Love Live Forgive / Justin St. Vincent - Book Review

Rendering the esoteric accessible is what Justin St. Vincent prides himself upon doing, and that is clearly what he achieves in this collection of interviews with musicians, artists, and authors from around the world. For the five main streams of this book, Artistry, Love & Forgiveness, Compassion & Healing, Transformation, and Unity, St. Vincent has written a brief introduction, summing up the major tenets of the artists whose interviews follow. The complete lack of bias as to the artists who appear in this wide-ranging volume can be seen in the wide range of their interests and faiths. What they do have in common is a deep belief in the transformative and unifying medium in which they excel. Their deep-seated humanism and humanitarianism, as well as the both simple and profound way in which they express themselves, pervades the text.

To be able to have access to the innermost workings of the artists’ minds and souls is an intensely felt privilege that so transcends the written text that a feeling of spiritual intimacy is attained with the multitude of creative beings whose thoughts and emotions fill these pages, and which cannot help but overflow into the readers’ own life. For each person who peruses this compilation, Love Live Forgive is bound to exert a gentle and persuasive force that implicitly calls for you to heighten your own awareness of the nuances and subtleties that are both present in your innermost being, as well as in the world around you.

Whereas some of the artists discuss the themes of this work in the overall context of the creative milieu, others reveal, through a discussion of their personal experiences, how a particular form of art has helped them to transcend a particular crisis in their life. They show how even the scars that are left by surviving such a traumatic experience as rape can be healed through the mellifluous power of word, music and dance. For instance, composer, musician and producer Suzanne Doucet’s account of how reaching her attempted rapist through song enabled the two to come together in a scene of reconciliation and forgiveness that might not otherwise have been possible. Tending to the spiritual needs of the dying through the therapeutic medium of art is an issue that appears in a number of the interviews, including in those with Mark Lombard, founder and president of For Love & Art, and with the aptly named Michael Stillwater, author and songwriter. Is it any wonder that those who are most deeply in touch with their own emotional and spiritual makeup are so readily involved with those who are having to come to terms with the intricacies of their own journey through life? Love Live Forgive’s many photographs of the artists concerned should also help to warm the readers to the individuals who have so generously given of their time to the present volume.

As well as possibly serving as a key text for encounter groups (for which St. Vincent provides a number of probing questions at key places in the text), Love Live Forgive holds an intrinsic appeal to art and music therapists throughout the world. All those who are intent on deepening their own self-awareness and spirituality are likely to find this book a reliable means of rising above the plain and mundane to ascend to a place of peace and tranquillity that knows no earthly bounds.

Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities / James Turner - Book Review

The fluent and highly accessible way in which James Turner, Cavanaugh Professor of Humanities at the University of Notre Dame, recounts the evolution of the science of philology makes for relatively easy reading, which is especially exceptional when one considers the complexity of the subject matter of this 550-page book. Attention-grabbing from the start, Professor Turner begins his prologue by discussing a highly apposite adage of the leading humanistic scholar, Erasmus of Rotterdam, namely: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog [knows] one big thing.” He explains the importance and relevance of the adage to a central issue of this work: whether humanistic scholarship in the West consists of many disciplines, or just one overarching discipline. Clearly, Turner is a dab hand at unpacking multidimensional and intertwined concepts that might otherwise leave the reader floundering in the midst of an academic maze. His competence and ease in exploring a subject to which he has devoted much of his own academic career instils a sense of trust in the reader that this is an expert who is not only on intimate terms with his material, but who is also vitally concerned with conveying his understanding of the matter to his readers, no matter how new they are to the field. While in no way being condescending towards his audience, Turner explains even the most fundamental of ideas and practices in a pragmatic and fulsome way that gives heart and feeling to Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities (Princeton University Press; ISBN: 978-0-691-14564-8). Making no undue assumptions as to the pre-existing level of understanding among his audience, he animates and informs all aspects of the evolution of philology, leaving no stone unturned in his portrayal of the history of the discipline, from the time of the ancient Greeks to the modern day.

