Ireland Books

This is the only guide you you need to Rome. It is complete, well organized, easy to use and unbiased. The guide contains enough information yet is still light enough to carry around.

Great photos and book design, laid out to give the important information without overload, easy enough to carry with you in the street. Good breakdown of the areas within the city and the major sights. Would be an excellent book to look at if you are thinking of going to Rome to get a feel for the city. The maps are very good, the walking itineraries are very good; shopping, eating and entertainment is reviewed at the back of each city section. Only weak point is that only 14 hotels are reviewed, but those 14 are enough of a variety to get you a nice place. Well worth buying if you are heading over there.

Mr. Ireland presents a biblically sound and well-balanced book on how to be activated in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. This book is not spiritual fluff but offers a sound theology on how God manifests His grace through the believer. I especially enjoyed Mr. Ireland discussion on the redemptive nature and purpose of the Gift's of the Spirit. A must get book for any believer's library.

I really enjoyed Mr. Ireland's discussion of soveriegn acts, acts of grace and co-laboring with God. Though the bible speaks of the Gifts in the book of Acts, I think it is a subject that is looked upon as something that "holy rollers" do. Mr. Ireland explains what the different gifts are and how God gives these gifts to all of his children. It helped me to see the gifts not as something scary or strange, but as something wonderful and to be used for the glory of God.

This man is irrepresible. Another biography you have to thank the publishers for realising it was worth reprinting.

There has been a lot of interest recently in the Peninsular War - and it seems the laconic and witty officers of the 95th (later the Rifle Bridgade) were amongst the best in retelling their experiences. Perhaps it was that they were a different breed of officer - the 95th starting off as an experimental 'light' regiment, a corps established as skirmishers. They didn't fight in line, column and square and so didn't need to spend the hours on the drilling square. Instead they were encouraged to think for themselves and trained to take advantage of every piece of ground for harrassing the enemy.

And for light and witty reflections on Peninsular life, Kincaid is the master. He has a marvellous line in self-deprecating wit that you just can't help liking. For all its humour it is nor short on detail though and it is easy to take your mind back to life as they must have experienced it - at war in a foreign country 200 years ago.

A must buy!

Kincaid's thoroughly entertaining account of his participation in some of the major campaigns on the Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars makes for lively, sometimes funny reading, though Kincaid never loses touch with the grim realities of warfare. His self-depricating humor, heart-felt patriotism, and sensitive reactions to death and destruction bring him to life, and makes the reader wish he/she had known him. He spends most of the book describing every-day life in Wellington's army, the hardships of traveling with an outnumbered and ill-supported force. His accounts of the battles are vivid and engaging. This work was extremely well-received at the time of its first publication, and is one of the sources for the popular Sharpe's series by Bernard Cornwell. It makes a wonderful companion book to anyone who appreciates Cornwell's ragtag officer.

The book, The Age of Shakespeare, takes my breath away! The many color prints and illustrations add beauty to a informative book. This is a well thought out book about Shakespeare and his times. I really enjoy reading it.

This is a great little book. Reading it won't give you a master's degree in Shakespearean studies, but it will give you a quick and interesting overview of many different subjects. The chapters are brief and topical: a discussion of Shakespeare's origins in Stratford, life and politics in Elizabethan England and London's theatres offer a fascinating glimpse into Shakespeare's world and works. The second section of the book, "Documents", looks at some of the primary sources for our understanding of Shakespeare, both documents from Shakespeare's life (a contract, his will, the First Folio), but also writings by those who saw the original plays, discussions of theatrical productions through the ages, and criticism by centuries of academics from John Dryden's 17th century analysis to modern feminist approaches.

The Age of Shakespeare is the perfect weekend read for those who want a bit of context about the plays and their origins. It is informative without being heavy. The dozens of color plates and illustrations are gorgeous, and the writing is intelligent and clear. A wonderful sampler

The Age of Stonehenge was originally written in 1980. Colin Burgess subsequently left the field of the early prehistory of the British Isles for work in the Mediterranean on the Phoenicians and the Sea Peoples. The book has subsequently seen new editions in 2001 and 2003, which suggests that the material is both well presented and well researched. If it is any indication of his thoroughness one can only regret his early departure from English pre-history and his early retirement from the academic world in general.

While I found the first few chapters a little difficult to get through because they deal primarily with pottery styles, I enjoyed the book as a whole. It filled in a great deal of information with respect to the culture of the age of Stonehenge, and corrected several misapprehensions I had acquired from other reading. Most importantly, it presents a fine overview of modern archaeology as applied to a period that many people think they already know!

