Irish Books

An excellent and amusing description of an english woman's attempt at having a restful vacation on an island off the coast of Scotland.she is so entertained by the place that she returns in her second book 'THE HILLS IS LONELY' to have her own place there.

I've just finished the paperback of"The Sea for Breakfast" and was enchanted by it's gentle humour.This isn't a tale which has you going into great guffaws,but rather,keeps a smile on your face right through the book. Anyone who enjoys rustic humour and quiet wit, will thoroughly enjoy this charming,gentle look at life in the Hebrides.

Anyone who has ever spent time on any of the coastal islands around Britain, and particularly off the west coast of Scotland, will enjoy this tale very much. Lillian Beckwith's real strength lies in being able to recreate the atmosphere of those unique island environments on paper. Like an artist working away with a fairly stiff brush, she paints the people, architecture and wildlife of this Scottish island (to which, she claims, she was only going for a holiday), with firmness and purpose. One wonders how long the holiday really lasted and one suspects a lifetime. These are indeed places to fall in love with: cut off from mainland life to the extent that, even today, forty years after the publication of "The Sea for Breakfast," one can still find a world that is not subjected to the strains and odours of our industrial society. Anyone heading to Scotland should definitely find a copy - it's an amiable text from a competent pen.

The Sea for Breakfast is Beckwith's third book in this series about life on a small Scottish island in the 1950's. Her first and second books, The Hills Is Lonely and The Loud Halo, chronicle her arrival on the island for a summer sabbatical and her subsequent encounters with the local "characters". In this book she buys a cottage and becomes a resident of Bruach. Back are all the lovable and humorous characters of previous books along with several new ones. This book is filled with homely descriptions of the challenges of establishing a home on this wild and isolated island, told with Beckwith's unique flair for finding subtle humor in everyday events. Her growing love for this beautiful island and her grudging respect for the rural wit and wisdom of its inhabitants is expressed with rare articulation. Her descriptions of rustic neighbors and the often hilarious events of their daily lives make this book hard to put down.

The enchantment continues as Ms. "Peckwith" moves into her own cottage by the sea on the island of Bruach. The charm of the villagers is matched only by the vivid descriptions. While she learns the Philosophy of Peats, she brings to the village of dour Calvinists the joy and celebration of Christmas. This is my favorite of the three Bruach books (a book well worth owning!), the author has painstakingly and with an abundance of kindness, portrayed the foibles of the island folks - the lisping Romeo named Hector, the antics of the old men, the gypsies, and cows. A poignant and picturesque escape.

Marjorie Randell's recollection of her life growing up in a close-knit family on a Michigan farm, and her subsequent heartbreak of losing her brother and the search for meaning in his death is both sentimental and memorable. She captures the innocence of the mid-West that was torn apart as her brother, and other small town boys, were thrust into the horrors of war. The story shifts with her brothers letters - both from his service days, and then more harrowing,when he was a POW. Through his letters, we see a boy turn into a man, and at age 23, we see how his death aboard a Japanese war ship at the hands of American bombers brought agony and questions to a family back home. Sweet recollections of an innocent time lost, and the loyalty of a sister that looks for answers, even 60 years later.

I just finished reading Searching for Friday's Child for the second time. Each time I couldn't put it down until I finished.
Searching for Friday's Child is more than a portrait of an intelligent sensitive young man, it is a book about warm human relationships. Although Jack, a prisoner of war being transported from one Philippine Island to another or perhaps to Japan by the Japanese aboard the Shinyu Maru, died in his early twenties (a result of the torpedoing of the Shinyu Maru by an American submarine toward the end of Second World War), he lives in this book! It is clear from his letters to his family, his girlfriend and to his friends that we all lost a person who had much to offer to those he loved and cared about and to society.
Jack's words, through his letters, show us that he had a gift for writing and storytelling, as does the author, his younger sister. Searching for Friday's Child tells us of the author's emotional journey to find her brother, to discover things about him she hadn't known before, on an intimate level that I haven't found in any other memoir, autobiography or biography about the courageous soldiers of World War II. I highly recommend this book.
Nancy Sampson, Woodbridge, VA

Marjorie Randell's recollection of her life growing up in a close-knit family on a Michigan farm, and her subsequent heartbreak of losing her brother and the search for meaning in his death is both sentimental and memorable. She captures the innocence of the mid-West that was torn apart as her brother, and other small town boys, were thrust into the horrors of war. The story shifts with her brothers letters - both from his service days, and then more harrowing,when he was a POW. Through his letters, we see a boy turn into a man, and at age 23, we see how his death aboard a Japanese war ship at the hands of American bombers brought agony and questions to a family back home. Sweet recollections of an innocent time lost, and the loyalty of a sister that looks for answers, even 60 years later.

Howard "Jack" Irish was born to Michigan farm life. His family was close, his friends were true. He was a 4H lad, strong and faithful. He went to college, joined the ROTC and was drafted after he graduated in May of 1941. He was commissioned a lieutenant after training and sent to the Philippines. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December and all of a sudden Jack's sweet duty in the tropics evaporated like steam on hot pavement.

