Ireland Books

There are precious few books on the history of gardening and landscape design in Ireland. Finola O'Kane's book is a considerable development in rectifying this. Her book covers several large and two smaller landscapes developed around Dublin in the eighteenth century by wealthy men and women of the largely Protestant Ascendancy. She looks at the economic and horticultural background to the gardens and estates and describes the social, aesthetic and political influences on their designers and owners. The author specifically covers the "designing women" such as Emily, Duchess of Leinster, and her sister Louisa Connolly, who were so important in the creation of these landscapes. The hydraulics and engineering, the sources of the plants (including new exotics from America) and what drove the designers and for what purpose are very well covered. The separate landscapes and their designers are fascinatingly linked together. The book is lavishly and beautifully illustrated with contemporary and modern pictures, maps, plans and designs. It is extremely well researched (as evidenced by the extensive footnotes and appendices), with a good index and excellent bibliography. This is a very readable, well-written book, which is also an important contribution, not only to the study of Irish heritage, but to that of Europe generally.

Landscape Design In Eighteenth-Century Ireland: Mixing Foreign Trees With The Natives is a fascinating, in-depth study of the eighteenth-century landscapes around Dublin and the gardens of the region, as well as the political, monetary, and aesthetic appreciation influences that led their owners to create them. Chapters focus especially upon Robert Molesworth's lanscape of Breckdenston, the landscape of Castletown House, Carton Demesne's work which introduced foreign trees, and the school at Frescati. Part environmental history, part narrative of the lives and decisions of wealthy individuals, part studious assessment of the ambitious large-scale projects that changed the nature of the countryside, Landscape Design In Eighteenth-Century Ireland is an absorbing and detailed scrutiny. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white as well as color images, paintings, diagrams and photographs, Landscape Design in Eighteenth-Century Ireland is virtually unique in its theme of discussion yet delves into its subject matter with such depth as to eclipse rival attempts.

The ghost of a young boy guards a pile of stones on the top of a mountain in the Irish countryside, and the only person who has spoken with him in the last three thousand years is Jenny. The daughter of J.J. Liddy, who traveled to the timeless world of T'ir na n'Og when he was a young man, Jenny feels dreadfully out of place in the human world, preferring to roam the rocky fields of the Burren barefoot and converse with the Púka than go to school. The Púka, a spirit disguised as a white goat, understands, and teaches her many things that she would never learn in school, such as how to read the winds of change.

The Liddys have long accepted that this is what Jenny was like, but only J.J. and his wife, Aisling, know why that is. J.J. has been waiting for years for a deal he made in T'ir na n'Og to come to fruition, and his patience is wearing thin. Once he decides to put his plan into action, he finds that there are many factors that he did not consider, or even understand. The ghost, the Púka, and even Jenny have a major part to play in what could very well be the unmaking of the human world. As Jenny learns of her own significance, she must work out a plan of her own to save the people that she has grown to love.

Although I did not read the prequel to this book, THE NEW POLICEMAN, I found this story very easy to follow, with only a minimal feeling of perhaps having enjoyed it more had I read the first book. That factor grew very unimportant as the story drew me in with its mystery and mythology.

Reviewed by: Allison Fraclose

I liked "The New Policeman" very much, and I like "The Last of the High Kings" too. Very enjoyable!

This is a great book! It moves along so seamlessly, you'd think you were having a conversation. I felt like I knew the characters. I had tears in my eyes when I finished and didn't want the book to end.

This book, A Leck in th'Ear is, probablly, the best book on Irish living I have ever read. The stories deliver exactly as promised, and then some. This is an informative, witty, nostalgic, accurate depiction of rural Ireland in the 20's and 30's. On top of all that, it is a marvelous read and captures one's imagination right from the first paragraph through the all too quick finish.
I cannot wait to get information on the author and her other books.
A Leck in thEar is a must read for anyone who has had a childhood. Period.

What a fresh, yet detailed, read of this French businessman at the turn of the nineteenth century. It is interesting that he characterized his factory nearly 150 years ago as being "plagued with drunkenness, neglect of Sunday observance, few marriages "with honor" and a lack of proper religious education for children". Reading the newspapers today I would add to this list and then wonder what has happened to our world. Harmel did his best to correct the problems of his day, to which great credit is given by the author of this fine read. Will we do as well? A great book.

This is an exquisitely well researched book that is also a pleasure to read. Coffey's arguments are cogent and her conclusions sound, all supported by a tremendous amount of work in French and Vatican archives. The book's analysis of Harmel and his work provides us with a penetrating glimpse into the late Second Empire, the Third Republic and the role of the Catholic Church in Republican France. Highly recommended for scholars of modern France.

I received this book as a gift from my husband the year I was going to visit my grandmother in Ireland. It was terrific!! Not only was it informative, but it actually made you feel as though I visited all of the places listed in the book. I have since re-read it and also just came back from my second trip in less than 10 months.

Just want to let the reader from Boston know, you have to go and visit Ireland. You will never forget it and you will always want to go "home" again and again.

Well, I've never been to Ireland, and now I'll never have to go! I just finished reading Let's Go: Ireland 1998 from cover to cover and it was fantastic. I never read so many restaurant reviews, hotel reviews, and pub reviews in my life. My favorite section was Practical Information where you can find out who to call in Dublin when you trip and fall or lose your luggage. I may not need that info right now, but who knows? If I ever go to Co. Cork, and furthermore lose my luggage, I may not know what to do but boy will I wish I was in Dublin. Even though the information in this book shines, it is the writing that makes this edition a classic in the annals of travel writing. I think it was the editing. The researchers did a good job, but I could tell that most of the value added to the book from the previous year came from the keen eyes and golden pens of these two fabulous editors. For instance, circumambulate! Who else would be able to work that word into a budget travel guide. Five stars!

