Roscoe – the latest book from Albany author William Kennedy – is a splendid novel: at once an exuberant elegy, a sad comedy, a realistic fable of life and death. In the seventh novel of Kennedy's "Albany cycle," the meshed subjects are the stuff of the real world, from politics to love, corruption to honor. But there is also room for a ghost story (the epitome of a unburied … [Read more...] about Books: Roscoe
Book Review
Who’s Irish in Hell?
A look at Warren Allen Smith's Who's Who in Hell. Warren Allen Smith, whose great-grandfather was an Irish-American named Curran, has, with tongue firmly wedged in cheek, we suspect, compiled a 1200 page compendium with the fascinating title Who's Who in Hell. One might think he's rushing things a bit because the book lists atheists, humanists, naturalists, freethinkers, … [Read more...] about Who’s Irish in Hell?
Absolutely Beautiful
Enter any bookstore, be it mom and pop or chain retailer, and there are sure to be stacks upon stacks of coffee table books with Irish photographs. But now comes one so lovely it seems more suited for an auction house than a coffee table. Gerald Hoberman has produced a book of breathtaking photographs that he took throughout the isle and has paired them with the informative and … [Read more...] about Absolutely Beautiful
For the Little Ones
Renowned broadcast journalist, Maria Shriver is know to millions of people who can't even stay up to watch the late news; it's past their bedtime. The best-selling author of What's Heaven, Shriver has written a new book that tackles another difficult issue for kids, people with disabilities. It's a topic Shriver has become familiar with through her family's founding and support … [Read more...] about For the Little Ones
The Story of the Irish Diaspora Wherever Green Is Worn
The Irish Diaspora is the outworking of two forms of colonialism, those of Mother England and Mother Church. I have been interested since boyhood in what was then known not as the Diaspora, but as emigration. Like nearly every other Irish person of my generation, some of my closest relatives were forced into unwilling emigration. I have always lived near Dun Laoghaire, where … [Read more...] about The Story of the Irish Diaspora Wherever Green Is Worn