Ireland Books

I picked up Scotland's Story because I loved Marshall's Our Island Story (about Britain) so much. Like that history, Scotland's Story is a personality-centric history: Each chapter tells the unfolding tale of Scotland through an episode (real or legendary; Marshall always indicates when something is not precisely factual) in the life of a famous Scot. There is just enough fact to educate and just enough fantasy to entice a young mind.

One important caveat: The story of Scotland--and every other nation, no doubt--is rarely one of sweetness and light. This is a story of one battle and war and imprisonment after another. Nevertheless, Marshall never forgets her audience, the upper elementary-aged child (although my 4-year-old has thoroughly enjoyed both Our Island Story and Scotland's Story, with occasional on-the-fly editing from Mommy). Another top pick: Naxos Audiobooks' unabridged Our Island Story on audio CD, surprisingly one of my daughter's favorite listens.

Scotland's Story is simply wonderful! It's an old classic that's finally available again at a reasonable price. Marshall writes for children, and my K- and 2nd grader have loved these stories, but I've been equally enthralled. She begins with legends of the earliest Scots, and becomes more authoritative as she gains the ground of documented events. Read about Macbeth and Macduff, Malcolm Canmore, the beloved William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, all the Jameses, Mary-Queen of Scots, and on up through their Union to England, the last of the Stewarts (a line birthed with a wonderful tale in the early part of the book), and into the 19th century a bit. The chapters are not especially long, but even so are broken up into short sections for quick, easy read-alouds. We're ordering this book, as renewing it from the library is getting tiresome....and it's one we want to add to our library!

This delightful book recounts the history of Scotland in language simple enough for a child to understand and appreciate, yet colourful and detailed enough to provide an accurate and comprehensive treatment of this vast subject. It transports the reader to another world, of mighty rulers, daring knights and heroic princes. It is so riveting that I read it three times in a row when I was seven, and remember it fondly to this day...

The annual Otter Calendar by Georgienne Bradley and Jay Ireland puts you right "where the action is". I have dove in Northern California with sea otters in the oast and these images bring back all those memories of the playful otters. The photography, of course, is awesome. This calendar graces my wall every year. And it depicts just one of the many offerings the oceans have in store for us. You are missing a lot if you don;t have these cute creatures greeting you "Good morning" every day!

This is a wonderful calendar and shows the little critters to their best advantages.

Never could understand why coalas are considered the cutest animals around. Obviously, those who said so never saw sea otters. Another otter's advantage is that their IQ (compared to that of a coala) is about 200+.
Great photos, funny and cute animals - every page makes you smile when you look at it and want to know more about those wonderful creatures.
I had a sea otter calendare several years ago and was glad when I found this one so I could put them on the wall again.

These days anyone interested knows what a shaman is, or do we really? In SHAMANS: SIBERIAN SPIRITUALITY AND THE WESTERN IMAGINATION the author, Ronald Hutton, traces how and what we know about the Siberian shamans. He looks at the scholars including the Russians under the Czar and the Soviet regime and the famous Mircea Eliade. What he found might surprise the readers - contradictory information and Western bias. Or maybe not. Yet the idea expounded by these scholars, especially Mircea Eliade, have entered the popular culture and inform the layperson's perceptions of what it is to be a shaman.
This slim little book of 220 pages is divided up into three parts with several chapters under each. Part One called Why We Think We Know About the Shamans contains chapter 1 - The Creation of Siberia, chapter 2 - The Creation of Siberians, chapter 3 - The Transformation of Siberians, and chapter 4 - The Records of Shamanism. Part Two called What We Think We Know About the Shamans includes chapter 5 - What Shamans Did, chapter 6 - Shamanic Cosmologies, chapter 7 - Shamanic Apprenticeship and Equipment, chapter 8 - Shamanic Performance, and chapter 9 - Knots and Loose Ends. Part Three entitled Siberia in the Shamanic World is probably the most important part of all, because it deals with the scholarly impact and neoshamanic impact on the post-Soviet Siberia. It includes chapter 10 - The Discovery of the Shamanic World, chapter 11 - The Discovery of the Shamanic Past, and chapter 12 - The Discovery of the Shamanic Future. The book also contains notes, bibliography and index.
This book will be of interest to those interested in alternate spirituality and shamanism in particular.

