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Andrea Kay's Bookshelf
Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots
Valerie Tiberius
Princeton University Press
https://press.princeton.edu
9780691285399, $27.95, HC, 224pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Artificially-Yours-Friendship-World-Chatbots/dp/069128539X
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/artificially-yours-valerie-tiberius/1147951097
Synopsis: Is friendship with a chatbot as good as friendship with an actual person? Is there something about human friendships that eludes simulation? If so, what? And how much will the answers to questions like these change as AI develops and becomes more convincingly like us?
With the publication of "Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots", Professor Valerie Tiberius explains what friendship is and why it's valuable -- and why there is no perfect artificial/AI substitute for human friends.
Blending insights from philosophy, psychology, and her own entertaining experiences with chatbots, Professor Tiberius addresses a subject at the heart of our growing reliance on AI companions. She defines the ideal friendship as an enjoyable, close relationship built on shared activities between people who care about each other for their own sake. But few things in life are ever ideal, including friendship.
Professor Tiberius also demonstrates how different kinds of friendships can be valuable in different ways: they can be pleasurable or useful, they can shape who we are and how we see ourselves, and the best ones are good for their own sakes.
Using each of these values as her guide, Professor Tiberius finds that relationships with chatbots do in fact exhibit some of the characteristics of friendship -- but cautions that even future relationships with advanced AI are highly unlikely to be good in all the ways human friendships are.
A vital contribution to the current ongoing national conversation about human-AI relationships, "Artificially Yours" weighs the ethical risks before us as we look to a future with intelligent machines and affirms the value of human connections.
Critique: Timely, informative, thought-provoking, and an inherently fascinating read from beginning to end, "Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots" by Professor Valerie Tiberius is an extraordinary, seminal, and groundbreaking study on an increasingly important issue about the growing and evolving impact of AI on humanity. Informatively enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of a ten page Bibliography, fourteen pages of Notes, and a ten page Index, "Artificially Yours" is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library AI/Human Interaction collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, political activists, governmental policy makers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Artificially Yours' from the Princeton University Press is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.37, Amazon).
Editorial Note: Valerie Tiberius (https://www.valerietiberius.com) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Her books include What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters (Princeton), Well-Being as Value Fulfillment: How We Can Help Each Other to Live Well, and The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits.
Finding Life: A Prehistoric Search and Find
Sophie Williams
Cicada Books
https://www.cicadabooks.co.uk
9781800660540, $18.99, HC, 40pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Life-Prehistoric-Search-Find/dp/1800660545
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/finding-life-sophie-williams/1147705647
Synopsis: "Finding Life: A Prehistoric Search and Find" by author/illustrator Sophie Williams is and informative and entertaining picture book that deftly combines an informative, educational journey through the history of life on this planet with a vibrant, detail-packed search and find.
Simple texts break down the various epochs, ranging from the Precambrian Era through to the Holocene. On each spread, a selection of relevant creatures can be found hiding in the landscapes. Can you spot Pulmonoscorpius, the two-foot-long scorpion, hiding in the Carboniferous landscape? Or the tiny dinosaur, Eoraptor, concealed in the Triassic?
Kids will return time and again to pick through all the incredible detail on each page. This visually informative time trip through evolution will provide hours of entertainment for budding paleontologists.
Critique: Original, exceptional, informative, and a fun read from cover to cover, this hardcover picture book edition of "Finding Life: A Prehistoric Search and Find" from Cicada Books will prove to be a welcome and enduringly popular addition to family, elementary school, middle school, and community library science/paleontology themed picture book collections for young readers ages 7-11.
Editorial Note: Sophie Williams (www.sophywilliamsillustrator.com) is a Cornish illustrator and author. Her bright, engaging style of drawing is inspired by illustrators such as Nick Sharratt and Gemma Correll. She is the illustrator of Earth Shattering Events (2019), Stones and Bones (2024) and the author of Map of You (2022).
Andrea Kay
Reviewer
Andy Jordan's Bookshelf
The Unlikely Huntress
Stephen Maitland-Lewis
www.maitland-lewis.com
Hildebrand Books
9798895030325, $34.99, HC, 242pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Unlikely-Huntress-Stephen-Maitland-Lewis/dp/B0FZYLT4G1
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-unlikely-huntress-stephen-maitland-lewis/1148690507
Synopsis: The world believed Hitler died in 1945. They were wrong.
In 1959, Giselle Faber, a recent university graduate and just months into her first job, stumbled into a conspiracy that nearly ignited global war and uncovered Adolf Hitler hiding in South America. Now 10 years later, older, wiser, married and a mother, living in Buenos Aires, she has tried to leave that life behind -- until a chance encounter pulls her into yet another perilous chase.
With her husband and uncle at her side, Giselle must outwit deadly forces and confront the ultimate evil once again. The stakes are higher. The dangers are greater. And this time, failure is not an option.
Critique: An international thriller of espionage, betrayal, and relentless suspense, "The Unlikely Huntress" is a sequel to author Stephen Maitland-Lewis novel, "Legacy of Atonement" and continues to demonstrate his exceptional talents for a character and narrative driven storytelling style that grips the readers rapt attention from cover to cover. Of immense interest to fans of original espionage suspense thrillers and action/adventure stories with women protagonists central figure, "The Unlikely Huntress" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Suspense/Thriller Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "The Unlikely Huntress" from Hildebrand Books is also available in paperback (9798895030202, $18.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.99).
Editorial Note: Stephen Maitland-Lewis (www.maitland-lewis.com) is an author, British attorney, and former international investment banker whose career has spanned London, Kuwait, Paris, Munich, and Wall Street. Maitland-Lewis is also a member of PEN, The Authors Guild, the International Mystery Writers Festival. His novels include Legacy of Atonement, Hero on Three Continents, Emeralds Never Fade, Ambition, Botticelli's Bastard, and Duped. His short fiction collection, Mr. Simpson and Other Short Stories, features the award-winning title story, later adapted for the stage.
Andy Jordan
Reviewer
Ann Skea's Bookshelf
The Names of a Hare
Bernice Barry
https://bernicebarry.com
Fremantle Press
9781760996635, A$34.99 PB 236pp.
Fremantle Press
https://fremantlepress.com.au/books/the-names-of-a-hare
'There are things you'll be wanting to know and I will tell you most of them, but there's one thing I will not give and that is my name.
There's something in a name that holds power.'
Mary-Ann Lightfoot, May, Maple Durham - all these are the names she has been known by at different times. There are good practical reasons for this, but also 'to say a name is powerful magic', and magic and superstition are powerful and dangerous forces, especially when the self-styled 'Witchfinder General', Matthew Hopkins, is going from town-to-town with his retinue of torturers, and his band of women 'prickers' who test for blood from any marks on a woman's body. He claims he is 'doing God's work', seeking out those who consort with the Devil.
In Cornwall, in the early 1600s, the Reverend Martyn has, unusually, taught his daughter mathematics, grammar and Latin, but to be a woman with knowledge is also a dangerous. Her mother died in childbirth, and his housekeeper, Gunnet Dawes, provides her with gentle care, but also teaches her things that will change her life. She shows her how to recognise, name and collect plants, and how to use those that grow on the dunes and in the village gardens to heal simple ailments, telling her
'The green things growing freely around us are nature's gift, so they come from God.'.... 'So isn't it a sin not to use them to help those in need, if we know how?'...'But we must never forget that what we do is dangerous. You must remember that. Be wary. Comero weeth!'
Gunnet is also a source of country wisdom:
'Keep your roots shallow like the furze bushes child. Grow thorns as they do, and you'll survive anywhere in life'
It is the furze bushes that save her when she is fifteen and a local boy grabs her as she comes back alone from the beach. But it is scratches from the thorns he falls into when she fights him off that his mother says 'don't look human', and she accuses her of cursing him 'with diabolical oaths' and marking him with her nails 'like a woman bewitched'.
She knows that she has always been different to others, and that sets her apart. She is 'obsessed with precision', delights in 'numbers, patterns, perfect order', and she is socially awkward and flinches from touch and from eye contact. As a child, she learns to distance herself from all around her. Holding her treasured white stone - her 'flying stone' - she can lie in the dunes with her eyes closed and lift up and see herself from above. She does not know if this is 'a gift from God or a sin', so she keeps it secret.
It is the boy's sisters, who mercilessly torment her whenever they see her, who cause her first flight into hiding, and it is her betrayal by a woman she had considered to be her only friend that results in her being publicly accused of witchcraft. She is locked in her room, then in the church, because she is a witch and 'must be tried for murder.'
With her father's help and with a bundle and a message sent to her by Gunnet, she escapes. Gunnet's message tells her 'how to find the way eastward' and that she must walk at night, in valleys and away from roads, and never to climb a hill or come home. She must also swear never to give her name.
After four days, hungry and exhausted, she climbs a hill to get away from people celebrating round a bonfire. There, she collapses, but is rescued by an odd couple who take her to their half-hidden cottage on the moor. However, it seems that they know who she is, the door is locked, and the woman tries to steal her bundle, so, using a herb Gunnet has given her, she drugs the couple, and steals the key. She never knows if the herb was lethal or not, and later she believes that the woman has laid a curse on her.
All her life she has been aware of animals as omens and she has a special relationship with hares. In spite of the superstitions about them, Gunnet had told her that if you respect and honour them, they will bring you luck. But you must never call them by their true name.
If they move across the way I'm walking, I always take off my cap, put aside whatever I'm carrying and say the words Gunnet taught me. I call them by their many names and wonder if they know all of mine. I, too, have been the steal-away, the hidden one, the friendless, the one that everyone scorns.
So, when again she collapses exhausted on the moor, it is not surprising that a hare becomes part of her own story. She loves to hear the woman, Annis, tell of how she was found:
First there was a hare.... lying on its side on the bare ground at the top of the hill and unmoving, out in the open where a sick animal should not be.
Annis runs home for a blanket so that she can take it home to nurse it. When she returns the hare has gone but nearby is a bundle of rags.
'A tumble of scraps, grey and brown, more mud and frost than a living thing. And then you opened your eyes and looked right at me.
She stays with Annis, who lives in a remote, steep-sided Devon valley and survives by making 'country remedies' that local people pay for, either in goods or with a few coins. Annis calls her 'May', and May soon learns that Annis, unlike Gunnet, knows 'high magic' - charms, curses and rituals - but she issues stern warnings that 'dark magic is not a plaything' and that curses can rebound on the user.
When Hopkins turns up at Annis's cottage seeking help for a genital infection, Annis is careful but blunt, and angry at his hypocrisy. She tells him that he has 'the French Disease', 'the pox'; and that it is God's divine punishment for his sins. Angers flare, Hopkins attacks May, but she escapes and flees again.
She renames herself Maple Durham and moves from place to place, providing simple remedies in exchange for food, but always aware that Hopkins is looking for her. When she meets an elderly fisherman, Amos, who begs her for treatment for his back-pain, a comfortable relationship begins between them which lasts for years. A chance meeting on the moors with Ensor Doone, whose family are looking to buy land in the area, leads to a secret love affair, but Ensor leaves, promising to return, which he never does.
Civil War breaks out, plague is everywhere, witches are burned, and the Doones (reputed to be Scottish nobles dispossessed from their lands by a blood relative) are 'the talk of the whole area', 'spreading fear all along the coast'.
A confrontation between Maple and village men who accuse her of witchcraft is defused by local women, but Matthew Hopkins finds here again and she has terrifying confrontations with him and, later, with his loyal deputy, Philip Spicer. In desperation, she resorts to dark magic, but aborts the ritual and never knows whether the resulting events were cause by her or not.
