This is an interesting exploration of the state of Eastern Europe since the fall of communism, in many ways it echoes the atmosphere of a 1930s novel, but yet is right up to date in the attitudes to society and politics and money. This is a world which the author, a former journalist turned industrialist,…

Here in a sense is the ideal spiritual book for summer reading. Author Daniel O’Leary focuses on the power of dreaming to transform oneself, and by doing so transform the lives of others. In  summer we become conscious of the beauty of the world, with the shining sun, brilliant green, the ebb and flow of…

Patrick Leigh Fermor is the justly famous author of some of the best travel books of the last century. This book is the final part, published posthumously, that rounds out his recreation of walking across Europe in the 1930s, begun in The Time of Gifts and The Way Through the Woods. His destination was supposed…

For the serious political buff this is the read of the summer. Whether Hilary Clinton will run for the White House remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma. This book recounts her experiences as American Secretary of State, dealing directly with the foreign affairs of the United States. This is one of the most sensitive…

For those still absorbed in the current of Irish politics Pat Leahy’s book about the inner tensions of the present coalition will make an absorbing read, as riveting as his account of Fianna Fail in Government as the economy collapsed. Not exactly escapist reading, but necessary perhaps. 

In 1956 Boris Pasternak, who had a recognised place in modern Russian literature as a poet, but was not otherwise widely known, passed to Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, the Marxist publisher in Milan, the manuscript of a novel on which he had been working for many years, and which it had proved impossible to publish within the…

An entertaining collection of dishes, many suited to outdoor cooking, which will enliven the summer season. Not all Asia cooking is red hot curry or over chillied Thai food. Many cultures provide subtle flavour food, largely distinguished by its use of fresh fish and vegetables. While trailing round the roads of Asia by motorcycle may…

Teenagers Translated: How to Raise Happy Teens by Nancy and Naella Grew (Vermillion, €15.00 / £11.99)