Goodreads Ireland discussion

Hey Everyone

Welcome to Goodreads Ireland, a group not only for members from Ireland, but for people who are interested or just plain love Ireland.

In the coming months we plan on having monthly book discussions as well competitions and promotions.

So...introduce yourself in the Introductions folder and get reading.

Keith

Much better! :) And Keith, thanks for the "and all those interested in Ireland" bit. Was that for me?? Lol

Yup that was especially for you Annie! :)

Sorry I haven't been in contact...I'll download those apps tonight.

Tell Declan to get his ass into this group ASAP!

Yeah bring back Declan and Aprilla.

How do you leave agroup, I can't see a "leave this group button"

Keith: I'll tell him in those exact words! And don't worry about not being in contact too much... You kinda have a lot going on right now! Lol. Definitely download those apps though... I don't want you to have any excuse not to tell me when the baby is born! ;)

Good to hear from you Annie, did you enjoy your trip over here.

What did you get up to?

happy to join this group, glad you started it :)

Nice to see you again Emma. Hadn't seen you on much in Irish Readers.

hi Keith, i was in the beginning, then exams etc kept me from my beloved reading! lol back with a vengeance for the summer i hope :)

Great! Well get nominating for next months book so! Great to have you back!

Thanks for the invite, glad to be back.

Hello, I'm Gill I joined kind of randomly, looking forward to talking books with all of you :)

Hi, I'm Mairead, and my floor to ceiling bookshelf is full to the brim, so I think I'm qualified to talk about books :) Looking forward to discussing it with you guys.

Hello Mairead. I promise not to report what sounds like your fire hazzard of a home to the local fire department. But it sounds like a very nice way to decorate one's domocile. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to this particular group. No doubt the others will be along shortly. Keith is probably changing diapers at the moment.

Hello all,I am Janet, from Texas. I was looking for a group to join that wasn't too big. Also one that really wanted to read. And just so happens Water for Elephants is what I am reading right now.
I have Irish ancestry and a few friends from there too. So looking forward to sharing with you all.

Hello Janet and being that there's no one else here at the moment to do so, I'll welcome you aboard until someone who's really Irish shows up. Like you I'm an American of partially Irish descent, although I should warn you, I live just outside of Washington D.C. and therefore I'm hailing you from Redskins territory. But don't hold that against me, I don't follow football at all. Anyway, welcome to the group from a relative new comer like yourself.

Craig wrote: "Hello Janet and being that there's no one else here at the moment to do so, I'll welcome you aboard until someone who's really Irish shows up. Like you I'm an American of partially Irish descent, a..."

Thank you dear. I appreciate the welcome.
I will try not to hold that location against you. I am south Texas Houston Texans and Astros fan. So try not to hold that against me. The poor babies can't win if ya held a gun to their heads.
I am trying to challenge myself to get reading again after too many years of just not doing it. I find myself in South Texas in a very small town and starved for intelligent conversation. So I have expectations of this group!

I noticed you enjoyed Lonesome Dove. That's one of my favorites too, a true American classic. You might also try Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy. The author's prose is rather pseudo-Biblical at times, but it's well worth reading. All the Pretty Horses is the first in the series, but you can read the second book, The Crossing independantly.

As for starving for intelligent conversation, well, I think many of us have that feeling. Good luck finding something to enjoy.

And being that you like historical, I'd suggest Steven Pressfield's and Mary Rennault's novels about ancient Greece, Patrick O'Brien's books about Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubry (a film was made on two of his books on this character called Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" with Rusell Crowe as Aubry). Just a few suggestions.

Hi, Janet. It's great to see another new member who's interested in being active in the group. We actually have a few American readers here, so I'm sure you'll feel right at home.

By the way, if you like to read historical novels I can strongly recommend Strumpet City by James Plunkett. It's about the poverty in Dublin before WWI and prior to the war of Independence. It's a fairly long novel, but it's an easy page-turner.

Hi Janet! I too came back to reading a bit more than a year ago after many many years of not reading. It's great to be back at it and I'm enjoying so many good books! I have Water For Elephants on my enormous TBR list... how to get to them all???

Craig wrote: "I live just outside of Washington D.C. and therefore I'm hailing you from..."

