January Sale Books

1. Sophie: The Final Verdict

by Senan Molony

€8.99

It was the 26th December 1996 when we arrived in West Cork to cover the recent murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Our man on the ground was Eoin (Ian) Bailey. His level of detail on the case showed extraordinary insight—I was completely taken in. But when the scales fell from my eyes weeks later, it was the shock of my journalistic career. Suddenly, everything that had been eluding me about this dreadful case made perfect sense. I knew with blazing clarity that I had held the gaze of a pitiless destroyer in the immediate aftermath of murder. Ian Bailey, the prime suspect in the brutal West Cork murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, died outdoors in January 2024, never having faced trial in Ireland. His death reopens a crime that shocked the nation in 1996, along with the deep divisions that have split society over his guilt or innocence. Sophie: The Final Verdict by Senan Molony tells a remarkable story that could not until now be revealed. Senan Molony, the first national crime correspondent at the scene, recounts his growing unease at Bailey’s behavior, leading to the shocking moment when Bailey—who had been helping cover the story—was arrested for the very murder. This insider’s account covers the infamous early days of a doomed investigation and the astonishing years that followed, as Bailey, a violent misogynist and pathological liar, escaped trial in his adopted country despite compelling evidence. Including interviews with Sophie’s family, key garda investigators, local witnesses, and Bailey himself, Sophie: The Final Verdict sets out the full facts and dismantles Bailey’s main defence that he didn’t know Sophie. It unpacks commonly held myths about the case, misinformation often seeded by Bailey, and brings to light astonishing new witness testimony of confessions to the murder, along with fresh evidence of guilt. Though Bailey was tried in absentia in Paris and sentenced to 25 years, he enjoyed full freedom after Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to put his fate before an Irish jury. This book lets the full evidence speak.

2. What We Know Now

by Jenny Kelly

€14.99

After twenty years of friendship, podcasters Jenny Kelly and Mairead Ronan have seen it all—single life, career highs, break-ups, make-ups, marriages, divorce, motherhood, and everything in between. They've experienced the joys, stresses, and messes of life, and after countless cups of tea and conversations, they’ve learned one thing for sure: it's time to stop sweating the small stuff. In What We Know Now , Jenny and Mairead share their candid, down-to-earth advice on navigating the highs and lows of adulthood. From the realities of grown-up friendships and relationships to figuring out what you really want in life, they offer wisdom and humor drawn from their own experiences. They’re not here to solve all your problems, but they’ll make you laugh, keep you company, and remind you that no one really has it all figured out. Along the way, you'll learn some essential truths—like why you’ll never have perfect Pocahontas hair (and why that’s totally fine), how satisfying a deep clean can be, and why staring at trees might just make you happier than any designer handbag ever could. Whether it’s navigating relationships, ditching perfectionism, or finding joy in the everyday, What We Know Now is a funny, relatable guide that will leave you feeling understood, uplifted, and less alone in life’s inevitable ups and downs.

3. Only a Soldier Knows

by Ray Lane

€11.99

On a grey Sunday afternoon in the depths of the Troubles, bomb disposal officer Ray Lane, in his first ever deployment, was tasked with defusing an IRA 1,000kg bomb planted on the Border. It was the dangerous start to an extraordinary career that would take him to the frontlines of some of the world's most perilous conflicts. From beer kegs packed with explosives to ingenious homemade devices designed to maim and kill, Ray's job was the very definition of danger. With nerves of steel and unmatched skills in wartime diplomacy, Ray dove into some of the world's most hostile environments: Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Every mission brought him face-to-face with the atrocities of war and left their scars-both physical and emotional. A memoir that is riveting in nature, this takes the readers from the darkest depths of humanity to the heights of bravery. Ray reflects on mental strength and courage-deep inside-to override every human instinct and walk toward a bomb, knowing the risks yet choosing duty over fear.

