5 comments about Scarlet Feather.

1. I got this book at the library,I simply loved it. Therefore I bought it for my mother-in-law (in Irish-American)& my mother
   (a German, at amazon.de). Both love this author, & both were very pleased.



2. I loved this book! I thought it was a great easy read and I was sad when it was over. Loved the characters.



3. I loved this story and all the colorful characters. I listened to it on CD while on a road trip and it flew by. I highly recommend it.



4. I have listened Scarlet Feather 5 times over the last few years. Great on audio. Fascinating story of young caterers starting out. All their families are wonderful characters and the story binds together incredibly. Don't walk to order this one RUN.



5. I've read several of Binchy's novels, I'm making my way through her catalogue, I'm about half way through. So far, Scarlet Feather is one of her best.
   
   This is just a fun story, with enjoyable characters. I like how she took one year and broke it down into months for us and went from there on getting this business (the Scarlet Feather restaurant) up and running. In between there were personal stories that were just as entertaining.
   
   While Binchy's novels can be lengthy, this book for one had me turning the pages quickly just because it was such an entertaining novel and well written. I will be reading another of her books soon!

5 comments about Evening Class (abridged).

1. The new Signora moves into town... It is a mystery to the town folks where she is from and a mystery as to why she is able to speak Italian so well. Because she is single and lonely, she begins to start teaching Italian classes at the local college. The classes make her relive her life when she was younger and lived in Italy. They bring back fond memories of being in love. The classes change her life; they give new meaning and purpose to her present life. Soon after, through many twists of fate she comes together with Aidan Dunne, a teacher, who is surviving in a life-less marriage...
   
   One of my favorite books of all time... The plot is simply amazing. Maeve Binchy is a master story-teller!



2. Binchy does a marvelous job of entertwining of seemingly vast different people. Her characters come alive. I symaothized and found myself pulling for them all. A bit slow a spots and certainly no action adventure, but if you like well told stories full of realistic characters a good read. Liek sittign down with an old friend and catching up.



3. An engaging and entertaining novel, in which Binchy takes a rather ordinary experience and shows a deep understanding of the people involved. In this case, it is a group of working class Dubliners who come together for an adult education class in Italian at a run-down inner city school. The point, which she conveys brilliantly, is how this humble experience means so much to these people. Some have used up their savings to take this class. An unwed mother and her daughter, who work in a butcher shop; a bank employee who once dreamed of seeing the world, but who is now stuck taking care of his mentally handicapped sister; the son of a corner shopkeeper trying to protect his family's store from local thugs, etc. Basically, they all understand that this meager class is their only vacation from the rough neighborhood in which they will live out their lives. For balance, Binchy throws in a couple of rich characters too.
   By telling each character's narrative seperately, but showing plenty of cross-glimpses such that we see them becoming friends, we get a sense of their struggles and what this experience means for them in terms of their dignity and their dreams. As always, Binchy is neither sappy or sensationalist; she tells the stories straight, without any melodrama. Marriages dissolve without fanfare, nice guys miss out on promotions and watch their career hopes fizzle with no more drama than it would get in real life. No major events need happen. This is a story of ordinary lives and you sense that the author truly understands them



4. I have read many of Maeve Binchy's novels and am always inspired at her amazing ability to weave a story that involves many different characters, their lives, and their personalities in such a real and thought-provoking way. She is an amazing storyteller!



5. This was an unusual experience. One of the greatest, most honest hooks I've ever seen, which is how I knew after one short page (out of 551) that this well-written book just wasn't for me. It's an intelligent romance in a scenic setting, and I believe the reviewers who call it witty and literate. I picked that up pretty quickly. But I'm just not a romance reader. And Maeve Binchy, who I'm not saying anything bad about, convinced me to throw my informal "10% rule" right out the window. Okay, who's next in my list of unread authors?

5 comments about The Copper Beech.