Turner has a delightful sense of humor—he manifests none of the academic stuffiness that is typically associated with the science of philology, and is, in fact, prone to take the mickey out of pedantic claptrap. For instance, he personifies the appearance of philology in academic circles in Northern America and the British Isles as tottering “along with arthritic creakiness. One would not be startled to see its gaunt torso clad in a frock coat.”  The author traces the development of the science from its once “chic” and “dashing” form to its present state of apparent decrepitude with the ease and fluency of a skilled rhetorician who is a master of his art. He shows how, from philology’s once all-embracing encompassment of the study of all language and languages, as well as of all texts, the seeming deterioration of the discipline into its present attenuated state came about through its birthing of the many disciplines that currently comprise not only the humanities, but also the social sciences. By giving rise to a plethora of children, as many parents have done since time immemorial, it can clearly be seen to have sacrificed some of its own integrity so that it could give life to a host of new entities, each strong and growing by leaps and bounds in its own right.

In addition to the present volume, Professor Turner has also authored The Liberal Education of Charles Eliot Norton and Religion Enters the Academy, as well as coauthored The Sacred and the Secular University. He is well-known for the depth of his professional insight and for the fluency and accessibility of his writing, of which the present volume is yet another memorable instance.

The Philosopher, The Priest, and the Painter: A Portrait of Descartes / Steven Nadler - Book Review

This sensitive and informed portrayal of the leading incisive and groundbreaking philosopher of the 17th century, René Descartes, provides a smooth conduit into the life and thinking of a doyen of his times. The sound rationality of his approach and his desire to explore the new and challenging in thought and faith, rather than adhering to the dictates of the authorities, has an innate appeal. For a young person, Descartes is extremely appealing, ranging from his wanderlust, which saw him travelling the length and breadth of Europe, through to his desire for close and supportive friendship with those who were most meaningful to him, above all the priest Father Augustijn Bloemaert.

Descartes’s opposition to aspects of the established church and state no doubt should also go a long way to entrenching a positive approach towards him among the young. His rejection of what man perceives through the senses in favor of the overpowering superiority of reason should serve as a wake-up call to any reader heralding from the contemporary ‘instant gratification’ society who comes upon his work for the first time. The contentious nature of Descartes’s writings led to them being listed on the Roman Catholic Index of Prohibited Books for eons, which, no doubt, should also appeal to the young, who have long tended to be attracted to subversive and outlawed works. For undergraduate students and relative newcomers to the field of philosophy, Steven Nadler’s writing is bound to prove riveting reading—there are just so many points of common interest and approach with the modern-day thinker (keeping in mind that he, in fact, abandoned academic studies in a keen desire to investigate the world for himself).

In the portrait of Descartes by Frans Hals that appears on the front cover of this exploratory work, despite his starched collar, the philosopher looks less concerned with being genteel than he is with making a conscious effort to be intensely aware of what is going on around him, and interrogative of it. Instead of “think” in the stock phrase that is associated with his outlook on life and raison d’être, “I think, therefore I am,” one might, perhaps, just as easily insert “am intellectually aware.” In short, Descartes had a deep concern with both the mental and the physical, a concern that Nadler reveals in relation to his progression throughout life, on both the intellectual and the material plane.

In The Philosopher, The Priest, and The Painter: A Portrait of Descartes (Princeton University Press; ISBN-13: 978-0-691-15730-6), Nadler, the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, uses Frans Hals’s portrait of Descartes as a fitting centerpiece and starting point from which to launch an examination of the philosopher’s life against the political and cultural backdrop of Europe, and specifically the Low Countries, during the Dutch Golden Age.

Above all, the humaneness of Descartes, which is remarkable for any academic, and especially for any philosopher, is what stands out in this text. Nadler’s many excerpts from Descartes’ letters and other writings also help to bring this work alive. The work is well illustrated with full-color plates and multiple half-tones throughout. In the comprehensive index, particular care is taken with the detailed entries on the priest Augustijn Bloemaert, on René Descartes and his numerous works, and on Frans Hals and the multiple references to his various paintings. In order to find a comparable introductory reader to Descartes, one would have to go extremely far. The Philosopher, The Priest, and The Painter: A Portrait of Descartes should serve to enlighten many a newcomer regarding the origins of modern philosophy, and encourage them to inquire much more deeply about said philosopher in future.

Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics / Kathryn J. Atwood - Book Review

The stereotypical image of the combatants in World War I is of bedraggled and weary men fighting for their very existence in muddy, rat-infested trenches dug deep into the ground of a besieged and war-torn France. However, that the War went far beyond that country, and was most definitely not the sole domain of men, is clearly shown in Kathryn J. Atwood’s Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics.  Having already proved her mettle as far as writing about the role that women played in World War II goes, in her authorship of Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue and in her editorship of Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent (both also, as is the present volume, part of the Women of Action series), the redirecting of Atwood’s attention to the Great War in the present volume serves to confirm her overall understanding of not only how devastating conflict can be, in terms of the effects that it has on the life of combatants and non-combatants alike, but also how it provides an arena for bringing out the very best in those who feel inspired or compelled to take part in it.

By focusing on the contribution made to the war effort by the sixteen outstanding women whose tales she here tells, Atwood is able to show, in some detail, how they were able to use the strengths of their gender as a cause célèbre to enhance and complement the work done by those who have traditionally been seen as the major protagonists in military struggle, namely men. The caring capacity of women, although most clearly revealed in the medical profession, is also explored in the section on resisters and spies. The bravery and allegiance of the teenager, Emilienne Moreau, who became a national symbol of hope for the French during a time when they had otherwise become disheartened by their severe losses at the Front, is echoed in more mature and full-bodied terms in the life of Louise Thuliez (who gave, as her motive for becoming involved with helping the Allied cause, “[b]ecause I am a Frenchwoman”), and in that of the fiercely defiant Gabrielle Petit.

The impact made by the death of Edith Cavell at the hands of a firing squad is shown as a key element of propaganda that was used against the Central Powers for the rest of the war. Atwood’s logical arranging of the chapters of her book shows the considerable amount of forethought that she has put into this work. By heading Women Heroes of World War I with a description of Cavell’s involvement in the war, Atwood is able to refer back to the heroic stance that she adopted, even at her own execution, in later chapters. An instance of this is the fruitless attempt that was made by the Germans to get Elsie Inglis, founder of field hospitals run entirely by women, to sign a declaration condoning their treatment of her in captivity, which they could have used to reflect their humanitarianism, and to deflate the outrage felt by the rest of the world on Cavell’s death.

The heroic role played by the Russian women who voluntarily enlisted in the Women’s Battalion of Death, headed up by Maria Bochkareva, in raising the morale of those who fought on the Eastern Front is counterpoised against the role of the intrepid intelligence organizer extraordinaire, Louise de Bettignies, who inscribed her petticoats with messages written in lemon juice, a cheap form of invisible ink, so that she could move through enemy lines unscathed. No matter to which country or cause the women described in Women Heroes of World War I committed their energetic endeavours, they are all shown as having maximized the resources at their disposal, whether of a more feminine nature, or through temporary suppression of their gender in support of what they saw as a far more urgent cause.

In short, Atwood’s book is a reflection of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, and deserves its place on the bookshelf of anyone who is truly interested in the history not only of World War I, but also of womankind itself.  

Coming Home: A Practical and Compassionate Guide to Caring for a Dying Loved One / Deborah Duda - Book Review

Coming Home: A Practical and Compassionate Guide to Caring for a Dying Loved One (Synergy Books; ISBN: 0-9842358-9-2) is a synthesis of Duda’s psychological and spiritual understandings and the basic information on physical care needed to support someone who lives at home during the terminal stages of his or her life. It includes things to keep in mind when a loved one is deciding where to die, and, if home is the choice, what you can do about family morale, pacing yourself, pain relief, interacting with doctors, giving injections, and taking care of your feelings, as well as a multitude of other relevant topics. Although the book is principally directed at the family and friends of the dying person, much of it can be shared with the dying person as well. This book is about acknowledging our fears about dying and, at the same time, moving through them toward greater love, joy, and freedom as we experience dying. As Duda writes, “The book originated after I met Mother Teresa in Calcutta when I was very afraid of death. I expected dying and death to be horrible experiences and found them instead to be profoundly healing and uplifting.” 

