Ireland Books

I was privileged enough to take a class from Prof. Carey at Cork and we used this book. His translations are excellent and his academic style entertaining, yet rigorous enough for high caliber colleges and universities. Whenever anyone asks me about Celtic source material, I recommend this book. It's fantastic.

This is quite simply an essential volume for any enthusiast of Celtic culture. It has the greatest collection of Gaulish texts available (which are few but still important), as well as the commentary of Roman and Greek neighbors. More than that, though, it also contains countless Irish and Welsh texts, most of which have been out of print and unavailable to the public for many years, such as "The Book of Invasions".

What a gem! For those of us not able to afford the small fortune involved in buying dozens of original texts (which is still on the agenda- one day), Koch and Carey have supplied us with the translations of not only some of the most important texts in Celtic scholarship, but some of the rarest. The ancient Gaulish inscriptions which begin this book set the scene for the rest of the material in a manner quite unique in this field. Whereas usually one might find reference to Irish material in abundance, and some Welsh texts of the High Middle Ages, "The Celtic Heroic Age" provides us with a glimpse of the Golden Age of the Celtic peoples from the very beginning of their written record. Rather than painting a literary picture around these texts, the editors have provided us with a series of views of Celtic culture as seen by the Celts themselves and by their nearest contemporaries. An absolute must for any serious student of the Celts!

My husband and I bought this music to play for a garden party. We are intermediate players and I found several pieces for the flute pretty easy to sight read. Some of the harder pieces can be done with practice. There is a CD provided with all the songs from the book on it, which makes it a LOT easier to pick up the melody and rythyms.

The harder part is the guitar. My husband is not a classical player and is self-taught so he had a more difficult time with his music, so he did not play on these pieces for the garden party, but instead played along on a mountain dulcimer - which sounded very nice also. The music is delightful and a refreshing change from a lot of flute music out there.

This is the perfect collection for intermediate flute and guitar players. I found the music accessible, yet rewarding to play. The CD aids learning and is one of my favorites.

I have had this book and CD for over 2 years now and it is my favorite.IT is absolutely beautiful. The music is touching to the heart and soul. THe music has such feeling. It is so easy to play on the flute.I am impressed that music written so simple can sound so pretty. The Cd plays all 44 songs on flute and guitar in harmony.The CD is beautiful just on it's own. I listen to it almost every day. This is the best music book i have ever seen. My music teacher was impressed by the music in the book also and will be ordering one for herself. The music would be great to be played at weddings or special engagements.
I think jessica and alex did a wonderful job ! This book deserves more than 5 stars.I also want to say some of the music is hundreds of years old, and the feeling i get when i play it takes me away to another century along time ago. It is very romantic!Very easy to play,very simple music theory.

I found this book to be quite helpful to me while I was learning all about my ancestors. It tells you almost everything known about the Celts and if anyone is interested in Celtic Culture, history, or religon I recommend it to you. It is a great book to start out with and to get a clear view on who the Celts actually were, not misconceptions.

I began an interest in the Celtic way of life, and of their decendants several years ago. I've found this to be the one book that is true to life. It tells it like it is, or was. The Celts were strong, often violent...none of that seems to matter here.

This is a historical reference book, but also carries an air of open-mindedness about the actuallity of saint's miracles, druid magick, etc. It is a fantastically illustrated book and I highly reccomend it to anyone intereseted in the ancient Celts.

This amazing book focuses around the the life a woman who truly has an extraordinary life. Born into a poor family, her mother deceives her father and the village by calling Grey a boy. Grey spends her youth believing she is a boy, deformed and must keep her identity a secret. The time is during the 12th century when England is beginning to take over parts of Ireland. Poverty is rampant and the English are gobbling up villages and property and claiming them as their own.

When Grey discovers her true identity, she embarks on a strange journey trying to reconcile the years she spent as a male to the truth of her sex. She goes from being used, to being loved, to becoming a mother, and then continues to change throughout the book.

There were some sections of the book that where I thought "typical - woman is the victim". However, when I put the book down and began to think about it, Grey was a victim according to today's way of thinking. The author does an amazing job at presenting Grey as anything BUT a victim. She is more than just a woman, mother, wife, Irish, peasant, lover. Grey's character shows that there is more to a person then their sex. Someone isn't defined by their "station" in life - wife, mother, woman. Rather who they make themselves.

Great read. Fast paced and well written.

