21 April 2013
Call no: 800
Genre: contemporary fiction
Setting: Ireland
3 Stars
4 Comments
Chicky left her home on the west coast of Ireland and headed off to America after a whirl-wind romance. Full of ideas of everlasting love and romance she abandoned all for the dashing American. Unfortunately, things did not work out … Continue reading
I read this for the Coursera online course, I’ll post the short essay I wrote for the course in a few days. Dracula is one of those books that everyone has heard of. Everyone is familiar with the character of … Continue reading
5 January 2012
Call no: 800
Genre: fiction
Setting: contemporary, Ireland
1 Star
3 Comments
With the demise of the Celtic Tiger and the onset of the “economic doom and gloom” so popular in the media at the moment the young people of Ireland looked at their country with hopelessness. Some decided to emigrate, but … Continue reading
1 December 2011
Genre: biography, non-fiction
Setting: 1800s, 1900s, Blasket Islands, Ireland
9 Stars
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Translated from the Irish (An tOileánach) by Robin Flower Tomás Ó Criomhthain, or, if you’d prefer an anglicised version, Thomas O’Crohan, was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1856. He lived all his life there as a farmer and … Continue reading
9 September 2011
Call no: 800
Genre: general fiction
Setting: contemporary, Ireland
8 Stars
12 Comments
Astrid is a bitch. She doesn’t see herself that way, but as I started this novel I really didn’t like her. She is mean, sarcastic, and insulting. Especially to those people she sees as “limpets”, grasping on to people, needing … Continue reading
22 May 2011
Call no: 800
Genre: sff, short stories
Setting: Dublin
8 Stars
4 Comments
The unnamed central character of this short story finds himself suddenly craving blood. He can’t understand it, he is a normal person, a normal man, why on earth is this happening to him. He tries to rationalise it, maybe he has an iron deficiency? Or maybe it is a totally misdirected sex-drive? And yet, he continues to find himself being drawn towards blood. Bloody raw steaks, the next-door neighbour’s chickens… Continue reading
19 January 2011
Genre: general fiction
Setting: 1910s, Flanders, Ireland
8 Stars
8 Comments
ISBN: 9780141046969 ; Quotes Because I am an officer and a gentleman they have given me my notebooks, pen, ink and paper. Growing up Alec has always been isolated. His parents despise one another, he is one of their battlegrounds, … Continue reading
12 July 2010
Genre: Juv/YA, sff
2 Comments
In the beginning, about 13.7 billion years ago, to be reasonably precise, there was a very, very small dot.
Halloween hasn’t quite arrived when Samuel Johnson calls in to the Abernathy’s as he attempts to get a head start on everyone else. Dressed as a ghost and accompanied by his dog, a little dachshund called Boswell, he in for a disappointing evening. Mr. Abernathy wants nothing to do with Samuel’s tricks nor with treats. He has plans for this evening. His wife found a book recently, and together with the Renfield’s they are about have some ‘fun’. Continue reading
15 April 2008
Genre: detective & mystery, historical fiction
Setting: 1950s, Ireland
5 Comments
ISBN: 9780330445320 Book 1 in the Quirke series See also: MetaCritic ; Grumpy Old Bookman ; PopMatters ; She was glad it was the evening mailboat she was taking, for she did not think she could have faced a morning … Continue reading
29 February 2008
Genre: sff
6 Comments
ISBN: 9780451461254 See also: Author’s blog ; Synchronicity swirls and other foolishness The ghoul lady takes out her white linen handkerchief and uses one corner to dab at her watering left eye. It’s an old wound, a relic of her … Continue reading