Starting with sharing her four experiences with two very close friends and both her parents dying at home, Duda then discusses the advantages of dying at home, followed by when it is not appropriate to die at home. She bears financial considerations in mind when describing the various factors that impact on making the decision. Among sources of help, Duda covers family and friends, medical, home care and legal help, medical suppliers, counseling services, and spiritual and emergency support. Attention is also paid to both sharing the process of dying with healthy children, and how to cope with the dying child. Illustrated with clear line drawings, Coming Home also lists useful resources, how to write your child’s story, a helpful bibliography, and a number of notes.

Duda’s sensitive and caring approach to the subject of dying, based on her own real-life experiences, is evident throughout Coming Home. As well as being medically sound, the work is profound and spiritually uplifting. The emotional aspects of dying are just as important to her, if not more so, than are the material aspects. Both she handles with great skill. This is a perfect volume for anyone who is involved with the dying process of a relative or friend at home, as well as a useful work for any nurse or companion involved in the field. 

1089 Nights: An Odyssey Through the Middle East, Africa and Asia / Ann von Lossberg - Book Review

In 1089 Nights: An Odyssey Through the Middle East, Africa and Asia (iUniverse; ISBN: 978-1-440-10520-3), the prefatory allusion to The Book of One Thousand and One Nights introduces the reader to the text that follows – one is encouraged to expect a cornucopia of interwoven tales. The Odyssey is a lively non-fiction account of Ann von Lossberg’s travels together with her boyfriend, Jim Hucock, through the Middle East, Africa and Asia, mainly undertaken in the 1980s. Written with the benefit of hindsight, based on the details that she meticulously wrote up in her journals, the Odyssey has a vibrancy and immediacy that makes it sound as though you are seated with her around a camp fire.

From the outset, her engaging use of dialogue elicits our close involvement with the evolution of her travels from a vague longing to the actual nitty gritty strategizing of her adventure into yet-to-be-encountered realms. Refreshingly lacking in pretension, her flowing text is direct and appealing. Unlike many other travel writers, she does not resort to lengthy descriptions overloaded with adjectives, rather imbuing her writing with momentum and drive. Reveling in the exotic-sounding names of local phenomena encountered on their travels, she delights in lively and colorful descriptions of others whom they meet along the way.

  

Never patronizing in her approach, Anne sums up the relevance of what they see in images accessible even to the most homebound of travelers, such as where she writes of Cappodocia as “a mushroom village in a fantasy world, a Disneyesque kind of limestone landscape.” In this way she allows the reader to embellish her tales with their own appreciation of the myth and mystique of the lands through which she passes.

Any difficulties that Anne and Jim encounter are related with humor, such as their inability to express their appreciation of Turkish delights in terms other than “guzel” (good): “Guzel tea, we tell them. Guzel food. Guzel Turkish cigarettes in little tins. Everything is guzel.” Her appreciation of children, including the frantically eager Cemil, and animals, such as the timeless camels, also enlivens the text.

Anne’s open-mindedness is shown, for example, where, though critical of the chauvinistic culture of Turkey, she views self-limiting aspects of the society as reasonable within such a context. Retrospective reflection has enhanced her understanding of different cultures, allowing her to come to terms with what clearly were rather unpleasant experiences at the time. Regarding her responding to men who addressed her in the streets, she now realizes that “[w]ith each answer, I inadvertently reinforced their poor opinion of me.”

Anne’s US nationality emerges in her encounters with Syrian society, where she feels the need briefly to outline the reason for the lack of entente cordiale between the two nations. Her avoidance of the polemic makes her account consistently fluent and readable. Sensitive to the idiosyncracies of others, Anne is at all times respectful, and even at times reverential, towards foreign cultures and traditions, as in her description of worship in a Syrian mosque: “The unified effect of hundreds bowing the same moment and the sense of humility are wondrous.” Anne’s narration of the Odyssey is self-directed, but definitely not self-absorbed.

