Goodreads Ireland discussion
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What Are You Reading
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I finished reading an old (1967) paperback edition of The Last Battle dealing with the fall Berlin and the final months of World War II in Europe. It written by the Irish historian Cornelius Ryan and was amazingly good - Ryan not went over the major strategic decisions but also told the story of the people on the ground, both soldiers and civilians.
Sounds like an interesting read Frank, I like history books that takes ordinary peoples experience of the big events into consideration.
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My review 4.5 stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As we are doing a Karen Maitland book this month I'm reading her newest The Ravens Head.
Sara wrote: "My review of The Stinging Fly issue 30 volume 2. I'm particularly curious to hear if Barbara knows anything about Nicolás Poblete, a Chilean author featured in tran..."That's a new name to me. I meant to pick up Stinging Fly when I was in Hodges Figis but got distracted. This is a reminder to renew my subscription.
I just started listening to Bertie Plays the Blues. I am reading A Little Life but misplaced my kindle after charging it - another reason physical books are better for me. I have to charge my mini Ipad so I can read it on that. So I am finishing up Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter in the meantime as well as well as A Place Apart by Dervla Murphy. The Murphy book, about Northern Ireland and written in 1979, is dense going but a priceless record of what the North was like through the eyes of a southern Irish woman at the time.
Having finished A Sport And A Pastime (twice!), this morning I have started, and am so far really impressed by, Atticus Lish's debut novel, Preparation for the Next Life. Given it's portrayal of immigrant life in NYC, in a way it fits in very well with my current audio title, Americanah, which I need to finish before my in person book club on Thursday night.I haven't been reading as much physically over the last few weeks, and as a result my tbr shelf runneth over...I'll have to get cracking at emptying it this week before starting back to work on the 24th...
I am still getting my internal clock back on EST so haven't been able to read much in the evening. I am continuing with A Little Life which is a whopping 736 pages. But it is a compelling read. I dipped into the Maitland book and Emma's review is encouraging me to read it. But I do have the 300 plus page Washington's U Street: A Biography to read by the end of this month.
Hi ! I'm back (I always say it here...) I read the play "A streetcar named Desire" by Tennessee Williams and I loooooved it ! I want to read more of his works now. Have you read one of his play ? I'd like to share my opinion with you on it ;)And now, I'm reading an other play, written by Oscar Wilde, "The importance of being Earnest". It seems easy to read, but less easy to understand. I read that the story is based on a misunderstanding.
Hi Pauline, The Importance of Being Earnest is one of my favourite plays but I can see how it could be confusing. It is based on a lot of misunderstandings and Wilde likes to out twists in his plots for comic effect. Are you reading it in English?
Emma wrote: "I'm currently reading Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin. I'm really enjoying it. This is the second biography I've read by Tomalin. I like her style. Despite having ..."Emma, I read her biography of Dickens, and I really liked it. I also have her biography of Hardy waiting on my shelves. I think she's such a talented writer. I'll look for hers on Austen.
Trelawn wrote: "Hi Pauline, The Importance of Being Earnest is one of my favourite plays but I can see how it could be confusing. It is based on a lot of misunderstandings and Wilde likes to out twists in his plo..." Yes, I read it in English. I like it. It was less hard to understand than I believed... If I understand the story on the right way, John is named Ernest at the beginning of the story but he doesn't know it. John lies on his true identity, by calling him Ernest, but in fact he is in the truth. That's a fun story in fact.
Emma wrote: "I'm currently reading Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin. I'm really enjoying it. This is the second biography I've read by Tomalin. I like her style. Despite having ..."Thanks for this piece of advice :)
That's about it Pauline, plus all the relationship stuff :-)
Pauline wrote: "Hi ! I'm back (I always say it here...) I read the play "A streetcar named Desire" by Tennessee Williams and I loooooved it ! I want to read more of his works now. Have you read one of his play ? I..."Pauline, if you loved the play, you have to see the film directed by the great Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando.
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p...
I'm reading Stuart Neville's Those We Left Behind. One of the characters is named Ciaran. Could somebody tell me how to pronounce it? Thanks. So far so good on the book. Allan doesn't have to move. :)
Thank you, Gerry. I had no idea. I happy as a clam now that they're talking about Carrickfergus. I feel like I've been there.
Susan, I was at the launch of the Neville book in Belfast in May and got my copy of the book signed. He was saying at the time that this one was a different style than his previous books. Are you finding that?
I think it's a very different style but very good. I could barely put the book down. I am glad you told me you have a copy. I was going to mail you mine. Of course, it would probably never reach you. Have you read it? Carrickfergus is mentioned in it.
