Irish Books

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Alison Weir

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Grove Press Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $7.33

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 141 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Fill in the holes, if you have read other books about this period. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

A must read if you have been enticed by the interesting tale of the period... Perhaps you have read some of the fluffier books with more romance and fictional license. This is book fills in many of the holes. This book is a nice enjoyable read with great details that touch on the people in a Titan's wake.

The women come to life.
The politics and decisions that baffle us, centuries later, come into focus as you understand the rival nations and religious reform of the era. GREAT NOVEL.

This author did research and portrayed the characters factually and clearly.

Her Eleanor of Aquitaine novel is excellent as well.

Editorial Review:

The tempestuous, bloody, and splendid reign of Henry VIII of England (1509-1547) is one of the most fascinating in all history, not least for his marriage to six extraordinary women. In this accessible work of brilliant scholarship, Alison Weir draws on early biographies, letters, memoirs, account books, and diplomatic reports to bring these women to life. Catherine of Aragon emerges as a staunch though misguided woman of principle; Anne Boleyn, an ambitious adventuress with a penchant for vengeance; Jane Seymour, a strong-minded matriarch in the making; Anne of Cleves, a good-natured and innocent woman naively unaware of the court intrigues that determined her fate; Catherine Howard, an empty-headed wanton; and Catherine Parr, a warm-blooded bluestocking who survived King Henry to marry a fourth time.

The Children of Henry VIII

Alison Weir

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $5.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This is real history - not a whitewashed novel. I loved it! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Recently I've become interested in the Tudors. I've been following the series on television and have also read a few historical novels. This book, however, is different because it is not a novel. It is a biography. All I can say is WOW - truth really is stranger than fiction - and much more fascinating.

It starts with a short history of the three Tudor siblings. Then, we meet King Edward VI I, a child being manipulated by the men in power. We get to know him as he grows more and more aware of his own power. He believes in the Protestant religion and he and his advisers have put restraints on Catholicism. Of course his oldest sister, Mary, who is in her late twenties and has been raised Catholic is unhappy and resists all the new laws, but he is firm in his own beliefs. By the age of 15, though, he is dying. It is a painful and tragic death and takes a long time. The reader is not spared any of the details. In order to keep England Protestant, on his dying bed, he chooses the next in succession - his cousin Lady Jane Grey, merely 15 years old at the time. She didn't want to be Queen, but was forced into it. Her reign was short (only nine days) and tragic. Soon, Mary became Queen.

This all seems so simple, but, it fact it is quite complicated. The book describes the many plots and subplots, intrigues and politics of the time. Long imprisonments and beheadings were common. And later, during Mary's reign, Protestant heretics were burned at the stake. The reader is not spared any of the grisly details. There were times I got the shivers but I was glad this was not whitewashed history. This was real, it happened, and the writing was so good that I felt I was right there. The author managed to insert constant historical references, including actual letters, into the narrative.

I learned a lot. I didn't know that Queen Mary had been married to a Spanish prince. I hadn't realized that the younger sister, Elizabeth, had spent much of her life imprisoned. I didn't understand the complexities of the constant warfare with other countries. And, even though I knew about the division between the Protestants and Catholics, this book really described the ends that Mary went to in order to force Catholicism on the English people.

It's all here, packed into a mere 366 pages. Well, almost. The book ends with Mary's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne. It then simply mentions that Elizabeth enjoyed a 45-year reign. I definitely plan to read some other biography about that reign. But I now have the background to understand it better.

I loved this book and was sorry it ended. Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

The royal family may have its problems these days, but as Alison Weir reminds us in this cohesive and impeccably researched book, the nobility of old England could be both loveless and ruthless. Weir, an expert in the period and author of a book on Henry's VIII wives, focuses on the children of Henry VIII who reigned successively after his death in 1547: Edward VI, Mary I ("Bloody Mary") and Elizabeth I. The three shared little--living in separate homes--except for a familial legacy of blood and terror. This is exciting history and fascinating reading about a family of mythic proportions.

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

Frank McCourt

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 1185 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1833 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Frank McCourt's haunting memoir takes on new life when the author reads from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Recounting scenes from his childhood in New York City and Limerick, Ireland, McCourt paints a brutal yet poignant picture of his early days when there was rarely enough food on the table, and boots and coats were a luxury. In a melodic Irish voice that often lends a gentle humor to the unimaginable, the author remembers his wayward yet adoring father who was forever drinking what little money the family had. He recounts the painful loss of his siblings to avoidable sickness and hunger, a proud mother reduced to begging for charity, and the stench of the sewage-strewn streets that ran outside the front door. As McCourt approaches adolescence, he discovers the shame of poverty and the beauty of Shakespeare, the mystery of sex and the unforgiving power of the Irish Catholic Church. This powerful and heart-rending testament to the resiliency and determination of youth is populated with memorable characters and moments, and McCourt's interpretation of the narrative and the voices it contains will leave listeners laughing through their tears.