The Doones, and Ensor, enter her life again, so, too does John Rudd, who comes looking for her help to find the woman, Lorna Doone, with whom he has fallen in love. Maple warns him to stay away from the Doones, but
There was nothing I could do. His future was already a history, the tale of his Lorna Doone, but that story was his to tell, not mine.
Maple's final years in her hut on the cliff-side are peaceful. She teaches another young woman all she knows, and prepares to die quietly, and in a dreamlike ending we see her back in Cornwall, making her way, like a hare, to the 'good safe place' where she once buried her precious flying stone.
Bernice Barry skilfully weaves folk-lore, herbal knowledge, magic, history, and the Doones of Richard Blackmoor's 17th century novel Lorna Doone, into The Names of a Hare. Her old Cornish woman tells her story in a straight-forward, old-fashioned way, and along the way she shares occasional gems of herbal knowledge, like a recipe for a soothing drink for a child's sore throat, and the power of the periwinkle flower 'worn close to a woman's most secret places' to ensure a happy fertile marriage. A glossary of Cornish words would sometimes have been helpful, and the gap in time and change of narrator between the opening chapter and one that follows it is initially confusing, but this is soon forgotten. An inserted chapter describing the violent childhood of Matthew Hopkins, does not excuse his evil adulthood and is superfluous, but the rest of the book is absorbing and enjoyable. Bernice Barry, like her un-names heroine, knows that words are potent things and that 'a story shared is the highest magic of all'.
Dr Ann Skea, Reviewer
https://ann.skea.com/THHome.htm
Carl Logan's Bookshelf
Called to Reckon
Jane E. Simonsen, editor
Southern Illinois University Press
www.siupress.com
9780809339891, $95.00, HC, 372pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Called-Reckon-Replacing-Reclaiming-Midwestern/dp/0809339897
Southern Illinois University Press
https://www.siupress.com/9780809339853/called-to-reckon
Synopsis: Augustana College (a predominantly white institution in Rock Island, Illinois) was founded by Swedish Lutheran settlers with a mission to educate for the common good and "serve the neighbor so that all may flourish".
Compiled and edited by Jane E. Simonsen, "Called to Reckon: Replacing History and Reclaiming Mission at a Midwestern College" is an impressive and ground-breaking collection of erudite contributions written by historians, alumnae, diversity leaders, and religion scholars -- each revealing the stories of those who have held the college accountable to its foundational mission.
Drawing from archival research and interviews with students, staff, faculty, administrators, and community members, "Called to Reckon" deftly weaves together issues of race, indigeneity, sexuality, religion, and belonging, linking past conflicts to present-day challenges.
The essays comprising "Called to Reckon" examine the "town and gown" dynamic, exploring tensions between the college and its more diverse surrounding community.
Other contributors recount key moments in the growing presence and power of Black students on campus from 1925 to 1975, placed in the context of African and African American history.
One chapter documents the history of Latinos/x Unidos, while another essay demonstrates how queer members of the Augustana community helped reshape the campus in the post-Stonewall era.
By placing Augustana's history in conversation with broader movements, this collective study offers a rich, critical perspective on the liberal arts tradition itself. It makes a key contribution to the growing field of whiteness studies, particularly in the understudied Midwest, and is an essential read for anyone committed to understanding how educational institutions can move toward justice -- not just in aspiration, but in action.
Useful for faculty, administrators, staff, and trustees alike, "Called to Reckon" challenges all of higher education professionals to live up to its highest ideals.
Critique: Original, instructive, thoughtful and thought-provoking, "Called to Reckon: Replacing History and Reclaiming Mission at a Midwestern College" will resonate with anyone who has participated in a college or university whether as a student, faculty member, administrator, or board member. While unreservedly recommended as a unique addition to personal, professional, community, or college/university library Higher Education Theory/Policy collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "Called to Reckon" from the Southern Illinois University Press is also readily available in paperback (9780809339853, $27.50).
Editorial Note #1: Jane E. Simonsen is a professor of history and women's, gender, and sexuality studies and the Richard A. Swanson Chair of Social Thought at Augustana College. She is the author of Making Home Work: Domesticity and Native American Assimilation in the American West, 1860-1919.
Editorial Note #2: Contributions are by Steven Bahls, Robert Burke, Lizandra Gomez-Ramirez, Lauren Hammond-Ford, Sarah Lashley, Jason Mahn, Harrison Phillis, Mark Safstrom, Monica M. Smith, Christopher Strunk, and Andrea Talentino.
Spies, Culture, and Society: Coming in from the Cold
Simon Willmetts & Constant Hijzen, editors
Georgetown University Press
www.press.georgetown.edu
9781647126629, $149.00, HC, 320pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Spies-Culture-Society-Georgetown-Intelligence/dp/1647126622
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spies-culture-and-society-simon-willmetts/1147191167
Synopsis: Intelligence agencies are traditionally understood as cloistered entities. Hidden behind a veil of secrecy, they conduct their activities relatively free from public scrutiny, and their assessments are ideally detached from the cultural and political biases that pervade our fallen world.
Today, however, intelligence services have come in from the cold. They feature routinely in our popular culture and our political debates. Our ideas about them, from "deep state" conspiracy theories to popular tropes drawn from spy fiction and cinema, have even influenced the outcome of major elections. Likewise, as John Le Carre once put it, intelligence officers do not sit "like monks in a cell" but are themselves products of the social, political, and cultural domains they inhabit.
"Spies, Culture, and Society: Coming in from the Cold" brings together some of the world's leading experts on intelligence and its wider impact to explore different aspects of this reciprocal relationship between spies, culture, and society. The topics covered include the influence of spy films and novels, interactions between spies and journalists, the historical roots of the "deep state" conspiracy theory, Western intelligence and imperialism, and more. Together, these chapters showcase a new way of understanding intelligence agencies as fundamentally integrated into the cultures, societies, and political systems that they seek to analyze and protect.
Offering meaningful insights for intelligence studies scholars, Cold War historians, and media scholars, this collection offers a new paradigm for understanding intelligence agencies as fundamentally integrated into the cultures and societies they seek to protect.
Critique: Deftly compiled by the team of Professor Simon Willmetts and Dutch General Intelligence & Security Service advisor Constant Hijzen, "Spies, Culture, and Society: Coming in from the Cold" is a compendium of eleven knowledgeable and informative articles on the history military and political intelligence gathering, both in real life and as understood in the popular culture. Exceptionally well organized and presented, "Spies, Culture, and Society: Coming in from the Cold" is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Political Intelligence Gathering/Military History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted by students, academia, and non-specialist readers with an interest in the subject that this hardcover edition of "Spies, Culture, and Society: Coming in from the Cold" from the Georgetown University Press is also readily available in paperback (9781647126636, $49.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $49.95).
Editorial Note #1: Simon Willmetts is an associate professor of intelligence studies at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University. He is the author of In Secrecy's Shadow: The OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema, 1941-1979.
Editorial Note #2: Constant Hijzen is the historical adviser at the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) and is a research fellow in intelligence and security at Leiden University. He is the author of Roots of Counterterrorism: Contemporary Wisdom from Dutch Intelligence.
Carl Logan
Reviewer
Clint Travis' Bookshelf
Monsters: Myths, Legends, and Real Encounters
Richard Estep
https://www.richardestep.net
Visible Ink Press
www.visibleinkpress.com
9781578598885, $59.95, HC, 304pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Legends-Encounters-Unexplained-Collection/dp/1578598885
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/monsters-richard-estep/1147842939
Synopsis: From the creeping undead thirsting for blood to the giant serpent-like creatures inhabiting lakes, rivers, and seas, "Monsters: Myths, Legends, and Real Encounters" by paranormal author and expert Richard Estep dives into the unexplained tales and frightening folklore of beasts that inhabit the land, sea, and air. Readers will encounter winged humanoids with glowing red eyes, dragons and devils, werewolves and water-horses, chupacabras, tommyknockers, and many, many more.
With master storyteller and seasoned paranormal investigator Richard Estep as your guide, you will learn about:
The Vampire of Alnwick, a medieval bloodsucker
Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yowie
Bunyip, an Australian water monster
Chedipe, the tiger-riding naked woman of India
The Grafton Monster, a nocturnal hulk from West Virginia
The Jersey Devil
The Kraken, Krampus, and Lilith
Manananggal, the bat-winged vampire women
Morgawr, Mothman, and Nessie
The Werewolf of Cannock Chase
Pluse numerous other prominent and lesser-known monsters of fact, myth, and legend!
Whether you are an aspiring monster hunter, a skeptic, or simply looking for a fun read, you will find plenty of strange, fascinating stories and explorations of histories of mysterious creatures that inspire fear and wonder within the pages of Monsters. It's the (im)perfect bedtime read!!
Critique: Featuring B/W illustrations, "Monsters: Myths, Legends, and Real Encounters" by Richard Estep is an encyclopedically informative and inherently fascinating read from cover to cover. Enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of an informative Foreword, Introduction, and Conclusion, "Monsters: Myths, Legends, and Real Encounters" also features four pages of End Notes; a two page listing of Photo Sources; two pages of suggested Further Reading, and a five page Index. While this hardcover edition of "Monsters: Myths, Legends, and Real Encounters" from Visible Ink Press is unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Supernatural Phenomena & Unexplained Mystery collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that it is also readily available in paperback (9781578598779, $19.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).
Editorial Note: Richard Estep (https://www.richardestep.net) is the paranormal author of more than 30 books, including Visible Ink Press' Dark Spirits: Monsters, Demons and Devils; Ghostly Encounters: Terrifyingly True Hauntings; Serial Killers: The Minds, Methods, and Mayhem of History's Most Notorious Murderers; The Serial Killer Next Door: The Double Lives of Notorious Murderers; and Family, Friends and Neighbors: Stories of Murder and Betrayal. Additionally, he's written numerous paranormal nonfiction titles, including The Horrors of Fox Hollow Farm: Unraveling the History & Hauntings of a Serial Killer's Home. He is a regular columnist for Haunted Magazine and has also written for the Journal of Emergency Medical Services. Richard appears regularly on the TV shows Haunted Case Files, Haunted Hospitals, Paranormal 911, and Paranormal Night Shift.
Plausible Liars
Lin Wilder
Wilder Books
9798218297305, $12.26 PB / $0.99 Kindle, 386pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Plausible-Liars-Lindsey-Medical-Mystery/dp/B0CL6GTVHB
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/plausible-liars-lin-wilder/1144415378
Synopsis: Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Kate Townsend knew she would lob an incendiary device into contemporary culture if she wrote and published her series, Corrupting America's Children: Creating Chemical Eunuchs. But because of what she'd witnessed in her son's pre-kindergarten, she felt obligated to do it.
In a remarkable convergence of events, Lindsey McCall is also drawn into the explosive world of transgender politics. For the second time in four years, Lindsey is facing indictment for unintentional murder. The US Department of Justice has indicted both McCall and Townsend in a conspiracy of mammoth proportions.
Critique: "Plausible Liars" is a deftly crafted medical/Legal suspense thriller and the fifth novel of Wilder's author Lindsey McCall riveting 'The Dr. Lindsey McCall Medical Mystery Series'. Once again her expanding legion of readers will find the innovative medical research that is so beloved by her fans. Of special note is a dramatic courtroom scenario guaranteed to provoke and challenge the reader. With its theme of a high-stakes conspiracy involving medical ethics, federal indictment, and explosive social controversy, "Plausible Liars" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "Plausible Liars" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $0.99, Amazon).
Editorial Note: Lin Wilder (www.linwilder.com) has a doctorate in Public Health from the University of Texas at Houston with a background in cardiopulmonary physiology, medical ethics, and hospital administration. During her thirty-plus years in academic healthcare administration, Lin authored numerous texts in these fields. She began writing fiction after leaving her Hospital Director position at UMASS Medical Center. Her medical mystery series includes: "The Fragrance Shed By A Violet", "Do You Solemnly Swear?", "A Price for Genius" and "Malthus Revisited".