Revelations of the significance of travel for the human psyche are counterpoised against practical insights into what travel on a limited budget entails. Though Anne makes a passing reference to her poetic and introverted nature, she restrains such impulses with what appears to be admirable ease. Rather than swamping her readers with obsessively self indulgent soul searching, stray moments of spiritual introspection are pithy and absent of angst, such as where she compares Jim and herself to onions “shedding layers of our former selves”. Making the commonplace exceptional is, after all, the prerogative of the poet.

Nostradamus, Bibliomancer: The Man, The Myth, The Truth / Peter Lemesurier - Book Review

After a brief historical overview of the life of Michel de Nostredame (1503–1566), in Nostradamus, Bibliomancer: The Man, The Myth, The Truth (The Career Press; ISBN: 978-1-60163-132-9), Peter Lemesurier considers who the alleged mystic was and what he actually did during his lifetime, based on contemporary documentary evidence. In the process, Lemesurier debunks the linguistic misunderstandings, hearsay and falsehoods that have arisen about the man and his work. Penned in 16th-century French and rendered cryptically under Virgilian influence, with many printing errors, Nostradamus’s original writings are so obscure that they are all but inaccessible to the modern-day reader who has not studied them in great detail—small wonder that they are so commonly misunderstood and therefore misrepresented. Lemesurier has taken the effort out of such an exercise by listing the claims that have been made in relation to Nostradamus’s writing alongside a note of the texts concerned, and then analyzing each of them in turn. The records relating to his doctoral qualifications are examined, which show that n was simply an opportunistic apothecary living at the time of the Great Plague.

Lemesurier shows that Nostradamus was no more an astrologer than he was a doctor, with his incompetence on the former score being subject to much mudslinging from the full-blooded astrologers of his day. Nostradamus’s Les Propheties (The Prophecies) is shown to be merely an anthology of known prophecies from the past, fittingly adapted to suit present and anticipated circumstances in the light of known historical events projected into the future. Instead, the divinatory method that n actually used is shown as most likely being that of bibliomancy (the random selection of extracts from books chosen by chance). Part Two of Nostradamus, Bibliomancer discusses the random historical texts and sources Nostradamus himself chose as the bases for many of his prophecies. The English translation of the original text is done in as literalistic a way as possible for the benefit of those who prefer to get as close as possible to the original wording. 

Nostradamus, Bibliomancer is well illustrated, and rounded off with several notes, a comprehensive bibliography, and a substantial index. The accompanying CD contains facsimiles of three original editions of the Propheties, plus a French reprint of the much later Dutch edition of 1668, Nostradamus’s cookbooks, one of his annual Almanachs and Videl’s critique of 1558. Peter Lemesurier, a former Cambridge linguist and professional translator, with a Cambridge MA in Modern and Mediaeval Languages, is widely regarded as the leading English-language expert on Nostradamus. He has written some ten books on Nostradamus, including the best-selling Nostradamus Encyclopedia of 1997, the authoritative The Unknown Nostradamus, and Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies. He is also an established editor of the English, French and German Wikipedia articles on Nostradamus.

Between God and Me: A Journey through Proverbs / Vicki Courtney (with quizzes and interactive pieces written by Susan Jones) - Book Review

Warmth radiates from this colorful text, as does the kind and compassionate approach of the author, Vicki Courtney. Being the founder of Virtuous Reality Ministries, which is an online magazine for middle and high school girls highlighting relevant articles, a blog feature, a prayer board, and artist of the month, she is the ideal person to guide such youngsters through the wise words of one of the most insightful books of the Old Testament.

