The Black Hand
Book
In the aftermath of Ireland’s most deadly gang war, Dublin’s ruling family has scattered to the...
crime thriller political thriller fiction adult The Black Hand Jonathon Dunne
The Gathering
9.0
Rate It
Book
"Anne Enright is a dazzling writer of international stature and one of Ireland’s most singular...
the gathering anne enright fiction ireland ghosts family
A Girl is a Half-formed Thing
Book
This is the winner of the Baileys Women's Prize for fiction. It is the winner of the Desmond Elliott...
Rosa Alchemica
1.0
Rate It
Book
For those who are familiar with Yeats' poetry, particulary his beloved early poems like "The Lake...
The Standing Stone on the Moor (The Talbot Saga)
Book
Yorkshire, 1845. Folklore whispers that they used to burn witches at the standing stone on the...
Historical Fiction Historical Romance Yorkshire
Strumpet City: One City One Book
Fintan O'Toole and James Plunkett
Book
This new edition of the epic Strumpet City marks the centenary of the 1913 Lockout. It has been...
Erika (17789 KP) rated A Long Long Way in Books
Mar 22, 2020
This book started out so slowly, and some of the descriptions felt completely unnecessary. I don't want to read about every time someone let their bowels go when they were scared literally and figuratively sh--less.
The one positive is that I felt like the dynamic of the Irish soldiers coming back to an Ireland they didn't recognize, and that they were considered traitors in some ways because they were fighting with the English.
Never expect a happy ending to a book (or any media) about soldiers in the Great War.
The Sense of an Ending
7.0
Rate It
Book
Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Now a major film starring Jim Broadbent and Charlotte...
Brigid is the daughter of a slave and a chieftain, and she narrowly escapes marriage to a man she doesn’t want, when a goddess hears her prayers. She helps her from this point on, and this is where the blurring between goddess/ paganism and catholicism starts - in a good way.
Brigid builds her sisterhood, cloaks it in religion and makes a safe haven for women in what would have been a brutal time for them. One of my favourite themes, found family, is prominent in this, along with sisterhood and religious politics.
I’m off to find The Morrigan, and I’m hoping that Kim Curran will continue to introduce us to the Irish folklore that I know far too little about.
