I'm an avid reader, a book hoarder, a proofreader... and a linguistic magpie (I borrowed that term from the queen of words Susie Dent). These are the books I've loved so far in 2026 – find more reviews at instagram.com/stylechapel 📚 #stylechapelreads
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is simply the best book I've read in a long time. This is the story of Sybil Van Antwerp, letter writer extraordinaire. Retired from a distinguished law career, Sybil is prickly, very proper and completely unimpressed by the modern world.
Every morning, she sits down at her desk in Maryland to write letters – with the sincere belief that everyone else would be better off doing it too. Sybil is also a lifelong reader; she writes to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books. Joan Didion, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ann Patchett are just some of the lucky recipients. I feel Sybil is the sort of heroine Nora Ephron might have adored: funny without trying to be, exasperated by the world yet deeply invested in it. Long live the art of correspondence!
📖 Book match: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
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🧵 Inspired by the diaries of Jane Austen’s niece Fanny Knight, The Elopement by Gill Hornby is a warm, witty take on a real family scandal in Austen-era England.
🪡 Full of domestic drama and period charm, this lovely, gentle read is perfect for the winter months and the embroidered cover is so beautiful.
📖 Book match: Miss Austen by Gill Hornby
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Poor is a profoundly honest autobiography which follows Katriona O’Sullivan's life through poverty, addiction and teen pregnancy in Coventry and Birmingham, through to becoming a student at Trinity College Dublin.
Katriona describes “pockets of sunshine” that happen in between all the misery and neglect: a kind teacher who showed her how to wash in the school toilets, and another who turned up at her door and persuaded her to sit her GCSEs. Despite all the heartbreak and trauma, the way she persevered and turned her life around is truly inspiring. Children like Katriona deserve so much better. In Katriona’s own words: “Choice is a myth that’s perpetuated by the middle classes – only a few people really can choose.”
📖 Book match: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
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🎤 Big Nobody is the brilliant debut novel from Alex Kadis, a former music journalist and editor at Smash Hits. It tells the story of Connie Costa, who regularly talks to her “best friends” Marc Bolan and David Bowie, while dreaming about killing her father, aka “the fat murderer”. Connie wants to escape her embarrassing Greek-Cypriot family and become a session musician, but her father has other ideas. It’s very funny, tender and nostalgic. Think Jackie magazine, flock wallpaper, Rive Gauche perfume and platform shoes.
📖 Book match: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
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Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer is the most charming book you will read this summer. Following a young American archivist sent to catalogue the contents of a fading Tuscan villa, the story develops into a witty coming-of-age tale filled with eccentric characters, including a Venetian princess, a Lebanese former monk who drives a “Mitsu-bitchy”, and the flamboyant Baronessa Lisabetta, known to her friends as ‘Coco’.
I loved his vivid descriptions of everything from anchovies to art, and from the olive groves in Tuscany to the misty canals of Venice. A warm and joyful book that celebrates love and friendship.
📖 Book match: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
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James by Percival Everett is a clever reimagining of Huckleberry Finn, this time told from Jim’s perspective. “White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them,” I said. “The only ones who suffer when they are made to feel inferior is us. Perhaps I should say... when they don’t feel superior.”
I particularly liked the way Everett explores race, identity and freedom, while still keeping the story fast-paced and very readable.
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My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor is set in Nazi-occupied Rome in 1943. This is the story of Hugh O'Flaherty, an Irish priest living in Vatican City, who risks his life to set up an 'escape line' to get allied troops, refugees and Jews out of Italy. The Monsignor gathers an unlikely band of friends, known as the 'Choir', to carry out the missions: Delia Kiernan, a famous soprano singer and wife of the senior Irish diplomat to the Vatican; the recently widowed Contessa Giovanna Landini; Major Sam Derry, an escaped British POW; Enzo Angelucci, an Italian newsagent; Sir D’Arcy Osborne, the British envoy to the Vatican; his butler, John May; and Marianna de Vries, a freelance journalist. Their biggest mission yet, the 'Rendimento', is set for Christmas Eve.
This book was inspired by the true story of Monsignor O’Flaherty’s heroism in Rome where he, along with his friends, helped save the lives of over 6,000 people. O'Connor tells the story through multiple perspectives and timelines, using imagined BBC interview transcripts, memoirs, telegrams and letters. A compelling thriller from a master of historical fiction (Shadowplay is another excellent read).
📖 Book match: For more Vatican-based drama, read Conclave by Robert Harris
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Nesting by Roisín O'Donnell is a gripping and powerful novel, beautifully written and impossible to put down. Ciara Fay lives in Dublin with her husband, Ryan, and their two young daughters. On the surface, her life appears normal, but behind closed doors her reality is terrifying. Roisín doesn't flinch from describing the brutality of coercive control and also what life was like inside Dublin's housing crisis in 2018. Side note: Nesting began life as a short story when Roisín was commissioned to write a piece for RTÉ Radio 1 on the theme of independence. It was written during the height of lockdown, in the knowledge that 'home' wasn't always the safest place to be.
I loved the author's dedication at the back of the book: "To every person sleeping in emergency accommodation tonight, in particular the 4,027 children."
To find out more about this incredible writer, who is also a primary schoolteacher, listen to Roisín on The Bookshelf podcast with Ryan Tubridy.
📖 Book match: Poor by Katriona O'Sullivan
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Land by Maggie O’Farrell is a beautiful, sweeping story about family, home, belonging and the ways the land shapes us. Set on a windswept Irish peninsula and steeped in mythology and history, it follows a mapmaker and his son as they painstakingly chart a changing country for the Ordnance Survey.
Heartbreaking yet hopeful, the story is inspired by Maggie's own family history – her forefathers were involved in the Irish mapping project. It's a love letter to geography and a reminder that nothing ever really goes away. I loved it.
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The Eights by Joanna Miller follows four young women – aristocratic Otto, working-class Dora, political Beatrice, and Marianne, a quiet pastor’s daughter – during their first year at Oxford. It's 1920 and the university is just beginning to admit female students. The detail of the post-WWI setting is so well done, with the grief and impact of the war always lingering in the background. A fascinating story about friendship, resilience and women finding their place in a world that isn’t quite ready for them.
📖 Book match: The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams