Did you enjoy the latest episode of RTÉ's Book Club? If you missed it, you can catch up here, via RTÉ Player.
Find out more about all the books featured in this week's episode below - there's also a link to order a copy of each book from your local library.
Episode Two - the books
Poor - Katriona O'Sullivan (2023)
Pregnant and homeless at 15, psychologist Katriona O'Sullivan chronicles her struggle to overcome abject poverty, drug addiction and trauma and end up attaining a PhD. Poor is a story about changing one’s life and the supports needed in order to do so.
Order a copy of Poor from your local library HERE.
Youth – Kevin Curran (2023)
Youth explores the lives of four teenage protagonists in Balbriggan. Princess (17), Angel (18), Dean (17) and Tanya (16) narrate their own chapters revealing their intricate relationships with each other and the town. Princess strives to escape the confines of the apartment she shares with her mother, sister and her sister's baby. She wants to bag a good education and become a pharmacist. Angel wants to crack the music game via Drill music and his nascent YouTube fame. Dean, the son of a famous boxer, longs to carve an identity for himself but is consumed by online porn. Tanya experiences the gulf between her online and real-life existence whilst coping with the infamy of a sex tape.
Order a copy of Youth from your local library HERE.
The Grass Ceiling - Emear Ryan (2023)
Camogie player and novelist Eimear Ryan explores what it is like to be female in a male-dominated sporting world. With questions of identity, status, competition, equality and self-expression, Ryan sets The Grass Ceiling at the nexus of sport and gender.
Order a copy of The Grass Ceiling from your local library HERE.
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (1996)
Fight Club follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia who finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups. He meets a mysterious man named Tyler Durden and ends up establishing an underground fighting club as radical psychotherapy.
Order a copy of Fight Club from your local library HERE.
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? – Séamas O'Reilly (2020)
Séamas O'Reilly’s mother died of breast cancer when he was five, leaving him, his ten brothers and sisters and their beloved father to manage amid the backdrop of the Troubles in 1990s Derry. He tells the story of a live lived in her absence, often to comic effect.
Order a copy of Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? from your local library HERE.
Alternatively, find a copy of the books featured at your local bookshop here.
