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Saturday, January 06, 2007

Read Ireland

Read Ireland Book Reviews – Issue 361 ------------------------------------- Back from the Brink by Paul McGrath (Hardback; Publishers Recommended Price: 28 Euro. Read Ireland Book Review Special Price: 24 Euro / 29 USD / 18 UK; 370 pages) Paul McGrath is Ireland's best loved sportsman and also its least understood. An iconic football presence during a professional career stretching over 14 years, he played for his country in the European Championship finals of 1988 and the World Cup finals of 1990 and 1994. But, behind the implied glamour of life in the employ of great English clubs like Manchester United and Aston Villa, McGrath wrestled with a range of destructive emotions that made his success in the game little short of miraculous. That story has until now never been told. It is a story that runs from a hard, hidden childhood spent in Dublin's orphanages all the way to the pain of two marriage break-ups and the struggle to cope with life after football. Quite apart from his all too public struggle with alcoholism, the story runs through the surreal highs and calamitous lows of a life lived habitually on the edge of chaos. It is not just a football story. It is an extraordinary human story that is certain to surprise with its candour. Here, for the first time, read about the father he never met; the mother whose love never died; the routine loneliness and ritual bullying endured by a black kid growing up behind closed doors in 1960s Dublin; the emotional breakdown suffered on leaving that institution; the recovery that - remarkably - brought him all the way to Old Trafford; the rollercoaster ride that followed. Here, the guilt, fear, self-loathing are all laid bare in a story fired with hope and determination for the future. It may well be the most candid sports book ever written. ------------------------------------- Ronnie Delaney: Staying the Distance by Ronnie Delaney (Hardback; 25 Euro / 30 USD / 20 UK; 210 pages with black-and-white photos throughout) In December 1956, Ronnie Delany sprinted home to win the gold medal in the 1500m Olympic final in Melbourne, setting a new Olympic record in the process. In the depressed Ireland of the fifties, Delany's win - an outsider storming ahead to beat the favourites - caught the imagination of a nation, and made him a sporting icon. Fifty years on from the Melbourne Olympics, Ronnie Delany tells the story of his life and career in his own warm and engaging style. ------------------------------ Will You Be Here When I Get Home? By Claire Cashin (Paperback; 15 Euro / 18 USD / 11 UK; 220 pages) Claire Cashin was adopted. In her youth, she experienced many personal problems because her birth mother 'gave her away'. This led her in search of her biological mother. This is a true and very honest account of adoption, search and reunion. It examines in depth how adoption can affect the individual and their loved ones. It does not shy away from the reality of what a reunion can mean and how hard it can be at times, or indeed what joy it can add to peoples lives. The story describes in fascinating detail what the reality can be like for many adopted people and what challenges their families may face as they mature and wonder about the circumstances of their adoption. It attempts to offer advice to anyone considering searching for their own answers, from someone who has gone through the process, made the mistakes, learned some lessons along the way and is still smiling. This book describes the mistakes and triumphs she made along the way and how the news of a new birth family has affected her adopted family in Cork, and changed Claire forever. It gives hope and advice to families who wish to help and understand the dynamics involved in adoption and reunion. ------------------------------------ The Frames: Behind the Glass by Zoran Orlic (Hardback; 20 Euro / 26 USD / 14 UK; ) Glen Hansard founded The Frames before appearing in "The Commitments" (1991). Since then, the band has enjoyed multi-platinum success in Ireland and have the best-kept secret of the Irish music scene. Their own identity and style accumulated a loyal, ever-increasing fan base. Now one of our most popular bands, they are making a global breakthrough with their "Burn The Maps" album. Most recently, the US edition of "Esquire" has awarded the band their annual Esky award won last year by Coldplay. Zoran was so ignited by their music in 1994, it sparked a last-minute weekend trip to Ireland from Chicago to see the band live. His pen-pal relationship with front man Glen Hansard developed into friendship as the band carved a niche outside Ireland in the USA. Zoran, fan and photographer, had unfettered access to capture the passion of this band, on tour and in studio, for this pictorial tribute. The rise of the band is illustrated with exclusive vintage photographs. Also included are rare shots of enigmatic producer, Steve Albini who worked with Nirvana and The Pixies. Orlic's anecdotes and memories from tours and studio sessions give a true sense of life as a band member. Photographs from early years capture moments of playfulness - the lads with horn-rimmed glasses and mid-90s fashions - and relaxation. This is an unadulterated look into the heart and soul of The Frames. -------------------------------------- Enemy of the Empire: Life as an International Undercover IRA Activist by Eamon McGuire (Paperback; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 9 UK; 300 pages) Written in prison in South Africa, Ireland and the United States, "Enemy of the Empire" is an overview of an exotic, colourful and secretive life. A trained aviation engineer, up-to-date with the latest technology, Eamon McGuire worked in countries that were extricating themselves from the last bonds of empire such as Kenya and Malaysia. His mission was to keep ahead of the British