Sun Dancing: Life in a medieval Irish monastery and how Celtic spirituality influenced the world

Rating:
Summary: Is it history or historical fiction?
Review: As the reviewer from the Atlantic Monthly points out, this book is half history, half historical fiction. This gave me a fundamental problem in getting into the book. The first half is decently written and attempts to get in the heads of various Irish monks in the Middle Ages, the second half provides the facts to back up the conjecture of the first. I preferred the second half, though that may be because I tend to enjoy my history a bit harder than most. I just didn't like the structure of the book. To me, what this book really is is a novella about an Irish Monastery on a rocky island with a novella-sized end note section. To me, the end notes were more relevant. I don't question the scholarliness of the work, just the presentation. Overall, not bad, but if you can get past the strange way it's put together, unlike me, you'll probably enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Is it history or historical fiction?
Review: As the reviewer from the Atlantic Monthly points out, this book is half history, half historical fiction. This gave me a fundamental problem in getting into the book. The first half is decently written and attempts to get in the heads of various Irish monks in the Middle Ages, the second half provides the facts to back up the conjecture of the first. I preferred the second half, though that may be because I tend to enjoy my history a bit harder than most. I just didn't like the structure of the book. To me, what this book really is is a novella about an Irish Monastery on a rocky island with a novella-sized end note section. To me, the end notes were more relevant. I don't question the scholarliness of the work, just the presentation. Overall, not bad, but if you can get past the strange way it's put together, unlike me, you'll probably enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: entertaining and illuminating
Review: Fun for anyone with even slight interest in history, Christian religion, etc. Part story, part historical text, very clever and interesting. I got bored about halfway through, which is why I didn't give this book a better rating, but I did finish it later and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: entertaining and illuminating
Review: Fun for anyone with even slight interest in history, Christian religion, etc. Part story, part historical text, very clever and interesting. I got bored about halfway through, which is why I didn't give this book a better rating, but I did finish it later and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: Rocks of passion
Review: If you've ever stood on the rocks of Skellig Michael, or peered at them from safe ground across the tossing waves, you've thought to yourself, "only crazy people and seagulls would live there". You would be wrong - passionate maybe, maybe not crazy. This story of the monks on Skellig Michael, part history, part fiction, speaks of the loneliness and of being alone - which are not the same things - and the astonishing strength that can come from the most unexpected places when one person or a group of people who share a focus come together. Even the early pages that detail the types of ink used in the glorious illuminated manuscripts of Clanmacnoise draw you into this passion and this focus. It's an incredible story of life on a rock in the middle of nowhere that provided a continuous line of education and religion (like it or not) in a time beyond our imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Rocks of passion
Review: This book's best quality is that it lacks the pretension of Cahill's "How the Irish Saved Civilization." We see the Irish monks' lives at close range, in much detail and with sympathy. The monks are not portrayed as kooks but as devotees of Christ who expected His return at any minute.