Ireland Books

Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2006 is an inspired, and inspiring prayer guide arising from the increasingly popular website www.sacredspace.ie. Sacred Space offers a unique and enlightening way for the reader to self-reflect, meditate and pray each day of the year, as well as providing opportunities to quietly connect with God, affording a space in which the reader can become spiritually nourished, involved, healed and enriched. A strong recommendation for Christians seeking a higher sense of spiritual self or contentment.

Millions of people around the world have benefitted from the experience of praying on a daily basis with the interactive web site "Sacred Space". In my own daily prayer rituals, my reading of the day's scriptures at Sacred Space creates a quiet time for reflection and contemplation. Now, through this new book, the same experience is available without the need for a computer.

Organized around weekly themes, the readings for each week actually commence with the new liturgical calendar in November, 2004. A reflection at the beginning of each week supplements the daily readings and questions. Whether you are looking to establish a daily prayer ritual or to enhance your existing spiritual journey, you will benefit from this wonderful book.

The website www.sacredspace.ie may be one of the best kept prayer secrets on the web. Started by Alan McGuckian and Peter Scally, two Irish Jesuits, the site offers prayer suggestions based on the daily Mass scriptures used in the Catholic Church and the basic methods of Ignatian prayer. The site also offers seasonal retreats and newsletters to better help people pray. People can sign up to receive newsletters, participate in online retreats, and share feedback. People can also log on to use the daily prayers, but for those of us who do not like sitting at a computer to pray, there is a companion volume: SACRED SPACE THE PRAYER VOLUME 2006.

The book is set up in an easy to use format. It follows the liturgical calendar and begins with a monthly reflection. For each week there are reflection questions that vary from week to week to help the person focus on scripture and God's movement in his/her life. The method is rather basic. First the person reminds him/herself that prayer is being in the presence of God and clears the mind. Second, the person asks for God's help in the time of prayer, remembering that while prayer is a free act, it is only fruitful with God's help. Third, we bring ourselves to prayer, bringing our thoughts, feelings, moods, etc. to prayer and sharing them with God. The fourth step involves reading the scripture for the day, the fifth is reflection and conversation with God about the scripture. The prayer ends with the sixth and final step, praising and thanking God.

SACRED SPACE is almost the perfect guide for personal prayer. Since it uses the daily Mass gospels, it is a prayer that unites members of the Church throughout the world. It is easy to use so a person beginning a prayer routine will not be intimidated yet since it is based on God's word through the scriptures, it is both simple and sophisticated. It is a method that can be done in a rather short period of time yet can easily be extended to longer periods. It's also a method that can be used at any time of the day. It could easily be something that begins the day (probably the ideal way to use the book), be a refresher for midday, or a good way to conclude the day.

P.S.: For people who have to prepare a homily for daily Mass and run out of ideas, the reflection questions in the book can be a wonderful way to sound new and fresh, and since it stems from prayer and reflection, it is what a homily is supposed to be.

Since its inception in 1999, the popular website sacredspace (www.sacredspace.ie) has drawn over 16,000,000 pilgrims to pray through its simple, yet effective, six-stage prayer process. The website is currently translated into twenty different languages and is the most popular online prayer site in the world. The success of sacredspace led its creators, the Jesuit Communication Center in Dublin, Ireland, to develop a book form of the website in conjunction with Ave Maria Press. This year's edition is Sacred Space: the Prayer Book 2006, retail price $12.95.

The genius of Sacred Space is the six-stage process that is part Ignatian prayer and part lectio divina. Through simple meditative techniques and imaginative/reflective interaction with Scripture, Sacred Space gently leads you into genuine encounter with the Living God. The first stage of the process is entitled the Presence of God. This stage is designed to gently remind you that God is as present to you as your own breath. The second stage, Freedom, helps to create a space of openness in your heart to hear and receive the gentle voice of the Spirit. Consciousness, the third stage, is essentially an Ignatian Examen of the past day. It is a time to give thanks for blessings received and confess sins committed. Fourth, The Word is a lectio divina reflection on a short Scriptural text. Conversation, the fifth stage, is a period of simple intercessory prayer and conversation with Jesus. The process ends with a benediction or Conclusion. The entire process for each day can be completed in as little as ten minutes.

Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2006 covers the entire liturgical (church) year beginning with the first Sunday in Advent, and includes weekly versions of the six-stage process (the wording varies for more variety), a brief meditation for each week, and lectionary based Scripture readings with reflection questions for each day of the week. I highly recommend this excellent resource to anyone interested in a daily devotional process that if faithfully practiced, delivers day after day.

We used this book in a "Five in a Row" style the week before St. Patrick's day and my kids got so much out of it. It's a little book full of great information about a great Christian. It was an introduction for them to missions, persecution, slavery, Ireland, the Trinity, and more. We followed up our study with Celtic music and a meal of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, green shamrock-shaped honey rolls and green lemonade just for fun.

