If you live, as I do, in a part of Ireland popular with tourists, you become hardened to the transactions involved in photography, Nuala O'Faolain writes in the introduction to Jon Michael Riley's photography collection "The Irish File." And then, this. This American child of Ireland gives us these photographs.

Indeed, if you, like O'Faolain, are tired of the garish images [of Ireland] you catch sight of in brochures, then Riley's book is a welcome departure. Capturing nature and people, at work and play, from East to West, Riley's images are poetic and humorous, poignant, yet never manipulative. ($50, 176 pages, Rizzoli)