Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids, by Scott Hershovitz. Allen Lane
Scott Hershovitz believes kids are natural-born philosophers. With their inquisitive minds, free of cynicism and prejudice, they see the world as it is. Through conversations with his two young sons, Hershovitz takes us on a far-ranging tour of philosophical ways of thinking, from antiquity to the modern day.
The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit, by Ron Shelton. Knopf Publishing Group
Regular listeners to The Second Captains podcast will be familiar with Ron Shelton after an excellent recent interview, but even if you’ve never heard of him before, the drawn-out title of this books tells you exactly what to expect. If you have even a passing interest in sports or Hollywood films, this is a highly entertaining read, filled with great anecdotes and Hollywood insights.
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Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis, by Annie Proulx. Fourth Estate
In a book that will be of particular interest to Irish readers, American novelist Annie Proulx presents an exquisite and lyrical condemnation of our disconnection from (and destruction of) nature. Both an eye-opening history of overlooked wetlands and a passionate argument for their protection and conservation.
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding, by Eoghan Daltun. Hachette Books Ireland
Moving out west with his family in 2009, Eoghan Daltun had a vision to rewild a 73-acre farm he bought on the Beara peninsula. His journey is a fascinating one, and makes a nice companion-piece to Fen, Bog & Swamp. Read our review
Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks, by Patrick Radden Keefe. Doubleday Books
Patrick Redden Keefe follows up Empire of Pain, his superb history of the Sackler family and their role in the opioid crises, with 12 long-form essays originally published in the New Yorker. Each globetrotting story follows a rogue of some description (some good, some bad) – those people on the fringes of society, from arms dealers to wine forgers. Utterly compelling. Read our review
The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach, by Sarah Stodola. Ecco
If you’ve ever sat on the beach in the sun you’ve probably thought about how beautiful the water looks as the light sparkles off the waves, or how pleasant the warm air feels on your skin. You most likely have not thought about the stranglehold that beach has over the local economy, or the difficulties in preserving the beach as sea levels continue to rise. These and many other issues are explored in The Last Resort, a fascinating look at the history and future of beach culture.
How Civil Wars Start, by Barbara F. Walter. Viking
If you’ve been following US current affairs over the past few years, and thought with grim fascination that it wouldn’t take much of a spark for the country to explode into full-blown civil war, you’re not alone. Barbara F. Walter, a leading political scientist who has spent her life studying civil wars around the world, describes how both autocracies and healthy democracies are largely immune from civil war; it’s the countries in-between you have to worry about. Countries like the United States.
Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War, by Deborah Cohen. Penguin Random House
There’s something undeniably alluring about tales of wartime reporting, and the tales don’t get much better than this. Follow a close-knit group of American reporters who travelled the world in the 1920s interviewing everyone from Hitler and Mussolini, to Nehru and Ghandi.
Bessborough: Three Women. Three Decades. Three Stories of Courage, by Deirdre Finnerty. Hachette Books Ireland
The story of three women, Joan McDermott, Terri Harrison and Deirdre Wadding, and their experiences over three decades in one of Ireland’s largest mother and baby institutions, Bessborough will break many a heart. Deirdre Finnerty tells the three stories with compassion, empathy and precision, resulting in an emotionally devastating, vital book. Read our review
A Woman’s Battles and Transformations, by Édouard Louis (Translated by Tash Aw). Harvill Secker.
Organising papers one day, Édouard Louis came upon a photo of his mother he had never seen before. It was taken in her early 20s, before he was born. He marvels at how happy and carefree she looks – so different from the angry, abusive woman he remembers as a child. This truly beautiful, redemptive memoir is an “archaeology of the destruction of that happiness”.
Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK, by Simon Kuper. Profile Books
It’s all about who you know, isn’t it? Eleven of the last fifteen British prime ministers went to Oxford; the institution hoovers up ambitious public-school students and spits them out the other end, ready to rule the country. In his highly entertaining, and often infuriating examination of the clique of Oxford Tories that gave us Brexit, Simon Kuper argues for an end to this conveyor belt of fundamentally unserious people in very serious positions of power.
Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit De Waal. Tinder Press
In Kit De Waal’s vivid, richly observed memoir, she recounts her working-class upbringing as one of five children growing up with an Irish mother and Caribbean father in 1960s Birmingham. Through the hardships she captures moments of genuine sweetness. Read our review
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, by Katherine Rundell. Faber & Faber
You might only know John Donne as a poet, but after reading Katherine Rundell’s superior biography you’ll marvel at how more of his incredible life isn’t common knowledge. He was man of contradiction who wore many hats: law scholar, sea-adventurer who fought alongside Sir Walter Raleigh at Cadiz and the Azores, an elected MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, and of course, genius love poet.
Cuba: An American History, by Ada Ferrer. Scribner
Is there anything better than sitting down with a crisp new single-volume history of a faraway country you hope to someday visit? Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for History, Cuba: An American History spans five centuries of the island’s history, with a particular and purposeful focus on its relationship with the United States.
The Last Colony: A Tale of Race, Exile and Justice from Chagos to The Hague, by Philippe Sands. Weidenfeld
In his extraordinary 2016 memoir, East West Street, Philippe Sands deftly dovetailed his own family history with the Nuremberg Trials and the formation of human rights law. His latest describes a case he’s actively involved in, namely Mauritius fighting for the return of Chagos, Britain’s last colony in Africa. It’s a fascinating story which shows the personal and ongoing toll of colonial rule. Read our review
The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st century, by Jamie Susskind. Bloomsbury
The internet was supposed to be the “great leveller”, a tool for democratising the spread of ideas and giving everyone a voice. But we embraced it with no forethought, and now large swathes of the online space are little more than cesspits of hate, racism and disinformation. In The Digital Republic, Susskind argues this lack of forethought, coupled with the failure to govern technology properly, has led us to a very dangerous fork in the road. Read our review
Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich 1945-1955, by Harald Jähner (Translated by Shaun Whiteside). WH Allen
The devastation and chaos that consumed Germany at the end of the second World War is difficult to fathom. Entire cities were reduced to rubble. More than half the remaining population were displaced. How could society ever recover from such carnage? This is the question Harald Jähner sets out to answer in this magisterial history. Read our review
Pacemaker, by David Toms. Banshee Press
A memoir about living with a lifelong heart condition, Pacemaker is both a beautiful meditation on our relationship with our own bodies and an insight into the destruction Covid can wreak on the vulnerable. A slim book filled with sparse prose and beautiful imagery, it lingers long in the memory. Read our review
The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World, by Malcolm Gaskill. Allen Lane
One of last year’s best books, only recently released in paperback, The Ruin of All Witches is history writing at its finest. Meticulously researched, and filled with atmospheric, lyrical touches, it brings to brilliant light a chilling moment in the life of a small 17th-century frontier town in Massachusetts.
Regenesis, by George Monbiot. Allen Lane
There are a few gargantuan, painful truths that we, as a species, find difficult to process. One is we are, without a shadow of scientific doubt, destroying the planet. Another is that almost one billion people go hungry every day. Regenesis puts forth a compelling argument against outdated farming practices and in favour of models of food production that will benefit both the planet and its poorest inhabitants. Read our review