Ann Tompert, an excellent author of children's books, has done it again in her wonderful style of writing. It will be most enjoyed by those 5-10 years old, with 3rd to 5th graders being able to read it for themselves. She wrote this book based on the facts present in one of St. Patrick's letters. It is primarily about his life to when he got home from his slavery, and prepared to return to Ireland. Only one page is spent on his ministry in Ireland. Then it talks about his days of slavery and incarceration later in his life ending with how his being in Ireland has continued to affect it. There is only one page of writing for every two pages open. Most pages of writing only have 7-12 lines of typing on them. The illustrations are great. As the School Library Journal Editorial Review states it: "It is mounted in an exceptionally handsome format, with a formal presentation of the text on yellow backgrounds richly framed by borders of brown and gold, facing full-page, mixed-media illustrations of power and distinction, gleaming with brilliant color. The artistic style is decorative yet forceful, with an interesting variety of landscapes and flat, simple, but very expressive human figures."

This is a great book for people who wan't to know a little basic information about the life of St. Patrick. It explains wonderfully for children and adults! It talks from birth to death. There is little information about his childhood, but Ann Tompert covers it best she can.

Long ago in the forth century a boy was born in Britain,his parents called him Succat but later in his life he was called Patrick. He grew up with his parents in Britain they thought him about God. He was not a religious man until he was captured by the Irish pirates and sold as a slave. His master was very kind to him. He tended his flocks and while doing that he prayed to God and started to communicate with him. God deliverd himfrom his bondage and show him the way home back to his parents. There he thought people about God after a few years he went back to Ireland and spread the word of God,he was captured and put in prison but he still teach people about God and started many churches and stayed there until ha died.

This book was extremely informative and I would recommend it highly for any scotch whisky aficionado. The book allows you to create a vivid mental picture of how old distilleries must have been, plus the illustrations are great. Scotch Missed will further your knowledge on the history of this fascinating industry.

....when did Brian Townsend change his name to Michael Jackson? Is it possible that "magellan359" got a wee bit off course from one wee dram too many? Other than that, it's an ok review except for the fact that it's more about him than about the book, not what one would expect from one of Amazon's "top" reviewers. Oh, well...

Highly informative paperback on scotland's lost whisky distilleries, including those which have closed in recent years and whose whiskies can still be found in specialist shops or the occasional liquor store that doesn't realise the gems it has on its shelves. Definitely a must for the whisky enthusiast looking for a dram of a book.

Many of Scotland's distilleries had closed in recent (and not-so-recent) decades, and I thought I'd mention some of my favorites, which Townsend discusses in his book.

Some, like the heavily peated Islay, Ardbeg (which I understand has been re-opened, fortunately), were justly famous; others, like Dallas Dhu and Millburn, were more obscure, but their closing was still a loss. People used to make jokes about the Dallas Dhu name (which means "black glen" in Scots Gaelic), but it really did produce a fine malt, and I had fun doing tastings of it with friends back in the late 80's, when it was still readily available in independent bottlings at different ages and from different independent bottlers. It was notable for some semi-sweet chocolate notes, a rare flavor and essence in scotch whiskey, and I used to enjoy it very much. The only other malt that comes to mind with a chocolate flavor to me right now was a 25-year-old bottling of Scapa, a 1968 or therabouts issue, if I remember correctly. But anyway, it certainly was a fine malt and worthy of comparison with the Dallas Dhu. One time I put on a tasting for other single-malt afficianado friends and acqaintances of almost nothing but "vanished malts," of which I had bottles of about a dozen at the time, and we all had a great time tasting their whiskies and talking about single-malts and whatever.

Although bourbons and cognacs are impressive spirits too, if there is one thing that separates single malts from the others, it's the sheer spectrum of diversity and intensity of the many qualities that they possess. The intense, crystal-clear essences and flavors of this great distillate are unique, and in truly appreciating a fine dram of one of the great single malts at the end of a day, even life's more pressing problems seem to themselves vanish for a moment. As someone once wrote, life is still worth living as long as there is a good single-malt available. And perhaps that's why it translates from the Gaelic as "the water of life."

But getting back to Townsend's book, here he gives a nod to the history and scotch of the many famous and more obscure distilleries and whiskies of Scotland that are no longer with us. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about all the different distilleries, even the defunct ones, but I still learned some new things from this enjoyable book, and I would recommend it to any and all single-malt enthusiasts who are looking for something different in a book about scotch.

The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook is probably the easiest cookbook I've ever tested and reviewed. My family has gotten used to my cooking experiments. They always know when I have a new cookbook. Everyday for a week or two, I'll spend hours cooking up a storm. Then, they'll tentatively try the dishes and give me their verdict on whether I should make it again sometime.

