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Reviewer's Bookwatch

Volume 24, Number 10 October 2024 Home | RBW Index

Table of Contents

Andrew Benson Brown's Bookshelf Ann Skea's Bookshelf Carl Logan's Bookshelf
Clint Travis' Bookshelf Dharmpal Singh's Bookshelf Israel Drazin's Bookshelf
Jack Mason's Bookshelf Jane Cairns' Bookshelf John Burroughs' Bookshelf
Julie Summers' Bookshelf Kirk Bane's Bookshelf Laurie Nguyen's Bookshelf
Margaret Lane's Bookshelf Mark Walker's Bookshelf Michael Carson's Bookshelf
Robin Friedman's Bookshelf Suanne Schafer's Bookshelf Susan Bethany's Bookshelf
Willis Buhle's Bookshelf    


Andrew Benson Brown's Bookshelf

Finally Autistic: Finding My Autism Diagnosis as a Middle-Aged Female
Theresa Werba
https://www.theresawerba.com
Bardsinger Books
9780965695534, $12.95 paperback, 124 pages

https://www.amazon.com/FINALLY-AUTISTIC-Finding-Diagnosis-Middle-Aged/dp/0965695530

Finally Autistic: Finding My Autism Diagnosis as a Middle-Aged Female is a revealing portrait of one woman's lifelong struggle with autism.

As someone who worked in mental health for nearly a decade, I can testify that this memoir shows a level of insight and awareness that many people with mental health issues struggle to achieve, and never find. Werba herself groped towards awareness after being misdiagnosed for years, and admits to still struggling with the underlying emotional and behavioral issues that come with an Autism Level 1 diagnosis. As she put it, "Why, with grey hairs abounding, do I still have problems when people ask me, 'How are you?'

Calling it a memoir is not entirely accurate. It is more of an autobiographical case study.
Werba's personal reflections and anecdotes are firmly rooted in data: an autism assessment, school report cards that highlight her "unsatisfactory" levels of self-control, and even developmental reports from when she was in preschool (all reproduced in full within these pages). Her blending of subjective reflections with objective data points make this a unique work.

This is not Werba's first go at autobiographical writing. She is also the author of Warning Signs of Abuse: Get Out Early and Stay Free Forever (2015), and When Adoption Fails: Abuse, Autism, and the Search for My Identity (2001). Even further back, as she tells us in the pages of this book, she wrote her first autobiography in second grade: "I was 'a baby that cried a lot,'" she tells us.

Theresa Werba's life story is fascinating in the worst possible way. "Childhood was difficult, challenging, painful, and even sad for me," she writes. Born of a teenage sex worker, adopted by members of a religious cult who abused her, getting in constant trouble at school, self-harming as an adolescent, struggling to hold jobs as an adult, being disinherited by her adoptive mother, living in an abusive marriage to a drug addict: these experiences are superficially similar to those of many who end up on the wrong side of the criminal justice system, or in a psychiatric institution.

Somehow, though, Werba did not end up like so many others. Quite the opposite, in fact - she became a successful classical singer and poet. She had a litter of children, all of whom are successful today. In short, she beat the odds.

How? Well, as she described it, things got better for her "as I developed the ability to 'mask' - the face I learned to put on when singing and in social activity." Interestingly, she attributes her successful masking to her identity as an artist, since eccentric behavior is tolerated more in this social type. Her talent for singing music and performing poetry, she tells us, turned out to be her "saving grace." It not only provided her with a creative outlet, but allowed her to communicate with an audience in socially acceptable ways.

My own familiarity with Werba, prior to reading this book, was through poetry. She is a widely acknowledged master of formal lyric verse, one of the best sonneteers writing today. Reading her published work or watching her perform, one would not have any idea that she struggles with neurodivergence, and most who know her from this world remain ignorant of the fact. I've known her for several years now myself and had no idea about any of this until a few months ago. Her masking, as she put it, has "led to many close friendships throughout my life, as well as more lovers and entanglements than I care to remember."

I read this book in one sitting, unable to put it down. I think this, in part, has to do with humankind's addiction to schadenfreude: while it is illuminating and usually sad, it is also entertaining in a tragicomic sort of way. Werba chronicles, in detail, all the jobs she was fired from for behavioral issues that affected her performance, as well as social situations that wrecked many of her personal relationships.

One disastrous social situation highlights the book's instructive and entertaining aspects. Once while substitute teaching for a Kindergarten class, Werba decided to bring some historical context to a reading of "The Night Before Christmas." Conditioned by her religious beliefs to believe that presenting fairy tales as truth was bad, she told the children about the real Saint Nicholas, saying that he died in the 4th century. This somehow turned into children going home and telling their parents that "Teacher said Santa Claus is dead," which turned into a teacher's visit to the principal's office, which turned into an interview with a local news station. "I ended up getting hate mail from all over the country," Werba said. This in addition to being fired from substitute teaching at that school.

The explanation she gives for her behaviors here could well stand in for every situation in the book: "I was rigid and inflexible when confronted with this dilemma and I could not see any nuanced resolution to my problem." This is, in a nutshell, how people with Autism Level 1 deal with the world.

In uncovering the roots of her "rigid and inflexible" nature, Werba highlights the surprising connection between autism and religion. She partly attributes her early lack of proper diagnosis to living in a conservative Anabaptist community and the black-and-white thinking this engendered. "My one-minded obsessive thinking could be interpreted as religious fervor," she writes, observing that people with autism are prone to being drawn towards fundamentalism, "and even cults."

Werba does not go into much detail about her years in a fundamentalist religious community or her abusive marriage, events she has previously recorded in When Adoption Fails and Warning Signs of Abuse. While this would no doubt make for more fascinating reading, she stays focused on the topic of neurodivergence and only relates life events directly relevant to her autism.

A chapter that describes being wrongly classified as having bipolar disorder goes into the horrors of misdiagnosis. During a particularly difficult time when the responsibilities of life were overwhelming her, Werba's psychiatrists placed her on a bevy of medications she shouldn't have been on. She was largely bedridden for five years.

Werba remained misdiagnosed for three decades, into her early fifties. Eventually it was a relative, not a medical professional, who first noticed that Werba was probably not bipolar. After reading about autism in a psych 101 textbook, her daughter-in-law told her son, "this sounds like your mom."

"Bulls**t," said Theresa when her son brought it up. "I am bipolar with anxiety. I don't have autism."

She slowly came around to the idea, though, and "welled with tears" when receiving the results of her 2015 autism assessment. "I was glad and sad at the same time," she writes.

The book ends on an inspiring note. Since being properly diagnosed, she has been living her best life: tracking down her Jewish biological father, studying Hebrew and exploring Judaism, publishing numerous books of poetry, and living independently.

Finally Autistic is good source for professionals researching this area. More generally, it is useful for anyone seeking to understand people with this diagnosis. Above all, it is a window into the mind of a great artist.

Andrew Benson Brown is Arts Columnist at The Epoch Times and author of Legends of Liberty.

Theresa Werba is the author of eight books, four in poetry, including What Was and Is: Formal Poetry and Free Verse (Bardsinger Books, 2024). Her website is theresawerba.com and she can be found on social media @thesonnetqueen

Andrew Benson Brown
Reviewer


Ann Skea's Bookshelf

Mural
Stephen Downes
https://stephendownes.com.au
Transit Lounge
9781923023185, A$32.99 HB 208pp.

https://www.amazon.com/Mural-Stephen-Downes-ebook/dp/B0DF7T97H2

This is a strange book. Not just because the narrator is a violent criminal writing his thoughts for his 'mind man', Dr Reynolds, but also because of its mixture of fact and fiction. In the manner of W.G. Sebald, there are black-and-white photographs of places, people and documents mentioned in the text; and you may well find yourself checking the internet to see whether something the narrator discusses is real or invented.

He begins his 'story', for example, by describing the arrival in Australia of Harry Ellis aboard the sailing ship Surrey.

'It is among the last of the clippers, which sailed at clips (hence the name, Dr Reynolds) across oceans, usually carrying slaves... She is the end of the line, a symbol of how quickly steam engines would dominate the sea.'

He ponders briefly on the rise of 'new technologies', and on the 'destruction of handwritten letters in the age of emails', before describing Harry's life in Australia, his self-education, and his time as a teacher at two schools, both 'bark huts' in the foothills of the Liverpool Range west of Sydney. He notes Harry's naivety in sexual matters, his experiences of lust, and his seeming choice of celibacy. At the same time, he digresses to discuss two-headed lizards, a Seamus Heaney poem, the beheading of Anne Boleyn, the French view of 'finding' death, the suburb of Burwood, the Pre-Raphaelites (in particular, Burne-Jones's painting, The Beguiling of Merlin, a photograph of which is included) and some of his own earliest memories. It is not until quite a few pages later that we learn that Harry, after his return to England, became famous as the sexologist Havelock Ellis.

Early in the book our narrator explains that Dr Reynolds has asked him to write down his thoughts, his 'own admissions, anguishes, fears and uncertainties' and what 'provokes' his crimes. 'I find I can put them down best through the prism of someone else's relations,' he tells him. After his account of Harry's life, he writes:

'My dear Dr Reynolds, I have tried to refract my own notable defects through his youthful ones, so to speak, only because his mind is free, open and objective about all manner of urges and - often - our incapacity to control them. I hope this helps in your attempts to unravel me. Me as much as you.'

After an account of unexpectedly meeting a childhood friend in a bushland reserve in the Melbourne suburbs, and listening to the friend's complaints about the way Methodism and his Methodist parents had ruined his life and led to his murdering his mum and dad, our narrator writes of his own experiences of Methodism, and of the mural behind the pulpit in the church he had to attend as a boy, and how it had terrified him.

'The mural, as I've said, catalysed both terror and intrigue, haunting me still. To test my courage, I once revisited it. I was an adult by then and felt I needed to defy its immense power, unlock its mystique, try to break its hold.'

He goes on to describe this return and to describe the mural. It fascinates him, and he wants to see how it had been created and who created it. This leads him to find out more about the creator, Mervyn Napier Waller, and he begins to give an account of Waller's life.

The mural does exist, and Waller did, too. He was an artist whose work is well represented in churches and in public buildings in Melbourne. His achievements in art, and especially in the creation of stained-glass windows, were remarkable, since he had taught himself to work with his left hand after his right arm was blown off in 1916, when he served as a bombardier with the Australian Imperial Force in France.

Our criminal narrator has clearly researched Waller's life thoroughly and he mentions media reports, recordings and art that can be easily found on the internet. At the same time, he recalls his own visit to Ravenna and the mosaics that Waller, too, had once seen there. He remembers the pensione in which he stayed, and his curious description its owner, Francesca, is typical of the colourful way in which he describes others:

'She limped as she crossed the hall to advance up the staircase. I appeared to be watching a galleon with azure sails pitching in heavy swells. Her face gave away everything that needed to be said on her behalf, a visage tanned and oval, her eyes brown, bright, and supertitled with dark brows that contrasted sharply with a precise halo of meringue-white hair.'

