Here is a rare memoir that isn't self-absorbed. The ringing quote from the author Michael Brendan Dougherty: “The men who calculate and seek out useful lessons for the present will erect their glass cages and other monstrosities across the landscape. But Ireland will surround her with muddy faerie forts. Her divine knight will come again, ‘walking from the summer headlands / To his scarecrow cross in the turnip-ground.’...Romantic Ireland is dead and gone; it yet rises from the grave…

And:
“But the Rising has taught me that when we act, or when we are forced to act on behalf the future, the past can be given back to us as gift.”

It is in the end, a deeply hopeful book and thus an antidote and corrective to much of what we read today.

Jerome Charyn is obviously a talented writer but I suspect many of the essays in his book might appeal mostly to readers of “a certain age”, i.e. those born before the 1960. There is a fair amount of old time Hollywood and stories of semi-obscure figures from the first decades of the last century. An essay more universally of interest is the deeply affecting one on the biblical King Saul. I also much appreciated the essay on the “black Babe Ruth”, Josh Gibson. In summary, the book is partly Jewish memoir and partly about influencers on the author.

I’d not been familiar with Parini’s work but have quickly become a fan as a result of this volume. He has a gift for wisdom, along with lyricism and the ability to capture a mood or time. Who can’t relate to the adolescent feelings evoked by: “…the night sprayed stars, and fireflies / temporized in ghost-capped hogweed, / and the crikets thrummed. / We were just fourteen, / both willowy and sad / with all the world before us like a hill / that wouldn’t budge.” Another offering, “The Grammar of Affection” was affecting, and I showed it to a poetry-loving friend who agreed it was “a fine piece of work” and asked the name of the volume, being already familiar with the poet. Admittedly, as a lover of nature lyricism, this is right in my wheelhouse but there's also a spiritual bent with biblical allusions. I have to say I’m impressed by some of the quality books this librarything.com Early Reviewers program offers.

Ebook received from LTER. Despite the somewhat flippant title, this book has some touching stories of how pets enrich our lives and what they teach us about love and loss.

An entertaining book despite the grim subject matter, Kinsley offers a revealing look at what motivates us at the end of our lives. It's illustrative, if sad, that the answer for this man without religious faith is merely lasting fame, something not far removed from "he with the most toys wins" (both being ego-driven). Points for honesty, for sure, and he is scrupulous as far as his judgments of generations (Baby Boom and Greatest Generation). Kinsley calls seeking fame by assassinating someone "unfortunate" (why, if there's no God?) but not "entirely irrational", saying there is something "very modern in this approach". He doesn't explore why: what is it about modernity that makes such infamy attractive?

Ultimately the book illustrates what happens when a key component of what it means to be human - our spirituality - has atrophied, showing there are worse things than Parkinson's.

A pleasant enough offering containing short, slice-of-life vignettes of everyday life. Plain-spoken English, unpretentious, served in page or two increments. Occasionally a flash of lyricism: "the sun is nickel bright", "earth-hardened tip toes", "my hands clawing like a convict's through rubble."

Being previously unacquanited with the author's work, I may or may not be the intended audience, but there's certainly variety here -- everything from a meticulous account of Soto's mixed success at cracking hard-boiled eggs to going to a Rolling Stones concert. The life of a poet, perhaps, one feels called to write about the mundane as well as the extraordinary.

Engaging and well-written biography of the new pope. Was pleasantly surprised by the Ivereigh's deft touch for detail while not getting bogged down, as so many modern biographers do, in minutiae. I especially appreciated the scope not being limited to merely church politics but to Francis's country of birth, his ancestral heritage and his religious order. The author manages to do a lot with admirable succinctness. This is the best biography I've seen of Pope Francis to date and certainly helps us to better understand where Pope Francis has come from and where he wants to lead the Catholic church.

This book is arranged diary-style in a series of half-page vignettes stretching from the 1870s to the present day. It's a good bathroom read in the sense that you'd likely want to read a page here or there. I found the biographical anecdotes much more interesting than the plentiful game replays. Overall a book for baseball nerds, especially those who relish reading summaries of long-ago baseball games.

This is a handsomely produced book celebrating plants and flowers and growing things. I could have wished for the inclusion of more verse from well-known, classic writers (more substantive and interesting poetry) but still makes for a decent gift for the garden lover in your life.

I've found this to be a step above the average hiking book because it has historical anecdotes as well as just the raw statistics of various trails. Gives trail length and degree of difficulty and you can't help but be impressed by the variety that Ohio offers in terms of diversity of natural beauty, from sand dunes to rocky shorelines to old growth woods. Good for getting ideas on new hikes - I'm going to visit the Harrison gravesite near the north bend of the Ohio River. It's not a pocket-size book, rather large, so not a good item to bring on a hike itself.

Compact book of mostly common sense suggestions although admittedly I'm not the target audience (got the book for my niece). I'm doubtful it'll be all that helpful since you can Google much of this (such as "how to write a resume" or "how to do laundry") but on the bright side the book is small and handsomely designed.

Delightful book of photographs that appeals to adults on an aesthetic level and kids on puzzle level. My four-year old grandson enjoyed going through the pictures with me trying to spot the dog Momo and it's a rare thing to have his attention for that long on something other than an iPad computer game.