1. If you're like me and you read a lot of Maeve Binchy, this one is a little repetitive and uses many concepts from earlier stories. While still worth a read for the wonderful descriptions of a small Irish town and it's inhabitants, it isn't one I would pick up again and again. "Circle of Friends", "Firefly Summer" and "Glass Lake" are much better. My favorite of all is "Light a Penny Candle" - one of the best books I have ever read of this genre.



2. This Maeve Binchy book was just OK. I read and loved Tara Road, Scarlet Feather (my favorite) and Quentins. I think all of her books are a little slow and hard to get into at the beginning. The Copper Beech, however, never seemed to capture my attention. It was more character study than plot and I found it a little boring; not as rich and intriuging as her others I've read.



3. Like some of her previous novels, Binchy offers a collection of stories from several different characters living in a small community, anchored by a beginning and end piece to tie them together. The idea is that we get to learn what's going on behind their facades, appreciate why some people seem cold, aloof, etc. This approach was far more effective in "The Evening Class," one of her best books, IMO. In that novel, you really got a sense of how several very different people came together for a shared experience.
   In this case, the shared environment is Shancarrig, a one-horse backwater in central Ireland, a place that kids leave as soon as they can to go work in London factories. Like all of Binchy's settings, this one breathes so convincingly that you can picture the entire town in your mind as you read.
   These individual stories, while interesting and full of her poignant realism, don't really go anywhere and in some cases seem shallow and forced. They also become somewhat repetitive. But in most cases, I felt like they all needed about 10 more pages to bring some kind of meaningful conclusion.
   The ending, which was supposed to tie these threads together, also felt quite artificial and tacked on.
   Despite the weaknesses in the overall plot integration, Binchy's style is always engaging. I think she could write a refrigerator manual and make the pages flow like music.



4. What a delightful read this is! It's the story of the lives of the inhabitants of a tiny Irish village from the 50's onwards, with an emphasis on the pupils of the small village school. The three roomed school is built under the shade of a huge Copper Beech tree on which generations of children have carved their initials. The pupils range from the elite of the village, the Major's daughter, the solicitor's son and the daughter of the hotel owners, to the desperately poor offspring of the town dressmaker and the town drunk, with a few adults thrown in for good measure, such as the spinster who yearns for the young priest, the school teacher couple who can't have children of their own and the hotel owners who are trying to improve their social status. Add to the plot a covered up murder, a randy bachelor and a romantic wife who's looking for some extra spice in her life and it all makes for a good, meaty read which is difficult to put down. Maeve Binchy fans will love it!



5. "The Copper Beech," by Maeve Binchy, is a loving portrait of a rural Irish village told through the lives of its ordinary town folk over a twenty-five year period from the mid-1940s to 1970. There are eight main characters and almost a whole village worth of other secondary characters. If there is one minor fault with this book, it is that readers may find it difficult to keep track of all the names and relationships. At the novel's core is a huge copper beech tree that stands in front of the old schoolhouse. At some moment in each character's story, this beech tree takes on an important role.
   
   Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view, and each forms a delightful and complete story in itself. Subsequent chapters dealing with other characters' lives, manage artfully and subtly--often by mere happenstance--to reveal relevant information about previous characters and events. This new information makes the reader reevaluate and reassess what actually may have occurred in previous chapters. Thus the chapters intertwine artfully to create a unified whole. In addition, we manage to see many of the same events from entirely different perspectives.
   
   Overall, this book was a very satisfying reading experience--a slow novel, with considerable emphasis on realistic character development. Binchy is a master storyteller. In this work, her prose is unpretentious and easy-going, giving the reader the experience of being there, in the village, hearing a series of stories told by a sage old timer. The author is at her best when she delves into the interior emotions of her characters--their hopes, dreams, insecurities, sorrows, fears, and disillusionments. But overall with this book, it is not the characters one falls in love with, but the town. In many ways this novel is a loving lament for a place and time that is vanishing all too quickly in this pace-paced modern world.
   
   This is one of those rare novels that I did not want to end--I wanted the author to continue telling us about the lives of each and every person is Shancarrig and carrying their stories right up to the present day--obviously an impossible task. But the author did manage to put a satisfactory ending on this heart-warming tale, and I closed the last page with a profound feeling of peace, love for humanity, and a twinge of grief for the imaginary people of Shancarrig that I would visit no more.