With The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook, I completely confused my family. I cooked and they tried the dishes but the majority of the meals, snacks, and desserts were already familiar to them. They were my old standbys many of which I learned by watching my mother and grandmother cook. I even found a few dishes that I remember enjoying as a kid but couldn't find a way to replicate. Now I have the recipes and I can pass them onto my children and grandchildren.

`The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook' by Scottish / American culinary writer, Kay Shaw Nelson is another cookbook offering by the relatively low-priced, low profile publisher, Hippocrene Books, Inc. which has a large selection of cookbooks about many of the lesser world cuisines in `The Hippocrene Cookbook Library' as well as several books on Scottish and Irish subjects.

I have reviewed a few of these Hippocrene Books and compared to those offerings, this volume is superior to most, although it may not be the very best source for traditional Irish or Scottish recipes. On the other hand, I especially like this book for the fact that it seems to have very good versions of many recipes that may be so common that many flashier cookbooks may not even deign to cover them. My favorite here is the recipe for Scotch eggs, which recently came to fame as a dish prepared on `Iron Chef America' by the `Too Hot Tamales' (Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger) in a battle against Bobby Flay. The recipe made such an impression that while I remember it, I don't remember the secret ingredient or who won the battle.

I also like the fact that there is a much greater similarity between the two Celtic culinary cultures of Scotland and Ireland than there is between, for example the modern cuisines of Spain and Portugal, which some have lumped together. The biggest difference between the two may be the time at which each was influenced by contact with the French. For the Scottish, during the era of Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, when Scotland and France were active allies against Protestant England. For the Irish, it seems to be much later, beginning in the early 20th century, when Ireland first became independent, and preferred to trade with France than their former colonial masters, England.

While every culinary tradition on earth seems to make a case that they are more congenial entertainers and friends of travelers than anyone else, the Irish can document the fact that not only do they really enjoy a good gathering over beer or spirits, there were actually LAWS passed, the Brehon laws of the Gaelic Celts of the 5th century AD, enforcing hospitality toward strangers and travelers.

The chapters in this book are a great reflection of what is important to these Celtic cuisines:

Starters, including meatballs, lots of oysters and prawns, and the famous Scotch eggs. I'm surprised to find a perfect recipe of the shrimp cocktail, which may have come to these shores from Scotland or Ireland instead of the more easily suspected French.
Soups, especially featuring leeks, which seem to be a native and not a French import. The most famous, of course, is Scotch broth, which is heavy with lamb and barley.
Egg and Cheese Dishes, featuring many dishes from the famous Scottish and Irish breakfasts, including that mysteriously named cheese dish, Scotch Rabbit.
Barley, Oats, and Cornmeal with lots of porridges and cold cereals, such as Muesli.
Seafood, including lots of finny animals from freshwater lakes and streams such as salmon and trout. The most famous recipe here may be kedgeree, a rice, fish, and egg casserole. I just wonder exactly how old this recipe actually is, as two important flavorings are Worcestershire sauce and curry powder, two very British ingredients which may be not much more than 150 years in the British Isles.
Poultry and Game recipes look suspiciously like recipes from southwest France (See Paula Wolfert's great study of recipes from this region). This may either be primordial Celtic influence from Europe or later emigration from Protestant France to the British Isles.
Meats includes a lot of beef as in corned beef and cabbage, corned beef hash, and beef tartare, plus lots of lamb dishes and, oddly enough, several hamburger recipes. Makes me think our favorite meaty fast food came from Ireland rather than northern Germany, as its name suggests.
Vegetables is lots of mashed potatoes and what to do with mashed potatoes the day after. It also shows that the Gaelic cuisine is one of the very few outside Japan that features seaweed.
Bread, especially quickbread based scones and soda bread, which don't use yeast, plus boxty, that famous refuge of day-old mashed potatoes.
Cakes and Cookies, oddly, is separated from desserts, possibly because these are recipes for things served at tea and not after a late supper. The highlight is oatmeal cookies and Scottish shortbread.
Desserts features lots of apples, pears, and berries, especially the classic blackberry fool
Drinks, of course.

As a source of both culinary lore and classic recipes, this may be the best available book I have seen on Scotch / Irish comfort food. It may not be quite as good as `Irish Traditional Cooking' by leading Irish cooking school owner, Darina Allen, which the author recognizes as one of the leading authorities on Irish culinary practice, but for a nice little inexpensive package, this book is very, very good. For more information on the intertwining of culinary lore and ancient Celtic celebrations, see `Celtic Folklore Cooking' by culinary writer and folklorist, JoAnne Asala.

