Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

January 10, 2012

Call Me Elizabeth by Dawn Annandale

Filed under: Book Reviews,Biography — The Techie @ 12:55 pm
callmeelizabeth
Title: Call Me Elizabeth Author: Dawn Annandale Genre: Biography & Autobiography Publisher: Warner Books Release Date: 2006 Pages: 290

Dawn Annandale did not have a particularly pleasant childhood, her father began to sexually abuse her when she was eleven. She spent her teenage years coming up with excuses to stay away from home and at the earliest opportunity she got a job and moved out. Her childhood did nothing for her, except to make her crave a happy, secure and safe environment

read more

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Filed under: Book Reviews,General Fiction — The Techie @ 12:55 pm
gilead
Title: Gilead Author: Marilynne Robinson Genre: Fiction Publisher: Macmillan Release Date: 2004 Pages: 247

In 1981 Marilynne Robinson published her first novel, Housekeeping. The book was so well received that Robinson has managed to maintain a devoted audience ever since. Now she has published Gilead; although undoubtedly a new masterpiece, it is nothing like her previous success.

Reverend John Ames is 76 and close to death. As a way to soften the blow

read more

Moneystown’s Real Food for Real People

Filed under: Book Reviews,Cookery — The Historian @ 12:55 pm
realfood
Title: Real Food for Real People Author: Various Genre: Cookery

As charity cookbooks go, Real Food for Real People is a real gem. The book is part of a fundraising drive for Moneystown National School’s building fund and was produced and published by the Parents’ Committee in this County Wicklow village. But, even though Real Food for Real People was evidentially done on a shoestring, the design quality

read more

Simply Irresistible French Desserts by Christelle Le Ru

Filed under: Book Reviews — The Historian @ 12:55 pm
simplyirresistible
Title: Simply Irresistible French Desserts Author: Christelle Le Ru, Vanessa Jones, Genre: Cooking Publisher: Christelle Le Ru Release Date: 2005 Pages: 102

Why is it that recipe names look so much more evocative when written in French? Gâteau au chocolate et à l’abricot seems so much more sophisticated than just plain Chocolate apricot cake. Still, from the look of this slice of this moist dark cake pictured in Christelle Le Ru’s Simply Irresistible French Desserts I don’t think

read more

Stay by Aislinn Hunter

Filed under: Book Reviews,General Fiction,Irish — The Writer @ 12:55 pm
stay
Title: Stay Author: Aislinn Hunter Genre: Fiction Publisher: Anchor Books Release Date: 2013-08-15 Pages: 279

What is it about Ireland that inspires people to write? The jacket sleeve says that Ontario-born Aislinn Hunter lived in Dublin “for a few years” before returning home to base herself in Vancouver. She has already published a book of short stories and two of poetry and this, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the Amazon/Books in Canada

read more

Talk Nation, The Irish on Everything and Anything by Aubrey Malone

Filed under: Book Reviews,Irish — The Writer @ 12:55 pm
talknation
Title: Talk Nation Author: Aubrey Malone Genre: Irish

I picked up this little collection of quotes in a bookshop and flicking through landed on Fiona Looney’s name. I have always enjoyed her humour-laden newspaper columns and her haphazard but oddly compelling contributions to Gerry Ryan’s show on 2FM. I have to admit she is the main reason I bought it, her quote caught my eye in the section

read more

The Lover by Marguerite Duras

Filed under: Book Reviews,General Fiction — Femmes @ 12:55 pm
thelover
Title: The Lover Author: Marguerite Duras Genre: Fiction Publisher: Pantheon Release Date: 1997 Pages: 117

The Lover is a book that will quietly sweep you away in the most unconventional manner. Written with an original and most unsettling fusion of reflection and confession, Marguerite Duras brings us into the life of a 15-year-old girl and her experience with her lover.

Set in Saigon in the time of French colonisation, a young girl and a Chinese millionaire

read more

Like Nowhere Else by Denyse Woods

Filed under: Book Reviews,General Fiction — The Techie @ 12:55 pm
likenowhere
Title: Like Nowhere Else Author: Denyse Woods Genre: Ireland Release Date: 2005 Pages: 336

Before this I had never read a book that aroused in me such an interest in a country that I previously knew nothing about. In Like Nowhere Else our main character, Vivien, fell in love with Yemen through travel books when she was younger. She has now travelled to Yemen to see it for herself. En route she meets anthropologist Christian Linklater and

read more

Monday’s Warriors by Maurice Shadbolt

Filed under: Book Reviews,Historical Fiction,Irish — The Historian @ 12:55 pm
mondayswarriors
Title: Monday's Warriors Author: Maurice Shadbolt Genre: Fiction Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher Release Date: 1990 Pages: 308

Taking a Yankee, putting him into the British army and throwing him into the middle of the Maori Land Wars of the 1860s could almost be seen as over-egging the pudding yet Kimball Bent of the State of Maine in the USA, Maurice Shadbolt’s anti-hero in Monday’s Warriors, is based on a real man. Sometimes life is, indeed, stranger than fiction

read more

A Paradiso Year: Autumn and Winter Cooking by Denis Cotter

Filed under: Book Reviews,Irish,Cookery — The Historian @ 12:55 pm
paradiso
Title: A Paradiso Year Author: Denis Cotter Genre: Cooking Publisher: Attic Press Release Date: 2006-02-01 Pages: 148

To my sorrow I must admit that I have only once eaten in Denis Cotter’s award-winning Café Paradiso restaurant in Cork. But that one time, nearly ten years ago now, was mostly memorable for my first taste of polenta. My sociologist student friend felt it was deeply ironic that I should be writing my thesis on the Irish Famine at the time and

read more

« Newer PostsOlder Posts »

Powered by WordPress