Holiday Gift Guide: Friends
I will tell anyone who will listen that I have the best friends in the world. They are truly my family, and I love giving them great book recommendations. It was giving my friends recommendations that first planted the seed for Seaside Books. Here are my recommendations that you might find helpful when you are shopping for your friends this year. And if you still can’t decide, a Gift Card is always a safe bet. You can pick up a Seaside Books Gift Card here.
Crowd Pleasers
If you are stuck on what to buy for someone who you know likes to read, both of these recommendations are perfect. Both have beautiful writing and compelling storytelling. These would also be great for casual readers.
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
I will probably end up saying this about a thousand times in this post, but this is one of my favourite books of the year and is one of my favourites of all time. It’s a beautiful mix of memoir and nonfiction with gorgeous, poetic writing. I think anyone would enjoy this book. It gives a totally unique reading experience, and it’s truly original. In this stunningly unusual prose debut, Doireann Ni Ghriofa sculpts essay and autofiction to explore inner life and the deep connection felt between two writers centuries apart. In the 1700s, an Irish noblewoman, on discovering her husband has been murdered, drinks handfuls of his blood and composes an extraordinary poem.
In the present day, a young mother narrowly avoids tragedy. On encountering the poem, she becomes obsessed with its parallels with her own life, and sets out to track down the rest of the story. A devastating and timeless tale about one woman freeing her voice by reaching into the past and finding another's. This was another book club favourite.
Comrades: A Lifetime of Friendships by Rosita Boland
A book all about friendship would make a great gift for a close friend. In this stunning essay collection, award-winning journalist Rosita Boland explores the many friendships that have shaped her life. Surprising and beautiful, she writes about the imaginary friends of early childhood, books that have provided companionship and joy, kindred spirits met while travelling, the friend she hoped might become something more, and also the friendships that become lost over time. Life-affirming, affecting and wise, Comrades is a powerful exploration of what it is to live, to connect, and to be human in this world.
For the Sally Rooney Fan
We all know someone who is a big fan of Sally Rooney. She is one of the most popular writers of our time. I love Normal People and really enjoyed Conversations With Friends. If you are shopping for a Sally Rooney fan, I think they might really enjoy these picks.
Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin
Set between the 1990s and the present day, from a farmhouse in Carlow to Trinity College, Dublin, Dinner Party is a dark, sharply observed debut that thrillingly unravels into family secrets and tragedy. As the past catches up with the present, Kate learns why, despite everything, we can't help returning home.
Kate has taught herself to be careful, to be meticulous. To mark the anniversary of a death in the family, she plans a dinner party - from the fancy table settings to the perfect Baked Alaska waiting in the freezer. Yet by the end of the night, old tensions have flared, the guests have fled, and Kate is spinning out of control. But all we have is ourselves, her father once said, all we have is family.
Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O’Donoghue
After a tough few years floundering around the British film industry, experimenting with amateur pornography, and watching her father's health rapidly decline, Charlie and her best friend Laura journey to her ancestral home of Clipim, an island off the west coast of Ireland.
She knows this could be the last chance to connect with her dad's history before she loses him. But when the girls arrive, Charlie begins to question both her difficult relationship with Laura and her father's childhood stories. Before long, she's embroiled in a devastating conspiracy that's been sixty years in the making. We wrote a blog review on this book a few weeks ago. You can read that here.
For the History Lover
Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of historical fiction, but I’ve been trying to expand my reading world this year. Both of these books take historical figures and tell their stories in ways that are accessible and compelling. I think any history lover would enjoy these.
I, Antigone by Carlo Gebler
Set in the seventh century BC, I, ANTIGONE purports to be Antigone’s biography of her father, Oedipus, as she attempts to set the record straight on his life and death and restore his reputation. As someone who doesn’t know much about Greek myth, I found the writing in this book accessible and didn’t require additional knowledge to get really engaged in the story.
With this astonishing version of Oedipus' famous demise, Gébler dismantles the polarisation and absolutism of our time. By tracing the histories of Oedipus and his parents Laius and Jocasta, as well as the peripheral characters of the plays who had a central role in him fulfilling his destiny, Antigone’s ‘biography’ causes us to re-evaluate the extent to which any of us can be entirely blamed for the actions by which we will be defined.
The book ultimately meditates on the illusion of free will, and the warning that context is everything, I, Antigone will be a major contribution to the reclaimed classics.
Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce by Nuala O'Connor
When Nora Barnacle, a twenty-year-old from Galway working as a maid at Finn’s Hotel, meets young James Joyce on a summer’s day in Dublin. She is instantly attracted to him, natural and daring in his company. But she cannot yet imagine the extraordinary life they will share together. All Nora knows is she likes her Jim enough to leave behind family and home, in search of a bigger, more exciting life.
As their family grows, they ricochet from European city to city, making fast friends amongst the greatest artists and writers of their age as well as their wives, and are brought high and low by Jim’s ferocious ambition. But time and time again, Nora is torn between their intense and unwavering desire for each other and the constant anxiety of living hand-to-mouth, often made worse by Jim’s compulsion for company and attention. So, while Jim writes and drinks his way to literary acclaim, Nora provides unflinching support and inspiration, sometimes at the expense of her own happiness, and especially at that of their children, Giorgio and Lucia. Eventually, together, they achieve some longed-for security and stability, but it is hard-won and imperfect to the end.
This book was a favourite of the book club this year!
