Some Book Recommendations from 2025

Happy New Year everyone! It’s the time in the blog’s life cycle that I make a few reading recommendations about books I have enjoyed during the past year. Some are spiritual, some are fiction, and they cover quite a range of topics. The one thing they share in common, is that they brought me a lot of pleasure and joy as I made my way through them.

Conor Niland was the number one tennis player in Ireland for a number of years in the 1990’s. In this fascinating book he describes life on the tennis tour as a journeyman professional tennis player. It describes the gulf in money and facilities between the world’s top 100 players and the rest. He reached 120 and, among his career highlights, were some appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open. He beat Roger Federer as a 14 year old! It’s a tale of relentless travelling, striving to overcome injuries, battling loneliness and the hard work involved in playing tennis against the world’s best.

Des Cahill has spent much of his career as a journalist covering the world of sport. He has covered events like World Cups and Olympic Games, the Tour de France in cycling, Six Nations Rugby , major golf tournaments, and he has been the anchor for Gaelic football and hurling coverage on Irish television for many years on a programme called the Sunday Game. It’s a bit like Gaelic games Match of the Day. He describes meeting some of the world’s elite sportspeople and what it’s like behind the scenes to cover global sporting events. It’s about the friendships with fellow commentators and journalists and players, the controversies and the drama of covering these unique and memorable sporting occasions, and it’s a cracking read.

Next Sunday, an honest dialogue about the future of the church, is a fascinating book co-written by 2 women of different generations from the same family. Nancy Beach was a leader in a US megachurch called Willow Creek. Her daughter, Samantha Beach Kiley, is a writer and performer and creative arts pastor at a church in Austin Texas. They look at important topics like creating community, the place of children in church communities, the importance of men and women working well together, creating a healthy culture in churches, the tendency towards exclusion and oppression looking at issues like racism, and the church’s debate on human sexuality. There are no easy answers offered, but it’s a very honest conversation about how women of different generations have experienced the church and what they believe to be important for the church’s future.

Patrick Taylor’s, An Irish Country Doctor, is a novel set in Northern Ireland in the Glens of Antrim in a fictitious community called Ballybucklebo. It’s about a trainee GP in his first post and his wise and somewhat eccentric senior colleague. It’s a little bit like All Creatures Great and Small, about the life of a country vet only, this time, the setting is rural county Antrim in the 1960’s and the world is one of characters who fill the GP’s surgery. It’s a really warm and funny read.

I’m a great fan of the Message translation of the Bible. It’s a contemporary translation by the theologian and pastor, Eugene Peterson. In this biography, we learn of the love Eugene Peterson had for the scriptures, how he immersed himself in them and became friends with rock stars like Bono of U2. We learn of his humility and commitment to his small congregation over many years before transferring into the world of university teaching. It’s a great insight into the devotional life of a remarkable theologian and pastor.

Lots of people mock the literary output of the bestselling author, Jeffrey Archer. This book is the finale of a set of novels he has written about a fictitious detective called William Warwick. It’s set against the backdrop of the London Olympic Games in 2012 and a terrorist plot to derail the games. It’s a ripping yarn and you will fly through it. It can be read as a stand alone novel or you can enjoy it as part of the series.

My final recommendation is a poignant and beautiful novel called Hope Street by Mike Gayle. It’s about a young man called Conor whose mum disappears one day, and how his friends come alongside him as he campaigns to stay in his house which is sought after by the council for redevelopment. It’s full of lovable characters with a few rogues thrown in, and I did find myself dabbing my eyes on an aeroplane in the Autumn as I became immersed and enthralled by the beautiful story that unfolded.

Hope you have had some enjoyable reads too during 2025, and we are always glad to hear about recommendations you have enjoyed.

Look forward to speaking again soon.

Much love to everyone,

Jono.

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