5 comments about Tara Road.

1. Judging by the large number of reviews, it's clear to see that 'Tara Road' is a popular book. I am therefore surprised and very disappointed that no reviewer has highlighted the glaring editorial error in the title. And it's even more astonishing that Oprah has not corrected it, given her show business connections. As every film buff knows, the actress's name is Tara REID, not Tara ROAD. Such an appallingly public gaff is humiliating for this beautiful and talented artist. If I were Ms Reid, I'd expect heads to roll, not only within the publishing company but also within Oprah's organization. Or is it 'Opera'? No, it's a farce that should not have occurred.



2. When my book discussion group selected this title recently, I was wary. But we have had some pretty good discussions about books that were essentially, well, beach reads before, so why not this one. Maeve Binchy had her admirers among the group members, but no one actually claimed that her works had much literary merit. They were "good reads," and there are times when we're all up for just that. TARA ROAD is compelling in a shambling, soap opera kind of way. It takes over 500 pages to tell a story that could have been told in maybe half that number. But then, we wouldn't have benefitted from every conceivable character's point of view, some subplots might have been curtailed or abandoned.
   
   It wouldn't have been nearly as fun.
   
   Funny that this one-time Oprah selection actually mentions Oprah's show in the context of the storyline. Surely that can't be the reason O selected it. Nah, this has all the hallmarks of (earlier) Oprah books--women overcoming life's obstacles, especially the ones thrown at them by MEN. But it's not all hearts and flowers and happy endings. In fact, the reason it qualifies for OB status is that its optimism is attenuated just a tad by something like realism.
   
   It's the new Happy Ending, the qualified one. You move on, you get over it--or at least you try to. There's a bit of hope, some hard won insights, and life will go on (except for the dead drunk guy who ends up drunk and dead, but I won't spoil it for you).
   
   In a more literary text, the parallels between the two women who trade houses, continents, and lives for two months one summer would have been set up more cleanly. Both characters would have been introduced at or near the story's beginning and their storylines would have "intertwined" in some sense well before they do here. The story "belongs" to the Irish character, Ria, with the American woman, Marilyn, coming in almost as an afterthought, or rather as a plot device to move the action along once there is an major turning point in the story of Ria's seemingly perfect, comfortable existence.
   
   But you know, just as on the TV soaps the novel resembles, it all sort of works. Marilyn's entry into the story is somewhat reminiscent of the new character that comes along in Season Two. She's got her own tale to tell, and it gets told, in dribs and drabs, and before you know it, the new gal is a major player in the plotline.
   
   In that respect, TARA ROAD's rambling, slow moving storyline starts to resemble real life in odd ways. It's a little sloppy, and things don't get all that neatly tied up at the end. We think we know where these characters' lives may be going, but we can't be sure that things wouldn't take a completely different turn somewhere down the line.
   
   If it WERE a more literary novel, I might be justified in wondering whether or not there was some kind of "Mary" motif going on here. After all, the three major (adult) women characters are (Ma)ria, Marilyn and Rosemary. If we were thinking "serious literature," there might be some blending of identities, similarities in their fates, or just some kind of bond. And in fact, you could argue for all of those things. But with a Maeve Binchy yarn, it could also just simply be that the author just happened to like those names. Either way, it's a pretty good read.



3. I picked up this book because it was an Oprah Book CLub book and I had several waiting for me to read.
   I found it hollow and not as OBC worthy as others, like Middlesex which I just finished prior to Tara Road.
   Tara Road is replete with weak female characters: a doormat in Ria, a punching bag in Gertie, a wealthy backstabbing friend, etc etc.
   I wanted to jump into their world and shake some sense into them! WHy must all the women be weak and accomodating and most of the male characters successful and in control (if not domineering)?
   I did find it enjoyable along the way but in the end I felt as if I wasted 600+ pages of reading on a stupid woman's book.



4. I just finished reading this book about 10 minutes ago. I couldn't put it down! I would highly recommend this book to anyone.



