Hi Ho!!! Here are the books I read for The Irish Readathon. I’m a bit disappointed with the amount I read. I really hoped to read at least 4 books but I got lazy. Story of my life.

Salome by Oscar Wilde

This is a bit of a strange one. It’s quite different to Wilde’s other plays. I did enjoy it though. I’m not familiar with the original story of Salome but I believe Wilde changed it a bit.

Synopsis: Outraged by the sexual perversity of this one-act tragedy, Great Britain’s Lord Chamberlain banned Salomé from the national stage. Symbolist poets and writers — Stéphane Mallarmé and Maurice Maeterlinck among them — defended the play’s literary brilliance. Beyond its notoriety, the drama’s haunting poetic imagery, biblical cadences, and febrile atmosphere have earned it a reputation as a masterpiece of the Aesthetic movement of fin de siècle England.
Written originally in French in 1892, this sinister tale of a woman scorned and her vengeance was translated into English by Lord Alfred Douglas. The play inspired some of Aubrey Beardsley’s finest illustrations, and an abridged version served as the text for Strauss’ renowned opera of the same name. This volume reprints the complete text of the first English edition, published in 1894, and also includes “A Note on Salomé” by Robert Ross, Wilde’s lifelong friend and literary executor. Students, lovers of literature and drama, and admirers of Oscar Wilde and his remarkable literary gifts will rejoice in this inexpensive edition.

Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family by Marian Keyes

So entertaining!! And since Mammy Walsh is unlikely to get a novel of her own it was a great insight into the head of the family. Full of wonderful Irish wit.

Synopsis: For all fans eagerly awaiting Marian Keyes’ new novel The Mystery of Mercy Close – featuring Helen Walsh and out in September – here is a laugh-out-loud ebook-only short guide to everyone’s favourite dysfunctional Irish family, Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walshes.

It does exactly what it says on the tin but here’s a brief word from its author, Mammy Walsh herself:

‘There’s this woman I know from bridge, Mona Hopkins, a lovely woman she is, even if I must admit I’m not that keen on her myself, and she said a great thing the other day. I was expecting her to say “Two no trumps,” but instead she comes out with a saying about her children. She says, “Boys wreck your house and girls wreck your head.” Isn’t that a marvellous bit of wisdom – “Boys wreck your house and girls wreck your head!” And God knows it’s the truest thing I’ve heard in a long time. I should know. I have five girls. Five daughters. And let me tell you, my head is wrecked from them.

Although, now that I think of it, so is my house . . .’

Asking For It by Louise O’Neill

Amazing book. So haunting. Read my full review here.

Synopsis: In a small town, where everyone knows everyone, Emma O’Donovan is different. She is the special one – beautiful, popular, powerful. And she works hard to keep it that way.
Until that night…
Now, she’s an embarrassment. Now, she is a slut. Now, she is nothing.
And those pictures – those pictures that everyone has seen – mean she can never forget.

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