Kate Horsley has never failed to astound me with the books of hers I have read. "The Changeling", I feel, is an excellent follow up to her acclaimed novel, "Confessions of a Pagan Nun".
The setting is the 1300's in Ireland. Grey is a peasant girl who has been raised as a boy. When she realises her womanhood, it takes her on a journey of discovering an identity. As Ms. Horsley breaks it up for us, "Son", "Whore", "Warrior", and "Mother". Each of her identities and phases teaches her different lessons in life until the end when she realizes that nothing can exactly define her. The themes of the novel are the search for identity and in a stange way glory.
Through Grey's eyes, we see all the problems of the age. Including the residing of the Pope at Avignon, the corruption of the Catholic Church, and the smiting Black Death.
The characteristics Horsley gives to Grey lets us experience what is it to be a woman. I believe this is an important message for not only women all over the world, but men as well. Horsley, through Grey's various identities, gives us the complex psychology of a woman.
This is a beautiful story and just as incredible as "Confessions of a Pagan Nun". Once again, it is about discovering who you are. The smoothness of the writing carries you through the pages one by one until before you realize it, you are done.

I was awestruck by this novel. The fact that the author created such a dynamic character is amazing. Grey, born a girl and raised a boy.

A neat read, and about Ireland and the plague. There are some graphic sexual scenes, though, so beware.

This book at times seems dry because of the descriptions of bureaucracy,government,etc. and at time comes off as being like an encylopedia,although one on a specialty subject,specifically:the reign of Charlemagne.It is a thorough job on his reign and I can see the reason for the subtitle,"Father of a Continent",since Charlemagne put into motion most of the organization and ruling qualities that eventually evolved into a European nation.The first part of the book shows how closely Charlemagne was tied to the institutions inaugurated by the Roman Empire and added Frankish tribal mores into these institutions.While Charlemagne spoke Frankish(a celtic-germanic type dialect) he was also fluent in Latin although he couldn't write it.i was never able to figure out how Charlemagne managed the numerous reforms whether he "micromanaged" of just picked good legislators.At times the reforms seem like they were forces by themselves and Charlemagne was smart enough to flow with the tide.The case could also be made Charlemagne was another "petty tyrant" from which Europe would recover from and rise to the status of today. The stereotype "Dark Age" ruler is too often portrayed as a greasy bearded,wine inbibing,concubine chasing,warlord who every once in a while lets "common folk" into his prescence for an amnesty or to give out presents.Then the ruler rides off into the sunnset with a pack of hounds for the hunt all the while making ribald jest.However this book shows an intelligent,justice seeking,education minded,artistic side to the "Dark Age" ruler.As a matter of fact after reading this book,I don't see how Charlemagne could have possibly had time to squeeze in a concubine as pressed for time as he was.In regard to Charlemagne and the pope,the book says that this relationship was not as close as dramatic accounts have previously said.Instead Charlemagne and his counselours primarily looked to their own interests when it came to political issues and church doctrine,and the author suggests that Charlemagne's reverence for the pope was more due to King Charles magnaminous nature than to fear or superstition of divine wrath.Or maybe with all that barbarian cunning he was smart enough to not "upset the apple(or plum) cart.The book is fine tuned down to showing how Charlemagne's administators dealt with the "Darkage" equivalent of today's "draftdodgers" to the details of how slavery issues were treated.I found it interesting how small livestock animals were back then before steroids and that by 800 pretty much all of Europe was settled and claimed so there was little room for hunters and pillagers to operate "riskfree"without stepping on someone else's toes.This is basically still a"barter" economy,coinage not very marked.This book is not a critical bio,because of the lack of sources from this era to compare Charlemagne to so if you lived before the era of the "critical bio",you pretty much have a cakewalk on your position in history due to a lack of or complete abscence of records beyond some scribblings of monks.While the monk could no doubt do a good critique,there would considerations of keeping a good head on one's shoulders.

Mr. Barbero has produced a comprehensive and insightful work, while keeping the book relatively brief and accessible to those who have only rudimentary knowledge of the early Medieval period. The book is organized thematically, not chronologically, but the author maintains a consistent perspective on events, with the result that the reader does not feel as though he/she is wandering aimlessly in a period of time of more than forty years. Mr. Barbero occassionally references modern scholarly debate, adding to the issues his own viewpoints, which are usually quite convincing.

I have found only two caveats:

(1) The book is fairly breif; it is not an expansive guide to Charlemagne's life.

(2) The author spends a great deal of time on the social history of the period, leaving the king far behind. In this respect it is more a history of the kings reign; it is not strictly biography.

All in all this is a solid piece of scholarship.

Barbero's recent text on Charlemagne is by some called "the most important work on Charlemagne in a generation." While I don't feel qualified to make such an assertion, there can be little doubt in my own mind that Barbero's work is a solid, scholarly, and ultimately, successful addition to the collection of works available on Charlemagne.

