Blood Rush (Ess and Oz Adventures Book 3)

Now they just have to convince the producers! The Best Man by Richard Peck. Three of the best are his grandpa, the great architect; his dad, the great vintage car customizer,; and his uncle Paul, who is just plain great. These are the three he wants to be. Along the way he finds a fourth—Mr. In fact, the first male teacher in the history of the school. Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk. Soon, an unstoppable chain of events is triggered, leading Crow down a path of discovery and danger.

Her best friends make everything fun. After one last appointment with her scoliosis doctor, this will be her best year yet. Then the doctor delivers some terrible news: The brace wraps her in hard plastic from shoulder blades to hips. It changes how her clothes fit, how she kicks a ball, and how everyone sees her—even her friends and Tate. But as Rachel confronts all the challenges the brace presents, the biggest change of all may lie in how she sees herself.

When the Candymaker announces that they will be going on tour to introduce the new candy bar, the four friends see this as an opportunity to make things right. But with a fifty-year-old secret revealed and stakes higher for each of them than they ever imagined, they will have to trust one another—and themselves—in order to face what lies ahead. Her baby sister is about to be born, and Cilla needs to become a bestselling author before her family forgets all about her.

But then the unthinkable happens. But on the journey that takes him through the New York City subways and to Washington Square Park, Clayton learns some things that surprise him. He was always ready for adventure and always willing to accept a dare, especially from his best friend, Kacey. But that was before. Before the accident that took Kacey from him. Before his family moved from Boston to the small town of Palm Knot, Georgia. She shoos him out of the garden and fills in holes as fast as he can dig them! Fenway wonders if his beloved Hattie could be working against him, until she brings home a cage with a bunny inside.

He can hardly control his excitement — she captured one of the intruders! Is his heart big enough to accept that Hattie can love another pet, too? Finding Perfect by Elly Schwartz. Molly knows that promises are sometimes broken, so she hatches a plan to bring her mother home: The winner is honored at a fancy banquet with white tablecloths. Molly is sure her mother would never miss that. But as time passes, writing and reciting slam poetry become harder. In this fresh-voiced debut novel, one girl learns there is no such thing as perfect.

Baptist in a story collection that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. From these distinguished authors come ten distinct and vibrant stories. Forever, or a Long Time by Caela Carter. So along with their new mother, Flora and Julian begin a journey to go back and discover their past—for only then can they really begin to build their future. Nothing has been right since her grandfather died and her best friend changed schools. Can this future scientific genius find the formula for straightening out her life?

Georgia Rules by Nanci Turner Steveson. But now here she is, in a tiny Vermont town where everybody sings the praises of the father Maggie never knew. Then Maggie meets the Parker family—two moms, six kids, plus a pony. Suddenly Maggie has questions too—questions about her father, and why Mama kept him away for so long.

In her search for answers, Maggie will learn that families are like patchwork quilts, sewn together by love, and all the more beautiful for their different colors. She has a daddy who works on an oil rig, a great-aunt who always finds the lowest prices at the Piggly Wiggly, and two loyal best friends. So when her absent mother decides to move away from their small town, Gertie sets out on her greatest mission yet: Seat-stealing new girl Mary Sue Spivey wants to be the best fifth grader, too.

And there is simply not enough room at the top for the two of them. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Ghost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training. If he can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city.

But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons—it all starting with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. The Goat by Anne Fleming. Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly. Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family.

Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and she loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister, Gen, is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so that he can concentrate on basketball. This disaster leads Kaori, Gen, and Valencia on an epic quest to find the missing Virgil. Sometimes four can do what one cannot. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms.

How to Stage a Catastrophe by Rebecca Donnelly. The Juicebox Theatre is about ready for the recycling bin. Sidney and Folly consider a crime. But the theater is in danger of closing, and he and his friends know they need a plan to save it — and fast. Hilarious and heartwarming, the mission to save a failing community theater unites a riotous cast of characters in this offbeat middle-grade novel.

As they banter through stakeouts and narrow down their list of suspects, Howard starts to wonder if having Ivy as a sidekick—and a friend—is such a bad thing after all. Pig Face, was allergic to sand, salt air, and the ocean before they decided to go to the beach. But when Tracy and Ralph discover an envelope stuffed with money in the dugout at baseball field and Lester forces them to let him help , they have a mystery on their hands.

Did someone lose the cash?

Must Read Middle Grade Books for the Summer | Book Riot

Or, did someone steal it? Stephens has always seemed like a quiet place to live, but soon the town is brimming with suspects. Romance and rivalries abound in this beachside town, where swanky seasonal homeowners and hard-working locals clash and unite in age-old patterns. In this first book of the Junior Lifeguards series, the girls are vying for spots on the summer squad, with ocean legend Bud Slater hand-picking a team of winners.

So when she is assigned a science project with offbeat Lucy Tanaka and nerdy Theo Barnes, they have fun creating an experiment that tests out the laws of science through different acts of kindness. Sometimes mistakes yield the best discoveries, and there is one hypothesis that can always be proven correct: Kindness is the coolest. Lemons by Melissa Savage. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. After he invites Lem to be his assistant for the summer, they set out on an epic adventure to capture a shot of the elusive beast on film.