Jack saw action on Corrigador before he was captured by the Japanese. He endured life as a POW as well as anybody could, but sadly he lost his life in September of 1944, while being transported along with 749 other prisoners of war on the Japanese freighter Shinyo Maru. The Shinyo Maru was torpedoed by the USS Paddle. The sub's commander had no way of knowing the POWs were on board.

It all happened so long ago, but Marjorie makes it seem like only yesterday, so timeless is her writing. Jack was her brother and she lovingly tells this story through the numerous letters written by Jack to his family and friends before the war, the all to brief correspondence between Jack and his family after his family discovers he has been taken prisoner and the volume of letters between Jack's mother and different officials as she relentlessly sought to find out what happened to her son.

This book is so well crafted that at times it seemed as if I was reading a novel as I read the night away. I should have read the book long ago and I'm ashamed to say that that I did not, for you see, Marjorie's Uncle Ray was my grandfather. So many of the characters in her book have passed away, as has my father, Jack's cousin, who fortunately survived the war. Soon all the people from that time will have passed this mortal coil, but thanks to people like Marjorie Randall, who can tell a story without making it seem like dry history, there will be those of us left behind who remember.

I read this book in the past few days, only days after the beginning of America's 3/03 war with Iraq, which may be a partial explanation of why I found "Searching for Friday's Child" such a compelling read.

The book begins with the author's recollection of growing up on a Michigan farm, with her parents, and her brother, "Jack", four years her senior. We are then provided with copies of her brother's letters to home, and to his girlfriend, while he attends Michigan State College, when he is called into the Army Air Corps, from bootcamp, then when he is sent to the Philippines only months prior to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and Japan's simultaneous attack on the Philippines.

As of 12/7/41, the letters from Jack stop, and we are treated with reply letters to Jack's family from U.S. military, the Red Cross, etc., as the family is desparately trying to find out what's happened to Jack, with the advent of the US/Japanese war. Subsequently, the family learns Jack is a POW in the Philippines, but they cannot find out how he is, whether he is alive, healthy, or been a victim of the myriad of attrocities committed by the Japanese solders in the Philippines upon our servicemen, as well as the Filipinos.

Jack's family is advised of the POW camp within which Jack is held, and advised they should continue to write Jack as he may receive their letters. They do continue to write, but have no way of ascertaining if Jack is receiving any of their letters. After several months, they receive the first of about four "postcards" from Jack, from the POW camp, but these tell little of Jack, as little can be said due to censorship by his captors.

Ultimately, the family is informed that Jack was aboard a Japanese ship, one of 750 POWs being transported in September 1944 by the Japanese to another island, or perhaps Japan, that on September 7, 1944, that ship is torpedoed by the US during which 83 POW's swim to shore and are rescued by Filipinos, and ultimately returned to the US. Unfortunately, Jack was not one of the lucky ones. Thereafter, he is listed as Missing In Action(MIA), and again the family has no way of knowing if Jack is alive or dead, whether he drowned, was shot by the Japanese, who were murdering all visible POWs after the torpedo struck, or whether he somehow survived.

We are then treated to many letters from several surviving POWs, some who knew Jack, were his friends at the POW camp.

This is a wonderful historical account of a family's desparate, yet compassionate, attempts to try to find out about Jack's well-being, his life during those years, anything to fill the gaps. It begins primarily with the efforts of Jack's mother, but is continued with those of the author, his younger sister, efforts which continued all the way up the late 1990's, over fifty years after WWII.

We are treated to the insights of several POW's, their own accounts of life in a Japanese POW camp, their accounts of life with Jack, Jack's excellent accomplishments in the Army Air Corps, his unique skills with operating anti-aircraft artillery, his command's success is shooting down 15 Japanese aircraft, which as I recall, was a record during the war.

By the time one completes Searching for Friday's Child, one feels one knows Jack Irish, his mother, father, and certainly his sister, the author, she who joined the U.S. Marines Reserves during WWII. One is certainly treated to a wonderful account of a close-knit family's quest during unimaginable times of the tragedies of war.

This is a wonderful read. I highly recommend it.

Regards,

Frank Rankin
Sacramento, CA

I picked this up from my library one day to read over the summer, and I'm so glad I did. It didn't take me that long to read, because I really got into it. It is the story of a girl who's family are Travelers, like gypsies. They don't have real jobs, and they don't have permanent homes. They basically make their money by ripping people off and taking their money while doing odd jobs for them or selling items to them.

The main character Bridget starts o question whether the life of a Traveler is the one for her. She has always wondered what it would be like to live in a real house and get an important job, and have a normal family. She wouldn't have to constantly be on the run, and she could go to the same school for more than a year and make real friends. The main character also feels a bit guilty sometimes about living this dishonest life of ripping people off.

Meanwhile, Bridget is engaged to her older brother's friend Patrick, which was arranged by the parents of both families. Patrick is nice enough, and he's really hot, but Bridget wants to make her own choices about who she marries.

Then, later in the book when Bridget finds out that her family has kept a secret from her, Bridget has to make an important decision about what kind of life she wants for herself.

The ending was good on one hand, but on the other hand, I was upset with it. However, this is a great book that I recommend checking out from the library. It was interesting to learn how the "Travelers" lived.

