May she rest in Peace. She was one of my all time favorite authors, and her books and short stories gave me many hours of pleasure. Maeve, May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. May the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, May the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand.

I am just a few chapters into "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" and about a third of the way through "The China Study" (about nutrition and disease, pro-vegan) and am itching to start "Fat to Skinny" (a low carb diet book). "The China Study" and "Fat to Skinny" totally contradict each other... why do I do this to myself? lol Not much reading going on right now as we are busy doing household stuff.

Most of my favorite Irish writers seem to belong to the intermarried Sheridan and LeFanu families. The playwright Sheridan's sister Betsy wrote a series of letters between 1784 and 1790 to her married sister Alicia LeFanu. Fortunately the letters of this observant, and occasionally sharp-tongued, woman were compiled and published many years after her death. An Irish expatriate living with the English during a politically tumultuous time, Betsy Sheridan wrote amusing and observant letters about English life, including court gossip, and the lives of her family and friends. These letters were compiled and published under the title Betsy Sheridan's Journal. Betsy had two nephews who were writers. The more well-known of the two, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, is one of the most famous 19th century writers of ghost stories, many with an Irish setting. In complete contrast, J.S. LeFanu's brother William published a delightful and sunny memoir, Seventy Years of Irish Life, in 1893. Long out of print, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in 19th century Irish life. Another of my favorite Irish writers is Elizabeth Bowen, though admittedly her novels are not to every reader's taste. I especially recommend her novel The Death of the Heart. Oddly, the fact that Bowen was Irish is frequently-overlooked. I suspect this is due to the fact that she was Protestand, like the LeFanu and Sheridan families. Ireland's great Protestant writers seem to get deliberately overlooked. I am a big fan of the contemporary Irish writer Colm Toibin. Unable to find his celebrated book Brooklyn in any local bookstores, I broke down and special ordered a copy, something I do very rarely these days (due to the ridiculous cost of postage of books here in Canada). Three of my great-grandparents were Protestant Irish. One of my great-grandmothers was an Irish Catholic. I am very proud of my Irish ancestry.

Carolyn, my favorite is Tara Road followed by The Glass Lake, though Circle of Friends seems to be the favorite of many a Binchy fan. Cindy, now that I re-read the ending so I'd be accurate in my confusion... I no longer am. I thought the "afterward" was an artifice and actually part of the novel. Upon more deliberate inspection, I see the ending of the novel is marked as such and Maupin's father calling him and asking him what Maupin's done to him in this book, etc, truly is an afterward. It's amazing to think that Maupin, along with other sophisticated-sounding folks, was caught up in a similar situation; at least according to web chatter, 20/20 ran a voiceprint on the real life "boy" and his "mom" with the results indicating the voices were the same person. As for the heartbreak, it seemed to pave the path for Noone to be so open to being duped. Same for Noone's musings about growing up being different and feeling isolated--he could identify with this boy and, I believe, really did see himself as a father figure/mentor.