A Treasury of Irish Literature at the Shorewood-Troy Library: The 17 Days of St. Patrick

William Butler Yeats in 1923. George Bernard Shaw in 1925. Samuel Beckett in 1969. And Seamus Heaney in 1995.

These are the well deserved Irish winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Anything they have ever written is worth your time.

Yet there are so many other wonderful authors and poets that I consider top shelf.

James Joyce is among the most difficult, convoluted and confusing writers. It is as if you need a secret decoder ring to understand what he is talking about.

At the University of Iowa, I spent an entire semester in the class Finnegan's Wake for Beginners. Our instructor, Cheryl Herr, is among the most world renown authorities on Joyce. Yet, in four or five months, even with the best professor, we did not read it cover to cover.

Instead, we studied excerpts. It was one of the most incredible classes I ever took. Joyce was nuts. And a genius. He layers in so many messages and meanings that reading it is more like an archaeological excavation than relaxation. In fact, when I told the local librarian I had taken this class, she agreed.

"You would need an entire semester to read that," said Leslie Lovato, Shorewood-Troy reference librarian.

When asked for a list of good Irish reads, Lovato came back with a list I approve of. Here is what she suggested:

• Frank McCourt: Angela's Ashes and 'Tis are best sellers. Either is fantastic and worth paying full price for. The former has been made into a box office hit. Very insightful and heart wrenching. His language is unmatched.
• James Joyce: Ahh, Mr. Joyce. Lovato suggests reading Dubliners, one of his most popular. It is not as difficult as Finnigan's Wake and just as rich. I'll also add Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man to the list of great books.
• Frank Delaney: He is more of a modern author out of Ireland. I haven't ready Delaney yet, so I don't have an official comment. However, word on the street is he's fabulous. His most recent book is titled The Matchmaker of Kenmare. 
• Andrew Greeley: An American priest, Greeley's stories are hugely popular and all take place in Ireland. Very light, interesting love stories. The most recent is Irish Tweed.
• Maeve Binchy: Another author whose stories were made into movies. Her stories are typically light, easy reads. The most popular is Circle of Friends and the newest is Minding Frankie. I think of Binchy as summer vacation reads.

For nonfiction, the library has the following coffee table books:

• A Celebration of Ireland, by Janice Anderson
• Ancient Ireland, by Jacqueline O'Brien
• Irish Farmer's Market Cookbook, by Clodagh McKenna

There are two other authors on the top of my must-read list that cannot be found at the Shorewood-Troy library. You won't need the luck of the Irish, though, to get them. You can find both the following authors at area bookstores and on Amazon.com.

My favorite all-time historian is Tim Pat Coogan. He wrote A History of the IRA, which is challengingly clear. Everything I've ready by Coogan is a home run.

Secondly, modern poet Ciaran Carson wrote Belfast Confetti and The Irish for No. Both are titles of individual poems as well as their collections. Professor Herr turned me on to Carson and I have been an avid fan since.

There are so many great titles, should the muse inspire you. No matter what books you are in the mood for this March, Ireland has an author for you.