Tag Archives: photo book

Historic Irish Photos Spotlight Angela’s Ashes

Today’s Review Does Double Duty. During March we are featuring strong, and unconventional women. And this weekend is St. Patrick’s Day. So we have a strong Irish woman–Angela McCourt, made famous by the childhood memoir of her son, and a new book that illustrates her world.


Book Cover: Through Irish Eyes
Destination: Limerick, Ireland and Brooklyn New York

Book: Through Irish Eyes: Visual Companion (NEW) to Angela McCourt’s Ireland, Compiled by David Pritchard, Foreword by Malachy McCourt

17 years ago, Frank McCourt (1930–2009) surprised the world with his touching, glowing, sometimes funny but also melancholy memoir of an Irish family that moved to New York City, where he was born, but returned to Limerick, where he was raised. The book became a best seller. McCourt won a Pulitzer prize for Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir, and spawned a generation (or two) of people trying to repeat his success by writing their memoirs. Continue reading Historic Irish Photos Spotlight Angela’s Ashes

Photo Book of the Unpronounceable Country

Guidebook Digression

I spend a lot of time trying to explain to publishers and P.R. people that A Traveler’s Library rarely writes about guidebooks. Instead, we prefer books of many genres that inspire or enhance travel–books that are not necessarily found in the travel section.

However today and for the next week or so, I digress.  Recently five books came my way that are closer to “guidebook” in definition than the books we usually discuss. All have a organizational scheme that is neither fiction nor strictly speaking memoir. Most deny being guidebooks, but could be used as a guide. Today we travel to the MidEast, and then we’ll be going to the Amazon, Istanbul, Europe in general and London. I hope you’ll find something of use for your traveler’s library.

Destination: Qatar

Book: Qatar: Sand, Sea and Sky (New February 2012), by Diana K. Untermeyer, with photography by Henry Dallal Continue reading Photo Book of the Unpronounceable Country