No comments about Georgina Campbell's Ireland the Guide 2008: All The Best Places to Eat, Drink and Stay (Georgina Campbell's Ireland: The Guide All the Best Places to).

No comments about Fodor's See It Ireland, 2nd Edition (Fodor's See It).

No comments about The Do It Yourself Expatriate Guide to Living and Working in Europe.

No comments about In Search of Ireland's Holy Wells.

2 comments about Let's Go 2007 Britain (Let's Go Britain and Ireland).

1. For my trip to Scotland, I purchased two guides: this Let's Go Britain guide and the Rough Guide to Scotland, 7th Edition.
   
   This one was much better. I purchased the Rough Guide because the amount of page space in the Let's Go guide that was devoted to Scotland seemed rather small. I was surprised, then, that the Let's Go guide, which smaller, was the much better book.
   
   The pricing information in this book is exact and very accurate. It was very helpful in planning our trip, and let us do much more than we would have if we had been spending all of our money on expensive food and lodgings.
   
   Also appreciated is the editorial nature of the guide. The authors are clearly passionate about their subject, and are open to the realities of travel and especially the limited time that is usually afforded on a trip. I am sure that all of the sites are great in their own way, but when faced with a choice, it is nice to know which one will be more exciting. I found that the opinions in the guide were well-matched to my own, and the exuberance of the descriptions heightened my own excitement.
   
   The logistical information was also top notch, and in combination with the Michelin map, I was never left wondering how I would get from place to place.
   
   Very good guide!



2. We are planning a trip to Ireland this summer and I purchased this book because the "Let's Go Ireland" book was over a year old. The "Ireland" portion of this book consists only of a chapter about Northern Ireland and a 14-page chapter about Dublin. I wanted to comment not on the quality of the book, but rather on the misleading way Amazon (or the Publisher) has the book listed. If you are wanting information about Ireland, purchase something else.

No comments about Wexford: A Town and its Landscape (Irish Rural Landscape Series).

1 comments about Ireland (Flying High).

1. 
   This is another one of those awesome books of photographs by Antonio Attini called Cube Books. It is 640 pages of top quality photographs,printed on excellent glossy paper,using excellent color reproduction and printing techniques. It's hard to imagine how these excellent photographs could be printed any better. Oh,I suppose these photos would be even better ,if larger,but there is a limit to it all.Besides can you just imagine the size of book you would get with over 500 pictures if they were all five times as large?
   I have visited Ireland 3 times and it has often occurred to me that ,no matter where you look or what you look at ,a beautiful picture could be taken. There is no limit to the landscape,buildings, water,people and history that is spread before you at every turn. I have often thought what wonderful views there would be, if only one could get up in the air,like in a hot air balloon and float above it all like on a magic carpet. Well,that is just what Attini has attemptd to do. In this book he gives us just a miniscule taste of it all;and what a taste it is. In reality,a taste is all that is possible because the scenes that await one are endless.All one can do is just sit back and thumb through the book and enjoy it all and wish you could see even more. It is just impossible to be satisfied with it all.
   There is just one small problem with this book,and others like it. The weight of all the pages impose a big challenge on the binding and spline of the book ,and if not handled with care,and shudder the thought the book should be dropped;it will surely be damaged.
   No book of this nature can begin to cover all of Ireland and you will find only a very few pictures of places you have been,but the few that are included will be from a totally different perspective.
   It's one thing to sit at the top of the Cliffs of Moher,and even dangle one's feet over the edge;but what a sight it is from the air, as we see on pages 268 and 269!
   Besides;if you've never visited Ireland,and wondered about the expression,"Forty Shades of Green",this book will show you that never mind forty, there are literally thousands. And did you know that it was the great Johnny Cash who wrote that song when he was inspired by it all,from the window of the plane as he was leaving Ireland, after his visit.

5 comments about Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans.

1. When three of the sections have these headings: Bits & Pieces, Odds & Ends, Fits & Starts, you get the idea: lots of thoughts mainly about but not always about Irish in America and in the US. Lynch writes well, perhaps too self-consciously (but you could say the same about Beckett, Joyce, McGahern, or Banville) about his place within the past & present Irish identity increasingly available to trans-Atlantic "passengers" reversing the emigration of their ancestors. The strength of this book comes from Lynch's determination to act out a point attributed to one of Brian O Nolan's many literary guises: to be Irish you need not have been born there, merely to claim allegiance.
   
   Comparisons to James Charles Roy's more acerbic accounts of restoring a "castle" in Co Galway and herding about Yanks on a tour, respectively "The Fields of Athenry" and "The Back of Beyond," provide a fine counterpoint to the themes Lynch takes on--a rejoinder in turn to the Niall Williams "back to nature" tendency to romanticize rural Irish life for second-home owners.
   
   The most fluent and unified part of Lynch's collection, apparently knocked about for a while in gestation since about 1970 and added to as life added to Lynch's accumulated experiences revolving around Ireland, mortality, and his place within both realms, the section "Death Comes for the Curate" tracks his priest relative who died early back three-quarters of a century ago in New Mexico, and from this Lynch frames a meditation examining Irish Catholicism from many angles, both in Ireland and its remnants in America. This portion of the book hit home, and worked in its concentration around a central theme.
   