army in terms of weapons and detection by procuring and designing systems. His activities forced him to go on the run, hiding in remote parts of Africa and eventually ending up in war - torn Mozambique. He was captured by the CIA in South Africa and subsequently spent several years in various prisons where he started to write what became the basis of this book. --------------------------------- Follow the Moon: A Memoir by Sheila Sullivan (Paperback; 15 Euro / 18 USD / 11 UK; 192 pages) This story portrays a life among the Boston Irish, the New York Irish and the Irish Irish. Sheila Sullivan is an American journalist who has worked for "The Irish Times" for seventeen years. Born in 1956 in Chelsea, the first city north of Boston, she worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News and as a writer-producer for CNN in its Manhattan bureau before moving to Dublin in 1986 and to Achill Island, County Mayo in 1998. "Follow the Moon: A Memoir" is a highly original work, an engaging and beautifully crafted account of an unusual life, written with humour and humanity. It is the story of three moves - from Boston to New York, from New York to Dublin, and from Dublin to Achill - each one difficult and life-enhancing. Part memoir and part social and literary history, "Follow the Moon" contains a close portrait of legendary New York newspaperman Jimmy Breslin, along with cameos of writers Tom MacIntyre, Jay McInerny and Dominick Dunne. There is a behind-the-scenes look at the live coverage of the retrial of Claus von Bulow, the second televised trial in US history, with Sheila as its producer in the field. The book features a challenging conversation with philosopher John Moriarty about modern Ireland and more generally about the modern condition. There is an account of Heinrich Boll's time in Achill, including excerpts from two letters containing the Nobel Prize-winning writer's first impressions of the island. At its heart is the story of how Sheila met New Zealand-born composer Brent Parker, who later became her husband. ----------------------------------- MTV Ireland (Paperback; 20 Euro / 26 USD / 14 UK; 530 pages) * "Outside the box" accommodations: staying in castles, country houses, thatched cottages, and more * Outdoor adventures only locals know about: surfing and fishing off the Irish coast, country walks along bogs, mountaineering, hiking, and horseback-riding around County Galway * The best gourmet meals for under $10 and tips for getting past the velvet ropes at the most exclusive dance clubs in Dublin and Belfast * Tips on how to strike up a conversation with a local-including how to deal with delicate subjects like Northern Ireland and the IRA From the coolest nightclubs in Belfast to surfing off the coast of Clare, MTV Ireland shows you where you want to be, with choices forevery budget to help you travel the way you want to. Alternative accommodations. Stay everywhere from a hostel with a sauna to an ancient merchant's house in County Derry to a 17th-century castle in Galway. Cheap eats. Fuel up with a full Irish breakfast in Limerick, fresh wildsalmon in Westport, and Irish cheeses in Cork. Great clubs, bars & pubs. Listen to Irish trad at McGann's (County Clare's top Irish music pub), party in Bono's Octagon Bar in Dublin, and boogie down on the frosted-glass dance floor at Belfast's The Potthouse. Offbeat attractions, world-class arts & adrenaline adventures. From the freakish Oliver Plunkett's mummified head in Drogheda to a literary pub crawl in Dublin to kite-surfing in Bundoran, you'll discover Ireland's finest gems. -------------------------- New in Paperback This Week: -------------------------- Vincent O’Brien: The Authorised Biography by Jacqueline O’Brien and Ivor Herbert (Paperback; Publishers Recommended Price: 13 Euro; Read Ireland Book Review Special Price: 10 Euro / 13 USD / 7 UK; 380 pages) Vincent O'Brien is a horse-racing legend. Recently voted horse racing's 'greatest of all time', ahead of familiar names like Lester Piggott, the Queen Mother and Sheikh Mohammed, O'Brien won every race that matters in Britain and Ireland over his fifty-year career and is without doubt the best and most versatile racehorse trainer the sport has ever known. O'Brien is the only man to have trained three consecutive Grand National winners. He won three consecutive Gold Cups and three consecutive Champion Hurdles. He has had extraordinary success in flat racing too - six Derby winners, three winners of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, three King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winners and twenty-five races at Royal Ascot. He trained some of the best-known racehorses in the history of the sport - including Nijinsky, winner of the Triple Crown in 1970. His life has been a fascinating one. From humble beginnings in County Cork, he chose to train racehorses as his career - much to the benefit of the sport - and went on to create the legendary Ballydoyle Stables. Here his extraordinary story is told by his wife, Jacqueline, and distinguished racing writer Ivor Herbert. Lavishly illustrated with her personal and public photographs that span his amazing life, this book is a must for anyone with an interest in horses or racing. -------------------------------- District and Circle by Seamus Heaney (Paperback; Publishers Recommended Price: 14 Euro; Read Ireland Book Review Special Price 11 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; 80 pages) Seamus Heaney's new collection starts 'in an age of bare hands and cast iron' and ends 'as the automatic lock/clunks shut' in the eerie new conditions of a menaced twentieth-first century. In their haunted, almost visionary clarity, the poems assay the weight and worth of what has been held in the hand and in the memory. Images out of a childhood spent safe from the horrors of World War II - railway sleepers, a sledgehammer, the 'heavyweight silence' of cattle