"See you Down the Road" is an interesting story about a girl named Bridget who lives as a "traveler" or person who lives in a trailer and lives on the road. This book is filled with plot twists and turns, as well as heartbreak and hope, as Bridget questions whether the traveler lifestyle is right for her. She wonders who the mysterious woman her mother is always talking on the phone with could be. Bridget also questions her families values as they shoplift and steal from various stores and people, in order to bring in their income. She also wonders if her boyfriend Patrick is the right guy for her or not. As Bridget struggles with these questions about her life, the story moves along at a very fast-paced speed and keeps the reader intrigued throughout the whole journey. I reccommend this book for readers ages 13 and up, for it has some mature themes, but is still targeted for teenagers and young adults.

I really, really loved this book. I learned a lot about another culture even while reading about characters who seemed like very real, typical teenagers. The book asks a lot of difficult and intriguing questions, and it's never predictable. There are lots of surprises throughout the book. I hope to read more by this author!

Bridget and her family are Travelers. They're a little-known group of people in America who travel around the country, making money in usually illegal ways, and keep to themselves, with their own traditions and way of life. People who aren't Travelers are called Country, and Travelers usually isolate themselves from these people. They don't trust them, and only interact with them to scam money off of them. Travelers only go to Country schools for a few years, just long enough to know what they need to.

Bridget is a little different from many Travelers in that way. She works Country jobs, as a cashier, and she's been going to Country schools years longer than most other Traveler teenagers. Still, though, she keeps to the Traveler way most of the time. She and her friend, Ann, make their money by ripping off the local K-mart in whatever town they're in. Her parents have arranged a marriage for her, with Ann's brother, Patrick. Her brother, Jimmy, has grown up helping their father fix driveways and roofs with watered-down sealant to make a better profit by scamming Country people.

Bridget doesn't always like her life as a Traveler. She isn't sure she wants to marry Patrick, even though he's a nice guy and she does like him, but she's never see any way out of it. Then her uncle, Big Jim, takes Bridget, Jimmy, and Patrick with him all the way to Arizona, where they'll pull off the biggest scam that Bridget's ever been involved in. They'll sell condos that don't meet the building codes, and then run off with the money. The beauty of it is, the contractor won't dare tell on them, as he's the one who hired them to sell condos that don't meet building codes.

In Arizona, Bridget has some time to think about a lot of things, and maybe even figure out what she wants. But then she makes a discovery about her family, one that could change everything for Bridget...The choice is hers, but what will she decide?

Before reading SEE YOU DOWN THE ROAD, I had never heard of Travelers. I don't think many people have, but they're real people, and reading about them was very interesting. Their way of life is very different from the way most of us live, and this is an eye-opening book. Many of us don't realize how differently some people live from us, not just in far away places but right here in the United States.

On top of that, SEE YOU DOWN THE ROAD is full of amazing characters, and is very well written. All of the characters are well drawn, realistic, and three-dimensional; even the very minor characters seem alive. The ending is not what we might expect from this sort of book, but it fits well, and is one that I really liked. It wasn't predictable, and it was still a happy ending. Whitney's ending, I felt, stayed true to the characters and flowed with the rest of the story wonderfully.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

I picked up Kim Ablon Whitney's See You Down the Road on a Friday evening and didn't want to put it down until I finished it! Not really knowing anything about the Travelers lifestyle before reading the book, I was intrigued to learn about it and to witness Bridget's angst as she struggled with the choices she had to make about staying loyal to her family versus forging a different kind of life for herself. Bridget's character was so believable and I must say I was very pleased by the book's ending! I found myself hoping that there will be a sequel because I really liked these characters so much!
I found the writing to be so descriptive and realistic- I could really envision and feel each of the scenes, which made it a really fun read! I would (and did!) recommend this book to friends!

In his day Byron was the rage of Europe. He was the romantic hero, wild, impulsive, able to indulge his lusts and loves to the end, revolutionary, tormented and tormenting, confined to no law but that of his own impulse and nature. And also a tremendously powerful and skilled writer in many different forms. His fluency and strength enabled him to produce the novel-like longer poems, "Don Juan" and "The Prisoner of Chillon" which outside the academic world are not much read today. Perhaps what readers today most know are some of the beautiful shorter lyrics in this anthology, "She walks in Beauty like the night" being the most famous of them.



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I am not a fan of the English Romantics but I will make a big exception for Lord Byron. He's wild! "Don Juan," parts of which are included in this book, is bawdy and hilarious. Keep in mind that the poem was not considered fit for young ladies to read when it came out...are you tempted yet?

The Dover Thrift Editions are surprisingly well-constructed - they'll outlast, say, your Oxford World Classics paperbacks - and the poems are usually well-chosen. And they're....cheap!

This is a great collection of thirty of Byron's short poems, arranged in chronological order. Everyone should own at least one collection of Byron's work, and at this price, why not make this the one?

Handsome, rich, titled, adventuresome, free-spirited, and even scandalous, Lord Byron was also the most prolific and versatile of the romantic poets. In this collection I was continually surprised as Byron excelled in one genre after another. I give a few examples:

I Would I Were A Careless Child recalls an idyllic life of childhood in Scotland. I wondered whether Lord Byron was truly sincere in his request to 'take back this name of splendid sound'.

Contrastingly, in the short poem Damaetas we encounter an untrustworthy, manipulative child 'versed in hypocrisy' who is soon 'old in the world though scarcely broke from school'.

