Amalia Gkavea

I have read hundreds of books on the Paranormal and hundreds of books on Irish Culture. This volume is one of the most informative, haunting, moving and scary reads I’ve ever had the pleasure to spend time with. Not only does it offer rare information on the contemporary perspectives of the paranormal in Ireland, but it also allows us to compare and contrast stories and phenomena in different cultures. What makes this book unique is that most of the incidents narrated took place between the mid-20th century and the early 2010s.

The Introduction (which is beyond brilliant, by the way) offers an interesting, thought-provoking comparison between British and Irish reactions to the Paranormal. What do we learn from this wonderful book? A multitude of views and experiences. The shadows of the Irish Revolution, the Troubles falling on hospitals, execution sites, even houses. The tragedy of the Great Famine. Haunted priories, abbeys, boarding schools. What I truly loved was the detail and the attention placed on experiences related to haunted houses, hotels, and inns (some of which had no bloody past to explain the phenomena). There is also a deep feeling of sadness permeating the accounts. Parents losing their children, visitations and omens of death, strange and menacing dark oddities, contemporary sightings of the Banshee and the ghost lights on the bogs. There is even an entertaining section of extraordinary phenomena recorded between the 12th century and the 16th century.

This book is pure perfection. From the atmospheric front cover to the vivid writing and the stories included, a haunting trip to Ireland has never been better!

My life has been a hot mess lately. Health issues, work problems, financial difficulties, broken relationships. I have never felt so many moments during which I want to give up all and simply disappear. What sustains me in the middle of an ocean of troubles, blows from every corner and non-existent support by people I thought were friends? My faith. It gives me strength to take a deep breath every day, to foster a secret hope that everything will become whole again.

This little book is a true treasure for every Christian women despite denominations. I am Greek Orthodox and yet, I find great comfort reading Catholic devotionals and testimonies. They speak to our fragile humanity, deepening the connection between a believer and Our Lord, testifying to His most human moments.

I read blessings during my commute to work. God knows I need them... Written in powerful, flowing, direct and calming language, they made me feel a little safer, a little less desperate. I have copied pages and pages from the volume in my Bible to comfort me and sustain me along with my own prayers. Because the only thing that makes my life beautiful at this moment is the connection to the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. They never fail you.

Humans ALWAYS do.

Many thanks to Our Daily Bread Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

‘’We yearn to travel. There is something else that distinguishes us as a species; we are storytellers. We are known as Homo Sapiens - ‘wise man’ - thanks in no small part to our use of language to construct narratives. We love storytelling.’’

And when we cannot travel, books are there to guide us to a place away from our reality. Before I visited Prague and Seville, and Milan, and Rome, and Paris, and Moscow, and so many other places, I had seen their beauty with the eyes of the mind. I had visited them on a magic carpet called ‘Book’. Books are our first guides to places and wonders that we may never be fortunate enough to visit.

This volume maps a multitude of stories. Books that found their hearts in characters’ journeys of the body, the spirit and the soul…

We battle monsters with Odysseus, the most timeless of characters in World Literature, meet merchants in the company of Marco Polo, walk with the pilgrims to Canterbury, fight windmills defending Don Quixote. Walk from Edinburgh to London as a young woman is wrongfully accused, witness the struggles of the serfs in the Russian countryside, meet the legendary Vlad Tepes in the mystical land of Transylvania.

Follow Fernando Ossorio on a journey of a troubled soul in Toledo, let Virginia Woolf lead you on an adventure across the Atlantic, accompany Leopold Bloom through the streets of Dublin, see how Halldor Laxness officiates a marriage between Catholicism and the sagas of old.

What do we think of the motels and the endless road trip in Nabokov’s masterpiece of a young girl’s Western Odysseus to avenge her father in Portis’s True Grit? What happens when you cannot escape Soviet Moscow even by taking a train to a sleepy village? How would it feel to cross Europe during the Napoleonic Wars era as depicted in Winterson’s The Passion? Or China during the so-called ‘Cultural Revolution’?

From Suffolk to Australia, from Iceland to Taiwan, from Tokarczuk’s Flights to Maraini’s Train to Budapest, from Twain to Adichie’s Americanah and Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, this is a treasure for those of us who are TRUE lovers of Literature.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/

In the pages of this lovely book, you will find selkies, banshees, leprechauns, changelings, mermaids. Giants, fairies, charmers, ang uisce, faerie cats and dogs, the pooka, the Headless Horseman, shapeshifters and sheerie - the well-known Jack o'Lanterns - are waiting for us in a unique journey within the heart of Ireland's folklore.

Masterfully written by Síne Quinn, beautifully illustrated by Dermott Flynn

Many thanks to Candlewick and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"A matter of simple biology."

Yes, this is an actual sentence that can be found in this book and is uttered by a 600AD woman...

Do you want to see one of the finest characters The Bard created reduced to being an obnoxious, evil, sex-crazed psycho slut who cares only for herself?

Do you want to see Hamlet turned into one of the most indifferent characters you will ever read?

Do you want to read about the vilification of Christianity and the glorification of the pagans?

The only characters that retain a scrap of decency and bravery are Flora and Mairi.

Becoming a man does NOT make you a "strong woman", it makes you an idiot.