"Handy, witty and comprehensive" - so begins Verbal's review of Eileen Battersby's Second Readings: 52 - From Beckett to Black Beauty. Following other rave reviews from Declan Kiberd in the Irish Times, Books Ireland, and Daragh Redding in the Metro Herald, Sean McMahon's Verbal review goes on to applaud Second Readings as being "not only useful but goddam educational to have in a pleasant format such a handy, witty revision course".

With an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Richard Ford, this book extends Eileen’s “Second Readings” series which originally featured in the Irish Times. With 52 classic novels – one for each week of the year – plus an extensive essay by Eileen on why stories matter, there is guaranteed to be something for every fan of literature.

Other reviews include:

[Second Readings'] concept is simple - to introduce the reader to 52 classic novels, the 'must-reads'...[Eileen] is frighteningly well read and retentive herself, and her enthusiasms are....contagious.

Books Ireland

Eileen Battersby has long been admired for the fierce independence of her judgements on contemporary fiction. By nature an enthusiast, she has the reviewer’s happy knack both of describing a book without giving too much away and of telling you exactly what she thinks of it. What is even more admirable is that, unlike so many people who read nowadays solely for exam courses or for other practical purposes, she reads for pleasure – in story, in shaped sentences, in the magic of a word or an image. There is something faintly scandalous and wonderfully anachronistic about Ms Battersby’s pursuit of literary pleasure in a culture too often characterised by a search for mere sensations.

Declan Kiberd - The Irish Times

Each selected volume is given a short and penetrating overview accompanied by an insightful biographical sketch of its author. It's to Battersby's credit that there's not one novel here you wouldn't like to make time for. And if you only want to speak intelligently about books you've never read, this is for you.

Daragh Reddin - Metro

We here at Liberties Press were delighted to read the rave review of Elizabeth Wassell's Dangerous Pity, in the Irish Times, over the weekend.

By Dr Anne Fogarty, professor of James Joyce Studies at UCD and editor with Luca Crispi of the Dublin James Joyce Journal, the half-page review contained such quotes as "Wassell’s novel is no mere travelogue. Rather, it subtly interfuses different genres, including the Künstlerroman , American émigré fiction in the manner of F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night and the existential novel à la Simone de Beauvoir or Jean-Paul Sartre." and Fogarty believes Dangerous Pity contains "a consummate lightness of touch and a gentle irony...[it is a] poised, archly post-modern and compelling novel."

This reaction follows reviews from the Sunday Independent and Books Ireland who respectively claimed the book as "a smart, stylish, sensitive and often funny novel" and one in which "Wassell guides the reader effortlessly through the interactions between the characters as their actions drive them to an explosive denouement".

Read Dangerous Pity for yourself to see what has reviewers and readers alike in love with this engaging novel, set in picturesque Nice. For the full Irish Times review, please click here.