Random book from our home library:

📖: Great Tales from English History, Vol. 1: The Truth About King Arthur, Lady Godiva, Richard the Lionheart, and More by Robert Lacey, illustrated by Fred van Deelen ★★★★★

Random book from our home library:

📖 The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks

Recent acquisition:

📖 Sun Dancing: A Vision of Medieval Ireland by Geoffrey Moorhouse

Random book from our home library:

📖 Fabulae Mirabiles: Fairy Tales in Latin (Hippocrene Foreign Language Studies) by Victor Barocas

★★★☆☆
I have a problem with the fact that the Irish were barely mentioned before page 70, that the author's main point didn't emerge until page 183 (this in a book of only 250 pages), and that the final 50 pages of core subject matter felt rushed. Also, the Irish didn't save civilisation in general as the title seems to say - they played a critical role in preserving Greek and Roman writings.

Recent acquisition:

📖 Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle by Michael Jones

Cahill finally getting to his thesis on page 183:

'While Rome and its ancient empire faded from memory and a new, illiterate Europe rose on its ruins, a vibrant, literary culture was blooming in secret along its Celtic fringe.'

Random book from our home library:

📖 Strange Planet by Nathan Pyle

Recent acquisition:

📖 U2: The Rolling Stone Files: The Ultimate Compendium of Interviews, Articles Facts and Opinions from the Files of Rolling Stone

As a fan for nearly 30 years, this one has been on my radar for a long time. I couldn't pass up this British edition for only $1.99 at a local media store!

Random book from our home library:

📖 England at Large by Ethel Mannin

Recent acquisition:

📖 The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible by Harold Bloom

p. 108: 'So Patrick was really a first - the first missionary to barbarians beyond the reach of Roman law. The step he took was in its way as bold as Columbus's, and a thousand times more humane.'

Random book from our home library:

📖 Green Blades Rising: The Anglo-Saxons by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Random book from our home library:

📖 Once & Future volume 2 by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain

Recent acquisition:

📖 Paradise Lost: A Poem in Twelve Books by John Milton, With an Introduction and Notes on Its Structure and Meaning by John A. Himes

Random book from our home library:

📖 Allen Brown's English Castles by R. Allen Brown

Random book from our home library:

📖 Richard III: England's Black Legend by Desmond Seward

Recent acquisition:

📖 The Stranger by Albert Camus

★★★★★

? Through Irish Eyes: A Visual Companion to Angela McCourt"s Ireland by David Pritchard, forward by Malachy McCourt

Random book from our home library:

📖 Regions of the Imagination: The Development of British Rural Fiction by W. J. Keith

Recent acquisition:

📖 The Legend of Robin Goodfellow by Phineas Cricket

Random book from our home library:

📖 Medieval English Verse and Prose edited by Loomis & Willard

Random book from our home library:

📖 Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, introduction by Marcelle Clements (Signet Classics)

Recent acquisition:

📖 A Colder Eye: The Modern Irish Writers by Hugh Kenner

Yesterday, I was pleased to find two Billy Bragg CDs at a local charity shop. I'm currently listening to Don't Try This at Home for the first time and I'm looking forward to listening to The Internationale. #TuesdayTunes

Started

📖 How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe by Thomas Cahill

Recent acquisition:

📖 The Origins of Religious Dissent in England: An Account of the Origins and Events of the First English Revolt Against the Supreme Authority of the Roman Church by K. B. McFarlane

p. 232: 'The fact that all were at rest after the working week in a spiritual and social environment may ... have been a source of comfort.'

Random book from our home library:

📖 Selected Poems 1988-2013 by Seamus Heaney

Random book from our home library:

📖 No Unhallowed Hand (The Work and the Glory 7) by Gerald Lund

Recent acquisition:

📖 The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones

Random book from our home library:

📖 Geoffrey Chaucer (Bloom's Major Poets)

Random book from our home library:

📖 On an Irish Island by Robert Kanigel

Recent acquisition:

📖 Collected Plays of W.B. Yeats

Random book from our home library:

📖 Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony by Madeleiene Pelner Cosman

Apparently #FridayFilms isn't already a thing. I plan to watch Ingmar Bergman's Nattvardsgästerna (usually called 'Winter Light' or 'The Communicants' in the US) tonight with my adult daughter.

Random book from our home library:

📖 Jesus by Michael Grant

Recent acquisition:

📖 Mudkark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames by Lara Maiklem

Random book from our home library:

📖 Everything You Know About England is Wrong by Matt Brown

Though music is a huge part of my life, this is my first #TuesdayTunes. I've been listening to a lot of Fontaines D.C. lately and I'm very excited to see them live for the second time in April.

Recent acquisition:

📖 Treasures of Britain and Treasures of Ireland by the Automobile Association

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Somerset Stories: Life and Laughter in Old Somerset by Robin Bush
📖 A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare

Recent acquisitions:

📖 A History of Scandinavian Literature, 1870-1980 by Sven H. Rossel
📖 Britain (Life World Library)

★★★★☆

Raised lots of interesting questions. Neufeld's art was good and sometimes unexpectedly clever and funny.

Didn't expect to meet my favourite poet (Yeats) in this book.

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King by Dan Jones
📖 South East England (Ancient Peoples and Places) by Ronald Jessup

Started

Recent acquisitions:

📖 A Book About The Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail: All the References from African Swallows to Zoot by Darl Larsen
📖 The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell 1944-1969 (I'm excited to finally have the third volume!)

p. 137: 'True peace is not merely the absence of some negative force - tension, confusion, or war; it is the presence of some positive force - justice, good will, and brotherhood.'

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Karl Marx: His Life and Environment by Isaiah Berlin
📖 On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder