The Glass Lake
5 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Findabair from St. Hanshaugen bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Friday, October 31, 2008
This is yet another example of how Maeve Binchy is very, very good at writing stories set in rural Ireland. I loved this tale; it is sad and funny and even a little sentimental, but never mushy or sticky.
From www.amazon.com :
Amazon.com Review
In the tradition of her beloved novel Circle of Friends, Irish novelist Maeve Binchey offers a wonderful old-fashioned melodrama with a contemporary cast of compelling characters. A sly, seductive, and compulsively readable book, perfect for rainy afternoons and late nights in bed.
From Publishers Weekly
Irish novelist Binchy's latest saga of family loyalties and secrets spent 12 weeks on PW's bestseller list.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA?With the popularity of the film version of Binchy's Circle of Friends, this story, which traces the developments in the lives of two young friends in a small Irish town in the '50s, is likely to have wide appeal. The heroine, Kit, is shown to be at odds with her best friend, Clio, from the first scene. The differences in their values and emotions persist and separate them as the years pass. The life of Kit's beautiful mother unfolds in a concurrent plot line. Helen is generally believed to have died in a tragic drowning. She has, however, gone off with a lover. The story of her business successes and romantic complexities parallels her daughter's years of maturing, providing Kit and readers with ironic insights as she and a very few of the townspeople become aware of the woman's new life. A big, easy, comfortable read.?Frances Reiher, King's Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Fans of Binchy's novels (e.g., Circle of Friends, LJ 12/90) won't be dissatisfied with her latest effort. Once again, she focuses on the inhabitants of a small town in Ireland. Helen, wife and mother of the McMahon household, is presumed to have drowned in a nearby lake. Actually, she shook off her dull, staid life and fled to London with her lover. Successful at business, she yearns for some communication with her now teenaged daughter, Kit. She begins a casual correspondence with Kit under the guise of being an old friend of her mother. The story continues with readers wondering if and when Kit will discover the truth about her mother and what impact that realization will have on their lives. Binchy writes a good tale, demanding that her readers accept the improbable and appreciate a well-timed coincidence. Suitable if not necessary for public libraries.
--Margaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., Mich.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From AudioFile
The first lilting phrases draw listeners into the life of the small Irish village, Lough Glass. Fionnula Flanagan is the perfect storyteller for Binchy's compelling story of mother and daughter. Their changing relationship, viewed with a soft lens, is beautifully reflected in Flanagan's interpretation. Flanagan effortlessly conveys the adolescent voices of Kit and Clio, the gentle, venerable speech of reclusive Sister Madeline and the firm strength of Helen McMahon. Flanagan's voice can be soft and gentle as an Irish mist or spirited and sharp when the story demands. She captures the characters through her excellent narration and delights the listener with this quietly compelling tale. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
From Booklist
Lough Glass ("green lake" in Gaelic) is the one-street Irish village to which pharmacist Martin McMahon brought his lovely bride, Mary Helena Healy, before World War II. Dubliner Helen loved a man who had deserted her, but promised she would be honest with Martin and would do her best to love him. When Helen leaves in 1952, she writes Martin a note, but her 12-year-old daughter, Kit, knowing Helen was unhappy and fearing she has drowned herself, burns the note. Weeks later, a body is found and identified as Helen McMahon. Binchy follows the McMahons and their friends through the next 10 years: Helen (now Lena) poses as the wife of her feckless lover, Louis Gray, and builds up a successful employment agency in London; Kit, her brother Emmet, her friend Clio, and other young villagers pass through adolescence to university and professional schools; and Martin McMahon finally discovers a more comfortable sort of marital love with Clio's aunt, Maura. Weaving through these years are Helen/Lena's efforts to help her daughter and maintain some sort of contact, which spunky Kit first welcomes, then rejects, and finally learns to cherish. Another satisfying if sentimental read from the best-selling author of Circle of Friends (1991) and The Copper Beech (1992). Mary Carroll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A grand storyteller in the finest Irish tradition....She writes from the heart" -- The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
From the Hardcover edition. -- Review
The novel teems with life...Binchey's genius is transforming storytelling into an art. -- San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
Review
"A grand storyteller in the finest Irish tradition....She writes from the heart"—The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
Product Description
Night after night the beautiful woman walked beside the serene waters of Lough Glass. Until the day she disappeared, leaving only a boat drifting upside down on the unfathomable lake that gave the town its name. Ravishing Helen McMahon, the Dubliner with film-star looks and unfulfilled dreams, never belonged in Lough Glass, not the way her genial pharmacist-husband Martin belonged, or their spirited daughter Kit. Suddenly, she is gone and Kit is haunted by the memory of her mother, seen through a window, alone at the kitchen table, tears streaming down her face. Now Kit, too, has secrets: of the night she discovered a letter on Martin’s pillow and burned it, unopened. The night her mother was lost. The night everything changed forever…
From the Publisher
Kit MacMahon, growing up in the lakeside village of Loughshee, seems to lead a charmed life. She is the loved daughter of Martin MacMahon, the kindly local pharmacist, and Helen, his beautiful wife. She has a little brother, Emmett; a best friend, Clio, and a host of other friends.
