Modern Ireland, 1600 - 1972


R.F. Foster - 1988
    Foster's Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 looks at how key events in Irish history contributed to the creation of the 'Irish Nation'. 'The most brilliant and courageous Irish historian of his generation' Colm Tóibín, London Review of Books'Remarkable ... Foster gives a wise and balanced account of both forces of unity and forces of diversity ... a master work of scholarship' Bernard Crick, New Statesman'A tour de force ... Anyone who really wants to make sense of Ireland and the Irish must read Roy Foster's magnificent and accessible Modern Ireland' Anthony Clare'A magnificent book. It supersedes all other accounts of modern Irish history' Conor Cruise O'Brien, Sunday Times'Dazzling ... a masterly survey not so much of the events of Irish history over the past four centuries as of the way in which those events acted upon the peoples living in Ireland to produce in our own time an "Irish Nation" ... a gigantic and distinguished undertaking' Robert Kee, Observer'A work of gigantic importance. It is everything that a history book should be. It is beautifully and clearly written; it seeps wisdom through its every pore; it is full of the most elegant and scholarly insights; it is magnificently authoritative and confident ... Modern Ireland is quite simply the single most important book on Irish history written in this generation ... A masterpiece' Kevin Myers, Irish Times

The Lost Daughter


R.P.G. Colley - 2020
    Elizabeth has always suspected her mother harbours a secret from her time as a young woman in Nazi Germany. But her mother, suffering from dementia, is lost to her now.When Elizabeth stumbles across a Nazi certificate amongst her parent’s paperwork, it forces her to question the very foundations of her 1950s childhood and her first love; a childhood, she now realises, was built on lies.Elizabeth’s quest to find the truth leads her to Germany where she’s met with a wall of silence. She knows that beyond this wall, is the truth, a truth that exists deep within the dark and twisted soul of Hitler’s Germany.Germany, 1944. 18-year-old Hannah, beautiful and naive, volunteers to work in a home for evacuated children. But Doctor Heinkel, a loyal Nazi, decrees that there’s a better way for Hannah to serve the Fatherland.Drawn further into the doctor’s distorted world, Hannah only realises what’s expected of her when it’s too late. Confronted with evil, Hannah makes an impossible choice, a choice that will reverberate down the generations…Part of The Love and War Series, novels set during the 20th century's darkest years.20th Century Historical fiction with heart and drama.

In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music


Nicholas Dawidoff - 1997
    In the Country of Country is a passionate and expansive account of a quintessentially American art form and the performers that made country music what it is today. Both deeply personal and endlessly evocative,  In the Country of Country pays tribute to the music that sprang from places like Maces Springs, Virginia, home of the Carter Family, and Bakersfield, California, where Buck Owens held sway. Bestselling author Nicholas Dawidoff takes readers to the back roads and country hollows that were home to Chet Atkins, Doc Watson, Emmylou Harris, and many more.

Granta 135: New Irish Writing


Sigrid Rausing - 2016
    Here international stars rub shoulders with a new generation of talent from a country which keeps producing exceptional writers. This issue features Kevin Barry on Cork, "as intimate and homicidal as a little Marseille"; Lucy Caldwell imagining forbidden first love in Belfast; an exclusive extract of Colm Toibin's next novel, about growing up in the shadow of a famous father; fiction from Emma Donaghue about Victorian Ireland's miraculous fasting girls; and Sara Baume describing the wild allure and threat of the rural landscape. Also featuring fiction from Colin Barrett, John Connell, Mary O'Donoghue, Roddy Doyle, Siobhan Mannion, Belinda McKeon, Sally Rooney, Donal Ryan, and William Wall; poetry from Tara Bergin, Leontia Flynn and Stephen Sexton; photography by Doug DuBois, Stephen Dock and Birte Kaufmann; with original portraits of the authors in their environment by acclaimed street photographer Eamonn Doyle.

Born to Ride: The Autobiography of Stephen Roche


Stephen Roche - 2012
    Victory at the World Cycling Championship in Austria completed a near-unprecedented ‘triple crown’ that included triumphs in the same year at the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia. In April, against all odds, he fought his own team and an angry, partisan Italian crowd who spat at him on his way to taking the Giro. In July a superhuman effort at La Plagne saw him secure the yellow jersey just before he blacked out. Roche’s victory in Austria confirmed his virtuosity.Born to Ride, Stephen Roche’s first full autobiography, uses his best year as the starting point to explore the rest of his life. He doesn’t hold back as he examines the many ups and downs of his time on and off the bike, scrutinising victories, defeats, rivals, serious injury, doping allegations and agonizing family breakdown. At the heart of the book lies an enigma. For all his charm and rare, natural talent, beneath the surface lies an incredible tenacity and determination. Roche finally reveals himself as a smiling assassin; a master-strategist who lives to attack.

