Mary Hanafin

In preparation for an upcoming RTE programme, the Minister has been reading up on past taoisigh. "As a former history teacher I loved Judging Lemass by Tom Garvin. I thought it was great historical book, a solid read up there with Judging Dev." Bertie Ahern: The Autobiography also cropped up: "Being during my time it was good to get an insight into his mind on what we all knew was going on." Lest we judge her choices "too boring", Minister Hanafin assures me she plans to settle down over the holidays with Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, "because he was kind enough to send me a copy. And we'd all of course be interested. He's a past pupil of St Brigid's in Foxrock."

Paul Howard

No stranger to comedy himself, Howard has chosen Me Cheeta, the spoof celebrity memoir by Tarzan's monkey "a masterpiece in comic writing, I absolutely loved it and read it in three sittings". On a more serious and slightly obscure note, Permanent Midnight by Jerry Stahl, the screenwriter behind Eighties TV hit ALF, left an impression: "It's so dark: one minute he's meeting a Hollywood exec, the next he's behind McDonald's scoring smack." But the overall favourite? Ed O'Loughlin's Not Unkind and Not Untrue, a fictional account of a group of journalists in war-torn Africa: "It's exquisitely written, a towering achievement for a first novel."

Des Kenny

Arthur Miller's Presence: The Collected Stories -- "There's a real sense of deep humanity when he writes about New York and the theatre." One to dip into over the holidays is the illustrated Ancient Folk Tales of Ireland, "a pleasant surprise, full of good cheer and glee" based on Douglas Hyde's 1890 edition of Beside the Fire. Pat Boran's autobiography, The Invisible Prison, makes the cut "for its beautiful, poetic script reminding us what the essence of childhood is all about" and of course Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin: "The minute I finished the proof back in March, I ordered 300 signed copies for the shop".

Laura Whitmore

As a London-based Bray girl, Whitmore got a kick out of Dara O'Briain's Tickling the English: "I read it in one go. He's hilarious on the Irish transport system." A self-confessed autobiography junkie, she loved Michael Palin's Halfway to Hollywood: "The diary format meant I could dip in and out of it and I love his I'm-just-a-regular-guy style. I've been a fan since I saw Monty Python." And one she's hoping to receive under the Christmas tree this year? The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook: "I've a bit of a sweet tooth and this book looks so girly and gorgeous!"

Diarmaid Ferriter

Keeping abreast of non-fiction, Ferriter recently launched The Irish Sweep: A History of the Irish Hospital Sweepstake by Marie Coleman, "plagued by gangsters, corruption, and forgeries". Next on the shelf is Pat Leahy's Showtime: "After we saw Bertie and McCreevy swanning about at Bertie's book launch, talking about how great things were under their stewardship, it's nice to see a behind-the-scenes account of what the pair of them were up to." Also recommended is Paul Durcan's Life is a Dream: Forty Years of Reading Poems: "He's great at capturing social change ... there's a real biting satire there."

Sean Rocks

'I really enjoyed Stuart Neville's novel The Twelve; he writes so beautifully about such horrendous sensitive issues in Northern Ireland." Next up is John Banville's The Infinities, merging the lives of the deities and mortals: "I know some people feel they're being taken for a ride, but I liked it." For non-fiction the winner is Love of the World, John McGahern's collection of essays. "There's a great quote in there: 'the universal is the local with the walls taken down', I feel it's a fitting description of McGahern's fiction."

Derek O'Connor

'He gets a lot of stick for his reputation as a barfly, but Jay McInerney's short stories are simple and effective, I loved The Last Bachelor." Film books are O'Connor's guilty pleasure. Scenes from a Revolution covers the shift from old Hollywood to the golden era of the Seventies: "It makes you want to see the films." What about closer to home? "Love the McCann, love the Toibin but the Irish book of the year has to be David O'Doherty's 100 Facts about Pandas, a work by the finest comic mind this country has to offer. And full of pictures."

Mary Wilson

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin: "I've read all of his books. I'd be one of these people who'd be waiting for the next book. I come from rural Ireland and this one strikes a chord because you feel you know these people." In the political sphere, Wilson dove into Tom Garvin's Judging Lemass: "A great biography of his time as taoiseach and it's beautifully produced, illustrated with family photographs and various letters from right back in the Twenties." Back to fiction and Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest saw Wilson "queuing up at the bookshop. It's a great holiday read; it's grand and big with plenty to get stuck into."

Colm Toibin

Everyone's reading him, so who is Toibin reading? First up is Peter Murphy's John the Revelator: "a brilliant novel ... utterly recognisable and true. Although it is filled with darkness, violence and angst, the novel has a surprising light touch and sense of tenderness." Kevin Casey's A State of Mind: "I turned the page with excitement as the battle between self-destruction and redemption is fought." And a notable mention goes to Other Edens: The Life and Work of Brian Coffey in which editors Benjamin Keatinge and Aengus Woods set about re-reading Irish poetry in the 20th Century, "allowing Coffey a central place in the tradition."

