Non Fiction

  • Braiding Sweetgrass

    Braiding Sweetgrass

    13.95

    As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.

    In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings – asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass – offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.

    For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

  • The Dynasty

    The Dynasty

    18.50

    Description
    From the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Tiger Woods comes the definitive inside story of the New England Patriots-the greatest sports dynasty of the 21st century. It’s easy to forget that the New England Patriots were once the laughingstock of the NFL, a nearly bankrupt team that had never won a championship and was on the brink of moving to St. Louis.

    Everything changed in 1994, when Robert Kraft acquired the franchise and soon brought on board head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Since then, the Patriots have become a juggernaut, making ten trips to the Super Bowl, winning six of them, and emerging as one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world. Today, the team’s twenty-year reign atop the NFL stands as the longest in league history.

  • A Promised Land

    A Promised Land

    24.95

    Description :
    A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making-from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy. In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency-a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S.

  • Winging It

    Winging It

    20.95
    Description
    In nearly three decades as a performer, Tommy Tiernan has never wanted to play it safe. So, when it came to doing a chat show, he threw out the rule book: going in blind, not knowing who would turn up. It could be a global star, like Adam Clayton, or a statesman like Michael D Higgins, or someone unknown to Tommy (and most of his audience), like autism awareness activist, Ciara-Beth Ni Ghriofa or geneticist Aoife McLysaght.

    It’s high-wire stuff and makes for electrifying viewing. Winging It brings together twenty-one extraordinary interviews from The Tommy Tiernan Show on RTE One – a mix of the profound, the profane, the funny and the moving. Tommy’s belief in honest conversation is at the heart of Winging It.

  • Manopause

    Manopause

    16.95

    Description
    Having just turned 40, Bernard O’Shea found himself hurtling towards a mid-life crisis. His waistline expanded, his flexibility abandoned him, his wardrobe was invaded by elasticated beige trousers and sandals – could this be the male menopause?In his hilarious and often alarmingly honest style, Bernard documents his journey, first fighting the menopause tooth and nail – buying into every fad diet and hair-growth pill, even returning to Mass to find faith – before recruiting the help of a therapist, some experts in mindfulness, and, as always, the support of his long-suffering wife. Can Bernard navigate the manopause to come out the other side with his dignity intact? He’s about to find out …

  • Word Perfect

    Word Perfect

    16.95

    Description
    ‘Susie Dent is a one-off. She breathes life and fun into words and language’ Pam Ayres’Susie Dent is a national treasure’ Richard OsmanWelcome to a year of wonder with Susie Dent, lexicographer, logophile, and longtime queen of Countdown’s Dictionary Corner. From the real Jack the Lad to the theatrically literal story behind stealing someone’s thunder, from tartle (forgetting someone’s name at the very moment you need it) to snaccident (the unintentional eating of an entire packet of biscuits), WORD PERFECT is a brilliant linguistic almanac full of unforgettable stories, fascinating facts, and surprising etymologies tied to every day of the year.

    You’ll never be lost for words again.

  • Greenlights

    Greenlights

    17.50
    Description
    From the Academy Award (R)-winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction. I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud.

    How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun.

    How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man.

    How to have meaning in life. How to be more me. Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries.

  • The Monk

    The Monk

    8.00
    Description
    On the streets of the tough Dublin inner-city neighbourhood where he grew up, Gerry Hutch was perceived as an ordinary decent criminal, a quintessential Robin Hood figure who fought the law – and won. To the rest of the world he was an elusive criminal godfather called the Monk: an enigmatic criminal mastermind and the hunted leader of one side in the deadliest gangland feud in Irish criminal history. The latest book from Ireland’s leading crime writer Paul Williams reveals the inside story of Hutch’s war with former allies the Kinahan cartel, and how the once untouchable crime boss became a fugitive on the run from the law and the mob – with a ?1 million bounty on his head.

    The Monk is an enthralling account of the rise and fall of a modern-day gangster, charting the violent journey of an impoverished kid from the ghetto to the top tier of gangland – until it all went wrong.

  • Big Sister Little Sister Red Sister

    Big Sister Little Sister Red Sister

    12.50
    Description
    *LONGLISTED FOR THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN 2020*Meet the three women who helped shape the course of modern Chinese history; a gripping story of sisterhood and betrayal from the bestselling author of Wild Swans. They were the most famous sisters in China. As the country battled seismic transformations these three women left an indelible mark on history.

    Red Sister rose to be Mao’s vice-chair. Little Sister became first lady of pre-Communist Nationalist China. Big Sister made herself one of country’s richest women.

    Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister takes us on a sweeping journey from exiles’ quarters in Japan and Berlin to secret meeting rooms in Moscow, and from the compounds of the Communist elite in Beijing to the corridors of power in democratic Taiwan. By turns intimate and epic, Jung Chang reveals the lives of three extraordinary women who helped shape twentieth-century China.

