Book picks similar to
Kerry Slides by Paul Muldoon
literature
poetry
ireland
Dead Ground: Infiltrating the IRA
Raymond Gilmour - 2019
It exposes the reality of the dark, claustrophobic world of the Provisionals: the iron grip they hold over their communities; their ruthless and cynical disregard for human life; the single-minded professionalism of some IRA volunteers — and the rank incompetence of others. Raymond Gilmour learned the brutal facts of life in Northern Ireland at an early age. Beatings, murders and knee-cappings were common currency on the dead-end Derry estate where he grew up, and despite the omnipresence of British. soldiers no one was in any doubt about who really held the balance of power. Many young Catholics, with few options and fewer jobs open to them, joined the terrorists as volunteers. So, at the age of sixteen, did Ray Gilmour — but his recruitment had a vital and deadly difference: his brief to infiltrate the IRA, sabotage their activities, and report back to his Special Branch contact. So began nearly a decade of life in no-man's-land, an impossibly dangerous double life where every day brought with it a new and potentially terminal threat. Gilmour relates in gripping style the hazards of playing along with the shootings and bombings while secretly trying to subvert them; the constant fear of exposure, torture and execution by his IRA `comrades' — and the tension of wondering when he might out-live his usefulness and be sacrificed by the shadowy men from MI5. Incredibly, Gilmour not only avoided exposure and sacrifice, he also became one of the RUC's most valued agents, foiling countless terrorist attacks and helping the police seize huge quantities of arms and explosives. As one RUC source admitted: 'He kept Derry clean for us.' Gilmour's career as an agent came to an abrupt and spectacular end when he uncovered one of the IRAs most prized arms caches, forcing him and his family — who until then had known nothing of his double life. — to go on the run before the IRA's notorious Internal Affairs men caught up with them. But even escape has its penalties: Gilmour has not seen his wife and children for over twelve years, and he now lives in permanent exile, flitting from safe house to safe house under a sentence of death unrevoked by peace-tAs amnesties. Dead Ground is Gilmour's story: a narrative of heart-stopping tension and unrelenting human drama which makes a mockery of fictionalised accounts of terrorism in Northern Ireland.
The Fable of the Bees
Bernard Mandeville - 1989
Each was a defence and elaboration of his short satirical poem The Angry Hive, 1705. The version of the Fable of 1723 and 1732 are the fullest defences of his early paradox that social benefit is the unintended consequence of personal vice. It is an argument that is generally held to lie behind Adam Smith's doctrine of the 'hidden hand' of economic development.
Folktales Of China
Anant Pai - 2010
Like in every culture, Chinese folktales too have been instrumental in passing on Chinese tradition, beliefs, customs and values from one generation to the next.Chinese folklore consists of fables, legends, mythology tales and historical accounts. Magical creatures, demons, mythical animals, malicious step-mothers and witty and valiant protagonists take you through the common themes of the triumph of cleverness and wisdom.This collection of Chinese folktales includes the well-known tale of the 'Valiant Shu Lang', the woman who dressed herself as a man to join the military, 'The Laughing Monks' who taught the path to a contentted life throguh the only language they knew - laughter, and 'The Great Discovery', the tale of how a phenix led a young couple to a treasure they later discover to be salt.
The Unexpected Path
Barbara Hinske - 2021
Convincing her well-intentioned but misinformed coworkers that she’s as capable as ever is her biggest challenge…until Connor shows up on her door. Can they heal old wounds and give their fledgling marriage a fresh start?Meanwhile, tragedy strikes young Zoe, and Emily has a life-changing choice to make.Follow along as Garth and Emily step out, together, to meet every challenge.
Let Her Go
M. Ocean - 2015
M. Ocean explores the depths of love deeply felt and violently lost. For those whose wounds are fresh and hearts still raw with ample emotion, Ocean portrays pain and suffering in apt and heart wrenching candour.
Fireflies at 3 am
Danni Thomas - 2020
It’s a book with the flow of poetry but the ebb of short stories – rightfully called “Shoetry”. This creation takes you to the roots of humanity - stripping back the veneers of life, society and interaction to see people and their ways in an entirely new light.