Susan, I haven't read it yet, but will hopefully get to it soon. I believe for once that the crime featured is non Troubles related, which makes a change for this genre, so it'll be an interesting aside. Neville has mentioned Carrick in his books before, and tends to be a touch kinder to the town than McKinty, so it'll be interesting to see what he says about the place when I get to it.
I'm currently reading a French Classic : "Du côté de chez Swann" (in French) and "Swann's way" (in English) written by Marcel Proust. It's the first part of "In Search of the Lost Time". It's a bit hard to understand.
Allan, you are totally right. The only mention of The Troubles is a cop who is retiring mentions no longer having to check under his cars for bombs. The mention of Carrick is about sending DNA evidence there for processing. It is very Belfast oriented and I am sure you will know the neighborhoods it mentions.
I'd say so, Susan-Neville is always spot on with his local geography, and also a wee bit more plausible in his storylines than McKinty-I'll aim to get to this one soon.
Allan wrote: "I'd say so, Susan-Neville is always spot on with his local geography, and also a wee bit more plausible in his storylines than McKinty-I'll aim to get to this one soon."This was on the list of books I just ordered from Kennys. Not sure though when I will get to read it, sigh.
Barbara, If I was you, I would be overwhelmed by the number of books you just got. And now you ordered more from Kennys. Is there room for furniture in your house? :)
Susan wrote: "Barbara, If I was you, I would be overwhelmed by the number of books you just got. And now you ordered more from Kennys. Is there room for furniture in your house? :)"I mentioned my purchases in Ireland, Scotland and NI today at work but not the additional books I've acquired/ordered since returning. My colleagues asked basically the same question - am I going to move out of my house to provide more space for my books:)
I should add that I tend to only keep my Irish/NI and other "foreign" titles and swap or donate other books when I finish reading them. Out of this huge haul, there are about a dozen I'll pass on. So that doesn't solve my space problem except to get through some of the books I have on my shelves now.
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Recommended to Thomas by: GR friends
Read from August 19 to 22, 2015, read count: 1
I enjoyed reading this book and give it a solid 4 stars. Sean Duffy is a Catholic police detective in the Northern Ireland RUC(Royal Ulster Constabulary). The RUC is a mostly Protestant force and the IRA has been known to target Catholic RUC officers. Some of his fellow officers are wary of him because he is a Catholic.
It is against this background that Sean is called to the scene of a grisly murder. The victim has been shot dead and 1 hand has been cut off. The investigation reveals that the victim worked for the IRA and was a homosexual. Homosexual acts are illegal in 1981 Northern Ireland. In addition, the hand does not belong to the victim. Sean believes that he is looking for a serial killer.
The plot moves along very well. The characters are well written and the author gives the reader an authentic look at life in the troubles.
One line that I liked,p.193: "Crabbe got the Ulster fry...pancakes, potato bread, soda bread, sausages, bacon, egg, black pudding, white pudding--all of it fried in lard. A heart attack special."
Sean makes some enemies, but doesn't give up, linking the case to another death. A very neat ending. I read this in 4 days.
Thanks Allan and others for recommending this book. I will be reading books 2 and 3.
I am going to start All That Is Solid Melts into Air group read next.
I'm in the middle of worlds in collision by Immanuel Velikovsky. He certainly is some scholar but I'm a bit unsure about the book. It's quite a tome
Thomas wrote: "The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKintyRecommended to Thomas by: GR friends
Read from August 19 to 22, 2015, read count: 1
I enjoyed reading this book and giv..."
Thomas - I skipped the chance to get an Ulster Fry when I could have. I believe St. George's Market has them. They are definitely "a heart attack on a plate".
Glad you enjoyed the Duffy tale and you should recall that there are four of them so you have 3 more to look forward to.
I have about 75 pages or so of the very long A Little Life. I'm listening to a very good Camilla Lackberg book The Stranger and have just started Washington's U Street: A Biography for my in person book club next Saturday. The author is looking at Washington DC's U Street area to tell the story of the people, predominantly African American, rather than the story of DC as the nation's capital.
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Also, on 2013 trip, we took a bus tour from Belfast w. a 5 minute stop at Carrickfergus castle. Her favorite trip venue is Celebrity Cruises, which has menus w. lactose free symbols for at least 1 menu item every meal.
Thomas wrote: "The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKintyRecommended to Thomas by: GR friends
Read from August 19 to 22, 2015, read count: 1
I enjoyed reading this book and giv..."