But along the way, Lem and Tobin end up discovering more than they ever could have imagined. And Lem realizes that maybe she can make lemonade out of her new life after all. The Matchstick Castle by Keir Graff. Or an earplug factory. Anything would be better than doing summer school on a computer while his scientist dad is stationed at the South Pole.

Boring lives up to its name until Brian and his cousin Nora have a fight, get lost, and discover a huge, wooden house in the forest. With balconies, turrets, and windows seemingly stuck on at random, it looks ready to fall over in the next stiff breeze. Suddenly, summer gets a lot more exciting. With their new friends, Brian and Nora tangle with giant wasps, sharp-tusked wild boars, and a crazed bureaucrat intent on bringing the dangerously dilapidated old house down with a wrecking ball.

Matylda, Bright and Tender by Holly M. One afternoon, the two of them decide they must have something of their very own to love. With Guy leading the way, they feed her and give her an origin story fit for a warrior lizard. A few weeks later, on a simple bike ride, there is a terrible accident. As hard as it is, Sussy is sure she can hold on to Guy if she can find a way to love Matylda enough. By turns both devastating and buoyant, this story is a brave one, showing how far we can justify going for a real and true friend.

So Steffy does what she does best: She cooks her way through the hardest year of her life. All Steffy wants is for her family to be whole again. Can her recipes help bring them back together? It was also a reminder that Mor had made a promise to his father before he passed: Keep the family together. But almost as soon as they are orphaned, that promise seems impossible to keep. With an aunt from the big city ready to separate him and his sisters as soon as she arrives, and a gang of boys from a nearby village wanting everything he has—including his spirit—Mor is tested in ways he never imagined.

With only the hot summer months to prove himself, Mor must face a choice. Does he listen to his father and keep his heart true, but risk breaking his promise through failure? Or is it easier to just join the Danka Boys, whom in all their maliciousness are at least loyal to their own? Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder.

The sun rises in a sky filled with dancing shapes; the wind, water, and trees shelter and protect those who live there; when the nine children go to sleep in their cabins, it is with full stomachs and joy in their hearts. And only one thing ever changes: But when the truck transporting Li Ping shows up, its precious cargo has vanished into thin air. The FBI steps in to investigate, and Teddy is happy to leave the job in their supposedly capable hands.

After all, FunJungle has never encountered a crime this serious. Raised in a cabin by a poet named Sylvan, he grew up listening to sonnets read aloud and the comforting clicking of a keyboard. Although Teddy understands words, Sylvan always told him there are only two kinds of people in the world who can hear Teddy speak: Then one day Teddy learns that Sylvan was right.

When Teddy finds Nickel and Flora trapped in a snowstorm, he tells them that he will bring them home—and they understand him. They follow him to a cabin in the woods, where the dog used to live with Sylvan. As they hole up in the cabin for shelter, Teddy is flooded with memories of Sylvan. What will Teddy do when his new friends go home? Can they help one another find what they have lost? They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies.

They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever. When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.

Now the person Derby loves most in town needs her help—and yet finding a way to do so may uncover deeply held stories and secrets. Rooting for Rafael Rosales by Kurtis Scaletta. Every chance he gets he plays in the street games trying to build his skills, get noticed by scouts, and—someday—play Major League Baseball. The bees are dying all over the world, and the company her father works for is responsible, making products that harm the environment. In their own ways, Maya and Rafael search for hope, face difficult choices, and learn a secret—the same secret—that forever changes how they see the world.

All he wants is to launch his golden iPod into space the way Carl Sagan the man, not the dog launched his Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft in But his destination keeps changing. Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan. With her deeply artistic neighbor, Mrs.

The girls always have and always will be Soccer Sisters. But when a new person joins the Breakers, everything changes. Makena, hoping to impress Skylar, starts acting out and running wild, off and on the field. Choices that will affect her family, her friends, and the game she loves. Can she stay true to what the Soccer Sisters believe in and win the big game?

The Someday Birds by Sally Pla. When his father heads from California to Virginia for medical treatment, Charlie reluctantly travels cross-country with his boy-crazy sister, unruly brothers, and a mysterious new family friend. He decides that if he can spot all the birds that he and his father were hoping to see someday along the way, then everything might just turn out okay.

Paranormal urban

Quisling is definitely up to something mysterious, and Emily and James are on high alert. Then, they uncover a trail of encrypted messages in Mark Twain-penned books hidden through Book Scavenger. As the sleuthing friends dig deeper, they discover Mr. Quisling has been hunting a legendary historical puzzle: Quisling might be the arsonist. But all that hard work is worth it if it means she can get a dog.

But Vilonia read that pets can help with sadness. Now all she has to do is keep the library goldfish alive over spring break, stop bringing stray animals home, and help Mama not get fired from her job. Easy as pie, right? But it turns out A. Obviously Gracie is happy for Sienna. She helps Sienna compose the best texts, responding to A. Because Gracie is fine. For a moment I was caught up in the bald-faced hippy dippy live and let live laid back way of this. Things to look forward to in upcoming posts: Glenn, sounds like you need to have a plan… and that plan needs to be… to get nothing done!