Francesca complains about the town being covered in graffiti - all supposed to be art. 'We are suffering from a pandemic,' says Francesca. 'Young people talk only in pictures. No longer words, dottore. They no longer read and write in words.' She complains that even instructions for assembling furniture come as cartoon-like pictures.

It seems to me, she said in a measured way, forgoing bluster, that the evolution of communications is towards murals. We are returning to the first way humans used to tell their fellows what they thought they needed to know.

Our narrator's memories of people are vivid but, perhaps, unreliable, and he clearly likes a good story. At the Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, where 'Hades the god of the underworld is depicted' riding behind Death, he claims to have met a woman who appeared very distressed by these mosaics. The story she tells him, and which he recounts for Dr Reynolds, is strange and fascinating. Her husband, she says, had been terrified by these images and had, many times, told her never to visit them. He had come to believe that their small village was being attacked by Ankou. Ankou, as Wikipedia informs us, are otherworldly creatures, servants of death, whose existence as skeletal figures in black robes is recorded in 'Breton, Cornish, Welsh and Norman French folklore'. This woman's husband believed that their threatening existence would destroy their village and its people. The nearby Carnac Stones (pictured in this books' endpapers), thousands of granite boulders, some 'bigger than American refrigerators' were being moved. 'A whole army of Ankou' were doing this, and he had measured these movements obsessively. He also believed that the village charcutiere's wife was an Ankou. His beliefs drove him to a strange kind of madness and eventually to murder and suicide. 'It worried me. She worried me, and I felt huge sympathy for her, Dr Reynolds,' says our narrator. 'Enormous. You might not believe it but you should.'

Other stories, some provably factual, others possibly imagined by a man who, as he readily admits, has committed some terrible crime, are equally detailed, and his responses to them are complex. He is clearly elderly. He writes of the marble games he and his friends used to play, remembering the names of the different games and the various marbles - the 'alleys'; and he recalls his brief time as a temporary ranger in State national parks, employed, along with other 19- and 20-year-old university students, to maintain the park rules. Inadequately trained and equipped, they were stationed alone in remote areas and expected to 'deter those inclined to litter and to shoot koalas with crossbows'. His own encounter with a sexual predator at an isolated beach is terrifying and his response to this man potentially deadly.

From his writings, it is clear that the narrator is educated, well-travelled, well-read and intellectually able, but he is in a mental hospital. At one point he breaks off his narrative:

'Helas, a burly nurse approaches with my medication. I'll continue later. After I get rid of the pills.

Helas, helas, mon lizard est mort.'

Getting rid of the pills was, maybe, not the best thing to do. At the end of his record his mental state is deteriorating. 'Big Mick', 'Zoltan' and 'Nurse Molly' (he calls her 'Wretched Ratched', after Ken Kesey's terrifying nurse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) are in charge and about to confiscate his laptop. His thoughts and actions become more erratic and deranged, but he is still able to challenge Dr Reynolds before they hold him down and inject him full of tranquillisers:

'What do you make of all this? Dr Reynolds. You're the mind man. Has writing down my thoughts been worthwhile? The experiment? Do I make sense? Who cares? I don't. No one will read it'

Well, it is worth reading, if only for the bizarre stories, and the historical stories he tells, and tells well; and for his unusual, often thought-provoking, reflections on life and death. He never does reveal exactly what his crimes have been, but the stories he chooses to tell leave the reader, like Dr Reynolds, with the puzzle of his nature and his possible motives for violence.

The First Friend
Malcolm Knox
Allan & Unwin
https://www.allenandunwin.com
9781781470431, A$34.99 PB 416pp.

https://www.amazon.com.au/First-Friend-Malcolm-Knox-ebook/dp/B0D15QWSTB

'In the business of producing fiction, the novelist can never keep up with authoritarian political leaders. Such leaders offer an invitation to artists, most of all bullshit artists. You want to lie? Thank you I don't mind if I do...'

In a novel, even when it uses history, the writer is an absolute and capricious ruler. Tyrannies begin with fiction and their reward is more fiction.'

In these passages, Malcolm Knox perfectly describes the way The First Friend relies on history but 'takes liberties' with it; he also hints at the relevance its historic Stalinist setting has to politics and political leaders today.

The First Friend is both terrifying and blackly funny. Knox satirises the absurdities of life in Stalinist Russia, but he also includes grim passages that demonstrate the horrors of life there, too. Beria, Stalin, Yezhov - all were monsters. The October 1917 Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil wars, mass collectivisation, famines, purges, arrests and deaths of millions of landowners, peasants, and enemies of the regime, which are outlined in the brief 'background to events' in the opening pages - all are fact.

Vasil Anastavili Murtov, 'first friend' of Beria, however, is fictional, as is his family. So too is the woman, Natia Meskhi, First Assistant Secretary of the Communist Party, a summons from whom 'was never good news'.

'Natia Meskhi was an avid practitioner of what had come to be known as 'in-depth language', a form of Partyspeak in which words meant their exact opposite.'

Murtov does not trust her, nor does he trust 'AAA' (Adam Adamashvili Adamadze), a 'trainee driver' who is also a product of Knox's imagination. AAA is a perfect example of Post-Revolutionary youth brought up on Communist teachings, and he is enthusiastic about practising them. In a car with Beria, who has been complaining about his daughter and son, AAA suddenly breaks his silence:

''The ABC of Communism,' AAA said.

'Ah - it speaks!' said Beria.

'The ABC of Communism,' the kid repeated. 'Published 1918. It was mandatory in our school. There will be no more speaking of "my" children, only "our" children.'

'The fuck's he on about?' Beria asks Murtov.

'The selfless Revolutionary will break from Pre-Revolutionary ties such as religion and family, and blow up the shell of private life,' AAA went on...

'Fuck me, it not only talks but it's swallowed The ABC,' Beria said. 'I thought I was just having a whinge about my kids.''

Murtov is aware that AAA has a notebook in his pocket and records such things as Murtov's wristwatch ('banned after the October Revolution'), his awareness of Murtov's early life as a part of the imperialist power elite and a 'non-toiler', and his 'inherited blat' ('pull, patronage, privilege') as a friend Beria. Murtov suspects AAA of seeking favour with Natia: 'AAA was hers. AAA was Post, AAA was multicultural, AAA was a pure Natia mole.'

In spite of his closeness to Beria, Murtov lives in a constant state of tension. As does almost everyone else. The Revolution's 'general reinvention of reality' means that spies are everywhere; appeasement of 'The Steel One', 'Supreme Leader' (Stalin) is mandatory and his every wish is anticipated; the struggle for power is constant; nobody is safe and nobody can be trusted. Language itself is so full of pitfalls that it is impossible to know what people really mean or intend. Reports are doctored and changed. People are cancelled, 'sent to another world', commit suspicious suicide, or are arbitrarily made 'non-persons' and imprisoned or enslaved in order to fulfil the government quotas that represent improvements.

Beria has his own warped sense of humour. He terrifies Murtov by holding his revolver against his own temple when he sees Murtov watching him:

'With a delighted cackle, Beria pulled the trigger. It clicked against his head. He 'fired' again and again, amused to death.

'Don't worry,' he said. 'Georgian roulette: no bullets. But we'll load it before we go into the Kremlin.''

There is humour, too, in some of the policies of the regime. At a reception to mark the opening of a new extension to the state art gallery, 'what you would call a Party power dinner, organised by the Soviet Wives' Movement', Murtov notes that:

'There was plenty of vodka, which Moscow was producing in great quantities. The Kremlin had ordered it as a taxation-raising measure to fund an urgent build-up of the Red Army. The vodka wasn't designed to keep the population drunk; as Beria said, drunkenness was just a convenient by-product.'

Uncertainty, however, pervades The First Friend. We know from the start that Murtov will be betrayed and die, but we do not know how. Knox maintains the tension throughout the book and section headings progress from 'Forty Days to Live' through to 'No Days to Live'. All this time, Murtov is constantly with, or at the call of, Beria, who, as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party and governor of the autonomous Georgian republic, is suddenly tasked with preparing for a visit by Stalin to his Georgian birthplace. With only 38 days to prepare for this, Beria become increasingly stressed, drug-fuelled, paranoid and unstable.

''Nothing's confirmed, but I'm guessing it's the anniversary of him taking over the Party... And if it's something that big, he'll bring the whole shitshow: family, Politburo, half of fucking Moscow. He'll want to stay at the beach. For old time's sake, you know?''

Even at home with his wife Babilina and his two young daughters, Murtov cannot completely relax. Babilina, who voluntarily resigned her teaching position as a university literature professor when purges of 'Pre' intellectuals began, has 'inherited her family's oppositional temperament' and is too outspoken for comfort. His daughters are members of the Young Pioneers and have learned to respect the example of the USSR's teenage 'hero', Pavlik Morozov, who squealed on his father, who was then executed, and whose family subsequently murdered him in revenge. Already, Babilina and Murtov are careful about what they say in front of the children, but as the days pass Murtov learns to his horror that nothing about their private conversations is secret; listening devices and informers are everywhere.

Beria's brutality and his reputation for predatory attention to young girls are not brushed over, nor are his 'ruthlessly calculated steps up the leadership ladder' in his aim of eventually becoming Stalin's successor. It comes as a great shock to him when Stalin promotes him to be deputy head of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, under his hated rival, Yezhov; it also means he must move to Moscow:

''And in a month I've got to move to this shithole,' Beria said. 'That's so Stalin, to demote a man upwards.'...

'It's your first national role,' Murtov said weakly.

Beria shook his head so firmly he nearly threw his pince-nez off his nose.

'Boss of all the Transcaucasus, and now in this madhouse under Stalin's eye. How's that a promotion?''

Stalin then decides, for security reasons, to let Yezhov take control of the visit to Georgia. Promotion to Moscow is a step up for Beria, but losing control of the Georgia visit tips him further into dangerous instability. He determines to kill Yezhov, and Murtov is ordered to help him do this.

Murtov has always been Beria's favoured companion, and has always done what 'the boss' required of him, but he has had nothing to do with Beria's worst excesses. What he is asked to do now terrifies him, and the tension in the book mounts as this situation plays out and Murtov's final day approaches. Even at his end, there is an unexpected twist to the story.

Malcolm Knox tells a gripping tale and he manages to make Murtov seem like an ordinary man caught up in the madness and horror of a place ruled by an autonomous dictator. Stalin was one such man, so too was Mao, and so too are those in control of totalitarian regimes in our present world. As a satire, there is humour in this book, but also truth. The 'Alternative Facts' of the Prologue are a reminder of the false 'facts', of image and document doctoring, and the cancel culture that all plague society today, and of the dangers they represent. Gaining supreme power, staying in power, and wielding power is still a murderous occupation.

