This is going to be short but sweet, I’m afraid… hubby has a kidney stone, kids have been home all week, and I still have strep throat (the first round of antibiotics didn’t work), which means I’m like the walking dead here.
Maggie, it may not flu, but I feel your pain.
Anyway, as I staggered to the keyboard, I was thinking that with St. Paddy’s Day just around the corner, I’ve got a hankering for Irish fiction (or nonfiction). Unfortunately, though, I haven’t been able to find much. I’ve read some Maeve Binchy, and also that book about the Irish Country Doctor, but there seems to be a gaping void in that department — at least in Texas bookstores.
Any thoughts for this antibiotic-laced invalid? (I’m also a hopeless Anglophile — in fact, any books that occur in other countries are always welcome.) I need help passing the fever-and-child-filled days!
Thanks in advance… and may the Spring Break Plague pass your house by!
-
If you enjoy romance, Dorien Kelly has three Irish-set love stories that are very well done. One was a Rita finalist. The titles are horrendous (Last Bride in Ballymuir, Hot Nights in Ballymuir, Hot Whispers of an Irishman), but the books rise far above them.
Hope you feel better soon!
by kris
on March 14th, 2008 at 6:38 am
-
Karen, get better soon! Sounds as though it’s been a rough stretch at your house. I picked up Howling the other day–can’t wait to start it.
As for Irish–I’m with Kris–Dorien Kelly (www.dorienkelly.com) is fabulous. Also, Lynn Hanna is great, too.
by Heather
on March 14th, 2008 at 10:42 am
-
Try Keith Donohue’s The Stolen Child. I just read it for my book club. Here’s a summary:
Folk legends of the changeling serve as a touchstone for Donohue’s haunting debut, set vaguely in the American northeast, about the maturation of a young man troubled by questions of identity. At age seven, Henry Day is kidnapped by hobgoblins and replaced by a look-alike impostor. In alternating chapters, each Henry relates the tale of how he adjusts to his new situation. Human Henry learns to run with his hobgoblin pack, who never age but rarely seem more fey than a gang of runaway teens. Hobgoblin Henry develops his uncanny talent for mimicry into a music career and settles into an otherwise unremarkable human life. Neither Henry feels entirely comfortable with his existence, and the pathos of their losses influences all of their relationships and experiences. Inevitably, their struggles to retrieve their increasingly forgotten pasts put them on paths that intersect decades later. Donohue keeps the fantasy as understated as the emotions of his characters, while they work through their respective growing pains. The result is an impressive novel of outsiders whose feelings of alienation are more natural than supernatural.
by JB
on March 14th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
-
I don’t remember the author’s name…sorry…but one of the books is Skylark and I think another might be Malarkey.
by Chris
on March 15th, 2008 at 9:38 am
-
I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, but Anne Enright’s “The Gathering” has some great buzz going for it.
