Read This: Books under the Radar is a weekly post written by a guest author or bookstagrammer – often a friend of mine, someone I’ve met on my writerly travels, or an author I admire – who recommends three books they think deserve more recognition. If you’re interested in buying any of the books, please click on the covers and give these hidden gems some love. You can see the full list of books which have been selected, as well as the author’s latest book on Bookshop.org, where you can have a browse and buy any that take your fancy. Happy reading!
Read This: Patrick O’Donoghue
Patrick O’Donoghue, aka @podsticles on Instagram is a bookstagrammer whose taste in books I admire hugely, and who I have followed since about 2019. We done one or two Read-Alongs together on Instagram, and Patrick’s love of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove was my inspiration to suggest it as the year’s read for my book club. Here’s what he has to say about himself:
I’m a primary school teacher who has been raving (and sometimes ranting) about books on Instagram since 2017. I’m a big fan of contemporary Irish fiction, and this year, @whatjohanneread and I created the hashtag #IrishAuthors2025 to encourage bookworms to read and share more Irish literature, including the novels that we all have languishing on our shelves.
I’m also a fan of novels set in America, and I’m forever harping on about Westerns as a much-maligned genre that deserves more attention! There are some incredible Westerns out there, including one of the books I’m sharing today.
You can find Patrick on Instagram as @podsticles
St. Agnes’ Stand by Thomas Eidson
When someone hears “Western,” we often think of John Wayne standing outside a saloon, facing off with another cowboy, ready to see who can draw their gun first. Well, put that image out of your head! Westerns have so much more to offer, and my first book is St Agnes’ Stand by Thomas Eidson. This was my introduction to the genre, and it was nothing like what I expected.
Nat Swanson is wanted for killing a man and is fleeing to California. On the run across the New Mexico desert, Nat sees some wagons overturned and surrounded by Apaches, catching a glimpse of an old woman trapped inside. Unknown to Swanson, he has seen Sister St Agnes, who, temporarily protected by the overturned wagons, prays for deliverance from the predicament she and her fellow nuns—along with the orphaned children in their care—find themselves in. Then, in what she believes to be divine intervention, Nat Swanson shows up.
This short novel has it all: a great story, a vast, inhospitable setting, and complex characters. It’s about goodness and faith, survival and redemption. I reread it not long ago, and it still stands up. I would love for more people to read it.
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
I first heard about So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell on the @parnassusbooks account—the bookstore Ann Patchett owns, where she regularly posts videos recommending books. She briefly mentions that Maxwell’s mother died in the 1918 flu pandemic, and that this loss influenced his writing throughout his career. In So Long, See You Tomorrow, our narrator looks back on his youth and reflects on his friendship with another young boy, Cletus, which became especially important to him after the loss of his mother.
The narrator tells the story of a tragedy that befalls Cletus’s family—a murder and a suicide—and the regret the narrator feels about later passing by Cletus in a school corridor and pretending not to see him. While the book primarily tells the story of this tragedy, it is also a reflection on memory and loss, guilt, and regret.
There are many characters in this short book, but it’s told in a way that feels like walking down a road and bumping into people along the way. Characters are introduced, their connections explained, and then we’re off to meet the next person who plays a role in the story. At just 153 pages, it’s a beautiful and melancholy little book, and I loved it.
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
I read Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden in 2017, and there are scenes in this book that I still think about. Set in 1919, it is primarily a WWI story, but it is so much more than that. Xavier and Elijah are two young Indigenous Canadians who have been recruited to fight in France. When Xavier returns to Canada, wounded and addicted to morphine, his aunt Niska, an Oji-Cree medicine woman, takes the three-day journey home with him, paddling north in her canoe toward their home in the bush. As they travel, the perspective shifts between Xavier and Niska, and we learn about Xavier’s time on the battlefield in France and Niska’s memories of Xavier as a child. As they move forward, Niska tells Xavier stories to distract him from his pain, while the unanswered question of what happened to Elijah hovers above them.
This book is many things: a story of war, an account of Indigenous culture and tradition, an homage to family, and an ode to the landscape and nature. I could go on! But what I loved most about it is that it’s a masterful example of storytelling. It’s the kind of book you can lose yourself in, and that’s exactly what I look for in a good read. While it’s not an easy book and will put you through the emotional wringer, it contains key elements I often seek in a book: characters I can invest in, and a journey that is both physical and metaphorical.
I love that Patrick says he looks for a book he can lose himself in; that is exactly what I’m looking for in the fiction I read, and if it is a emotional loss, even better. Have you read any of these books? I’ve read the Maxwell, and can highly recommend it. If you’d like to be told about future Read This recommendations, you can follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter.
More Read This: Books Under the Radar
Lou Morrish author of Women of War
Francesca Ramsay author of Pinch Me
Sarah Leipciger author of Moon Road
Tim Chapman university librarian
Juliet West author of The Faithful
Lindsay Hunter author of Hot Springs Drive
Gina Chung author of Sea Change
Susmita Bhattacharya author of Table Manners
Vanessa Harbour author of Safe
Freya North author of The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne
Judith Heneghan author of Birdeye
Clare Mackintosh author of I Promise it won’t always Hurt like This
Barney Norris author of Undercurrent
Jo Leevers author of The Last Time I saw You
Alice Winn author of In Memmoriam
Anna Mazzola author of The House of Secrets
Alice Peterson author of The Saturday Place
Jenna Smith bookblogger
Lucy Atkins author of Windmill Hill
LV Matthews author of To Love a Liar
Ruth Thomas author of The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line
Jo Furniss author of Dead Mile
Nina Stibbe author of Went to London, Took the Dog
Nussaibah Younis author of Fundamentally
Cara Hunter author of Making a Killing
Leena Norms author of Half-Arsed Human
Cherie Jones author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House
Cate Baum author of The Land of Hope
Carole Burns author of Another Country
Sally Hughes, book blogger
Chloe Lane author of Arms and Legs
Tamsin Hope newsletter subscriber