You bring back memories of a trip we made to Washington DC where we did a fantastic Segway tour! Gorgeous city, we had a great time :)

Hi Everyone. I'm new here, just joined actually. I live in Fort Worth, Texas, where we are currently enduring 100 degree days and the worst drought in years. Wish I was in Ireland!

My husband and I visited Ireland several years and found it just as green and beautiful as it's said to be. Would love to go back someday.

I'm both a reader and author, with two Kindle books pubbed on Amazon. One is a western romance with a dash of Irish magic for fun. Titled Darlin' Druid, it's the first volume in my Texas Druids trilogy. The other book is a memoir titled Six Cats In My Kitchen.

I have two blog sites, in case you'd like to visit.
http://texasdruids.com
http://texasdruids.blogspot.com

Happy reading!
Lyn

Welcome to Goodreads Ireland, Lyn. Now I have another reason to buy a Kindle. I should stop resisting change and just get one.

Thank you, Declan. LOL! I stopped resisting last summer. I love my Kindle. It's easy to take along when I go somewhere and no more stuffing books in my suitcase if I travel. I bought a cover for it so it's much like carrying a book, only it can hold many, many books. It's also what prodded me into self-publishing my books.

Must go check email. I'm hosting a group blog series on both my sites titled "Western Romance, The Story of Us." The first post went up yesterday, and we're getting quite a nice response, but it's keeping me busy answering comments. I hope you will stop by if you have time. (See addy in previous post)

Hey i'm Tommy, 20, from the middle of nowhere in Limerick... :) Glad to find this group! Tidied up my goodreads page recently, got rid of all the childrens books and fantasy series etc, now it's just fiction and the ratings are more comparable. Yeah i can be a bit ocd like that! :)

Just started The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner, which was last checked out of the library in 1977! Only 30 pages in but i can tell it's going to be one of the best books i've ever read. The writing is stunning. I had never heard of John Gardner until recently, but apparently he was very famous in the 70s especially for his book "On Moral Fiction".

Tommy wrote: "Hey i'm Tommy, 20, from the middle of nowhere in Limerick... :) Glad to find this group! Tidied up my goodreads page recently, got rid of all the childrens books and fantasy series etc, now it's ju..."

Welcome Tommy. Have you read any of John Wyndham?

Roberta wrote: "Tommy wrote: "Hey i'm Tommy, 20, from the middle of nowhere in Limerick... :) Glad to find this group! Tidied up my goodreads page recently, got rid of all the childrens books and fantasy series et..."

Thanks. Nope! What would you recommend?

His books are a bit sci fi but my son loved them and continues to and he is a real reader. The Day of the Triffids was good.

Roberta wrote: "His books are a bit sci fi but my son loved them and continues to and he is a real reader. The Day of the Triffids was good."

Cool beans, thanks for the recommendation! I would like to read some sci-fi sometime...so much to read haha.

Hi, I'm Victoria from California and would fall in the " interested in Ireland--and Irish authors --" category... Recently I read The Sea ny John Banville. Thanks for having this group:)

Welcome to GI, Victoria.

Hi Victoria. I'm from Texas, and still new here. Glad to meet you.

Thank you for your kind welcome Declan and Lyn...nice to meet you too.

I am Laura. I was brought up in an American-Irish family and have been interested in all this Irish since I was quite young. Currently rereading The Dubliners by James Joyce.

Hi! I am looking at the group rules but cannot find the Introduction folder.

Welcome, Laura. I love books about Ireland, the land, history, people, legends, everything!

Hi, I'm William. I'm a Canadian writer working on a couple of projects, one featuring an Irish main character, and another whose main character has Irish roots.

Greetings, William. I'm from below the border - way below, as in hot, burning-up-dry Texas. Send rain!

I also feature characters with Irish roots in my Texas Druids series. Look for me on Amazon or B&N, and come visit my homepage: http://texasdruids.com/

Hello, I'm Mo. I recently moved to France after living most of my life in the Chicagoland area. I love reading and have a little time on my hands now, so in addition to reading French literature and French history, I'd love to read a bit of Irish literature.