  • Standing In Gaps

    Standing In Gaps

    20.00

    ‘Standing in Gaps’ Seamus O’Rourke – A Memoir

    From far away Leitrim looks small and our lives insignificant. Not enough there to fill out the pages of a fairly thick book. Well come closer, and I’ll show you. And remember … it’s not a memory test. Who cares what I can remember. I just want to tell about the misery and the fun we had. It was all around me. In the fields and the houses. In the people and the time. This was my time. And what a time it was, if you had nothing better to be at.

    ‘The comedy and calamity of growing up in Leitrim’

    Seamus O’Rourke is an award-winning writer, director and actor from County Leitrim. He tours Ireland regularly with his own self-penned shows. Seamus has over two million hits on YouTube and Social Media with his collection of short stories, recitations and sketches.

     

  • Constellations

    Constellations

    13.50
    Description
    *Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2020**Winner of non-fiction book of the year at the Irish Book Awards*’Utterly magnificent. Raw, thought-provoking and galvanising; this is a book every woman should read.’ -Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing. I have come to think of all the metal in my body as artificial stars, glistening beneath the skin, a constellation of old and new metal.
  • What is Beautiful in the Sky

    What is Beautiful in the Sky

    7.50
    Description
    ‘In these strange days Michael Harding’s route taking and wise words gently nudge us towards the future, steadying us as we navigate the great unknowns ahead’ Joe Duffy It’s dawn and in the early morning light, Michael Harding is walking in his garden in the hills above Lough Allen in Leitrim, dreaming of the new beginning in Donegal he had planned before the world changed in the early months of 2020. Here, in his stunning and intimate new book, we travel with Michael through this day as he looks back at a life lived within, and as part of, the Irish landscape. In doing so, he vividly brings to life what is at the heart of Irish identity: storytelling, love and human connection.
  • Ok, Let's Do Your Stupid Idea

    Ok, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea

    12.95

    ‘Funny, smart, soulful and sometimes devastating … It made me laugh and cry’ EMILIE PINE, author of Notes to Self’Hilariously, painfully, Freynefully brilliant’ JOSEPH O’CONNORPatrick Freyne has tried a lot of stupid ideas in his life. Now, in his scintillating debut, he is here to tell you about them: like the time (aged 5) he opened a gate and let a horse out of its field, just to see what would happen; or the time (aged 19) he jumped out of a plane for charity, even though he didn’t much care about the charity and was sure he’d end up dead; or the time (aged old enough to know better) he used a magazine as a funnel for fuel when the petrol cap on his band’s van broke.

  • Overcoming A Memoir

    Overcoming A Memoir

    10.95
    Description
    Sunday Times Memoir of the Year 2019An Post Irish Book of the Year 2019When Vicky Phelan delivered an emotionally charged statement from the steps of the Four Courts in April 2018 – having refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the settlement of her action against the HSE – she unearthed the medical and political scandal of our times. It would emerge that, like Vicky, 220 other women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer were not informed that a clinical audit -carried out by the national screen programme CervicalCheck – had revised their earlier, negative smear tests. Their cancers could possibly have been preventable.

    Since then, Vicky has become women’s voice for justice on the issue, and her system-changing activism has made her a household name. In her memoir Overcoming, Vicky shares her remarkable personal story, from a life-threatening accident in early adulthood through to motherhood, a battle with depression, her devastating later discovery that her cancer had returned in shocking circumstances – and the ensuing detective-like scrutiny of events that led the charge for her history-making legal action. An inspiring story of rare resilience and power, Overcoming is an account of how one woman can move mountains – even when she is fighting for her own life – and of finding happiness and strength in the toughest of times.

    ‘Calls to mind the work of Emilie Pine, or the memoir by Maggie O’Farrell, I Am, I Am, I Am … Overcoming is more than the retelling of an extraordinary life. Its pacing and gentleness leaves plenty of room for tears and for reflection’ Irish Independent

  • Thirty-Two Words For Field

    Thirty-Two Words For Field

    19.95

    The Irish language has thirty-two words for field. Among them are: Geamhar – a field of corn-grass; Tuar – a field for cattle at night; Reidhlean – a field for games or dancing; Cathairin – a field with a fairy-dwelling in it. The richness of a language closely tied to the natural landscape offered our ancestors a more magical way of seeing the world. Before we cast old words aside, let us consider the sublime beauty and profound oddness of the ancient tongue that has been spoken on this island for almost 3,000 years. In Thirty-Two Words for Field, Manchan Magan meditates on these words – and the nuances of a way of life that is disappearing with them.

  • Educated

    Educated

    13.50

    Description
    THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER’An amazing story, and truly inspiring. The kind of book everyone will enjoy. IT’S EVEN BETTER THAN YOU’VE HEARD.’ – Bill GatesSelected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER and RED MAGAZINE A Book of the Decade, 2010-2020 (Independent)________________________Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist.