Tagged: memoir

Mayhem by

Added to Mount TBR in March 2018 – I came across this book as it was longlisted for the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize. It sounded interesting It is a strange book...

Cracked not broken by

When he was nineteen years old Kevin Hines jumped from the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco to what he thought would be his death. As he fell he found himself...

The Islandman by

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...

Old Burnside by

A memoir of a Southern Girlhoodold burnside

In 1913 Harriette Simpson Arnow moved to Old Burnside, Kentucky, with her family. This is her recollections of life in the once bustling lumber town. She was only four years old at the time, and yet she still manages to recreate the town and people she knew back then. It is a small book, only 125 pages in the edition I read, but there is plenty going on.

Rainbow Pie by

a memoir of Redneck America ISBN: 9781846272578 Before picking this book up I’d never heard of Bageant, and in the middle of reading it I learned from Metafilter that he had...

Rules of Engagement by

25 May 2003
The tip-off came from a Fleet Street contact that Saturday evening: something serious was brewing in the media, something ‘pretty big’. I’d been under the cosh for the last week after being accused of war crimes, so I wondered how much bigger it could get.

So, do I admit at the start or the end of this review that I was anti the Iraq war? Does that political inclination mean that my opinion of this book is biased? I’m not sure, I do however know that this book did not get off to a good start with me, as the dedication is “to the soldiers of Ireland who left their native land to fight for the Crown so that small nations might be free.” That grates. It is meant with the best of intentions, or at least I suppose so, and I’m guessing he is talking about in modern times, but it still grates. After all, Ireland is one of those small nations that had to fight against the Crown so that she might be free.

Time Added On by

When you are a child, and you’re poor, and you live next to other people who are poor, you never think of yourself as being poor.

Around a month ago I read an entry on Omaniblog about this book, up until then I hadn’t even known that George Hook had a book out. But that post caught my attention. George Hook is probably best known in Ireland for his rugby punditry. Together with Brent Pope and Tom McGurk, he analyses rugby for RTE in an entertaining, honest, blunt manner. He also has a radio show, but I’m not big on the radio so haven’t heard him enough to comment on that. In many ways I suppose he is the Eamonn Dunphy of the rugby world.

But I know him primarily from his rugby comments, and his constant promises that Munster will lose, and that the likes of Stringer shouldn’t be playing. I disagree with him, but am well aware that he is very knowledgeable about the game. And in an entertaining way.

While Green Grass Grows by

ISBN: 1856352064 As the subtitle says this book is mainly concerned with the life of Bríd Mahon while she worked for the Irish Folklore Commission. In it Mahon lists many of...

Shooting History: A personal journey by

ISBN: 0007171854 Jon Snow has been a journalist since the early 70’s, but even before that he was involved in anti-apartheid demonstrations, and worked as a volunteer in Africa. This book...

Until the Final Hour by

At 22 she dreamed of being a ballerina, yet she ended up working for and “liking the greatest criminal ever to have lived.” In this book she simply retells her experiences,...

The Storyman by

I picked this up because I had nothing to read for some bus journey, but then didn’t read it on that trip. I thought the name of the author was familiar,...