But Kit worries about her mother. Helen MacMahon does not fit in with the people and the ways of Loughshee. She wanders alone by the lake night after night -- until the dark windy night when she disappears and only her overturned rowboat is found near Loughshee's shore.
Kit grows up in the small village without the mother she has loved and so staunchly defended, determined to carry out her mother's last wishes that she should make something of her life. Though she moves to the city, Kit is constantly drawn back to Loughshee and the people who live there -- Clio Kelly and their love/hate relationship; Clio's father Dr. Kelly, whose sister-in-law Maura has her eyes on Kit's father; Philip O'Brien, who has loved Kit since childhood; and roguish Stevie Sullivan, who runs the garage and rules the affections of every woman for miles around.
The Glass Lake tells the story of how Kit MacMahon carries out her mother's last wishes; a story of how faith and courage can be rewarded. It is Maeve Binchy at her spellbinding best, creating a novel of such warmth and humor that the reader will never want it to end.
From the Inside Flap
Kit MacMahon, growing up in the lakeside village of Loughshee, seems to lead a charmed life. She is the loved daughter of Martin MacMahon, the kindly local pharmacist, and Helen, his beautiful wife. She has a little brother, Emmett; a best friend, Clio, and a host of other friends.
But Kit worries about her mother. Helen MacMahon does not fit in with the people and the ways of Loughshee. She wanders alone by the lake night after night -- until the dark windy night when she disappears and only her overturned rowboat is found near Loughshee's shore.
Kit grows up in the small village without the mother she has loved and so staunchly defended, determined to carry out her mother's last wishes that she should make something of her life. Though she moves to the city, Kit is constantly drawn back to Loughshee and the people who live there -- Clio Kelly and their love/hate relationship; Clio's father Dr. Kelly, whose sister-in-law Maura has her eyes on Kit's father; Philip O'Brien, who has loved Kit since childhood; and roguish Stevie Sullivan, who runs the garage and rules the affections of every woman for miles around.
The Glass Lake tells the story of how Kit MacMahon carries out her mother's last wishes; a story of how faith and courage can be rewarded. It is Maeve Binchy at her spellbinding best, creating a novel of such warmth and humor that the reader will never want it to end.
From www.amazon.com :
Amazon.com Review
In the tradition of her beloved novel Circle of Friends, Irish novelist Maeve Binchey offers a wonderful old-fashioned melodrama with a contemporary cast of compelling characters. A sly, seductive, and compulsively readable book, perfect for rainy afternoons and late nights in bed.