Glorious Exploits
Ferdia Lennon
Fig Tree
c/o Penguin Books
https://www.penguin.co.uk
9780241667224, A$32.99 PB 288pp.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Glorious-Exploits-Ferdia-Lennon-ebook/dp/B0C3L9SWKZ

"Syracuse 412 BC

So Gelon says to me, 'Let's go down and feed the Athenians. The weather's perfect for feeding Athenians.'"

When you know that the Athenians are prisoners of war, trapped under a blazing sun in the quarries of Syracuse, this sounds callous. And it is, but Gelon is not there for fun. He is there to barter water, cheese and olives for a few lines by the poet Euripides.

According to Lampo, who is recounting all this,

"Gelon's mad for Euripides. It's the main reason he comes. I think he would've been almost happy for the Athenians to have won if it meant that Euripides would've popped over and put on some plays."

Lampo is a chatty young fellow and bit of a good-natured clown, inclined to make weak, foolish jokes at inappropriate moments. 'Officially', he is 'scouting for actors' for Gelon. He is uninterested in Euripides and is more occupied with the smell in the quarry, 'something awful: thick and rotten', and in noting the terrible state of the prisoners. He imagines that 'the worst spots of Hades' might have 'something similar', and he remembers the evening the Athenians surrendered and there was a debate 'that went on for hours' with 'Diocles pacing back and forth, roaring "Where do we put seven thousand of these bastards?" Nowhere in Sicily, never mind Syracuse, was there a prison big enough,' but the steep-sided, rock-walled, easily guarded quarries are the obvious answer.

Many of the people in Syracuse have lost loved ones in the long war between Athens and the Spartans, and the Athenians are hated, but when Lampo comes across Biton in the quarry, intent on beating two men to death in revenge for the death of his son, he tries to stop him. Only the promise of a skin of wine achieves a long enough delay for one man to crawl away, and Lampo follows him and befriends him. Because this man, Paches, has green eyes and claims to know passages from Medea, Lampo cleans him up and presents him to Gelon.

"'Brace yourself, Gelon. Here's your leading man!'

Gelon peers down.

'What?'

'Meet Jason. See those green eyes. Didn't you say Jason was green-eyed?'

Gelon takes in Paches. I don't think he's impressed, and in truth, the cuts Biton gave him are worse that I first thought. Paches looks a state.

'Green-eyed? What are you on about? Anyway, that poor bastard's dying.'"

Paches, however, manages to convince Gelon that he does know speeches from Medea, so, with another prisoner whom Gelon has found and dressed as Medea in an improvised horse-hair wig and a borrowed chiton, part of a scene can be recreated.

Later, inspired by this, and lubricated with wine after a night's drinking in Dismas' steamy, fish-reeking tavern, Gelon tells Lampo that he has a proposition. They are going to be directors.

"'What do they do?'

'They direct...' he hiccups. 'We're going to do Medea in the quarry. But not just bits and pieces. We're going to do the whole play. Full production with chorus, masks and shit.'...

'Full production,' he says, voice shaking, 'with chorus and music and masks. Costumes too, a proper play. Like they do in Athens. We start tomorrow.'"

On that same visit to Dismas', Lampo spots a new slave girl pouring the wine. He is entranced, considering her 'a fucking cracker' in spite of her broken front tooth: 'it looks like a fang, and her some gorgeous wolf'. He is smitten, and, later, manages to get to know her better, but he treats her with respect, bringing her gifts and planning, eventually, to buy her freedom so that they can be together.

Neither Lampo nor Gelon have any money. Gelon manages to acquire armour from a small group of boys who have found it on bodies in the woods. He knows he will be able to sell the armour, and he also recruits the boys to act as the chorus in his play. Masks and costumes will come from the only theatre shop in Syracuse, owned by Alekto, whose husband has disappeared. It is typical of Lampo's rich storytelling that he notes that:

'This was about twenty years ago, and I was just a kid at the time. There's been no sight or sound of him since. All sorts of rumours abound, but my favourite is that she killed him and used his skin to make props for the plays.'

Alekto, told of the proposed play, mocks them, but she is interested and willing to help. And the money to pay her for her masks and costumes comes from a terrifying night when Gelon, after failing to sell the armour to the local blacksmith, goes to the strange ship of a foreign merchant who, he has been told, collects 'stuff from the war' but likes it 'with the blood and other stains' on it. To Lampo's horror, Gelon, who had cleaned the armour, makes 'a long cut along his left arm' and drips blood onto the helmets and swords until they 'bloom redly':

"'That's enough, man... You'll kill yourself, no play's worth that.'

Gelon smiles. The first in a long while, and though I've had a scare, it lifts my spirits. Such conviction in it, like there's knowledge at the root of its feeling, and he grips my hand and squeezes. Strong bastard that he is, it hurts, but I won't say a thing. The pain is welcome; friendship's what I feel.

'It's poetry we're doing,' he whispers. 'It wouldn't mean a thing if it was easy.'"

The visit they make to the merchant's ship results in a fight with a crewman who grabs the bag of armour and tells them to come back later. At first, Lampo is too scared to go with Gelon, who is determined to return, but he follows him when he thinks of his friend being there alone. He finds Gelon chatting with the merchant and drinking from a goblet made of gold. The armour has been sold. The merchant plies them with fine wine and then asks, 'How would you like to see a god?' Gelon says yes and Lampo goes along with him but at the last moment he gets frightened and runs away. They leave the ship with bags full of money:

'...more money that I've ever held in my life. Years' worth of a potter's wages piled in my palm, but the only thing I can think of is what we left on the ship, and I ask Gelon if it's true. Was there a god?... 'Yes,' he says softly. 'It was a god on that ship.'

He will say nothing more, but surprises Lampo with the statement that they now have 'A producer.''

The preparation for the public performance is complicated and often very funny, but eventually two of Euripides' plays, Medea and The Trojan Women, are performed. Lampo describes the performances vividly, commenting on his own reactions, and unwittingly showing that the drama is surprisingly relevant to the situation of the prisoners:

'I'm just watching Cassandra. It's a prophecy of doom, certainly, but there are flickers of hope I hadn't noticed in the rehearsal. Her mother thinks she's mental. The chorus do, too, and she probably is, but beneath the mania, there's a point she's trying to make - just 'cause their lives are fucked, it doesn't mean they've nothing left. There's always something left for the person who remembers.'

Like all first performances, not everything goes smoothly: nervous actors forget their lines, someone 'bounds onto the stage and trips'. The reaction of the audience to these hiccups is what one might expect, but finally they are rapt. Only when the plays end do unexpected things happen, and the results of these fill the final part of the book with tension.

Lampo is a fine storyteller and his personality shapes his accounts of all that happens. Like many foolish youngsters who suddenly have money, he squanders a lot of it, buying fine, impractical 'crocodile-skin' shoes and a flashy blue chiton: a 'director' naturally must look the part! He is honest about his own shortcomings and fears, and he is chivalrous (if one can use that word for an ancient Greek) in his treatment of the slave girl, Lyra. His descriptions of the world around him are rich and lifelike, full of smells, noise, excitement and, occasionally, especially when he is describing the sun and moon over the quarry, almost poetic He speaks a rough, Irish-tinged, expletive-steeped vernacular, and although he views life with a fine sense of humour, his feelings for the plight of the prisoners, especially that of Paches, are strong enough to eventually lead him to risk everything for some of them.

The horrors endured by the prisoners in the quarry are not glossed over, but Glorious Exploits is both moving and funny and full of life. Cassandra's prophecy plays out in this book, not just for the prisoners, whose memories have been so important to Gelon, but for Lampo, too, whose own memories are recorded here.

Dr. Ann Skea, Reviewer
https://ann.skea.com/THHome.htm


Carl Logan's Bookshelf

The Blue Plate
Mark Easter, author
Liam O'Farrell, illustrator
Anthony Myint, foreword
Patagonia
https://www.patagonia.com/home
9781952338205, $30.00, HC, 400pp

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Plate-Lovers-Guide-Climate/dp/1952338204

Synopsis: A blue-plate special is a discount-priced meal that usually changes daily: a term used in the United States and Canada by restaurants, especially diners and cafes. (Wikipedia)

With the publication of "The Blue Plate: A Food Lover's Guide to Climate Chaos", ecologist Mark Easter offers a detailed picture of the impact the foods you love have on the earth.

Deftly organized by the ingredients of a typical dinner party, including seafood, salad, bread, chicken, steak, potatoes, and fruit pie with ice cream, each chapter examines the food through the lens of the climate crisis.

"The Blue Plate" is not a cookbook. It is a compendium of the stories of these foods: the soil that grew the lettuce, the farmers and ranchers and orchardists who steward the land, the dairy and farm workers and grocers who labor to bring it to the table. Each individual chapter also reveals the causes and effects of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the social and environmental impact of out-of-season and far-from-home demand.

What can you do to eat more sustainably? Food lovers everywhere will be happy to know that the answer is not necessarily a completely plant-based diet. For each food group, Easter offers not recipes but low-carbon, in-season alternatives that make your favorite foods not only more sustainable but also more delicious.

The first step, however, is an understanding of how food is grown, produced, harvested, and shipped. In the illustrative and informative stories (both personal and entertaining), "The Blue Plate" by Mark J. Easter offers a full understanding of what's for dinner!

Critique: A seminal and ground-breaking study, "The Blue Plate: A Food Lover's Guide to Climate Chaos" is a unique, extraordinary, informative, fascinating, thought-provoking, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' introduction to what might be described as environmental food and food industry economics. Nicely illustrated throughout and featuring a four page 'Carbon Footprint Disclosure' and an eight page Index, "The Blue Plate" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Food Ecology collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Blue Plate" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.95).

Editorial Note #1: Mark J. Easter is an ecologist who has conducted research in academia and private industry since 1988. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1982 and a M.S. in Botany from the University of Vermont in 1991. Easter authored and co-authored more than fifty scientific papers and reports related to carbon cycling and the carbon footprint of agriculture, forestry, and other land uses. He contributed analyses to multiple reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2018 he was named a fellow of the Colorado State University School of Global Environmental Sustainability.

Editorial Note #2: Liam O'Farrell (www.liamofarrell.com) is an illustrator in ink and watercolor, O'Farrell's clients include Tatler, Knight Frank LLP, The Times, Liberty London, Perspectives in Architecture, BBC Books, Macmillan, The Big Issue, One Housing Group, and Meed.

Editorial Note #3: Anthony Myint is an American restaurateur, chef, activist, author, and food consultant based in the Mission in San Francisco. He is a founder of Mission Chinese Food, "The Perennial," Mission Street Food, Mission Cantina, "Mission Burger," "Lt. Waffle," and "Commonwealth Restaurant." He is a pioneer in the environmental and charitable restaurant movement.

Blindspot: Through the Wormhole of Science and Religion
Moss Campion
Hohm Press
www.hohmpress.com
9781942493945, $21.95, PB, 180pp

https://www.amazon.com/Blindspot-Through-Wormhole-Science-Religion/dp/1942493940

Synopsis: With the publication of "Blindspot: Through the Wormhole of Science and Religion", Moss Campion exposes the unseen distinctions that exist among the ways that people seek the Big Answers to the questions posed by life, the universe, and everything.