Just a quick review of the Let's Go guides. I have used three of them now, and they were all extremely well researched and structured. They making traveling on a budget simple, and not at all stressful. I recommend, even more, insist, that every budget conscious traveler invest in one of these books - it will pay for itself in about a day - maybe even over lunch!!!!!!

This book is excellent and compulsory reading for anyone visiting the UK within this year! The individual sections are written by different people, mostly students I think. You can really see how they have sussed out the places that offer the best value for your money in Britain.

In my opinion, the best sections were by Daryl Sng, who covered Central England and Wales. Those interested in UK nightlife and pubbing will find his recommendations useful. His candid and to-the-point writing saved me a lot of time and pointed me right to the sights that I needed to see. Made my planning a whole lot easier and saved me tons of time!

I'm absolutely glad I pick up this book prior to my trip. If you're planning to go to England anytime this year, don't miss this.

This is the best book ever written about the Soviet Union - in fact, it is one of the very few which are even honest. The author, a political scientist at the University of Hawaii, demonstrates that the Soviet Union committed terrible crimes against humanity, including huge massacres, forced famines and slave labour. The atrocities began with the October Revolution in 1917 and continued with Stalin's genocides against national, religious & socio-economic groups, the mass purges in Eastern Europe and the silent deaths of millions in the Gulag during the '50s, '60s, & '70s. The book concludes with the genocidal invasion of Afghanistan.

If you only want to read one book on the Soviet regime, this is it. It shows that every Soviet dictator - from Lenin to Gorbachev - committed terrible atrocities against entire populations, including large-scale massacres, man-made terror-famines, and the destruction of millions in concentration camps. After discussing the historical record, the author collects and analyses thousands of estimates of the Soviet death toll, which he calculates at nearly 62 million. This book should be compulsory reading for anyone who cares about human rights.

I read this book quite a few years ago and it remains fresh in my memory. There was nothing about it I did not totally love, especially Emilie. I was sad to see that there was only one other review of this excellent book. Everyone should read it, it is absolutely beautiful.

This is a book about endemic people, who, like plants, are rooted to a certain time and place with a specificity that is hard for a lot of us alive today to know. Emilie's tale of her tough life in the rugged mountains near Italy is told with such a wonderful conversational and error-laden english - completely engaging and romantic, with photos of people in the story she is telling. I read it while at my best friends house in Grenoble, and then we drove to the very town in the alps that Emilie grew up in. It was like a time capsule except for the cross country ski inns that have popped up and started a commercialization process. But the story she tells is of people who are like certain french cheeses made in a certain valley, that if you went over the mountain and into the next valley, that cheese could not be replicated. This is a great story and you will fall in love with it if you are someone who is nostalgic for a time and place when harsh weather, rugged mountains, and lots of work to do at home made a journey of 20 miles felt like it took you to another planet.

This book is a compeling read. It describes in minute detail the religious, social and economic structure of the time. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to have a glimpse of life in Poland before WWII.

As the Holocaust recedes further into the past, it becomes increasingly difficult to treat it as more than an abstraction. It becomes defined by numbers: Six million or more dead, numbingly large. Yet, how can one who did not live in that era imagine what it truly meant, and even more so for a goy such as myself?

Ben-Zion Gold's memoir is truly a treasure, because of its portrait of Jewish life before the Holocaust. He describes his boyhood living in an Orthodox household in Radom, Poland in the 1930's. He paints rich pictures of family members and gatherings and a host of unique individuals. He depicts his religious schooling, cut short by the war.

The last few chapters briefly describe how Gold survived the war, and the impact of his ordeal on his faith. His candor and insights are deeply appreciated.

Gold originally wrote his story with his daughters in mind -- to tell them about the family in Poland, all of whom were murdered well before his daughters' birth. Fortunately for us, he has expanded the tale in such a way as to make it accessible, even to those of us with no familiarity with Jewish life or customs. I was particularly grateful for how terms are defined on first use.

The Holocaust becomes so much more meaningful now. With Gold's story, we see the faces of those who perished, their personalities, community and culture. We understand a little better what was lost.

I highly recommend this book.

Priscilla Roosevelt is a marvelous historian with a rare aesthetic sense. Her book on Russian country estates not only explains their appearance in the eighteenth century and their extraordinary development in the nineteenth century, it gives the reader a visual sense of estate architecture and garden design. When I bought this book, I read it straight through. Later, I picked it up, studied various houses that appealed to me, and let my mind wander. Reading this book is a vicarious trip straight into the world of the Russian nobility. No new reader of Tolstoy's War and Peace should tackle that book without first perusing this one!

Ms. Roosevelts highly informative and readable text combines with the volumes many photographs and illustrations to bring to life the world of the aristocracy and landed gentry of Russia and those who served them, more than a century ago.

Ms.Roosevelt's engrossing study takes on this vast subject with apparent ease and succeeds.

I recommend this book to anyone at all who is looking for an intersting read. Whether your a history buff or not you're sure to enjoy this book. By the time I had finnished the first paragraph I was unable to put it down!