Maggie o’farrell

My final books for #readingirelandmonth20

The summer is slipping away from me and although I’m reading LOADS, my reviewing has stalled. I have been very busy in work trying to get everything in place for leaving my current job, and this has left me incapable of doing much in the evenings bar drinking some wine and watching some telly.…

20 Books of Summer is back! Who’s in?

Oh I’m a glutton for punishment…. The temperature is rising (slightly), the kids will be getting out of school soon and I’ve done my Great Wardrobe Changeover (I’m not the only one who does that, am I?) so it must be nearly summer time, which means another attempt at completing my 20 Books of Summer…

No 681 The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell

Secrets and the fallacy of being able to keep them hidden seem to be a hallmark of Maggie O’Farrell’s fiction. This is the third of her novels that I have read and in each, her characters are trying to deal with the hidden secrets and concealed truths of their pasts that ripple through generations. In…

Ireland Month – it’s nearly here!

It’s hard to believe it, but March is nearly here and that can only mean one thing, it’s time for some craic! As of next Sunday, it will be Reading Ireland Month (or The Begorrathon, if you are so inclined!) and we will kick off a month long celebration of Irish books and culture. I’ve…

Reading Roulette – pick one of my reads for Ireland Month!

Reading Roulette is back for another month, but with a twist! As I will be asking you to vote for a book that I’ll read in March and as March is Reading Ireland Month, all of this months choices are by Irish authors. This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann I’m a big fan of…

Happy New Year!

2014 has been a wonderful blogging year for me, finding my feet, finding my voice and unexpectedly finding a new audience and new online friends! I read more books than I planned to and stuck to my promise not to buy anything new. Amazing! I know 54 books out of 746 isn’t a great dent,…

No 710 The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

Last year we went to a holiday house in Donegal. There, on the shelves, I found a copy of Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture, about an unconventional woman wrongly put into an institution which is about to close, harbouring secrets of the past that will ultimately change the lives of all involved. It was a…