   What worked less effectively was, as the opening paragraph about the chapter headings foreshadows, the scattered organization of much of Lynch's other musings. To his credit he steers clear of "The Troubles" and largely bypasses the cute anecdotes and clever pub banter that sinks many a travelogue about the oul' sod. Yet, in his putting thoughts to paper, he tends--like Montaigne whom he cites--to drift before coming back to where he started, at best. In sections about relatives, the old house he restores, poetry that mattered to his younger and present self, and the irritation aroused by travel and its delays in a post 9/11 world, he is often sharp and worthwhile to learn from.
   
   But in many of these same chapters, the control lessens and you feel as if too many undigested and unrevised ideas crowd out the better prose. The book wanders about mightily, and too much to reward a long sitting or two, although in parts it can be dipped into for a few pages with pleasure. Perhaps I need to re-read Montaigne to acclimate myself to Lynch, but the latter seems to treat the Irish concerns as ultimately as disorganized and fractious as any other Lynch may have. While true for him no doubt, this disorganization makes for less than fluid streams of consciousness on these finely wrought but rather too crammed and caroming essays that leave a reader as often stranded as enlightened. Yet, again, that chapter on Catholicism's superb!



2. Hilarious in parts, I found his diatribe on 9/11, the airport wait between flights, his "rise" to stardom etc. to be egotistical and boring. If he had stuck to Ireland, relatives there, the cottage there, his life in the States and the back and forth between the two, it would have made a better book. I loved it for the brogue and dialogue therein; reminded me of my father who spoke with a brogue imitating my grandparents from Roscommon but it does wander and that's a shame because he seems to have a niche with his close tie to Ireland that could be used again and again in more books perhaps.



3. I'd been waiting for what seemed like too long for a third book of stories from Thomas Lynch, but wondered if his Irish-based tales could possibility be as compelling as his earlier works, which were stories about life based on his career in dealing with the dead (in addition to being a writer, Lynch is an undertaker). But again, just as he used the funeral home as a backdrop for stories not about death but about life, Lynch uses Ireland, land of his ancestory and his frequent visits, as the canvas for telling poignant stories about life. Now I'll give friends copies of "Booking Passage" while i wait for a fourth book from Thomas Lynch.



4. "Booking Passage, We Irish and Americans" is a delight. Thomas Lynch's use of language is inspiring. Lynch's observations on Irish and American life in the last three decades are full of wit and insight. This is a great book by a great author.



5. It's hard to define this book. Mostly, it's about the experience of Thomas Lynch and his extended Irish-American family living in Michigan and his going back home to Clare to the relatives still living in the home of his ancestors. That part alone is well worth the read but Mr. Lynch goes much further, delving into his personal, spiritual faith and the schizophrenia of The Church as well as the residue of 9/11 and the chaos, fear and war that has followed, adding a depth I hadn't expected. The writing is lyrical and flows from topic to topic with ease, like an often beautiful, sometimes heart-wrenching journey.

5 comments about Culture Shock!: Ireland (Culture Shock!).

1. This book is a wonderful preliminary to any first-time excursion to Ireland, as well as a concise compendium of everything Irish. Not a tour-guide; it delves into cultural issues, Ireland's history (up to and including the 1998 Northern Ireland Peace Agreement, which, unfortunately will require a whole new chapter as of today's writing), political faces and national celebrities,interacting with the locals, pub life, key Gaelic phrases, and basically, how to navigate without looking like a total tourist.

   I highly recommend this to anyone interested in an introduction to Irish history and current issues, and to anyone who is going to Ireland for the very first time.




2. If you think of green beer, shamrocks and leprechauns when someone says "Ireland" then this is a book for you.

   Different from a travel guide, this book will help a new Eire inductee gain insight to Ireland and the Irish people themselves whether you are there for vacation, business trip or school. Especially good is the section about Irish history, the people involved in the making of that history and the important player's in making peace in Northern Ireland. Having said that, this book is badly in need of an update since it stops just after the 1998 Peace Agreement was reached. It also helps you to understand where each side is coming from and how not to make conversation faux pas when discussing the often sensitive issue of The Troubles.

   The book is great for an overall feel of Ireland's culture but it's not for those who have had much exposure already. Having gone on several trips to Ireland and knowing many native Irish individuals personaly, I found much of the book to be too basic. However I still was still entertained and learned bit more about the Irish in general. I wish I had read it before my first trip; it would have helped me to understand and appreciate the island more at that time.




3. It was delivered fast and it was brand new. I loved it!



4. Provides very useful insights to the Irish culture, especially the more rural regions. A must read to understand how best to get along with the locals. Relatively short and easy to read.



5. an excellent resource for planning a trip to Ireland or just learning more about Ireland!

No comments about Exploring Rural Ireland by Bicycle (Exploring Rural Ireland By Bicycle).