For the One Too Busy to Read
Running a business and being back in school has really cut into my reading time. When I’m feeling too busy to sink into a book, I turn to short stories or essay collections. I can usually read a short story on my commute or before bed, and I don’t have to worry about remembering lots of details and characters. If you know someone who has too much going on to read, these picks can give your friend a chance to enjoy a book without cutting into their busy lives.
I Want to Know That I Will Be Okay by Dierdre Sullivan
In this dark, glittering collection of short stories, Deirdre Sullivan explores the trauma and power that reside in women’s bodies. This collection is a little spooky at times, but overall, it was one of my favourite reads of the year. With empathy and invention, Sullivan effortlessly blends genres in stories that are by turns strange and exquisite. Already established as an award-winning writer for children and young adults, I Want to Know That I Will Be Okay marks her arrival as a captivating new voice in literary fiction.
A teenage girl tries to fit in at a party held in a haunted house, with unexpected and disastrous consequences. A mother and daughter run a thriving online business selling antique dolls, while their customers get more than they bargained for. And after a stillbirth, a young woman discovers that there is something bizarre and wondrous growing inside of her. These stories stuck with me long after finishing the book. You can find out more of our thoughts here.
Corpsing: My Body and Other Horror Shows by Sophie White
In this vivid and ambitious essay collection, Sophie White is a uniquely articulate witness to the horrors of grief, addiction, mental illness, and the casual and sometimes hilarious cruelty of life. The writing in this collection is humorous and vulnerable. I found myself relating so much to the discussions of grief and mental health. We did a review of this book on the blog a while back. You can find out more of our thoughts here.
For the Fiction Reader
One of my goals for Seaside Books is to find unique stories coming from Irish authors and publishers. As someone who loves reading stories, I know how overwhelming it can be to walk into a bookshop and try to pick something from a thousand different options. That is why I decided to read everything we stock. These picks are great stories that your fiction-loving friend might not have heard about.
Wunderland by Caitriona Lally
Exiled from Ireland under dubious circumstances, Roy now works as a cleaner at the Wunderland miniature exhibition in Hamburg. Struggling to connect with those around him, he commits secret acts of violence against the tiny scenes and figurines on display. Then, to Roy’s palpable annoyance, his sister Gert visits, determined to uncover what really prompted his sudden move abroad and carrying a threadbare hope that she might finally figure him out. But Gert is fighting her own demons, having checked out of her exhausting family life where she is fading amidst her husband’s deepening depression. All the while, unbeknownst to her, Roy is planning something huge in this miniature world, a statement, an act of great destruction that might just be the best thing that ever happens to them.
Atmospheric, humorous, and ultimately uplifting, Wunderland is a brilliantly wrought dual character study that sensitively wrestles family and mental health, identity, and the erasure of self.
The Beauty of Impossible Things by Rachel Donohue
The summer Natasha Rothwell turns fifteen, strange dancing lights appear in the sky above her small town, lights that she interprets as portents of doom.
Natasha leads a sheltered life with her beautiful, bohemian mother in a crumbling house by the sea. As news of the lights spreads, more and more visitors arrive in the town, creating a feverish atmosphere of anticipation and dread. And the arrival of a new lodger, the handsome Mr. Bowen, threatens to upset the delicate equilibrium between mother and daughter.
Then Natasha's fears seem to be realized when a local teenager goes missing, and she is called on to help.
But her actions over that long, hot summer will have unforeseen and ultimately tragic consequences that will cast a shadow for many years to come...
For the Nonfiction Reader
There was a lot of amazing nonfiction released this year. These recommendations are two that I learned so much from. The nonfiction readers on your list will love the way these authors make challenging topics accessible.
Unsettled by Rosaleen McDonagh
This is another one of my favorite books of the year. Rosaleen McDonagh writes fearlessly about a diverse experience of being Irish, a disabled person, and a woman. Unsettled explores racism, abuse, ableism, and resistance, as well as the bonds of community, family and friends. As an Irish Traveller writing from a feminist perspective, McDonagh’s essays are rich and complex, raw and honest, and above all, uncompromising.
These essays may make some readers uncomfortable as they will have to confront the prejudice and stereotypes many of us don't recognize in ourselves – and they may bring a sense of vindication to others as they may see their experience articulated, possibly for the first time. I wrote a blog review about this book earlier this year. You can read that here.
The Visibility Trap: Sexism, Surveillance, and Social Media by Mary McGill
Social media is a new type of public space that has revolutionized the way women express themselves, placing the power of representation in female hands like no technology before. But this increased visibility looks both ways, with the gazed upon also gazing back through platforms designed for judgment and surveillance.
A man-made tool, social media is now deeply entwined with women’s lives in an always-on culture where new and intrusive forms of comparison, shaming, and watchfulness are completely normalized and women’s bodies, minds, and emotions are picked apart. While many are acutely aware of this ‘visibility trap’, taking ownership of it remains a minefield.
In The Visibility Trap, Mary McGill blends feminism, media studies, and lived experiences to explore the contradictions and dangers of online visibility for women, asking how we can build better, safer digital spaces for all. From current research to real-life testimonies, via the Kardashian Industrial Complex (KIC) to image-based sexual abuse — ‘revenge porn’ — and its belated criminalization, she offers urgent and welcome insights into using social media more consciously, powerfully, and positively. This is a must-read for anyone who loves or hates social media; for the guardians of future social media users and for anyone else who is still half-on, half-off this most twenty-first century of obsessions.