Hot Footing Around The Emerald Isle
by Ian Middleton

Category: Biography / Autobiography
192 pages; ISBN: 0954077911

Rating: 8/10  (Ratings explained)
Reviewer: Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Review

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, columnist and reviewer for MyShelf.Com and author of “This is the Place” and “Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered”



"Hot Footing Around the Emerald Isle" by Ian Middleton is a book travelersand book lovers can adore.

It is just plain funny. And perspicacious. And it will do the world some good—literally. More about that in a minute.

This is a book about, well, you know, the adventures the author had hotfooting it around Ireland. Now the author plans to do it again for charity. He will walk 300 miles across Ireland to aid asthma research come May. Part of the proceeds from this book go directly to charity and the rest of the profits will fund this second walk—sort of charity and profits in motion like a giant snowball (I hope) rolling down and hill and collecting more good, pristine stuff as it rolls!

And more “good stuff” could include another book. For Mr. Middleton , who lives in Maine, is quite an interesting writer. He has a rather salty vocabulary. He has an uncanny knack for spotting the way the universe provides coincidences and for characterization. Though a nonfiction travelogue, "Emerald Isle" introduces us to more interesting characters that the average novel.

This is also inspirational. No, not that kind. It will be an inspiration to English speakers with a tad of Irish running in their veins to visit the green islands. They can go the way Ian did or they can get themselves one of those how-to books that list prices and locations if they prefer. It’s really not what you read about Ireland that’s important. It’s how well what your reading works at getting you there!


(Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, “This is the Place,” has won eight awards.
Her newly released “Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remember” has won two.
One might consider both sort of travel guides to Utah.
Learn more at: http://carolynhowardjohnson.com.)