Clint Travis
Reviewer
Debra Gaynor's Bookshelf
Black Swan 2: A Natural Disaster Thriller
Bobby Akart
Crown Publishing Group
https://crownpublishing.com
9798295648885, $19.95 Paperback, $34.95 Hardcover, $24.09 Audiobook, $5.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Natural-Disaster-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0G2KB26FZ
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-swan-2-bobby-akart/1149558435
"Some truths are too dangerous for the public."
"The term Black Swan describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. A Black Swan event is hard to predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, economics, and technology." (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory).
Book 2 picks-up where book 1 left off. This is a 4-book series.
This series revolves around the Pickett family. Bud is the sheriff of Liberty County, Texas. His wife Bonnie passed away in an accident. He has two adult children, Daniel Pickett and Dr. Emily Pickett. Bonnie had a special talent as did her father; Daniel has the same talent only magnified.
A comet is headed toward Earth only there is something different about it. It isn't acting like a comet. Dr. Emily Pickett and Dr. X are scheduled for a press conference except Dr. X is gone. Emily is on her own. She knows her reputation is on the line and will be destroyed if she tells the truth but people will die if she doesn't.
Daniel has information concerning PPD, Project Protect Destiny. A powerful league that has been monitoring his family for decades and monitoring the "comet". He needs to get the information to Emily.
In five days the "comet" will be closest to the Earth. At first the shooting stars are beautiful. The citizens can't help but fix their eyes on the sky. As the "comet" comes closer more and more debris rains down out of the sky. People are dying as the meteors pummel the planet. "What comes after is worse. Fires. Tsunamis from ocean impacts. Atmospheric debris blocking sunlight. Agricultural collapse. Infrastructure failure. The cascading effects of a technological civilization abruptly cut off from the systems it depends on."
What is the "comet"? What is it hiding? "They're coming to collect what they've planted. The seeds they scattered across generations. The ones they've marked." Is this the end of civilization as we know it?
I've always enjoyed Bobby Akart's stories, but this his greatest to date. He has left me more than a little concerned. I've read his tales only to find how realistic they are and sometimes they seem to come true. This series just keeps building. The action is non-stop.
Author Bobby Akart is a superb writer; the plot is fast paced. I felt as if I were there experiencing the events as they unfold. The dialogue, descriptions, the characters are realistic and the scientific facts provide realism.
Chaos Man: The Specialists #3
Andrew Mayne
Thomas & Mercer
9781662522529 $16.99 Paperback, $5.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Man-Thriller-Specialists-Book/dp/B0FSNV8D18
The tension builds as author Andrew Mayne continues The Specialists series. This is the first book I have read by this author. I discovered that he has actually written several books with the Specialists Team Members.
There are four members to the Specialists Team: Theo Cray is a math genius and sees patterns where others do not. Jessica Blackwood is an FBI agent who has gone rogue, she refuses to allow herself to be controlled; her parents were magicians. Bard Trasker was involved in espionage but now is employed by an aviation company with high level drone contracts; he has extensive military contacts. Sloan McPherson is a Florida law enforcement underwater investigator that adds her legitimate law enforcement assistance.
This is a mix of procedure and action novel. There is an emphasis on technology including AI. The 4 team members work in tandem against a complex villain impossible to profile. The detectives use a variety of methods to analyze the killer's ultimate goal.
This tale begins with a bang, literally! A train crash in Idaho almost causing a nuclear explosion. Then a battery plant in Florida blows up. After that the electrical grid leaves people in the dark. In Virginia, a dam threatens to flood the area.
Theo knows something is off, he can see the patterns however, no one else can. He brings in the other team members and convinces them the disasters as not accidents. The villain is using the chaos for his own purpose. But what is his goal? It feels like it is going to be something that will affect the whole country.
This is an exciting thriller. The narration is excellent and adds to the depth of the story.
The Gravel Garden: Visionary, Drought-Defying, Naturalistic Designs
Jeff Epping and Teresa Woodard, authors
Timber Press
c/o Hachette Book Group
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com
9781643264820, $50.00 Hardback, $18.99 Ebook
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Gravel-Garden-Visionary-Drought-Defying-Naturalistic/dp/1643264826
Author, Horticulturalist Jeff Eppling shares his expertise on creating a gravel garden. This book is filled with beautiful photographs and information that will inspire the reader to create their own Gravel Garden. Author Jeff Epping suggests plants and offers tips for gravel gardening.
A Gravel Garden is much easier to maintain because the roots are deep and they stay cooler, needing less water, there will be few weeds. The gardens look neat and well maintained. Currently it is early spring, I have gardening on my mind. I can see countless pictures that intrigue me and make me want to create a Gravel Garden.
There are over 300 pages in this book showing 20 gardens. This is a must have book if you enjoy gardening. This book will be published June 2, 2026.
The Great and Terrible Land #1: West of Wicked
Nikki St. Crowe
Bramble
9781250382191, $32.99 Hardcover, $19.99 Paperback, $16.99 Ebook, $26.99 Audiobook
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/West-Wicked-Great-Terrible-Land/dp/125038219X
This is the retelling of the Wizard of Oz with some drastic changes. Dorothy Gale lives in Kansas on a farm. She finds farm life boring. Edward is in love with her and determined to make her his wife. Kansas is known for severe storms, and this one is very dangerou. The tornado picks up the farmhouse and drops it on the Witch of the East. Dorothy is considered a hero by the locals. To return home, she must locate the Wizard. As she travels down the yellow brick road she meets a man hanging in a garden, it is Rook the Scarecrow. Someone wants him injured and maybe dead. Rook and Dorothy form a close relationship. Rook has no memory. The Wicked Witch of the West is upset with Dorothy and sends her mightiest mercenary, the Tin Man to find her.
This tale begins with Dorothy Gale, a small dog, a storm and a farmhouse. As you might expect, the house lands on the wicked with. The Tin Man and The Scarecrow both play a major role in the tale only not the way you may expect. In this version the Tin Man is the villain, with no heart. The Scarecrow is a handsome, sexy fellow. The characters in West of Wicked are well done with depth, darkness and complexity.
The story is told through multiple points of view. There is a bit of romance. Oz is not the bright and colorful place you may expect. Oz is dark, mysterious and dangerous. The inhabitants of Oz are monsters, witches and grey characters. There are twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. This is book one of a new series; the author has spent a lot of time world building. I expect book 2 will be even better than book 1.
Debra Gaynor, Reviewer
www.hancockclarion.com
https://www.facebook.com/book.reviews.by.debra.2025
Fred Siegmund's Bookshelf
American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress
Wesley Lowery
Mariner Books
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780063320918, $19.99, 237 pages
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/American-Whitelash-Changing-Nation-Progress/dp/0063320916
The book opens by recounting the Grant Park celebration following the 2008 election of President Barak Obama. The narrative contrasts those who saw the election as an opportunity to ease the racial divide with the many white men and a few white women who saw the election as a threat to their identity and class status. The election of a president with a black father and a white mother brought a surge of anger and hatred and paved the way for a Whitelash filled with violence, and Trump. The author quotes Obama from his memoir. "It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted." A quote from a poet and essayist, Camonghne Felix, explains "What we expected of the Obama administration was beyond what the framework of the presidency allowed." How true. Presidents take an oath to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution, which falsely suggests there is presidential power to do.
The book has five parts divided into numbered subsections and an epilogue, all of it covering just 237 pages. Part I establishes the threat of terrorism with a review of white supremacy as practiced in the United States. At the end of Part I Lowery explains the book is "an exploration of the horror that our era has wrought and an attempt to place a decade of American carnage in the context of America history;... My goal is to be neither comprehensive nor encyclopedic. This book is an attempt to put human faces on the relentless cycle of violence that has defined American history." Part I ends at page 27 and readers should know the remaining 210 pages puts a depressing and violent human face on the United States.
In part II readers visit Patchogue, Long Island, where they meet Joselo Lucero and his son Marcelo. They are immigrants from Ecuador. Narrative follows a gang of middle class white teens, some with Swastika tattoos, roaming about intentionally looking for victims to assault. One of the group named Jeff Conroy stabbed and killed Marcelo Lucero. The narrative follows a journalist's investigation of the boy's racist and white supremacist views, and the prosecution and trial of a hate crime, manslaughter and gang assault.
Part II and all the remaining parts fill in related historical material of racism, cite criminology research and provide examples of the current status of white supremacy. Lowery's white supremacy discussion establishes white supremacy as a dangerous and more violent extension of the more common racial prejudice that has always plagued America.
Part III - White Radicalization - builds a narrative around the saga of white supremacist Wade Michael Page. Page carried out a mass shooting after invading the temple of Sikhs in Oak Park, Wisconsin. Part IV - An American Nazi's final bark - builds another narrative around white racist, Glenn Miller, who attacked a Jewish Community Center and assassinated Jewish people there. Upon his arrest he informed police "My name is Glenn Miller. I'm an anti-Semite. I hate goddamn Jews. How many did I get."
As with Part II, Parts III and IV, add related discussion of related study and writing in the causes and consequences of right-wing extremists and the need for more aggressive counter measures. Part V - A Movement Rises - narrates a history of the Black Lives Matter campaign, which began shortly after the Obama inauguration with the deliberate murder of Oscar Grant by BART transit police at Fruitvale station. A bystander recorded the Fruitvale murder with a phone camera. There would be more video recorded murders that would go online. Lowery interviewed some of the victim's families giving an especially personal side to their horror and rage. Readers will find assassination discussion of Eric Garner, New York; Trayvon Martin, Sanford, Florida; Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri; Shawn Washington, St. Louis; George Floyd, Minneapolis; Jamar Clark, Minneapolis; Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota; Heather Heyer, Charlottesville, Virginia; Breonna Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky.
Only a page of a twelve page epilogue has what I would expect to find in an epilogue. All but a page recounts another assassination of a young man named Richard Collins III and its depressing aftermath. The one page ending takes a couple of sentences to write the depressing reality of what so many suspect already that politicians like Trump will continue to exploit and encourage bigotry and the murderous acts of white supremacists. Lowery's last sentence: "And as long as there are elements within our mainstream politics and media willing to cynically play to those fears - unwilling to call racism and bigotry by their rightful names - we can expect additional bursts of white racial violence, the horrific calling card of our era of American Whitelash."
Author Lowery does a good job narrating and documenting the evidence for the many episodes of white supremacist violence he recounts in the book. As a journalist he covered many of the events, which allows a first-hand account. The book has endnotes by page number but does not have an index, a decided disadvantage because it makes it difficult to follow names that appear and reappear in the narrative. The book includes authors and titles of related work at various places around the book. I counted at least twenty of them and they appear in lieu of a bibliography.
We learn from a white supremacist interviewed for the book they avoid formal organization as too easy to infiltrate and prosecute. Instead, they use social media to spread their violent aims and hope converts will plan their own assassinations. As Lowery explained at the beginning, he wanted to let readers understand "the relentless cycle of violence that has defined American history." He did that well but I would expect those who finish the book will be evaluating the chances for civil war and realize Trump has spent the last eight years preaching white supremacy.
