Book Description
The British army has a thankless job in Northern Ireland. Other than endless check points and a stifling police presence, its only hope is to infiltrate the IRA.

Enter Simon Vaughn, a British officer turned gun runner. He is sprung from a Greek prison by the British on condition that he pose as an undercover arms dealer in Northern Ireland.Fresh out of options, Vaughn agrees. He gets more than he bargains for, or wants -- $5,000 in hijacked gold, a smuggling operation in Ulster and a murderous manhunt.

"SAVAGE DAY confirms Higgins' high rank in the field of adventure fiction." (B-O-T Editorial Review Board) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Another faultless thriller by Higgins
In the introduction, Higgins wrote that this is one of his personal favourite and after reading it, I can see why.

The story is simple : an ex-Brit élite soldier, Simon Vaughan, was given choice of 15 years in a most undesirable prison, or a dirty job on behalf of Her Majesty's government.The job consisted of infiltrating the IRA, posing as an arms dealer, locate a shipment of gold stolen by the IRA to be used as the war-chest, neutralise the threat of a certain Michael Cork who masterminded the heist.

The development is anything but.From the start, it was a game of deadly deception between the G-men and the IRAs, not just one, but 2 competing factions.Simon found Michael Cork too cautious to get near, and had to deal through the latter's niece Norah, a Harvard-trained doctor who had seen too much death, and her bodyguard Binnie, still believing in an honourable war.Frank Barry, leader of the rival IRA faction, also wants the gold, and the arms, and seems to shadow Simon and his group at every step.

Through their conversation, readers cannot help but feel sad at the state of affairs - it had definitely gone beyond where any side can claim higher moral grounds, yet it cannot seem to stop or the victims might just lose any cause to go on living with their pain.Almost everyone has a decent reason for what they do, whether it be the IRA or the British government.And almost everyone has their hand in some unforgivable misdeed.

Higgins set out to write from his personal experiences and of those around him and he succeeded in describing the situation as a no-win for anyone but pain for everyone.It was also a warning against simplifying the heroes and the villains, but also to focus on the real victims, people who had to live with the bombings and shootings while simply trying to lead a normal live.

Higgins At It Again
Jack Higgins has created some wonderful characters, starting back with Liam Devlin in the Eagle Has Landed.He has used the device of rescuing a potential lead character from prison or death sentences in the past and Simon Vaughn appears to be the newest.The story moved with Higgins' usual pace:action-filled, developed story line and interesting characters.Worthy of a read. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The Derry of poet Seamus Deane's first novel, Reading in the Dark is a perilous place. Ghosts haunt the stairwells of apartment buildings, a curse follows two families down through the generations, close friends turn out to be police informers, and the police are as likely to persecute an innocent man as protect him. And hovering over all the violence, poverty, and despair of 1940s Northern Ireland is the specter of the "Troubles." The hero of the novel is an unnamed young man whose life turns upside down when a policeman frames him. Deception becomes his only means of self-defense. But the initial lie on the part of the policeman and the narrator's corresponding trickery are only part of the tangled web Deane weaves here. Early in the novel we learn that Uncle Eddie, an Irish Republican Army gunman, was blown up in the town distillery in 1922. In addition to sorting out his own problems, the narrator seeks the truth about his uncle's death.

Reading in the Dark sounds grim, and in some respects it is, yet leavening is provided by infusions of the Irish folktales and legends that inform the characters' daily life. And then there is the language. Deane is a poet, and his prose shows it: sex is like fire, "glinting with greed and danger"; ice snores and candles are swathed in a "thick drapery of wax." Readers looking for a thoughtful, serious, and beautifully written novel will find one in Reading in the Dark.Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize
Winner of the Irish Times Fiction Award and International Award

"A swift and masterful transformation of family griefs and political violence into something at once rhapsodic and heartbreaking. If Issac Babel had been born in Derry, he might have written this sudden, brilliant book."
--Seamus Heaney

Hugely acclaimed in Great Britain, where it was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and short-listed for the Booker, Seamus Deane's first novel is a mesmerizing story of childhood set against the violence of Northern Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s.

The boy narrator grows up haunted by a truth he both wants and does not want to discover. The matter: a deadly betrayal, unspoken and unspeakable, born of political enmity. As the boy listens through the silence that surrounds him, the truth spreads like a stain until it engulfs him and his family. And as he listens, and watches, the world of legend--the stone fort of Grianan, home of the warrior Fianna; the Field of the Disappeared, over which no gulls fly--reveals its transfixing reality. Meanwhile the real world of adulthood unfolds its secrets like a collection of folktales: the dead sister walking again; the lost uncle, Eddie, present on every page; the family house "as cunning and articulate as a labyrinth, closely designed, with someone sobbing at the heart of it."

