Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Irish Fiction

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Get swept away to Ireland with these titles:

The House on Willow Street by Cathy Kelly

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy: A final novel by the late best-selling author of Tara Road follows the efforts of a woman who against the opinions of local detractors turns a coastal Ireland mansion into a holiday resort and receives an assortment of first guests who throughout the course of a week share laughter and the heartache of respective challenges. "This tale of love, friendship, redemption, growing up, and moving on is a lovely swan song for the beloved author." (LJ Express Reviews)
The House on Willow Street by Cathy Kelly: In the sleepy Irish coastal town of Avalon, four women--Tess, who faces a crumbling marriage; her sister Suki, who is the victim of a dirt-digging biographer; Mara, who is seeking sanctuary; and Danae, the village postmistress who guards the town's secrets--must confront their pasts before they can look to the future."This modern-day fairy tale, which starts out sad and ends up just fine, will please Kelly's fans and appeal to more mature readers of chick lit." (Booklist Reviews)

The Girl on the Cliff by Lucinda Riley: To escape a recent heartbreak in New York, Grania Ryan returns to her family home on the rugged, wind-swept coast of Ireland. Here, on the cliff edge in the middle of a storm, she meets a young girl, Aurora Lisle, who will profoundly change her life. "Tautly paced yet picturesque, The Girl on the Cliff is a compelling and romantic novel of recovery, redemption, new opportunities, and lost love." (Booklist Reviews)

Looking for more? See our book lists "Stories of Ireland" and "Irish Fiction" compiled by our very own librarians. Both lists can be found on our Book List web page (click here to access) and in our book lists shelves located in the fiction collection on the bottom floor of the library.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Irish Fiction

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