Book picks similar to
Short Stories of John B. Keane: One of Ireland's favourite writers by John Brendan Keane
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The Story Collector
Evie Gaughan - 2018
Beautifully written and steeped in folklore - this suspenseful story is told with warmth, wit and charm." Niamh Boyce (The Herbalist) A beautiful and mysterious tale from the author of The Heirloom and The Mysterious Bakery On Rue De Paris. When Harold Krauss, an Oxford scholar, arrives in the small village of Thornwood, he finds a land full of myth, folklore and superstition. He hires a local farm girl, Anna, to help him collect stories and first-hand accounts from the locals who believe in the fairy faith. However, their discoveries will set off a chain of events that will see him accused of another man's murder murder. One hundred years later, Sarah Harper finds Anna's diary and unearths Thornwood's dark secrets, that both enchant and unnerve.Treading a line between the everyday and the otherworldly, the seen and the unseen, The Story Collector is a magical tale with unforgettable characters."The writing is bright and fluid with the warmth and charm of a fairy tale." THE IRISH TIMES"The kind of book to lose yourself in" NUDGE BOOKS MAGAZINE"An intriguing novel" HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor
Jack Slack - 2017
From an unknown prospect to the first man to hold two world titles simultaneously, McGregor's knockout-filled march through the featherweight and lightweight rankings sent shockwaves through the world. But as effortless as McGregor's heroics seem, his journey was far from smooth. Just another teenager trading martial arts techniques with his friends, he chased a pipe dream with little promise of reward. No one guessed he would become the biggest pay-per-view attraction in the world. This is not another tale of an athlete born exceptional and groomed for success. It is about how one young man, through bloody-minded determination and indomitable spirit, changed the whole game.
A Kiss and a Promise
Katie Flynn - 2003
He comes ashore in Liverpool when his ship needs repairs and meets lovely young Stella Bennett on the quayside, searching for her lost kitten. The young couple fall in love and want to marry but the Bennetts have other plans for Stella and when she gives birth to a baby, Ginny, Michael is dismayed by the child's ginger hair and convinced she is not his. He returns to Ireland, leaving the slovenly Granny Bennett to rear Ginny. The child accepts her lot, expecting little from life but knowing that, in order to escape from the slums, she must attend school. Granny Bennett prefers Ginny to skivvy for her, but when a sympathetic teacher comes into her life, Ginny decides she must better herself and the obvious way to do so is to find her father...A Kiss and a Promise is classic Katie Flynn, full of warmth and passion and sure to please the many fans of the beloved saga writer.
Una's Crossroads
Katherine St. Clair - 2015
The Irish potato famine left their homeland ravaged and their family buried in the ground. Now, on their way to a distant relative in Missouri Una is determined to take care of her younger sister and create a new life. Henry Mackey is an easygoing country boy who has never taken anything too seriously, until he meets Una. When Una sees Henry’s green eyes she is trapped by the thought of him. When Una discovers that Mr. Mackey has been arranged as her husband she can’t believe her good fortune. But a family dinner with her future husband proves that things aren’t always what they seem… Henry Mackey has stolen Una Brady’s heart. Unfortunately, her heart has chosen the wrong brother to fall in love with. As family bonds are stretched to their limit Una must choose between her heart and her familial duty. When McKenna Brady meets her own future husband everything is changed. Horace Boucher is a big man in words and stature. He’s a man with few moral scruples and plenty of money. Exactly the sort of man Una would never let her sister marry. As things reach a boiling point between Horace and the Brady girls, Una is determined to intervene on her sister’s behalf. When Henry helps her to do it, Una’s love for him only grows stronger. Though her mind tells her not to, Una isn’t sure she can hold her heart back any longer. Una Brady’s tactics in throwing off Horace Boucher have turned out to be far more potent than she ever bargained for. Horace is not going to marry McKenna but now if Una doesn’t act McKenna’s reputation could be permanently scarred. Soon, Una realizes that the only way to protect her sister is to throw away her own heart’s desire, which means letting go of Henry Mackey. When the time for action comes down to the wire Una makes her final decision, but a surprising punch makes Una realize that it may not be solely her decision. Scroll back up and grab your copy now!