Ronald Hutton has a reputation among New Age adherents. A researcher of almost clinical severity, he demands clear and unequivocal evidence to back up any assertions. The subtitle offers warning to the reader that "Western Imagination" will be under scrutiny as well as historical accounts. His other books have laid bare the inadequacies of modern "paganism", "druidism" and the "wicca" movement. Over the past generation, "shamanism has become one of the most heavily worked [words] among scholars of anthropology and religious studies", he says. Widespread in use, particularly by US academics and others, "shamanism" has gained in area, if not in accuracy. Although most are aware of its Siberian roots, few understand the scholarly efforts to construct a proper setting for its use. He hopes this book will redress some of the lacks.

Siberia itself, he begins in the first of three parts, was a construction. The name itself stems from the Khanate of the Sibr being the first encountered by an expanding Czarist Russia. "Siberia", he stresses is a political, not a geographical description, and imposed from the outside. The lack of good identification of who lived where and engaged in which practices now dubbed "shamanism" erodes the foundation of ethnographic scholarship. Much of what we know of Siberian shamans was recorded by outsiders condemning its practices and seeking its destruction. Missionaries for Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and finally, communism recorded various rituals from a scornful stance in recommending its abolition. "Why We Think We Know About Shamans", then, is due to the observations of those who wished to extirpate it.

His second section is largely distilled from those hostile commentators. Even more significant, Hutton notes, is how recently those observers were among their subjects. The earliest recorded observation of Siberian shamans was by an Englishman, Richard Johnson, in 1557. Whatever practices preceded the era of recording shamans' activities are lost in the mists of time. There is certainly no neither truly consistent nor even coherent picture of what pre-literate Siberian culture was like, let alone how shamans fit into it. It's fairly clear that eastern Asian societies had many levels of magic, from the family through the community to encompassing entire regions. Shamans might be employed for a number of reasons; the hunt, healing or as magical foils in intercommunity or regional conflicts. Nor were shamanic practices limited to men. Women might be engaged as shamans if their powers were recognised. Women, however, seem to have generally operated at the family or village level as healers. From what he's able to derive from various sources is that shamanic practices can be reduced to three essentials: there must be identifying dress, such as a robe or animal skin; the shaman must use a supportive musical instrument, usually a drum; and the performance must be public. In healing rituals, for example, the family, if not the entire community, must be present to witness it.

Perhaps the most valuable section of the book is historiographic. The author notes that in most of Siberia, a shaman was a "kam", which only approximately translates. However, various Asian languages have equivalents to "shaman", even in Pali, the most commonly used language in early Buddhism. After a review of Soviet and Hungarian historians of Siberia's shamans, Hutton examines the work of several scholars. Most notably among these is Mircea Eliade, whose influence in instilling forms of shamanic practices in the West is perhaps beyond measure. It is here, of course, that Hutton's quiet vivisection of faulty scholarship is brought to bear. He is a gentle critic, but he's also thorough and unremitting. Eliade, a staunch anti-communist, notes how shamans were communicants or travellers with the spirit world, yet he finally settled on a pseudo-Christian adaptation with shamans engaging with a heavenly realm. Eliade's presentation, Hutton notes, proved exhilarating to a Western audience with little knowledge of Siberian conditions. Eliade appeared at a time of disaffection with traditional norms in Western culture, particularly in the US.

After Hutton's analysis of the vagaries of shamanic scholarship, it's almost surprising to discover his concluding chapter deals with "The Prospect of A Shamanic Future". Hutton, whatever his attitude toward misreading or misusing scholarship, is a realist. "Shamanic" practices, whatever the validity of their foundations, have taken a serious hold in some places. Ethnographic scholarship, particularly in North America, has applied the term to any magical rituals in many native cultures in the Western Hemisphere. Adapted by many as a form of counter-culture, "shamanic behaviour", as one scholar has deemed it, is unlikely threatened by extinction. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A lot of stuff is said about shamanism both in academic and popular circles, with far too little critical thought about it even in academia. This is the best introduction I know to all of it.