Stanzas To A Lady On Leaving England tells of an enduring love: 'have loved so long, and loved but one'. Nonetheless, soon thereafter Byron playfully describes The Girl of Cadiz, a beautiful Spanish maiden. We also meet Maid of Athens, Ere We Part and the innocent She Walks in Beauty.

To my surprise, the love poem When We Two Parted devolves into betrayal, broken vows, and deceit.

The Prisoner of Chillon is a chilling fable, a narrative of three brothers, chained to dungeon pillars, and dying slowly. The horrific poem Darkness is imaginative terror worthy of Edgar Allan Poe. And don't be misled by the apparently peaceful beginning to the macabre When the Moon is on the Wave (from Act 1, Scene 1, of Manfred).

The long narrative Beppo is totally different, a playful and amusing story that is enjoyable to read again and again. Dear Doctor, I Have Read Your Play is a humorous, rambling rejection note from a publisher, addressed to John William Polidori, Byron's friend and fellow poet.

I especially liked the two short, sentimental poems So We'll Go No More A Roving and My Boat Is on the Shore.

The Vision of Judgment is a lengthy, humorous satire that is still fun to read today, even though some references to topical events and political personalities are now unfamiliar. (It was probably less amusing to those individuals targeted by Byron.). In contrast, the short poem, Who Killed John Keats?, is sharp satire, not at all amusing.

The thirty-one poems in this 100 page Dover Thrift Edition are quite enjoyable. After reading this short collection, apparently only a small fraction of Lord Byron's creative work, I suspect that you will have little choice but to become better acquainted with Byron's poetry.

This is a great collection of mostly short poems by one of the greatest poets in memory. beginning with "Damaetas" and ending with "On this Day I complete my Thirty-sixth year" these 30 poems, in chronological order, represent a great portion of Byron's work, including portions of Childe Herold's Pilgramage, hebrew melodies, don juan, and manfred. great as an introduction to byron.

This is a wonderful book: at once gracefully summarizing what is known and adding importantly to that store of knowledge, Kastan's book, gracefully and often wittily written, compellingly tells the story of how the plays we love to read reached print -- from their own time even to our own computor age. This is a book that will delight lovers of Shakespeare and also reassure those who are worrying that the age of the book is quickly passing. The beauty of this book alone itself insures this will not be so. Bravo!!

I loved this book. It is beautiful written, even funny in places, is a clear and always interesting account of how Shakespeare made it into print (and what print has done to him since). Anyone interested in Shakespeare and in books will enjoy this and learn from it.

This is just plain fun--or not so plain, but amazingly enjoyable for something so filled with new and surprising information. Kastan writes well, seemingly knows everything that has been written on this vast topic, and makes it accessible and exciting.

this is informative, wittily written, and filled with surprises about how Shakespeare became "Shakespeare"; it is also a beautifully produced book, as one would expect from Cambridge.
The paperback makes a great gift for anyone interested in Shakespeare or in the history of the book, even as that history moves into the digital era. A great buy and a must for any college or good high school library.

Shakespeare as we read him! This is wonderful! hard to believe so much information could be made so available and fun to read. Well written and a good looking book--and the price is right!

I thought Shakespeare of London by Marchette Chute was an excellent biography for several reasons. She wrote in a very readable, engaging style which was easy to follow and understand. Prior to reading this book, I had read a lot of information about Shakespeare. Initially, when I started reading this book I was a little put off by the "just-the-facts-mam" style, but the more I read the more I appreciated the biographer telling the facts she knew without overindulging in assumptions based on these facts, as other more recent biographers have done. I also really appreciated how she fully grounded Shakespeare in his time and place and vocation. As a lit student in college, all I ever heard about was Shakespeare's literary genius as a playwright; the fact that he remained a prominant actor in his company during the entire time he was writing plays was completely glossed over. This book, which never disregards Shakespeare as an actor, was something of a revelation to me. At times I felt her potrayal of Shakespeare as a person may have been a bit naive because she never attributed any remotely bad characteristic to him, but overall, I thought the biography was exceptionally well done. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants solid, unbiased information about the Shakespeare of London.

We know very little about William Shakespeare. He wrote in a time after the invention of the printing press, but before the invention of newspapers and magazines, so the sort of journalism which we rely on today to tell us more than we want to know about the inner lives of show-business figures did not exist during his lifetime.

Anyone who wants to write a full-length biography of this man, one of the greatest writers of our planet, has two choices. She can either make up stuff along the way, as countless Shakespeare biographers have done since the 1600s, or she can stick to the fragmentary facts and fit them into a picture of the social structure and life that Shakespeare lived in. This is what Chute does in her now out-of-print classic, and as readers of this review can see, I think she did a superb job.

Chute's book is superb not only because she is a vivid writer, not only because she tells us why certain things were the way they were, but because she respects the people she is writing about. When she tells us why Elizabethan "players" and their property managers liked tawny-orange dye for their costumes, she not only tells us why they liked it (it was a "color-fast" dye which would not fade) but conveys to us some of the combination of freedom and limits which made up Elizabethan society. The men and women of London were people who, on the one hand, could not buy the color-stable, wash-and-wear clothes we wear without a thought today, but on the other hand, if they could find a good dye or could afford to wear a bright color, they could gaudy themselves up in a way which grownups are too shy to do nowadays. As always, something has been lost and something has been gained, and Chute knows this and doesn't write history on the basis of "look at how many mistakes those poor little people made" or "look at all those great heroes of the past." They are men and women and children who could have learned from us, and we can learn from them. All of them, Shakespeare first among them but not the only one.