Sounds good to me right about now. Hey, you could be back here in the ladder climbing, back stabbing, inconsiderate, superficial, inconsiderate world of So. My two cents on the cat litter dilemma… this is a wonderful business opportunity. If you feel driven to improve the availability of decent cat litter for yourself and your Irish friends, you could start a business to address this problem. I bet you could make a pretty good living at it! KIm, Thanks for commenting. However, the word on the street is that, as a rule the Irish are more dog folk than cat folk.

As such the stores tend not to invest in the higher quality litter because, well people will make do with the cheap stuff, and they might not sell enough of the expensive stuff to make it worth importing. Nothing is made here so everything must be factored through the import lens. Try this litter http: Just as a quick word about the cat people bit.

Especially the elderly women. I have met some old women who upon having a cat come in the house has thrown it out the window, including from the 2nd floor. I sort of thought their probably dog people. My sister had a cat named Monty, and her neighbor was a cat litter developer for some company. He is from India and one of his projects was developing cat litter. My sister was able to get a commercial deal for Monty through him. Her cat was going to be in a commercial. The cat got an agent. Somehow it fell through, however, but he still had an agent.

Her other cat got to be a highway billboard model for a car dealership. You do know our water is drinkable right? Have you not traveled enough to have seen how that works? This IS a first world country. You are complaining about first world problems. Non-first world water related problems are usually a lack of water. Not the incredible inconvenience you must have of manually mixing them.

In some, by no means all, houses. Being well-travelled or not has nothing to do with that. The DART maps are a single line — hardly that difficult to figure out. Irish sausages have a great reputation internationally. The bus service is actually quite decent — even in comparison to other European countries. And the Luas is a tram not light rail. I work with several hundred foreign nationals on a daily basis, from all over the world, none of them gripe like this. Ha ha I agree. Moaning and nitpicking over the most trivial matters. So, have a teaspoon of cement and harden the fuck up.

Two different taps is simply the worst idea in the history of water delivery. See — you have ONE tap. I believe this was invented approximately years ago. You pull the handle forward and water comes out. I have only seen the two tap thing in antique houses that you take tours through.

When I went to Ireland I saw them everywhere. Other countries that the Irish often love to complain about. You can wash your hands just the same in a sink with 2 TAPS as you can in a sink with 1! Are you fucking serious? I agree with your sentiment. Gots to say though, you come across as a little bit of a bigot yourself.

Dear Noel — you need to accept criticism, listen and learn from it instead of shooting yourself in the foot with a volley of offence. It is no surprise you returned to Ireland after your time in the USA, the security and familiarity of home pulled you back when life and experience beckoned. Free yourself and listen to what others have to say. A closed mind is a blind one that cannot see. If you use clay, the best option is to get the Everyday Value litter from Tesco it is often worth paying the delivery fee.

Clumping litter is filthy stuff. Unfortunately disposal of the weighty, urine-soaked stuff is expensive unless you live on a large property and can bury it. But the local cat shelters recommend using wood pellet litter, that can be burned after use for free fuel and no disposal costs. First of all, let me say thanks for taking the time to read the post, and thanks again for taking the time to post a comment.

I knew I was setting myself up for a verbal thrashing by writing this. I hope that in a year or so I may have a deeper grasp of the underpinnings of why Ireland and the Irish are the way they are. Until then, I can only call it as I see it. Additionally, I felt okay but not great about making these generalizations only after hearing from both expats who have lived here for years, and fromquite a few of the Irish themselves, that lack of accountability and organizational excellence are indeed systemic problems here.

Please also note that I made it clear in the first paragraph that after only a month in country this is in no way intended to be an in depth analysis of the culture. A thousand welcomes my ass! So my only advice to you is to develop a sarcastic appreciation of the surreal ,the absurd,you will find that very helpful,specially should you decide to read about things such as the RSA,the TV licensing,FAS,or experience any such things as buying a house,go in to any public service office such as the Motortax office,the County Council …….

Why the fuck do they left? And what country are you from? You do realise we were top 5 in the world for in college graduation rates?? I despair at the generalisations made by some people…. Not to mention that there are some buses. As for water, I only just returned to Dublin after living in Wicklow for the last year and I never had to pay euro for water. You can fuck off and never come back. Our economy would be much better off without you lot I can generalise too! After eight years living here I despair the lack of respect for different opinions.

And by the way, university is free here,so you should have high rankings, although there have been overmarking scandals in the past that no one mentions. However, and I felt a compelling need to inject this into this thread: Glenn is largely if not wholly on the mark. My wife and I arrived at the same exact wording and conclusion entirely on our own. A lot of people generally agree with that observation Glenn. It has been said before about Ireland.

I think it really comes from the fact that Ireland has never really had any investment in it except in the 90s and the early s. So, they, like most Europe never had the industrial revolution and the economic momentum that brought like in England, U. Most of Europe never really got any of that. So, people always found themselves between rock and hard place. The Irish youth in the 90s and the s have been perty career oriented and ambitious in their schools. It seems like their kids have a lot of pressure from their parents to perform good in their schools, maybe even more cultural pressure than in the U.