The first problem is defining shamanism; and this is much worse than you might think. In order to qualify as a shaman, does one have to control spirits, or simply ascend to heaven in a vision? Is spirit posession essential to shamanism, or just a normal part of it, or a different phenomenon altogether? Is shamanism essentially public, or can one practice shamanism privately? Do shamans specialize in healing and divination, or are those incidental to the profession? No one agrees about all this, and the result is that one person sees shamanism where another doesn't. This of course is a huge problem when we start talking about shamanism outside of Siberia; I don't know of anyone who deals with this issue as succinctly or as perceptively as Hutton.

The second problem is understanding Siberian religion, and the role of shamanism within it. We know surprisingly less about Siberian religion, including shamanism, than you'd think, given how much people have to say about it. Of course Siberian religion is diverse; there are diverse peoples, speaking different languages, with different lifestyles; can we make any generalizations about them?

The third problem is the overwhelming influence of Mircea Eliade. I'm actually a fan of Eliade. I'm happy that he drew so much attention to shamanism, but I have to admit his critics have a lot of good points when it comes to shamanism. Unfortunately, Eliade's influence overpowers them.

There are a few minor problems, such as whether shamans used hallucinogenic drugs, how shamanism relates to transexuality and homosexuality, and so on.

All of this is well dealt with by Hutton, who tends toward skepticism rather than grand systematic theorizing. For this reason he annoys people who are in the business of theory or practice, but I just can't recommend his work highly enough. I especially appreciate Hutton's consideration of "shamanism" in European pre-Christian religion.

I strongly recommend this book, if for no other reason than because most it's raises serious questions about what you'll find in most books about shamanism. In fact, I recommend this as a first book about shamanism, even before Eliade's classic or the classics by I. M. Lewis.

The second book I recommend, actually, is Brian Morris' "Religion and Anthropology." After that, I would move on to Lewis and Eliade.

This is a lovely story about the lives and adventures of several generations of the Salerno family. This story shares their life in Sicily, which is built on their strong family and cultural values. I was reminded of many of my own family's Italian-American traditions and how many popular Italian expressions originated. I especially enjoyed when the characters visited several cities in Italy like Rome, Florence and Orvieto. The vivid descriptions of the history, art and food brought back many wonderful memories of my own visits to Italy.
I found this book very enjoyable and am looking forward to reading more about what lies ahead for the Salerno family.

It is not often that I read a book and find myself interacting with the characters portrayed. It may be the result of my Italian heritage or perhaps that I am lucky enough to have close-knit family and friends like the ones described. Either way, my travels to Sicily through reading this book were a trip that I would recommend to anyone.

Perhaps because I am of Italian heritage I found myself
lost in this book. It's not only a love story,but a
story of friendship and the coming together of genuine
people. However, you don't have to be Italian to
thoroughly enjoy this book. The author has a way of
transporting you to Sicilly.

I purchased this book for my husband, but read it myself first. It is very well written with good insight as to Sir Edward Coke. I would cheerfully recommend this to anyone with an interest in legal history.

Allen Boyer has produced a worthy successor to Bowen's The Lion and the Throne.

Boyer shows us the pragmatic Coke, the shrewd lawyer who energetically represented his clients. He also shows us the idealistic Coke, the jurist who championed and clarified the English common law.

Boyer's legal background makes Coke come alive, a lawyer's lawyer. Still an inspiration after 400 years!

Whether one is interested in History, Law or just seeking some insight into someone who has shaped our world Allen Boyer's work is a pleasure. I must confess my exposure to Sir Edward Coke was rudimentary at best but over the course of this text I became familiar with his accomplishments and gained an intimate insight into Sir Edward Coke's life. Allen Boyer's mastery of the written word is quite apparent and his ability to entertain and bring life to this important historical figure makes the work a true joy to read. His tireless research and familiarity with the subject matter is found in almost every crafted word.
Simply stated, it is a must have for anyone interested in the history of Law, Sir Edward Coke and those who wish to read a finely crafted text.

I really enjoyed the family values in the story. The author is a great story teller. Looking forward to his next book.

Never realized how much the Irish struggled for independence until I read Soldier of Ireland. A great review of the history of the Irish and their determination to unite Ireland and to free her of foreign intervention.

Soldier of Ireland is a fine story of Ireland's struggle for freedom, and the courage of Irishmen and women in the struggle.