Seamus Deane has created a luminous tale about how childhood fear turns into fantasy and fantasy turns into fact. Breathtakingly sad but vibrant and unforgettable, Reading in the Dark is one of the finest books about growing up--in Ireland or anywhere--that has ever been written. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

More than just a novel
This is a beautiful book, highly poetic and inspiring. I had never read anything like this, and I've read hundreds if not thousands novels. And, as a former Catholic, I recognize the pressure, the narrow-mindedness, the fanaticism, as well as the greatness. I loved reacing this book, and I will be very unhappy until I find something as good, which may be never.

Excellent read
Written in the voice of a young boy, the story unfolds from the hints and cues picked up by the boy from the adult world around him.I learned about the Troubles from the inside, from the perspective of the main character and his family, which makes it all the more personal and immediate.The writing is lovely and poetic.Highly recommend!

Moving, eloquent memoire about recent history
Seamus Deane is a great writer. His use of language, imagery and his technique for telling the story of his early life in Northern Island in the 40's and 50's is compelling. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in family lore, the power of memory, and the experiences of childhood that shape our lives.

Death in Derry
Death? This is surely a novel about its opposite: growing up, albeit in the politically divided environment of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, after WW2. It is about life, lived under the shadow of violence perhaps, but not in the midst of it. Its unnamed hero, presumably based on the author himself, ultimately achieves academic success and independence. Yet even so, the book is haunted by death. It begins with a ghost, continues with the passing of several family members, and ends with the demise of the hero's father. But the novel is also haunted by less ordinary ghosts: men in the nineteen-twenties who died in the Republican cause, or who were executed, or who ordered the deaths of others. The way in which the young hero, a generation later, gradually becomes aware of these events, unravels their mysteries, and realizes their devastating legacy to the members of his own family, forms the central narrative of the book.

I would not say that this element is entirely successful. It is difficult at first to grasp the various relationships in this large extended family. Then, as the details become clear, they hardly seem the momentous revelations that the author intends, perhaps because he has difficulty making them impact the choices and events in the present-day story. For the most part, the book is about shame, secrets, resentment, and depression, as opposed to things that actually happen.

But the book is also a memoir of an Irish boyhood. Although it may not add much to others of the genre, it does have the ring of first-hand experience, especially the scenes in the Catholic classroom. But there is very little that locates this experience in the specific setting of a Catholic enclave within mainly-Protestant Northern Ireland. One thing that does, however, is the portrayal of the relationship of mutual mistrust between the community and the police. Some of the chapters describing actual encounters with the police fail to convince, but a mere page describing how the death of a boy in a vehicle accident gets transformed by sectarian myth into yet another instance of police brutality gets it exactly right. Indeed, some of the most memorable sections do not deal with fact at all, but with stories of the supernatural, half-believed but still powerful.

I bought the book at the suggestion of an Amazon friend who knew I was also from Northern Ireland and an approximate contemporary of the author. But I am not sure that this helps. Having been raised on the other (protestant) side of the sectarian divide, Deane's book seems almost as foreign to me as though, as a white American, I were reading Toni Morrison (as, indeed, I have just been doing). But I do know the country, and still have the language in my ear. Deane's writing is poetic but not always actualized; there is little that specifically recalls the landscape of Derry and Donegal. Although odd phrases come through with their cadence intact, for the most part the dialogue is serviceable but generic. It is also strange to see the author describing things through the eyes of a child, while writing in the manner of a mature and sophisticated poet. I get the impression that Deane has gone too far from his childhood and his birthplace to be able to recapture it with the intensity he once felt. A pity.

Reading in the Dark
Brett Mulvaney

Recently, I just finished reading the book Reading in the Dark, a novel by Seamus Deane.What I understand from this book is that the boy narrator is having a tough time growing up in Northern Ireland, haunted by the truth of his family.Some things he wants to believe and the rest he doesn't want to.I did not particularly care for this book because of how hard it is for me to follow.Other than the constant jumping around from different scenes and scenarios, it is a good book as far as the context is concerned.