Teacher Man: A Memoir

Frank McCourt

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 438 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 237 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For 30 years Frank McCourt taught high school English in New York City and for much of that time he considered himself a fraud. During these years he danced a delicate jig between engaging the students, satisfying often bewildered administrators and parents, and actually enjoying his job. He tried to present a consistent image of composure and self-confidence, yet he regularly felt insecure, inadequate, and unfocused. After much trial and error, he eventually discovered what was in front of him (or rather, behind him) all along--his own experience. "My life saved my life," he writes. "My students didn't know there was a man up there escaping a cocoon of Irish history and Catholicism, leaving bits of that cocoon everywhere." At the beginning of his career it had never occurred to him that his own dismal upbringing in the slums of Limerick could be turned into a valuable lesson plan. Indeed, his formal training emphasized the opposite. Principals and department heads lectured him to never share anything personal. He was instructed to arouse fear and awe, to be stern, to be impossible to please--but he couldn't do it. McCourt was too likable, too interested in the students' lives, and too willing to reveal himself for their benefit as well as his own. He was a kindred spirit with more questions than answers: "Look at me: wandering late bloomer, floundering old fart, discovering in my forties what my students knew in their teens."

As he did so adroitly in his previous memoirs, Angela's Ashes and 'Tis, McCourt manages to uncover humor in nearly everything. He writes about hilarious misfires, as when he suggested (during his teacher's exam) that the students write a suicide note, as well as unorthodox assignments that turned into epiphanies for both teacher and students. A dazzling writer with a unique and compelling voice, McCourt describes the dignity and difficulties of a largely thankless profession with incisive, self-deprecating wit and uncommon perception. It may have taken him three decades to figure out how to be an effective teacher, but he ultimately saved his most valuable lesson for himself: how to be his own man. --Shawn Carkonen

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Caroline Alexander

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Knopf Amazon Marketplace: 186 new & used starting at $4.31

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> History -> Australia & Oceania -> Polar Regions
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Ireland -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 161 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Melding superb research and the extraordinary expedition photography of Frank Hurley, The Endurance by Caroline Alexander is a stunning work of history, adventure, and art which chronicles "one of the greatest epics of survival in the annals of exploration." Setting sail as World War I broke out in Europe, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, hoped to become the first to cross the Antarctic continent. But their ship, Endurance, was trapped in the drifting pack ice, eventually to splinter, leaving the expedition stranded on floes--a situation that seemed "not merely desperate but impossible."

Most skillfully Alexander constructs the expedition's character through its personalities--the cast of veteran explorers, scientists, and crew--with aid from many previously unavailable journals and documents. We learn, for instance, that carpenter and shipwright Henry McNish, or "Chippy," was "neither sweet-tempered nor tolerant," and that Mrs. Chippy, his cat, was "full of character." Such firsthand descriptions, paired with 170 of Frank Hurley's intimate photographs, which are comprehensively assembled here for the first time, penetrate the hulls of the Endurance and these tough men. The account successfully reveals the seldom-seen domestic world of expedition life--the singsongs, feasts, lectures, camaraderie--so that when the hardships set in, we know these people beyond the stereotypical guise of mere explorers and long for their safety.

Alexander reveals Shackleton as an inspiring optimist, "a leader who put his men first." Throughout the grueling ordeal, Shackleton and his men show what endurance and greatness are all about. The Endurance is a most intimate portrait of an expedition and of survival. Readers will possess a newfound respect for these daring souls, know better their unthinkable toil and half-forgotten realm of glory. --Byron Ricks

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory

William Manchester

Amazon Price: $31.50 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Little, Brown and Company Amazon Marketplace: 146 new & used starting at $4.67

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> U.K. Prime Ministers -> Churchill, Winston

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Gripping account of a misunderstood man-- you should read this! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a truly *massive* work, equal parts scholarship and artistry. Though volume one runs close to a thousand pages (counting notes, sources, etc.), I finished reading it this afternoon after an off-and-on reading of about two weeks, and it just flew by. Manchester crafted this with such precision care that I fell into the narrative from page one.

The greatest strength of the book itself-- aside from it's subject-- is Manchester's gift of narrative. WC was the quintessential Victorian, as Manchester points out time and again throughout both volumes. It is only appropriate, then, that the author should give some feel of what it was like to live in the British Empire at the time of Queen Victoria. Some of the very best passages, in my opinion, deal with life during the last quarter-century of Victoria's reign. These are not mere digressions. These fascinating glimpses into WC's era help the reader to better understand Churchill himself, who was born a Victorian and remained one to his dying day.

Manchester provides insight into British colonial administration, life in the British Raj at the end of the 19th century, and the upper class's attitudes toward sexuality and marriage. While this is fascinating in itself, Manchester goes even further and weaves a vivid tapestry of politics, history, and culture through his use of personal correspondence. It is his exhaustive use of personal correspondence-- between WC and his parents, WC and his wife and children, WC and Members of Parliament, and between all sorts of people talking about Churchill and the events in which he was caught up--- that this gives Manchester's work the feeling, not of history or even biography, but of a life too large to have been lived by one man.

