I'm chuffed to report that author and journalist Ed Moloney, subject of this post and this post and mentioned in this article, found my blog and wrote me a nice note asking where to send the check for the publicity work. Right on, Ed!

I've long known that if I had Ed Moloney's email address (which I do now) that I'd ask him (as I have now) whether he now thinks his book was perhaps a bit pre-mature, if only because many of the IRA sources he plumbed to write it are probably no longer talking to him. As he wrote in the book's preface, many of these sources would not have spoken to him to begin with if they'd known he was working on a book.

As we now know, the peace process isn't over and there's good deal of ongoing drama within the IRA at the moment. There's still quite a story to be told about this highly secretive organization, and it would be a shame if an investigative journalist of Moloney's calibre will never be able to tell it.

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You know, speaking of publicity, I'm ashamed to admit I never sent out a public thank you to Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine, who also surprised me with a personal e-mail asking if I'd be interested in a complimentary copy of Choice: The Best of Reason. Naturally I said yes, please! And sure enough, a copy made its way across the puddle. Many, many thanks.

My review: Well, honestly, I haven't read every essay yet, so I can't really give a proper review, but that won't stop me from recommending it. It's a damn good book, if only for Matt Welch's essay comparing Vaclav Havel to George Orwell, which is arguably the best piece I've read on Havel since, well, ever.