5. Maeve Binchy, once again uses her expertise as a masterful storyteller, to create this light and very readable tale of two women, who are trying to pull their lives back together, after experiencing two separate, very personal, tragedies.
   When Ria swaps her beautiful home in Tara Road, Ireland, for Marilyn's fancy house in New England, America, she wonders what possessed her to leave the familiarity of home. But in her struggle to make sense of this new environment, Ria discovers a new sense of self.
   Tara Road is a lovely story, filled with colourful, completely believable characters. It also possesses a warmth that is unique to so many of Maeve Binchy's works. And for a book that is 639 pages long, it's also a surprisingly quick read.
   A great (and appropriate) book for the holidays!
   
   
   
   
   Zara Stevens
   Boy Meets Girl: A Pocketful of Wedding Stories

No comments about Scarlet Feather.

5 comments about Quentins.

1. I love Maeve Binchy books, but there are so many little inconsistencies in this one, it drove me nuts. Quentins was supposed to have been open and run for years. Nora met Aidan when she was her in 50s, the same age as Brenda, yet in Quentin's Brenda's nephew is referred to as a baby near the end of the book and he would have been in his 20s or 30s by then. Quentin was listed as being in his 40s when he should have been in his 50s. The town in Italy where Nora lived was misspelled. Mon is called Mon Harris in part of the book and her future husband is Mr. Hays, then he becomes Mr. Harris. Deirdre, who doesn't really know Brenda somehow knows she can read lips. Ella is supposedly only in New York for less than two weeks. At this time Cathy and Tom are not married and the baby is two months away, but later, when only a few days have passed it says they are married and the baby is due any minute. Ella also has worked at Colm's restaurant, but then has to go and hang out with him to see what a day in the restaurant is like? Ella and Derry never go to Quentins to work, but Quentin supposedly watches them coming in and working on the movie. Ella's father makes the comment that he knows Mike Martin, but later when he comes to their house, he doesn't know him? I can't believe this wasn't edited any better than this. I was highly disappointed with all the little errors, but, I love the characters and was happy to see them all again.



2. I really enjoyed this book, especially how it brought together so many characters from Ms. Binchy's other books. I highly recommend it for Maeve Binchy fans.



3. I finally finished this one about a month after I started it. I bought the book in hardback for a few bucks off a table of used books in a general store in downstate Indiana. The book was in fine condition. The story was not.
   
   "Quentins" tells the story of a young Irish woman's adventures in love and documentary filmmaking. Protagonist Ella Brady tries to rebound from a bad love affair by joining a small filmmaking crew who sets out to tell the story of Dublin's last 30 years through the customers and crew of a popular restaurant. The first reel is interesting from a soap operaish perspective. Reel Two is stultifyingly boring as the we slog through a series of vignettes meant to be the content of the documentary. The third reel is disappointingly predictable.
   
   Peeking out of this stew is a moderately interesting story of how Quentins came to be, from the perspectives of ownership, operation, and its grammatically-incorrect name. Like eating an unappetizing meal, I picked at this one for a long time, before mom yelled at me (metaphorically) to clean my plate, at which time I force fed myself the last 100 or so pages, just so I could show you this clean, shiny review and move onto dessert (which I'm eating, I mean reading, now).
   
   Two stars only for this thin gruel. For Binchy devotees only, and I expect even some of them will be disappointed. I only moderately liked Binchy's "Tara Road" (an Oprah book, no less), but "Quentins" fell well short of that effort.



4. This novel is a series of vignettes of different people's lives and somehow, all the pivotal points in their lives have a thread that runs through the restaurant called Quentins. This is a delightful tale, full of life, love and hope. Betrayal, rejection and greed are also present. It is a story of fathers, sons, mother and daughters, wives and husbands, friends and lovers. It is moreover a story of closed doors and open hearts. There is the betrayed lover, the greedy family, those with no hope, those with the courage to begin anew and those with only hidden promise. Somehow Maeve Binchy draws them all together and tells a heart warming story of Irish life in a small town. This seemed a bit of a different take from Maeve Binchy from her previous novels, but no less enjoyable.