When most people speak about God or Truth or the Divine, Campion asserts, they aren't actually talking about anything divine or godly at all -- whether they are believers, unbelievers or undecided. Whatever their posture toward these matters, they betray an almost universal "unseeingness" about what the entire spiritual enterprise is actually about -- its rules, codes, even its final aim. They are blind to what the great sages of the world's religious and philosophical traditions have pointed to forever -- which also happen to converge with the discoveries of contemporary science as it grapples with the nature of consciousness.

At its core, "Blind Spot" is about the blind spot that prevents us from knowing who we are. In revealing this obliviousness, the author dives into the perspective that is commonly known as "nonduality," the principle that lies at the core of all world wisdom traditions, including the scientific ones.

The reasons for what Campion has dubbed "Blindspot" may be understandable, yet as he shows in brilliant, and often humorous detail, its costs to the individual, to humanity in general, to the planet as a whole, are high, indeed. In a word, confusion. In another word, suffering.

Although there are numerous books available today about nonduality, only "Blindspot" directly addresses the critical distinctions that exist between the conventional approaches to spirituality (indeed, to life itself) and the nondual approaches. Plus, how these same distinctions also play out in the sciences.

Critique: Iconoclastic, exceptional, intriguing, thoughtful and thought-provoking, Moss Campion's "Blindspot: Through the Wormhole of Science and Religion" from Hohm Press is a seminal work that will prove to be of immense value to readers with an interest in the intersection and relationships of science, religion, and philosophy. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library collections, it should be noted that "Blindspot: Through the Wormhole of Science and Religion" is also readily available for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $21.95) as well.

Editorial Note: Moss Campion (https://mosscampion.com) is a qualified commentator, having immersed himself in the mystery of consciousness all his life, both in the context of his personal circumstances and also in his work with patients in the hospital setting. Along the way he studied with many esteemed teachers and guides, in both the animal and plant kingdoms.

Carl Logan
Reviewer


Clint Travis' Bookshelf

Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis
John C. Goodman
Independent Institute
https://www.independent.org
9781598133950, $18.95, HC, 392pp

https://www.amazon.com/Priceless-Healthcare-John-C-Goodman/dp/1598133950

Synopsis: In this long-awaited and updated second edition of his groundbreaking work "Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis", renowned healthcare economist John Goodman (considered the "father" of Health Savings Accounts) analyzes America's ongoing healthcare fiasco -- including, for this new edition, the failed promises of Obamacare.

Goodman then provides what many critics of our healthcare system neglect -- healthcare solutions.

And not a moment too soon. Americans are entangled in a system with perverse incentives that raise costs, reduce quality, and make care less accessible. It's not just patients that need liberation from this labyrinth of confusion -- it's doctors, businessmen, and institutions as well.

"Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis" covers:

Why no one sees a real price for anything: no patient, no doctor, no employer, no employee;

How Obamacare's perverse incentives cause insurance companies to seek to attract the healthy and avoid the sick;

Why having a preexisting condition is actually WORSE under Obamacare than it was before -- despite rosy political promises to the contrary;

Why emergency-room traffic and long waits for care have actually increased under Obamacare;

How Medicaid expansion spends new money insuring healthy, single adults, while doing nothing for the developmentally disabled who languish on waiting lists and children who aren't getting the pediatric care they need;

How the market for medical care COULD be as efficient and consumer-friendly as the market for cell phone repair... and what it would take to make that happen;

How to create centers of medical excellence, which compete to meet the needs of the chronically ill -- and much, much more.

Thoroughly researched, clearly written, and decidedly humane in its concern for the health of all Americans, John Goodman has written the healthcare book to read in order to clearly understand today's healthcare crisis. His proposed solutions are bold, crucial, and most importantly, caring. Healthcare is complex. But this book isn't. It's clear, it's satisfying, and it's refreshingly human.

Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis" by John C. Goodman is extraordinarily informative, iconoclastic, and must be considered essential reading for anyone with an interest in developing an effective, efficient, and fair health care system for all Americans both as health care service consumers and health care providers. Highly recommended for community and college/university library Health Care System Issues & Reforms collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, governmental policy makers, health care professionals, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this new second edition of "Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis" from the Independent Institute is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49) as well.

Editorial Note: John C. Goodman (www.goodmaninstitute.org/2021/09/07/john-c-goodman) is a leading health policy thinker and the author of nine influential books, including "New Way to Care: Social Protections that Put Families First", Goodman's work has significantly impacted health care reform. He frequently appears on television, contributes to major newspapers, and advises Congress on economic policy. Goodman holds a PhD in economics from Columbia University and has received the Duncan Black award for his contributions to public choice economics.

The Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies
Connor Boyack, author
Elijah Stanfield, illustrator
Libertas Press
https://libertaspress.org
https://tuttletwins.com
9798886880113, $19.99, HC, 233pp

https://www.amazon.com/Tuttle-Twins-Guide-True-Conspiracies/dp/B0CTWHSRNS

Synopsis: Conspiracies often dwell in the realms of fantasy and fiction. But what happens when some of the "theories" dismissed by politicians and the media instead turn out to be true?

Obscured from public scrutiny, plots have been hatched that defy our most wild speculations. These aren't tales spun by overactive imaginations, but actual covert operations conducted by those bestowed with immense power and trust.

The gripping stories shared by Connor Boyack in this edition of "The Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies" are more than just disturbing episodes of our history -- they are stark reminders of the ability of powerful people to shape world events and our own lives through deception and lawless corruption.

By illuminating these obscure corners of history, "The Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies" will challenge young readers to question, to seek the truth, and to be skeptical of those in power.

Critique: Iconoclastic, fascinating, exceptional, and featuring B/W illustrations by Elijah Stanfield, this hardcover edition of Connor Boyack's "The Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies" from Libertas Press is a unique and unreservedly recommended pick for family, middle school, highschool, community, and college/university Conspiracies/History collections and personal reading lists.

Editorial Note #1: Connor Boyack (https://connorboyack.com) is author of the Tuttle Twins children's book series. As president of Libertas Institute, a multi-state impact organization, he oversees a national initiative to change hearts, minds, and laws.

Editorial Note #2: Elijah Stanfield (http://www.elijahstanfield.com) is a professional video producer and illustrator -- most notably for the children's book series, the Tuttle Twins. A longtime student of Austrian economics, history, and the classical liberal philosophy, Elijah has dedicated much of his time and energy to promoting the ideas of free markets and individual liberty.

The Tuttle Twins and the Medals of Merit
Connor Boyack, author
Elijah Stanfield, illustrator
Libertas Press
https://libertaspress.org
https://tuttletwins.com
9798886880274, $12.99, PB, 64pp

https://www.amazon.com/Tuttle-Twins-Medals-Merit/dp/B0D9BZN17R

Synopsis: What happens when fairness is flipped on its head? Ethan and Emily Tuttle are about to find out at the most unusual track meet they've ever seen. The twins now face a new challenge: a competition where effort and ability take a backseat to identity and circumstances.

For some people, striving for excellence doesn't mean what it once did. But as Marxist ideas spread throughout society, can Ethan and Emily champion the cause of merit in a system bent on equal outcomes?

Despite a century of Marxist catastrophes throughout the world, a new brand of Marxism is rearing its ugly head and taking the world by storm. Join Ethan and Emily as they learn about these flawed ideas and how we can stop them from spreading in our day!

Critique: An original, fun and thought-provoking read from start to finish, "The Tuttle Twins and the Medals of Merit" by author/storyteller Connor Boyack and artist/illustrator Elijah Stanfield is a thoroughly 'kid friendly' way for young readers to be introduced to a social/cultural idea different from what American democracy, ideology, and economic theory/practice is based upon. The newest addition to the popular "Tuttle Twins" series from Libertas Press, "The Tuttle Twins and the Medals of Merit" is a very special and unreservedly recommended addition to family, elementary school, middle school, and community library collections.

Editorial Note #1: Connor Boyack (https://connorboyack.com) is author of the Tuttle Twins children's book series. As president of Libertas Institute, a multi-state impact organization, he oversees a national initiative to change hearts, minds, and laws.

Editorial Note #2: Elijah Stanfield (http://www.elijahstanfield.com) is a professional video producer and illustrator -- most notably for the children's book series, the Tuttle Twins. A longtime student of Austrian economics, history, and the classical liberal philosophy, Elijah has dedicated much of his time and energy to promoting the ideas of free markets and individual liberty.

Clint Travis
Reviewer


Dharmpal Singh's Bookshelf

Knocking Vistas And Other Poems
Ram Krishna Singh
https://rksingh.blogspot.com
Authorspress
https://authorspress.com
9789360956691, $25.00, PB, 91 pp.

https://www.amazon.in/KNOCKING-VISTAS-OTHER-POEMS-Krishna/dp/B0CYCLNL24

The present day world is dipped in the ocean of anxiety, neurosis, mental unrest, faithlessness and cruelty. Man is now a self-alienated human being. He has no sensible relationship with the external or the internal world. His condition has been deteriorating ever since utilitarianism set in his life as pointed out by the great poets like William Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot and a host of others. The utilitarian approach has tightened its grip on man so much so that he has forgotten the meaning of the line written by S.T. Coleridge in 'Dejection: An Ode':

"O Lady, we receive but what we give."

T. S. Eliot, the great modern poet, lightened a new path for the poets of the twentieth century, when he wrote:

"The essential advantage for a poet is not to have a beautiful world with which to deal; it is to be able to see beneath both beauty and ugliness, to see the boredom, and the horror, and the glory."

Poets are gifted with foresight to look into the dense layers of life and suggest the means to make life hale and hearty. Prof. Ram Krishna Singh has been a practising poet for a long time now, and the present edition is the latest one loaded with the age-old deep experience of life. He is a master of haiku, basically a Japanese form which uses only a few words to convey the well-thought message. His poems ignite the readers to take a leap into the unlimited space of life. The title "Knocking Vistas and Other Poems"demands its readers to be highly sensitive to the intricacies of life captured in minimum possible words by the poet. Once the reader happens to identify the ugliness, he 'll be able to transform it into something glorious.

There are thirty-eight titles in this collection. Some poems are very small and some are very long but all are independent and complete in themselves . The poet selects a word and puts it masterfully beside the other word to strike a new meaning. This is claimed by the poet himself in his poem 'Mystery':

"I grope the mystery that couldn't be living:"

In the same poem, he proceeds to strike a new meaning by putting words in strange company:

"autumn with songs of unbloomed spring
restive stillness mocking on the curtains
naked beings lying with blinder on the eyes
the lost moon in curse of tears never shed"

It is to be noted that the poet has never used comma or full-stop anywhere in the book. By neglecting the use of punctuation, he wants his readers to swim in the limitless ocean of imagination. Space for the readers is necessary in enjoying the poems.

