Get ready to paint the town green.<P><I>New York Times</I> bestselling authors Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes top an impressive roster of the Emerald Isle's most popular women writers as they celebrate the joys and perils of love and the adventure and constancy of female friendships.<P>In <B>Maeve Binchy</B>'s "Carissima," an ex-pat returns to Ireland and shakes things up for her family, who finds her free spirit scandalous. In "Soulmates," by <B>Marian Keyes,</B> one woman's relationship is so bleedin' perfect that it's driving her friends crazy. In <B>Cathy Kelly'</B>s "Thelma, Louise and the Lurve Gods," two women on a madcap Stateside road trip encounter a pair of insanely good-looking men....These fabulous stories and a baker's dozen more prove that when it comes to spinning a good yarn, the Irish are the best in the business. <P>