Shakespeare of London not only has the most plain old-fashioned charm of any Shakespeare bio I've ever read, it helps make sense of the man and his work using details of the world he lived in and the people he knew in a way that more popular books of the bard just do not. He not only comes alive - he lives up to expectations!

Chute has written a terrific account of a difficult life. Biographies of Shakespeare are difficult in that there is so little known of his life. This is unusual -- and somewhat ironic, given the subject matter -- when one takes into account the Elizabethan's propensity for journaling. But Chute is able to place Shakespeare firmly within his time, making few assumptions, but presenting the known facts of Shakespeare's life in a lively and fascinating manner. She strongly establishes the assumption that Shakespeare was considered one of London's finest actors and also places context around the performance of the plays. What is most fascinating is how Chute gives a glimpse into the contemporary response to Shakespeare's writings. While Shakespeare's "competitors" -- that is, his contemporary playwrights -- may have appreciated the breadth and scale of his writing, to a certain extent, they looked down upon the popularity of his plays. Just like today, the so-called elite of our society tend to overlook those writings or performances that are appreciated by a mass audience.
Where Chute falls down somewhat is that, like so many biographers, she over-apologizes for her subject. In Chute's vivid description, Shakespeare, seemingly, could do no wrong. Time and again, Chute refutes the contemporary criticisms that were made of Shakespeare's writings. Fault can be found in geniuses, as well as hacks.
Her book ends perhaps one chapter too late. After Shakespeare was finished professionally, he retired to a quiet life in Stratford. The only extant writing that refers to Shakespeare's final years are lawsuits that appear with his name. While it does give a minimal sense of Shakespeare's activities, it does not make for very interesting reading and, in fact, places an overemphasis on perhaps meaningless records. But this minimal criticism aside, Chute's book overall gives a wonderful sense of a fascinating person living in a fascinating time.

For some reason I have been obtaining and reading biographies of William Shakespeare lately. This book, and the recent biography by Peter Levi, are the ones I have been most satisfied with.

The real strength of Professor Chute's book is her insistence on placing Shakespeare accurately as one of the most famous ACTORS of his day. On lists of the companies of players he often appears first or second. Now, as Prof. Chute makes clearer than anyone else, this tells us a lot about the man. Prominent actors not only had to be healthy and athletic, they had to be great fencers... the audience expected to see incredible swordplay, not fakery... wonderful dancers... the performance always ended with the cast doing elaborate ensemble dances as well as individual specialties... and expert instrumentalists or singers... the play began with a concert lasting about half an hour. All this in addition to being able to play well a variety of parts (including several parts in the same performance) on very short notice and with very short preparation.

Prof. Chute is sound and grounded about many aspects of Shakespeare's life that lead other biographers to wild surmises. I suspect she is about the only biographer to understand how Shakespeare's marriage worked. No matter how much you have read about Shakespeare, you will find many new insights and perspectives in this book.

On one level this is a carefully researched study of how Shakespeare's plays were translated, adapted, staged and critiqued on American Yiddish stages. For this alone Berkowitz's study is worthwhile, but his passion for his subject, and the wit and flair with which he expresses himself, turn his research into compelling reading. Berkowitz paints the picture of a world in which theater fed the souls not only of intellectuals, but of the working-class spectators who dominated Yiddish audiences. He writes about these audiences with sensitivity and respect, and vividly brings their world to life. I will not give away his conclusions here, but suffice it to say that they are thought-provoking. I highly recommend this beautifully written, passionately argued work of cultural history.

Although this study focuses on Yiddish productions of Shakespeare, it reaches beyond that specific topic to tell several stories at once. One is the story of the development of the professional Yiddish theater. Berkowitz gives a concise explanation of how this arose, both in Europe and in the United States, and vividly describes the Yiddish theater scene on the Lower East Side around the turn of the 20th century. A second story within that story is what he teaches us about Yiddish audiences; the book is filled with fascinating documentation of their responses to these productions. More broadly, he tells the story of the East European Jewish immigrants who came to America in huge numbers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for their experiences were reflected in the plays they attended, and Yiddish playwrights used Shakespeare to address issues like generational conflict, assimilation, etc. This book should become an instant classic for anyone interested in any facet of Yiddish culture!

When a friend gave me this book, my first reaction was, "Great subject, handsome book--but too scholarly for my blood." Once I started leafing through it, though, I couldn't put it down. Berkowitz writes with flair, and manages to entertain and instruct at the same time. He starts by bringing the reader into the world of late 19th century Yiddish theater in New York City. He vividly describes the theater buildings, the audiences, the actors and the playwrights who made the Lower East Side such a hotbed of activity. Then he takes us on a fascinating ride, organized around the Shakespeare plays that were most successful in Yiddish. This book should be a must on everybody's reading list this summer!