The World Between Us
Sara Naveed - 2020
Qais Ahmed is everything she never wants to be: narcissistic, manipulative and arrogant.However, despite her relentless efforts, she is unable to resist his charm and wit and is drawn to him once she gets to know the real him.She soon discovers that he isn't just a part of her professional life but has a deep connection to a past she is trying to forget.Will this disturbing secret tear them apart or bind them together forever?
Hidden Soldier
Padraig O'Keeffe - 2007
He served with the Legion in Cambodia and Bosnia, then returned to civilian life, but military habits would not allow him to settle.His need for intense excitement and extreme danger drove him back to the lifestyle he knew and loved, and using his Legion training, he became a ?hidden soldierOCO by opting for security missions in Iraq and Haiti.In Iraq he was the sole survivor of an ambush in no manOCOs land between Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, the most dangerous place on earth.An intense, exciting and vivid account of extraordinary and sometimes horrific events, "Hidden Soldier" lifts the veil on the dark and shadowy world of security contractors and what the situation is really like in Iraq as well as other trouble spots.This bestseller also includes photographs taken by Padraig OOCOKeeffe while he was a Legionnaire and when he was in Iraq."
The Irish Slaves
Rhetta Akamatsu - 2010
They were helpless. It sounds like a familiar story, but these people were not African. They were Irish, and they were slaves before African slavery became widespread. This is their story.
Grey Skies, Green Waves: A Surfer's Journey Around the UK and Ireland
Tom Anderson - 2010
But a chance encounter leads him to a series of adventures on home surf. As he visits the popular haunts and secret gems of British surfing he meets the Christians who pray for waves (and get them), loses a competition to a non–existent surfer, is nearly drowned in the River Severn, and has a watery encounter with a pedigree sheep. All this rekindles his love affair with the freezing fun that is surfing the North Atlantic.
Kilbride House
Sheila Forsey - 2019
Victoria Goulding, a Protestant, falls in love with Canice Meagher, born on the Blasket Islands and a Roman Catholic. To be together they must elope. Before their escape, the hand of fate plays its cards and changes their lives irrevocably.Sixty-three years later, in the leafy suburbs of New York, Edith Goulding, Victoria’s sister, has died. Edith left Ireland in the winter of 1955 all those years ago, never to return. In her will she has insisted that her daughter Catherine and granddaughter Lainey visit Kilbride.Kilbride House, despite all its grandeur, holds shocking memories within its walls – memories that have slipped through the cracks of time. As the ghosts awaken the lies begin to unravel, and everything is altered. The past cannot remain untold.
The Sentinels: The Complete Collection Boxed Set
J.S. Scott - 2016
These paranormal romances contain graphic language, steamy love scenes, and lovable alpha males that also happen to be demons. A Dangerous Bargain: Kat Larson is haunted by demons. Literally. And how was she to know that there was more than one type of demon? The Evils want to destroy her soul, while handsome billionaire Sentinel demon, Zachary Winston, claims that he wants to protect her. Kat opts for Zach’s protection but it requires a demon bargain and what he suggests surprises poor Kat almost as much as the fact that demons really do exist. Zach must protect Kat from the Evils that will corrupt her soul. She is his “radiant,” the one woman who can lighten the darkness of his demon existence and be his eternal mate. Zach also has to fight an internal war. He’s one-part demon, one-part man, but they both yearn for Kat’s lush, full figured body and kind, compassionate heart. As Zach becomes more and more enchanted with Kat, he’s hoping she can learn to love a lonely man/demon that’s only slightly wicked. A Dangerous Hunger: Dr. Talia Maris had lived her entire life as a freak—a too tall, too plain, too odd woman who sees and senses the presence of otherworldly entities. A total recluse, Talia spends all of her time on her research with only her loyal feline companion for company. Until that sedate existence comes crashing down around her when she starts being pursued by demon Evils. And if there’s one thing she hates…it’s demons. She ditches every one of them until tall, handsome Sentinel demon, Drew Winston, finally wins the game of pursuit by trapping her with a deceitful, underhanded trick. Not only is she infuriated by Drew’s stunt, but when he tells her that she is his mate, all she wants is to get rid of Drew as quickly as possible! Drew had never wanted or expected a mate of his own, but once he has Talia in his grasp, he’s determined to keep her safe and make her want to stay with him forever. A Dangerous Fury: When Hunter Winston is sent on a mission to find a mysterious female who can help the Sentinels