Book Recommendations

Well if you like detective stories, there are the Dublin murder squad series by Tana French and the coroner Quirke series by Benjamin Black.

How about the Brother Cadfael series? We've been rereading those before our trip to Britain.

Edit: I just noticed, after having posted, that this topic is listed under Ireland. Well, one of the Cadfael books, "Summer of the Danes," does deal with invaders from Ireland....

I enjoyed reading this book before my visit to Ireland to get some historic cultural background, it helped to understand some of the traditions and customs. "Of Irish Ways" by Mary Murray Delaney.

+1 for the books of Benjamin Black (pen name of John Banville, who also writes some great stuff ;-) )

For more serious fiction, my current favorite is Colm Toibin, a native of Enniscorthy. His book The Heather Blazing is one of the best novels I've read in quite some time. He is also the author of Brooklyn, from which the current popular film was made.

For a broad overview through the classic stories of Ireland, and of the storytelling tradition, Ireland by Frank Delaney is a great read.

Another vote for Frank Delaney's "Ireland".

http://www.amazon.com/June-Ordinary-Murders-Mystery/dp/1250057566

McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

Leon Uris's Trinity

1. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. Fiction. It's one of the two best works of fiction I've read in the last three years. (Typically, I read 25 books a year.) If you like sparking wit, this has it. It was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

2. O Come Ye Back to Ireland by Niall Williams. Non-fiction. Williams and his spouse, Christine Breen, left comfy jobs in New York for County Clare. There, they rehab a centuries-old cabin in Breen's family for generations.

3. The Aran Islands by John Millington Synge. Non-fiction. Synge got the plots for his plays from the peasants on the Aran Islands. His travel memoir about the islands is a masterpiece in itself.

Thank you, everyone! I'm excited to get reading!

James Joyce's The Dubliners. If you like detective mysteries then read Brian McGilloways first inspector Devlin novel, Borderlands.