Dymphna’s October Book Club is cherry picked straight off the shelves of The Book Centre, Waterford and features some of the most eagerly awaited titles of the year from autobiographies to fantasy, wholesome hopeful reads to a look at one of Ireland’s most publicised civil cases.

A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Maas

If you’ve ever become so attached to fictional characters that they begin to feel like people you actually know, you’ll understand the excitement surrounding the return to Prythian. Sarah J. Maas brings readers back into the world of A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR), where love, loyalty, power and the complicated business of belonging are once again at the heart of the story.

With the threat of Koschei the Deathless growing, the Night Court faces a battle that goes far beyond the supernatural. Old wounds, fractured relationships and uncomfortable truths threaten to undo the very people who should be standing together. And that’s where Maas really draws us in. Beneath the magic, the romance and the spectacular world building, this is a story about what happens when the people we love disappoint us, when trust is broken and when finding your way back to one another becomes the hardest battle of all.

It has been five long years since we received the last instalment of the series and collectively, we were hungry for this one. Don’t come for me when I say that it left me a bit… underwhelmed. However, in much the same way as the final instalments of the Harry Potter series left us hanging on for the next book, A Court of Splintered Harmony is setting the scene for the next book which is due in January, and subsequent books after that. Sarah J. Mass herself said the concept was so big and so developed that it could not be condensed into just one book. You will likely feel as though not alot happens, and you’d be right but with all of the books together, this is paving the way for the bigger picture, and it will be HUGE.

It’s an immersive return for devoted fans, full of familiar faces, emotional complications and the promise of much more to come. If you’re here for the love triangle between Elain, Azriel, and Lucien, you’ve come to the right place. You may come for the fantasy, but it’s the relationships that keep you turning the pages. A reminder that even in the most extraordinary worlds, it’s the very human need to love and be loved that makes a story matter.

Talk to Joe by Joe Duffy

For almost three decades, Joe Duffy invited Ireland into his world, one phone call at a time. But what happens when the man who spent his working life listening to everyone else finally takes the opportunity to tell the story himself? This book was four years in the making and it will undoubtedly by top of the Christmas best-seller lists across Ireland.

Talk to Joe is much more than a memoir about a broadcasting career. It is a fascinating journey through the Ireland we have become, told through the voices of ordinary people who, at particular moments in their lives, found themselves at the centre of extraordinary conversations. From the Celtic Tiger years and the financial crash to marriage equality, maternity care, menopause and the painful revelations surrounding institutional abuse, the book brings us back to the conversations that shaped our national consciousness.

There is something wonderfully familiar about the idea of Liveline. We have all had moments when we’ve listened in the car, in the kitchen or while doing the dinner, shaking our heads, laughing, getting cross or perhaps finding ourselves unexpectedly moved by a stranger’s story. Behind every caller is a person with a life, a history and a reason for picking up the phone.

What makes this book particularly interesting is its reflection on the responsibility of listening. Sometimes people don’t need an answer or a solution. They simply need somebody to hear them. An affectionate, honest and often revealing portrait of a broadcaster and the country he helped give a voice to.

Joe Duffy comes across as warm, often self-deprecating, humorous and honest, for one final time, it invites Joe Duffy into our homes.

Not the Perfect Victim by Nikita Hand

Some books are difficult to read, not because they are poorly written, but because the reality they ask us to confront is so deeply uncomfortable. Not the Perfect Victim is one of those books.

Nikita Hand takes us through one of the most publicised and painful cases in recent Irish history, with the story told in her own words. Beginning with the events of December 2018, she recounts the assault, the aftermath, the Garda investigation and the devastating discovery that there would be no criminal prosecution. She then brings us through her decision to pursue a civil case against Conor McGregor, the courtroom experience, the public scrutiny and the enormous personal cost of having her life examined so publicly.

What makes this memoir so important is its challenge to the expectations we place on people who have experienced trauma. There is an almost impossible standard imposed on victims, an expectation that they must behave in a particular way, say the right things, make the right decisions and somehow remain untouched by the experience. But real people are complicated. They are frightened, angry, vulnerable, imperfect and human.

Nikita’s story is not simply about a legal outcome. It is about what happens to a person when their most private and painful experience becomes public property. It is about the courage required to keep going when the world is watching and the strength needed to reclaim your own narrative. This is an important, difficult and deeply personal read. Above all, it asks us to listen without judgement and remember that nobody should have to be a perfect victim to deserve compassion, dignity and justice.

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Every now and then, a book comes along that makes you want to be a little kinder. Not in some grand, dramatic, life-changing way, but in the small everyday moments that can mean everything to somebody else. Theo of Golden is that kind of book and one we came across due to its roaring popularity on BookTok.

A mysterious older man named Theo arrives in the small American town of Golden and begins an unusual project. In a local coffee shop, he discovers a collection of pencil portraits of the townspeople, drawn by a local artist. He starts buying the portraits and returning them to the people depicted, asking only that they share their stories with him.

And so, one face at a time, one conversation at a time, we discover the lives behind the portraits. The regrets, the heartbreaks, the hopes, the secrets and the experiences that make each person who they are. What initially seems like a simple act of generosity becomes something much more profound. Theo gives people something that is increasingly rare in our busy lives: the feeling that somebody genuinely sees them.

There is a beautiful intimacy to Allen Levi’s writing. It reminds us that everybody carries something we know nothing about. The person sitting beside us in a café, the neighbour we pass every morning, the stranger we barely acknowledge. Each has a story, and each deserves to be heard.

This is a gentle, uplifting and deeply moving novel, but its message is anything but small. It makes you think about the kindness you have received, the kindness you have perhaps overlooked and the difference you might make simply by taking the time to connect. By the end, you may find yourself looking at the people around you a little differently. And what a lovely thing for a book to achieve.

Four very different books, four very different worlds, but each offering something that stays with us long after the final page for Dymphna’s October Book Club. From the escapism of fantasy to the deeply personal realities of identity, injustice and human connection, these are stories that invite us to look a little closer at ourselves and the people around us. Any good book will encourage us to look inward and to wonder could we leave the world a little better than how we found it… this month’s selection achieves that aim.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for another wonderful month of reading at Dymphna’s Book Club.

All titles as part of Dymphna’s Book Club are available from The Book Centre, Waterford. Tell them we sent you!