The Celtic Tiger may have had its paws trimmed of late, but for author and illustrator David Yeadon that's all to the good. An explorer of the world's secret places, he has written over 20 noted books about his travels, and one criteria unites them - his fondness for remote communities and their daily round. Forget the tourists trails and Blarney Stones, Yeadon presses on to the Beara Peninsula in southwest Ireland, where he finds soaring mountain ranges, spectacular coastal scenery and roads already half reclaimed by nature. Romantic Ireland is far from dead and gone, he discovers, and a hidden world of craic, music seisuns, seanachai storytellers and ceili dances soon reveals itself to his delighted gaze. Harper Collins, $16.99.