I was particularly impressed with the introduction of more recent information on the character of early settlement and subsequent culture change. Early books on the topic accredit population movements, invasions, and total replacement of one culture by another. Having taken some archaeology classes on European archaeology within the past 5 years, I had become aware of professional doubts on this topic. The tendency of past researchers to think in terms of nations, ethnic groups, etc., probably because we live with these social structures today, had produced a map covered with tribal names and arrows of migration that is now being discredited. As the author notes, it is more likely that culture and populations remained stable for centuries, in contact and exchanging cultural variables among them along shared borders. The archaeology of the British Isles bears little credence to anything like massive invasions. He does note the movements in the period of the Sea Peoples in the Mediterranean and suggests that during this time considerable movement of people may well have occurred in the British Isles as they did elsewhere.

What surprised me particularly was the degree of organization of property and control over land and people. One has the impression of á relatively open society with everyone living much the same as everyone else and of mass efforts to erect major monuments for which the group felt the need. It is abundantly apparent that the building of Stonehenge and other major works required a large labor force, but one does not necessarily carry that idea forward to the conclusions that naturally would arise from shear numbers. What kind of life did these people live? How were they organized on a day to day basis? Was there a cooperative effort across geo-political borders? Etc. The author answers many of these questions.

Among the specific data Burgess provides, I was most surprised by the apparent lack of artistic sense among craftsmen of the day-he noted that most of the artifacts found are very functional with little or no decoration. That pragmatism seems counter intuitive, since evolutionary studies seems to base the very concept of "modern" man on artistic criteria like the cave paintings of Spain and France, the Venus figurines and other artistic products: the difference between "modern humans" and "anatomically modern humans." I was also surprised by the apparent lack of a weaving/spinning tradition in the Isles until the 1st millennium. It seems so basic to the culture of other places, that it's late introduction here is surprising.

This book is the most comprehensive overview of found objects and conclusive evidence that I have read to date. It is old, but that doesn't matter, since the material it covers is much older. Fascinating! A little difficult to get through at times, but factual, and therefore and invaluable resource.

This is by far the best book on Kenmare and its surrounding county Kerry i have had the pleasure of reading!
It is truely a magnificent read and will have you booking a holiday to kenmare in no time.
Finally a book that doesn't just give detail and fact but a heartfelt account of a very special place indeed written by somebody who has quite obviously fallen in love with the quaint town and it's surroundings.
I would reccomend this book to literally anybody who has stayed in kenmare at some point or even just past through while possibly travelling the ring of kerry.
Theres just so much to this part of Ireland that is not known or has been forgotten as the generations get older and time passes, What Stanley Goddard has compiled is a result of years of relentless exploring and researching whether he attained this valuable and compelling information from local towns folk (much of which, like Stanley, are no longer with us!) or from age old history books.
Also an avid photographer, Stanley documented much of what is written about in this book apparently and we can only hope to see an accompanying book of photographs released in the comming months!
This book will appeal as much to the people of Kenmare as it will to the many tourist's passing through each year!
I thoroughly recomend this to anyone who has ever been lucky enough to visit Kenmare and its surrounding beautiful country.

If you love Ireland, history and travel, you will love this book!!! Imagine touring Kenmare with a guide to tell you the history of the people and places you encounter along the way. Beautifully written, it makes you want to jump on a plane and fly to Kenmare to see everything described in the book.

This book is an excellent addition to the literature on the Vietnam war, providing us with a new perspective. It is full of novel information but still easy to read, which is quite an achievement. It is particularly interesting -- given the current political situation -- to learn how eager the British government was to support Kennedy's Vietnam policy. This is a real revelation.
The book's approach is truly international, and the research is more than impressive. Among the archives the author used are the national archive of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, and of course Britain.

In this brilliantly-researched study, Peter Busch examines the Conservative government's policy towards the US war against Vietnam for the years 1961 to 1963. The author, who formerly worked at the Public Record Office at Kew, has thoroughly mined newly available records from Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. He also shows how British policy towards Vietnam related to wider policy towards South-East Asia, especially towards Indonesia. In both cases, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan ruled out negotiated settlements and preferred to use force.

Busch shows how Macmillan fully backed President Kennedy's aggressive military build-up in Vietnam, `a clear breach' of the Geneva agreements, while advising him to conceal it. Macmillan pretended to be a peacemaker, while actually supporting the US war. He aimed to keep Britain's `great power' status and prove its value as a US ally.

As co-chairman of the International Control Commission set up by the 1954 Geneva Conference, the British state abused its role in order to support the illegal, dictatorial Diem regime in the south. It backed up Diem's unwarranted claims that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was responsible, `whether there was evidence or not', for starting the civil war in the south. It used these claims to rule out the DRV's call for reconvening the Conference to negotiate the peaceful reunification of Vietnam.