Fred Siegmund, Reviewer
www.Americanjobmarket.blogspot.com
Israel Drazin's Bookshelf
Kabbalah Demystified
Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
McGilligan Publishing
https://mcgilliganpublishing.com
B0FHT9M1D3 $25.99 Paperback / $9.99 Kindle, 549 pages
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Demystified-Rabbi-Michael-Samuel/dp/1967668795
Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel's book, "Kabbalah Demystified: A Comprehensive Resource," is brilliant. I enjoyed it immensely. I have been a follower of Maimonides' rationalistic thought since I was a youngster. Rational thinking is essential to me. I respect people who are not rationalists, but I disagree with them. Thus, people may be surprised that I like Samuel's writing. I like it because it is clear, informative, and comprehensive. It's an excellent introduction to kabbalah and mysticism. And we need to know what he writes because it is a part of Jewish history as well as current Jewish life.
Most people do not know that Jewish thought and practices have absorbed many kabbalistic ideas, writings, and customs. For example, most people think the song that highlights the Friday night Shabbat service, called Lecha Dodi, is about the joys of Shabbat. It is not. It was composed by a kabbalist and is about the kabbalistic notion that God is composed of ten parts. They think the song sung when Torahs are taken from the ark on Shabbat morning is rational. It is not. It is a paragraph from the mystical book Zohar. We open the door for the entrance of Elijah the prophet as a Passover Seder ceremony without realizing it was initiated as a mystical ceremony. We set aside a fifth cup of wine for the prophet for the same reason. Scholars call it sympathetic magic. It is a belief that we can do things on earth to bring about heavenly events. These Passover acts are kabbalistic. They seek to bring about the magical arrival of the Messiah. There are more than a dozen such behaviors and rituals. They are in the prayer book and many daily routines. There is no Jewish holiday lacking a mystical component. So, people need to know how to recognize them.
People wonder what God is, what creation is, why evil exists, what Torah laws do for a person, and more. Mysticism gives answers. Rationalists, like me, respectfully disagree with their views. But they make us think. And making us think, whether we agree or not, is good.
Dr. Samuel's very informative and readable book teaches us what kabbalah and mysticism are, their history, the people involved, the countries they were associated with, the influences and impact of these ideas on their lives and others' lives, and the problems they posed.
He tells us that since the dawn of Judaism, patriarchs, prophets, and seers embarked on profound spiritual odysseys, seeking to understand what God is and how the universe functions.
Recognizing that this quest demanded an understanding of the human mind, they developed kabbalistic ideas. These ideas, steeped in enigma, were dedicated to decoding the mystery and purpose of human existence. The term "kabbalah," meaning "received," alludes to this body of esoteric wisdom, which at first passed down through an oral tradition from master to disciple.
By the Second Temple period, several centuries before the common era, the kabbalistic tradition had developed fundamental concepts such as the sefirot, and divine emanations that symbolize various facets of God's interaction with the world.
Dr. Samuel aims to identify and explain these concepts and make them accessible to a broad readership in a manner that is both engaging and comprehensible, without compromising their depth and complexity. Readers will find that he is successful and gain a richer understanding of this ancient wisdom and its timeless relevance to our contemporary lives.
As a result, we learn from him about books such as the Zohar and Sefer Yetzirah that led people to think thoughts and perform acts that non-kabbalists reject, but discover what prompted kabbalists to create them. These people, like Shabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank, had many followers. Many died because of their ideas. We also get insight into the mindset of Hassidim. Many hasids have accepted some but not all kabbalistic ideas. We see a world where letters mean more than words, and numbers and shapes conjure up ideas that cause people to act. Rabbi Dr. Samuel opens our eyes to what we need to see because it is part of Jewish history and of many customs and prayers.
The Jewish Journey Through Loss: From Death to Healing
Dr. Batya L. Ludman and Gina Junger
Maggid
c/o Koren
https://korenpub.com
9781592646852, $37.39 Hardcover, 428 pages
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Journey-Through-Loss-Healing/dp/1592646859
Both Jews and non-Jews will derive a wealth of important information from Dr. Batya L. Ludman and Gina Junger's 405-page book, The Jewish Journey Through Loss: From Death to Healing. The book is by a Jewish clinical psychologist and Jewish educator. With warm, caring, sometimes humorous, and always wise advice, they guide mourners step by step through the grief-filled loss of a loved one.
Until recently, the best-known book discussing the stages of grief was On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, first published in 1969. While it originally focused on patients facing their own terminal illness, it introduced the famous five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance - which are now widely applied to the loss of friends and relatives.
She was not alone in describing the emotions provoked by the loss of loved ones. Others include:
"There are special people in our lives who never leave us, even after they are gone." D. Morgan
"We do not remember days, we remember moments." Cesare Pavese
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Dr. Seuss
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched; they must be felt with the heart." Helen Keller
"There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart." Mahatma Gandhi
"I'll remember you. When I've forgotten all the rest. You to me were true. You to me were the best." Bob Dylan
"As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now a part of us, as we remember them." Jewish Prayer
This book, The Jewish Journey Through Loss: From Death to Healing, which discusses illness, death, funeral, burial, shiva, sheloshim, mourning practices during the first year, end of year, second year, relationship changes, suicide, children, the world beyond the grave, support groups, helplines, that includes prayer, references, and healing after loss, addresses all that should be addressed and is very helpful.
Death is a certainty, and the emotional and spiritual thoughts that it precipitates agonize and often leave mourners disoriented and alone. In The Jewish Journey Through Loss: From Death to Healing, Batya L. Ludman and Gina Junger provide a compassionate guide to navigating grief through the lens of centuries of Jewish tradition. Combining psychological insight with religious wisdom, the authors offer readers comfort and practical direction during one of life's most difficult times.
The authors include short vignettes that reflect real emotions - confusion, anger, guilt, loneliness, and eventual acceptance - and the examples show readers that their reactions are part of a common human experience that can be resolved.
They demonstrate how traditional rituals - such as shiva, sheloshim, and the mourning periods - mirror the natural physical stages of emotional healing. They show that, rather than mere customs, they serve a profound psychological purpose: to grasp mourners and help them move step by step from the disturbing shock of loss toward a renewed engagement with life.
II Samuel: David the King
Amnon Bazak
Maggid
c/o Koren
https://korenpub.com
9781592646906, $34.95 Hardcover, 456 pages
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/II-Samuel-David-Amnon-Bazak/dp/1592646905
Rabbi Amnon Bazak's second volume on the biblical book of Samuel is superb, far better than the many classical commentators he frequently mentions. Many biblical commentators, but of course, not all, enjoy using the biblical words as stepping stones to teach sermons, good ideas, indeed valuable ideas, but not what the Bible intended. Bazak writes on pages 180 to 181 of his splendid 456-page book: "we will attempt to understand the plain sense of the text, as we have done from the very beginning of the book of Samuel, based on a firm belief in the value of the first of the seventy faces of the Torah: the plain sense. Unwavering in our belief in the sanctity of the prophetic books.... We will humbly listen to what the text is saying, we will seek to understand what it is trying to teach us, and we will not force it to tell us what we, perhaps, would like to hear."
Bazak does this in fascinating ways, often showing us parallels with the writings in other biblical books, which open our minds to new ideas that the Bible intends to teach us to improve our lives and the rest of the world, as well as give us hours of joy, as I will show in the following examples.
He shows us how: "The chapters of the second book of Samuel touch on some of the most important issues in the Bible" on pages xiii to xiv.
He displays the parallels between the wording of Eli's death in 1 Samuel 4 and King Saul's death on pages 8 and 9, which give us insight into why the Bible relates these tragic dramas.
He explains on pages 10 through 17 why David laments the death of King Saul and his son by singing "to teach the sons of Judah archery" and what is "the book of the upright" that he mentions, and notes that the book of Samuel includes three songs and tells us their significance and relevance today.
We read about the first split of the kingdom of our ancestors, which preceded the second split after the death of King Solomon. The first occurred after the death of King Saul, when David was king only over the tribe of Judah for seven years and six months. And Bazak explains why he made the city of Hebron his capital while another ruled the other eleven tribes.
In chapter 11, he offers a fascinating analysis of King David, Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, how David's general responded to David's message to arrange that Uriah be killed, did Bathsheba seduce David, did he rape her, and explains how and why each of the four and others acted as they did, what mistakes each character made, and clarifies "this most complex story in the Tanakh." As an aid to understanding this drama, he has us examine the interesting parallel between this story and the story of Jacob's son Judah and his two sons' wife, Tamar, in Genesis 38.
Among multiple other analyses, Bazak explains why David's son Absalom began his rebellion against his father in the city of Hebron, David's capital for more than seven years before he ruled over the united tribes. He explains why David did not adopt King Saul's policy, which clearly showed a preference for his own tribe members, granting them special privileges and distinguished positions. He also compares David's last words in II Samuel 23 with Psalm 89, which contains God's promise to David concerning the everlasting kingdom of his house.
In sum, as previously stated, Bazak's remarkable reading of II Samuel will not only reveal what the Tanakh wants us to know, but it does so in an appealing and mind-opening way.
Israel Drazin, Reviewer
www.booksnthoughts.com
Jack Mason's Bookshelf
The Craftsman's Code
Dave Hataj
https://www.davehataj.com
Fitting Words
9798992395235, $16.99, PB, 224pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Craftsmans-Code-Blueprint-Building-Meaningful/dp/B0GF3Q192F
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-craftsmans-code-dave-hataj/1149125497
Synopsis: With the publication of "The Craftsman's Code: A Blueprint for Building a Meaningful Life and an Enduring Legacy", seasoned machinist Dave Hataj highlights the often-overlooked importance of skilled labor in a world that often champions higher education as the sole path to success. As he navigates the complexities of workplace relationships, societal judgments, personal goals, and faith, he finds that true fulfillment comes not from status but from the goodness of work itself.
"The Craftsman's Code" will encourage readers to rethink their ideas about their Christian faith, work, success, and character, promoting a society that celebrates the joy of craftsmanship. With insights on mentorship, purpose, and the impact of goodness in everyday life, "The Craftsman's Code will inspire people from all walks of life to embrace their unique contributions and seek a more meaningful existence -- one act of goodness at a time.
Critique: Exceptional, informative, insightful, inspiring, "The Craftsman's Code: A Blueprint for Building a Meaningful Life and an Enduring Legacy" by Dave Hataj provides a unique Christian based perspective to the role of vocational training in meeting a growing demand for skilled tradesmen and a viable alternative to college/university education that all too often leads students into a lifetime of debt. Original, exceptional, 'real world' practical, "The Craftsman's Code" is an unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Christian Values, Vocational Education, and Personal/Professional Self-Help/Self-Improvement collections. It should be noted for highschool students, their families, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this paperback edition of "The Craftsman's Code" from Fitting Words is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Dave Hataj (https://www.davehataj.com) is the President and co-owner of Edgerton Gears, Inc., a second generation family business where he has been working for 25 years. Under his leadership, the company has fostered a culture that empowers employees to make impactful decisions. Dave earned a Master's degree in "Systems Theory and Family Business" from Regent College in 1994. His innovative approach led to the creation of two additional businesses, two charitable trusts, and a partnership with the local high school to mentor youth in trades.
Hermogenes and Hellenistic-Roman Temple Building
Mantha Zarmakoupi, editor
University of Wisconsin Press
https://uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299355203, $129.95, HC, 340pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Hermogenes-Hellenistic-Roman-Temple-Building-Archaeology/dp/0299355209
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hermogenes-and-hellenistic-roman-temple-building-mantha-zarmakoupi/1147476611
Synopsis: Recent major excavations at a variety of sites associated with Hermogenes have refreshed, invigorated, and refined our understanding of this important Hellenistic architect. Expertly edited by Mantha Zarmakoupi, "Hermogenes and Hellenistic-Roman Temple Building" is the first volume dedicated to Hermogenes in more than two decades and features a wealth of new evidence and a multi-vocal analysis that allow for fresh contextualization, offering new insights into ancient Greek and Roman architecture and the sociopolitical factors that informed it.
