Integrative nutritionist and host of the Realfoodology podcast, Courtney Swan renders yeoman service with her latest book, Ultra Real Food. A manifesto for healthy eating, a checklist for prudent choice, and a rebellion against what she calls the impunity of corporate "Big Ag", Ultra Real Food succeeds admirably in weaning the reader away from the lure of the standard American diet ("SAD"). The enthusiasm, exasperation, energy, and erudition of Ms. Swan find complete and uninhibited expressions on every page. Ultra Real Food is replete with practical and implementable wisdom: food hacks, shortcuts to decode the seemingly esoteric jargon on product packaging, and pathways to sustainable procurement that benefit both the environment and small farmers. Armed with Ms. Swan's tricks for resisting the relentless, concerted onslaught of the ultra-processed-food purveyors, the reader finds in her book a handmaiden to healthy living and beneficial eating. In this age of abundance, an innocent shopper making her rounds of the supermarket aisle may find herself not merely inundated by choice but bewildered by the innumerable ingredients printed on the packaging. Ms. Swan informs her readers that there are at least sixty-one — yes, sixty-one — different names for sugar on food labels. Do you recognise any of these: high-fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, muscovado, turbinado…?
Month: August 2026
WHERE ARE THE KINGS – DONAL RYAN
Novelist and playwright, Sebastian Barry calls Donal Ryan "the king of the new wave of Irish writers" — and here Ryan pulls another rabbit from his glittering hat. Bleak, dark, deceptive, and beguiling, Where Are the Kings delivers a sledgehammer blow to its unsuspecting reader. As the covers close, it is time to draw a deep breath and contemplate, in silence, a plot that is not merely ingenious but deeply penetrating. A bildungsroman, the book follows the tumultuous journey of young Jack in three arresting acts: tempus edax ("time the devourer of things"), tempus fugit ("the flight of time"), and tempus imperator ("time the ruler"). On the cusp of adolescence, Jack is dealt a devastating blow when his mother, Grace, drowns herself. Unable to bear the consequences of his wife's death, Jack's father descends into mental chaos before being dispatched to an asylum in Limerick.