I think their very academic, but not necessarily materialistic. We simply never started doing that here, the closest we got was smoking which is done with cold smoke to preserve, not hot smoke to cook. I could not agree more with Mark. Irish meat is excellent. Irish style breakfast sausage is unique without a real US equivalent and the Irish are not big on Sweet Italian US style sausage which is different.

But again, I lived 10 years in various places in the US and only found meat and sausage products approximating European caliber in specialty stores or butcheries. Agrees, in act most American food is loaded with additives and sugar ie. No wonder they have such obesity problems. Thanks for reading and commenting. Actually, the Dublin Ireland thing is a bit calculated.

People have lived here for a thousand years, but Ireland the Republic itself is less than a hundred years old. The country is very young, and is still making very immature decisions about governing itself. So which is it, Irish? Are we supposed to be specific or not?

Kearns is a popular Dublin standard sausage with a lot of white pepper which you might like. Churchtown or Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer St. From town I tend to stand between a few bus stops and run to catch whichever one comes. Otherwise I cycle the dublin bike scheme is fab , walk or drive and put up with the outrageous parking fees. I would threaten to move my business, ask to speak to a manager etc. I agree with you on the bus service, but other than that I think you just like whining mate.

There are small perks to living here. As a result there is very small call for a lot of cat litter in Ireland just as if you moved to the Bahamas you would have a lot of trouble trying to buy snow shoes! My reaction — have you lived abroad before? The apparent stupidity when you come to a new country is horrific, wherever you go. Not having a credit score and having to put huge deposits down to get a phone or apartment.

Useless bank tellers and banking services bank tellers in Ireland are far more helpful, even if internet banking is mind bogglingly awful here. Sleazy, call-avoiding, money grubbing landlords.

About Glenn Kaufmann

The obscene cost of health care. Having spoken with many friends who have immigrated to the U. I realize that I have the benefit of going though this process in a fairly well funded way, with little to no language barrier, in a friendly country, with all manner of technological advantage Internet, cell phone, electronic banking and credit cards , and with no political pressure to have to leave somewhere.

Even so, it is not an easy process. What is that invisible border that seems to exist with no regard for technology, class, or caste? What you call technological advancement I call technological surveillance. Good luck with that. I have lived in a few countries and I have to disagree on the bank tellers being helpful in Ireland. It was such a huge pain and took weeks just to set up an account. They asked for triple the documents compared to other countries I had lived in. Even after I set up the account, I had to wait another week for approval and another week for card and another week for a pin.

I then had to set up internet banking which was just a joke. When I called with a problem, they were horribly rude. I nearly ripped my hair out. I even brought in my pay slips, bank statement and credit score from my home country and they would barely look at it. I still love it here, I just avoid government offices and certain companies like the plague.

What the fuck are you talking about. I opened an account yesterday after starting the process….. We have come a long way in recent years and I feel this is a lovely country. I would hate to live in America, where everyone seems to be hugely oversized, eating non-stop, loud and showing no signs of culture. Americans love to have a family connection to Ireland, when they find one they make a great deal about it. I know when I visit Germany and boy! I really hate to see our country berated in such a way. We have some of the best scenery in the world, and the friendliness to go with it.

He failed to mention. We are a very multicultural society here now, with excellent restaurants, top class hotels, excellent taxi services etc. Get a grip Glenn — that is on your seat on the plane back to the wonderful U S of A. Thanks for taking the time to read the blog, and especially for taking the time to comment, and contribute to the discussion.

I disagree with almost everything you had to say. Hi Glenn, I note your reply to my remarks. I can see you are not too happy about my comments, so you will understand how I felt about your remarks regarding Ireland, having spent my entire life living very happily here. I worked all my life, had a large family who are all educated and employed.

I have traveled extensively and experienced many cultures, respecting the differences, and always enjoyed coming home to this country. I have family members living abroad and I would be horrified to hear them talking about the country in which they live, in such a disrespectful manner. I would like to think that in time, you will enjoy Ireland and its people and perhaps write something really positive about us. I agree to disagree with you also. But I have to say, though that first blog post as over four years ago, I still pretty much stand by everything I wrote.

Sorry Betty,but you really need to get out and travel more. People are really not that interested in learning about any other cultures,as they have a superiority complex which really covers up a country that does not have any real sense of its self outside general stereotypes of drinking,pubs etc etc. I wish it was different as I gave up my home to live here with my spouse.

I really miss the genuine honesty of people back home and the mix of cultures that sadly does not exist here. I have never seen such rampart greed than I have here and the sad outcomes of people who lost the run of themselves,and they were many not few. The outright racism is disgusting and surprising since Ireland had so many who left here themselves. I find myself often wondering if things will change,but I really fear that this country will forever be stuck in a boom and bust cycle which I really believe is the result of apathy and Irish people not really wanting what is best for the community and only the them self..

