NON-FICTION

Fiction reviews Non-Fiction reviews Books for Younger Readers Author Interviews Books News and Features Books Home Page
UK - 2007 Edinburgh International Book Festival
Book review: Biography of a biography is an onerous read
An author using an introduction to try to justify a book’s very existence is an uninspiring start to proceedings, writes Sean Kelly  

Sun, 01 Jun, 2025

Book review: Reinterpreting the Irish Famine as a consequence of unbridled capitalism
Book review: Reinterpreting the Irish Famine as a consequence of unbridled capitalism
The central contention in 'Rot' is that Westminster’s response to the starvation was defined by its overarching commitment to the principles of the free market

Sat, 24 May, 2025

Book review: Down and out in Donegal and New York — a forgotten victim of greed
Book review: Down and out in Donegal and New York — a forgotten victim of greed
'The Many Murders of Michael Malloy' was first published in the USA over 20 years ago. It has all the ingredients of a black comedy, except for the fact that it is a true story

Sat, 17 May, 2025

General O'Duffy
Book review: A useful lesson from our past
The core message of this valuable book is that a party founded by some truly odious bigots — Fine Gael — has evolved into a modernish, socially liberal force

Sat, 17 May, 2025

Folk Musicians Playing in Washington Square Park
Book review: The New York neighbourhood that changed the music world
David Browne thoroughly examines all that happened in the artistic scene of Greenwich Village over the course of close to five decades  with a heavy focus on the tumultuous ’60s.

Fri, 16 May, 2025

Author interview: Unravelling the mysterious life of a journalism legend
Author interview: Unravelling the mysterious life of a journalism legend
EJ Dillon was one of the most prominent journalists of his time, as foreign correspondent with 'The Daily Telegraph', he was the literal embodiment of an international man of mystery

Fri, 02 May, 2025

Book review: An unflattering portrait of the artist as a selfish man
Book review: An unflattering portrait of the artist as a selfish man
Rembrandt's mistress Geertje, traditionally portrayed as a harpy, and grasping crone is stylishly rehabilitated in this solidly constructed historical novel 

Sat, 26 Apr, 2025

Book review: A forensic examination of the gutter press’s race to the bottom
Book review: A forensic examination of the gutter press’s race to the bottom
The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism is a thoroughly researched, well-crafted history of tabloid journalism from the 16th century right through to the clickbait journalism of today

Fri, 25 Apr, 2025

Book review: Revealing the dangers and thrill of polar exploration leaves a deadly chill
Book review: Revealing the dangers and thrill of polar exploration leaves a deadly chill
Erling Kagge’s book, 'The North Pole: The History Of An Obsession', captures the atmosphere of Polar exploration perfectly

Sat, 19 Apr, 2025

Book review: A musical life less ordinary
Book review: A musical life less ordinary
Keith Donald kept diaries throughout a hectic working life that began when he joined his first showband, The Federals, in the mid-1960s

Sat, 05 Apr, 2025

Book extract: ‘I am just an athlete, sitting here talking to a great man like you’
Book extract: ‘I am just an athlete, sitting here talking to a great man like you’
Jack Lynch was the first Western head of government to invite Muhammad Ali to make an official visit

Fri, 28 Mar, 2025

Backstage At Beatles Christmas Show
Book review: ‘One of the best — and sweetest — books of the year’
'A Love Story in Songs' is a real achievement. Superbly written, the author keenly respects the line between theorist and therapist, fan and journalist, and avoids any needless blurring

Fri, 28 Mar, 2025

Book review: A salacious tale of murder on the border of fact and fiction
Book review: A salacious tale of murder on the border of fact and fiction
Author Eoin McNamee says there has always been blood on the floor in his books but 'this time some of the blood is mine'

Sat, 22 Mar, 2025

Book review: Oxford professor challenges Christianity's model of a 'male and female' binary system
Book review: Oxford professor challenges Christianity's model of a 'male and female' binary system
Diarmaid MacCulloch's history of sex and Christianity touches on knotty issues such as the distinction between sex and gender, contraception and how sex has played an important role in 'promoting right-wing secular politics'

Sat, 22 Mar, 2025

Prime Minister of Canada visit to UK
Book review: The Irishman behind Labour’s return to power in Britain
Macroom man Morgan McSweeney, this fascinating book tells us, has saved Britain’s Labour Party

Fri, 21 Mar, 2025

Sir Geoffrey De Havilland
Book review: Exploring the ordinary, adventurous heroes of the golden age of aviation
The Moth, a two-seater airplane launched by Geoffrey de Havilland in 1925, was central to many of the great aviation feats and records set over the next 12 years

