Clik here to view.
Peace by Richard Bausch
The news that Richard Bausch has been award a Dayton Literary Peace Prize for his novel Peace, made me dig through the archives for the blurb I wrote for it last year. Peace is the intense story of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Salt: Just Two Books
When I joined Twitter over a year ago, one of the first things I learned about was Salt Publishing‘s Just One Book campaign. Evidently Salt, like many small publishers, was in trouble, and this was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Great Historical Novel for Middle Grade Readers
Review: Countdown by Deborah Wiles Franny Chapman is eleven and her world is falling apart. The world is transfixed by the Cuban Missile Crisis. They have nuclear attack drills at school, her Uncle is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Martin Millar’s Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation
Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation was Martin Millar’s first published novel. In the US, it appears that we are getting Millar’s books in something like a reverse order, starting with the brilliant The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two Awesome Books for Middle Grade Readers
My kids have entered that nebulous no-mans-zone known as the middle grade (or tween) years: too old for simple chapter books (like The Magic Tree House series, for example), but too young to demolish...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bookish Traditions: Fall/Halloween Books
We just changed the display on our seasons table and put the Halloween decorations up. The table currently combines the signs of harvest and the turning leaves (cornucopia, gourds, Indian corn,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: Jude: Level 1
Once upon a time I was on a long plane flight and an “Irish” film came on. OK, it was more Oirish than Irish: The Matchmaker, a fish out of water story wherein an uptight American (Janeane Garofalo)...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: Bigger than a Bread Box
Laurel Snyder’s new novel for middle-grade readers, Bigger than A Bread Box, is much more of a complex read than I usually find in this category (but that just means I don’t read enough MG anymore)....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Faery Tale by Signe Pike
Broadly speaking, there are two camps into which depictions of fairies can be divided: the cute and the capricious. Hollywood has done the first to death; after all, fluff and feathers seems to be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: Notes from a Coma
Notes from a Coma by Mike McCormack (US cover: Soho Press, 2013) Notes from a Coma by Mike McCormack is a fantastic and unusual novel that strives to break many of the ‘rules’ of novel writing and gets...
View ArticleBook Review: TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
I savored every word of Colum McCann’s elegant new novel, TransAtlantic. McCann has always been a writer who aims for a perfect image or a poetic turn of phrase, TransAtlantic is told in a gentle,...
View ArticleBook Review: City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
Kevin Barry is the must-read Irish writer of the moment, and for good reason: his short stories feature the mad, the bad, and the dangerous to know, and his language is deliciously quotable and...
View ArticleBook Review: The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
Donal Ryan’s debut novel, The Spinning Heart, is a triumph, capturing a snapshot of a contemporary Ireland reeling from the economic downturn in a kaleidoscope of different voices. Set in a small...
View ArticleBook Review: You by Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Editorial note: I take forever to get around to writing book reviews. This is because of many factors: I like to let a book sit and marinate (metaphorically) for a while; I have paid work to be getting...
View ArticleBook Review: The China Factory by Mary Costello
Mary Costello’s debut book of short stories, The China Factory, is a contemplative collection of inward-looking characters that seem almost too sensitive for this world. When the stories work (which is...
View ArticleBook Review: The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
The Testament of Mary promises much, but delivers less than hoped. While this revisionist portrayal of Mary as an angry, grieving mother, full of believable despair and rage at the cruel fate of her...
View ArticleBook Review: The Devil I Know by Claire Kilroy
Claire Kilroy’s novel The Devil I Know is an amusing and dead-on satire. It lampoons the “sky’s-the-limit” mentality of the Celtic Tiger years with the tall tale of a reformed alcoholic, Tristram St....
View ArticleBook Review: Dark Lies the Island by Kevin Barry
Following his acclaimed novel, City of Bohane, Kevin Barry’s second short story collection, Dark Lies the Island, is one of the most-anticipated books of the year. So, does it live up to expectations?...
View ArticleBook Review: Of Dublin and Other Fictions by Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Nuala Ní Chonchúir excels at the difficult form of short fiction known as flash fiction. Her new book is a collection of these ultra-short pieces, Of Dublin and Other Fictions. Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s new...
View ArticleBook Review: The Gamal by Ciarán Collins
Ciarán Collins’ debut novel, The Gamal, won the 2013 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. It’s one of the most-impressive debut novels in years. The Gamal is narrated by a young man, Charlie, who tells...
View Article