I have read the book and think it is excellent. Iam a 25 year old male and I have visited the House of Prayer in Achill Co.Mayo,the ''HOUSE OF TRUTH" set up by Christina. A year ago I wouldn't have taken any heed of Our Lady's messages but having been to the "HOUSE OF PRAYER" my whole life has changed! Christina is a sincere,genuine,loving,warm and saintly woman who has only been trying to do what Our Lady has asked her to do. I think it is terrible that this wonderful person has received so much rejection from the Irish people. I have met with Christina on a number of occasions. She speaks the TRUTH and people have just got to listen to her messages from heaven before it is too late! Iwas down in the House of Prayer last weekend (12th of November) and Christina's message was very strong! Her most recent message from Our Lady tells us that this millenium or year of the millenium will see the world and Ireland brought to it's knees! Christina warns us of two countries in the world joining forces and spreading their errors throughout the entire world. When this happens so much suffering will come about. Christina pleaded with us last Saturday not to wait for the millenium to change our lives. She strongly says CHANGE YOUR LIVES NOW! ,while there is still time. We were asked to spread this very important message. So, whoever reads my review please take heed of this very serious message and tell as many people as you possibly can. If people are able to get to the "House of Prayer" in Achill Sound Co. Mayo please go as if you are in a state of grace you will receive the seal of the BLOOD OF JESUS,a very special seal for the times we are living in,which is of course the apocalypse. Please spread the message and God bless you!

A friend lent me his book, he said I would not be able to put it down, and I couldn't. What courage it must take to have apparitions and visions of God, Jesus, Mary and many Saints, plus Heaven and Hell?! Yet, to be belittled by the press, made fun of by others and to be treated at best..as weird. May God's Blessings always be upon Christina Gallagher and upon all of us, especially if we do not have the faith it takes to believe.

tom petrisko has a unique way of telling what he has heard, the stories of the visionaries,the apparitions of the people, he captures the heart of what is going on in these messages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An intriguing book. Rather too detailed (but don't give up -- it's full of good stuff). A good reference for managers on how to run a business by maintaining excellent rapport with one's employees (Marcus Woolf style) and an excellent example of professional ethics (again, Marcus Woolf style towards his moles). Some amazing ideas by the East German intelligence, e.g.Romeo agents, are described.

Having travelled to East Berlin during the 50's and 60's, I thought this book would be of some interest. I was not prepared to be as thoroughly enthralled by this account of the East German secret police and its deputy minister, Markus Wolf, as I was. It was an unexpected find! Colitt obviously knows his subject and has created a spellbinding historical account.

Having travelled to East Berlin during the 50's and 60's, I thought this book would be of some interest. I was not prepared to be as thoroughly enthralled by this account of the East German secret police and its deputy minister, Markus Wolf, as I was. It was an unexpected find! Colitt obviously knows his subject and has created a spellbinding historical account.

Briefly - this multi-layer book is a masterpiece of modern political science. This history of Romanian Communism is one particular case speaking crystal-clear about global Communism . Due to Vladimir Tismaneanu and his history of Romanian Communism we have an accurate, a splendid x-ray of Communism in the world.
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More than that this book is as a wonderful political novel - written by Vladimir Tismaneanu with genius and, believe me, plenty of fine, ironical humor.

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Therefore, reading this work, you can easily re-make historically and politically the whole nightmare of the Communist era, in Romania, and in Europe, and world-wide as well. Yes - a tragic nightmare. A disaster.
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Vladimir Tismaneanu presents to us, with knowledge and skills of a master in laser-surgery, the anatomy and the functions of this Monster , Communism - alas ! somehow still alive . His lesson is a fundamental lesson about humankind's fatal errors and disasters ... which we do not have the right to repeat and re-live. At least, because you have to admit this terrible reality: nazism = communism = Islamic terrorism. At last but not at least, considering this irrefutable truth - I warmly recommend you the lesson of Vladimir Tismaneanu, his work as a unique book of our modern times. A healing book !
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And, for this lesson, we definitely have to be grateful, from the bottom of our hearts, to Vladimir Tismaneanu - who is practically the genuine creator of the modern school of Romanian political science.