Sat, 15 Mar, 2025

Incineration of electronic waste on the biggest electronic scrap yard of Africa in Accra
Book review: The toxic truth behind the West’s deluded recycling myth
'Waste Wars' is a book that will make you angry because you believe that once you empty your bins and return your plastic bottle, that you have played your part in saving the world

Fri, 14 Mar, 2025

Ali Smith
Book review: Reflections on the silver screen
There are 14 essays in this slight collection, edited by Adrian Duncan, Niamh Dunphy, and Nathan O’Donnell, a welcome annual literary addition a la 'Winter Papers'

Sat, 08 Mar, 2025

Book review: The business of pop music — as much who you know as what you know
Book review: The business of pop music — as much who you know as what you know
Drawing from secondary sources only, the author does well to remind us of the importance of solid, coherent management in an industry known for its flakiness and impatience

Sat, 08 Mar, 2025

Exhibition to celebrate legacy and values of JFK
Book review: The Kennedy plot that you may not know
The JFK Conspiracy is about a little publicised assassination attempt in the weeks between the voting day, November 8, 1960, and the inauguration on January 20, 1961.

Sat, 08 Mar, 2025

"Whitey:United States Of America V. James J. Bulger" New York Premiere - Arrivals And Q & A
Book review: A literary artifact to be celebrated
Gay Talese was an inveterate chronicler of the New York city and all who sailed in her for more than half a century

Sat, 22 Feb, 2025

Book review: Remembering the GAA members killed during the Troubles
Book review: Remembering the GAA members killed during the Troubles
The 1970s were statistically the worst times of the Troubles. There were 2,096 killings between 1970 and 1979, and 68 of these were members of the GAA

Sat, 08 Feb, 2025

Book review: ‘I looked on it as an adventure, I’d never been anywhere’
Book review: ‘I looked on it as an adventure, I’d never been anywhere’
The British National Health Service carried out a targeted recruitment process throughout Ireland for nurses which began in the 1940s

Fri, 07 Feb, 2025

Book review: Killing of a black boy whitewashed
Book review: Killing of a black boy whitewashed
'The Barn' is a glimpse of a nation’s troubled past that offers insight in to the tortured present, and makes you worry about the bleak future

Sat, 25 Jan, 2025

Book review: A portrait of a man of great lusts and many contradictions
Book review: A portrait of a man of great lusts and many contradictions
Adrian Frazier’s biography is overly earnest and not always well written but it’s a reservoir of information about the John Montague’s long and eventful life

Fri, 24 Jan, 2025

Book review: Neutral account of Spanish Armada delivered with flow of good storyteller
Book review: Neutral account of Spanish Armada delivered with flow of good storyteller
Michael B Barry reminds us that there was more than a hint of good fortune about how the events of the Spanish Armada unfolded in favour of the English

Sat, 18 Jan, 2025

Book review: Tayto’s history is more than a matter of taste
Book review: Tayto’s history is more than a matter of taste
Bobby Aherne’s affectionate, eye-opening 'The Story of Tayto' charts the vibrant history of one of Ireland's hallowed institutions

Sat, 18 Jan, 2025

Book review: Giving recognition to IRA leader and politician Moylan
Book review: Giving recognition to IRA leader and politician Moylan
Eamonn Duggan has delivered an excellent synopsis of Sean Moylan’s life, especially of the active years of 1918 to 1923

Fri, 17 Jan, 2025

Ronald Blythe
Book review: Centenarian Blythe lived a colourful life with rural values at its heart
Author Ian Collins takes a leisurely approach in this beautifully produced book; chapters are short — often only five or six pages, and tightly focused

Sat, 11 Jan, 2025

Book review: Keeping tabs on propaganda
Book review: Keeping tabs on propaganda
Claud Cockburn built his reputation by encouraging readers to be far less trusting of the official version of their reality

Sat, 11 Jan, 2025

Temple of Dendur, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA
Book review: A taste will leave you wanting more
Nate DiMeo has pieced together a fine collection of historical exotica on air and between the covers of 'The Memory Palace'

Sat, 04 Jan, 2025

Book review: Ambitious but uncertain volume lacks insight into a significant talent
Book review: Ambitious but uncertain volume lacks insight into a significant talent
While 'A Life in Music' is a fine reference book, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin’s work deserves more than mere hagiography

Sat, 04 Jan, 2025

Bust Of Mangan
Famine, music, language: 2024 choices show plenty of variety
Diarmuid O’Donovan shares his top reads of the year