I ran across this book in Paris in 2004, right after the book had come out in print. A brief perusal of the pages told me that this would be a book in which I would be interested. This was not only because I was interested in Charlemagne per se, but because I was wishing to study more about the educational reforms and policies Charlemagne initiated during his reign, and the effect those movements had on subsequent history. I was delighted to discover that Barbero's book had much of its text dedicated to Charlemagne's educational reforms, and the volume has served well in learning about this important aspect of Charlemagne's reign.

The book is scholarly in its approach, and there can be little doubt that it will serve as a foundation work for subsequent scholarly investigations on Charlemagne. In addition, the work is translated from the original Italian. These two facts - a scholarly orientation and a work translated from one language into another - tend to make the text a slightly more difficult read than a truly popular history. This is in no way to denigrate either: Barbero's scholarship and authority on the subject is easily established, and the translation is first rate, nearly flawless. Nevertheless, there is a somewhat "elevated" (for lack of a better word) style at work here that can make moving through the volume a bit slower than one would expect. Perhaps this is not bad, because there is so much content present here that reducing the speed can bring about greater rewards. But it is indeed something that the reader should be aware of before diving in.

Ultimately an excellent addition to any medievalist's library (or anyone else wishing to learn more about "The King of the Franks"), Barbero's Charlemagne is worth every penny spent and every minute invested.

What makes this page turner so remarkable is that it recounts actual events. If this were fiction, I would have dismissed the book as way too "out there" to merit a willing suspension of disbelief. Simply put, I would not have bothered to read such an outrageous "story" as Leonhard describes. But, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. If you enjoy gripping drama, history, psychology, biography, suspense, and/or all of the above, this book is for you!

A german child growing up inside USSR in the dark age of stalin. Growing up as a young stalinist through the scholar sistem and with his mother prisoner in the gulag. His experience sufering the repression of 1937 - 1938, the WWII and finally the build of the DDR (GDR). This is the vision from an experience and high training soviet scholar, and his progressive discover of the hard and inhuman reality of the soviet system.
Leonhard is one of the most important experts in marxism.

The son of a German communist decides into to seek refuge in the USSR insteadof England,hoping for his dreams of a working class state coming true.After happy years at a school for German communist emmigrants,he is winess of Stalin's turn towards Hitler.The Germen communists,no longer privileged,are sent to Kasakhstan or - shot or sent to the GULAGs.Leonhardt is hapy enough to be trained as a communist functionary at a Komintern school.he is one of the Communist delegation,led by Stalin's messenger ULBRICHT,to fly to Germany.He realises in 1948 at the latest the secret intrigue ULBRICHTS against everyone who wants
a new,democratic Germany and wants his socialist ideals come true.But Ulbricht's policy is a Stalinist system - cynically disguised as a democratic state. In 1948 Leonhardt seeks asylum in the then socialist Yugoslavia.

I found this well researched book fascinating. I have never before read a non-fiction work in one sitting (Then I reread it taking notes). This work undermines (without ever saying so ) many of the cultural myths that drive our current economy. Commons have been viable and sustainable economies and cultures. I should also add that as an avid science fiction reader I found a description of as alien a society as any I have otherwise read about.

I like to order oneeson@hotmail.co

According to E.P. Thompson (Customs in Common) best work on the subject -- and if not the only then certainly the most important. Sorry, I'm not an academic, just a student. For an insightful review, please look in a history journal.

John O'Donahue wrote poetry with the grace and passion of a waterfall -- a grand IRISH waterfall. He was wonderfully Irish in the musicality of his work. His poems are marked by whimsy, humanity, and spiritual power, but they are readily accessible too. I was driving when I first heard a recording of him reading a selection of his poems. Sadly, it was just after his untimely death. (Everyone says "untimely," but he was still in his fifties when he died. What glorious poems are we missing?!) I had to pull over to recover, to steady up. When I got home, I immediately went online to search for his books of poetry. This is the best I've found so far.

Celtic spirituality distilled into a language so rich it makes you swoon. John O'Donohue has synthesized his formidable intellect, the depth of mature spiritual experience and his love of the nature of his homeland into poems of great beauty and poignancy.

At first glance, John O'Donohue's poetry appears simple. That deception is largely due to its brevity and form. Yet it is complex with tiered symbolism. As is frequently the case with poetry, the reader may not "get it" first time through but these verses are worth a second, third, even fourth read. Some, like "Decorum" are so short as to approach the level of Celtic haiku.