4. The Rory's Stories Guide to Parenting

by Rory O'Connor

€9.49

Rory O'Connor has three kids and, in his own words, is just about surviving a life filled with sleep deprivation, stray Lego underfoot, mashed potato on the walls and the unmatched pride that comes with being a dad!     Having coped with the labour ward and having been lulled into a false sense of security with one child, he's now knee deep in nappies, tackling tantrums and trying desperately to enjoy the occasional family holiday.     The Rory's Stories Guide to Parenting brings Rory's trademark brilliant observations, everyday humour and down-to-earth common sense to the wonderful world of parenting. It's the 'guide' to parenting we've all been waiting for!

5. The Women Behind the Door

by Roddy Doyle

€12.99

"At sixty-six, Paula Spencer – mother, grandmother, widow, addict, survivor – is finally living her life in The Women Behind the Door by Roddy Doyle . A job at the dry cleaners she enjoys, a man – Joe – with whom she shares what she wants, friends who see her for who she is, and four grown children, now with families and petty dramas the likes of which Paula could only have hoped for. Despite its ghosts, Paula has started to push her past aside. That is until Paula’s eldest, Nicola, turns up on her doorstep. Independent, affluent, loving wife and mother, “a success” – Nicola is suddenly determined to leave it all behind. Over the next few days, as Nicola gradually confides in Paula the secret that unleashed this moment of crisis, mother and daughter find themselves untangling anecdotes, jokes, memories, and revelation to confront the bruised but beautiful symmetry of what each means to the other. The next sequence in the life of Roddy Doyle’s quietly remarkable, ever-memorable Paula Spencer, The Women Behind the Door is a delicately devastating portrait of shame and the inescapable shadow it casts over families."

6. Blood Ties

by Jo Nesbø

€13.99

Brothers Carl and Roy Opgard have succeeded in life. Or at least they’ve had as much success as is possible in a small town like Os, where they've killed their way to the top. Carl manages the swanky spa hotel, while Roy has made ambitious plans for an amusement park. Life’s good at the top. But the local sheriff is looking to bring them down. Sheriff Kurt Olsen believes he has new evidence that will prove the brothers’ involvement in several past murders – but Carl and Roy are used to covering their tracks, and they're not afraid to get their hands dirty. The body count of Os is about to get even higher. Blood Ties is an explosive suspense novel about family, loyalty, and what someone is willing to do for both.

7. Dogs and Their Humans

by Noel Fitzpatrick

€14.99

In my consulting room with a dog lying by our feet, I have seen the very best that humanity has to offer and often in the very worst of circumstances. Private jets or helicopters land, beat up old cars rattle into the carpark, princes and paupers come through the door and every single one has three things in common. One, they love their dogs beyond anything that can be described in words. Two, they will do whatever it takes. And three, they have all come to me for one thing and one thing only: hope. The dogs don’t care whether they are pauper or prince. I don’t care either. My room is the great leveler. From the sublime to the ridiculous, Professor Noel Fitzpatrick has seen it all in his veterinary practice. Dogs (and their humans): stories of healing and hope from the Supervet’s surgery is a funny, uplifting and at times heartbreaking celebration of our connection with our loyal canine friends. Dogs allow us to be the best humans we can be.

8. Drama Drives Interest: The Web Summit Story

by Catherine Sanz

€12.99

The first definitive account of one of Ireland’s most controversial business stories Founded in 2009 by the enigmatic Paddy Cosgrave, Web Summit started as a 150-person meet up in Dublin. Within a decade, it grew to a 70,000 gathering of industry leaders. The gravitas of big names and the vibrant atmosphere of the conference would convince leaders of companies big and small that Web Summit was the place to be for experts and more importantly, was worth the price of participating. But, under the bright lights of its success, Web Summit appeared to unravel. After spending years using social media to target people he disagrees with, and leading Web Summit with what some say was unfettered power for much of this time, in October 2023 Paddy Cosgrave resigned in a storm of controversy following his own online comments. But less than six months later, Paddy has returned as chief executive and embroiled in a series of lawsuits with his co-founders, Web Summit seems to be edging toward some sort of reckoning. In Drama Drives Interest, journalist Catherine Sanz chronicles the historic rise, fall, and rise again of Paddy Cosgrave and provides the first definitive account of one of Ireland’s most controversial business stories.