Ireland may not always have foreign investors to buoy up the economy and god help everyone if they disappear! Hi Glenn,thanks for the response. I have lived here for probably 7 years altogether after first visiting in I have lived in Dublin,Kerry and now Cork. After much deliberating I have recently purchased a house in what is considered a very good area after selling some properties back home. I had a retail business for a couple of years here but nothing could ever convince me to do that here again.

Wow,people were challenging here compared to working back home. Thankyou for setting up the blog,I thoroughly enjoy reading it and truth be said it has kept me sane the past few months when I could have thrown the towel in! Life here is a constant challenge. Take note,you can be the most law abiding citizen and have no protection in this country if a known trouble maker decides to pick on you. No one takes responsibility for anything,that would entail intelligence and work. Look forward to future posts and feel free to contact me via e mail if you would like.

Keep up the good work! I agree with you regarding people in Ireland wanting what is only best for them. Regarding retail business its the same all over. I was in business here and people have high expectations all over. Going off topic…its probably the same in Ireland now but over here one day runs into another.

Sunday is Bunnings day. In regard to your problem with the policeman and the bully, you will probably find they went to school together and they are related. The cat litter rant is fairly hilareous. I think Americans are far more obsessed about their pets than Irish people which may explain it. Also pretty hilareous is the water taps thing. I mean really why would you give a crap about the taps? Dublin Bus is a law unto itself alright, although I like to call this character.

The whole value systems thing is definitely very interesting but you seem to make a bit of a mess of it. You may find that subtlety is a big thing in Ireland. Anyway I think you could do a better job of it in the future perhaps, especially the idea of seperating the professional sphere from the social sphere which I think Irish people in general are quite good at work hard in their job but have a laid back outlook to life in general while American people in general are not.

Interesting stuff all the same. Keep it up, look forward to the next post. I found your post fun Glen and as an Irish person agree with the relaxed attitude, though personally I would call it laziness myself combined with a downtrodden psychology that makes us reluctant to complain about much of anything. This is a great blog, really enjoyed reading through it, and I am looking forward to further posts. Dear Glenn, welcome to Dublin. My mother had an American neighbour for a few years who had the following issues with Dublin and Ireland and Irish people in general: The mixer tap issue.

I am not sure why. Not being able to pay for take-away pizza with a credit card, and generally having to use cash more than she had to in the States. Do pizza delivery guys really have credit card machines in the States? The way Irish people give directions by either supplying the name of a pub or, say, a crossroads that only Irish people know the name of e.

She felt it was exclusionary. Though I would completely admit that you have to know in which general direction you are going in order to get anywhere in this country. Again, not exclusionary, just a different language our national language in fact. The unrelentingly miserable and dark and miserably dark Irish winter. This will be your first Irish winter here, so good luck with that. Also a factor in her repatriation. We have fantastic meaty tasty sausages.

American sausages taste plasticky and are of dubious provenance, but each to their own. I lived in China for several years and never even saw that there either. My friends were genuinely perplexed and asked what the point of it was…. Washing dishes in scalding hot water is not fun. Separate taps bothering the English? One Ireland has grossly overpaid, disorganised, lazy and unaccountable Irish people — government, local councils and civil service. And the other Ireland has dynamic private businesses full of harding working Irish people.

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Much more honest to say that in each walk of Irsh life esp in public sector there are dynamic people but due to small insular nature of our society they get overwhlemed with the time wasters that are difficult to fire due to our intrinsic smallness. I think you may be on to something here. I also have met people representing dynamic Irish businesses, and the contrast between them and their government systems could not be starker.

Regarding sausages, Superquinn is your best bet. They have a fine variety. There are also many independent butchers that enter competitions with their own sausages, many of which involve spices and herbs not found in the popular brands. That said, Clonakilty sausages and Rudd sausages were handed down to us from heaven. Public transport — fair points. And bring me back some. As a Canadian living in exile in Dublin, I share many of your sentiments.

Adjusting to Dublin can be a trying experience — especially when you have to deal with the original rednecks and crackers who run the country. I would be interested in your take on how to improve this god foresaken rock! What do you think so? I see a lot of street harassment and xenophobia in the cities here.

One day I was complaining out loud about my boss. My point is if the shoe was on the other foot? Getting things done here is very difficult. Nor does the lack of postcodes zip codes to you, Yankee! Or the fact that when you book a train seat online, other people just sit in it anyway. I know nothing of cat litter. You can get good sausages. It is precisely this casual, laid-back approach to life which makes this the most fantastic place in the world to live. Nowhere else will you find people as friendly, charming, good-natured, welcoming and funny.

They are also extraordinarily politically aware. They are largely well-read, interested in the world, often well-travelled and usually well-mannered. People here know how to party, and are not afraid of staying out late, having a few drinks and meeting people. There is no class system per se; people judge you by who you are and how you act, rather than how much you earn or where you went to school.

An Irish funeral is a celebration of life and the achievements of the deceased; an Irish wedding is a celebration of life at which you may risk death from alcohol poisoning. The Irish are deeply loyal, committed to the notion of family — and above all else, they are really, really good fun. We think there is more to life than just money drink, for example, is far more important.