The Footman


A. O'Connor - 2015
     What the Footman saw . . . In 1930s Ireland, Joe Grady becomes the footman at the stately home Cliffenden, owned by the glamorous Fullerton family. Joe is enthralled by the intrigue and scandal above stairs, and soon becomes a favourite of the daughter of the house, Cassie. There is mounting pressure on Cassie to marry American banker Wally Stanton. But Cassie is having a secret affair with the unsuitable Bowden Grey. What the Footman did . . . When Cassie and Bowden’s affair is discovered in disgraceful circumstances, the lovers are banned from seeing each other. Joe risks his position at Cliffenden, becoming a messenger between them, until he finds himself making a choice that will change the lives of everyone at Cliffenden forever. Decades later, Joe has achieved great success as a barrister. When suddenly Cassieis arrested for a sensational crime, he sets out to discover what happened to her in the intermittent years. He realises his actions at Cliffenden set off a chain of events that led to murder. But is Cassie guilty? Innocent or guilty, can Joe ever make amends for his part in her downfall?

Brown Lord of the Mountain


Walter Macken - 1967
    But Donn longs for a wider kingdom. He deserts his bride, roams the world, fights in wars, is footloose - yet finds that he is homesick. Sixteen years later he returns to take up the threads of his old life, to learn to love his afflicted daughter, and to bring progress to the neglected green valley. Light comes, water flows, the land prospers. Then, on a night of innocent festivity, a monstrous crime is perpetrated. His kingdom violated, Donn dedicates himself to a terrible revenge that can only destroy the avenger as well as the hunted

The Twelfth Night of the Duchess


Tiffany Baton - 2021
    Posing as a noble upon her Lady’s insistent request, she finds herself not only attending the Season’s grandest balls, but also a betrothed Duchess-to-be.Robert Jameson, brother of the Duke of Cromwell, has spent his years struggling with his horrid reputation and terrible relationship with his mother. Still, he is quite certain that nothing could ever compare to his most recent sin: falling for his brother’s betrothed.Caught between duty and lies, threatening letters turn Jane’s happiness to ashes in her mouth. For, someone knows her secrets; even ones she doesn’t know herself. On Twelfth Night, the masks shatter and the face they see behind them has been dead for a long while.

The Plant Based Runner: A Personal Guide to Running, Healthy Eating, and Discovering a New You


Jonathan Cairns - 2019
     He had never exercised and had zero energy but as a way of dealing with the pain and frustration of his separation, he decided to take up running. Or as he talks about in his book The Plant Based Runner: A Personal Guide to Running, Healthy Eating, and Discovering a New You, he started to 'put one foot in front of the other'. This book is raw and real. There is nothing in it that is not tried and tested by Cairns, and it has an authentic ring about it. This is a personal story, about his struggle to see his children in the face of a relentless, anti-father bias in the judicial system. He is running to solve problems, running to find solutions as opposed to running away from trouble. He takes responsibility for everything that is his. Straight-talking and funny, Jonathan takes you by the hand and chapter by chapter helps you to put your excuses aside and find a new appreciation for your body, your health and for the power of confidence. You feel like if you follow his steps you could do a lot more with your life. There are books that you will read that tell you how to live, or how to do something that will improve your life, and if you follow the advice, as you might for a time, it may work, for a while. And there are books that will leave you changed, transported to another place in yourself and in the world you inhabit because of the power of the story that you have read. Even if you are not a runner or a dad deprived of your kids, this is a read that has inspiration and hope.

A Concise History of Ireland


Patrick Weston Joyce - 2017
    A writer may accomplish all this while sympathising heartily, as I do, with Ireland and her people.” A Concise History of Ireland by P. W. Joyce is a seminal work covering the history of the nation from ancient times through to the political turmoil of the nineteenth century. Joyce provides a detailed look at the customs and culture of ancient Ireland, its language, literature, art, and religion. Before the first Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169, Ireland was ruled by high kings who variously ruled all or parts of Ireland. The struggle for power between these kings resulted in many conflicts and produced such famous Irish war-kings as Brian Boru, Malachi and Dermot MacMurrogh. The book tracks the development of religion in Ireland from the pagan beliefs of ancient Ireland to the coming of St Patrick and the spread of Christianity. It also follows the religious effects of centuries of plantations and the religious divides that emerged as a result. Joyce examines the development of Anglo-Irish relations spanning from 1169, through to the Plantations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the rebellions of the nineteenth century. A Concise History of Ireland is a fascinating account at the complex history of this small country. P. W. Joyce was an Irish historian and writer who specialized in creating histories of localities all throughout Ireland. As a result of his efforts, he became one of the most important Irish cultural figures of the late 19th century, producing works about the languages, music, literature, folklore, and the background of the names of places all throughout Ireland. This work was published in 1893 and he passed away in 1914.