9. The World According to Jacob

by Jacob Whelan

€10.99

Jacob's journey has been truly amazing. When his mum Donna posted his first video on TikTok two years ago, she had no idea that her son would go viral. But in a very short time, Jacob has captured the hearts of people all over the world with his infectious humour, attracting millions of followers including A-listers like Jennifer Lopez, Brooke Shields, Conor Maynard and Melissa Gilbert, as well as Irish rugby coach Andy Farrell. From lovely moments like Jacob's joy when he discovers that he has a birthday EVERY year to his favourite jokes like 'What do you call a woman who lives between two houses? Elaine!' THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JACOB will bring happiness to the darkest of days. As Jacob himself says, all he wants to do is to make people laugh and smile, and that's exactly what THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JACOB will do!

10. The Irish experiment

by Zach Tuohy

€8.99

Whether it's committing to a tackle, being a dad or writing a memoir, if Zach Tuohy goes in, he goes 'all in' During his childhood in County Laois, Zach Tuohy's first love was Gaelic football. But when an Australian football club came knocking with a professional contract, the then-seventeen-year-old leapt at the opportunity to travel across the world and come to grips with an oval ball. Despite a rocky start navigating a Carlton Football Club in disarray and becoming a father at twenty-three, Zach went on to become one of the greatest success stories of the 'Irish Experiment'. A move to the Geelong Cats made him a star rebounding defender and cult favourite player, and in 2022 he reached the pinnacle of his adopted code, winning a Premiership medal. In 2023, Zach set a new record for the number of AFL games played by an Irish player, passing the effort of the great Jim Stynes. With characteristic devil-may care attitude and determination, Zach writes candidly about his time as a minor league Gaelic football player, and his experiences in Australia, recounting the good, the bad and the downright hilarious. He has plenty to say about the relationships between the indigenous codes of GAA and the AFL, and what needs to change secure the future of Irish and Australian footballers alike.

11. Mad, Isn't It?

by Emma Doran

€11.99

On a solo trip with her best friend to a Wexford caravan park, a barely 18-year-old virginal (ish) Emma Doran discovers it only takes one time to change your life forever and end up covered in stretch marks. Finding herself preparing to do her Leaving Cert in a maternity school uniform, hopes of a glittering acting career (which began with a feted primary school performance as middle-aged alcoholic Mrs Hannigan in Annie and culminated in a case of stage fright as Caroline Aherne's famous Sister Mary Immaculate in transition year) are derailed. Baby in tow, Emma spends her college years getting up at 7 a.m. and going to bed at 8 p.m. instead of staying out 'til 6 a.m. and sleeping 'til noon. By 24, her idea of a good weekend is perusing the aisles of Home Store + More for new cushions to brighten up her living room. But on the verge of turning 30, an opportunity arises, and Emma finds herself back on stage again ... Mad, Isn't It? is a hilarious and moving story about life, friendship, (young) motherhood and taking risks.

12. CountryFail: Some C***'s Guide To The Countryside

by Killian Sundermann

€11.99

The hilarious guide to the countryside you never knew you needed, from up-and-coming TikTok and Instagram-hit comedian Killian Sundermann. Welcome to the countryside. A place of rolling hills, winding rivers and natural beauty. Or is it? Killian Sundermann is here to give us his deeply uninformed, highly opinionated and hilarious guide to the countryside. He rates stone walls, weighs up the varying appeal of different styles of hedges, gives us a bitchy guide to ditches and explains why hiking is for people with emotional problems. You’ll never see the countryside in the same way again.