out in rain - are coloured by a strongly contemporary sense that 'anything can happen' and other images from the dangerous present - a journey on the underground, a melting glacier - are fraught with this same anxiety. But "District and Circle", which includes a number of prose poems and translations, offers resistance as the poet gathers his staying powers and stands his ground in the hiding places of love and excited language. In a sequence like "The Tollund Man in Springtime" and in several poems which 'do the rounds of the district' - its known roads and rivers and trees, its familiar and unfamiliar ghosts - the gravity of memorial is transformed into the grace of recollection. With more relish and conviction than ever, Seamus Heaney maintains his trust in the obduracy of workaday realities and the mystery of everyday renewals. ---------------- Available Again: ---------------- Now is the Time: Spiritual Reflections by Sister Stanislaus Kennedy (Paperback; 9 Euro / 13 USD / 6 UK; 200 pages) This is a book for everyone, young or old, male or female, for those who are irreligious or plain disaffected as well as for the converted. It is a book for people who are interested in ideas, literature and action. Even people for whom a spiritual view of the world is a closed book should try opening this one. The author of Now Is the Time, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, is best known and widely loved as a deeply committed social activist and tireless worker on behalf of homeless people. In this refreshing and though-provoking book, she reveals an entirely different side of her nature - the reflective, the contemplative and the spiritual. This book, like its author, is firmly grounded in a Christian commitment and outlook, but it looks beyond the boundaries of any one faith or church and draws on the great spiritual and philosophical traditions of east and west and on Sr Stan's wide-ranging reading in poetry, philosophy and spiritual writings. She picks up here a line of poetry from one of the world's great authors; there an idea from psychotherapist or philosopher; somewhere else a proverb from oriental wisdom; and weaves her own thoughts around them in a way that presents them afresh to us and makes us see anew. ------------------------------ Booked (v. carefully) Selected Writings by Tom Humphries (Paperback; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 9 UK; 450 pages) From the best-selling author of Laptop Dancing and the Nanny Goat Mambo comes this superb collection of columns from The Irish Times, and beyond. We learn the truth about Chris Eubank, why sports journalists could never survive a nuclear winter, and how males of a certain age become suddenly susceptible to the dangers of the golf course. Tom bemoans the plight of the Real Fan, that most endangered of species, and expounds 101 reasons why GAA will always be better than soccer. Original, insightful and always entertaining, Booked! is this summer's must-read for sports fans, and non-sports fans, alike - and all royalties will be donated to Amnesty International Irish Section. --------------------------------- Helen Dillon on Gardening (Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 10 UK; 280 pages) A practical handbook and an indispensable reference point, this is the one book every gardener needs to have close at hand. Written with style and humour, this selection is from Helen Dillon's time as a writer for the Sunday Tribune. Both experienced and novice gardeners will find much to savour here. 'Here is a book to be read over and over, to keep beside one's bed, to consult throughout the year, to put with one's favourite gardening books, that collection which...is the one always turned to for help and pleasure.' Irish Independent ------------------------------------ Finding My Irish by Sharon Shea Bossard (Trade Paperback; 16 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 305 pages) An Old letter mailed from Valentia Islans, County Kerry, Island, in 1949 provides an important link that connects family in America to cousins in Ireland. Extensive research through old records in Dublin as well as vital information gathered in America furnishes the author and her husband with the information necessary to locate the villates, townlands, cemeteries, and parished of her grandparents. The author's personal odyssey promises to captivate and inspire you to begin a search for your Irish. --------------------------------------- Thank you for your continued support. It is vital for the continuation of this service! If you appreciate receiving these regular emails, I respectfully request that if you are considering ordering any of these books that you do so through Read Ireland. Using these emails to order books from other suppliers does NOT support Read Ireland nor the continuation of the service. I very much appreciate your patronage. To order books from the Read Ireland Book Review – simply return the Newsletter by clicking your reply button. Please DELETE the books you do NOT want and LEAVE the books you DO WANT to order. Please note that prices for these books on the Read Ireland website may differ from those quoted above. Alternatively, you can send an email to the order department at: gregcarr@readireland.ie Please be sure to include your full mailing address and credit card details including expiration date. You might like to split this information into 2 or 3 emails for security. You can of course also post your order to: Read Ireland, 392 Clontarf Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3,Ireland. Telephone and Facsimile number is: +353-1-853-2063. Read Ireland Web Site Home Page: www.readireland.ie or www.readireland.com Please visit often! If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you very much for your continued support and custom. Sincerely, Gregory Carr @ Read Ireland
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