 afternoon Christmas almost upon us and if you're looking for some last minute gifts when it comes to reading well let's find out what's popular for Christmas what's popular at this Christmas in the best-sellers list and in particular in bookmark which you'll find it at the Kenny shopping center because Mark Bonshu has joined me now in the studio. Mark thanks for coming in first of all. Good to see you. So popular books great idea for a gift of Christmas obviously because it's almost like a fragrance because you second guess what somebody might like and then you get them you know either a fragrance or in this case a book and with books you know there's so many different genres and and types and writers there is bound to be something to fit. There is and it's a very personal gift as well you know it's something that you have to think about before you yes you know to buy for somebody so absolutely it's a very very popular gift and you can even and make it more personally if you want to put a wee inscription on the inside yes absolutely okay so let's go straight to the popular ones for Christmas because and you know not everybody's aware of what's out there and then just sort of land in sometimes I find a land into a shop and I'm looking around at what's laid out there and you're looking at you know recommendations and stuff rather than having done the homework beforehand so hopefully we'll help to that end a bit so what's what's selling well what's popular this Christmas well Matthew Perry obviously he passed away recently yes his book is it's a really really good read both from a showbiz perspective people are friends friends friends but also he talks about his drug addiction quite a bit which was ultimately led to his demise he was always very open about it yeah nothing that's one of the reasons he was so popular yeah and he struggled he struggled all the way through his career with it you know so he didn't friends lovers and the big terrible thing yeah great title okay so that's that's obviously selling well and popular what else have we got yeah there's a book Katrina Sullivan it's called poor it's really really interesting one I've just started reading it there she was this girl was born to parents of they were both her own addicts born in Birmingham and then she moved to Ireland when she's older they're both Irish parents terrible tough upbringing incredibly tough incredibly tough and it's really well written so alcoholism in there there's drug abuse and she was pregnant herself when she was 15 yeah right yeah and but but she overcame yeah and she's now a professor of psychology at Manuthi University she got her degree in Trinity and she's moved over here now so it is an it's an incredible story of triumph really is it against the odds and well the sort of book sales I suppose well at any time of the year but a particularly a Christmas you know we love stories with a happy ending Katrina Sullivan is called to poor great courage and the life-changing value of self-belief and yeah it's been getting great reviews and it's selling well it says you're the number one bestseller so yeah it's so well written is the one part of it but the other side of it then is obviously she's got into you know what we need to do to try and fix this for future generations and so on so it's a it's quite uplifting in the end goes beyond her story yeah very much so very much okay brilliant want to look out for from Katrina Sullivan and then we've got Marie Cassidy so she's the former state pathologist and she wrote her memoirs a couple years ago and they sold very well this is her first thriller and it's about a pathologist so it's a work of fiction it's a work of fiction fast-paced thriller but it is it's rooted in her expertise so so it's very very accurate and how they solve crimes basically how their job is effectively to solve crimes which is able to dip into her own well wealth of knowledge she's the state pathologist for for years even though it is a work of fiction and body of truth can a great title yeah yeah and it's very well written I've been reading it there yesterday and today it's actually really well written it's I think it'll be I think it's a good book by line says in the hunt for a killer the scars of death that don't lie okay Marie Cassidy with their first and I would imagine won't be our last work of fiction yeah it'll be quite interesting because it's right up there in the bestseller charts so it'll be quite interesting to see how it's received overall this is one that it's it's my height my height life it's an incredible it's incredible that this is in the bestseller's a Christmas it normally a book like this would sell in the summer and would be a you know you just have a small following really for this sort of book but it's it's right up the top the bestseller charts it's written by Rosanna Purcell and influencer model but I suppose above all now a real outdoor enthusiast yeah yeah very much so so it goes through 50 hikes around Ireland and grading how easy they are how difficult they are how to prepare for them you know and there's one I was looking at you've Mokish and you've Mount Arigal and you've great all those ones here as well she hasn't forgotten Donnie Gull no no no she hasn't good good and it's really well illustrated as well this absolutely all the details you would want if you decide to go on one of the walks and she's beautifully illustrated in that there's some beautiful photographs as well and given that she's such a presence of social media you'd expect I suppose the photographs to be good because she's well used to them for the most part it seems like she's out doing these walks on her own and she outlines as well the benefits of just getting out into the outdoors for our mental and physical well-being yeah absolutely absolutely and it's a great family activity you know particularly this time there where everybody's indoors for yeah called a hike life my 50 favorite hikes in Ireland from Rosanna Purcell yeah and then we've got some biographies here Liam Brady born to be a footballer well sporting biographies always tend to do well this time of year they're always a great gift for us yeah yeah and and Liam Brady's well we had the we had the TV documentary which is on I think earlier in the year that's right and now the book yeah and it's again it's very well written book really about his personal stories through all effectively Irish football history I mean he's a he's been there all the way through for for our lifetimes really no he has is he was attached to the Republic of Ireland squad as a player and then I think