Hermogenes remains one of the most influential and famous designers of the Hellenistic world, although he is known primarily via the first-century BCE Roman architect Vitruvius, who credited his Greek predecessor with major accomplishments. Despite his comparative fame, the paucity of sources has nevertheless obscured Hermogenes' legacy. This new volume updates the evidence, reevaluates this highly significant figure, and reintroduces crucial innovations in the ancient Greek world -- innovations that continue to be architecturally influential today.
Critique: This large format (8 x 0.9 x 10 inches, 1 pound) hardcover edition of "Hermogenes and Hellenistic-Roman Temple Building" is part of the Warren Moon Series in Art and Archaeology from the University of Wisconsin Press. Deftly edited by Professor Mantha Zarmakoupi, this impressively illustrated and seminal study is comprised of an eighteen page Introduction, and ten erudite and informative essays by experts in their fields. Also features is a six page listing of the contributors and their credentials and a five page Index. A work of collective and meticulous scholarship, and of special interest to students of Hellenic/Greek Architecture in general, and Hermogenes (220 B.C. to 190 B.C.) in particular, "Hermogenes and Hellenistic-Roman Temple Building" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Greek/Roman History, Culture, and Architecture collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Mantha Zarmakoupi (https://manthazarmakoupi.com) is the Morris Russell and Josephine Chidsey Williams Assistant Professor in Roman Architecture in the Department of History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples: Villas and Landscapes (c. 100 BCE-79 CE) and Shaping Roman Landscape: Ecocritical Approaches to Architecture and Wall Painting in Early Imperial Italy and the editor of The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum: Archaeology, Reception, and Digital Reconstruction, Looking at the City: Architectural and Archaeological Perspectives, and The Delos Symposia and Doxiadis.
Jack Mason
Reviewer
John Burroughs' Bookshelf
AD Journal 95:2: Architects and Furniture
Ashley Simone and Neil Spiller, editors
AXIO
c/o ORO Editions
www.oroeditions.com
9781961856998, $40.00, PB, 160pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/AD-Architectural-Design-Architects-Furniture/dp/1961856999
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/architectural-design-journal-95-2-neil-spiller/1147494186
Synopsis: Furniture augments architect-designed environments, contributing to the holistic ambience of a space and displaying in microcosm architects' preoccupations with material palettes, haptic sensitivities, and structural invention. It can take the form of props for commercial purposes, including business meetings and offices, for spaces susceptible to the weather, or for convivial, domestic settings. Whatever the programmatic imperative, architects have contributed in the most aesthetic ways. This issue of "AD Journal 95:2: Architects and Furniture" honors some of the best.
Critique: Offering erudite commentary throughout, this large format (8.5 x 2 x 11 inches, 1.64 pounds) paperback edition of "AD Journal 95:2: Architects and Furniture" from AXIO is profusely and beautifully illustrated throughout and will be of particular interest to personal, professional, and college/university library collections and supplemental Interior Design and Architectural Drafting/Presentation curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note #1: Ashley Simone is a writer, editor, and adjunct associate professor at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture. She brings to Axiomatic Editions over fifteen years of experience in publication practice focusing on art, architecture, and design.
Editorial Note #2: Neil Spiller is the Former Visiting Professor of Architecture, Carleton University, Canada and Visiting Professor IAUV Venice. Previously Hawksmoor Chair of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Greenwich, London. He was Vice-Dean and Graduate Director of Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.
Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art
CJ Cook and Michael Ashley, authors
https://michaelashleypublishing.com
South Pacific Dreams Publishing
https://www.southpacificdreams.com
9780998422428, $59.95, HC, 256pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Leeteg-Babes-Beaches-Black-Velvet/dp/0998422428
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/leeteg-cj-cook/1138280689
Synopsis: Co-authored by CJ Cook and Michael Ashley, "Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art" is the story of Edgar Leeteg and is an informative account of a life that reads like a novel with vivid scenes and gripping dialogue that is frequently comical and often suspenseful reflecting the unpredictability of the rebellious artist.
Edgar at times seemed like a rock star to his contemporaries -- living a wildlife, partying hard, drinking, gambling, and engaging in bar fights. He even described himself as "fornicating, gin-soaked, dope head".
"Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art" also gives a crash course in Tahiti and its history that encouraged rascal behavior from Leeteg and others who visited or lived there. Leeteg was never exactly accepted in the highbrow art world and didn't really want to be, generally raging against the establishment.
That's perhaps why "Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art" is so enjoyable -- even for those that might not be interested in art or art history. Anyone who likes disruptors in the world of business, academia, government or anywhere else will really be able to identify with this. The story of Edgar Leeteg is really a story of a rebel, a colorful rogue, a story of an unlikely success story that left a lasting impact.
Critique: Profusely illustrated throughout, "Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art" is a simply fascinating read from start to finish. Introducing a 'large-than-life' character whose life and accomplishments are as colorful as they are unorthodox, "Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art", is collaboratively co-authored by CJ Cook and Michael Ashley. This large format (8.5 x 1 x 11.5 inches, 3.18 pounds) hardcover edition of "Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art" from South Pacific Dreams Publishing is an informative, unique, original, and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, community, and college/university library Biography/Memoir collections and supplemental 20th Century Art History curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for art students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note #1: C.J. Cook is an author and historian who has a long interest in the history of the South Pacific. His first book, Tyree, Artist of the South Pacific (2017), was an incredible success winning two Gold Awards for Best Cover and Best Biography from the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) in April 2018. Cook is also a lifelong manuscript collector who has a particular interest in art and the South Pacific. He has written biographical sketches on historical figures. He is a board member of a prominent manuscript association dedicated to preserving manuscripts and historical documents.
Editorial Note #2: Michael Ashley (https://michaelashleypublishing.com) a former Disney screenwriter who now owns the creative content company Ink Wordsmiths is also a Forbes columnist and the author of twenty-six books, including four bestsellers. Michael specializes in turning his clients into thought leaders via ghostwriting books, articles, blogs, and websites, as well as consulting businesses on storytelling.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Julie Summers' Bookshelf
Draiocht Ceoil: The Sound of Magic in Irish Traditions
Geraldine Moorkens Byrne
Moon Books
c/o Collective Ink Books
https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com
9781785355301, $19.95, PB, 240pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Dra%C3%ADocht-Ceoil-Sound-Magic-Traditions/dp/1785355309
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/draiocht-ceoil-geraldine-moorkens-byrne/1148560221
Synopsis: Within us all is the ability to hear the magic of sound, to use music and words to create a new reality. In Irish traditions this is known as Draiocht Ceoil - 'music magic' - an ancient art deeply rooted in Ireland's mythology and culture, used for generations to harness the power of sound for connecting to natural magical energy.
"Draiocht Ceoil: The Sound of Magic in Irish Traditions" by Geraldin Moorkens Byrne is the first book of its kind to examine the tradition of Draiocht Ceoil, its ancient roots in the poetic tradition of Old Ireland, and its evolution into a vital part of Irish folk magic practices.
From its early times, Irish society has elevated the roles of poet and musician to facilitators of magic, which has evolved into a rich tradition of both domestic and political magic, surviving throughout Ireland into the modern era, adapting to the needs of its generations.
No musical or literary expertise is needed or required of the reader -- only a love of sound and creativity, for Draiocht Ceoil to add depth to your magical practice. Its application to meditation and journeying will make it a perfect addition to your spiritual path.
Critique: Original, informative, thought-provoking, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Draiocht Ceoil: The Sound of Magic in Irish Traditions" by poet and Irish folk magic expert Geraldine Moorkens Byrne is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Metaphysical Studies and Irish Music collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in Irish Folklore/Music that this paperback edition of "Draiocht Ceoil: The Sound of Magic in Irish Traditions" from Moon Books is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Geraldine Moorkens Byrne is a poet, writer and educator from Dublin, Ireland. She has been published widely as both a poet and a writer of short stories, novels and articles. She is also writes ceremonies for modern Irish Pagan Life Rites. She teaches Irish folk magic traditions online and in person, including at the Irish Pagan School. She is the author of a popular series of mystery novels, and her poetry collection Dreams of Reality is now available. (https://thepagancollective.com/2025/10/26/geraldine-moorkens-byrne-meet-the-author)
Ready to Listen?
Leslie Lee Sanders
https://llsanders.com
Independently Published
9798993513225, $16.95, HC, 128pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Listen-spiritual-self-help-memoir/dp/B0G6QFRMGC
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ready-to-listen-leslie-lee-sanders/1148892627
Synopsis: What if the voice in your head that you have been taught to ignore is the one telling you the truth?
As a child, Leslie Lee Sanders learned the rules early:
Stay quiet. Don't interrupt. Don't talk back.
Silence was survival.
But beneath that silence, something else was always speaking.
A presence.
A knowing.
A voice she couldn't explain away.
With the publication of "Ready to Listen?: A Spiritual Self-Help Memoir" Sanders shares a deeply personal journey of learning to trust what she once dismissed, the signs, the patterns, the inner signals that kept calling her back to herself.
"Ready to Listen?" is: Not glossy manifestation. Not spiritual cliche. Rather it is the hard, honest work of waking up after years of shrinking.
Deftly blending memoir, psychology, and spiritual insight, Sanders explores:
How burnout can be a message, not a failure
Why silencing yourself is often mistaken for maturity
The difference between fear's noise and intuition's quiet persistence
What it means to reclaim your voice in a world that rewards your disappearance
Through her story, Sanders invites readers (especially women who've spent years performing strength) to stop overriding their own inner truth. To dust off their dreams. To reconnect with their power.
Critique: Candid, insightful, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Ready to Listen?: A Spiritual Self-Help Memoir" by Leslie Lee Sanders while intensely personal, will also present a universal resonance that will be especially appreciated by readers with an interest in stories of personal transformation. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, and community Self-Help/Self-Improvement collections, it should be noted that this hardcover edition of "Ready to Listen?: A Spiritual Self-Help Memoir" is also readily available in paperback (9798993513201, $12.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.95).
Editorial Note: Leslie Lee Sanders (https://llsanders.com) launched her writing career in 2005, publishing over thirty books across multiple genres. Writing as L.L. Sanders, she crafts psychological thrillers and horror, while her works under Leslie Lee Sanders explore diverse romance and dystopian fiction, often blending genres in unexpected ways.
Julie Summers
Reviewer
Margaret Lane's Bookshelf
The Last Lady B
Eloisa James
Gallery Books
c/o Simon and Schuster
www.simonandschuster.com
9781668200056, $19.00, PB, 384pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Lady-B-Eloisa-James/dp/1668200058
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-lady-b-eloisa-james/1146890378
Synopsis: In the depths of winter, Lady Genevieve Hughes, her pet piglet, and her septuagenarian husband travel to a haunted abbey in the Scottish Highlands. Evie is excited to meet a ghost (perhaps one of her husband's three previous wives), but didn't expect the funny, quirky guests to become the friends she's never had. And she certainly didn't imagine meeting Sir Godric Everly, a sardonic, witty solicitor who loathes her husband.
Yet as secrets and lies turn Evie's world upside down, Sir Godric becomes the one person whom she can trust.
When ghosts, multiple wills, and a shocking marriage certificate bring Lord Burnsby's past crashing into his present, Burnsby promptly dies, leaving Evie free to remarry... though as a virgin wife, now a virgin widow, she is more unnerved by the marriage bed than a spectral visit.
More importantly, she has to figure out whose identity is false, whose vows are dishonorable, whose truths could destroy her reputation -- and where her heart belongs.
Critique: A delicious and original mix of romance, suspense, mystery, and the supernatural, "The Last Lady B" by Eloisa James is a deftly crafted novel of Victorian erotica that is highly recommended -- but for mature readers only. A fun and highly recommended read from cover to cover, this paperback edition of "The Last Lady B" from Gallery Books is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99).