In this latest issue of the Between series, Between God and Me: A Journey through Proverbs (B&H Publishing Group; ISBN: 978-0-8054-4985-3), Courtney explores the depth of meaning in Proverbs, for each of which chapters she provides an article describing her own encounter with the truth of the Proverb, followed by a few questions (headed ‘Just between us’) to help preteen and teenage girls apply the Proverb to their own lives. In addition, Courtney has split up her text into six main sections, each of which includes not only the articles and questions described above, but also ‘Say what?’ (a guide to some of the “weird, not-so-normal phrases” included in that particular portion of Proverbs), ‘Lies to wise’ (which tests readers’ knowledge of what Scripture says in Proverbs, by asking them to rewrite deliberate misunderstandings of key verses, to reflect the true meaning of what is said), and quizzes, which allow readers to rate themselves on a number of issues, including on their choice of friends and how they relate to others. Susan Jones, the author of all the quizzes and interactive pieces in the guide, is currently engaged in full-time mission work in Guatemala, which can be followed on her web site. 

This 149-page guide is well illustrated, with more of the appearance of a delightfully themed scrapbook than a conventional book. Its large font and unconventional page layout should entice even the most reluctant reader to wish to engage with its ‘cool’ content. The writing is lively and elucidating, relating very much on the target reader’s level. 

This fun, interactive text can either be read alone, together with a close friend or older family member, or in a Bible study together with a group of friends. An ideal source for any Bible-focused resource centre, as well as for one’s own home library, readers will need no coaxing to embark on reading through, and interacting with, this informative and reader-friendly text.  

Guide to Greece for History Travellers / Bob Fowke and Andrew Mee - Book Review

The depth and variety of Greece is captured in Bob Fowke and Andrew Mee’s Guide to Greece for History Travellers (YouCaxton Publications; ASIN: B009RWLWKY) in a way that might surprise certain tourists, who only know of the country as an ideal place for island-hopping and holidaying. Ranging from their description of “mountains ... where bears and wolves still roam” to the mysteries and perils survived by this diverse nation over the centuries, the multifaceted nature of Greece comes alive in these pages. History-filled the guide well is, as is only fitting for a description of “the oldest culture in Europe for which there are written records” (although, in addition, being interspersed with handy maps and tips for tourists), and it is exactly this history that Fowke and Mee so succinctly describe in their travel guide for history lovers. But don’t get me wrong, this work is so masterful in its overview that it should capture the attention of any tourist who has the vaguest inkling of an interest in how Greece has come to be what it is today, Euro crisis and all—this work is a far cry from stuffy academic writings that have you yawning from the second page.

From “Hellen or Helen”, set in “the ancient past”, through to “Peace and quiet ... for a while” (the latter all too true, I’m afraid, seeing the country’s present state of economic turmoil), Fowke and Mee take their readers through a myriad of battles and mutilations with a characteristic light touch, which, nevertheless, is informed, cogent and witty. Although this is not a text that is totally hidebound by dates, the authors concerned, nevertheless, provide a handy timeline for each chapter, so that you have a rough idea of the time span that they are about to (un)cover in said portion of the text.

Their delightful scattering of line drawings throughout express their somewhat tongue-in-cheek approach to their subject, which ranges from irreverent to (fringing on the) reverent in turn. Despite having a great deal of respect for their subject (after all, they acknowledge that “If you’re a European, you probably think of [Greece] as the birthplace of much of your own culture and of many of your national institutions, in particular of democracy”—mind you, many of those of us who herald from the New World are just as embedded, historically speaking, within such an ethos), Fowke and Mee’s sane grasp on the subtleties of national fervor and despair brings to light the major movements of the Greek nation in a simple, yet holistic way, that should delight their many followers who have already reveled in the other books in this series, namely France, Turkey and Spain, all, of course, being “Guides for History Travellers.” 

The Fairies Return, or, New Tales for Old / compiled by Peter Davies; edited by Maria Tatar - Book Review

What, for several generations now, have come to be regarded as the entertaining fairy tales of the brothers Grimm, were, in reality, concerted attempts by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm to capture the capricious and often cruel folktales that had been an inherent part of Germanic oral tradition for centuries. The acerbic nature of wit that is intrinsic to these tales makes it of little wonder that such a genre could lend itself to transformation into modern-day critique of contemporary society, in the form of what, potentially, could be the harshest and most revealing of all forms of present-day humor, namely satire.

