Mary Hanafin, Minister for Culture

Joseph O'Connor's new novel, Ghost Light, has been sitting on my desk just waiting to be picked up. Joseph is a master of words and imagery and I loved his previous books.

This eagerly awaited novel is much praised since its publication.

Maeve Binchy brings her characters to life and instantly grabs our attention with her wonderfully intimate stories of love, loss and reconciliation and I love supporting my constituents. Currently, I'm reading her collection of short stories, The Return Journey(Orion). Maeve will always be a winner, and a great read at any time.

I'm looking forward to The Twinby Gerbrand Bakker (Harvill Secker).

This debut novel by a Dutch author won the 2010 IMPAC Dublin Award. Because the IMPAC winners are chosen by public libraries around the world, they are always well worth reading.

The novel The Helpby Kathryn Stockett (Penguin, 2009) has been recommended to me and has been somewhat of a sleeper hit since it was published last year. It is about African American maids working in white households in Mississippi during the early 1960s.

And if we continue to get a long hot lazy summer, I will be reading Love and Summerby William Trevor (Viking 2009), who is a beautiful writer.

As told to Kate Holmquist