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TOPIC: Ireland! Any time period.

Hello all! It's time for the fourth historical fiction book nomination cycle.

As a reminder, the nominations and voting will work the same way for this book as it does for our other book selection, but on a staggered schedule. The nomination thread will be posted on or about the 11th of the month, with voting to start on the 15th. We will vote until the 20th and then start reading together on the 1st. This should allow those who are interested to read both books along with the group.

Since it's the month of St. Patrick's Day, let's read about Ireland this month! We've done a lot of Scotland (thank you Sharon Kay and Outlander) and a bunch of England, let's read some about that other isle up there!

As always, please try to check Amazon or some other site to make sure the book is easily available - the last thing we want is to nominate some great book that no one can get! Also, if the book doesn't fit the theme, I won't add it to this month's voting list, but I will carry it over to the next theme that it does fit under if you would like.

Since we're in a short cycle, feel free to nominate up to two books so we get a good number of choices.

Feel free to nominate up to two books of your choice in this thread until February 23, around midnight. I'll post the voting thread on Tuesday the 24th. Voting will go through the 27th and reading on March 1. I know it's compressed, but it's a short month (and I'm running behind!) Looking forward to it!

Ok - I'll admit it. I said you could nominate up to two books because I couldn't decide between two books I wanted to read. I'm totally using the process for my own gains. I apologize. :)

Ok here are my nominations:

#1 - Trinity by Leon Uris. I'm a bit torn on this one. Pros, it's supposed to be an amazing Irish historical fiction. Cons, it's 900 pages. So, you be the judge.

From Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ: From the acclaimed author who enthralled the world with Exodus, Battle Cry, QB VII, Topaz, and other beloved classics of twentieth-century fiction comes a sweeping and powerful epic adventure that captures the "terrible beauty" of Ireland during its long and bloody struggle for freedom. It is the electrifying story of an idealistic young Catholic rebel and the valiant and beautiful Protestant girl who defied her heritage to join his cause. It is a tale of love and danger, of triumph at an unthinkable cost -- a magnificent portrait of a people divided by class, faith, and prejudice -- an unforgettable saga of the fires that devastated a majestic land . . . and the unquenchable flames that burn in the human heart.

#2 - Death and Nightingales by Eugene Mccabe. Although not available directly from Amazon, it was available used by other sellers, so I think it should be fine.

From Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ: It is 1883 and the farms of County Fermanagh, on the border of Ulster and what we now know as the Republic of Ireland, are crisscrossed with religious, political, and generational tensions. Through the events of a single day in the life of Elizabeth Winters, we see decades of pain, betrayal, and resentment build to a devastating climax.

Against the fearsome beauty of the Fermanagh landscape, the fate of McCabe's heroine, Beth, slowly and suspensefully unfolds. Born to a Catholic mother and an unknown Catholic father, conceived shortly before her mother's marriage to Protestant Billy Winters, Beth has lived a life of silent suffering since her mother's death. Determined to decide her own fate but doomed to repeat the tragic circumstances of her birth, McCabe illuminates her quiet, searing power with the tenderness of a poet, offering up a powerful, lyrical indictment of the tensions that tear families and nations apart.

I've been thinking about reading Trinity again, haven't since (gawd) the 70's. I'm going to nominate Cashelmara. Although the story does take place in Ireland, what's fun with this is that Howatch parallels her characters with the three Edward Plantagenets, Edward I, II and III. She did a similar bit in Penmarric and paralleled Henry & Eleanor and their devil's brood.

Ireland by Frank Delaney-Summary: An epic tale-within-a-tale based on the history of Ireland finds a traditional wandering Storyteller revealing his life experiences while forging a poignant new relationship in the home of an eight-year-old boy.



The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherford - Summary: A fictional account of the legend of Cuchulainn recreates such events as the mission of Saint Patrick, the Viking invasion, the trickery of Henry II that led to England's establishment in Ireland, the failed rebellion of 1798, and the Great Famine. By the author of Sarum and London

Misfit, Susan's book seems quite interesting. I loved Trinity and I have http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30... on my TBR list.