However, in The Fairies Return, Or, New Tales for Old (Princeton University Press; ISBN-13: 978-0-691-15230-1), a compilation of fifteen fairy tales (of which only one, E. Arnot Robertson’s “Dick Whittington”, is excluded from the present volume for copyright reasons) transformed into a vehicle of satire under the guidance of Peter Davies, the adopted son of the playwright J.M. Barrie, such satire is rendered both extremely accessible and palatable through his involvement of fifteen contemporary writers who were noted “expert observers of modern British manners and mores”. The ‘modern’ refers to the 1930’s, which is the decade in which the present work was first produced—not to its detriment, I might add, as the decade in question was a key turning point for the history not only of Britain or Europe, but for the entire world, as it experienced the aftermath of the Great War, and witnessed the burgeoning power of Hitler’s tyrannical grasp on Europe, with its gross violation of human rights and dignity. Needless to say, many of the issues that troubled any sound person’s thinking at the time are very much those that beset our present-day psyche, so the relevance of The Fairies Return is in no way to be doubted.

Faced by the increasing disenchantment with modern mores and the rising rationalism that permeated society at the time, Davies recognized the need for a refurbishing of the old (fairy lore) with the new (a critical approach to society that might revitalize flagging spirits and help to reformulate social systems that had outstayed their time). The result was The Fairies Return, Or, New Tales for Old. As the esteemed folklorist and leading Harvard academic Maria Tatar, who provides a new introduction to the work, states: “Fairy tales have always had the capacity to puncture bourgeois propriety and speak truth to power even as they fuel our fantasies and fears. In this volume too, they are double duty bound”. Tatar provides incisive insights into not only the function and structure of fairy tales in general, but embarks on an exciting and revealing exploration of the significance of each tale, forming a widely drawn corpus comprised of a representative sampling of the aforementioned tales of the Brothers Grimm, The Thousand and One Nights, Charles Perrault’s The Tales of Mother Goose, British fairy tales and the writings of Hans Christian Andersen—an eclectic mix, to be sure. She ends the introduction by considering the personal and professional life of Peter Davies, including an entrancing description of his childhood, of which much was spent in the imaginatively enriched Kensington Gardens and played out at Barrie’s country retreat, Black Lake Cottage.

An inspiring collection that provides much food for thought, The Fairies Return, Or, New Tales for Old is a worthwhile text not only for the history scholar, but also for the wide panoply of individuals who are interested in fairy and folklore. Ideal either for the home library, or for more academic surrounds, this work should arouse a range of widely varying emotions extending from nostalgic pathos to wry humor, as well as give grounds for much serious reflection on the social ethos of the times.

That Book About Harvard: Surviving the World's Most Famous University One Embarrassment at a Time / Eric Kester - Book Review

Eric Kester thrives upon styling himself as somewhat of a jock from the very first page of this hilarious account of his freshman year at that most prestigious of all universities―Harvard. His rollicking account has one amused from start to finish of this autobiographical account of what it means to be a newby at a tertiary level educational establishment that is renowned throughout the world for its academic excellence. Kester elicits our sympathy for any student who embarks on the pathway of further learning, and who is not quite sure of where or how to tread next, let alone whether he will prove himself capable of doing so at all.

 

