The Wily O’Reilly: Irish Country Stories

Beyond the appealing rhyming title, The Wily O’Reilly is a real treasure for fans of the Irish Country series. These are the humor columns that started it all, published monthly from October 1995 to December 2001. Also included is a more recent, but lengthier short story that was originally published in electronic form only, and is now included for those fans without e-reader technology.

The stories are lovely, but I’m just not sure that there’s much new in here. I’ve only read the most recent of the Irish Country novels, but many of the anecdotes told in this collection were already familiar to me. What makes this book such a gem is that we get to experience the development of the characters we’ve grown to love. This collection provides fabulous background, and the stories are perfect for when you want a little Irish Country fix, but only have a few minutes to spare.

In an earlier review, I had compared Fingal O’Reilly, Irish Doctor to listening to my grandma’s stories. This book hasn’t changed my opinion any—just like grandma’s stories, I may have heard these before, but I still love them.