No comments about CONDE' NAST JOHANSENS RECOMMENDED HOTELS AND SPAS GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND 2009 (Johansens Recommended Hotels: Great Britain and Ireland).

No comments about Eating Scenery: West Cork, the People & the Place.

No comments about Collins Tartan Map of Scotland (Collins British Isles and Ireland Maps).

3 comments about Frommer's Portable Dublin (Frommer's Portable).

1. I find the Frommer's guides to be very helpful for my trips to Ireland especially. This one is perfect if you plan on visiting Dublin. As in other Frommer guides this book starts with the "Best Of" in Dublin, how to get there and what you'll need when planning your trip. It then goes on to getting to know Dublin, places to stay, places to eat and drink, attractions, shopping and night life. Additionally, this guide includes places that you can easily visit just outside of Dublin City in Counties Wicklow and Kildare. The review continues with hours and dates places are open as well as prices for attractions, for accommodations and for dining. For each category there are phone numbers, web sites, if available, and general maps of the area. A newer version of the is book is due to come out any day now but probably has similar information only with updated prices. If you only have time for Dublin, or want to spend your time doing nothing else but Dublin, this little pocket guide is the only one you'll need!



2. This is a great book if you're planning a trip to Dublin and the surrounding country side. The maps are very helpful, and the schedule for the bus and DART (metro train) are great. Well worth the money.
   A couple of items it doesn't cover - no refills on drinks except water, Temple Bar area is quite pricey as are most restaurants or Pubs. Convenience stores make a great sandwich on a long panini bread - if you're traveling around consider buying one in the A.M. and munching on it at lunch. You can get virtually anywhere in town, and even the greater metro area by DART or bus. Just ask around - but beware, Dublin is an international city, friendly people, but I sense they are growing tired of answering the same question for the 100th time today. P.S. face cloths/wash rags must be asked for at the front desk.



3. EXCELLENT GUIDE.COULD HAVE MORE HOTELS.MISSING A SECTION ON
   TYPICAL IRISH CUISINE

No comments about Imaginary Cartographies: Possession and Identity in Late Medieval Marseille.

1 comments about Outside Is America: U2 in the U.S..

1. Non-Bostonians who have seen the "Live in Boston" U2 DVD were probably a bit puzzled, when halfway through one of the songs Bono sings out "Paradise...20 Years ago....A Club called Paradise". The line is a reference to a Boston club called "The Paradise" where they played one of their first shows in the US sometime in late December, 1980.

   There is much discussion among casual U2 fans I know as to where they played their very first gig in the US. (Some say New York, some say Boston.) I decided to get this book and settle the argument.

   Both sides are somewhat right. Although U2 played their first concert in New York, WBCN in Boston was the first radio station in the US to play their music. Carter Allen details how he picked up a import single of their first record and was able to get the station music director to ok him putting it on.

   And such did greatness get its' start.

No comments about Lithuania: The Rebel Nation (Westview Series on the Post-Soviet Republics).

1 comments about Take the Kids Ireland, 2nd (Take the Kids - Cadogan).

1. Would like to have seen more blurbs on the side bars about what to pack and more stories, legends and history to tell the kids. There were some, but needs to be more. Also, would like to see a more eye appealing layout that perhaps kids would be able to follow along w/ while in ireland.

1 comments about The Land of My Fathers: A Son's Return to the Basque Country.

1. Nevada writer Robert Laxalt's "The Land of My Fathers" is a description of life in the French Basque Country in the 1960s. Laxalt -- the son of Basques who immigrated to Nevada about 1910 -- spent 1960-61 and 1965-66 getting to know his parents' ancient homeland. Making use of his family ties, he succeeded in breaching the "impenetrable wall of Basque reserve" (in Rodney Gallop's words) in a way only a few outsiders have been able to do.

   The book is not a straightforward narrative and Laxalt writes about much more than his own experiences. A collection of vignettes, histories, and folk-sayings, it is an exploration of the Basque character. We read about everything from "Basque troubadours" to the humanization of German soldiers stationed in the Basque lands during the occupation of the Pyrenees. Trying to capture the essence of this ancient people, Laxalt gives us glimpses of the "poetic truth" of the Basque land and Basque history, the emotional truth gleaned from "the language of the eyes." Of course the approach is not without its drawbacks, but for a book like this, "The Land of My Fathers" is remarkably free of immigrant-son's-come-home romanticism.

   In addition to Laxalt's vivid prose poetry, many of his vignettes are interesting as anthropological descriptions of life in the "Pays Basque". Here, we encounter aspects of Basque folklife such as pigeon-hunting, contraband, dancing, the unique brand of "shepherd justice", and the "bohèmes" (literally "Bohemians", they are a poorly-known group of shunned outsiders -- not unlike the Gypsies -- who have lived in the Basque country for years). A couple of these "ethnological vignettes", in fact, appeared in the August 1968 issue of "National Geographic".

   Although throughout one is struck by the Basques' indomitable ability to overcome adversity, unfortunately the beautiful culture described by Laxalt is rapidly slipping away -- if it has not, for the most part, slipped away already. The Spanish sector of the Basque lands has long been one of the most heavily industrialized in Europe and the French sector, although still largely rural, has seen the same kinds of cultural changes places all over the world have seen with the onslaught of globalization. Many things have changed for the better, and Laxalt certainly doesn't claim the past was perfect, yet it is difficult not to agree with him that "something of the romantic past has been lost." For all that, his many books are even more important, small safeguards against a rapidly deteriorating humanity.

   If there were ten stars, "The Land of My Fathers" deserves them.

No comments about Sailing for Home.