Dover Beach
Leslie Thomas - 2005
The evacuation of Dunkirk proves that the British can rise to a challenge, even against seemingly insurmountable odds. But now the soldiers walk the streets of Dover, even wandering through Woolworths store, and take weary turns on the town's skating rink.
Life, despite the threat of invasion and the reality of bombing, must go on and people must take comfort where they find it. Toby Hendry, a fighter pilot, is awaiting orders when he meets Giselle, a young Frenchwoman who took the chance to flee occupied France with the English troops. Their love affair feels like a summer idyll, but can it withstand the forces of war?
Meanwhile, reserve naval commander Paul Instow has been called up to fight in a war for which he feels too old. Distracting him from his worries is Molly, a young Dover prostitute. Their relationship is tender and happy, but is this a love born from desperation or could it be something more permanent?
And then there are Harold, Spots and Boot, three boys desperate to fight the German invaders, armed only with catapults and a stolen Bren gun...
In Dover Beach Thomas chronicles the lives and loves of ordinary people in besiged Britain during these tense, but curiously elated days.
Love Letters Of Great Men Vol. 2
John KeatsRichard Lovelace - 2010
*** Volume 1 plays a key role in the plot of the US movie Sex and the City. *** This Volume 2 includes love poems written by Matthew Arnold, Alfred Austin, Samuel Alfred Beadle, William Blake, Christopher Brennan, Lord Byron, Robert Burns, John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Constable, William Cowper, Michael Drayton, George Eliot, Thomas Ford, Stephen Foster, Robert Frost, Thomas Frost, Norman Rowland Gale, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alfred P. Graves, Robert Herrick, Leigh Hunt, Benjamin Jonson, John Keats, Richard Lovelace, Pablo Neruda, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Shakespeare.
McSweeney's #49
Dave Eggers - 2017
There have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head. McSweeney’s has won multiple literary awards, including two National Magazine Awards for fiction, and has had numerous stories appear in The Best American Magazine Writing, the O. Henry Awards anthologies, and The Best American Short Stories. Design awards given to the quarterly include the AIGA 50 Books Award, the AIGA 365 Illustration Award, and the Print Design Regional Award.
To My Country
Ben Lawson - 2020
As the bushfires continued to rage into the new year on an unprecedented scale, Ben, feeling angry, helpless and broken-hearted as he watched the devastation from across the ocean, sat down and put his feelings into words. To My Country is an ode to the endurance of the Australian spirit and the shared love of our country.In the true Aussie spirit, Ben and Allen & Unwin will be donating proceeds of To My Country to The Koala Hospital.
Preoccupations: Selected Prose, 1968-1978
Seamus Heaney - 1980
Subsequent essays include critical work on Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Robert Lowell, William Butler Yeats, John Montague, Patrick Kavanagh, Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Hill, and Philip Larkin.
SHE- Screw Silence!
Reecha Agarwal Goyal - 2019
She smiles like she is hiding a secret. She holds her head high, like she is wearing an invisible crown. The air Around her is charged with confidence, strength, and courage. Have you heard the whispers? She woke up different today. Yet it feels she has been like this always. Maybe it’s the story that has changed.About the Author‘Fragile but Unbreakable’ is how Reecha describes herself. She believes in miracles, takes life head on, and is passionate about weaving magic with her words. And now that she has found her calling, she desires to spend her entire life reading, travelling, and dwelling in her own little fictional and poetic worlds. An MBA from Loyola Institute of Business Administration, she is based out of New Delhi where she lives with her husband and two kids. She – Screw Silence is her third book.
A Poetry Collection
E.E. Cummings - 2001
Cummings's affirmation of life resolved into serenity as he described himself as someone "whose only happiness is to transcend himself, whose every agony is to grow." This collection of Cummings reading his own poetry embodies this in an unforgettable way.While perhaps best remembered for his use of such visual devices as typography and punctuation, the sheer sound of Cummings's work imparts a greater, deeper understanding of how its cadences reveal its profound meaning. This rich sampling of his poems and lectures is rendered in what the great Robert Graves called Cummings "own beautifully modulated voice."
Fern Hill
Dylan Thomas - 1995
Here is the green and carefree world of a boy who delights in the possibilities of each day, of a child who wrings from every moment a feeling as intensely magical as it is profoundly innocent.