I would recommend this book to people who are interested in Irish history, what people live like around that time. Another thing that might interest people would be how parents discipline their kids when they got in trouble.Also people who like books that jump around so much that it is hard for people like me to follow might enjoy the challenge. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Worthwhile Profile of Hollywood's Leading Irishmen
_Hollywood Irish_ is a fantastic collection of interviews and photographs of six handsome and talented actors: Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea, Pierce Brosnan, Aidan Quinn and Patrick Bergin. The simple introduction provided by Áine O'Connor sets the mood for the rest of the book well. As she mentions, the interviews do reveal insightful, private information: "Liam Neeson reveals how he considered leaving acting and how he found the confidence to continue; Pierce Brosnan, simply and openly, shares the painful story of his wife Cassie's death; Stephen Rea discusses the relationship between acting and politics; Aidan Quinn talks about the Irish identity and its many paradoxes; Patrick Bergin reveals the temptations of an actor's life and the difficulties of doing love scenes; Gabriel Byrne tells us about the risks and illusions that surround fame." In a nutshell, that's the book. Each actor discusses his beginnings, both in life and as an actor. Each discusses, in some capacity, how being Irish has impacted him. Each actor's profile comes with several b/w photos from childhood, movies and family collections. At the end, one can find each actor's filmography. The only complaint I would have regarding the book is that the material is dated (only current to 1997) and I wish an updated version could be compiled. That criticism aside, though, this is certainly a title worth owning.

Insightful interviews.
Aine O'Conner manage to capture the cadences of the various actors very well.While reading the text, I could almost hear the men speaking their words.I suspect that she didn't edit the tapes very much, save for verbal pauses (the usual "uhs" and "you knows") and forlength.Ms. O'Conner also included several photographs (many were candid)that were sprinkled throughout the various sections.

While Ms. O'Connerasked many insightful questions, she didn't follow through on many. Indeed, at times I was a little disappointed that she failed to follow upon specific points; however, that point is trivial compared to the overalleffort of the book.

If you are a fan of any or all of the actors listed,or simply are curious to see how contemporary Irish actors are dealing withthe joys and disappointments of Hollywood, then you should enjoy this book.

Great Look at the Lives of Some of Hollywoods Finest Actors
This book provides a facinating, indepth journey into the lives of six very capable and successful actors. Many humourous and sometimes tradgic tales of life in Ireland and struggles to make a name for themselves thereand in America. Each actor tells of personal hardships that they havebattled throughout their lives and how they have created such prominentstatus in today's Hollywood scene. Each story is spoken first hand whichadds to the richness of these beautiful retold memories. This book providesa greater sense of who these men are by recalling tales from childhood,adolecence and adulthood which explain their journeys to becoming the greatactors they are. ... Read more

Book Description

Dubliners - James Joyce's stories of his native homeland - performed by a cast of 15 different actors originating from Ireland.  Unabridged.

The fifteen stories that make up this brilliant audio roam over a human landscape that stretches from the bleakest of despair to the most blinding of epiphanies.  First published in 1914, the stories are as lucid and accessible as they are memorable poignant.

As you listen to the cast of internationally famous stage and screen actors perform Dubliners, both the spiritually deadening atmosphere that drove Joyce from his homeland and the irresistible emotional pull it always kept on him to the end of his days become heartbreakingly beautiful.

Dubliners is an audio experience that will only grow in richness with each time you listen. 

The stories and performers are:

Sisters - Frank McCourt

An Encounter - Patrick McCabe

Araby - Colm Meaney

Eveline - Dearbhla Molloy

After the Race - Dan O'Herlihy

Two Gallants - Malachy McCourt

The Boarding House - Donal Donnelly

A Little Cloud - Brendan Coyle

Counterparts - Jim Norton

Clay - Sorcha Cusack

A Painful Case - Ciaran Hinds

Ivy Day in the Committee Room - T.P. McKenna

A Mother - Fionnula Flanagan

Grace - Charles Keating

The Dead - Stephen Rea

 

Customer Reviews (2)

Joyce Is Meant to Be Read Aloud
James Joyce was absorbed by music, people, languages, acting and actors, and though an exile from his native country and city, his literary consciousness was forever embedded in Dublin. He had an unerring ear for Dublin dialogue.
At night I turn out the lights and listen to these CD's, to the cadences of the people talking, and to me these Dubliners endlessly gossiping are in the room with me. Joyce's narrative adroitness, his choice of words, his lyrical descriptions, and above all, his sense of place are brilliant facets of a genius.
Stephen Rea's sensitive reading of "The Dead" is worth the price of this set of fifteen stories read by fifteen different mostly Irish personalities. The characters in the stories live and breathe, become real. Joyce was meant to be read aloud. It's good talk, conversations that you become a part of.
In these stories Joyce is very accessible. In Finnegan's Wake he became Jackson Pollock--obscure and difficult. In "The Dead" you can feel, touch, hear, and taste the snow that is falling outside the house while inside two old sisters are giving their annual bright and cheery party. It's a story of tenderness, love, regrets, and lost lovers, but it is mainly full of life, good times, fellowship, and above all humanity.

Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy

Dublin digitally discerned and declaimed
Handsomely produced, elegantly assembled, and consistently engrossing: these actors read the stories with appropriate sensitivity, wit, pathos, and distance. The detachment of Joyce in his "voice" on the page is re-created well. When I have taught students "Araby" or "The Boarding House," the chance to hear the language repeated as its author would have meant it to be rendered makes these stories come alive for a classroom six thousand miles and a century away from early 20c Dublin.

Although all of the stories succeed, those in the center of the book emerged when conveyed aloud most enlighteningly. Clay, A Mother, A Painful Case, and most of all Two Gallants, After the Race, and Counterparts all hit my ear with more force than they had when I had only read them. These stories are often overlooked compared to the others, but the skill that the actors brought to these more prosaic, less lively, and more nuanced examples of Joyce's careful craft deserve special acclaim. The packaging keeps the CDs securely in place, is itself compact and well-designed, fitting its outwardly austere & Edwardian yet subtly decorated and inviting contents.

Students, the curious newcomer, the experienced teacher, and those who read the book out of delight and not duty: all will benefit from the music on the page that by a technology Joyce himself spoke into at its early gramaphone stages is now digitally preserved so that those of us all over the world and a vastly changed world later can be entertained and instructed. I think JJ might have been pleased at this version of his pioneering, eloquent, yet accessible and moving, accounts of his imagined neighbors and municipal counterparts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

DecentBook
Its A Decent Book For The Time Frame But I Wish There Was An Expanded Version To Incumpass The Next 20 Years Which He Has Done Alot More

Solid mix of text and photos
Mick Wall, writer of the Iron Maiden official biography "RUN TO THE HILLS", wrote this book back in 1985, and it is totally out of print by now... It's a good book, not even near the best rock biography ever written, but it does the job. It has very good photos and it gives a good general frame of Ozzy's career up to that point. In this age of Internet, all the information contained here could be obtained without buying the book.

GREAT BOOK IF YOU CAN FIND IT!
I got this book in the late 80's and I'm glad I bought it when I did, because it is damn hard to find. Mick Wall spends almost equal time for Ozzy's Sabbath years and his solo years(up to The Ultimate Sin). He alsogoes into Ozzy's childhood with quotes, a few pictures, and interviews thatwould be hard to find anywhere else. Lots of Sabbath and Blizzard photostoo. All the usual Ozzy stories like pissing on the alamo, biting head offdove, plus a few others you might not have heard. All in all a great bookif your an Ozzy/Sabbath fan.

ozzy
i love ozzy and for any ozzy fan this is an ideal book to read ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
This exciting, new first edition concepts text emphasizes all that is current, cutting-edge, and interesting to students in the introductory course.Focusing specifically on users, consumers and purchasers of technology, this text provides a no-nonsense coverage of the absolute essentials for using technology in today¿s wired world. The I-Series offers excellent coverage on the basics, as well as extensive information on building a Web site, E-Commerce, implications of technological advances, maintaining a computer system, buying your first PC, and more.Each chapter also contains coverage of security, ethics, and privacy and an introduction to the web-based Life Long Learning modules. ... Read more

Book Description
This exciting, new first edition concepts text emphasizes all that is current, cutting-edge, and interesting to students in the introductory course.Focusing specifically on users, consumers and purchasers of technology, this text provides a no-nonsense coverage of the absolute essentials for using technology in today’s wired world. The I-Series offers excellent coverage on the basics, as well as extensive information on building a Web site, E-Commerce, implications of technological advances, maintaining a computer system, buying your first PC, and more.Each chapter also contains coverage of security, ethics, and privacy and an introduction to the web-based Life Long Learning modules. ... Read more

Book Description
This exciting concepts text emphasizes all that is current, cutting-edge, and interesting to students in the introductory course.Focusing specifically on users, consumers and purchasers of technology, this text provides a no-nonsense coverage of the absolute essentials for using technology in today’s wired world. The I-Series offers excellent coverage on the basics, as well as extensive information on building a Web site, E-Commerce, implications of technological advances, maintaining a computer system, buying your first PC, and more.Each chapter also contains coverage of security, ethics, and privacy and an introduction to the web-based Life Long Learning modules. ... Read more

