Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and... (more)

Tis: A Memoir

by Frank McCourt

Frank McCourt's glorious childhood memoir, Angela's Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary... (more)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

by James Joyce

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man portrays Stephen Dedalus's Dublin childhood and youth, providing an oblique self-portrait of the young James Joyce. At its center are questions of origin and source, authority and authorship, and the relationship of an artist to his family, culture, and race. Exuberantly inventive, this coming-of-age story is a tour de force of style and technique.

Dubliners

by James Joyce

The publication of James Joyce's Dubliners in 1914 was the result of ten years battling with publishers, resisting their demands to remove swear words, real place names and much else. Although only twenty-four when he signed his first publishing contract for the book, Joyce already knew its worth: to alter it in any way would "retard the course of civilization in Ireland." Joyce's aim was to tell the truth-- to... (more)

Ulysses

by Danis Rose, Hans Walter Gabler, Claus Melchior, Wolfhard Steppe, James Joyce, Jeri Johnson

This revised volume follows the complete unabridged text as corrected in 1961. Contains the original foreword by the author and the historic court ruling to remove the federal ban. It also contains page references to the first American edition of 1934.

Waiting for Godot: Tragicomedy in 2 Acts

Waiting for Godot: Tragicomedy in 2 Acts

by Samuel Beckett

A classic of modern theatre and perennial favorite of colleges and high schools. "One of the most noble and moving plays of our generation . . . suffused with tenderness for the whole human perplexity . . . like a sharp stab of beauty and pain."--The London Times.

The Sea

by John Banville

The author of The Untouchable (“contemporary fiction gets no better than this”—Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review ) now gives us a luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory. The narrator is Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who, soon after his wife’s death, has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child—a retreat from the grief, anger,... (more)

Circle of Friends

by Maeve Binchy

It began with Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, growing up, inseparable, in the village of Knockglen. Benny--the only child, yearning to break free from her adoring parents...Eve--the orphaned offspring of a convent handyman and a rebellious blueblood, abandoned by her mother's wealthy family to be raised by nuns. Eve and Benny--they knew the sins and secrets behind every villager's lace curtains...except their... (more)

How the Irish Saved Civilization

by Thomas Cahill

Bringing readers to the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells, a historical examination of Ireland's role in the rise of medieval Europe cites the work of countless monks and scribes in the preservation of the West's written treasury. Reprint. Tour. K. AB.

Teacher Man: A Memoir

by Frank McCourt

Here at last in paperback is Frank McCourt's critically acclaimed and bestselling book about how his thirty-year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer. Teacher Man is also an urgent tribute to teachers everywhere. In bold and spirited prose featuring his irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises of teaching in public high schools. Teacher Man shows... (more)

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

by Roddy Doyle

Life as seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old Irish boy, Patrick Clarke, is a poignant voyage through a bewildering, ever-changing world of family, friends, dreams, and growing up. Winner of the Booker Prize. Reprint. Tour.

The Third Policeman (John F. Byrne Irish Literature Series)

The Third Policeman (John F. Byrne Irish Literature Series)

by Flann O'Brien

The Third Policeman is Flann O'Brien's brilliantly dark comic novel about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where, through the theories of the scientist/philosopher de Selby, he is introduced to "Atomic Theory" and its relation to bicycles, the existence of... (more)

The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

by W. B. Yeats, Richard J. Finneran

The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats includes all of the poems authorized by Yeats for inclusion in his standard canon. Breathtaking in range, it encompasses the entire arc of his career, from luminous reworkings of ancient Irish myths and legends to passionate meditations on the demands and rewards of youth and old age, from exquisite, occasionally whimsical songs of love, nature, and art to somber and angry poems... (more)

Finnegans Wake

by James Joyce

Follows a man's thoughts and dreams during a single night. It is also a book that participates in the re-reading of Irish history that was part of the revival of the early 20th century. The author also wrote "Ulysses", "Dubliners" and "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man".

Anybody Out There?: A Novel

by Marian Keyes

Bestselling author Marian Keyes has delighted readers with the lives, loves, and foibles of the irrepressible Walsh sisters and their eccentric mammy. In this Life in the Big Apple is perfect for Anna. She has the best job in the world, a lovely apartment, and great friends. Then one morning, she wakes up in her mammy's house in Dublin with stitches in her face, a dislocated knee, hands smashed up, and no memory... (more)

Angels : A Novel

by Marian Keyes

After catching her husband having an affair and being fired from her job, Maggie Walsh suddenly finds her perfectly organized existence has become a perfect mess. She decides, for the first time in her life, to do something daring -- and flees to her best friend, Emily, in the faraway wonderland of Los Angeles. In this mecca of tanned, beautiful bodies, unsvelte, uncool Maggie is decidedly a fish out of water.... (more)

The Glass Lake

by Maeve Binchy

In the wake of her mother's tragic drowning, spirited Kit comes to the realization that she has never belonged in her family's town of Lough Glass and confronts some painful secrets that she has been avoiding. Reprint.

Scarlet Feather

by Maeve Binchy

Set in contemporary Ireland, filled with warmth, wit, and drama, Scarlet Feather is "classic Binchy" ( Boston Globe )-the story of Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, their spouses, families, and friends, and the struggling new catering business that transforms their lives in ways big and small.

The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy: Book 1

Jewels of the Sun

by Nora Roberts

New York Times #1 Best Selling author, Nora Roberts returns to the lush, green hills of Ireland, where love is forever touched by magic - And where the Gallagher siblings explore the depth of their fiery hearts. Determining to reevaluate her life, Jude Murray flees America to take refugee in Faerie Hill Cottage, immersing herself in the study of Irish Folk and discovers hope for the future of the magical... (more)

Firefly Summer

by Maeve Binchy

One of the most popular authors in recent times, Maeve Binchy first drew reader's and critics' attention with Light a Penny Cnadle, then with Echoes. This newest bestseller tells about changes that take place in a charming Irish village when a stranger turns a local manor house into a luxury hotel. Firefly Summer will be followed by Delacorte's hardcover, Silver Wedding, in September. HC: Delacorte.

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: irish

A Memoir

by Frank McCourt

by Frank McCourt

by James Joyce

by James Joyce

by Danis Rose, Hans Walter Gabler, Claus Melchior, Wolfhard Steppe, James Joyce, Jeri Johnson

by Samuel Beckett

by John Banville

by Maeve Binchy

by Thomas Cahill

by Frank McCourt

by Roddy Doyle

by Flann O'Brien

by W. B. Yeats, Richard J. Finneran

by James Joyce

by Marian Keyes

by Marian Keyes

by Maeve Binchy

by Maeve Binchy

by Nora Roberts

by Maeve Binchy