Non-fiction book suggestions for your Christmas gifts

This week is the final week of recommended books for Christmas gifts, and everything listed here is non-fiction. Remember the bookshops are open right up to Christmas Eve. So, there’s still plenty of time to buy presents. Just saying.

PS Gay compiled by Suzy Byrne (Gill €27) is a second volume of letters sent by listeners to the iconic Gay Byrne Show on RTÉ radio. Do you remember Dick Moran’s scandalous affair in Glenroe? The reaction to Switzers removing the gnomes from their Christmas window display? Ireland’s response to the AIDS crisis? For anyone who does, this book is for them. It really is an authentic, engaging and entertaining stroll down memory lane, although not all the memories are rosy.

Mikhail Zygar’s The Dark Side of the Earth (W&N 23.95) is an account by the exiled Russian journalist of how Russia travelled from totalitarian state through to Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika years, with democracy finally on tap, only to revert to totalitarianism again and be ruled by a man who began his career as a street thug. Revealing and brave, it’s a fascinating but disturbing read.

Colm O’Regan’s Gallivanting with Words (Gill €16.99) is subtitled ‘How the Irish Speak English’ and is hilarious. He explores history and heritage to reveal how it is that we can mangle the language so successfully. You’ll encounter langers, doses and gurriers while you wonder what state you were in last weekend. Was it locked, mouldy or fluthered? It’s great fun.

For the coffee snobs there’s Paddy Kirk’s The Dublin Coffee Guide (Lilliput €24.95). Kirk’s Insta page, @dubstreetcafe has amassed a huge following. We’re finally getting comfortable with café culture in this country and moving away from pub culture, so this book is well-timed. He talks to café owners and customers from all over Dublin and includes lots of little anecdotes. It’s a gorgeous, lavish book for a gift, a glossy coffee-table tome.

Anthony Hopkins’s We Did Ok, Kid (Simon and Schuster €24.99) is a beautifully written autobiography, tracing his life from his difficult childhood in Port Talbot, Wales surrounded by war and depression, to seeing a production of Hamlet in 1948 that changed everything. He is candid about his failings, honest about his alcoholism and modest about his success. It’s utterly absorbing.

Hector O hEochagáin’s An Irish Word a Day (Gill €22.99) is a light-hearted and encouraging book that urges us to learn the language, one word a day, a day at a time, aimed at people like me who sat through years of daily Irish classes yet haven’t a single focal ar bith. Tommy Tiernan recommended it thus: ‘The best book on the Irish language I have ever read – so funny, so soulful.’ How could you resist?

Gabrielle O’Donovan’s Gino’s Contraband (The Change Press €11.99) is subtitled ‘Guilty until Proven Innocent’ and records her nightmare at the hands of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in a protracted and frustrating case of mistaken identity. Nothing this Tipperary-born woman said was believed, culminating in a miscarriage of justice and a blatant abuse of power on the part of HMRC. An emotive but powerful story that calls for radical change in Britain’s taxation legislation.

Betsy Cornwell’s Ring of Salt (John Murray €18.99) is subtitled ‘A Memoir of Finding Home and Hope on the Wild Coast of Ireland’. She means the west coast, but we’ll forgive her, she’s American! Having fled an abusive relationship with her young son, she finally landed in Ireland and found an abandoned knitting factory in Connemara. She made it a refuge for herself and her child, and later a refuge for single mothers. A touching memoir of hope and resilience.

Carl Kinsella’s At Least it looks Good from Space (Hachette €18.99) is a collection of essays about the internet-driven world we live in and the good and bad stuff it brings. It’s also about his OCD and his various ways of coping with it. It’s a sharp satire on society at large, and a personal exploration of the meaning of male friendship. It’s about all sorts of things, both tragic and comic, and it’s an engaging ‘dipper’.

Mark Ronson’s Night People (Century €18.99) is the superstar producer’s account of his life as a club DJ in 1990s New York, mixing with people like Lady Gaga, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Miley Cyrus, Michael Jackson… the list is endless. It’s a definitive account of a cultural moment in time and recounts the hedonism and madness of those dazzling days. Or, more correctly, nights.

Jung Chang’s Fly, Wild Swans (William Collins €17.99) is a second account of the bestselling author’s life in China and later in England. Her parents were imprisoned and tortured during China’s Cultural Revolution and the scars are still there, although she left China in 1978. It has received mixed reviews, some critics calling it flawed and others ‘bombastic’ (Chang has a high opinion of herself, but then she is a famous author). At its core, however, is Chang’s personal experience of love, pain and loss, something we can’t argue with.

Miriam Hussey’s Light Up (Gill €22.99) encourages readers to align their bodies and souls for a total wellness experience. Drawing from her own negative experiences where she felt depleted, broken and confused, she urges her readers to activate their ‘inner pharmacy’ in order to regulate their nervous system and consequently their mood, thirst for life and vitality. Might be a good gift for a friend who’s feeling a bit out of sorts.

Michael Harding’s Midwinter (Hachette €19.99) is a sombre but beautiful exploration of the months of November, December and January as experienced in the rural depths of Leitrim, where the author lives. There is a fictional character within the book, a young man called Martin who commits suicide (the book is dedicated to Pieta), but he is symbolic of so many young Irish men who take their own lives. Though there’s comfort in this book, too. The kind of comfort that can only be wrought by a real fire, the kindness of a cat, the land as it sleeps in silence. It’s also full of gorgeous wintry illustrations by Enagh Farrell. I can’t think of anyone who would not be charmed by this book.