This book is easy, warm, and satisfying. Reminds me of home with family, freinds, good food and good conversations. If you like good "pub" feel, buy the book.

The recipes are great! I've done extensive research on Celtic dining and spoken to many a Scottish friends that grew up with the old Celtic Traditions and they agreed this cookbook is great! So far, the recipes i have tried have been outstanding! If you're looking for authentic recipes and enjoy great food... try this cookbook out!

Yeats lives in the minds of most lovers of great modern poetry through lines of incredible beauty.

"And we will wander hand in hand
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The golden apples of the moon,
The silver apples of the sun.

"We must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag- and- bone shop of the heart"

"But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
and loved the sorrows of your changing face"

"An aged man is but a paltry thing
a tattered soul upon a stick
unless soul claps its hand and sing..

Yeats believed in much nonsense in his life, and apparently was not the kindest of human beings but he wrote some very great poetry.

I picked up this book of poems as an introduction to Yeats and found it to be wonderful. It contains major works from all of his periods and four plays as well. Highly recommended, for poetry lovers and those with only a passing interest.

In 250 years the mass of pablum we currently pass as literature will be blown away like chaff in the wind.

One of the hard and nourishing kernals left on the threshingroom floor will certainly be Yeats.

These are poems not to be read, but learned by heart.

Among my favorites from this collection (with years of composition) are: "The Stolen Child", "To an Isle in the Water" and "Down by the Salley Gardens" (1889); "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and "When You Are Old" (1893); "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" (1899); "The Folly of Being Comforted" and "Adam's Curse" (1904); "All Things Can Tempt Me", "Brown Penny" and "To a Child Dancing in the Wind" (1910); and "The Cat and the Moon" and "Two Songs of a Fool" (1919).

During a recent fright when we were escaping our apartment down a ladder, I took two books with me, thinking that perhaps I would need something strong. Happily Yeats's SELECTED POEMS AND FOUR PLAYS was at hand, together with, well, something private. This book, edited by the late M.L. Rosenthal, is an expanded edition of a previous book by Rosenthal that had the same title except it was called, SELECTED POEMS AND TWO PLAYS. This present edition doubles the number of plays it prints in one stroke, adding the very late THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN as well as the strange, feverish THE WORDS UPON THE WINDOW-PANE. Previously we had only the two plays PURGATORY and CALGARY. Did I say CALGARY? I meant, CALVARY, and neither of them are worth the paper they're printed on. In college my professor used to tell us that Yeats, together with his patron Lady Gregory, invented the Abbey Theater and kept it going by writing plays annually and encouraging their society friends not only to attend but to pledge money in exchange for participation in a community-based theater. However, according to Rosenthal, some of Yeats' plays were distinctly unpopular even with this sudsidized theater and neither the actors nor the audience loved them to death.

As a boy, my dad used to quote Yeats on every occasion and he (Yeats) was a patron saint to many Irishfolk. Today not so much, but as I made my way down the ladder I was glad I had the Yeats book tucked into my pants. He is the epitome of the artist who keeps changing through circumstance, open to new influence, even partial to drugs, for many credit his late flowering to the monkey glands he took in Switzerland to rejuvenate his sex life, the precursor to today's Viagra. In his youth he became a member of a secret band called the Order of the Golden Dawn, and spiritualist interests fueled his poetry and politics both. On his honeymoon he discovered that his wife, Georgie, had mediumistic leanings, and they spent many night holding seances and conversing with the spirits of the dead, all of whom, or so Yeats claimed, had arrived to dispense new metaphors for his poetry. He later wrote up these events in his book A VISION.

Rosenthal was a superb editor who went back and checked all of the original manuscripts and who could distinguish Yeats' handwriting in all its different avatars, and this helped him date the poems to within an inch of their lives. His task was made no easier by Yeats' habit of revision and by his need to provide an income for his sisters, who wound up producing elaborate private, limited printings of much of his work to sell to collectors only at absurdly inflated prices. These books are beautiful but useless, like so many of the romantic Irish flourishes the poet's late work commemorates only to condemn. It is a poetry of questions, which always appeals to young people, those who know the answers. "What's water but the generated soul?" (That one always threw me.) "How can we tell the dancer from the dance?" "Is every modern nation like the tower,/ Half dead at the top?" (Makes you think about our nation, caught up in a senseless war against Iraq.) "Those masterful images because complete/ Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?" "What voice more sweet than hers/ When, young and beautiful,/ She rode to harriers?" Riding to harriers doesn't sound so fabulous now, but we've all got something we look back on and say, everything's been changed, changed utterly.