From Publishers Weekly
Irish novelist Binchy's latest saga of family loyalties and secrets spent 12 weeks on PW's bestseller list.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA?With the popularity of the film version of Binchy's Circle of Friends, this story, which traces the developments in the lives of two young friends in a small Irish town in the '50s, is likely to have wide appeal. The heroine, Kit, is shown to be at odds with her best friend, Clio, from the first scene. The differences in their values and emotions persist and separate them as the years pass. The life of Kit's beautiful mother unfolds in a concurrent plot line. Helen is generally believed to have died in a tragic drowning. She has, however, gone off with a lover. The story of her business successes and romantic complexities parallels her daughter's years of maturing, providing Kit and readers with ironic insights as she and a very few of the townspeople become aware of the woman's new life. A big, easy, comfortable read.?Frances Reiher, King's Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Fans of Binchy's novels (e.g., Circle of Friends, LJ 12/90) won't be dissatisfied with her latest effort. Once again, she focuses on the inhabitants of a small town in Ireland. Helen, wife and mother of the McMahon household, is presumed to have drowned in a nearby lake. Actually, she shook off her dull, staid life and fled to London with her lover. Successful at business, she yearns for some communication with her now teenaged daughter, Kit. She begins a casual correspondence with Kit under the guise of being an old friend of her mother. The story continues with readers wondering if and when Kit will discover the truth about her mother and what impact that realization will have on their lives. Binchy writes a good tale, demanding that her readers accept the improbable and appreciate a well-timed coincidence. Suitable if not necessary for public libraries.
--Margaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., Mich.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From AudioFile
The first lilting phrases draw listeners into the life of the small Irish village, Lough Glass. Fionnula Flanagan is the perfect storyteller for Binchy's compelling story of mother and daughter. Their changing relationship, viewed with a soft lens, is beautifully reflected in Flanagan's interpretation. Flanagan effortlessly conveys the adolescent voices of Kit and Clio, the gentle, venerable speech of reclusive Sister Madeline and the firm strength of Helen McMahon. Flanagan's voice can be soft and gentle as an Irish mist or spirited and sharp when the story demands. She captures the characters through her excellent narration and delights the listener with this quietly compelling tale. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
From Booklist
Lough Glass ("green lake" in Gaelic) is the one-street Irish village to which pharmacist Martin McMahon brought his lovely bride, Mary Helena Healy, before World War II. Dubliner Helen loved a man who had deserted her, but promised she would be honest with Martin and would do her best to love him. When Helen leaves in 1952, she writes Martin a note, but her 12-year-old daughter, Kit, knowing Helen was unhappy and fearing she has drowned herself, burns the note. Weeks later, a body is found and identified as Helen McMahon. Binchy follows the McMahons and their friends through the next 10 years: Helen (now Lena) poses as the wife of her feckless lover, Louis Gray, and builds up a successful employment agency in London; Kit, her brother Emmet, her friend Clio, and other young villagers pass through adolescence to university and professional schools; and Martin McMahon finally discovers a more comfortable sort of marital love with Clio's aunt, Maura. Weaving through these years are Helen/Lena's efforts to help her daughter and maintain some sort of contact, which spunky Kit first welcomes, then rejects, and finally learns to cherish. Another satisfying if sentimental read from the best-selling author of Circle of Friends (1991) and The Copper Beech (1992). Mary Carroll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A grand storyteller in the finest Irish tradition....She writes from the heart" -- The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
From the Hardcover edition. -- Review
The novel teems with life...Binchey's genius is transforming storytelling into an art. -- San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
Review
"A grand storyteller in the finest Irish tradition....She writes from the heart"—The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
Product Description
Night after night the beautiful woman walked beside the serene waters of Lough Glass. Until the day she disappeared, leaving only a boat drifting upside down on the unfathomable lake that gave the town its name. Ravishing Helen McMahon, the Dubliner with film-star looks and unfulfilled dreams, never belonged in Lough Glass, not the way her genial pharmacist-husband Martin belonged, or their spirited daughter Kit. Suddenly, she is gone and Kit is haunted by the memory of her mother, seen through a window, alone at the kitchen table, tears streaming down her face. Now Kit, too, has secrets: of the night she discovered a letter on Martin’s pillow and burned it, unopened. The night her mother was lost. The night everything changed forever…
From the Publisher
Kit MacMahon, growing up in the lakeside village of Loughshee, seems to lead a charmed life. She is the loved daughter of Martin MacMahon, the kindly local pharmacist, and Helen, his beautiful wife. She has a little brother, Emmett; a best friend, Clio, and a host of other friends.
But Kit worries about her mother. Helen MacMahon does not fit in with the people and the ways of Loughshee. She wanders alone by the lake night after night -- until the dark windy night when she disappears and only her overturned rowboat is found near Loughshee's shore.