Fiach Mac Conghail

Current affairs influenced Mac Conghail's reading in 2009. Bruce Arnold's Irish Gulag tops the list: "A really explosive book about industrial schools. With the Ryan Report coming out I felt I needed to engage with the issue and this book just blew me away." Accompanying this is Matt Cooper's Who Really Runs Ireland, "for making the connection between the banking world and the Government so clear; a great work of journalism", and Simon Schama's The American Future, "it really allows you to understand the American psyche". Also timely is Dublin-based poet Paula Meehan's new collection, Painting Rain, "about modern Ireland, development, cement and construction".

Rebecca Gale

With an eye for the aesthetically pleasing, it's not surprising Gale has chosen three visually striking titles. Her firm favourite this year is Amelia Stein: Photographs, a collection of each RHA artist in his or her studio: "Amelia's a top-class photographer." For something a little different, "and because I've always loved the film", Graham Rawle's illustrated edition of The Wizard of Oz with his creepy miniature models. To unwind? "Cookbooks are my guilty pleasure! Cliffhouse Hotel: The Cookbook evokes lots of memories. We spent our summers in Ardmore growing up; Dad painted a lot of the landscape."

Dairne O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan was touched by Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin: "I know the scene where the four bereaved mothers meet in Clare's apartment and her embarrassment and awkwardness will stay with me a long time." In her own time, O'Sullivan has been working through William Trevor's back catalogue: "I've read quite a few set in bleak English suburbs and so am delighted his latest Love and Summer is set in rural Ireland. Although I suspect it will end sadly." We won't spoil it for you ...

Dara O'Briain

With his own non-fiction title in the pipeline, O'Briain has been doing some research on factual writing. Christopher Potter's You Are Here is a sensible starting point: "It's a good overview of where science is now, a history book of the universe really." The New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell's latest collection of essays, What the Dog Saw, was a hit, "for its tremendous set of topics, such as ketchup". And, moving closer to home, Showtime by Pat Leahy, a backroom account of Fianna Fail government: "Some of this I was around for. Delightfully, the latter part I wasn't, when it all went wrong."

Sheila O'Flanagan

'I like to read thrillers when I'm writing myself because they're so different to what I write that it doesn't mess up my head!" Jeffery Deaver's The Bodies Left Behind impressed: "It's cleverly written with a huge amount of twists. It kept me hooked." A complex heroine and the Swedish culture drew her into Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, namely the final instalment The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest: "I was dying to know how it all turned out!" Another favourite was Philippa Gregory's The White Queen: "She manages to weave historical facts into fiction incredibly well."

Alex Barclay

Barclay's bookshelf boasts predominantly Irish authors. Peter Murphy's debut novel John the Revelator: "He's an amazing writer ... every page had a beautiful turn of phrase." Beside that lies the Dublin-based crime novel, All the Dead Voices, the latest in the series starring Ed Loy by Declan Hughes: "He is one of few authors whose books I read within 24 hours of buying, I just shut the world out." And on the domestic front she loves Home Cooking by Rachel Allen, "because I was able to make three of the recipes in the first week I got it!"

Imelda May

For the oomph factor May loved The Bolter: Idina Sackville by Sackville's great-granddaughter, Frances Osborne. She caused quite as stir in her time. "She was one of these people who had way too much time and way too much money on her hands. She married five times, she'd marry and run and that's why they'd call her the bolter." Another on the bedside locker is the 2009 paperback of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale: "It was the first big public scandalous murder case and has been the basis of all murder movies."

Des Bishop

When I speak with Bishop he has just finished Levitt and Dubner's Superfreakonomics: "It was an interesting way of looking at things." But it's just a runner up to Anthony Flint's Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City. Spending much of his time Stateside of late has evoked an obsession with NYC's local history: "These big architectural developers were going to extend Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park for new developments that were essentially looking for a Fifth Avenue address but Jacobs challenged it and won. It was cool to see how all those decisions created the neighbourhood I lived in. It's a brilliant read."

Jane Blunden

This travel writer picked The Secrets of the Notebook, Eve Haas's determined journey to unveil the identity of her extraordinary Prussian family past. "This true story is based on clues from a precious notebook that was handed to the author by her father. It survived five generations in fragile hands on a turbulent journey from 19th-Century heartless aristocratic intrigues to Nazi Germany concentration camps ending up with the present generation in Hampstead in London. I loved The Magnetic North, Sara Wheeler's notes from the Arctic Circle. Her circumpolar journey charts her response to the universal despondency of Arctic peoples beset by drink and life in untidy settlements: resulting from the erosion of traditional means of livelihood on ancestral lands. Finally, Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Living by Declan Kiberd is a must for anyone wanting to get into Ulysses -- a text often too difficult to decipher."

Jennifer Ryan is a freelance book critic. Her blog is at www.theladylovesbooks.blogspot.com

- Jennifer Ryan

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