FROM THE BACK COVER:

The Sheriff and the E-Mail Bride by Liz Ireland:
Caught for good! Does Heartbreak Ridge have a romance curse? No Way! says Sheriff Sam Weston...but he isn't taking any chances. Online, he rounds himself up a lady far from his hometown. The lonesome lawman thinks he's found himself a foolproof courting method-until Shelby, his cyberfiancee, arrives eight months pregnant. Now it looks as if the town's curse may strike again, if Shelby can't win Sam over, and soon!

Stray Hearts by Jane Sullivan:

It's a dog-eat-dog world...Kay Ramsey believed her ex-fiance deserved to pay for cheating on her, so she shaved his prizewinning cocker spaniels! Her punishment? A hundred hours of community service at a local animal shelter. Scared silly of four-legged furry animals, Key knew she wouldn't be able to stick out her sentence...until she saw veterinarian Matt Forester. One hundred hours wouldn't be nearly long enough...

I really enjoyed this book! Jane Sullivan has great skill at telling a story that makes you not want to keep reading until the last page and even then you wish that there was more (I can't wait to read her next book). There was a great mix of emotions both tears and laughs and plenty of romance too. I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes romantic comedy.

Jane Sullivan hits it big and hits it funny with STRAY HEARTS. In a fit of revenge, Kay Ramsey has a grooming service shave Up You into her cheating ex-fiance's prize purebred. The insult should have read Up Yours, but the artist ran out of dog. Her sentence to a veterinary clinic and her fear of animals keep the laughs coming and the chemistry sizzling between Kay and the resident vet. This book is a definite MUST READ. I can't wait for the next Jane Sullivan Novel.

This book contains two complete novels, and I've so far only read STRAY HEARTS by Jane Sullivan, but I had to stop and write a review. Stray Hearts is about a woman, Kay, who is terrified of animals. When she catches her fiance with another woman, she hires a dog groomer to shave naughty words into the coats of his prize cocker spaniels. She gets caught, and the law comes down hard--she has to do volunteer work in an animal shelter.

The hero is the vet who runs the shelter, and he puts poor Kay to work scooping cat boxes! He's skeptical about her, and she's terrified of the animals. I won't tell you how they work it out, but I can assure you it's funny! A great, fast read, very well written, with lots of reasons to smile and sometimes laugh out loud. Especially fun if you like animals.

I received the book, SILENCE IN THE GARDEN on time. The book is in good condition and I'm looking forward to reading it, soon. Many thanks.
From Annie Cunningham

...and therein lies only one facet of William Trevor's amazing gift. When I began this book, I thought I had stumbled upon a novel in a 'lighter' category by Trevor -- before I realized it, I was completely enmeshed in this story and its characters. Trevor's prose is incredibly crafted -- his attention to detail and his ability to develop his characters are almost without peer, but neither of these talents overshadows his story.

As in most of his marvelous writing, there are twists and turns awaiting the reader -- revelations completely unforseen and unimagined. As always, he brings the Irish character -- both individual and en masse -- to life completely and gently. Meticulous details are made known to us quietly, so that by midway through the this absorbing work, we almost feel that we are living among these people. He has the ability to allow us to know them without feeling we've been told about any of them -- more like we've gained the knowledge over time.

We see Sarah Polexfen come to the Irish island estate of Carriglas to serve as governess to the children of her relations, the Rollestons. Life there seems peaceful and detached -- but she senses there is something troubling under the surface, something of which she is not told and is unaware. Years later, when she returns to the island -- the children are grown, their father dead, the grandmother an aged matriarch -- events from the past begin to come clearer, verifying her earlier intuitions. The story is played out over a period from the early part of the 20th century, seeing the beginning of the 'troubles' in Ireland, to the early 1980s -- and the family looks much different in hindsight than when she first arrived.

There is a sweet sadness present in this story -- as in much of Trevor's writing -- but it never becomes maudlin. The events and dialogue are intelligent and, in their own way, endearing -- for we find ourselves growing to care about these characters, even the ones who are less than admirable. For in the end, they are only human, and humans have frailties and warts, and commit transgressions, no matter how admirable they may seem from a distance.

Every single work of William Trevor's fiction that I have read has been a great experience -- if you've never sipped from his cup, start here...start anywhere. His novels and short stories are equally amazing and well-written -- I cannot recommend his work as a whole highly enough.

William Trevor has crafted yet another wee gem of a tale in "The Silence in the Garden", drawing upon class differences between the Protestant aristocracy and their Catholic neighbors and the bloody violence of the Irish civil war. Most of the tale is set in the 1930's, though events span decades from the early 1900's till the beginning of the 1970's. Sarah Pollexfen arrives on the estate during World War I as a governness to her affluent Rolleston cousins. Through her diaries we read of an unspeakable tragedy and quiet lives of desperation led by the Rolleston family.