Book Description
This exciting, new concepts text emphasizes all that is current, cutting-edge, and interesting to students in the introductory course.Focusing specifically on users, consumers and purchasers of technology, this text provides a no-nonsense coverage of the absolute essentials for using technology in today’s wired world. The I-Series offers excellent coverage on the basics, as well as extensive information on building a Web site, E-Commerce, implications of technological advances, maintaining a computer system, buying your first PC, and more.Each chapter also contains coverage of security, ethics, and privacy and an introduction to the web-based Life Long Learning modules. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"The war was the best part of our lives."
Set in rural Ireland, this uncompromising family drama revolves around Michael Moran, the father of five. A member of the IRA during the time of The Troubles, years ago, Michael has apparently repressed violent traumas which, we are led to believe, are responsible for his withdrawal from society and his current violence against his family--it is not the result of drink or the frustrations of poverty.

Now the father of teenage children, he is disillusioned by what he sees as the fruits of this war, remarking, "Look at the country now. Run by a crowd of small-minded gangsters out for their own good." Within his own household, Michael upholds all the values he fought for years ago. He's a hard, independent man, beholden to no one, and his word is law.

To his family, however, he is often a tyrant--obstinate, cruel, full of hatred, quick to anger, and reluctant to apologize--and his second wife Rose, his three daughters, and his two sons are "inordinately grateful for the slightest good will." Outwardly religious, Michael daily recites the Rosary, looking for religious help for his inner turmoil and the complications of his daily life. As he says, "the war was the best part of our lives. Things were never so simple and clear again."

With a main character who is far from endearing, McGahern challenges the reader to empathize with Michael and understand why the women in his family remain tied to him emotionally, even after they have successfully escaped his domination and established independent lives away from the farm. Gradually, the reader begins to understand the overpowering need to form connections with the past, even when it is not pleasant--to forgive one's parents for their limitations while remaining strong and faithful to oneself. In clear, straightforward prose of immense power, McGahern piles mundane detail upon detail, creating a sensitive family story of great universality, one which will give the reader much to ponder.Mary Whipple

... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Not written by a math teacher
Several concepts are presented incorrectly. Very disappointed in the explanations. They were short, but they weren't shortcuts--they were just incomplete explanations.

Proof It Works - I Passed! (Math: 392 out of 450/English: 431/450 and 3.5 out of 4 on the Essay)
Last year, like many other high school students, I was nervous about the exit exam. English has always been my strong point and I was personally more concerned about whether or not I would pass the math, but I thought that the test might be rather hard. I didn't find the booklets that the state provides at high schools too helpful. They give you the basic facts; what standards you'll be tested on and a few examples of test problems. They don't provide many good hints on how to prepare, studying tips, and other similar issues.

My teacher had given me this book, REA's Mathematics CAHSEE preparation, as well as the CAHSEE prep. book for English. I was amazed at how much more thorough these books are than the ones that the state of California provides! The beginning of each book fully explains the CAHSEE and why it is essential for graduation. A break-down of the questions is given (for example, in math, there's 12 questions for Statistics/Data Analysis/Probability, 14 for Number Sense, and so on) and how the score on practice tests is calculated. Each of these books provides two complete practice tests that are incredibly similar to the actual exit exam. A study schedule is given in each of the REA books; Week 1 (study Section 2,) Week 2 (study Section 3), Week 3 (study Section 4), Week 4 (take Practice Test 1), and Week 5 (take Practice Test 2). Breaking down the preparation over a period of time is much less overwhelming than trying to cram everything in a week (or maybe even days) before the exit exam. If you want to pass, you've really got to spread out your study over a few weeks in order to be sure you fully comprehend what you're supposed to have learned.

Not only does each book provide useful test-taking strategies, but will also help improve your understanding of mathematics (as well as English, if you get the other one) overall. It starts with covering the basics and then moves up to more complex topics. For example, the first chapter (Number Sense) deals with topics such as the lowest common denominator, computations, converting fractions/decimals/percents, exponents, and so on. Later topics deal with measurement, geometry, and Algebra. There is always plenty of information provided in earlier chapters to make sure you'll be able to understand what comes later on.

On the mathematics CAHSEE Practice Test 1, I scored 396/450. On Practice Test 2, I scored 390/450. On the real CAHSEE test (which was VERY similar to the various examples and the two practice tests provided in this book), I got a 392/450 (that's about 79% of the questions correct)! I was so glad to have passed, since I have struggled with math for years.

It's never too early to start preparing and this is the book you need! ... Read more