This is exactly the book your looking for if you are trying to put a section called Irish America in your Pub quiz / Trivia night.

There is no Irish for "No". The title of this volume immediately launches us into a realm of confusing and unreliable language. Carson uses language like a toy, the kind of toy you want to take apart to see how it works. He is forever stretching and making holes in language, highlighting its inadequacy to communicate. This is a familiar trope of "postmodernity". But for Carson this playfulness is bound to his subject, that is the city of Belfast. Just as language is a system which does not quite make sense, where symbols only have an arbitrary relationship with what they symbolise, so is the city. In undermining the authority of language, Carson simultaneously undermines the symbols which have had such an elevated position in the sectarian divisions of the city. The colour green and the colour orange, a person's name or a particular flag are shown to have only superficial importance. This is a clever volume (sometimes irritatingly so) on a very important subject. Carson refuses to sink to an emotive level, an achievement which should be given due credit in an environment where passions are running extremely high.

Camille O'Reilly is already a well-known name to everybody involved in the Irish language scene. She has been trying to answer the difficult and important question, if and to what extent the Irish language in Northern Ireland can be called "terrorist lingo", as lots of its opponent see it. Her book is interesting to everybody who wants to get acquainted with the peculiar sociolinguistic experiment of reviving a minority language in vernacular use outside its demesne. I myself bought it during my half-year stay in Galway, but I still think that it was terribly expensive. I am not QUITE sure if it was worth the high price, and consequently i give it only four stars. If it had cost half its price, I would have no hesitations to give it five stars.

Cronin attempts a very difficult task, cataloging Irish nationalism in terms of its roots and ideology, and for the most part, I believe he succeeds. Straightaway, he provides forty pages of introductory material for the reader as a kind of whirlwind crash-course on Irish history. From there, Cronin focuses on specifics. First, Wolfe Tone and the United Irishman. Next, the Young Ireland movement, the late 19th / early 20th century battle for independence, the post Anglo-Irish Treaty ramifications, the climate in Northern Ireland during the 1970s, and finally, his own conclusions. Cronin includes notes, appendices, and a glossary to assist the reader as well. Though I think the book is quite good and certainly worth owning, I have two major criticisms: a) the book is dated at this point and b) Cronin's writing becomes biased in a few passages. This book was published in 1981 so suffice it to say that a great many pertinent, weighty events have occured in Northern Irish history since then. That's the first setback. The second is even more off-putting for me. There are passages that suggest (to me anyway) that Cronin is writing from what I would label an anti-Treaty, pro-de Valera, pro-ideological purity side. In the end, however, I feel Cronin's conclusions are sound. On page 236, he writes, "The ideology of Irish nationalism will continue to ripple the political waters until its conception of nationhood is achieved: when all in Ireland can live as citizens under their own government in their own state." With more than twenty years of hindsight on Cronin's work, I think history has proven his statement right.

I love all things Irish. Fred Johnston is Irish and so is his deft work. But, more than just Irish, Johnston's book is insightful, perceptive and poignant. Johnston inteligently chronicles the often difficult journeys we all make in our lives. These are stories of interesting people...just like you and me. They are interesting stories because of the trials, the joys, the doubts, the failings, the pain that they suffer. If this sounds familiar, it should. These are beyond-Irish characteristics. They are human ones. I love Johnston's Irishness and his humaness.

This is an alphabetical list of colonels in the Army of Northern Virginia. Information provided includes service record, when/if wounded, etc.; there's little or no narrative material. Lee's Colonels will be irrelevant to the non-specialist but essential to the scholar. It may not be entirely complete -- I noticed that Col. Echols is missing -- but seems fairly comprehensive.

The book was well written. The plot moves smoothly and the characters are well thought out. The seem and act like they should and you can get cought up in the whole search. I would recommend this to book to anyone who likes detective type stories.

The Loki Wolf is an exciting thriller. Based apon old Norse myths, the author seems to make ancient Iceland legends come alive in a modern setting. The author Arthur Slade was able to make the setting and characters seem real. His depiction of the Loki wolf was cleverly done, and the story behind it was well thought out and interesting. A cliff-hanger, this story has several exciting parts before it hits the climax. It kept me guessing throughout, as it contains some components of a mystery as well. The Loki Wolf was well worth reading and I suggest it to anyone who enjoys a good thriller or mystery.

I used this book for home study. It is very easy to understand. The authors pretty much walk you through the problems. It covers a broad range of mathematical functions--linear equations, logic, sets, algebra, geometry, etc. After thumbing through the book and reviewing the elements of the Algebra CLEP exam, I discovered that this book may be an excellent preparation tool. You'll get your money's worth.

These poems are from Hamer's memories of his Southern Childhood, which are then woven into his dreams and insights of his present life in Northern California. He speaks of Vietna, the nature of evil and identity, both sexual and racial, his father's military life, family, and loss. These are moving, heartfelt, universal stories that only a poet of this talent call tell so well. This book will stay with you long after you put it down.