This lovely novel is sort of William Trevor's take on a Henry James ghost story. A governess arrives at an enormous estate and discovers there is more than meets the eye. As always with Trevor, the prose is luminous and the characters are complex, deft and compelling. I recommend this, just as I would anything Trevor has written. He is the greatest prose writer of our time.

It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you glad you weren't born 600 years ago. I brought this book as a research aid for a novel I'm writing, and I find that it is often the first book I reach for.

A lot of this book is made up of court documents which ranging from lighthearted and silly to vulgar and macabre. Other books ("Shopping in Renaissance Italy", "Renaissance Letters", Lucca Landucci's "A Florentine Diary") are also priceless, but this one wins hands down in terms of story-telling and entertainment.

This book gives a view of 14th and 15th century Florence through the eyes of its people. I only wish that there were more documentary studies of this type.

I was transfixed by this collection of stories. They cover every aspect of life in Renaissance Florence. Each of the 132 stories is a personal tale of what happened to an individual. The stories are drawn from letters, court records and diares found in "Archivio di Stato". The stories range in length from a paragraph to several pages. Some of the chapter titles give an idea of the range of these stories: "Economic fortune and social mobility", "Marriage", "Death", "Family Enmities", "The Guilds", "Patterns of violence", "The Vendetta"`"Crimes of Gravity", "Succor for the indigent", "diminished Responsibility: Insanity", "Gambling", "Prostitution", "voices of the Poor", and many many more.

A must read for anyone who has a desire for connection with the sensibilities of people from a distant time.

This is an indispensable book about the city that gave us the Renaissance. Its wealth of contemporary documents--carefully selected by Dr. Brucker from diaries, letters, legal documents, and archives--brings history vividly to life. It offers striking insight into the lives of humble but upwardly-mobile merchants, pious or hypocritical prelates, destitute laborers, Tartar slaves, abandoned women, thieves, prostitutes, heretics, and witches--in their own words.

Where else can you find actual eyewitness accounts of the rescue of a heretic from the Inquisition, by an angry mob ("Let's stone those buggering friars!"), or the actual words spoken by a heretic on his way to the stake? (The only such burning in the fifty years covered by this survey ... The Renaissance was the Rebirth of Reason, and Florentines were generally tolerant of free-thinkers.)

Students of the Renaissance owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Dr Brucker, for this and his other books.

Aine O'Malley is the only daughter in an Irish family with four boys, and is neglected, insulted, lonely and highly imaginative. The story opens when she is 10 during a summer in their Victorian castellated house built above the rocky mainland shore. The Dunbeg castle, a crumbling old wreck built nearly 150 years earlier by her great-great-grandfather O'Malley, has its share of family ghosts and legends. Aine's cousin from America, Rupert - her father's brother's son, visits them for the summer, and she finds a rare ally in him even though he's several years older than her. While her brothers ignore her or taunt her and her parents virtually ignore her, Rupert finds time to talk and explore with her, and achieves a real rapport with Aine. They continue to correspond when he returns to Virginia.

The women in this novel are all deeply troubled and unfulfilled. Aine's mother is distant and troubled by her lack of power in her typical Irish marriage where the man rules the roost. Rupert's mother has a similar marriage, but it's further complicated by the fact that her husband is a pedophile and philanderer. Both seem trapped and helpless in their marriages, which creates negative examples of female vulnerability and dysfunctional relationships for Aine.

Aine is haunted by unexplained nightmares, shadows and visions, and is constantly criticized and ostracized by her family for her imaginings; but only Rupert seems to understand her. They don't see each other again for years, when she is 13 and he is leaving for college. An awkward and uncomfortable event causes a rift between them, and they lose communication for several years while he is away at college. They meet again when she is an adult and attending drama school in London, but he is engaged and she is angry and disappointed in him. She agrees to marry Nigel soon after meeting him in London, mainly as a negative reaction to Rupert's engagement.

Aine's intense feelings for Rupert are eventually resolved in a surprising manner, and she eventually faces her demons and ghosts and learns how to deal with them.

The themes of oppression and haunting are mirrored in the splendid, vivid descriptions of the Dunbeg castle and rocky seashore and of the humid, sultry surroundings in Virginia. The author allows us to empathize with Aine and be fully engaged with her environs. We feel we know her before the end of the novel, and want her to find healing and peace of mind in a world that so far has been hostile and insensitive.

By the time Aine turns ten in 1986, she is a loner in spite of two brothers. She enjoys and hates the summer visits to Dunberg, the haunting family castle in Ireland. However, this year, things are different as her aunt and cousin arrive from Virginia for a visit. Her cousin Rupert is four years older than Aine, but the two hit it off immediately. When Rupert rescues Aine from a nasty situation, he becomes her knight in shining armor.