Editorial Note: Eloisa James (www.EloisaJames.com) is the author of historical romance novels. Eloisa James is the pen name of Mary Bly, who is a Shakespeare professor at Fordham University. She lives in New York City and Florence, Italy.
The World Between
Zeeva Bukai
https://www.zeevabukai.com
Delphinium Books
https://www.delphiniumbooks.com
9781953002679, $20.00, HC, 150pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/World-Between-Zeeva-Bukai/dp/1953002676
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-world-between-zeeva-bukai/1147764679
Synopsis: In the aftermath of the breakup of her marriage, a once famous actress of the Yiddish theater travels to Tel-Aviv to revisit the apartment she once shared with her husband. Soon after, she finds herself at the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition Hospice in Jaffa, a sanitorium, run by a group of nuns. Unclear as to how she got there, she begins to piece together the events that led her to this moment.
From New York to Tel-Aviv, and the Siberian gulag, "The World Between" deftly explores the landscape of a marriage, friendship, loss, and the way childhood war trauma bleeds into every aspect of the characters' lives.
Critique: Original, compelling, emotionally engaging, "The World Between" will hold an immense appeal for readers with an interest in Contemporary Jewish Literature. Author Zeeva Bukai's character and narrative driven storytelling style raises her novel to an impressive level of literary excellence. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university Literary Fiction collections, "The World Between" is one of those novels that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book has been finished and set back upon the shelf. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "The World Between' from Delphinium Books is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.99).
Editorial Note: Zeeva Bukai (https://www.zeevabukai.com) was born in Israel, raised in New York City and the author of a previous novel, "The Anatomy of Exile". Her honors include a Fellowship at the New York Center for Fiction and residencies at Hedgebrook, and Byrdcliffe Artist In Residence program. Her work has been featured on the Stories on Stage Davis podcast. She studied Acting at Tel-Aviv University, and holds a BFA in Theater and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She is the Assistant Director of Academic Support at SUNY Empire State University.
Margaret Lane
Reviewer
Mari Carlson's Bookshelf
The Light of Liberation
Indrajit Garai
Self-published
9798269666488, $12.00 pbk / $3.00 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Light-Liberation-Indrajit-GARAI-ebook/dp/B0GT5BMC1C
Depth deepens darkness, Darkness shines light, Light leads liberation, Liberation renews life
Written in the wake of publishing his latest novel, this work of nonfiction reflects on work. Garai's several careers (engineering, finance, coaching, writing) have each honed his values and passions. Like his own journey, the workers he interviews show people making drastic changes to their lives based on responses to their jobs. One woman switches to activism when she can no longer endure her company's animal testing. Another loses a child and helps others not lose theirs. Garai's spontaneous and candid encounters with people yield a wide spectrum of work situations from which to learn and to which to relate.
Between interviews, discursive sections illuminate experiences with succinct and poetic language. The book uses contrasts - darkness and light, destruction and construction, imperfection and perfection - to show the process of transformation through work. When the contrasts are not in competition with one another, they feed transitions. Pain and struggle (moral dilemmas, depression, health troubles) reveal information necessary for passing through to growth and devotion. The book is not prescriptive, rather descriptive of natural patterns people can tap into by taking stock of their work and habits. A short and hopeful read, the book generates excitement about what work can do for the worker.
Mari Carlson
Reviewer
Mark Walker's Bookshelf
The Village of Waiting
George Packer
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
c/o Macmillan
https://us.macmillan.com/fsg
9780374527808, $25.99 hc / $12.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Village-Waiting-George-Packer/dp/0374527806
I first came across Packer from his cover story "The Valley," - the second-longest that The Atlantic published in the past 40 years, in which he provides a kaleidoscopic view of the precarious political and physical ecology of Phoenix regarding climate change, which meant a lot to me in the summer of 2024 as we were suffering record-breaking, triple-digit temperatures. I had no idea he was a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer until a fellow PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) serving in Togo gave me a heads-up.
When I started reading his memoir, I realized it was ideal for the Million Mile Walker Review. This was not another feel-good Peace Corps memoir. He refused easy answers, showing how serving in an isolated, unknown culture can break you while finding meaning in the challenges. His honesty models the reflective courage that epitomizes the best travel literature.
His book was published in 1984 and republished several times, most recently with a foreword by Philip Gourevitch. The book is not an enduring memoir because of the anecdotes, but the moral unease that shadows every page. Packer arrived in Togo in the early 1980's, expecting to teach English - and, of course, to "make a difference" - but instead found a village vacillating between resignation and reliance.
Packer aptly begins his story quoting from Carlo Levi's classic memoir of exile in a neglected place in southern Italy, where Christ stopped in Eboli, where the state, church, and progress abandoned the peasants.
Was even he perhaps another person, an unknown and still unmade young man whom change and time had thrust down there under those yellow animal eyes, those black eyes of women and men and children... so that he might find himself in otherness, in the other-than-self, so that he might discover history outside of history, and time outside of time, and the original pain of things, and himself, outside of the mirror of Narcissus' pool, in men, on the arid earth?
He uses the tragedy of non-existent health care to demonstrate the limitations of his good intentions. Including haunting passages, villagers who were sick but unable or unwilling to tell doctors, driving physicians to despair when they encountered patients on their deathbed with gangrene. "Having done what I could, I've done nothing" was the depressing core of the memoir.
Packer is especially insightful on the racial dynamics in which some white expatriates appeared to bestow themselves a "divine right" inherited from colonial times. He uses Norfolkittel in Kenya, where whites congregated in their own cultural bubble, which insulated them from the people they claimed to serve.
He tells of the persistent suspicion among the local population, which many Peace Corps Volunteers like me experienced, regarding a perceived link between the Peace Corps and the CIA. Instead of sensationalizing this mistrust, he showed how the rumor reflected a deeper reality about American power abroad and how even well-meaning volunteers carry the weight of U.S. geopolitical presence.
One of the things that sets this memoir apart is that Packer wrote an "Afterword" seventeen years after publication, revealing that he left Togo and the Peace Corps due to what he described as a "nervous breakdown". Evidently, enough time had passed to reveal why he left, and his story wasn't complete until he acknowledged his own unraveling. He wouldn't be the first PCV to suffer from a convergence of isolation, cultural dislocation, and the realization that he could not meet his own expectations for success.
Packer profiles three children and tries to help represent some of the different paths through the maze of poverty and a lack of opportunity. Even one child who managed to obtain a good education but ultimately cannot find a meaningful job. This depiction reflects The Economist's description of Africa as "the hopeless continent," a description he neither endorses nor rejects, but one that is reflected in his own lived experience.
The final line in his book, "My time in Africa now seems long ago, and yet the people I knew are still alive. They still wait." Acknowledging that so many are still waiting for medical care, political change, and economic opportunities.
As a fellow Returned Peace Corps writer, I can't help but speculate how Packer's experience impacted his career as a consummate storyteller and investigative reporter for The Atlantic, where he's written on Iraq, inequality, and American decline. His time in Africa might have activated a degree of moral seriousness, a skepticism toward power, empathy without sentimentality, and an ability to confront uncomfortable realities. All of which has served him well as a successful writer.
About the Author
George Packer is an award-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic. His books include The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (winner of the National Book Award), The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq, and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century (winner of the Hitchens Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography). He is also the author of two novels and a play, and the editor of a two-volume edition of George Orwell's essays. He's a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Togo (1982-83).
Mark D. Walker, Reviewer
www.MillionMileWalker.com
Michael Carson's Bookshelf
Samurai: The Japanese Warrior's Manual
Stephen Turnbull
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500298992, $14.95, PB, 192pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Japanese-Warriors-Stephen-Turnbull/dp/0500298998
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/samurai-stephen-turnbull/1115449373
Synopsis: It is 1615, and the samurai, Japan's elite fighting class, are at the zenith of their powers. Trained in every manner of combat, from sword-fighting and archery to karate and jujitsu, the samurai warrior is the emperor's last line of defense against the barbarians of Japan and beyond.
With the publication of "Samurai: The Japanese Warrior's Manual" by Stephen Trnbull, the reader can learn how to master the "Way of the Warrior," know whom you should kill, and what to do with their heads afterward.
Readers will also discover what the cultured samurai does between battles, how to storm or lay siege to a castle, and how to conduct a tea ceremony with Zen-like composure.
With this handy guide you will never be at a loss should you need to command and maintain an army -- you will even know how to prepare for entry into the White Jade Pavilion after your death.
Now available in a new paperback edition from Thames & Hudson, "Samurai: The Japanese Warrior's Manual" is handy manual explains everything you need to know about maintaining the honor of the samurai class both on and off the battlefield.
Critique: Based on meticulous historical research and scholarship, "Samurai: The Japanese Warrior's Manual" by Stephen Turnbull is an extraordinary and impressive study of authentic Japanese Samurai culture, practices, and history. Impressively 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "Samurai: The Japanese Warrior's Manual" is profusely illustrated with 111 B/W and 15 Color images. While a solid pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Japanese Military History collections in general and supplemental Samurai Cultural Studies curriculum lists in particular, it should be noted for students, academia, martial artist, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Samurai: The Japanese Warrior's Manual" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).
Editorial Note: Stephen Richard Turnbull (https://www.stephenturnbull.com) has had a lifelong interest in Japan, and writes books about military history and religious studies. Many are about Japan, but also European history.
The True History of Tea
Victor H. Mair & Erling Hoh
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500299012, $24.95, PB, 280pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/True-History-Tea-Erling-Hoh/dp/0500299013
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-true-history-of-tea-erling-hoh/1100871355
Synopsis: With the publication of "The True History of Tea", world--renowned scholar of Chinese history Victor H. Mair teams up with journalist Erling Hoh to spill the tea on this remarkable beverage and its uses, from ancient times to the present and from East to West.
This accessible and entertaining history of tea makes use of the Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and Mongolian annals to explore the subject in rich historical detail. The resulting narrative travels from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the splendor of the arrival of the first European vessels in Far Eastern waters.
Through the centuries, tea has inspired artists, enhanced religious experience, played a pivotal role in the emergence of world trade, and triggered cataclysmic events that altered the course of humankind. How did green tea become the national beverage of Morocco? And who was the beautiful Emma Hart, immortalized by George Romney in his painting The Tea-maker of Edgware Road? No other drink has touched the daily lives of so many people in so many different ways.
"The True History of Tea" brings these disparate aspects together in a compelling tale that combines scholarship with an eye for the quirky, offbeat paths that tea has strayed upon during its long voyage. It celebrates the common heritage of a beverage we have all come to love, and plays a crucial part in the work of dismantling that obsolete dictum: East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.
Critique: Originally published in hardcover by Thames & Hudson (2009), "The True History of Tea" is now newly available in paperback and in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99). Nicely illustrated throughout with 82 B/W images, this impressively comprehensive, informative and thoroughly 'reader friendly' history of tea will prove a welcome and enduringly popular pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Gastronomy & Coffee/Tea history collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note #1: Erling Hoh has been a correspondent for Archaeology and written on Chinese history and culture for Natural History and other publications. There is an online listing of his books at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2467517.Erling_Hoh
Editorial Note #2: Victor H. Mair is Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of many books including The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_H._Mair)
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Robin Friedman's Bookshelf
Desert Empire: The 1862 New Mexico Campaign
Patrick Kelly-Fischer and Phillip S. Greenwalt, authors
Savas Beatie
https://www.savasbeatie.com
9781611217759, $16.95 pbk / $10.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Empire-Mexico-Campaign-Emerging/dp/161121775X
The Civil War In New Mexico
Even readers with a good knowledge of the Civil War may be unaware of the campaign fought in New Mexico Territory early in the conflict, in 1861-62. This campaign was important to the War and worth studying for itself. This new book, "Desert Empire: The 1862 New Mexico Campaign" (2026) offers a short, highly readable account of the New Mexico Campaign. It explains why the campaign took place, so far from the main theaters of the War. It gives the reader an excellent view of the people involved, the difficulties of geography and terrain, and the battles fought and their aftermath. The book explores the campaign's significance. Historians Patrick Kelly-Fisher and Phillip S. Greenwalt wrote the book which also includes an Introduction by Civil War historian Neil P. Chatelain. The book is part of the Emerging Civil War (ECW) series which aims to offer "compelling easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War's most important battles and stories."