I am in the “just love Ireland” category. The greenest country there ever was and I love, love, love my rutabaga and potatoes and the velvety, smoothness of a Guinness on tap. Hard to find here in ths States.

I write mysteries. My second one will be coming out soon. My first was titled No Evidence of a Crime. Kicking myself now that I didn't place it in Ireland. Instead, it is set in Washington, DC.

France! How wonderful.

I read a book a while back that was about the Irish and the French The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan. About County Mayo during the Wolfe Tone era. Really good.

Tommy wrote: "Hey i'm Tommy, 20, from the middle of nowhere in Limerick... :) Glad to find this group! Tidied up my goodreads page recently, got rid of all the childrens books and fantasy series etc, now it's ju..."

Welcome from right beside you in Clare lol
A Tom Waits fan?? Did you get to Glitter & Doom a couple of years back? Brilliant! I'll have to check out John Gardner, never have read him that I can recall :)

Hey! Nope, stupidly! 2008 was the year i did my Leaving Cert, i guess my head wasn't screwed on right...

Yeah i'm loving The Sunlight Dialogues. This is where i heard about Gardner btw:

http://artyoumissed.com/post/67547192...

I'm about 130/650 pages in, and i couldn't recommend it highly enough! I love the writing. It's not a book where you would speed through 100 pages a night, i've been generally reading about 20-30 pages each time. Not that it's dense or difficult to read - it's just that the writing is so good it would be a waste to rush through it! That was the decision i pretty much made after reading one paragraph anyway. :)

Roberta wrote: "France! How wonderful.

I read a book a while back that was about the Irish and the French The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan. About County Mayo during the W..."

Thanks, Roberta! I just put it on my "To Read" list!

Hi, all. I'm Sheila.I'm live in the USA. I'm 46,and I love Ireland. I am irish american. I visited Ireland in 2007 and didn't want to leave. When I go back, I'll stay longer. I'm an author of a YA paranormal book called The Betrayal which hopefully will come out Oct/Nov. It's book one a series I'm doing. Thanks for having me! I'm really excited about getting to know all of you. I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but I'm in the process of ridding a cabin of a creature, fictionally speaking of course, and would like to describe the creature. Does anybody have any information on an evil irish creature in mythology that I may use for my book? If this doesn't go here, I apologize.

Thanks,
Sheila

HI:
I'm new to the group and can't find the introduction folder Keith mentioned. Iam a retired teacher in America who took up writing books. My first book was
on for children (Papa and the Gingerbread Man) followed by a novel: Papa and the Leprechaun King (an adult fairy tale in that "baby boomers" on Tour in Ireland end up on a quest to save the Realm of the Wee Folk. I have been to Ireland 8 times in prepartaion for writing that story and my new novel:
The Shamrock Crown (Legend of Excalibur). Some of those trips were tours which I accompanied and are based on my books. I have done book signing events at Blarney Woollin Mills in Blarney several times. I have been busy with another novel just published;The Stone Cutter Genius and it's not Irish except for a couple of chapters. Anyway my work can be seen at amazon.com/arthurcola if anyone is interested. My wife is Irish 'American, Iam Italian American and we love Ireland and Italy too. Hope to learn more of Irish culture, etc. in this group.
Just finished participating in Chicago Irish Fest and was guest author at Boston Irish Fest last fall.
All the best:
Arthur

Welcome, Sheila, Arthur and anyone I missed. There seem to be a lot of Irish lovers in the U.S. Probably because so many of us have Irish roots.

Roberta, I have a partially written book on the back burner that's set in 1798, the Year of Liberty. I've collected quite a few books on that era, but I'll be adding Thomas Flanagan's book. Thanks for mentioning it.

Hi Arthur. You're book sounds interesting. I'll check it out.

Hi Lyn. I do love Ireland. If it was up to me I would move there and never leave. I am irish american and when I visited Ireland in 2007 it was the best trip I ever took! I can't wait to go again.

Thanks Sheila, hope that you like it. We loved Ireland as well. Used much of our travel experiences there to add flesh to the stories I wrote.
Arthur

Sheila,
I was enthralled by the parts of Ireland we saw our tour a few years ago. I, too, want to go back. I'd very much like to visit the places I use as settings for my book about the 1798 Rebellion.