Over the years, Aine recognizes how dysfunctional her family truly is. Even more so, she realizes she deeply loves her first cousin. However, he is engaged to someone else, any sensual relationship with him is taboo, and someone wants to simply destroy Aine, leaving her choices very limited. Of course, there is Nigel to consider.

THE SONG OF THE TIDE is a modern day Gothic drama that captures the essence of the genre. The story line works because the plot adheres to its roots of an atmospheric location, ancestral curses, insane people, and brooding individuals whose forbidden love divides their family even as society condemns them for it. Mary Ryan paints a powerful portrait of an angst-laden woman that will bring her a stateside audience who will want more of her works published here.

Harriet Klausner

A falling down Irish castle, a fey little girl with a host of brothers and an unfilled mother and traditionally clueless father. A rebellious aunt and American cousin come to visit and nothing will ever be the same. Aunt Isabelle warns the tiny and already dramatic ten year old Aine that "Men ... eat feelings. They have none of their own and live off other people's." As Aine approaches womanhood, ancient childhood fears haunt her, as does the prospect of life. Her unconventional and unfulfilled mother equates marriage with "mortgaging your life," and then makes a very dramatic exit. As Aine's very difficult life unfolds, the constancy and concern of cousin Rupert Bear for Tigerlily is an inspired touch, but (as in life) happily ever after is more than a bit of a fantasy. This is a pretty yet dark and multi-layered poetic tale that keeps hopefulness on the horizon, and has a lot to say about families and coming of age. The author is extremely talented, and the reader will feel pulled into this living, breathing family and the various landscapes.

Evocative and engrossing, Mary Ryan's The Song of the Tide creates a story with complex layers, emotions, and settings, describing them with skill and sympathy. The heart and soul of Ryan's heroine, Aine O'Malley, reveal a flair for the dramatic, a vivid imagination, and a keen perception or prescience that become a burden as she grows older. The lessons Aine learns about women's roles in society and the source of their satisfaction or power -- whether it is derived from domestic dominance or the ability to escape such ties -- runs in tandem with Aine's own struggle to escape her obsessions and ghosts. Aine's folly results from her belief that her power to control situations or people's opinions is derived by what she leaves unsaid, and more often her reticence or lies create further turmoil and obstacles for her.

Aine's family owns a crumbling castle called Dunbeg, where the story begins with the arrival of Aine's American-born cousin, Rupert and fraternal aunt, Isabelle. Even to 10-year-old Aine's perception, it soon becomes apparent that Aunt Isabelle is on the lam, running away from her husband. Aine immediately forms an alliance and deep attachment to Rupert, her gentlemanly cousin from Virginia who is the first male that didn't pick on her (Aine comes from a family full of brothers). In their explorations of the land surrounding the castle, Aine and Rupert fall afoul of a local resident tramp named Aeneas Shaw, a silly childhood misadventure with surprisingly far-reaching consequences. Aine, already a martyr to nightmares and insomnia, privately adds her new Nemesis Shaw to her list of fears, but recants her initial reporting of Shaw's attack on her to the police because she feels sorry for him and does not want to be the cause of his confinement to a mental home or to prison. In this one act, Aine establishes a pattern that will follow her throughout her adolescence and young adult years, in which she subverts her own fears about her safety, or allows others to convince her she's crazy or has an overly-vivid imagination, to the detriment of her well-being.

When she is 10 years old, Aine suddenly faces down the taunts of her brothers, screaming "From now on, I want some respect!", but it is not until a decade later that she realizes the power to gain freedom from such bad treatment is actually in her own hands, not in the hands of her tormenters both real and imagined. Aine's role models, after all, are her aunt, who after fleeing her abusive, lecherous, alcoholic husband, returns and submits to his will, and her mother, whose attempts at an intellectually-satisfying life are thwarted by her husband's need for clean shirts and who ultimately turns to an unsatisfying and unsuccessful adulterous liaison as a means of escape. Aine's Aunt Isabelle advises her thusly, after her outburst demanding respect:

"'You must never, ever let them see it . . . Aine, darling,' she whispered. 'You must never show them!' My mouth opened. 'Show them what?' 'You must never show men what you really feel,' she repeated. 'Men . . . eat feelings! They have none of their own and they live off other people's.'"

Aine seems to take this advice to heart and begins a lifelong habit of leaving things unsaid, lying to hide the truth, and being evasive with everyone, including herself. The one constant in Aine's life is Rupert's friendship, and her one goal as she travels through puberty into womanhood, is to win his love. What she finally realizes about herself as a woman and as an individual in her quest for his love makes for fascinating, dramatic reading.