After "Stalinism for All Seasons" it must be truly depressing to consider writing books of political sociology on the topic of the communist grand narrative. This is not only because Tismaneanu's opus, the outcome of a lifelong fascination with the topic, is so well-stocked with quality historical data (his archival research, and access to unique resources can hardly be replicated), but also because the author is a genuine maestro of both analytical insight and of a captivating writing style.
It is astonishing how he managed to strike the right balance between a sociological-political excursus of great analytical accuracy with a novel-like narrative that stretches over almost a century and whose charm ruins your work agenda for several days.
Although the book's focus is the case of the pariah Romanian Communist Party, Tismaneanu immerses this case in the wider phenomenon of world communism. The reader is stunned to discover, en premiere, the constitution of informal transnational party networks and narratives that spanned from Vietnam to Greece, and Romania. Particularly fascinating are Tismaneanu's foray into mechanisms of Leninist and Stalinist manipulation of the (rather excessively)romanticized world communism" of the 20s and 30s, as well as his treatment of the role of memory, charisma, nationalism and aesthetics in the ascension, ossification and in the decay of the party.
We have access to the operationalization of general issues of interest for political scientists such as puzzling hybridizations of mechanisms for political power conquest and maintenance, the crucial role of personalities (that escapes facile research designs accomodation), how resources are distributed and conflits are settled in opaque political machines.
For those interested in how birth pathologies impact the subsequent development of radical political projects that end up reaching the lands of dystopia, this read is undoubtedly set to be on list of classics.

Professor Tismaneanu, one of the sharpest analysts in the field of Eastern European politics, has written what is no doubt the definitive comprehensive study of the Romanian Communist Party. Brilliantly written and painstakingly researched over many years, the work will be appreciated by anybody interested in Eastern European politics or the stalinist system and its various deviations.

A solid political science work, the prose is lively and the entire work, complete with the cast of characters at the end, reminds me more of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury than other blander political analyses.

A superb book.

After the defeat of the Macedonians at Pydina by Rome's legions, one might have thought the days of the pike were over. True, some armies after Pydina used spear formations to stop cavalry such as the Scots at Bannockburn, but it ironically fell to the tough people of what is now Switzerland to really start a pike revolution in Europe. Originally famous for their Halberds and the ambush warfare that led to victory at Mortgarten, the Swiss realized their tactics needed improvement so they adopted the pike. Soon they would become feared by forces all over central and western Europe. The crowning achievment of the Swiss was likely their rout of the proud and powerful Burgundian army at Morat. Decades later, the Swiss were still respected and feared though on the fields of Italy, their time in the spotlight was running out. Overall an interesting and consice book on the rise of Swiss warfare.

We get to read in high school and undergraduate History courses all about the great Monarchies and Empires of Olde Europe (TM) but we never see anything like this. Who outside of Europe ever knew that the greatest and most feared army of Europe in the Renaissance was that of a small Confederacy of city-states and forest cantons in Switzerland, the Helvetic Confederacy or the so called Old Swiss Confederacy (even while the most powerful Navy at the same time was that of the Republic of Venice).

These people who invented modern warfare, also took democracy to another level and even ELECTED their military leaders on the very eve of crucial battles. Based on the contempt people have for Democracy today you would assume that this would be a recipe for disaster, but the Swiss met the best Armies of Europe, including that of the mighty Austrian Hapsburgs and Charles the Bold (along with his contingent of the allegedly undefeatable British Longbowmen), and annihilated them time and time again. With each sub-unit retaining it's independence and operating under multiple elected (and unelectable) leaders, one might expect the Swiss armies to be disorganized and parylized with indecision, but the Swiss showed how democratic organization can work when people want to work togehter; the Swiss Reislauffer were characterized by their fearless courage, tight battlefield discipline, and hair trigger boldness in battle.

Tables in this Osprey book show ranks of pikemen and halberdiers made up of a bakers guild, a butchers guild, a cobblers guild and the like. The history of all of the battles, from the first victory by three tenuously unified Cantons over an invading Hapsburg army to the defeats of Charles the Bold two Centuries later. Reading this book will make you want to learn more about the Old Swiss Confederacy, and about the History of Europe in general.

Emperor Maximillion of the Holy Roman Empire invented the Landsknechts in a conscious attempt to mimic the success of the Swiss. The Osprey book Landknecht Warrior contains yet more detailed information about the Swiss at War.

I think Switzerland is an example for everybody who wants to be free!