Macmillan helped the US counter-insurgency effort, setting up the British Advisory Mission in 1961. British forces also trained Diem's troops in Malaysia. In 1962, the British Ambassador to Saigon urged the USA to `crush and eradicate the Viet Cong'.

The British government only dropped Diem when it discovered that his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, was willing to discuss peace with the DRV. It then backed the US coup against Diem that sabotaged the chances of peacefully reunifying Vietnam.

Busch concludes that the British government did not pursue peace. "Britain supported the American policy in Vietnam wholeheartedly. The British only wanted to `sell' this policy in a different, less confrontational way." Plus ca change! This superb book vindicates all those who opposed the US aggression against Vietnam.

Amma was an amazing woman - this book deals with the timeless struggles of single missionary women in a way that is both inspiring and genuine. She speaks with honesty, but focuses constantly on God. A great book that shows all sides of the missionary life - the day to day struggles, and also the spectacular triumphs that come from years of seeking the Lord.

Some disconnected thoughts about this book (forgive my scatteredness):
It takes a fairly literary modern mind to enjoy Amy's original books. She was a Victorian-era Irishwoman, after all, and-- well, how many Victorian religious writings do we read with ease? She's an amazing woman, but her writing's a little dense for most of us today. This book is still pretty dense-- but it does a great job of relating her writings to modern life (via the author's own reflections) while still presenting a very large amount of Amy's own original thoughts and poems. The result is an easier-to-read Amy Carmichael sourcebook that works both as a cover-to-cover and as a reference read.

Skoglund groups Amy's writing topically by chapter rather than chronologically; this is not exactly a biographical book. If you open it looking for a strong plot, you'll be disappointed. However, if you open it looking for a fresh treatment of Amy's writing that enables you to access her wisdom on an array of subjects (and return to applicable chapters as you need her bracing words of encouragement), you will be delighted.

I've read Eliot's biography and enjoyed it, but this is the one I pull out when I'm looking for something I remembered Amy saying. It's much more full of Amy's own words.

Soviet Russia, under the faith of Marxism, tried to stamp religiosity out of the country. Rather than compete in the marketplace of ideas, as should have been done (but which always results in great variance in beliefs), the approach that was taken was more akin to stubborn parents trying to tell their teenage daughter that they do not approve of her boyfriend. This, of course, does nothing to lessen the girl's interest in the boy. Much of what followed in the attempt to replace old Christian faith with the new Marxist faith entailed atrocities every bit as bad as those found during Christianity's darkest hours, and really wasn't all that different than the inquisition itself.

For fans of history, this is a look at a fascinating time after the Russian revolution. The time this book covers happens within twenty years of the two world wars and the great depression. Obviously, the first wide scale attempt to force atheism on a population would get overshadowed. A lot of good stories in here, written in an easy to read fashion. Stamping out faith wasn't the first concern of the communists, but government barbarities were set up to deal with the issue creating some interesting interactions with the uneducated populace. The most ambitious of plans had to be scrapped due to resistance.

Save your money and buy some comic books, you'll get more realistic plot development and characters. The writer has evidently never been inside a real police department or embassy or has any knowledge of how the real world works outside of Dublin pubs.

If you like accuracy and reasonable plots -- forget this. If you wander into mystery to totally escape from the real world, then you might enjoy it.

I will also admit that I did not finish it. After the third or fourth female character was introduced, every one of which was a contender for Miss World, I decided to just trash it.

Cheers,

In a crowded Dublin street, a bomb goes off, killing several innocent people. The police investigation is headed up by detective superintendent Blade Macken, whose personal life is as tattered as the bomb area. Blade quickly learns that the deadly blast was detonated beneath the street, making its trail ice cold because the bomb had to have been planted when the street was dug up several months ago.

However, Blade is soon contacted by the deranged Angel, who tells him more bombs have been planted beneath the city's streets. They will all go off to coincide with the American president's visit if he does not receive $25 million very soon. Blade begins to investigate the case from the one clue the killer did leave in his phone call -- he knew Blade. Looking into his past to try an uncover the identify of a crazed murderer, Blade does not particularly like what he sees about himself and his dysfunctional family. Still, he has a bomber to catch with little time remaining so he must stop his nightly drinking and his introspective outlook to seek out the killer.

ANGEL TAPE is a well written, extremely exciting novel, starring a new anti-hero, performing a heroic task. The story line is action packed and, for the most part, moves forward rapidly. However, Blade's personal life, though needed for a motive, tends to drag the tale a bit. Readers, who enjoy thrillers, should skim through those passages, because overall David Keily has written a remarkably exhilarating police procedural.

Harriet Klausner