Politics is dominating the life of contemporary society but, unfortunately, not in a positive way. The political leaders have no regard for moral values. In 'New Slavery', the poet criticizes the contemporary politics :

"fabricating newer lies and hypocrites
of saffron politics secular faith and people's power
spilling blood to heal history of wrongs

create new cultural fantasy
new racism new slavery
homegrown narcissistic lords and ladies" (p.13)

The poet does not hide his dislike for the right wing politics. He targets it for using religion as its tool to influence the people in a wrong way. At the same time, he criticizes those who are using caste to polarise votes. His bitterness is expressed in "DUBIOUS Gospels":

"Power politics
in the name of faith and god-
racist invectives " (p.19)

The poet does not stop here but tells the result of this kind of politics in the concluding stanza:

"pave long-term darkness
singing anthems of progress
dubious gospels" (ibid.)

The political scenario of the world also comes in his observation because now the whole world is interconnected. The devastation being caused worldwide finds expression in "Politics of Deception":

"roaring guns and flying bombs
pronounce total death on earth
...
a dream scroll mythologized
to spotlight a Trump Modi

Putin Xi Netanyahu
tap national consciousness

for divine descent to make
life happen once again"

"Melting Elements"is an experimental long poem containing five line and three line stanzas. The mechanical practices of religious figures have been satirized. The following stanza lays bare the reality of worship:

"half of my mind on God
and the other half on sex
eternal hunger." (p.52)

Likewise, the following lines describe intoxicated worship of goddess Kali:

"Kali Puja
ruddy garland round the neck
kneal to quench the thirst
with rum and goat meat invoke
the goddess for midnight sex" (p.52)

The drum-beating in the temples forces the poet to express his distaste in the following lines taken from "Knocking Vistas ":

"from Shiva's temple
high decibal puja noise
wrath of the goddess
she prays for long power cut
for her short meditation" (p.60)

The common practice of stealing flowers for worship has been taken notice of in the following lines taken from "Knocking Vistas ":

"an old woman
steals hibiscus from our gate
grinning nav-ratri
puja at home and hurries
back before my wife returns" (p.69)

However, the poet has written five-liners in imitation with tanka and three-liners in the imitation of haiku, that are the famous Japanese forms, but he does not follow the Japanese form of 5/7/5/7/7 syllables and 5/7/7 syllables. He doesn't like to confine his feelings in any fixed form. But the pictures that he presents in his poems are perfect and forceful in attracting the eyes of the readers. The following three-liners are complete in their sketch:

"Taliban march
no Covid could stop-
unanswered call" (p.73)

"at the entrance
five-headed Hanuman
chanting mantra" (p.78)

"violence of voice
shrinking rationality-
turbulent light" (p.78)

"dark fears-
loping in the street
mantra on lips" (p.85)

"a sweaty couple
sip iced coffee in beer mugs-
highway dhaba " (p.89)

Apart from these sour spiced poems, we find some sweetest lines loaded with sensuous images. The following lines taken from "Knocking Vistas "paint the colorful sky :

"lighting-
roaring colours in the sky
red white dark
merge into one
fire water earth" (p.70)

"clad in white
peaks behind peaks
Everest within" (Love Hides, p.58)

"her decollete blouse
and see through saree-
one more kiss"
(Melting Elements, p.48)

"red with shame
the sky at sunrise
one more kiss"(ibid. p.50)

The excellence of a poet can be measured by use of phrases swelling with meaning. The following phrases attract the eyes of the reader at the first glance:

"wave's crust, drifty silence, frozen smile, soughing caress, smelly thoughts, hairy darkness, smoked fish, musky sillage, rainbow desire, drizzling din, wrinkled hair, smelly clothesline."

To conclude, it can be said that this collection will be enjoyed by the sensitive readers of poetry. It is to be noted that the book carries the 'Afterword' written by Kevin Marshall Chopson, Poet Laureate of Gallatin, Tennessee. I am tempted to quote his appreciating words written for Ram Krishna Singh:

"Among poets of all time, I rank him among a longer list of my personal favorites, which includes Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Coleridge, Dickinson, Rilke, Pound, Plath, Mary Oliver, and, of course, Basho."

Dharmpal Singh
Reviewer


Israel Drazin's Bookshelf

The Oath
Eli Wiesel
Knopf Doubleday
https://knopfdoubleday.com
9780805208085, $16.00, 296 pages

https://www.amazon.com/Oath-Novel-Elie-Wiesel/dp/0805208089

The Romanian-American writer and professor Eli Wiesel (1928-2016), who survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, where his parents and a younger sister died, was an excellent writer who authored 57 books. His first book, Night, is a memoir of these experiences. His 1973 novel The Oath is brilliant. Everything about it is fantastic. The Chicago Tribune wrote, "In his poetic style, he continues to be the most eloquent spokesman, not only for the Jews of silence, but for the whole human race."

The plot is interesting, enlightening, and engaging, a delight to read. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 because of what he wrote about the horrors of the Holocaust, Russia, and other subjects. He artistically paints his characters in his poetic style, as Rembrandt painted in oils and brought his subject to life with his paints. His Nobel citation reads: "Wiesel is a messenger to mankind. His message is one of peace and atonement, and human dignity. The message is in the form of a testimony, repeated and deepened through the works of a great author."

He certainly deserved this Nobel Peace Prize. However, readers of this book and the other 56 will lead many of them, as they led me to feel that he should have also won the Nobel Prize for literature because his books are so good.

The first hundred pages of the novel's 286 tell of an old man who experienced the horrors that caused the oath of silence. His name is Azriel. He lived in the destroyed town called Kolvillag. He struggles with his promise not to speak of the tragedy while helping people during his travels. The two names and the oath are ironic in meaning more than their literal sense, or, sometimes, just the opposite. Azriel is Hebrew for "a strong man of God," and Kolvilag denotes "all villages." While the oath demands silence, the book itself and Wiesel's post-holocaust writing life demonstrate the need to speak out clearly and loudly.

The novel introduces many people. In the first hundred pages, we encounter Azriel. In the remaining parts, we meet a madman, the primary person involved in the massacre in Kolvillag. The term "mad man" may be understood as insane, bizarre, or unusual. I prefer the latter.
We read about a missing, mischievous Christian boy. We encounter the leader of the non-Jews whom the Jews had helped, both he and his father, who preceded him as a leader, who ignored his benefactors during the tragedy and horrors that accompanied it. We see a non-Jewish official whom Jews bribed for years for help, who is essential to stopping the pogrom but is impotent. There is a rabbi who pontificates, an ugly Jewish woman who becomes an ideal wife when appropriately treated by the man she marries, a Jew who chronicles events, a Jewish lawyer who abandoned Jewish practices and married a non-Jewish woman who fails to help his co-religionists during the days they are brutally murdered, and many others.

We read about a dozen pogroms in over a dozen cities. The madman recognizes this history and calls upon his fellow Kolvillag citizens to take an oath to remain silent. Bizarrely, he argues that all the talk about the horrors in the past brought no relief, so perhaps silence will help.
Is it rational to wear a mask when Jews face a plague of anti-Semitism?

Israel Drazin, Reviewer
www.booksnthoughts.com


Jack Mason's Bookshelf

The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch
Dave Prince, at al.
Pathfinder Press
www.pathfinderpress.com
9781604881745, $10.00, PB, 184pp

https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Against-Jew-Hatred-Pogroms-Imperialist/dp/1604881747

Synopsis: The hatred and slaughter of Jews (called pogroms) like the one Hamas carried out on October 7, 2023, aren't new. They go back centuries with the largest one in recorded history being the Nazi campaign for the extermination of Jews called the Holocaust.

What is new is that pogroms are now part of the permanent social convulsions and wars of the imperialist epoch. Capital's rivalry to carve up the globe; two world wars; the extermination of six million Jews. All make clear that fighting Jew-hatred is of decisive importance to the working class and oppressed nations of the entire world.

As British and US rulers slammed the doors over and over in the 1940s to survivors of the Holocaust, Israel's birth as a refuge for Jews was necessary and inevitable. It is a capitalist state in an imperialist world, however, and offers no lasting haven for Jews. Under capital's world domination, no such haven exists.

But there is a way forward, as shown by the October 1917 Russian Revolution. A revolutionary workers party forged in struggle by V.I. Lenin (the Bolsheviks) led the toilers to conquer state power and chart a course to end capitalist exploitation and national oppression. Working people across the former tsarist empire took destiny in their own hands and together began to build a new world, finding ways to resolve seemingly intractable conflicts among themselves.

They showed the road for working people today: forging proletarian parties able to lead hundreds of millions to fight for workers power, uproot exploitation by capital, end all national oppression, and build a socialist world.

Drawing from the writings of Dave Prince, Farrell Dobbs, Jack Barnes, James P. Cannon, Leon Trotsky, and V.I. Lenin, "The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class" is an account of that struggle.

Critique: Informative, iconoclastic, and exceptional, this paperback edition of "The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class" from Pathfinder Press is a seminal study that is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal and professional reading lists, as well as community and college/university library Jewish Political History collections and supplemental Communism/Socialism curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note #1: V.I. Lenin (1870 - 1924) was the central leader of the Bolshevik Party, which led workers and peasants to power in the world's first socialist revolution in October 1917. He was chairman of the revolutionary workers and peasants government in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Editorial Note #2: Leon Trotsky (1879 - 1940) was part of the central leadership forged by Bolshevik party leader V.I. Lenin that organized the revolutionary conquest of power by workers and peasants in Russia in October 1917. Trotsky commanded the Red Army, was a founding leader of the Communist International, and of communists in the Soviet Union and worldwide who fought to continue Lenin's proletarian internationalist course. He continued that struggle from exile after being deported in 1929. Trotsky was murdered in Mexico in 1940 by Stalin's secret police.

Editorial Note #3: Farrell Dobbs (1907 - 1983) was national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party from 1953 to 1972 and the SWP presidential candidate four times. In 1934 he emerged from the ranks of the Teamsters as a central leader of battles that transformed the union movement during the Great Depression. He was a leader of the strikes that year that made Minneapolis a union town and later of the organizing drives that brought a quarter million over-the-road truck drivers into the Teamsters union across the Midwest and Mid-South.

Editorial Note #4: James P. Cannon (1890 - 1974) was a founding leader of the Communist Party in the US in 1919 and a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1922. He served as Socialist Workers Party national secretary until 1953 and national chairman until his death.

Editorial Note #5: James P. Cannon (1890 - 1974) was a founding leader of the Communist Party in the US in 1919 and a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1922. He served as Socialist Workers Party national secretary until 1953 and national chairman until his death.

Editorial Note #6: Jack Barnes (1940 - ) is national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. He joined the SWP in May 1961 and has been a member of the party's National Committee since 1963 and a national officer since 1968. Since the mid-1970s Barnes has led the political course of the SWP and its sister parties worldwide to build communist parties whose members and leaders in their large majority are workers and unionists organizing workers to forge and strengthen trade unions and lead the working class and its allies toward a successful socialist revolution. Barnes is a contributing editor of New International magazine and author of numerous books and articles on revolutionary working-class politics and the communist movement.