At first, Kester’s apprehensions are humorously played out by imagining the letter of rejection that he fears he will receive from his university of choice. Delighting in turning scholarly conventions into the fitting subject of his sharp wit, he parodies the use of footnotes that are so prolific in academic writing. In declining him (and any of his future offspring) an offer of admission to Harvard, the office of Harvard Admissions (in his imagination) writes: “This was not an easy decision*, but ultimately we concluded that it reflects poorly on the Harvard brand to admit a student who would be better served attending a lesser school, perhaps as a janitor.” Declaring himself more of a “Star Wars guy” than a “loser Trekkie geek,” Kester finds his first dilemma in res is how to retrieve a box of fantasy video games from a hallway while dressed in only his boxers. Though he has prepared himself academically for varsity life by swatting up on mathematical constants, he confronts the rigours of dorm life with a great deal more concern than he does nonchalance. And so the book goes on, from anecdote to anecdote. As refreshing as Cold Comfort Farm was respecting (?) the close-set agrarian community, That Book about Harvard: Surviving the World’s Most Famous University One Embarrassment at a Time opens up the stifling mythologically bound ivory towers of academia to refreshing gales of laughter. Since such heady and halcyon days, the author has continued to adopt a bright and breezy approach to life, writing for CollegeHumor.com and for the Boston Globe.

That Book about Harvard: Surviving the World's Most Famous University One Embarrassment at a Time (Sourcebooks, Inc.; ISBN-13: 978-1402267505) is well worth a read by anyone with the vaguest pretension to a college upbringing―this work’s zestful cogency is bound to sweep away many a sagging cobweb that festoons the darker nooks and crannies of many an august higher education establishment.

Alive!: Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary People Who Survived Deadly Tornadoes, Avalanches, Shipwrecks and More / Reader's Digest - Book Review

Stories of How Getting to Grips with the Raging Elements Can Bring About Spiritual Faith and Renewal in a Tempestuous World

The adventure stories in this collection, although all previously having been published in the Reader’s Digest magazine itself, remain as fresh and gripping as they were on their first day of print. For decades, Reader’s Digest has narrated tales that transcend human anxieties and fears, showing how we nearly all, when we are pushed to the very limits of our endurance, are, nevertheless, somehow able to rally ourselves to overcome the odds that sometimes seem to be overwhelmingly stacked against us. All of the tales in Alive!: Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary People Who Survived Deadly Tornadoes, Avalanches, Shipwrecks and More originally formed part of the regular column entitled “Drama in Real Life” during the last two decades, with most of them coming from the 21^st century. However, as is stressed in the introduction to this fine volume of intrepid amateur exploration and outward bound activity, which is set, more often than not, in the wilderness, or at sea, although sometimes in the apparent sanctity and security of the protagonists’ own homes, these tales are, essentially, “timeless.”

What makes these stories a great deal more than just simply anecdotes is the nature of the combatants themselves. The individuals who people these tales, and with whom we become familiar on first name basis, can, at times, be seen to be at harmony with elements in the wild that serve to attract them into situations where their very lives are often imperilled. When not vying against primeval forces of tempest and environmental mayhem, such as typhoons and hurricanes, they can be seen savouring the beauties and wonders of this double-edged nature. For instance, the noble mustangs that Tom and Tabitha Garner search after for spiritual solace in “Into the Wild” are felt almost to empathize with the couple when they are marooned by howling blizzards: “The blizzard was petering out, and a crowd of mustangs peered at the truck through the trees. ‘Look, Tom,’ Tamitha whispered. “Our guardian angels.’”

The objective and thoughtful recounting of these stories of human endeavour is balanced by the insights that the tales provide into the inner workings of the human mind under stress. With the circumstances in which the various characters find themselves being contextualized in such a way that readers are easily able to relate to them, even if they have not personally encountered such situations themselves, when it comes to moments of high drama, the perspective is presented from the eye-view of the proponents of action themselves. Once the crisis is over, the aftermath is then once more narrated from a more objective standpoint. This alternate narrowing and broadening of focus helps to make the accounts not only highly readable and exciting, but also capable of conveying a deeper message than might otherwise be possible. Many a budding journalist out there might well take note of this tried and true technique, in order to improve their own stylistic rendering of similar situations.

Alive!: Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary People Who Survived Deadly Tornadoes, Avalanches, Shipwrecks and More should prove to be a worthwhile addition to any home, school or school library. It comes thoroughly recommended for all ages and all audiences, as, naturally, does the Reader’s Digest magazine itself.

[My thanks go to renowned online publisher, Norm Goldman, for his inclusion of this review on his http://www.BookPleasures.com website.]