As one of our many great national poets put it: You will literally want to bang your head against a wall. Your protest will dissipate as the ripples on a pond. Hey Fred, reading your blog entry was utterly therapeutic. I now definitely feel that I am not alone with my experiences. I am planning to move to Ireland in the summer of I think that hot and cold running taps will be a small price to pay for living in a beautiful country so richly steeped with history.

I look forward to living in a place where people still look you in the eye when they say hello. Something not done very often here in America. I hope to be accepted by this country and these wonderful people, and I am certain I can adapt to a slower paced life. This was the best comment I have read! I love the people and everything that comes with them. Thanks for the good read! Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, a twister has carried you over the Rainbow and delivered you to munchkin land.

The native munchkins are a peculiar sort, inhabiting a country with one foot in the 21st Century and one foot in their collective mouths. Some observations about the munchkins. They hate to see anyone with talent succeed, and would rather put an idiot into office than someone with ability. But I regret to say I actually agree with everything you have just said. Maybe that makes me one of the non-Yahoo munchkins? Of course, I forgot to mention one of the major problems with Ireland is the nepotism.

In America and indeed in Canada, we would have fired their asses a long time ago! The competition is not much better, they just employ people from the same small town in the south called Cork! So I wonder how do black people get treated there? I myself am not black but do have some family who are mixed with white and black and would love to know the situation. I wish there were better things to report. But sadly, I think a fair number of the stereotypes about racism and the Irish are true. Collectively that seems not to be the case.

I am appalled at how black people beat their children and think its discipline. The rude loud entitlement behaviour a nd how their asylum seekers yet go home regularly on holidays. Yet we simple minded people have to put up with their criticism of our country. First of all, I want to genuinely thank you for reading the blog, and for taking the time to comment. Clearly it gets to the heart of your sense of Irish insecurity, and, offensive or not, I want to encourage conversations of all kinds.

I genuinely welcome your comments on this one as well. But, first please read the existing comments so that you can see where this extensive conversation on Irish racism has already taken us. Sure he backpedal a a bit, but the sentiment is there. Prejudice, xenophobia, and hypocrisy — you squeezed them all into one post. Cats poop outside here, hence the different shades of green. Buses always come in two or never. If you need something done then just keep hassling, at least your not having to deal with an Indian far far away.

I just wanted to comment about the racism. It, of course, never occurred to David that the prison population in Ireland is so skewed in that direction because of systemic racism. Sadly, racism the world over has become a far more insidious and subtle problem than just beating or killing people. Casual slights and remarks are the regular and consistently damaging way that racism wounds people these days. Hungary has put up fences to stop refugees. A dark — skinned Brazilian friend of mine came to Dublin, and we met up for a coffee. This has included both verbal abuse and unprovoked physical attacks.

Of course not all or even the majority of the Irish are racist, but to say racism does not exist in Ireland is simply inaccurate. But, sadly, you are right. There is most definitely racism in Ireland. An American has difficulty integrating outside America? I guess you must be unusual in that regard, and lack the tact, sophistication and open-mindedness for which your fellow-countrymen are so well-known. He was merely stating his observations after his short time in a new country — there is nothing wrong with doing so.

It takes a long time to integrate, no matter where you come from or where you go, and you are bound to have your own opinions and comparisons to make. He is simply expressing his on a public forum. There is no need to get nasty and sarcastic. Mark here from NewsTalk Radio, I sent you a mail with regard to getting in contact?

Just basically wondering if you might be up for a little chat. Anyhoot, looking forward to hearing from you. It appears that broadsheet. My favourite part of the whole blog entry, though, was your response to Fionn:. I disagree with your thesis that the Irish are easy going people who can never complete anything on time. I moved to Germany once and had great difficulty with the bureaucracy there despite the German rep for efficiency.

Irish people may have an easygoing manner but there is a difference between appearance and action. I like the sausage they sell in J Hick butcher which is in dun laoghaire and in the city centre at Essex St West. Tastes differ and an alternative to spicy food is to use sauces, to season to your own taste or to appreciate more subtle flavours. I have no idea why people buy these things. Same prob in UK. Result is heavy unionisation and a culture of knowing you get paid the same no matter what service you provide as there is no competition.

There has been an attempt to improve services: There is a tracking system installed on buses now and you can see when the next bus is coming by typing in the 5 digit bus stop number into http: The bus route network is being reconfigured for the first time in a million years and this process is halfway through so there is some confusion.

Thousands are due to be fired, they are being amalgamated and the staff are taking a lot of flak from the public who resent having to bail them out. In addition, money laundering requirements oblige them to collect utility bills and other documents when you may not have these items yet. When I moved to the UK I found that the banks were considerably worse to deal with than here, I had great difficulty opening an account despite having a large salary and the branches were staffed by mentally subnormal people. Every second retired mom and pop thought they could live on the proceeds of real estate investment.

Following the house price crash, many of these people are struggling to make payments and only now realising the difference between the net and gross yields they expected on their investments. You can expect that your landlord in Ireland will be a disillusioned moron.

They do everything they can to avoid paying out any money to fix problems in their properties. They rarely give leases longer than a year. Tenants in turn treat their rental properties like complete shit and move frequently. There is a poor culture around renting in general and a presumption that decent people should own their houses.

