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Damning account of how the English government suppressed Ireland's economy for centuries, then victim blamed them when the famine happened and mostly refused to help. Lots of quotes from respected English officials expressing anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry and occasionally coming right out and publicly stating the famine was a fortuitous way to bring down the unsustainable population. Good but long and repetitive.

This is such an inspiring story of a boy in Malawi whose family can‘t afford to send him to school. He discovers the library and through research and trial and error, he builds a windmill in town to create electricity, starting with just one bulb so he could study at night. I‘ve had this book on my TBR for so many years! I‘m glad I finally read it ❤️

#Read2025

Finished this weekend for #BookedInTime & #FoodAndLit #Ireland This book is set in 1847 against the backdrop of the Irish famine where a ship of many souls (over 450 with steerage, First Class & crew) sets out from Ireland to New York trying to escape the Great Famine & survive. There are lots of secrets revealed & a murder that take place on the month-long voyage. This was tough to read due to the subject matter & many characters ⬇️

#Read2025

Finished this weekend for #BookedInTime & #FoodAndLit #Ireland This book is set in 1847 against the backdrop of the Irish famine where a ship of many souls (over 450 with steerage, First Class & crew) sets out from Ireland to New York trying to escape the Great Famine & survive. There are lots of secrets revealed & a murder that take place on the month-long voyage. This was tough to read due to the subject matter & many characters ⬇️

Winter 1847, Star of the Sea is leaving Ireland for a 26 day trip to New York. Some is rich, some is poor, but they all hope for a better life in NYC, and a lot can happen on a trip. We get the backstories for everyone and the ending surprised me.

I still don‘t see the point of the pictures and excerpts throughout, and the way to tell the story felt a little odd at times, but other than that I quite enjoyed this

I enjoyed this book even though I think I‘m going to have to read it again to fully understand what happened.

#BookedInTime #FoodAndLit #Ireland

Happy Friday! Headed to Hilo for the second time this week for a day of meetings. Breakfast, coffee & hopefully a few chapters of the tagged book. I‘m trying to finish for March #FoodAndLit & #BookedInTime

I have the day off today. Starting off with a leisurely #BookAndBreakfast - pulled a scone from the freezer and made some tea to go along with this book which started slow but has turned into quite the page turner.

If you want to learn about the famine in Ireland in the 1800‘s, if you want to learn about life on a ship leaving Ireland heading to New York and if you like a story that involves a murderer on board the ship, this book is for you. There‘s even an affair going on! This book is brutal and yet I‘m glad I read it. It‘s a history lesson that needs to be told and remembered. What happened in Ireland was a terrible thing.

This is the story about a miserable excuse of a man and the man he‘s been coerced to murder, an Englishman who lived in #Ireland, during their escape aboard ship to NYC from the famine. But a lot of folks have reasons to commit the murder, and does he really “deserve” to die? There are a lot of side stories that all tie back to these two characters. I wasn‘t terribly keen on the writer‘s style but it was a good, interesting read. #bookedintime ⬇️