maybe as a coach but also over at Arsenal as a coach as the Academy he was he was one of the I think maybe one of the founders of the Academy yeah he set up the Academy system yeah completely upgraded it he took it into the modern era yeah there you go so we're falling behind so it was a great story to tell and not just playing in in England with with Arsenal but also then I moved to Italy and played with the event isn't and had a great career in Italy and obviously it's time with the Republic of Ireland and for those remember Liam Brady it's just an incredible footballer yeah but it's a very accessible book as well it's very well written you know it's and it's very easy to read so well the cream always rises to the top so there's plenty of sporting books out but it's the ones that are well written despite what kind of a story they have to tell yeah and given and given their own personal experience as opposed to just you know the facts of you know which a lot of biographies tend to be that okay no we like to get you know the stuff behind the scenes yeah yeah absolutely that's Liam Brady born to be a footballer my autobiography yeah we got Billy Conley here rambling man great and that's it that's a great book for somebody who doesn't read much because it's all short anecdotes two or three pages each of all of his life's traveling around the world and all the experiences he had through the whole lot so it's it's a really good one that you can put down and pick up again it's not in chronological order you don't need to worry about remembering any of the facts it's something you can just pick up for 10 minutes and then put it down again for a month and pick it up again so it's a really nice one for somebody who doesn't read that much or would like to get into reading totally totally yeah but I like you know even I'm stuck into a fairly meaty book I like it when it's broken up into short chapters yeah yeah I think it's just you know it helps me anyhow to digest it I'm just looking some of the photographs here and his travels he was great traveler as well I don't know if he travels much anymore but it's just a great traveler yeah he's in his 80s now and he's actually written the book you know he's just written the book in his 80s so he's still there you go still delivering okay Billy Conley rambling man my life on the road and if anybody can tell a good story it's Billy yeah and then we've got Kami Chris Kamara who never really made it famous as a footballer but what is much much loved as a pundit and great font really really good fun that guy and sadly then was diagnosed with I'm just reading the back of the book here and apraxia this is a rare brain condition that affects speech and he found that he was struggling to speak when he was live on on TV yeah and he was tripping all the time as well yeah and he went public with the news and and as you know brought a lot of people and give him a lot of people an insight and comfort from the fact that he has gone has gone public with it but it says my unbelievable life and again it'll bring us behind the scenes very much so very much so and he's great fun he's he's you know he's great fun you tell that from his time and it's kind of interspersed with the you know the stories about how his illness has affected him as well but it's very much the lighthearted side of just having fun just to know how to have fun in your life I suppose yeah yeah and some of the report there's a very famous clip about ascending off that's right I didn't even know that it happened and then it's very very funny and yeah it's called a cami written by Chris Kimara yeah and then I brought in Britney Spears one because it's a book that usually popular absolutely it's right up the top the best sellers but it's a lot of people who never would never read any other book will read that one so if there's somebody that you want to give a gift to that might get into reading that's particularly for a daughter it's a it's a really interesting book and a good story as well you know again someone who's overcome a lot in her life and and you know you're right or off at your peril and we're chatting earlier about Katrina O'Sullivan entirely different sort of a background here and upbringing but but a woman who had overcome a lot in young life in particular yeah and then she was thrust into the spotlight at a very young age and was one of the most famous women in the world at that time absolutely and has outlined a lot of her well there are more recent problems as well in the book and the conservative house pronounce a conservatorship that she had to go through as well and she's at the other side now but it's called anyhow the woman in me from Britney Spears yeah and then the last two were if I came to you any year in the last five years these are the two David Williams and Diary Wimpy kid have been the most popular books for sort of eight to eight to twelve year olds I was the last for every single year I was looking through and kids books kids books again at Christmas very popular and these are the two that and it was a long list but these are the two that jumped out of those two and the Guinness Book of Records they're just number one two and three every single year for just it's incredible absolutely incredible it's an easy gift because it's got such broad appeal yeah yeah and I think parents who want their kids to get into reading it's a really again it's one the kid can open it up and close it again and you know that sort of thing it's it's a nice one to have around in the house yeah sitting in the bathroom and it's gone for it's gone for 60 years now at the stage wow wow but the Diary of a Wimpy kid no-brainer and David Williams latest one the blunders it's called and very accessible very very easy to read easy for kids to get into and enjoy and the great thing is if they get into that book then there's all the back catalog what happens to happen is they read one and then they start buying the other ones you know so they get into reading that way you know because they're very well written books absolutely absolutely well plenty to choose from there and that's and that's just in a way that's just the the tip of the iceberg because it's just when you're standing at the book shelves that you realize just the well the number of great Irish writers that we have a number of great books that are out there and as you mentioned earlier you know a book always makes a great gift of Christmas absolutely absolutely okay Mark and thank you very much for that and a very happy Christmas to you and thank you John happy Christmas to you around the North