asking for It
Maeve Binchy – She’s written a boatload of books, but particularly mentioned are Tara Road, Evening Class.
Anne Griffin – When All is Said
David Park – Traveling in a Strange Land
Maggie O’Farrell (who hails from Northern Ireland) – The Hand that First Held Mine
John McGahern – That They May Face the Rising Sun
Patrick McCabe – The Butcher Boy
William Trevor – Fools of Fortune, The Story of Lucy Gault
Jo Spain – The Perfect Lie