5. Ella Brady, heartbroken after her relationship with already-married financier Don Richardson ends in humiliation and betrayal, discovers Quentins purely by chance. Desperate for work to recover money that Don stole from her family and take her mind off the complicated problems the doomed relationship brought her, she agrees to work with a filmmaker friend on a documentary about this longstanding Dublin restaurant. As she unravels the story behind Quentins and learns more about the myriad individuals whose lives have been impacted by this one-of-a-kind restaurant, her life is changed in ways she could never have expected.
   
   The best thing about "Quentins" is the way it introduces readers to a richly populated character world. Binchy's introduction of new characters is usually deft and well-timed-it was satisfying to find an author who (mostly) managed to juggle an ever-growing cast of characters in a believable and interesting way. Of course, as is the case with all but the most perfect books, there are a few portions of "Quentins" where readers will want to skip ahead to the next interesting part, but for every one of the dull sections, there is an especially touching or satisfying part that nearly makes up for it. Characters from other Binchy books (Cathy, Tom and the twins from "Scarlet Feather", Ria from "Tara Road" and Nora from "Evening Class") are included in "Quentins," and although their appearances are typically low-key, they perfectly "round out" the circle of friends at Quentins.
   
   Fans of Maeve Binchy's warm, realistic sagas will find "Quentins" to be the perfect novel to curl up in bed with and will happily ignore a few slow pages when the payoff is total immersion in another engrossing Irish world.

No comments about Heart and Soul.

5 comments about The Return Journey.

1. I enjoyed Binchy's "Tara Road"; but "The Return Journey" is a mostly faceless collection of short stories that fade from memory as quickly as they are read. I finished this book less than a week ago and cannot recall "The Apprentice" at all. "Holiday Weather" about a botched affair is like watching a firecracker whose fuse fizzles before it pops. "Victor & St. Valentine" & "Crosslines" are forgettable. I did like "Miss Vogel's Vacation" about an unassuming woman who finds a little romance after being alive for 50 years. "The Home Sitter" was well told, but was frustrating since Allie who comes to their home and has a sparkling personality and gypsy-like appeal almost steals Mara's husband and leaves Mara feeling even more inadequate than when the story began. There is no lesson learned. My favorite story here is "The Women in Hats." It has a progression with the narrator, Helen, meeting a trio (Charlotte, Bonnie & Charlie) on a cruise liner and assuming that the man was with the thinner woman rather than the heavy-set Bonnie. Binchy makes a comparison about how people's judgments about gay people parallel their prejudice about fat people. "Excitement" was not. Unfortunately, Binchy has not mastered the short story form in this collection. She simply doesn't have many stories to tell. This is like reading writing exercises more than short stories. Taxi!



2. Maive Binchy is a great author - this is an excellent story. Received in great conditon.



3. New York Times-bestselling author of Evening Class and This Year It Will Be Different once again reveals her incomparable understanding of matters of the heart. In The Return Journey, Maeve Binchy brings us sons and lovers, daughters and strangers, husbands and wives in their infinite variety--powerfully compelling stories of love, loss, revelation, and reconciliation.A secretarys silent passion for her boss meets the acid test on a business trip....A man and a womans mutual disdain at first sight shows how deceptive appearances can be....An insecure wife clings to the illusion of order, only to discover chaos at the hands of a house sitter who opens the wrong doors....A pair of star-crossed travelers take each others bags, and then learn that when you unlock a strangers suitcase, you enter a stranger's life. In their company are many more, whose poignant, ironic, often humorous stories--unforgettable slices of life--make up The Return Journey, a spellbinding trip into the human heart.Maeve Binchy was born and educated in Dublin. She is the author of the bestselling books Evening Class, This Year It Will Be Different, The Glass Lake, The Copper Beech, The Lilac Bus, Circle of Friends, Silver Wedding, Firefly Summer, Echoes, Light a Penny Candle, and London Transports, three volumes of short stories, two plays, and a teleplay that won three awards at the Prague Film Festival. She has been writing for The Irish Times since 1969 and lives with her husband, Gordon Snell, in Dublin. Maeve Binchy captured the imagination of the world with her spellbinding tales of the Irish people. With her trademark charm, wit, and sheer storytelling genius, she tells stories that are at once universal yet uniquely Irish. Now in this delightful little book, she spins a collection of all-new yarns--stories of sadness and joy, warmth and humor. I'd also recommend, if you missed Tino Georgiou's novel--The Fates, getting a copy--absolutely fab..