Little Criminals


Gene Kerrigan - 2005
    Jo-Jo Mackendrick is a pillar of Dublin gangland society; a man determined that nothing will endanger his hard-earned supremacy. Into their lives come Frankie Crowe, an ambitious criminal tired of risking his life for small change. Kidnap could be the first step on his climb to a better life, and he knows just the kind of dangerous men to make it happen...

The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845 - 1849


Cecil Woodham-Smith - 1962
    It may not have been the result of deliberate government policy, yet British ‘obtuseness, short-sightedness and ignorance’ – and stubborn commitment to laissez-faire ‘solutions’ – largely caused the disaster and prevented any serious efforts to relieve suffering. The continuing impact on Anglo-Irish relations was incalculable, the immediate human cost almost inconceivable. In this vivid and disturbing book Cecil Woodham-Smith provides the definitive account.‘A moving and terrible book. It combines great literary power with great learning. It explains much in modern Ireland – and in modern America’ - D.W. Brogan.

The Bond: Dragonlinked Chronicles Volume 2


Adolfo Garza Jr. - 2014
    To do so, he and Anaya fly to House Yaot, the dragon warren that was home to her mother, but the effort fails so spectacularly that he worries he's ruined the company's chance at success. His concerns are compounded when they learn that a mysterious enemy actively works against them, and increasing tension amongst the dragonlinked trainees only adds to his problems.As their enemy continues to interfere with every move they make, the masters disclose their true plan, a much more ambitious undertaking. Then, an unknown dragonlinked is discovered, and a shocking revelation makes it even more important that the new plan succeeds.In order for that to happen, however, the group is going to have to somehow mend their differences, come together, and prove they're capable of their expanded purpose. Because their future, the future of dragons and dragonlinked, rests squarely on their shoulders.In THE BOND, sequel to DRAGONLINKED, author Adolfo Garza Jr. takes readers back to the world of Lethera, where magic and a nascent Industrial Revolution are the the backdrop for tales about dragons and the brave souls who are their bond-mates, the dragonlinked.

Dark Rosaleen


Michael Nicholson - 2015
    Historically accurate, it is a story of murder and betrayal, of a failed rebellion, and the love of a national scandal.  Charles Trevelyan was Secretary of the Treasury, and Director of the Famine Relief Programme at a time when famine raged and antipathy in English politics towards the plight of those affected raged equally. Kathryn, Charles' daughter, likewise felt no sympathy until the very scale of the tragedy became apparent. Joining the underground, she preached insurrection, stole food for the starving, and became the lover of the leader of the rebellion. She became known as Dark Rosaleen, the heroine of banned nationalist poem, was branded as both traitor and cause celebré. This is her story.

Raven of the Sea


Stacey Reynolds - 2016
    When she lost her father, Major Brian O’Mara, USMC in the Second Battle of Fallujah, she thought she’d taken the worst life had to give. She never imagined she would lose her mother to cancer, six years later. The life of a military child prepared her for the challenges of relocating, but for the first time, she’d be doing it alone. Where do you go when you’re the last man standing? The solution came to her when she received an email with a real estate listing in County Clare, Ireland. Having inherited her parents’ rental properties, she knew the value of a diamond in the rough. A secluded cottage in the land of her ancestors was just the fresh start she needed. What she wasn’t prepared for was another buyer, after the deal had been struck. As she becomes intertwined with the people, the music, and the spirit of the small town, she understands that she’s finally found somewhere to belong. Michael O’Brien and the entire O’Brien clan are a force to be reckoned with, but she will not allow them to take her new home. Michael O’Brien is a local hero and rescue swimmer for the Irish Coast Guard. He has lived in the small coastal village of Doolin, in County Clare, all of his life. Emerging from the ashes of a failed marriage, and living with his parents, is not where he expected to be at the age of twenty-nine. All he really wants is to buy the local Kelly cottage, fix it up, and live in peace. After two years on the market, he never imagined there would be a competing bidder. He certainly didn’t expect some little yank to swoop in to town, and try to buy it right out from under him. He finds himself drawn into an unlikely battle with a fiery, young American woman, neither of them willing to bend. But as her secrets unravel and the woman is revealed, will he be able to push her out of the cottage, the town, and out of his life?