At last, a work of substantial scholarship that can not only enlighten, but actually entertain, the lay reader! For those of you intimidated by the Bard, don't despair; Berkowitz wears his considerable learning lightly, and demonstrates with style and wit how Yiddish playwrights turned to Shakespeare in an effort to "legitimize" the American Yiddish stage. "Shakespeare on the American Stage" benefits from the author's extensive work with contemporary scripts, newspapers, memoirs, and other sources. More importantly, it tells a compelling story of American Jewish immigrants through the prism of the theater--a real treat!

Mr. Berkowitz takes the reader back to the Lower East Side starting roughly 125 years ago to introduce us to the bustling, experimental world where Jewish immigrants controversially sought to achieve credibility for their beloved theater by adapting the works of the most renowned playwright. Audiences packed houses to see the thespianic greats outdo each other in Shakespeare's finest roles. Mr. Berkowitz invokes the aid of play advertisements and theater critics' first-hand accounts in a story about Shakespeare nearly as entertaining as a Shakespearean story.

Percy Bysshe Shelley is undoubtedly one of the double handful of master poets of the English language. He's something more to many of us, a figure of great charisma and daring who spent his life in relentless search of a better way to be than what we're perpetually settling for, politically, erotically, personally. This quest took him into several flavors of exile, and into darker places within; early on he abandoned belief and near the end, some say, abandoned hope. But he wrote what it was like all the way through, and what it should be like, and why writing what it should be like is crucial. He searched always for the road forward, refusing the easy lie of naming the ground beneath his feet that road. Not that he was what we would call an existentialist: his vision of what might prove possible in life marries all the little-but-infinite scenes of love, discovery, and sublimity he'd experienced and never forgotten, and was always at work recasting in stronger and surer words and images.

His most important writings are mid-length and longer pieces. This is something of a paradox as all agree he is anyone's equal as a lyric poet. I recommend his crazy, brilliant early poem "Alastor" as a beginning point. It sketches out the quest he never left off from and gives a heavy, tonic dose of poetry as he conceived it: a stripping off of fear, remorse and all other artificial limits, including those of our very senses, and a dive into the furious streaming colliding fires of the true world to find what's lost there. It's a bit like the visionary journey the astronaut takes near the end of the film 2001. Without the fetus.

This is a great selection, omitting little of importance. The first edition carried all the same poems, but a mostly different set of critical essays. A slightly fuller selection is in print in the Oxford World's Classics series, with less critical apparatus for those who like to go it alone. Shelley's works have a tangled textual history, so I'd advise going with these professional selections and no other (two editions of Shelley's complete works are finally in progress, I'm happy to say).

If you only buy one book of Shelley's works -- make it this one.

This edition contains all Shelley's major poetry, as well as three essays (see table of contents on this page).

The bonus is that, as this is a critical edition, it also contains 15 brief critical essays, which are among the best explications you'll find of Shelley's work. (Since it's a critical edition, the poems are also heavily footnoted, something you'll either love or hate.)

The only downside is that a number of Shelley's shorter and lighter poems are absent (e.g., "Love's Philosophy"), and only a small portion of "Laon and Cyntha" appears here -- but overall the selection is solid. And, like all the Norton critical editions, this is printed on decent paper, eye-straining, tissue-thin stock found in some other volumes.

Perfect for those new to Shelley as well as long-time devotees.

Shelley is the wild child of English poetry and his determined opposition to tyranny produced a huge variety of poetry, ranging from the rending lament of Keats in Adonais, to the defiant and taut sonnet Ozymandias. His single greatest work, however, is Prometheus Unbound, which a vast gothic ruin of neat poetry. One shot of it and you'll wonder why a) all the nice, obvious prosy bits seem to have been left out and b) why exactly you love it, and him, so much. Like a cross between a vision of God and a lobotomy.

It's strange, but he means it and the grand sweep of the poem and its rebirth of humanity (I did say this isn't kitchen sink drama) is as distinctive an experience as reading Milton for the first time or the first time you read a love letter in the bath. Holding an electric fire.

There are many other poems which should be headline news, such as Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, Mont Blanc, Mutability and Ode to the West Wind, but this edition also has the advantage of including the Defence of Poetry which is the most rhapsodic and emotive arguments you'll ever have the pleasure to be swept away by. For a second you want to believe the beautiful nonsense that 'poets are the unackowledged legislators of the world'. Shelley pulls no punches in prose because he hasn't pulled any in poetry. He believes in the prophetic importance of his role and is electric enough to almost make us belive him.

This is the best student edition of Shelley's works in print. Not according to me, but to a Professor in Romantic Poetry at Oxford University. Not a bad recommendation!

The essays in this volume are generally helpful and explain the structures of the poems where useful. They are also refreshingly short. Shelley is a poet who has run close to obscurity due to reams of bad criticism (by figures as famous as Matthew Arnold and FR Leavis) who have mistaken his extraordinary originality for weakness. An easy mistake, I'm sure. Shelley's poetry is all in the mind, and the lack of concreteness can be frustrating. A bit like flying can be so much more tiresome than walking.

Shelley is a figure of fire; whenever I read any of his works I sense a tremendous energy and vitality, and a great love of life in all its forms.

