In celebration of Book Week NI: Literature Recommendations

To continue the celebration of Book Week NI, we asked two of our group leaders working within justice settings to provide their top literature recommendations.

Susan's Recommendations:

1. When I want to laugh: 'French Revolutions' by Tim Moore.
   "Bloke takes off to do the Tour de France with no cycling experience. Hilarity ensues."
2. When I need to cry: 'H is for Hawk' by Helen Macdonald.
   "Haunting memoir about grief and a wild bird of prey called Mabel. Gorgeous."
3. When I need inspiration: 'Purple Hibiscus' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
   "Her writing is just wow."
4. When I want to be transported to another world: 'Station Eleven' by Emily St John Mandel.
   "This book is hard to describe but is engrossing, weird and wonderful. I haven’t read anything like it."
5. When I’m already confused: 'Life After Life' by Kate Atkinson.
   "An intriguing tale that starts over and over again until you’ve forgotten who’s who – but in a good way."
6. When I want a reminder of Irish beauty: Anything at all by Seamus Heaney
   "A true master."
7. The book I wish I’d written: Hamnet' by Maggie O’Farrell
   "Anything by Maggie O’Farrell, she’s amazing."
8. The book I always return to: 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
   "I fell in love with this book as a teen and the language never fails to wake me up all over again. Stunning."
   

   Mandy's Recommendations:

1. When I want to laugh: 'Wyrd Sisters' by Terry Pratchett.
   "I read this over and over again as a teenager, and still love his wild imagination and the way he dances with language."
2. When I want to cry: 'Foster' by Claire Keegan.
   "She has a way of quietly breaking your heart."
3. When I want to be inspired: 'The Watch House' by Bernie McGill.
   "Gorgeous language and an intriguing story by a Northern Irish writer, woven around Marconi’s experiments with wireless telegraphy on Rathlin Island."
4. When I want to be entirely absorbed: 'Homegoing' by Yaa Gyasi.
   "The stunning, heart-breaking story of two sisters and their descendants over many generations, after one is sold into slavery and the other becomes a slave trader’s wife."
5. For the sheer variety and talent in contemporary Northern Irish writing: 'The Glass Shore' (ed. Sinead Gleeson).
   "This is a collection of stories by women writers from Northern Ireland. It includes a story by Lucy Caldwell, who’s just been announced as the winner of this year’s BBC National Short Story Award."
6. The book I wish I’d written: Anything by Kevin Barry.
   "His latest collection of short stories, 'That Old Country Music', is a work of genius, as is his most recent novel, 'Night Boat to Tangier'. The raw poetry of his language just keeps me coming back."