Busy and Wrecked by Dermot Whelan (Gill Books, €18.99)
A book that purports to assist to “reclaim your calm, regain your lightness” – I was dubious. But then isn’t cynicism a symptom of burnout? The former radio broadcaster and comedian, turned mindfulness expert, articulates in this self-help book many of the thoughts and feelings currently coursing through my WhatsApp group chats. We are all wrecked! Meditation is the primary remedy, Whelan suggests, and a series of bespoke online audio-mediations, available on the author’s website, accompany the book. The obvious flaw here is that this requires accessing the internet, and one online thing, of course, leads to another ... Nonetheless, Busy and Wrecked is certainly an affirming read. Importantly, it will provide the external ‘permission’ we often seek to allow ourselves to recalibrate and reclaim ownership over our own time. Brigid O’Dea
Baltic: The Future of Europe by Oliver Moody (John Murray, £25)
The ancient struggle with Russia for mastery of the Baltic is the focus of a rigorous study by the Times’s Berlin bureau chief who reports on Germany and northern and central Europe. He contends that the Baltic has faded away to the periphery of the wider West’s imagination. However, the complex region is one of the least understood places and the author explains both its particular historical trajectory and strategic relevance. There are insights into why the nine countries bordering the Baltic face similar problems, but often look at them in different ways. Sweden is steeling its troops for every conceivable kind of attack. It has begun reviving its Cold War-era templates for crisis preparedness and has appointed its first civil defence minister since the 1940s. Paul Clements
Shattered Dreams, Sliding Doors: The Republic of Ireland’s 1982 World Cup Qualifying Campaign by Paul Little (Pitch Publishing, £18.99)
As Eoin Hand once said when managing the Republic of Ireland: “In football, you’re either a hero or a bollocks, there’s no in between.” It’s the “in between” that Little captures well here, as he recounts the team’s near-miss qualifying campaign for the 1982 World Cup. Ireland had a golden group of players but faced a tough draw in France, the Netherlands and Belgium. Trawling the archives, Little builds the story to its (anti) climax, with passages of his young-supporter autobiography built in. A much too straightforward writing style weighted with cliche (“all at sea” etc) bogs the book down, and the stylistic repetition of someone’s full name again and again grates as you go along. But followers of the boys in green will take something from it. NJ McGarrigle