You would need to be more specific in your criticism. My interactions with govt are very easy and trouble free and mostly online. Hey Glenn, ex-pat Brit here, coming to your blog via broadsheet. The times on the bus timetables? I agree that this is utterly insane and I often find myself explaining the system to tourists waiting at the bus stop with me in town. Taps are the same in the UK, and much of mainland Europe. I spend far too much time in the States and I still have my head-wrecked by how low the toilets are there and how close ones arse is to the water.

Even the bread is sweet. After only a couple of days I crave sour. The hotel I and my colleagues stay in for work is 10 min walk from the office. Also, when I walk back from the restaurant to my hotel after dinner I do not want to drive at night, with jet-lag, on the wrong side of the road, in a car with not enough pedals, after a glass of wine I do not appreciate the cop car following me.

I am a middle-aged European business woman, not a bloody hooker. You may not be able to handle your booze mister thanks to that lemonade you insist is beer, but I can. Ended up in a 10 minute standoff with the server; they eventualy compromised and she got a half-decaf. HaHa Ex Pat you make me laugh. But the water to ass proximity blew my mind away and that god awful cheese on everything plus the sweet food flavouring …haha I can relate…!! I found myself checking the contents of every-thing I was consuming…. Even commercial businesses seem to have unbreakable bureacratic walls.

Rationality and professionalism are hard to find. I wish people were relaxed here as well though. One of the things about travelling that most non-Americans enjoy is the experience of finding how things are done in the rest of the world. Why is it so many Americans love to point out those differences as though the Eeew-Ess-Aye was the only place getting it right? Is the rest of the world really trying and failing to be like the blessed yanks? They always seemed vaguely disappointed that they had come all this way, and what they had found was… well… not American. They were good friends of mine, so I humoured them.

I refrained from pointing out them that the cure for their particular case of misery-guts was to feck off back home. Have you considered fecking off back home? He pointed out the differences that affected his life and the differences he experienced and is having to adjust to. No where in anything I read did he say USA was better. BUT our faucets are better than yours, your faucets do suck. He has been giving his first impressions and experiences. Put your big boy or girl panties on and grow up.

There nothing wrong with expressing his first impressions and things he is finding difficult to adjust to. Our country, while we have some great things…is crap majority of the time and any American with any drop of intelligence will be more than happy to admit it and even go as far as to tell you why they think so. I would like to spend some time in Ireland and I am thinking about going for a couple years with my company to experience a people I think I would love.

Most people on here are getting it. Some people are too blinded by their own Nationalistic insecurities to see that observations and personal likes or dislikes are not attacks on its citizens or quality of people. Keep up the good work, I am finding this very educational. I am considering the move myself. Why not go home to your racially segregated country and enjoy a good sausage session there? Are you are waiting for the call-back re: If you think the Dublin Bus service is bad, god help you if you come down to Galway. At least Dublin buses turn up! Why is everyone giving out about taps??

Is it really that much of an inconvenience??? If so then I find that a bit sad really. To be honest, I think your comments make sense to an outsider. I am Irish and proud to be it. I am driven and have hopes and plans for the future. We do not all lack motivation simply because we are easy going. Irish people just take life as it comes, but we are constantly working to improve services such as Dublin Bus.

Not all Irish people are relaxed about the transportation services we have and many complaints have been lodged against both Dublin Bus and Irish Rail. Our sausages are not composed of pig meat from several pigs either. Our butchers work hard to produce good and healthy food with a quality taste. Rumored to be the finest sausages in Ireland. They can be bought in most supermarkets nowadays. The hot and cold tap thing? Its just a good old fashioned way of doing it. Its not like it takes a scientist to figure out how to get the water to the right temperature by using two taps.

I must comment on the sausages. First, the pork here, I think, is superior to the pork in Australia. Probably the pork in America as well. I think your pork is fattier, which is a good thing. Full marks for pork. As for additives, I feel compelled to disagree. A common additive here, at least as far as I can see, is MSG.

That is unbelievable to me, an Australian. It is also more difficult to find gluten free products, including sausages. But that is true in most rural areas. Like it or not, everything is more difficult here. There is a lack of maturity in processes and in the provision of basic services. I suspect corruption is the norm here, a lot of behaviour that is accepted would be considered criminal in other first world countries.

My mum has been here to Oz and tasted the coffee here and she would agree with you. Cat litter and taps? How incompetant are you? You must have a very uninteresting life to dwell on such things. As for the DART, the maps are simple. It only goes in two directions, it branches off ONCE. Most European Metro maps are extremely complicated compared so good luck if you ever move. Which, you really should do if the Kitty Litter is bothering you so much. This can also be seen in every stage of their education system, too.

Your closest Costco… England and Ireland are the same place right? With regard to cat litter: Slan abhaile, dood ;. We are about ten-to-twenty years behind London, Paris and New York etc. No one in Ireland will ever fully understand your frustration with this and you will seem pedantic and anally retentive in your language the more you bang on about it. A Tom cat, about 4 years old, likes attacking things, thinking about himself and general mayhem etc.

