Derry Girls & My Reading Life

How re-watching a favorite show made me think differently about my first book of 2025

This week, I started re-watching one of my favorite TV shows, Derry Girls. While I was laughing and marvelling at the writing and cast, I realized something striking: I was the same age as these teenagers growing up in the late 1990s, but while I lived in suburban Western New York, they lived in Northern Ireland during "The Troubles" (the Northern Ireland Conflict). The show's three seasons take place during the final years of Ireland's 30-year political and nationalistic struggle.

It was easy to take my freedom for granted as a kid. But as a 42-year-old woman living in America right now, I sat in front of my beloved Derry Girls with an eerie feeling.

"Why were the things that were closest so often the hardest to see?"― Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

The first book I read this year (my full 2025 reading list is here) was Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, set in a small Irish town in 1985. It's an intense examination of one man's mind as he grapples with his childhood, life choices, identity, and responsibilities as a father and husband. The main character (Furlong) uncovers a cruel and inhumane system at work behind closed doors in his community. Everyone around him choose to ignore this darkness, forcing him to decide whether to look away or take action.

I thought about Furlong long after I turned the last page. The story has stayed with me, like the image of men standing with guns in the background of Derry Girls. Who would I be if I had grown up in 1990s Northern Ireland? What choices would I make when faced with Furlong's moral dilemma? These questions feel close.

I started reading The Dictionary of Lost Words this week, but I’m having trouble getting into it. I may switch to Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel. Do you push through books you don’t love right away or do you put them down?

xo, Corinne

P.S. Small Things Like These is a movie…