The Confederate government authorized the campaign with the goal of establishing an outlet on the Pacific Ocean and capturing the vast gold and mineral resources of the Southwest. The Southwest covered a vast extent of territory, largely desert. It was sparsely populated and sympathies were divided between the Union and the Confederacy. The Arizona territory, the southern part of present day Arizona and New Mexico had seceded and cast its lot with the Confederacy.
The campaign began with a small Confederate incursion in July 1861. Then, Confederate Brigadier General Henry Sibley organized a mounted force of approximately 3000 troops in Texas. The campaign was less than thoroughly prepared as the South's weapons were out of date and insufficient attention had been given to provisions of food and water in the long marches through the desert. Still the Army of New Mexico moved forward. It was opposed by Union forces under Colonel Edward Canby and included figures such as the explorer Kit Carson. The scanty Union forces were reinforced by soldiers from Colorado, and California soldiers also marched to the Southwest. The heat and lack of water proved difficult for both sides, particularly for the Confederate forces with their long marches.
The campaign resulted in two major battles. The Confederates prevailed at great cost in the Battle of Valverde on February 21, 1862. However, the Confederate march was stalled at the Battle of Glorietta Pass on March 28, 1862 when Union forces got in the rear of the Confederate army and destroyed its supply trains. The Confederates then had to make the long, difficult retreat back to Texas. Those who enjoy Westerns might be familiar with the film "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, and set in New Mexico in 1862. This film captures something of the aftermath of the Battle of Glorietta Pass and the Confederate retreat.
Kelly-Fischer and Greenwalt tell the story well. The book consists of ten chapters which offer the history of the campaign from beginning to end with reflections on why the campaign failed and how close it came to success. The author's account offers detail on the battles but is especially convincing in describing the difficulties of supplies and logistics in a long desert campaign. The book is enhanced by many photographs from the period and by five maps by cartographer Edward Alexander which help with understanding the broad campaign and the battles. The book offers a good overview of the early American Southwest and of several military forts which played an important role in the campaign. The book includes appendices on "The California Column", Union soldiers from California which made the difficult journey to assist in the defense and on Fort Union, which played an important role in the Union defense. There is an Order of Battle and a brief list of books for those wishing to read further about the campaign.
I had some knowledge of this campaign before reading, but the book taught me a great deal. Readers with a serious interest in the Civil War will enjoy this book as will readers interested in the history of the American Southwest. The Battle of Glorietta Pass was significant and, together with the New Mexico campaign in general, deserves the attention it receives in this book. The publisher, Savas Beatie, kindly sent me a copy of the book to review.
Lucy Gayheart
Willa Cather
Vintage
c/o Knopf Doubleday
https://www.knopfdoubleday.com
9780679728887, $15.00 pbk / $0.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Gayheart-Vintage-Classics-Willa-Cather/dp/0679728880
Music And Dashed Dreams
Willa Cather's short, poignant 1935 novel "Lucy Gayheart" is a story of music and dashed dreams. The story takes place in the early twentieth century and contrasts the American plains, in Haverford, Nebraska, with large urban America, with its promise and perils, in Chicago.
The heroine of the book, Lucy Gayheart, has great pianistic talent. She leaves Haverford at the age of 18 to study piano, and to give music lessons, in Chicago. She meets a great but disillusioned and world-weary singer, Clement Sebastian, and has the opportunity to work with him as an accompanist. Cather loves and beautifully describes in the novel Schubert's wonderful song-cycles "Die Winterreise" and "Die Schone Mullerein". Both the winter cold and the lovely maiden of Schubert's two cycles are mirrored in the book. Lucy ultimately is seemingly faced with the choice between Sebastian and her hometown sweetheart.
Faced with tragedy in Chicago from both Sebastian and her former love, Lucy returns home. She gears herself to begin life anew but tragedy again intervenes.
Cather offers a great deal of description of the snow and the cold in both Chicago and Haverford. The book gives a sense of the tragic sense of life, with a hint of the power of art and religious faith to overcome it. The opposition between city life and provincial town life is similar to Sinclair Lewis's Main Street but with more depth and craft in the writing. The author's love for music, the human voice and the piano receives eloquent expression in the novel.
"Lucy Gayheart" is a beautifully wrought book which deserves to be better known.
This Close to Okay: A Novel
Leesa Cross-Smith
Grand Central Publishing
c/o Hachette Book Group
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com
9781538715369, $16.99 pbk / $11.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/This-Close-Okay-Leesa-Cross-Smith/dp/1538715368
Comin' Through The Rye
Robert Burns' famous poem "Comin' Through the Rye" tells of a young woman walking through the rye on a rainy day where she has a sexual encounter with a young man, the poet. The little poem with its entendres celebrates love, the attractions and needs of the body, and sexuality.
Rye, the rain, a chance meeting, and a brief emotional sexual encounter are at the heart of Leesa Cross-Smith's novel "This Close to Okay" (2021) which is full of literary and artistic allusions, but does not refer to Burns' poem. Set in Louisville, Kentucky on a rainy Friday before Halloween, the novel tells the story of Tellie Clark and a man who calls himself Emmett. Tellie, 40. is a recently divorced African American therapist. Emmett, also African American, is about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Ohio River. Tellie disuades him from this course. She also brings Emmett to her lovely, beautifully maintained and furnished apartment where the two talk and get to know each other, or the person each presents, better. The novel is told in five parts, each with many chapters alternating between the perspective of Tellie and Emmett.
As the story progresses, other family members are brought in, perhaps too lavishly. In short order, Tellie and Emmett wind up attracted and making love, which may raise an eyebrow or two but which I found a relief from loneliness and coldness. A disaster occurrs at a lavish Halloween party thrown by Tellie's wealthy brother. Tellie and Emmett discover that they have not been telling each other the whole truth about themselves, leading to revelations and to recriminations. The story comes to a bittersweet resolution.
The novel is topheavy with serious themes including suicide, psychotherapy, infidelity, loneliness and picking up with life and starting over again. While strangers to each other, Tellie and Emmett are no strangers to grief and loneliness. The novel tends to move slowly and is cloying at times. Still, there is an essential sweetness and goodness to Tellie and Emmett that put me in their corner. The book focuses on life, on issues of people, and how the issues may be faced and resolved. Social criticism of American life and the divisive sharpness of much contemporary literature and discussion are refreshingly kept to a minimum. The story allows for hope.
Popular singers, including Sam Cooke, receive affectionate attention in the story as do the movies. Contemporary gadgetry such as texting and social media play a large role. Tellie and Emmett share a love of art. Religion and religious symbolism play a substantial but non-obtrusive role in the story. The strongest allusion in the novel, giving the tale its direction, comes near the end from 1 Thessalonians 4: 11-12: "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."
This novel was chosen by our book group and, with its focus on an attempt at affection between two people, was different from most of our reading. It was good to have the opportunity to read and to think about this book.
The Moon Is Down
John Steinbeck, author
Penguin Classics
https://www.penguinclassics.com
9780140187465, $15.00 pbk / $8.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Down-John-Steinbeck/dp/0140187464
Reading The Moon Is Down
In 1941, John Steinbeck met with officials of the Foreign Information Service in Washington D.C. to discuss writing a book to assist American propaganda efforts during WW II. He initially prepared a draft of a play centering upon German occupation of a town in the United States. This setting did not meet with approval from the Foreign Information Service, and Steinbeck revised his work. He wrote a short novel set in a small town in an unnamed Scandinavian country which had been subjected to German invasion and occupation. The resulting book "The Moon is Down" was published in 1942. It was transformed into a play and opened on Broadway later that year. A film version of the book appeared in 1943; and, in 1946, Steinbeck was awarded the King Haakon Liberty Cross from Norway for this novel.
Today, "The Moon is Down" is less well-known that some of Steinbeck's other works, but it bears comparison with his best. The story moves quickly, the characterizations are effective, and the story rises to make eloquently its timeless point about the nature of human liberty.
The story opens when the Germans invade by sea a small village to exploit its coal resources in the war effort. For a short novel, the story presents a variety of characters and each of them is individually developed. These include the German commander, Colonel Lanser, a man of education and culture, swift to obey all orders but who has serious inner doubts about Germany's war effort and aims. The book also describes several members of Colonel Lanser's Officer Corps, some of whom are full of themselves and of military ambition, while others are lonely and feel the greatest need for the companionship of a woman.
The book also includes good characterizations of the townspeople. Among others, the reader meets Corell, the local who collaborates with the Germans and facilitates the invasion, the mayor of the town, Mayor Orden, his friend, Dr Winter, and a woman of indomitable spirit, Molly, whose husband has been shot by the invaders. The book shows the conflict and enmity that develops between the invaders and the invaded as the Germans resort to ever-harsher methods to secure the coal and the townspeople stiffen their resistance in defense of freedom. For all that Steinbeck recognizes the common humanity of all the characters in his story, the book is a ringing affirmation of freedom and of the human spirit. The work is far more than a simple propaganda effort.
The book makes emphatic use of products of human creativity and thought in emphasizing the value of human freedom. The climactic scene of the book includes a lengthy discussion of Plato's "Apology" in which Mayor Orden, Dr. Winter, and Colonel Lanser all participate. Earlier in the book, at another key moment, love poetry by the German author Heinrich Heine plays a crucial role in moving the story forward.
I found "The Moon is Down" much more effective than some of Steinbeck's other short novels which are frequently forced upon young readers. While the book is short and easy to read, it is a work of some complexity and of varied characters. Steinbeck in this work met the aims of the Foreign Information Service; but, more importantly, he produced a work of literature that transcended the goals of the war effort.
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Henry David Thoreau
Princeton University Press
https://www.press.princeton.edu
9780691118789, $24.95 pbk / $14.72 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Concord-Merrimack-Rivers-Writings-Thoreau/dp/0691118787
A Week With Thoreau
In late August, 1839, Henry David Thoreau and his brother John took a two-week trip on the Concord and Merrimack rivers in a boat called the Musketaquid that they had built themselves. John Thoreau subsequently died of lockjaw in 1842, a death which greatly affected his brother. While living at Walden Pond from 1845-1847, Thoreau worked on the manuscript of what became "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers", and the book was first published, with little commercial success in 1849. A revised edition was published after Thoreau's death.
The book describes the Thoreau brothers' river journey on the Concord River from Concord west to Lowell, Massachusetts where it connects with the Merrimack River from Lowell north to Concord, New Hampshire. (The brothers spent one week on land exploring Concord, New Hampshire and its environs, and this is not described in the book.) At the time of the journey Lowell was already a manufacturing center where girls from New England farms lived in large barracks and worked long hours spinning cotton in factories powered by the Merrimack River.
I was familiar with "Walden", but I didn't know this earlier book of Thoreau's. It is a wonderful read. The book is arranged in seven chapters, one for each day of the river journey, and Thoreau describes extensively the rivers and inlets, the land, the plants and animals, the weather, the locks and the people that they encountered on their journey. Thoreau here and elsewhere has a clear and detailed eye for nature.