From Vision to Action
John Marks
Columbia University Press
https://cup.columbia.edu
9780231215572, $115.00, HC, 208pp

https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Action-Remaking-Through-Entrepreneurship/dp/0231215576

Synopsis: Social entrepreneurs are people who launch ventures aimed at promoting positive change in their community and the world. Their bottom line is not financial profit but the common good. With the publication of "From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship", John Marks (drawing on his extensive career,) has written a practitioner's guide to the underlying principles of social entrepreneurship.

"From Vision to Action" offers a master class in effective negotiation and conflict resolution. It builds on a core strategy of understanding differences and acting on commonalities. Marks uses his own experiences of creating real-life breakthroughs during his time leading Search for Common Ground, which he founded and built with his wife, Susan Collin Marks, into the world's largest peacebuilding nonprofit.

Beginning with an improbable effort to promote cooperation between the CIA and the KGB, "From Vision to Action" features examples that range from helping prevent genocide in Burundi, to using children's television to lessen ethnic tensions in Macedonia, to creating a culture of mediation in Morocco.

Readers will learn key lessons including adapting to unexpected outcomes, communicating persuasive stories, and being incrementally transformational -- or transformationally incremental. Bringing together compelling narratives and useful tools, "From Vision to Action" delivers practical guidance on building bridges and creating meaningful change.

Critique: With its underlying message that it is possible to create peace in a strife waging world, it is vital that "From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship" achieve as wide a readership as possible. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented with 'real world' examples of what can be done by ordinary (an extraordinary!) people in the cause of peaceful change and social improvement, "From Vision to Action" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library entrepreneurship, business negotiation, social systems/social planning collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, social activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this edition of John Marks' "From Vision to Action" from Columbia University Press is also readily available in a paperback edition (9780231215589, $28.00) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.39).

Editorial Note: John Marks is the founder of the renowned peacebuilding organization Search for Common Ground, which was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. When he stepped down as its president after thirty-two years, the organization had a staff of six hundred full-time employees and offices in thirty-five countries. He is now the founder and managing director of Confluence International and a visiting scholar in peacebuilding and social entrepreneurship at Leiden University. Coauthor of the controversial New York Times best-seller The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence and the award-winning Search for the "Manchurian Candidate," Marks also founded Common Ground Productions and has produced TV series promoting nonviolent coexistence in twenty-five countries.

Jack Mason
Reviewer


Jane Cairns' Bookshelf

Eastern Shore Shorts: Stories Set in Berlin, Cambridge, Chestertown, Chincoteague, Easton, Rock Hall, Salisbury, St. Michaels, and Tilghman Island
Gail Priest
Cat & Mouse Press
9780996805285, $14.95

https://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Shore-Shorts-Chestertown-Chincoteague/dp/0996805281

Gail Priest is the author of the Annie Crow Knoll trilogy and Eastern Shore Shorts.

Even though summer is edging towards fall, and I haven't set foot on a beach in many a year, I love books that deal with bodies of water, sand and summertime. "Eastern Shore Shorts: Stories Set in Berlin, Cambridge, Chestertown, Chincoteague, Easton, Rock Hall, Salisbury, St. Michaels, and Tilghman Island", by Gail Priest, fits the bill nicely. Oh--did I say I love visiting the area encompassed by the short stories in this collection? I haven't visited the eastern portions of Maryland or Virginia that make up part of the Delmarva peninsula since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Is that a road trip I hear calling my name? Well, maybe within the next few years.

The 12 intertwined stories in this collection are about friends and family members who live in the towns mentioned in the title. The stories are spare and well written, with no extra verbiage. Even though each story has its own arc and distinguishing features, characters who are narrators in one story crop up again in other stories that are narrated by a family member or friend. Priest does a great job of portraying small-town life.

I enjoyed reading Eastern Shore Shorts because of Ms. Priest's great writing and because of the memories it brought back of my visits to the area. I thought "Peacemaker Puppy" was the weakest story. This story seemed stilted and did not flow as well as the others.

Jane A. Cairns
Reviewer


John Burroughs' Bookshelf

Join the Conspiracy
Jonathan Butler
Fordham University Press
www.fordhampress.com
9781531508159, $34.95, HC, 384pp

https://www.amazon.com/Join-Conspiracy-Brooklyn-Eccentric-Infiltrated/dp/1531508154

Synopsis: With the publication of "Join the Conspiracy: How a Brooklyn Eccentric Got Lost on the Right, Infiltrated the Left, and Brought Down the Biggest Bombing Network in New York", author Jonathan Butler transports his readers to a pivotal moment of division and dissent in American history -- the late 1960s.

Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and a nation grappling with internal conflict, this compelling narrative follows the life of George Demmerle, a factory worker whose political odyssey encapsulates the era's tumultuous spirit. From his roots as a concerned citizen wary of his country's leftward tilt, Demmerle's journey takes a dramatic turn as he delves into the heart of radical activism.

Participating in iconic protests from the March on Washington to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Demmerle's story is a whirlwind of political fervor, embodying the struggle against what was perceived as imperialist war and racial injustice. His transformation is marked by alliances with key figures of the time, including Abbie Hoffman, and an eventual leadership role within an East Coast Black Panther affiliate. Yet, beneath his radical veneer lies a secret: Demmerle is an FBI informant.

"Join the Conspiracy" reveals Demmerle's complex role in a society at war with itself, where his deepening involvement with the radical left and a bombing collective forces him to confront his loyalties. The narrative, enriched by a rare trove of period documents, candid photos taken from inside the radical movement, and underground art (more than a hundred of which are included in the book) not only charts Demmerle's saga but also reflects the broader story of a nation struggling to find its moral compass amidst chaos.

As Demmerle navigates the dangerous waters of political extremism, readers are invited to ponder the price of ideology, the nature of loyalty, and the fine line between activism and betrayal. This book is not just a recounting of historical events but a vibrant portrait of a man and a movement that sought to reshape America.

Critique: A fascinating and surprisingly timely political biography, "Join the Conspiracy: How a Brooklyn Eccentric Got Lost on the Right, Infiltrated the Left, and Brought Down the Biggest Bombing Network in New York" is informatively enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of B/W photos, a three page Epilogue, an eight page listing of Groups & People, and a thirty-six page Index. An seminal work of meticulous scholarship, "Join the Conspiracy" is extraordinarily well written, organized and presented -- making it an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, community, and college/university library 20th Century American Political Biography/Memoir collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Join the Conspiracy" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $32.20) as well.

Editorial Note: Jonathan Butler, a Brooklyn-based writer and entrepreneur, has made significant contributions to journalism, local culture, and the arts. His ventures include founding Brownstoner.com, the Brooklyn Flea, and Smorgasburg, all of which have attracted widespread attention and accolades. Featured in top publications like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and New Yorker, he has been honored with awards from the Municipal Art Society, New York Landmarks Conservancy, Brooklyn Historical Society, and others.

Forsaken Causes
Ryan Wolfson-Ford
University of Wisconsin Press
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299348601, $89.95, HC, 200pp

https://www.amazon.com/Forsaken-Causes-Democracy-Anticommunism-Perspectives/dp/0299348601

Synopsis: In the wake of anticolonial struggles and amid the two world wars, twentieth-century Southeast Asia churned with new political, cultural, and intellectual realities. Liberal democracies flourished briefly, only to be discarded for dictatorships and other authoritarian regimes as the disorder and inefficiencies inherent to democracy appeared unequal to postcolonial and Cold War challenges. Uniquely within the region, Laos maintained a stable democracy until 1975, surviving wars, coups, and revolutions. But Laos history during this period has often been flattened, subsumed within the tug-of-war between the global superpowers and their puppets.

With the publication of "Forsaken Causes: Liberal Democracy and Anticommunism in Cold War Laos", Ryan Wolfson-Ford offers a groundbreaking intellectual history of the Royal Lao Government (RLG) from 1945 to 1975. In this account, the Lao people emerge as not merely pawns of the superpowers but agents in their own right, with the Lao elite wielding particular influence over the nation's trajectory. Their prevailing ideologies (liberal democracy and anticommunism) were not imposed from outside, but rather established by Lao people themselves in the fight against French colonialism. These ideologies were rooted in Lao culture, which prized its traditional monarchy, Buddhist faith, French learning, and nationalist conception of a Lao race. Against histories that have dismissed Lao elites as instruments of foreign powers, Wolfson-Ford shows that the RLG charted its own course, guided by complex motivations, rationales, and beliefs. During this time Lao enjoyed unprecedented democratic freedoms, many of which have not been seen since the government fell to communist takeover in 1975.

By recentering the Lao in their own history, Wolfson-Ford restores our understanding of this robust but often forgotten liberal democracy, recovers lost voices, and broadens our understanding of postcolonial and Cold War Southeast Asia as a whole.

Critique: Impressively informed and informative, "Forsaken Causes: Liberal Democracy and Anticommunism in Cold War Laos" is a seminal and ground-breaking study that is further enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of a twenty-eight page Introduction, a a nine page Conclusion, forty-two pages of Notes, a twelve page Bibliography, and an eighteen page Index. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Forsaken Causes: Liberal Democracy and Anticommunism in Cold War Laos" is especially recommended for personal, community, and college/university library Laotian History collections and supplemental Southeast Asian Political History curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Ryan Wolfson-Ford is a Southeast Asia Reference Librarian at the Library of Congress.

John Burroughs
Reviewer


Julie Summers' Bookshelf

Vampires: A Handbook of History & Lore of the Undead
Agnes Hollyhock
Wellfleet Press
c/o Quarto Publishing Group USA
www.quartoknows.com
9781577154464, $19.99, HC, 176pp

https://www.amazon.com/Vampires-Handbook-History-Lore-Undead/dp/1577154460

Synopsis: The idea of a supernatural being with a never ending and insatiable appetite for blood or human viscera has plagued the human mind for centuries, appearing in mythology and folklore from all corners of the world. Why were people of the past so concerned with such a creature? What worries and anxieties about human nature and existence could conjure up such a monster? Those of us in the present day are no less fascinated, taking these tales and reinventing and revitalizing them to embody our fears and desires in equal turn, ensuring that these undead beings will truly live on forever.

With the publication of "Vampires: A Handbook of History & Lore of the Undead", Wiccan author Agnes Hollyhock explores the imagination, stories, and culture of these bloodthirsty creatures of the night by reintroducing the very first beliefs of vampires across a wide variety of cultures and geographic regions.

"Vampires: A Handbook of History & Lore of the Undead" showcases the history of such monsters and their characteristics as: Shroud Eaters (German vampires who feed on their burial shrouds, other corpses, psychic energy, and human flesh); Strigoi (Medieval vampires from Slavic folklore. One story associated with them may have been the origin of vampires drinking blood from their victims' throats); Jiangshi (An undead revenant from China. They are said to derive their supernatural powers from the moon, so are at their weakest during the day or on a new moon); Dhampirs (Monsters, or misunderstood? The children of vampires and humans, Balkan folklore suggests that dhampirs make the ideal vampire hunters, as they can eliminate vampires with any tools at their disposal) -- and more!

