Putting a Spotlight on Irish & Celtic Literature

We started a monthly Irish and Celtic book club! Book selections will feature fictional and nonfictional novels with Irish or Celtic theming and/or written by authors from the Celtic nations, Irish America, and East Coast Canada. Join us in celebrating and in supporting Irish and Celtic literature. Join our Facebook group below to participate in discussions and to stay updated.
 

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This Month's Book Club Selection

The Christmas Bookshop
Jenny Colgan

Virtual Discussion: Wednesday, December 30, 2026
Zoom Link Coming Soon

Carmen feels lost. The department store where she has worked until now is closing, and now she doesn't know what to do. She certainly doesn't want to move back home to her perfect sister, Sofia, in her perfect house with the perfect children and the absolutely perfect life in Edinburgh.

But Sofia is expecting again, the bookstore is short-handed, and their mother's greatest wish is for the two sisters to get along better with each other. At Sofia's instigation, Carmen is soon swept into the daily grind of the old bookstore. However, it turns out that it will take a true Christmas miracle to get it back on track. Can Carmen surprise them all this Christmas?

About the Author

Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling novels and has won various awards for her writing, including the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award and the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year Award. Her books have sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide, and in 2015 she was inducted into the Love Stories Hall of Fame. Jenny is married with three children and lives in Scotland.

January Book Club Selection

Finding Isobel
Mary Behan

Finding Isobel is a compelling story of self-discovery, forgiveness, and the enduring power of family. Isobel has always yearned to uncover the mystery surrounding her birth and why her adoptive parents have refused to share what they know with her. About to enter vet school, Isobel’s life takes an unexpected turn after the death of Maggie O’Connor, Isobel’s de facto grandmother. Fueled by the pain of rejection and willing to sacrifice her college plans and a burgeoning relationship, Isobel embarks on a quest.

Read the companion book to Finding Isobel, A Measured Thread (a previous book club read), to learn the story behind how Isobel started her life-changing quest.

About the Author

Mary Bean was born in Ireland. She attended Loreto Abbey Rathfarnham, and received a BSc (Hons) and PhD in Zoology from University College Dublin. She emigrated to the United States in 1976 and spent her career as a professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now retired, she devotes her time to writing fiction, memoir and short stories. Her first book, Abbey Girls, is a memoir she wrote with her sister, Valerie Behan, about their childhood in Ireland. Her debut novel, A Measured Thread, set in Wisconsin and Ireland, was named a Top 100 Indie Book in 2020, a finalist in the Page Turner Awards, and an eLit medal winner.

February Book Club Selection

Four Letters of Love
Niall Williams

Nicholas Coughlan and Isabel Gore were made for each other, but how will they ever know it? Four Letters Of Love is a novel about destiny, acceptance, and the tragedies and miracles of everyday life. Most of all it is an unforgettable tale about the illuminating power of love and how all of our stories meet in the end.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Irish Times Literature Prize 1999.

About the Author

Niall Williams studied English and French literature at University College Dublin and graduated with an MA in modern American literature. He moved to New York in 1980, where he married Christine Breen. His first job in New York was opening boxes of books in Fox and Sutherland's Bookshop in Mount Kisco. He later worked as a copywriter for Avon Books in New York City before leaving America with Chris in 1985 to attempt to make a life as a writer in Ireland. They moved on April 1st to the cottage in West Clare that Chris's grandfather had left eighty years before to find his life in America.

Niall's first novel was Four Letters of Love. Published in 1997, it went on to become an international bestseller, has been published in over twenty countries, and is a motion picture film starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham-Carter, and Gabriel Byrne.

March Book Club Selection

Nesting
Roisín O’Donnell

On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.

This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home, and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.

Winner of the 2025 Irish Book Awards, Novel of the Year
Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction

About the Author

Roisín is an award-winning Irish author. Her short story collection Wild Quiet was published in 2016 and was shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Award and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. Her short stories have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, and many other places, and have been featured on RTÉ Radio. She won the An Post Irish Book Award for Short Story of the Year in 2018 and was shortlisted for the same prize in 2022. Her first novel, Nesting, was published in January 2025; it became an instant Sunday Times bestseller and was long-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Roisin was listed as one of the Observer’s Ten Best New Novelists of 2025. Donal Ryan described Nesting as ‘one of the best and most important novels of our time,’ while the Irish Independent declared it ‘A novel that truly matters.’ Nesting won the An Post Irish Book Award for Novel of the Year 2025.