But the more fascinating part of this book consists of its extended digressions and discussions that are only suggested by the description of the brothers' journey. Thoreau uses the river trip as a jumping-off point for meditations on history, science, literature, education, philosophy, religion, and much else. There is information on the early settlements of Concord and Lowell and of New England, especially involving contact with the Indian tribes. Even with this, most of the book is internalized. On almost every page, Thoreau's text is interspersed with poetry, some of it his own, some by other writers. Thoreau discusses the ancient Greek writers, including Homer and the Greek lyricists, as well as writers including Shakespeare and Goethe. There are long meditations on subjects such as the nature of friendship. Thoreau discusses comparative religion and turns a critical eye on the Puritanical religion of New England. The book shows a great fascination with and knowledge of Eastern thought, which is striking for this time in America's history, particularly with the Bhagavad-Gita.
Near the end of the book, capturing the end of his trip, Thoreau assumes an oratorical tone and his work takes on a philosophical theme. Although the American philosophy of Transcendentalism is notoriously difficult to define, Thoreau here discusses a world beyond the world of our senses and of nature. He alludes to a world of the timeless and of mysticism, which encompasses all religion, and which the evidence of the senses only suggests to us. It is a difficult and inspiring vision, informed greatly by Eastern thought and by Thoreau's friendship with Emerson. The discussion forms a moving conclusion to the book.
With its learning, its love of poetry, its picture of early New England, and its spirituality, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" is one of the great American books. For readers who know Thoreau only, as I did, through "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience,", this book will be a revelation.
Robin Friedman
Reviewer
Susan Bethany's Bookshelf
The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe
Sharon Paice MacLeod
McFarland & Company
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9780786471386, $29.95, PB, 252pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Feminine-Ancient-Europe/dp/0786471387
McFarland & Company
https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-divine-feminine-in-ancient-europe
Synopsis: "The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe: Goddesses, Sacred Women and the Origins of Western Culture" by Sharon Paice MacLeod is an exploration of the spiritual traditions of ancient Europe, focusing on the numinous presence of the divine feminine in Russia, Central Europe, France, Britain, Ireland and the northern regions.
Drawing upon research in archaeology, history, sociology, anthropology and the study of religions to connect the reader with the myths and symbols of the European traditions, "The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe" shows how the power of European goddesses and holy women evolved through the ages, adapting to climate change and social upheaval, but continually reflecting the importance of living in an harmonious relationship with the environment and the spirit world.
From the cave painting of southern France to ancient Irish tombs, from shamanic rituals to Arthurian legends, the divine feminine plays an essential role in understanding where we have come from and where we are going. Comparative examples from other native cultures, and quotes from spiritual leaders around the world, set European religions in context with other indigenous cultures.
Critique: Original, exceptional, informative, and a simply fascinating read from start to finish, "The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe: Goddesses, Sacred Women and the Origins of Western Culture" by Celtic folklore and mythology expert Sharon Paice MacLeod has deftly crafted a seminal and groundbreaking study that will be of immense interest to readers with an interest in how the female in the form of Goddess, Sacred Intermediator, and the Feminine Divine impacted ancient European cultures, folklore and mythologies. Enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of an eight page Preface (To Remember Is To Know), sixteen pages of Notes, an eight page Bibliography, and a three page Index, "The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe" is a welcome and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library collections and supplemental Cultural Anthropology curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this paperback edition of "The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe" from McFarland & Company is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99).
Editorial Note: Sharon Paice MacLeod is a Harvard-trained Celticist, grant-funded researcher, historical consultant and professional musician. She has taught Celtic literature, mythology and folklore at the university level. There is an online listing of her books at Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3468898.Sharon_Paice_MacLeod
Creative Junk Journaling
Natasha Ahmed
Rock Point
c/o Quarto Publishing Group
https://www.quarto.com
9781577156147, $24.99, HC, 224pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Junk-Journaling-Everyday-Keepsakes/dp/1577156145
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-junk-journaling-natasha-ahmed/1148294738
Synopsis: If you're more interested in treasuring keepsakes than crafting them to perfection, the mindful practice of junk journaling is for you. With the publication of "Creative Junk Journaling: How to Collect Everyday Keepsakes and Cherish Your Memories", Natasha Ahmed shows you how to create your own less-polished scrapbook, transforming "junk" into playful works of art that capture moments big and small. Random objects (sticky notes, flower petals, ticket stubs, receipts, stickers, photos, and more) now have a place in your journal with this accessible and crafty DIY how-to guide.
Follow guided prompts and crafts to craft your own junk journal, including advice on what items to gather, stickers to collect, paper to find, notebooks to use, digital software to try, and more. Creative Junk Journaling is not only an accessible guide for beginner crafters with materials to get started, but for expert crafters, it's an opportunity to discover new techniques, amazing crafts, inspiring prompts, and materials for your projects.
"Creative Junk Journalings" is a compendium of helpful tips and content, including:
20 inspiring junk-journal prompts, like travel memories, "What's In My Bag," and vision boards.
5 creative crafts to customize every day objects, such as phone cases and makeup tins.
2 sticker pages full of customized art by Natasha.
12 pages of collage images to cut out and paste into your junk journal.
9 pages of backing paper to use as backgrounds or frames for photos.
A guide to digital journaling for those who don't collect everyday tokens but still want to collect memories.
As you immerse yourself in the process, free from judgment and the mind-numbing screen, you will discover a nurturing new way to unwind and express yourself. By taking time to slow down, look around you, and connect with your emotions, you can find and appreciate the small joys in everyday life. The pleasure of junk journaling lies in the act itself. So enjoy "Creative Junk Journalings" and take a fresh take on journaling as you write down your thoughts and capture extraordinary memories with ordinary ephemera.
Critique: Original, exceptional, special, "Creative Junk Journaling: How to Collect Everyday Keepsakes and Cherish Your Memories" by Natasha Ahmed is an extraordinary and thoroughly recommended DIY compendium of mixed-media crafting, scrapbooking, and journaling. Ideal for preserving memories and just great fun as a hobby, "Creative Junk Journaling" is a unique and unreservedly recommended choice for personal, professional, Senior Citizen Community Center, and community/public library Crafting collections. It should be noted by dedicated crafters that this hardcover edition of "Creative Junk Journaling" from Rock Point is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.74, Amazon).
Editorial Note: Based in the UK, Natasha Ahmed is a content creator and graphic designer known for her maximalist jewelry and eclectic fashion, along with her distinct illustrations, drawn mood boards, and digital scrapbooks that are taking the internet by storm. Natasha has numerous brand partnerships, including July Child Jewelry, Kodak, Adobe, and Airbnb.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Willis Buhle's Bookshelf
In Botanical Time: The Extraordinary Lifespans of the World's Oldest Living Plants
Christopher Woods
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
www.chelseagreen.com
9781645023159, $40.00, HC, 240pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Botanical-Time-Extraordinary-Lifespans-Worlds/dp/164502315X
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-botanical-time-christopher-woods/1147382976
Synopsis: How do some plants live for thousands of years? Which adaptations and evolutionary strategies allow them to thrive in some of the harshest places on the planet for so long -- and so well?
With the publication of "In Botanical Time: The Extraordinary Lifespans of the World's Oldest Living Plants", plantsman, author, and longtime botanical garden designer Christopher Woods takes the reader along on a popular science exploration of twenty-three of the world's most amazing species, seeking answers to these questions by explaining their incredible survival mechanisms.
Woods emphasizes how human cultures have interacted with plants over time and what we may, critically, be able to learn from them about sustainability in extreme climates. Some species will be familiar to readers, while some are outright surprising -- such as the aptly named Welwitschia mirabilis, which lives happily in the Namib Desert for up to two thousand years, although many of those years receive zero precipitation.
With over two hundred color images and lively, accessible text, "In Botanical Time" highlights fascinating facts about each charismatic plant, encouraging conservation for these species and leading us toward larger lessons about the rapidity with which humans have caused (and are continuing to cause) species to adapt.
Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated throughout with full color photography of the individual plants and trees that have incredibly long life spans, some even in the most seemingly hostile of environments, "In Botanical Time: The Extraordinary Lifespans of the World's Oldest Living Plants" is itself an extraordinary, unique, informative, and simply fascinating read from cover to cover. Erudite, exceptional, original, "In Botanical Time: The Extraordinary Lifespans of the World's Oldest Living Plants" is exceptionally well written, organized and presented, making it an ideal and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library ecological, environmental, and nature conservation collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academics, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this hardcover edition of "In Botanical Time: The Extraordinary Lifespans of the World's Oldest Living Plants" from the Chelsea Green Publishing Company is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.99).
Editorial Note: Christopher Woods began his gardening life at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is the author of two books: Gardenlust in 2018 and Our Natural World Heritage in 2023. Chris was director and chief designer of Chanticleer, transforming it into one of America's most exuberant gardens, renowned for creative and innovative techniques. He has also served as vice president for horticulture at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden; director of the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, Canada; executive director of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens; and director of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Meadowbrook Farm.
Traces In Dreams: The Path to Essence
Zana Princevac
Chiron Books
www.chironbooks.com
9781685036669, $44.00, HC, 242pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Traces-Dreams-Essence-%C5%BDana-Prin%C4%8Devac/dp/168503666X
Synopsis: Rooted in the author's personal journey through life's silences and turning points, "Traces In Dreams: The Path to Essence" by Zana Princevac draws from Carl Jung's Red Book, where the Spirit of the Depths dances with the Spirit of the Times, alongside Shankara's nondual unity, Kapila's witnessing consciousness, and Nishida Kitaro's pure experience.
Dreams, interpreted through these lenses, become portals where the ego's illusions (ahamkara) dissolve in the fire of Mu -- a symbol of transformative stillness, not emptiness. The Shinto Hamaya, a tipless arrow, dispels darkness through sacred presence, embodying lunar conscience and Kohlberg's universal goodness. Infused with Rumi's poetic love, Vasko Popa's metaphoric vaults, and Ryuichi Sakamoto's sacred sound, "Traces In Dreams" deftly weaves an imaginal tapestry, bridging personal and collective, psychological and spiritual, to guide readers toward a soulful understanding of dreams as traces of essence.
"Traces in Dreams" fills a critical gap in contemporary Jungian and spiritual literature, offering a unique synthesis of Western analytical depth and Eastern nondual wisdom. It speaks to analysts, dreamers, and spiritual seekers craving tools to navigate the psyche's imaginal realms. By reimagining dreams as portals to essence, it counters postmodern alienation, fostering a renewed sense of connection to the anima mundi and the eternal.
Critique: Exceptionally well written and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "Traces In Dreams: The Path to Essence" by Zana Princevac is an extraordinary contribution to the growing body of Dream interpretation literature. Of immense interest to students of Hinduism, Jungian psychology, philosophy, and dreams, this hardcover edition of "Traces In Dreams: The Path to Essence" is a unique, exceptional, and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library collections. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Traces In Dreams: The Path to Essence" is also available in paperback (9781685036652, $27.00) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Zana Princevac specializes in analytical (archetypal) psychology and psychotherapy. She earned the title of Jungian analyst by passing the final exam under Murray Stein and Mario Jacoby in Zurich. For over three decades, she has worked in her private practice, delivering lectures, seminars, and workshops for both professional and general audiences, both in her home country and internationally. Within the framework of ISAPZURICH (International School for Analytical Psychology, Zurich), she has given lectures on topics such as Synchronicity and Precognitive Dreams. In 2019, her essay "The Spirit of this Time: No One's Child, a Postmodern Fairy Tale" was published in Stein, M. & Arzt, T. (eds.), Jung's Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions, vol. 3 (Asheville, North Carolina, Chiron Publications, 2019). In the same year, she published the book Jung's Red Book: An Introduction to Reading and Conversation
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
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