Featuring intricate illustrations, "Vampires: A Handbook of History & Lore of the Undead" is ghoulish handbook that looks back to the folklore throughout the centuries of the undead. Readers will find out about vampires they never knew existed!.

Critique: Offering a complete and comprehensive compendium of vampires and vampire lore, this Wellfleet Press edition of "Vampires: A Handbook of History & Lore of the Undead" by practicing Wiccan Agnes Hollyhock" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Vampire/Metaphiscal studies collections. It should be noted that "Vampires: A Handbook of History & Lore of the Undead" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note: Agnes Hollyhock is a lifelong Wiccan with an affinity for runes casting and tarot reading. She practices her craft in the Northeastern United States, where she lives with her beloved pet companions, cat Jack and tarantula Sally.

African Trade Beads: Their 10,000-Year History
Issa Traore
Firefly Books Ltd.
www.fireflybooks.com
9780228105008, $39.95, PB, 272pp

https://www.amazon.com/African-Trade-Beads-000-Year-History/dp/0228105005

Synopsis: First made and worn some 120,000 years ago, beads were originally made of natural materials (stones, shells, wood) and have been used for adornment, currency and burial offerings.

While trade beads of polished stones and shells have a history thousands of years old, the first glass beads were made in Egypt. They were meant to be cheaper mimics of precious stones. Later on a thriving glass bead manufacturing industry began in Murano (Venice) in 1291, and the trade then spread to Holland, Bohemia and Moravia (Czech) and Germany, and traders brought them to Africa to trade for gold, ivory and spices.

To this day, glass beads are prized in West Africa, and the antique beads shown in "African Trade Beads: Their 10,000-Year History" by Issa Traore were once very common but are now quite scarce and coveted by collectors around the world.

"African Trade Beads: Their 10,000-Year History" is remarkably beautiful book that documents early-style beads made of cowrie shells, semi-precious stones and clay, and then shows in splendid detail hundreds of beads made of glass and other human-made materials that have been made by Europeans and Africans and traded for the last 600 years in Central and East Africa. Each is identified as to its origin and manufacture and approximate date.

Covering shells, "Konon" (glass beads) and some contemporary beads, at the hear of the African bead trade are "Konon" or Venetian trade beads that used to be easily found in his home country of Mali but are now scarce. Each beat showcases is from Issa Traore's own collection and was obtained from rural Mali -- but originated in many African countries and over hundreds of years of trade that brought them to Mali in wide ranges and mixtures, instead of their original uniformity.

Critique: A delight and pleasure to simply browse through page by page, this large format (7.5 X 10.0 in, 1.87 pounds) paperback edition of Issa Traore's "African Trade Beads: Their 10,000-Year History" from Firefly Books is comprised of some 1,000 full color captioned photos and is a unique, informative, and highly prized addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university African Art History/Culture collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Issa Traore's father was a glass bead trader in Mali, West Africa. He now lives with his collection in Japan. He says that his family connection to beads makes him feel like they're his siblings. Every reader with an interest in the art and history will enjoy this documentation of origins, manufacturing techniques and materials for the making of glass beads.

Faithful Unto Death
Paul Koudounaris
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500027516, $35.00, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Faithful-unto-Death-cemeteries-devotion/dp/050002751X

Synopsis: When a little dog named Cherry died in 1881, his owners arranged for a grave in a nearby gatekeeper's garden in London. At this time, the idea that a pet, even one that had lived as a family member, might be given a dignified burial was considered comical. But when other pet owners (likewise determined to memorialize their companion animals) followed suit, the world's first urban pet cemetery was born. More soon followed across Europe, the United States, and then the rest of the world, resulting in a revolution in the way we consider animals.

With the publication of "Faithful Unto Death: Pet cemeteries, animal graves, and eternal devotion", Paul Koudounaris tells the stories of people who gave their hearts to a disparate variety of species, yet were all united in one common belief: that the reward at death for a faithful animal companion should reflect the love it offered during life.

Losing a pet has always been a unique kind of pain. No set rituals exist to help provide closure when pets die, there are no readily shared passages from spiritual texts, no community of compassion to surround the mourner and help alleviate grief. And there is a sense of taboo, that it is somehow socially incorrect to mourn an animal as one would a person and feel the pain so intensely. "Faithful Unto Death" confronts this taboo by telling the stories of people who have memorialized their beloved animals.

"Faithful Unto Death" also addresses the moral and spiritual prejudices that have historically surrounded animals, and reveals how, in the face of these prejudices, a movement started in the nineteenth century to treat pets with dignity even in death. It is a fight that is still far from over, but the triumphs that are revealed as "Faithful Unto Death" unfolds, found in burial grounds small to grand and on monuments humble to huge, possess the power to touch everyone who has ever cared for an animal companion.

In tracing the historical evolution of pet cemeteries through the stories of the people and pets that have been integral to their development, "Faithful Unto Death" reveals both similarities in the way we mourn animal companions and a stunning cultural diversity. From humble Cherry in London to pets of the rich and powerful, this is a history filled with inspiration, wild eccentricity, and eternal love.

Critique: Enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of an informative Introduction (In The Gatekeeper's Garden), 234 color illustrations, an eight page conclusion (The End - The death and Rebirth of Pet Cemeteries), seven pages of End Notes, and a two page Index, "Faithful Unto Death: Pet cemeteries, animal graves, and eternal devotion" is a unique, fascinating, and compelling read that is unreservedly recommended to the attention of everyone and anyone that has a companion animal of their own. "Faithful Unto Death: Pet cemeteries, animal graves, and eternal devotion" will prove a welcome and enduringly popular addition to personal, community, and college/university library Pet Care collections and supplemental Sociology of Death & Cultural Anthropology curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Paul Koudounaris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Koudounaris) has a PhD in art history from the University of California and has written widely on European ossuaries and charnel houses for both academic and popular journals. He is the author of The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses, Memento Mori: The Dead Among Us, and Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs. Paul is a member of the Order of the Good Death and has over 110k followers on Instagram.

Julie Summers
Reviewer


Kirk Bane's Bookshelf

Music (Volume 12 in The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture)
Bill C. Malone, Volume Editor
Charles Reagan Wilson, Series Editor
University of North Carolina Press
www.uncpress.unc.edu
9780807859087, $32.50, paperback

https://www.amazon.com/New-Encyclopedia-Southern-Culture-Music/dp/0807859087

"Like so many other forms of American music, western swing is a cultural product of the South. The founders of the music borrowed from other southern styles - ragtime, New Orleans jazz, folk, frontier fiddle music, pop, Tex-Mex, and country and classic blues. In one stage of development, they borrowed heavily from big-band swing. Despite its eclecticism, western swing has remained one of the most distinctive genres in southern musical history. Western swing brought a new vitality and sophistication to the country music of the South. All three periods in the development of western swing were inextricably interwoven with the career of Bob Wills. The first of these eras was the formative period in Texas; the second was the years of experimentation and maturity in Oklahoma; and finally came the years of national recognition and musical influence." So asserts West Texas A&M University history professor Charles R. Townsend in his superb essay on Western Swing in Music, Volume 12 in The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.

This splendid volume, which every music enthusiast should have in their book collection, boasts 30 "thematic essays," including articles on such subjects as Bluegrass, Blues, Cajun Music, Hip-Hop and Rap, Honky-Tonk, Jazz, Rockabilly, Sacred Harp, Soul Music, Southern Rock, Spirituals, and Zydeco. Additionally, it contains more than 150 "topical and biographical entries," including pieces on Roy Acuff, the Allman Brothers, Gene Autry, banjoes, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Sam Cooke, Stephen Foster, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson, Waylon Jennings, Robert Johnson, Little Richard, mandolins, the Muscle Shoals Sound, the Nashville Sound, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Revival Songs, Stax Records, Hank Williams, and Tammy Wynette.

In her essay on the latter performer, Dr. Minoa Uffelman of Austin Peay State University, observes: "Wynette's soulful ballads are powerful and raw, and her lyrics are often complex... She sang of the difficulties of and the inequality within marriage, of the heartache of divorce and the effect on children, of uncaring spouses, and of the struggles of motherhood. Wynette died on 6 April 1998 at age 55. Her nationally televised funeral was held in the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville."

The Center for the Study of Southern Culture, located at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, sponsors The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, of which this outstanding text, thoughtfully edited by Bill C. Malone (Professor of History Emeritus at Tulane University), is a part. Other volumes in this exceptional series include Literature (M. Thomas Inge, Editor); Foodways (John T. Edge, Editor); Folk Art (Carol Crown and Cheryl Rivers, Editors); and Religion (Samuel S. Hill, Editor).

Kirk Bane
Reviewer


Laurie Nguyen's Bookshelf

Then She was Gone
Lisa Jewel
Atria Books
c/o Simon & Schuster
https://www.simonandschusterpublishing.com/atria
9781501154645, $30.99, HC, 368pp
9781501154652, $18.99 PB, $13.99 Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/Then-She-Was-Gone-Novel/dp/1501154656

"Then She Was Gone" by novelist Lisa Jewell, is a psychological mystery about a grieving mother who desperately tries to piece together what happened to her family and how to foster the resilience to overcome it. After ten years, Laurel is still unable to cope with her daughter's disappearance. Divorced from her husband and estranged from the rest of her children, she decides to go to a cafe where she meets the handsome and successful Floyd. Spurred on by the hope for a new love and life, she decides to meet his daughter, nine-year-old Poppy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ellie. Despite the promise of happiness, Laurel can't help but wonder why Poppy looks like Ellie and what secrets Floyd, and inadvertently the rest of his family, have to hide.

When Laurel met Floyd, she had already been well-versed in nightmares. Hell, Laurel was so knee-deep in her obsession with finding Ellie, or at least her body, that she'd forgotten the family she still had. Although she and her (ex)husband love each other, he took the steps he needed to take care of his own mental health. He tried his best, but unfortunately, he can't just wait around for a wife who has long since withdrawn from him. The same could be said for Jake and Hanna, Laurel's children. Her actions remind me of Annie Graham from Hereditary. She was so preoccupied with grieving for the perfect life she never had, and so desperate to get it back, that she never gave thought to who was impacted.

Moreover, without spoiling too much, this book reminded me of true crime documentaries that, in theory, shouldn't have happened. What monster could possibly do such a thing to a child, completely plagued pleasurably with the idea of her? What inhumane transgressor would treat the object of their mania with such carelessness that they would soon abandon her, to try and hide from the past? There was a story like that in Australia; a man named Josef Fritzl had locked his daughter in a basement and proceeded to impregnate her repeatedly out of the desire to prove that he was the one in control. The parallels between the antagonist and Fritzl were rather eerie.

