It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Ireland was good for reading. Or, more precisely, long bus rides and longer plane flights were good for reading.

Read

Most of my reading, appropriately, dealt with Ireland. I finished A Traveller’s History in Ireland by Peter Neville (Book Review: A Traveller’s History of Ireland). It’s a library book so I really meant to finish it before we left, but didn’t get it done. The library let me renew it for four weeks so I could take it to Ireland. It amused me to wonder if the book had been to Ireland before, making it more well-traveled than me. I brought it home safely.

Next, I went for something that had nothing to do with Ireland, Hot Pursuit by Suzanne Brockmann — another great adventure yarn featuring current and former Navy SEALs.

At that point, I was out of print books and was going to have to start in on ebooks. That’s when one of our tour leaders gave me her copy of Ireland Awakening (also known as The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga in North America) by Edward Rutherfurd. I had one of his books checked out of the library before the trip, but it’s a chunkster and seemed too daunting. Once I got started, though, it was mesmerizing. Now, I want to read his other books.

Even with 900 pages, I still finished Ireland Awakening during that long seven and a half hour flight from Dublin to Chicago. With that, I finished up an ebook that I had started some time ago, Insurrection in Dublin by James Stephens about the 1916 Easter Rising.

Reading

I’m back to reading a book that I left at home — Jasmine Nights by Julia Gregson. I’m enjoying the setting which is World War II. It started in London and has now moved to northern Africa.

Will Read

I loaded a bunch of ebooks that I really do want to read so I’ll try to get myself to read one of those.

It’s Monday! What Are Your Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila of Book Journey. Be sure to check out her post today to see her selections and the list of links to all the other participating bloggers.

Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? — 6 Comments

Gerry Wilson on June 18, 2012 at 8:47 am said:

Isn’t Irish history fascinating? (Isn’t Ireland fascinating, for that matter!) I’ve loved your photos, Joy. My husband and I honeymooned there in 1996.

As for the reading: I just finished SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jones, a young African-American (woman) writer, about a bigamists’ two families, particularly his daughters, one of whom knows about the other. I’m reading THE ART OF FIELDING now, and so far, I like it. It got mixed reviews–some raves, some very negative–but I learned a long time ago to trust my own reader instincts.

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heather on June 18, 2012 at 9:02 am said:

Hope you had a great trip in Ireland. I’ve read a few books about the 1916 uprising and find it fascinating.

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Leeswammes (Judith) on June 18, 2012 at 3:06 pm said:

You must be close to an Ireland history expert! Well done for reading up on it while on your trip.

I forgot about the (new?) Julia Gregson. Hope you’re enjoying it.

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Rebecca on June 18, 2012 at 3:38 pm said:

I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in Ireland in 2010 and it was amazing. I read Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin while there but through my travels I made a list of so many Irish authors to read including Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls (which is now in my TBR pile) and Flann O’Brien’s At Swim Two Birds (which sounds incredible). You could be a guide after all of your historical reading!
Rebecca @ The Key to the Gate

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carol on June 18, 2012 at 3:41 pm said:

Jasmine Nights sounds interesting

Have a great reading week

carol

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Jessica on June 18, 2012 at 9:04 pm said:

I just started The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey. Love the setting an set-up – a horological museum in London. Beautiful language.

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