Kit grows up in the small village without the mother she has loved and so staunchly defended, determined to carry out her mother's last wishes that she should make something of her life. Though she moves to the city, Kit is constantly drawn back to Loughshee and the people who live there -- Clio Kelly and their love/hate relationship; Clio's father Dr. Kelly, whose sister-in-law Maura has her eyes on Kit's father; Philip O'Brien, who has loved Kit since childhood; and roguish Stevie Sullivan, who runs the garage and rules the affections of every woman for miles around.
The Glass Lake tells the story of how Kit MacMahon carries out her mother's last wishes; a story of how faith and courage can be rewarded. It is Maeve Binchy at her spellbinding best, creating a novel of such warmth and humor that the reader will never want it to end.
From the Inside Flap
Kit MacMahon, growing up in the lakeside village of Loughshee, seems to lead a charmed life. She is the loved daughter of Martin MacMahon, the kindly local pharmacist, and Helen, his beautiful wife. She has a little brother, Emmett; a best friend, Clio, and a host of other friends.
But Kit worries about her mother. Helen MacMahon does not fit in with the people and the ways of Loughshee. She wanders alone by the lake night after night -- until the dark windy night when she disappears and only her overturned rowboat is found near Loughshee's shore.
Kit grows up in the small village without the mother she has loved and so staunchly defended, determined to carry out her mother's last wishes that she should make something of her life. Though she moves to the city, Kit is constantly drawn back to Loughshee and the people who live there -- Clio Kelly and their love/hate relationship; Clio's father Dr. Kelly, whose sister-in-law Maura has her eyes on Kit's father; Philip O'Brien, who has loved Kit since childhood; and roguish Stevie Sullivan, who runs the garage and rules the affections of every woman for miles around.
The Glass Lake tells the story of how Kit MacMahon carries out her mother's last wishes; a story of how faith and courage can be rewarded. It is Maeve Binchy at her spellbinding best, creating a novel of such warmth and humor that the reader will never want it to end.
Journal Entry 2 by Findabair at 0047 Oslo in Gamle Oslo bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Saturday, November 1, 2008
Released 15 yrs ago (11/1/2008 UTC) at 0047 Oslo in Gamle Oslo bydel, Oslo fylke Norway
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
On the shelf!
On the shelf!
Journal Entry 3 by Findabair from St. Hanshaugen bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Saturday, November 1, 2008
The release location went wrong - trying again...
Journal Entry 4 by Findabair at 0047 Oslo in Gamle Oslo bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Saturday, November 1, 2008
Released 15 yrs ago (11/1/2008 UTC) at 0047 Oslo in Gamle Oslo bydel, Oslo fylke Norway
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
(I messed up the release note the previous time...) Book is on the shelf!
(I messed up the release note the previous time...) Book is on the shelf!
Picked up from the shelf at OBCZ Kaffe&Krem in Oslo.
I am a Binchy fan. I like the way she tells stories. "The Glass Lake" is one of these stories and well worth reading.
Journal Entry 7 by 
sota48
at OsloS-OBCZ in Oslo Sentrum, Oslo fylke Norway on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
sota48 at OsloS-OBCZ in Oslo Sentrum, Oslo fylke Norway on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Released 12 yrs ago (1/31/2012 UTC) at OsloS-OBCZ in Oslo Sentrum, Oslo fylke Norway
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I'm bringing the book to the BC meeting tomorrow. It will be left on the shelf unless someone takes it home.
Released in the zone! Thank you! :-)
I found the book in OsloS-OBCZ, but remembered I had read it when I got home. I will release the book again soon.
Journal Entry 10 by MLA at The Long Stone Pub (OBCZ) in Dublin, Co. Dublin Ireland on Thursday, July 19, 2012
Released 11 yrs ago (7/19/2012 UTC) at The Long Stone Pub (OBCZ) in Dublin, Co. Dublin Ireland
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Left the book in the zone - enjoy.
Journal Entry 11 by hon-no-tomo at Bench in the pedestrian area, by ''No Name'' in Waterford, Co. Waterford Ireland on Sunday, August 12, 2012
Released 11 yrs ago (8/11/2012 UTC) at Bench in the pedestrian area, by ''No Name'' in Waterford, Co. Waterford Ireland
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. We would love it, if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.