'Tis: A Memoir

Frank McCourt

Amazon Price: $10.92 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 659 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 590 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Darker than the first 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Frank McCourt once again takes us on a tour of his life, this time from the age of nineteen to his fifties. As with Angela's Ashes, his storytelling is quintessentially Irish, and the reader can almost hear his brogue as he tells his tale. Again, this book is full of Irish humor and sensibility, but is much darker than its prequel, Angela's Ashes. I fully expected to love this book as much as Angela's Ashes, but I had a difficult time coming to terms with the way Frank McCourt presents himself as well as his mother this time around.

Certainly, Mr. McCourt is not in this world to live up to my expectations, but I was so disappointed to learn that he had let alcohol grab hold of him even after describing how his drunken father had made his childhood and his mother's life such a misery. There's no real explanation of how he became an author - his writing is treated as an aside to everything else going on in his life, is seldom mentioned and is never discussed in detail. On the other hand, his teaching career is discussed vividly, but is a sad treatise on American education and I came away feeling as though it was a job he despised.

At long last, there is a reference to the title of his childhood memoir, something that I expected in that book but never materialized. The titles of the two books might have been better off swapped.

C.A.Wulff - author of Born Without a Tail www.yelodoggie.com

Editorial Review:

'Tis a blessing that the author narrates his own work. McCourt follows up his Audie Award-winning performance in Angela's Ashes with another brilliant reading as he chronicles his return to post-World War II New York. Like all good storytellers, McCourt has good stories to tell; 'Tis pulses with grim adversity and quiet triumphs--character-shaping moments that gain the listener's empathy. What makes McCourt a great storyteller is his ability to give these moments just the right amount of humor and perspective. His lyrical tones are wise but not weary; he's survived life's challenges to tell his tale. And while it may be trite to credit McCourt's verbal skills to his Irish heritage, these war stories were undoubtedly polished amongst friends in the pubs. 'Tis is Grammy material, and a perfect example of how an author's voice can enhance the written word. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --Rob McDonald

Nicholas and Alexandra

Robert K. Massie

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 70 new & used starting at $3.96

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 108 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Among my Top 20 Books 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I read this book many years ago and have never forgotten it, and I just recently purchased a copy of my own. Robert Massie is an excellent writer who makes this book memorable for the fun and loving family that the Romanovs were and their terrible, tragic end. I'm now collecting more books on the Romanov dynasty and the individual people who made up this fascinating family. For anyone with an interest, this is the place to start.

best book on royal couple 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

nicholas and alexandra should never had become czar and crazina of russia.nicholas was just to weak spirit and alexandra to strong without know the real russia people.she saw russian as childern who needed to be told how to run their lives by the papa czar.she hide her son illness and brought in a sexual twisted man of god into her family,ruin the romanov's relationship with it's people.stopping changes that would give citzen russian say in their country.in the end the people turn on the romanov's every thing end tragical.

Editorial Review:

Massie offers a moving, tragic, and unforgettable account of the extraordinary Imperial dynasty of Tsar Nicholas II, his doomed empire, and a revolution that would inexorably change the world forever. "A larger than life drama."--Saturday Review. Photo insert.

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940

William Manchester

Amazon Price: $31.50 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Little, Brown and Company Amazon Marketplace: 127 new & used starting at $1.02

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Churchill was begging.... 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful.

After the fall of France in June 1940, Winston Churchill was begging USA President Roosevelt for military aid (in fact, all sorts of support was then needed) as no one knew what would the 'fate' of the French fleet was going to be.
Churchill kept reminding the American president that Britain would not surrender even if left alone.
Churchill was defiant despite the fact that the two 'key' American ambassadors, in France and Great Britain, were pro Hitler (or at least they were not anti-Nazi).
Joseph Kennedy (USA Ambassador to GB) openly cautioned his fellow Americans against entering the war because the 'allies' would soon be beaten.
However, I would have liked to see more comments about the position and reaction of the king - king George VI.
Was he indifferent?
We should remember that Hitler had been addressing the King as the man whom the British Government circles have loathed, and as the only 'hope' for a reconciliation between the Third Reich and GB.
In this context it is true that Churchill was indeed ALONE

The Ride of Our Lives

Mike Leonard

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $1.28

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Journalists

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Ride of Our Lives is the humorous yet deeply moving account of NBC journalist Mike Leonard’s cross-country odyssey with his eccentric parents, three grown children, and a daughter-in-law. Full of ups and downs, laughs and tears, the month-long journey becomes a much larger tale of hope, persistence, and valuable lessons learned along the way. A celebration of the ties between parents and children, as well as the unforgettable community of people one can meet across America, The Ride of Our Lives is an inspiring narrative of self-discovery and self-fulfillment–and how one unique family found blessings and simple pleasures on the road called life.

“Touching, hilarious . . . should be required reading in every family.”
–Tom Brokaw

“Poignant moments of questions and discovery, of truth-telling and memories.”
–The Charlotte Observer

“Often laugh-out-loud funny and sometimes heartbreakingly sad.”
–St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Delightful.”
–Chicago Tribune

“Heartfelt and whimsical . . . a cross-country trek through life’s lessons . . . Mike Leonard is a storyteller at heart, and each anecdote . . . punctuates the family’s love, struggles, and triumphs. In short, this is one ride worth taking.”
–Rocky Mountain News