Rating: 
Summary: TOTALLY CONTRIVED
Review: I felt manipulated reading this book, like someone just threw it together to make money. I love Maeve Binchy but this book can no way compare to one of hers. Another thing that bothered me - why do Irish writers always make a point of insulting Americans and portraying us as ridiculous? They seem to have an obsession with this country and its people and it bothers them enough that they always need to portray us "ugly Americans". There were several instances in this book where the reference to Americans had nothing to do with the story. Having long been a fan of female Irish writers, I am finished with them. They can insult me all they want, but I don't have to spend any more of my hard-earned American dollars on their work!
Rating: 
Summary: In Support of Women's Writing
Review: I must say that unlike the other reviewers who all love Binchy, I bought the book because I have great love for Irish poets, and this book offered a chance to support the female writers.I was not previously aware of any of the other writers, and not overly knowledgable of Binchy's works, and therefore it was impossible for me to tell who wrote which chapter. I'm wondering if this can be an impediment to a writer trying to be noticed, that she writes a piece in a collection, only to have her name excluded from it. In any case, I think it was a charming book, better than I thought it would be. It held my attention throughout, and was quite touching in most of the sections. This is not really a serious read, but the stories interweave in an interesting way and the characters are unusual.
Rating: 
Summary: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Review: I read this book before the male counterpart - and I thought that Ladies was so much better! A series of interconnected stories, written by the top Irish women writers, promises for a good, quick, and fun read!
Rating:
Summary: ladies rule
Review: This book us a follow-up to Finbar's Hotel where 6 Irish writers wrote short stories about a decrepit but lively Dublin hotel Ladies Night is all Irish female writers, with the unique female perspective on many issues related to women: pregnancy, artificial insemination, old loves who have done you wrong, youth and aging, sexual jealousy. Although the topics can be dark, the writing is tight, witty and stylish so you can appreciate the humor even if you are crying over a piteous situation, hoping it will all turn out all right in the end. But does it? Read each story and see!
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful!
Review: This collection of slightly interwoven short stories will delight lovers of Irish fiction - particularly of the entertaining and wonderful Maeve Binchy type. (I'm guessing that she wrote "The Wedding of the Pughs"!) The last chapter which involves a fading movie star and a tiger is the perfect comic end to these tales. I will now explore the work of these other writers!
Rating:
Summary: These stories "unfurl like a skein of cloth"
Review: This is a fun, light read, the strongest stories being "Da Da Da --Daa" (about a businesswoman's relationship with her elderly, senile father); "The Master Key," a lovely story about a woman, her first love, and long-lost son; "The Wedding of the Pughs," a delightful husband-and-wife settling-their-differences story; and finally "Tarzan's Irish Rose," a rather contrived story about an aging movie star who meets up with her original leading man; this story is the best in the lot.
Rating:
Summary: Spend One Busy Night In a Dublin Hotel
Review: This is a sometimes touching, sometimes funny story of one night in the nouveau chic Finbar's Hotel of Dublin. You will meet a woman getting impregnated by her best friend's husband, a career woman and her crazy father, a bride-to-be who gets the ultimate revenge on an old boyfriend who did her wrong, a nun looking for love in a most unorthodox manner, a mother reunited with the son she gave up for adoption, a woman who follows her husband to find out if he's cheating on her, and an aging actress who wants to recapture the past. Their paths all cross on one night at this hotel. I chose the book because I am a big fan of Maeve Binchy and she wrote one of the chapters. Guessing which author wrote which chapter becomes a guessing game for the reader familiar with these authors. This is not as good as Binchy's own novels, but definitely enjoyable and worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As the Original
Review: This is the second "Finbar's Hotel," collection edited by Bolger, and this one is given over to seven Irish women writers: Maeve Binchy, Clare Boylan, Emma Donoghue, Anne Haverty, Eilis Ni Dhibhne, Kate O'Riordan and Deirdre Purcell. As in the first one (which had only two women, Anne Enright and Jennifer Johnston), each writer is given a "room" of the hotel, and creates a guest and a story to explain their presence at the hotel. And as in the first one, the writer of each story is not identified. One has to wonder at the point of such cleverness, as it is a directly impedes any attempt on the reader's part to discover a new writer to seek out in the future. For example, say I find two of the seven stories to be amazing, what am I to do? Buy one book by each of the seven writers and read all seven to figure out whose writing it was that I liked? Since there's no real purpose to keeping the authors secret (other than editorial conceit), why do it? The strongest stories reside in rooms 101 and 106, which contain stories that revolve around marital infidelity, but have gentle reversals. Room 104 also concerns infidelity, but in this case, to God-and is much less interesting. Rooms 102, 103, 105 and the penthouse all contain guests coming from abroad and their stories all revolve around encounters with their past. Room 105, which concerns a mother meeting her son for the first time is perhaps the best of them, although the penthouse story is worth reading for the ending if nothing else. One sort of odd running thread is the clumsy mocking of Americans that appears in each story, which is in contrast the generally gentle tone of the collection. All in the all, the collection is inoffensive, but not quite as strong as the original Finbar's Hotel.
Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As the Original
Review: This is the second "Finbar's Hotel," collection edited by Bolger, and this one is given over to seven Irish women writers: Maeve Binchy, Clare Boylan, Emma Donoghue, Anne Haverty, Eilis Ni Dhibhne, Kate O'Riordan and Deirdre Purcell. As in the first one (which had only two women, Anne Enright and Jennifer Johnston), each writer is given a "room" of the hotel, and creates a guest and a story to explain their presence at the hotel. And as in the first one, the writer of each story is not identified. One has to wonder at the point of such cleverness, as it is a directly impedes any attempt on the reader's part to discover a new writer to seek out in the future. For example, say I find two of the seven stories to be amazing, what am I to do? Buy one book by each of the seven writers and read all seven to figure out whose writing it was that I liked? Since there's no real purpose to keeping the authors secret (other than editorial conceit), why do it? The strongest stories reside in rooms 101 and 106, which contain stories that revolve around marital infidelity, but have gentle reversals. Room 104 also concerns infidelity, but in this case, to God-and is much less interesting. Rooms 102, 103, 105 and the penthouse all contain guests coming from abroad and their stories all revolve around encounters with their past. Room 105, which concerns a mother meeting her son for the first time is perhaps the best of them, although the penthouse story is worth reading for the ending if nothing else. One sort of odd running thread is the clumsy mocking of Americans that appears in each story, which is in contrast the generally gentle tone of the collection. All in the all, the collection is inoffensive, but not quite as strong as the original Finbar's Hotel.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good, but still worth the $$
Review: This one is not nearly as good as the first one (Finbar's Hotel), but it is fun, light reading. If you plan to read them both, I would read this one first to save the better one for last.
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