The Song of the Tide is a lushly descriptive, hauntingly beautiful tale set in Ireland, England, and America, and each scene has an all-encompassing quality that surrounds the reader in a tangible atmosphere. The reader is a witness, not only to the beautifully-described exteriors, such as the eerie castle Dunbeg and the sultry state of Virginia, but is also privy to the interiors of Aine's mind and even her dreams. The story succeeds on all levels to draw in the reader to a well-constructed plot, a complicated conflict, and a satisfying denouement.

Tim O'Toole is not exactly an admirable man. He's a lazy man. He's a man who sits around "bemoaning" his fate as he watches his children and wife grow thin from the hunger on them. Even the mice in the house are starving and the cat hasn't energy enough to chase them. It isn't until his wife, Kate, demands that he go off and earn some money that he rouses himself to knock on doors looking for work. So, it's not though any effort of his that his fortune is made, but rather through a chance meeting with a group of "wee folk," or fairies, while he is busily engaged in resting.
From them he demands treasure, and they give it in the form of a goose that lays golden eggs, but so feckless a man is Tim O'Toole that he allows a neighbor couple to cheat him out of it. The little people then give him a tablecloth that is always filled with food, but fool that he is, he is cheated out of that as well. The little people even help him get back at the folks who cheated him.
Was ever a man less deserving of reward than Tim O'Toole? Not likely. Yet, lazy and useless as he is, he ends up a well-to-do man of means and is the envy of all his neighbors, all on account of his luck.
It is a charming story and wittily told, and, because of the unlikely hero of the tale, about as Irish a storyline as one can get.
A large part of the charm of the story is the wonderful pencil drawings, rich in texture and color, and evocative in their composition. Each character is distinct and fully realized. It is in the drawings that one gets the sense that, although a worthless fellow, Tim O'Toole is warm and lovable for all that.
Highly recommended for ages 3-8.

This was a gift to a young child who has enjoyed having it read to him and will undoubtedly read it himself when he learns to read!

"In a little cottage, on a little hill, at the end of a little lane in Donegal, lived Tim O'Toole and his wife, Kathleen. Tim and Kate were so poor they had not a penny or a potato between them. Their children ate porridge for supper. Even the mice were thin from want of food and the cat wouldn't bother with chasing the creatures." So begins Gerald McDermott's Irish folktale, Tim O'Toole And The Wee Folk. Finally Kathleen had had enough, and without even a crumb left to eat, sent her husband out to look for work. Tim O'Toole walked the entire county, but had no luck. But as soon as he sat down to rest, "he heard the faint sound of merry piping and lilting voices raised in song and laughter." Leprechauns! Now Tim knew his luck had changed, for "whoever spies the wee folk in the light of day can demand their treasure". And they rewarded him richly with a goose that lays golden eggs. Unfortunately, on the way home, Tim stopped for the night at McGoon's farm. Unable to control himself, he bragged a bit about his good fortune, and while he was asleep, those nasty McGoons replaced his golden goose with one of their own..... Mr McDermott's wonderfully engaging text is full of magic and humor and begs to be read aloud with a lilting brogue. His amusing, colorful, and expressive illustrations complement the tale and add to all the fun. And as the wee folk come to Tim's rescue and save the day, kids and adults alike will be cheering and laughing out loud. Perfect for youngsters 4-8, Tim O'Toole And The Wee Folk is a joyous, good-time, entertaining read that will bring out a little bit of Irish in each of us.

With so many long-time traditional holidays being pushed to the wayside to be replaced by those more currently popular and politically correct, we are always looking for ways to celebrate and anchor traditions with our grandchildren. To help our pre-school grandbabies get a little more anchored with their Irish heritage, we thought they were old enough this year to be introduced to the connections of this special cultural holiday. "Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk" was just the answer. Woven within the adventure of this tale of the very Irish Tim O'Toole are subtle but effective lessons about the benefits the moral values we hold dear, the outcome of choices made, and no small amount of fun, courtesy of the fanciful Wee Folk. To include in the package with this book and a strip of four-leaf clover stickers and green T-shirts, we also purchased from Amazon the "RiverDance" CD. We hear our grandkids were delighted with the whimsy of our gift and asked for the story of Tim O'Toole to be read twice before bed on March 17. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tim O' Toole is a fantasy tale about a poor man who goes to find work in the town. When Tim takes a rest he discovers a festive group of wee folk. Tim being a wise fellow indeed he threatens the weefolk
to hand over thier treasure and they'll be safe . The weefolk disagree and they give Tim a goose that lays golden eggs. The weefolk warn Tim not to tell a soul. When Tim goes and tells his neighbors , the Magoons.Knowing the great tresures of cherish they steal the goose. When Tim comes crying to the lepracauns they give him a magical tablecloth.Once again the samething happens. Will Tim get his cherished itams back, buy the book to see. The main cahracters are Tim, his wife Kate,the Magoons, and the weefolk. The lesson is becareful who you trust.