Shelley lived by the ideals he set out in his poetry and also his radical politics; complete freedom and the embracement of individual choice, and the rejection of all forms of authority which strangled creativity and the human spirit. At the level of his art, this led to Shelley becoming one of the finest poets of the Romantic era and of the English language for all time, but unfortunately in his personal life and his financial situations, disaster.

Always a restless spirit, Shelley was always on the move; he composed some of his finest poems while he lived for a time in Italy. His work covers a wide range from political pamphlets and criticism (such as his essay 'A defence of poetry') to plays and poems of various types and lengths. His most brilliant poems include an Ode to Keats, 'Prometheus Unbound', and 'Queen Mab', a scathing attack on conventional religious values and political tyranny.

One of Shelley's most attractive aspects is his deep love for and sensitivity to the beauty of nature. Shelley was well read in natural sciences and Astronomy and many of his finest poems (including one addressed to a thunderstorm) capture in vivid colour and detail the changes and endless activity of nature.

Unfortunately Shelley died at the tragically young age of 29 in a boating accident related to a storm, caused to a large degree by his own foolhardy nature. But perhaps there was no more fitting an end to such a fiery, unstable and poetically creative man as him.

This edition contains a good sample of his works as well as several critical essays on Shelley and his work.

This text is a great one, as are all of the Norton anthologies that I have bought over the years. The works it contains are as follows:

Poetry:
"Queen Mab"
"Alastor"
"Stanzas -- April, 1814"
"Mutability"
"To Wordsworth"
"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"
"Mont Blanc"
Excerpts from "Laon and Cynthia"
"To Constantia"
"Ozymandias"
"Lines written among the Euganean Hills"
"Julian and Maddalo"
"Stanza written in Dejection"
"The Two Spirits -- an Allegory"
"The Cenci"
"Prometheus Unbound"
"The Sensitive-Plant"
"Ode to Heaven"
"Ode to the West Wind"
"The Cloud"
"To a Sky-Lark"
"Ode to Liberty"
"The Mask of Anarchy"
"England in 1819"
"Sonnet: To the Republic of Benevento"
"Sonnet ('Lift not the painted veil')"
"Sonnet ('Ye hasten to the grave!')"
"Letter to Maria Gisborne"
"Peter Bell the Third"
"The Witch of Atlas"
"Song of Apollo"
"Song of Pan"
"Epipsychidion"
"Adonais"
"Hellas"
"Written on Hearing the News of the Death of Napoleon"
"The Indian Girl's Song"
"Song ('Rarely, rarely comest thou')"
"The Flower that Smiles Today"
"Memory"
"To ------ ('Music, when soft voices die')"
"When Passion's Trance Is Overpast"
"To Jane. The Invitation"
"To Jane. The Recollection"
"One Word Is Too Often Profaned"
"The Serpent Is Shut Out from Paradise Lost"
"With a Guitar. To Jane."
"To Jane ('The keen stars were twinkling')"
"Lines written in the Bay of Lerici
"The Triumph of Life"

Prose:
"On Love"
"On Life"
"A Defence of Poetry"

As per Norton tradition, most of the major works and some of the lesser ones have an introduction before them in which historical context is given, major themes explained, and important images or ideas are revealed. This collection also contains twenty-two critical essays by scholars such as Harold Bloom, Michael O'Neill, and Susan J. Wolfson, on Shelley and his life and art, including eleven work-specific critical essays.
What a great collection!

To come to America for a new life, only to be crushed as soon as you get there - a tragedy that has happened. "Song of Erin" follows Terese Sheridan among other characters as she is faced with tragedy and agony that she left Ireland to avoid in the first place. Other characters come along, each in depth and human as they interact with one another in this entertaining saga and historical romance, making "Song of Erin" a top pick for community library romance collections.

I read Cloth of Heaven and Ashes and Lace when they first came out. Song of Erin combines the two into one great book. Since it's been so long since I've read them, it was even better the second time around! I can't wait for her next book. She makes historical events come to life. The whole time I'm reading any of her books, I worry about her characters' (many!) trials and tribulations with breathless hope that they will make it in the end! Great read!!

The other night I finished reading what is probably the best historical novel I've read yet this year. When I received the book, I thought it would take me some time to finish as it is two books in one, and I simply don't read that fast. I already knew I loved the author's previous work, so I anticipated a good read. I was unprepared for just how good this book would be!

Award-winning author B.J. Hoff wrote SONG OF ERIN as two separate books ten years ago under the titles CLOTH OF HEAVEN and ASHES AND LACE. SONG OF ERIN combines the two into one epic saga that spans the ocean from Ireland to America. As Mrs. Hoff's website states, "The mysteries of the past confront the secrets of the present in the magnificent SONG OF ERIN saga." Magnificent indeed!

"The story features two of the author's most memorable characters: Jack Kane, the charming but ruthless titan of New York's most powerful publishing empire, who battles the darkness of his soul while fighting to help his people. And Samantha Harte, the woman he loves, whose grace, light, and well-bred exterior conceals a past too shocking to reveal."

It honestly takes a lot for me to get this excited about a book, which may sound strange considering how many books I promote. And of course, we all have our favorite authors. I like to announce Christian fiction and make readers aware of what's out there. But like I said, I don't read that fast, so I can't possibly keep up with every book on the market. And I often enjoy what I read.