finally win their battle against the Evils, he’s not happy about the errand interrupting his constant compulsion to kill the red-eyed, ugly evil demons. But he owes his brothers and their Sentinel king his life, so he hopes he can get the task done as soon as possible. But Hunter is about to discover that retrieving a single female can be very complicated when it is the goddess, Athena, who has been held prisoner for thousands of years. The time of the gods is long gone, and she’s ready to go to her final rest as soon as she knows the balance between good and evil is restored. Unfortunately, that isn’t what the Fates had planned for her. Can an angry Hunter and a virginal but powerful goddess embrace their destiny, or will the many forces working against them destroy their one shot at happiness? A Dangerous Demon King: Kristoff Agares, King of the Sentinels, is trapped in the realm of the Evils, close to death and powerless from the demon's physical and mental torture. He's barely hanging onto his sanity until he gets a telepathic message from a mystery woman who makes him want to survive, no matter what it takes. After being rescued by an elite group of Sentinels, Kristoff can't ignore his powerful longing to claim his mate; the mystery woman. She was captured by the Evils as a child, and held prisoner for over two centuries, until the Sentinels set her free. With the World in chaos, and the balance tipping almost irrevocably in the Evils favor, the last thing Kristoff thinks he needs is a radiant, a human mate who will lighten his soul.
The Naming of Eliza Quinn
Carol Birch - 2005
In the late 1960s, in the hollow of an ancient oak tree beyond a derelict cottage in Cork, were found the bones of a three-year-old girl. It was thought that they dated back to the time of the great potato famine of the mid 1800s. The bones were discovered by an American woman, who had inherited the cottage which had lain empty and broken for forty years. Local searches reveal that the house had originally belonged to The Quinns. Eliza Quinn was their baby.This is a story that speaks of generations and of landscapes: abandoned villages, famine graves, old potato ridges sinking back into the earth, traces of a population that fell by two and a half million in less than ten years. It is also about hunger, both physical and emotional. But above all, it is the story of the Quinn family. And it is Carol Birch's tour de force.'Deeply rooted humanity and highly intelligent understanding of the simulataneous complexity and simplicity of individual lives' Alex Clark. TLS
The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising
Dermot McEvoy - 2014
Among the commoners in the GPO was a young staff captain of the Irish Volunteers named Michael Collins. He was joined a day later by a fourteen-year-old messenger boy, Eoin Kavanagh. Four days later they would all surrender, but they had struck the match that would burn Great Britain out of Ireland for the first time in seven hundred years.The 13th Apostle is the reimagined story of how Michael Collins, along with his young acolyte Eoin, transformed Ireland from a colony into a nation. Collins’s secret weapon was his intelligence system and his assassination squad, nicknamed “The Twelve Apostles.” On November 21, 1920, the squad—with its thirteenth member, young Eoin—assassinated the entire British Secret Service in Dublin. Twelve months and sixteen days later, Collins signed the Treaty at 10 Downing Street, which brought into being what is, today, the Republic of Ireland.An epic novel in the tradition of Thomas Flanagan’s The Year of the French and Leon Uris’s Trinity, The 13th Apostle is a story that will capture the imagination and hearts of freedom-loving readers everywhere.
Wild About Harry
Colin Bateman - 2001
This is the story of Harry McKee – sleazy local chat show host. A once loving husband, he’s become a drunken unfaithful slob and even his kids won’t speak to him. His wife is divorcing him and taking him to the cleaners. On his last night as a married man he winds up drunk and is beaten up. When he keels over the next day at the divorce hearing his wife and solicitor assume he’s pulling a fast one. He eventually wakes from a week-long coma but he’s lost his memory – everything since 1974. Inside his sagging middle-aged body he feels eighteen. Though he doesn’t know it yet, Harry has been given the chance to get back his life, his wife and his self-respect. If only he could remember how it all went wrong and why his family hate him. As the pieces of his past slowly begin to fall into place we watch Harry attempt to persuade Ruth to fall in love with him all over again, and witness his failure to resurrect his career. Clinging on to the past, he at least still fits into his teenage tank-top and flares – but he’s only got two weeks until the next divorce hearing, when he will be homeless, childless and clueless!
The Boston Irish: A Political History
Thomas H. O'Connor - 1995
This book offers a history of Boston's Irish community.