I enjoyed reading that book a lot, too, Thomas. Nice review! It reminded me of why I liked it so much.
I'm over half into The Boy at the Top of the Mountain by John Boyne. Its quite different to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. A very good book and quite disturbing.
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The Cold Dish
My review(4 stars)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am currently reading my fourth book by Helene Hanff; Q's Legacy. I am loving it, the story is connected to 84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. She is definitely an author I would love to have met and I'll be sorry when I run out of books by her.
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In the realm of physical books I've gotten distracted from Company of Liars (quite good in its on right) by the large kick ass collection of science fiction, Lightspeed Magazine, June 2014: Women Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue, which will easily go on my top reads of the year list.
Thomas wrote: "@Barbara,when I stayed in Ireland, both Republic and NI, the hotels/B&B had breakfast included and I did have eggs, bread and the 2 puddings, but not the rest. Liz thought the puddings were disgu..."I learned to avoid the puddings. The white pudding reminds me of suet for bird feeders, and I won't even mention the black pudding.
I'm onto a new audiobook Baltimore Blues which is the first in the Tess Monaghan series. It's a good reminder of how she got started.
Oh you don't know what you're missing...it's great :-)
S. wrote: "
I'm reading "My Fight For Irish Freedom" by Dan Breen.
Breen was one of the band who fired the "shot heard round the world" at Soloheadbeg: the open..."
There is a most wonderful book titled 'In their Dreams of Fire' about the Irish war of independence. I'm not sure I can recall the authors name, but it is a huge tome of a book (must have been costly to print) & was a real page turner
Sara wrote: "So after reading and enjoyingAdventures with Jedi, Geeks, and Hobbits: Confessions of a New Media Priest, I put aside audiobooks for a bit in order to catch up on the author's podca..."Sara - do you have an iPhone 5 by any chance? My stopped charging when I was in Edinburgh. This is apparently not uncommon. Luckily Theresa's husband knew the problem as he'd just been through it. Dust etc. gets into the charging port. I just had to clean it out with a pin and then it was fine. Losing phone access when traveling is definitely a huge problem. The Apple Store in Edinburgh had no appointments for days (past the time I'd be there). There was one in Aberdeen, next to the train station, but once I was on the Shetlands, it would have been a problem getting help if it wasn't working.
Daniel wrote: "S. wrote: "I'm reading "My Fight For Irish Freedom" by Dan Breen.
Breen was one of the band who fired the "shot heard round the world" at Soloheadbe..."
Looks like it's on Kindle and available also in the US in paperback. But Amazon shows it as 192 pages so maybe it's not the same book.
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Read from August 24 to 28, 2015, read count: 1
I read this book in 4 days. It was an easy read and a solid 4 stars. Dr. Siri Paiboun, is a doctor who has been appointed chief coroner of Laos. He is 72 and planned to retire, but was not given a choice. He has 2 assistants, 1 of whom has Down's Syndrome. He has almost no equipment--an ancient microscope, a few books and no way to test for poison. Despite all these handicaps, he manages to solve several murders and make some nasty enemies at the same time. He has to deal with Laotian communist politics and corruption while finding ingenious ways to solve his cases.
I don't know if Theresa will ever see this, but I think that she would enjoy it.
So is anyone reading anything exciting this weekend? I'm progressing through Where Are You Really From? by Tim Brannigan, which to be honest is just ok - not as good as I'd hoped. I've still half the book to go, so hopefully it'll pick up. I'm also nearly through the latest Elena Ferrante, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay on audio, and may use one of my credits to buy the first in the Ken Follett trilogy that I bought the third one of recently in Tesco.
I am reading a so-so book from Net Galley. I am getting a little skeptical about reviewing lately. The publisher for this novel wrote me and asked me to name how many Facebook friends and GR friends I had. They asked me a bunch of other questions which I haven't responded to. Then I got an e-mail from a GR author wanting me to review two new books of hers but not publish any reviews under three stars. What? I'm not going to spend my time on that. There's something wrong about asking for a review and then putting guidelines on it. What does everyone else think? Does GR have a policy on this?
Susan wrote: "I am reading a so-so book from Net Galley. I am getting a little skeptical about reviewing lately. The publisher for this novel wrote me and asked me to name how many Facebook friends and GR friend..."What's the point of a review if it's already skewed to be 3 stars or above? I don't blame you, Susan, for dropping that one. I think that's skirting sketchiness to solicit reviews only if they're "good."
I agree. I would report it to GR if I knew how to contact them.
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