Wilhelmina Geddes: Life and Work by Nicola Gordon Bowe (Four Courts Press, €50)

The death of Michael Paul Gallagher on November 5 would have been unexpected to the very many people who benefited by reading his wise and insightful books. One such said to me the other day that they had attempted to wrestle with books on theology, and had almost given up. But from Michael Paul Gallagher’s…

Sons and Fathers edited by Kathy Gilfillan, introduction by Colm Tóibin, foreword by Bono (An Irish Hospice Foundation Book / Penguin Ireland, €20)

Living with Grief: Walking the Spiral by Bairbre Cahill (Redemptorist Publications, £7.95)

Japanese Food Made Easy by Fiona Uyema (Mercier Press, €24.99)

A Month by the Sea: Encounters in Gaza by Dervla Murphy (Eland, £12.99)

The death of Brian Friel at the age of 86 marks an epoch in Irish literature. Along with Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel was an Irish writer with an international reputation, who was never tempted into exile. Friel was one of the group of Ulster writers and critics who came to prominence in the 1960s, and…

Father Browne’s Dublin Photographs 1925-1950 edited by E. E. O’Donnell SJ (Messenger Publications, €14.99)

In the Shelter: Finding Welcome in the Here and Now by Pádraig Ó Tuama (Hachette Books Ireland, €16.99)

Books Editor The other week our reviewer discussed how Mártin Ó Cadhain, in writing his celebrated novel Cré na Cille, resorted to creating new words in Irish to express his meaning. In this he had many precedents, such as William Shakespeare. But words are odd things.  Recently it was reported that the rapper Eminem has the…