4. Although this is a 1990 copyright and some references may be slightly dated, the story is charming with Binchy's usual interwoven characters and cultural insights, surprising twists and satisfying relationships.



5. After reading this book, I will be honest and say that Maeve needs to stick with her novels, not her short stories. This collection of short stories are better than the last two collection that I've read, but they're not as deeply satisfying as the novels are. Her novels are out of this world and she should stick with them ... they take you literally away into another world and you become involved with the characters' lives, thoughts and emotions.
   
   Her short stories are too short to give the reader (namely me) any kind of thought and satisfication of a story well-told. Maybe that is because I have read her novels and know what she is capable of writing and when I come across her short stories, I want more of her writing, not less.
   
   But this collection is sweet, a fast read and I do have a couple of favorites in here that I found really amusing or sweet. They are "The Women in Hats," where looks are deceiving and people are still judgemental for the wrong reasons; "Miss Vogel's Vacation" where people are never too old to find happiness in their lives. My other favorite is "Cross Lines" where again, looks are deceiving and an accidental encounter on an airplane ride might lead to a wonderful future together. The other stories dealt with divorce, loneliness and other issues, which she has written much better about in her novels.
   
   If you are a Maeve Binchy fan, you might like this collection of short stories, but again, I recommend that one stick with her novels. The only reason why I picked this one up was because I didn't look closely enough to realize it as a short stories collection.
   
   8/3/08

5 comments about Whitethorn Woods.

1. I loved the stories and the lilt of the language ... I could hear the characters speaking.



2. I have taken note of all the good reviews that "Whitethorn Woods" has received here and elsewhere and this is actually the first book by Maeve Binchy that I have read.
   
   The story of a small town called Rossmore and the allegedly holy well together with the new bypass road threatening to destroy the well while potentially transforming the place form the background to the extraordinary way many people's interdependent lives and hopes are displayed. The author superbly addresses questions and themes like religiosity, trust, family, immigration, progress and much more, and does this brilliantly through characters you come across everyday and may even relate yourself.
   
   I am of the opinion that therein lies the greatest strength of the book to have an appeal for a long time to come. This is a solid 5-star book I recommend to the avid reader without any reservations.



3. I don't know how she does it, but Maeve Binchy always impresses me with her tales from far away lands. She always has interesting, intertwining storylines with characters we either love or love to hate. This story also gave the most unlikely guy the best revenge in the end. This is a real page turner that kept me up late many nights...I couldn't help to read quickly because I wanted to see what would happen next and yet sad when it was done.
   
   I highly recommend this book and Nights of Rain and Stars!



4. While I always love Maeve Binchy's portrayal of Ireland, there were too many disjointed characters in this book of short stories. The character development wasn't as good as most of her books (many characters seemed to speak from the same voice), and in some stories the common link, St Ann's Well, seemed pasted in to justify their presence in the book.
   
   For a great book of Binchy stories with her usual excellent character development that weave together well, try The Lilac Bus.



5. Binchy's characters are so intensely real, it take a while to realize each person also represents a social layer and each person's choice also implies a political truth. The vivid personalities capture you as they gather into a community of individuals doing their work or committing their crime in the best way they know how. They tell their stories as oral histories, and when you are included in someone else's story, later on you get to have your own say. That's how it would have been in front of the Druid, in the old way. But now that everything from haircuts to wealth is turning modern, these stories show how hard it can be to decide whether the old ways still apply.

No comments about Maeve Binchy Value Collection: The Copper Beach, Circle of Friends, The Glass Lake.