13. You will die in prison

by Bernard Phelan

€12.99

'An affirmation of the power of love, kindness, courage and human resilience' - Lara Marlowe, author of Love in a Time of War. Bernard Phelan was working for an Iranian tour operator when he was arrested on false charges of spying on 3rd October 2022, becoming a political hostage. He shared "Satan's block" in Mashhad prison with political prisoners and drug traffickers - and condemned inmates awaiting execution. He was released from prison in May 2023 after being held hostage for seven months. Bernard Phelan grew up in Stillorgan, Dublin and lives in Paris with his husband.

14. Extraordinary GAA people

by John Scally

€13.99

As we mark the 140th anniversary of the founding of the GAA, this book is a celebration of the greatest treasure in its long and illustrious history: its people. In a fast-changing world, the GAA has given us a fixed point in our lives and Gaelic games have given us so many truly extraordinary people. Each of their unique stories in some way offers a revealing snapshot of the GAA, as we salute the great and the good of Gaelic football, ladies' football, camogie and hurling - along with some less obvious and surprising choices - featuring John B. Keane, Rena Buckley, Brian Cody, Eamonn Cregan, Brian D'Arcy, Mickey Harte, the 2 Johnnies, Shane Lowry, Paul Mescal, John O'Donohue, Martin O'Neill, Hannah Tyrell and many more. And with fascinating revelations like Séamus Mallon's personal memory of the Good Friday Agreement, the superstar who kneeled before Jimmy Magee, John O'Mahony's late evening and Ger Loughnane's big regret, this is the perfect way to celebrate the extraordinary people of the GAA.

15. The Emergency in Colour

by Michael B. Barry

€16.99

The Emergency in Colour brings wartime Ireland to life in dramatic colour. Through extensive research, the photos presented here have been painstakingly hand-colourised by photographer John O'Byrne, showing what life on the island was like in extraordinary times. There are over 200 photographs from across the country, many of which have never been published before, all of them accompanied by fascinating and accessible captions from historian Michael B. Barry.

16. Web of Betrayal

by Nicola Tallant

€14.99

'Nicola Tallant, not for the first time, demonstrates why she is the very best writer on crime. No novelist alive could ever imagine the very complex and very dark human dramas that she skilfully unravels, delivering page after page of truth-telling that we must pay attention to' - Darragh MacIntyre From the author of the 2023 bestselling Cocaine Cowboys, murder and deception and the underworld of Irish gangland intertwine in a deadly dance of power and survival. A murder in Belfast of gangland's most wanted man, Robbie Lawlor, uncovers a webof betrayal that spans out across the Irish underworld and beyond. Follow a bloody trail that leads all the way into the heart of one of the worst gang feuds Ireland has ever seen which culminates in the Narco style dismemberment of a teenage boy, Keane Mulready Woods. And as the curtain is pulled back on the inner workings of the world of organised crime, a cast of ruthless characters take centre stage for their place in a double cross plot that reads like a fast-paced thriller.

17. Jess Gets Her Wings

by Lucy Kennedy

€8.99

Little Jess is about to have her very first flying lesson! But before she can get her flying licence, she must complete three simple tasks – from helping her neighbour Mr Snail mend a light, to finding a ladybird’s missing spot and saving a fallen star stuck in a tree. Will Jess be just like her sisters and get her wings too?

18. Ireland In Numbers

by Jacqueline McCann

€14.99

From the founding of the Irish Free State to today, Ireland in Numbers covers everything you ever wanted to know about the people of Ireland, with bite-size facts and vibrant illustrations. How many people live on the island of Ireland and why are there fewer people today than there were 100 years ago? Where do most of us live, and what is the fastest-growing region? What languages do we speak? 99% of children in Ireland go to school, but how many went 100 years ago? And are there really more cows than people on our island? Take a deep dive into the data and you'll be amazed by what the numbers tell us about Ireland past and present!