Sun, 15 Dec, 2024

Book review: Cyclical tragedies foisted on stressed communities by gangs of men
Book review: Cyclical tragedies foisted on stressed communities by gangs of men
'Web of Betrayal's power comes from bringing myriad strands of Ireland’s underworld together

Sat, 07 Dec, 2024

Book review: Breaking the news: The sordid and legendary days of the ‘New York Post’
Book review: Breaking the news: The sordid and legendary days of the ‘New York Post’
'Paper of Wreckage' is an entertaining, fast-paced, and hilarious read — like the 'New York Post' in its heyday

Sat, 30 Nov, 2024

Book extract: A freezing cold splash to clear the mind and forge new bonds
Book extract: A freezing cold splash to clear the mind and forge new bonds
What started off as a meet up for a swim in the sea went on to help men cope with their mental health and their life struggles

Fri, 29 Nov, 2024

Donald Trump Angela Merkel
Regrets, feminism, and Trump’s ‘fascination’ with Putin: key takeaways from Merkel’s memoir 
The former German chancellor’s book Freedom gives insights on Brexit and her East German upbringing

Tue, 26 Nov, 2024

Book review: Rainbow coalition did much to shape modern Ireland
Book review: Rainbow coalition did much to shape modern Ireland
That government’s press secretary, Shane Kenny, has produced an enthralling account of the intensity of being inside the rainbow

Sat, 23 Nov, 2024

Book review: Creedon’s childhood set him up well to become Ireland’s most charming man
Book review: Creedon’s childhood set him up well to become Ireland’s most charming man
'This Boy's Heart' is so filled with joy, happiness, and almost relentless wonder that a reader will inevitably wonder if John Creedon wore rose-tinted glasses as he wrote

Sat, 16 Nov, 2024

Book review: Optimism ultimately crushed by the weight of trying to get things done
Book review: Optimism ultimately crushed by the weight of trying to get things done
There are light-hearted moments in 'Running From Office' but the overwhelming emotion deriving from this book is one of dejection

Fri, 15 Nov, 2024

"Amazing Grace" Press Conference - 69th Berlinale International Film Festival
Book review: Finding the right tune to chronicle music history in modern society
Weighing in at over 800 pages and forensically researched, 'And the Roots of Rhythm Remain' is an imposing history of music in modern global society

Sat, 09 Nov, 2024

Book review: Exuding a warmth for natural world
Book review: Exuding a warmth for natural world
This book manages to balance an individual’s relentless curiosity while highlighting our increasingly destructive and suicidal relationship with nature

Sat, 09 Nov, 2024

Book review: The grass really is greener — one man’s tribute to a native Irish rainforest
Book review: The grass really is greener — one man’s tribute to a native Irish rainforest
An easy read, divided into six sections: water, light, space, time, connection, and rebirth

Sun, 03 Nov, 2024

Pitchfork Music Festival - Day 2
Book review: Exploring the mythology of MF Doom
With Doom, the mythology seems as important as the music

Sun, 03 Nov, 2024

Book review: Despair and confusion in confinement
Book review: Despair and confusion in confinement
'You Will Die In Prison' is Bernard Phelan’s gripping, unvarnished account of his 222 days as a state hostage in Iran

Sat, 26 Oct, 2024

Rachel Maddow Visits "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"
Book review: Maddow reminds US that those who don’t learn from the past, repeat it
The American public were largely kept in the dark about the domestic threat to democracy during the 1930s and ’40s

Sat, 26 Oct, 2024

Poetry review: Paul Durcan at his poetic crescendo
Poetry review: Paul Durcan at his poetic crescendo
Durcan has helped to change our perception of what a poem ought to be. He’s a poet who makes it his business to chip away at the edifice of his own craft

Sat, 26 Oct, 2024

Book review: Ireland’s many changes to the modern age
Book review: Ireland’s many changes to the modern age
Diarmaid Ferriter's latest book spans a 25-year period when Ireland was transformed, not just economically, but socially and politically as well

Sat, 12 Oct, 2024

Poetry review: Worthy journey despite crashes
Poetry review: Worthy journey despite crashes
Right across this collection McLoghlin reveals himself to be a master conductor of our emotions, keeping us by turns heartbroken, enraged, entranced

Sat, 12 Oct, 2024

Book review: True tales of the great escapes
Book review: True tales of the great escapes
'Jailbreak' is a book of great stories of defiance of authority and dedication to escaping

Sat, 05 Oct, 2024

Latest

Cookie Policy Privacy Policy Brand Safety FAQ Help Contact Us Terms and Conditions

© Examiner Echo Group Limited