"Conamara Blues" is divided into three parts. Since O'Donohue is a Catholic scholar, this may or may not be an intentional acknowledgment of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Family, etc. The middle portion bears a distinctly religious slant, though not unpleasantly so.

The first and final sections are more secular in tone. They touch on diverse topics: nature, the attitudes of foreign tourists seeking the "true" Ireland, the emotional discomfiture of meeting an old flame (" . . . let nothing slip/ From the invisible ruin/ We carry between us"), even death ("you can almost hear the depth/ Of white silence, rising to deny everything.") As befits Irish literature, there are occasional moody, melancholic notes, threaded like quicksilver through an otherwise optimistic flow of imagery.

Americans are unlikely to have encountered old European customs like using the wide wings of a slaughtered goose to sweep the floor around a wood-burning kitchen stove. We hear O'Donohue's sad perspective in looking past human practicality to see those wings no longer ". . . being folded around . . . Embracing the warmth/ And urgency of a beating heart/ . . . Never again to be disturbed/ Every year by the call/ Of the wild geese overhead".

Few of the 54 pieces take the shape of traditional, rhymed verse. If you are in search of that, I suggest the Hallmark section of your local store. O'Donohue's poetry follows its own rhythm and internal rhyme. In so doing, it reminds us that it is the desire and duty of each writer to see beyond the obvious, to take less tangible connections and gently define them for the rest of us.

This is a surprisingly fine book. It is lively and concise. It is efficient, covering all major episodes of Hungarian history from the beginnings to about 1995. It never lingers or goes into excessive detail. The author's opinions are balanced. The translation (from French to English) is really excellently done. There could be more illustrations, but those that are included are good. The rather dull cover leads one to expect a rather dull book, but in fact it is a very satisfying one and easy to digest.

This is an outstanding history of a country and people that deserve to be better understood and appreciated. The Hungarians are not a Slavic, Germanic, or a Latin peoples; their language and heritage are alien to that of their neighbors. In many ways, both historically and culturally, Hungary has been at the crossroads of the events and movements that have shaped the history of Europe. Yet Hungary has also been a forceful shaper and mover itself, its modest current size belying the fact that it was once a potential superpower on the Danube. The history by Miklos Molnar is excellent in every respect and highly recommended.

This is a complete and comprehensive history of the Hungarian land, people, society, culture and economy from its nebulous origins in the Ural mountains of Russia to the elections of 1988. It was written by a Hungarian born, Latin educated, French speaking, Nazi persecuted Swiss historian. The book tells the story of a once upon a time great nation that went into decline following Ottoman, Austrian and Soviet occupations at the same time preserving its unique language and European culture. The author links Hungary's political decline to its social, economic and cultural deficiencies. The country was under Hapsburg domination for four centuries and achieved its independence only after World War I, after having lost two thirds of its territory and half of its population. Now free of Soviet domination since 1990, Hungary seeks its place in the European Union of nations.

In contrast to the usual myths, it is such a pleasure to read a more honest historical account written by two ethnic Polish writers, now, after many decades of war propagandas. As the authors of this book state: 'The 20th century has added its own myths ...after the Second World War, Polish historiography was want to depict a 'Piast Poland' whose boundaries were curiously congruent with those of the post 1945 state'. James Michener's book 'Poland' (claiming that Poland should have rightfully conquered Prussia), is also one of those myths perpetuating fictions. Michener, a fiction travel writer gentlemen, was taken in by his charming hosts, during the Communist Polish government, while writing his book. Some people take his fantasy book 'Poland' as factual history of Poland. In contrast the two authors of this book, Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki have done some factual research. High time that this 'Concise History of Poland' was written and published.

If you have no knowledge of Polish history, this book is a good place the start. The authors recommend Playground of the Gods if you are looking for a more detailed history of Poland, but I haven't read those yet so I can't "offically" recommend them.

This book covers basic events and ideas that occured in Poland for the past 1000 years. In addition to politics and military events, the authors attempt to list cultural figures, such as Chopin, and how those figures reflected or affected Polish events.

There were few details on events most people normally think about when they think of Poland, such as concentration camps and WWII. However, these issues aren't ignored entirely, just given the same coverage as other events in Polish history.

This is beyond a doubt the best history of Poland I have read so far (and I run a website on Polish History). It is concise yet detailed enough for any reader or for the curious. There are fascinating facts that one does not come across in any of the other histories which add to the general background and it is written in a eminently readable fashion. Lukowski is a very familiar name amongst students of Polish History - his account of the Partitions is a classic and the partnership with Zawadzki makes me want to read that historian's work also. I cannot recommend this book enough. If you want a History of Poland then this is the definative version.