Least of your worries, just go to the Pet Shop or order online. Enough has been said on this already. Buses are a philosophical concept in Dublin. More of a riddle, to tease the foreigners into talking to us and make it easier for us to find out why they are here. Just enjoy it in the spirit of chaos theory or get on a bike or walk.

Goat Rodeo, I like that one…. Look at the US though. Or , sell it online and then buy an Android phone Free yourself from the cult and catch up with the curve. Think about island mentality though, It explains much of why we are seen as or like to perceive ourselves as very outgoing, friendly and good at mixing with people from around the world. We do have an innate curiosity but as a kind of self-defense mechanism because we are only a couple of hundred miles apart, coast to coast, in a one and a half degree of Irish bacon sort of way…. Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom …..

I feel sorry for people like you. If everything was the same everywhere life would be so boring. You see the dual taps thing is a manifestation of Irish hardiness and desiciveness ok i dont know how to spell decisivness. Consequently our choices in life were very basic. Eat whats there of starve, sing or go home, go to work or call in sick and yes hot or cold! While you Americans with your fancy pants choice of different shoes and fancy pants had let to an indecicivness dammit! Similarly with your choice of water temperature.

Should you have it cold, hot, a mix of the two, maybe more one than the other? Make a decission man! Hot or cold, youll be washed either way, theres things to do! This is also why we had had such a stable financial system without a glitch for decades. If you have heard anything else that was just French propaganda you guys hate them too right? Most modern cities lets not forget Dublin made itself one of the most expensive cities on the planet have a one-ticket system, a ticket that uses any form of public transport within the city.

You can only pay coins to get the bus. In a capital city. Try living in continental Europe. Or are you not open minded enough? The sausages argument is also a joke. Ever been to countries like Italy or France? Gastronomically speaking, it is a mess. Sub-par food at supermarkets with high markup price. Expensive restaurants, low quality food. But why bother wasting so much money on expensive food?

The sausage here IS bad, excepting Hicks and other regional producers. Dennys, Galtee, and the other main producers are no longer as good as they once were. Many products from the US. Cat litter there, or was. That and because few Irish will pay what the best meats and products cost.

You might try some of the online butchers like Jack McCarthy in Cork. He wins contest in France no less and Queen Eliz was served his black pudding. But euro and you have free next-day delivery to Dublin. His chicken and beef are excellent and cheaper than Tesco or Dunnes. They ship to Ireland: For cheap phone calls, try ww. Many airlines allow you to bring pets with you on the plane in the cabin at no charge. It varies on international flights.

Aer Lingus is very backward. I brought over my pound dog but went through London and drove over here. I moved here ten years ago, after twice-year visits since Ireland has gone downhill in the past ten years. They deliver, have great staff and at Christmas they deliver free gifts for your pet. This IS ridiculous but you can actually get hand basins with mixer taps. I nearly lost it when I moved into my new house and they had the old fashioned kind. Dual taps should be banned for safety reasons.

You should try http: Their Chorizo is particularly good. We don't do the flat sausage patties you get in the US, because come on now, they're a sin against pork, but can always make your own. I tweet them on a weekly basis; try it. They do respond with useful information. They're a bit jaded but then again, that's a complaint one could make of nearly all public transit workers, globally. The system is improving with the live timetables and new routes are being added this Autumn.

But seriously, wait till it snows again this year.. You can probably tell from the ire you've generated with your post that Irish people are a lot more passionate than you first thought. The country has come on a lot in the last 10 or 20 years, and that didn't happen without the people. Gay Marriage, for example. How many US States have that?

Make new friends and stop talking to the people who have been giving you this impression. Hi there and thanks for writing the post. I started reading through the comments and saw a sensitive Irish backlash beginning. The Irish appear to be very sensitive to anybody picking holes in the way the country operates. Born and living here. I rant about it to friends far too much. The buses own customers have often made websites to display more helpful information than the buses own and that speaks volumes. Too many people are pat on the back for getting a job done quickly and cheaply, with short-term solutions rather than slowly and with a larger budget to leave a long-term solution and overall cost-efficiency.

Few recognise that the things that appear to be unimportant feed into the things they count as important. In relation to the tap issue, they are separated for energy efficient purposes. Your hot water tap is sourced from your boiler which is always located on the ground floor. Therefore convection currents are used to rise the water through the pipe. Your cold water tap is sourced form your cistern tank which is always located in the attic space and simply gravity is used to move the water through the pipe.

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A dual tap requires more expensive and energy consuming techniques to source the water. I hope this helps clear up the situation and I look forward to reading the 5 things you love about Ireland. Are you telling me you have two taps in the shower and you leap back and forth between them frying and freezing yourself while you shower? I kind of doubt that. Do not doubt that one tap is possible. I have seen it in third world countries, so I have confidence it is on its way once here the economy bounces back. But then he is a successful fellow who was no doubt introduced to the technology in Australia in the 70s when he lived there and fell in love with it the technology, that is.

Just a few tips:. Go to a large pet store like Maxi Zoo and you will have a lot more choice. So, in general our cats come and go as they please. Ours even has a magnetic key for the cat door.