But it is a rare book that literally will not let me go, that makes it hard for me to turn off the light at night, that holds me captive turning pages so that I justify laying around reading for hours and hours a day! (I may want to do that sometimes, but I usually won't let myself give in to the pleasure.) Unless I am holding an amazing book!

SONG OF ERIN is that book!

Honestly, even if you don't think you like historical fiction or don't have a fascination with Ireland, you still need to read this book! It is fascinating! B.J. Hoff is a master of character development, and I promise you - you will know these characters well by the time you are finished.

I waited until I finished the book to comment because some books have disappointing endings. Not this time! I was wholly satisfied with the ending - I absolutely LOVED this story!

Whenever I read a B.J. Hoff book I am struck by the way her writing sings with elegance. Her character's are so well developed it's like meeting instant friends. They seem to step right off the page into the reader's heart. This is a panoramic story, finely tuned and complex, reaching from the back alleys of Galway to the streets of New York. A tightly woven tale of love and forgiveness, sorrow and joy, and a strong, unyielding faith in God. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for [...], 5/08
Song of Erin is two books for the price of one. Cloth of Heaven was originally published in 1997; the sequel, Ashes and Lace, followed in 1999. Song of Erin combines those two stories into one book. This brilliant account begins in the early 1800's. Erin's father and brother have migrated to America. They plan to make enough money to reunite their family in their adopted land. Hoff shares the poverty and hardships that faced the Irish in that era. Many migrated looking for a better life, but prejudice against Irish immigrants was widespread. Cloth of Heaven leaves the reader wanting to know more; Ashes and Lace ties up the loose threads.
Song of Erin is a beautiful saga. BJ Hoff never disappoints readers. The plot flows smoothly. The characters are well-defined with distinct voices. Song of Erin is a Christian romance with a message of redemption. Song of Erin is entertaining. I highly recommend Song of Erin.

wow. that's all i can say... wow. this is one of the best and most powerful books i have ever read. it is so touching, and the story goes straight to the heart. the book is of loss, of love, of pain, but mostly about healing. i've read quite a lot of books during my lifetime, but... Starseeker just reached out to me, like no other book had done. i have not read any of tim bowler's books, but i think im going to start. starseeker was filled with so many strong emotions, i cried through some parts. this book is truly unforgettable. i encourage you to read it, if you don't, you're missing something truly wonderful.

I've read this book roughly about two years ago and I've got to say, this must be the most beautiful written book I have ever read. It is. Its interesting and romantic. I loved the plot, complication and just about everything about it. Read it. You won't regret it.

Luke can hear things. Things his father used to hear, before he died. He can hear music no one should be able to hear, and always there is a strange, eternal roar. Why is he like this? And is it a curse or a blessing? Right now, it seems to be a curse.
Luke's world is falling apart. His dad is gone, his mom wants to remarry, and he can't even find refuge in his music anymore. Now, he's getting mixed up with Skin and the gang. They want him to steal something very important to someone. And he knows that if he lets them down, he will pay dearly. Maybe with his life.
Thought-provoking and beautiful, this is one of the best books I've read in my life. The author writes with feeling, truly conveying the fact that he knows what he is talking about. I laughed, I sniffled, I felt like getting up and screaming. The book has everything one could hope for and more.

I didn't cry reading this book. Although I nearly did. Receiving this book as a Christmas present, I thought I'm gonna have to read it. And boy did I enjoy it. It didn't take me long to read, so to say I zipped right through would be an understatement. It really was good, and I found myself identifying with a few of the characters, especially Luke. For anyone who has ever been in that kind of situation (being forced to do something, trying to fit in with a certain group), you'll be able to see yourself in the character of Luke.

I would have liked this book to come with a soundtrack! I know it sounds daft, but the way the author described the music that Luke plays throughout sounds brilliant.

I found the chapters sometimes slightly long - and I hate stopping in the middle of a chapter, cos I always forget where I was! That's my only complaint.

The whole story is sad - so keep a box of tissues beside you.

One of the reasons I prefer music to 'songs' is that there is no set story or purpose behind music. And composers don't feel the urge to inject words like 'love', 'baby' and 'yeah' to make sure the listener likes what they are listening to. One piece of music can mean 100 different things to 100 different people. One of the main reasons I like film scores so much is that the pictures have been removed from the music, letting see your own pictures in your head.

Such logic is strongly used in this book. I'd never read any books by Tim Bowler before this so it was a total random purchase. And I'm glad I did because I liked it very much. The story is of Luke Stanton and his troubles with being a teenager, struggling with so many burdens and the death of his dad. He's a great pianist and everyone is his 'quaint little English village' says so. Tho he's hanging around with the wrong crowd and they want him to break into some old lady's house so they can get their hands on her jewellery box.

What he finds in there tho is only the beginning of a story that, when ended, will steal your heart away forever. I've never so totally satisfied with the ending of a book until this. I really liked it a lot.

I'd definitely recommend this to any teenager struggling to find a good book for English class. It's not in-your-face, it doesn't raise the bar of extremities, there is no ugliness. Just a great story told in a peaceful environment. (Tim Bowler's fiction town is so well described you can be fully orientated as to where everything is)

Oh, and my copy is signed by the Author. Just wanted to show off.