With all due respect to great cities such as Boston, Chicago and New York, the Irish have settled and prospered in many other large American cities. So, it's great to come across "Life with Mae" by Neal Shine, a memoir about the Detroit Irish. Mae is Shine's mother, born in 1909 in Carrick-on-Shannon. Her own father worked as a distributor for Guinness, while Mae became a housekeeper at just 14 years old. Quickly, Mae saw that her future in Ireland was limited, and headed for the Midwest before she was 20, settling in Detroit. She raised three sons and, as reported by Shine, left an indelible mark on her family and community. Shine himself is one of Detroit's more influential Irish Americans. He was editor and publisher of the Detroit Free Press, as well as a professor of journalism, who was a driving force in the Motor City's civic life for decades. Shine died just last year at the age of 76. ($24.95 / 248 pages / Wayne State University)