Recently published books by Irish and Irish-American authors. ℘℘℘ In the Galway Silence by Ken Bruen The Galway Tourist Office must just brace itself every time there’s a new book out by Ken Bruen. For every delight that Galway is known for, Bruen has the down-at-heel, dark-side alternative version. Quirky shops? Dead swans. Lovely pubs?Read more..
Recently-published books of Irish and Irish-American interest. ℘℘℘ FICTION A Keeper By: Graham Norton As a friend commented recently, is there anything Graham Norton can’t do? He’s already got the perfect chat show, the reasonably decent wine varieties, and even added best-selling novelist to his array of talents two years ago with Holding. And now,Read more..
Recently-published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ FICTION Normal People By: Sally Rooney There is something quietly knowing in the title of Sally Rooney’s second novel. Perhaps the reader is lulled into a false sense of security by the reassurance that these are characters just like us. And for the most part, theyRead more..
Recently-published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ FICTION Every Breath You Take By Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke The latest thriller and newest undertaking in the Under Suspicion series by Mary Higgins Clark, co-authored with Alafair Burke, shows that the authors’ talent for weaving an intense, fast-paced suspense story has not diminishedRead more..
William Trevor’s posthumous Last Stories. ℘℘℘ How strange to read a published work knowing it to be the author’s last. Such was the feeling on opening Last Stories, a collection of short stories made available two years after William Trevor’s death. The Cork-born author leaves us a treasure of quality work, fronted by an impressive canonRead more..
Recently-published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ MEMOIR Box of Butterflies: Discovering the Unexpected Blessings All Around Us By Roma Downey A 10-year-old Roma Downey, mourning the sudden, unexpected death of her vibrant mother, goes to Maureen O’Reilly Downey’s grave to plant her favorite flower – pansies. “She used to say she thought they looked likeRead more..
Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach is a journey through time and mores. ℘℘℘ In Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan makes a radical departure in style, language, and structure from her previous novel, the post-modern and Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad. This latest work, labeled “historic fiction” and set between 1934 and 1946, tells ofRead more..
Recently published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ NONFICTION Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics By Lawrence O’Donnell MSNBC pundit Lawrence O’Donnell found himself in an Irish feud a few months back with Donald Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly. O’Donnell, himself a Boston-born Irish American, blasted Kelly’s comments aboutRead more..
Recently-published and upcoming books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ SPORTS Great Moments in Hurling By Sportsfile Great Moments In Hurling from Sportsfile is the ultimate visual history of the modern game of hurling, its major characters, and stories, beginning with the legendary era of the 1950s. Sportsfile, founded by Ray McManus in the 1980s, isRead more..
Recently published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ Napoleon’s Doctor: The St. Helena Diary of Barry O’Meara By Dr. Hubert O’Connor The last few years of the great Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s life were spent with an Irishman. That Irishman was Barry O’Meara, a Dublin-born surgeon who caught the Emperor’s attention during his surrender onRead more..