Off The Record: Six books to read this spring

Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary

Since their first encounter at school in Dublin, Juno has loved Legs. Juno defends Legs against playground bullies, and he districts the priest to protect her from classroom beatings. He feels brave with her, and she feels safe with him. Together, the pair feel invincible - but the world has other plans. From the backstreets and city’s pubs to underground parties and squats, the pair are on the verge of adulthood and find a breathing space to begin their real lives.

Only Legs’s might be taking him somewhere Juno can’t follow.

Set in the political and social unrest of the 1980s, Juno Loves Legs portrays the harsh lives of two kids growing up poor in Dublin.

As they are tormented by their parents and a strict Catholic Church rule, the pair form a friendship that will endure even through their darkest moments.

Even though the novel is gritty and at times grim, Karl Geary’s prose is heartbreakingly beautiful.

A story about being loved, Juno loves Legs will make you want to reach through the pages and hug its characters.

Perpetual Comedown by Declan Toohey

In search of a topic for his PhD, a literature student at Trinity College in Dublin, Darren Walton is trying to decode an elaborate “academic goldmine” that he stumbles across as an undergrad. As he tries to prove the existence of an alternate Ireland known as Camland, a third narrative dimension, Darren is certain to be the first to write about it.

As he is on the verge of academic fame – and of a mental breakdown - he plunges into a dangerous world where he has to take a hard look at himself.

Declan Toohey’s debut novel, Perpetual Comedown, is a bold and chaotic story which portrays an, at times, unflattering portrait of Irish academia.

With an experimental and witty prose, Toohey will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery

Set in the mid-1960s in New York, Nothing Special tells the coming-of-age story of two young women navigating the complex worlds of Andy Warhol’s Factory.

Seventeen-year-old Mae is an outsider. At home, she has a troubled relationship with her mother and at school, she feels alienated. When she drops out, she is presented with a job offer as a typist for artist Andy Warhol.

At the Factory, she meets Shelley, and the pair type up Warhol’s novel, which is based on tapes of conversation.

In the turbulence of the sixties, they go to parties, and explore their womanhood and sexuality. But when Mae finds herself obsessed with the tapes, she must understand there is a line between art and voyeurism and finds herself again.

With sharpness, Nicole Flattery explores identity, fame, and female friendship through complex characters.

Milk by Alice Kinsella

Alice Kinsella was in her twenties when she became pregnant with her first child, newly engaged and about to start life in an unfamiliar town on the west coast of Ireland.

With her memoir, Milk, she tells her experience as a mother. A map of motherhood, Milk takes us through her experience of a first year as a mother, and examines the experience of having children in contemporary Ireland.

With an immersive prose, Milk gives a raw description of what it is like to become a mother, and takes a hard look at how Ireland treats its mothers.

Powerful yet delicate, Milk swifts between the personal and the political.

The Menopause: The Essential Guide to Managing Your Health in Mid-Life by Dr Deirdre Lundy

A handbook of everything there is to know, The Menopause draws on decades of experience and on the most up-to-date research to explain what is going on in women’s bodies, the key hormones that change your life, and their impact.

From where you are on the menopause spectrum to how to deal with symptoms to debunking the myths surrounding menopause, this book is an essential reading that explains the changes that go through the body as we approach midlife.

Written by leading menopause expert, Dr Deirdre Lundy, the book is an insightful road map which tells you everything you have to know about menopause.

Arthur and Maud Griffith: The Love of Ireland by Dr Pat O'Connor

An homage to an extraordinary Irish couple, Arthur and Maud Griffith: The Love of Ireland, records and recounts the lives of the newspaper editor and politician who founded Sinn Féin, and of his wife and soprano, Maud.

Both factual and comprehensive, the book recalls the lives they lived, both as a couple and separately.

With eloquence and detail, Dr Pat O'Connor gives us a glimpse of Ireland’s troubled history through the eyes of Maud, who had a habit of writing insightful letters.

As he pointed out himself, history is too often male-orientated, and this book seeks to redress the balance by seeing history through the eyes of a great Irish woman – quite a refreshing take.