Further, there are a lot of real-life cases of "rare" personality disorders that keep cropping up in community mental health clinics. Often, loved ones are confused and don't know what to do, so they're left scrambling to reclaim their boundaries and sense of self before their patient decimates them. From a clinic point-of-view, of course, you want to try to help this patient. You want to take care of them, and they know this. After all, when this person has burnt all their bridges, and they're cut off financially, you have little choice but to go to the one place that you can afford to actually help you. Granted, it's not easy, and the individual will cycle through case managers and counselors, but it's something.

Then you have cases like the ones Jewell wrote about in her book, where the individual can fly under the radar. They'll do so much damage that the victims can only blink and say, "What just happened?"

I really loved this book. Unfortunately, I must return it to the library (my deadline's been extended 4 times (now 5)). But Jewell has wormed her way into my book Goblin Heart, as disturbing as a way she might have done it. As such, I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

Laurie Nguyen, Reviewer
http://alighthouseinthedark.home.blog
https://www.artsparktx.org


Margaret Lane's Bookshelf

Birding for Boomers
Sneed B. Collard III
Mountaineers Books
www.mountaineersbooks.org
9781680516708, $21.95, PB, 232pp

https://www.amazon.com/Birding-Boomers-Everyone-Rewarding-Frustrating/dp/1680516701

Synopsis: "Birding for Boomers: And Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World's Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity" by Sneed B. Collard III is a friendly, accessible, and humorous DIY guide to discovering the joys of bird watching.

Beginning birders of all ages will get answers to every question they may have, like which birds like feeders, the difference between a finch and a flicker, or which birding app to use. The guide also helps birders plan everything from local explorations to exciting "bird-cations".

Late-bloomer birders will appreciate Collard's personal insights and tips for overcoming aging-related challenges such as physical handicaps, poor hearing, or failing eyesight. Additional sections cover sharing birding with others and contributing to community science, habitat stewardship, and bird conservation.

Appealing and light-hearted, "Birding for Boomers" will help a wide range of bird loving readers overcome any doubts and get started with watching, understanding, and conserving our feathered friends.

Critique: An ideal and thoroughly 'user friendly' instructional guide and manual for aspiring bird watchers from ages 15 to 105, "Birding for Boomers: And Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World's Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity" by bird watching expert Sneed B. Collard III and featuring illustrations by Tanner Barkin is a highly portable and thoroughly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Bird Field Guide collections.

Editorial Note: Sneed B. Collard III (www.sneedbcollardiii.com) is the author of more than 75 award-winning books for young people, along with countless magazine articles for both children and adults. A marine biologist and scientist by training, most of Collard's books focus on natural history, science, and the environment.

Shells of the World: A Natural History
M. G. Harasewych
Princeton University Press
https://press.princeton.edu
9780691248271, $29.95, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Shells-World-Natural-History-Family/dp/0691248273

Synopsis: Mollusks are invertebrate animals with a remarkable natural history and a rich fossil record, and their shells are prized for their breathtaking variety and exquisite beauty. "Shells of the World: A Natural History" by Professor M. G. Harasewych provides a wide-ranging look at the incredible diversity of marine mollusks.

An informative introduction outlines the lineages covered, followed by a directory section, split into classes, that profiles a broad selection of different taxa to give a sense of their sheer numbers and variety.

"Shells of the World: A Natural History" includes: Hundreds of beautiful color photos, depicting both the live animals and their shells; Discussions about mollusk evolution, anatomy, life cycles, behavior, and ecology; Descriptions of unique characteristics, distribution, habitat, and size, Valuable insights into the conservation of the world's marine mollusks.

Critique: A part of the Princeton University Press 'A Guide to Every Family' series, "Shells of the World: A Natural History" is an ideal reference for amateur and professional malacologists and shell collectors, and will prove to be a welcome and enduringly appreciated pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Seashell & Natural History collections. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Shells of the World: A Natural History" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.17).

Editorial Note: M. G. Harasewych is research zoologist emeritus and former curator in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is the co-author of The Book of Shells: A Life-Size Guide to Identifying and Classifying Six Hundred Seashells. (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fVu7J-IAAAAJ)

Margaret Lane
Reviewer


Mark Walker's Bookshelf

Silent Light
Mark Jacobs
https://www.markjacobsauthor.com
OR Books
https://www.orbooks.com
9781682194430, $22.95

https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Light-Mark-Jacobs/dp/1682194434

Mark Jacobs is one of my favorite storytellers. A fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, he's worked in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, always attracted to places that are not tourist havens. I first learned of him reading The Stone Cowboy, in which a burnt-out American doper, fresh from a Bolivian prison, connives with a naive social worker while helping her find her magician brother - and ends up conducting her on a tour of the hell that is the coca trade.

This is Jacobs' first book in thirteen years, and he introduces the reader to a different kind of hell set in Africa. Into the "heart of darkness" inspired by Conrad's epic trip in 1890 down the Congo River, both Conrad and iconic writer Graham Greene influenced Jacobs' creative genius.

The author is one of the most prolific writers in the U.S., having written over 170 articles over the last forty years. He's helped me with several projects, including a documentary on Guatemala, and penned a testimonial for my latest book.

The main character of this epic journey is a 37-year-old Louisiana native, Smith, who is employed on an oil platform off the coast of West Africa. He grows tired of the platform and wins a "stash" of diamonds in a poker game. The only catch is that he has to find them in the immense, war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.

The story begins in Kinshasa, the capital and largest city of the country. Smith meets a young woman named Beatrice, who hails from a village on the other side of the country. But she convinces Smith that his diamonds are a thousand miles away, although the trip would become longer and more perilous than he could have dreamed, traversing guerilla-patrolled back roads.

The author introduces the reader to the brutality of the inter-tribal divisions and fighting in this scene:

I saw Mai-Mai slaughtering and eating flesh raw, tearing great strips off those beautiful animals. I saw my uncle's severed head and the bodies of my cousins in a terrible heap. I saw dogs with red eyes and long tongues.

Smith's local companion, Beatrice, added an element of mysticism, such as this passage:

"He took a rolled-up snakeskin from a leather pouch on his belt. He handed it to Smith. Smith unrolled the skin from around the marble it protected. It was blue, yes. He put Beatrice's magic in his pocket."

Throughout the journey, Jacobs brings the reader face to face with the legacy of European imperialism in the heart of Africa, like Joseph Conrad, Graham Green, and VS Naipaul before him. The schools were empty, the roads a mess, but "the beer kept flowing." The story reverses the tropes of the white savior to produce a story about a man who realizes you don't have to travel to another country to get lost, nor do you have to go home to be found.

Even the book's cover features an evocative design that matches the mysterious and adventurous nature of the story. It evokes a dense, dark jungle scene reflecting the novel's setting in the heart of Africa and elements and silhouettes of a man possibly representing the protagonist, Smith, embarking on a perilous journey.

"If John le Carre were an American, his name would be Mark Jacobs."
-Kinky Friedman

"Smart but never cynical, humane and utterly human, this is an ode to the wretched of the earth and the angels that walk among them. Welcome, a great American writer."
-Marita Golden, author of The Wide Circumference of Love

About the Author

A former foreign service officer, Mark Jacobs has published over 170 magazine stories, including The Atlantic, Playboy, The Baffler, The Kenyon Review, and The Southern Review. His story "How Birds Communicate" won The Iowa Review Fiction prize. He has stories forthcoming in several magazines, including The Hudson Review. His story "Dream State" won the Dr. T.J. Eckleburg Kafka Prize. His five books include A Handful of Kings, published by Simon and Shuster, and Stone Cowboy, by Soho Press, which won the Maria Thomas Award.

Mark D. Walker, Reviewer
www.MillionMileWalker.com


Michael Carson's Bookshelf

Guilty Creatures
Mikita Brottman
Atria Books / One Signal Publishers
c/o Simon & Schuster
www.simonandschuster.com
9781668020531, $28.99, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Guilty-Creatures-Murder-Tallahassee-Florida/dp/166802053X

Synopsis: Mike and Denise Williams had a tight knit, seemingly unbreakable bond with childhood friends, Brian and Kathy Winchester. The two couples were devout, hardworking Baptists who lived perfect, quintessentially Southern lives. Their friendship seemed ironclad. That is, until December 16, 2000, when Denise's husband Mike disappeared while duck hunting on Lake Seminole.

After no body was found, everyone assumed that Mike had drowned in a tragic accident, his body eaten by alligators. But things took an unexpected turn when, within five years of Mike's disappearance, Brian Winchester divorced his wife and married Denise. Their surprising romance set tongues talking. People began wondering how long they had been a couple, and whether they had anything to do with Mike's death. It took another twelve years for the truth to come out -- and when it did, it was unimaginable.

Now, with the publication of "Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida", the full, shocking story is revealed by acclaimed true crime writer Mikita Brottman. Through tenacious research and clear-eyed prose, she probes the psychology of a couple who killed and explores how it feels to live for eighteen years with murder on the soul.

Critique: With all the suspense, drama, and unexpected plot twists of a deftly crafted fictional thriller, "Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida" is a truly riveting read from start to finish. With all the makings of an instant true crime classic, and the kind of story that block buster movies and True Crime television shows are made, "Guilty Pleasures" is an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for community library True Crime collections. It should be noted for the personal lists of dedicated True crime fans that "Guilty Pleasures" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Simon & Schuster Audio, 9781797175928, $34.99, CD) ably narrated by vocal actor Leon Nixon.

Editorial Note: Mikita Brottman (MikitaBrottman.com) is a British-American author, scholar, and psychoanalyst known for her interest in true crime and is the published author of fifteen books.

Beechdale Road
Megan Shertzer & Tim Rogers
Beachdale Road
https://beechdaleroad.com
9798989915309, $21.99, HC, 154pp

https://www.amazon.com/Beechale-Road-Where-Powerful-Murder/dp/B0CX9FBZWT

Synopsis: On Sunday, June 21, 2020, eighteen-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos, residing in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, was kidnapped and later murdered by Justo Smoker -- a member of author Megan Shertzer's family.

"Beechdale Road: Where Mercy Is More Powerful Than Murder. A True Story" by co-authors Megan Shertzer and Tim Rogers is an attempt to share a story of grief, anger, and pain but also of unexplainable grace, kindness, and mercy at the hands of the Amish community -- of which Linda Stoltzfoos was a part.

The hope is that in sharing this true story the reader can experience what it's like when undeserved mercy confronts undeniable evil, when kindness upends condemnation, when heaven engages hell.

Critique: A riveting, fascinating, thought-provoking, and inspirational read from start to finish, "Beechdale Road: Where Mercy Is More Powerful Than Murder. A True Story." will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book is finished and set back upon the shelf. Of special relevance for readers with an interest in Amish culture, "Beechdale Road" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and college/university library collections. It should also be noted that this hardcover edition of "Beechdale Road" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9798989915316, $14.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Another Girl Lost
Mary Burton
https://maryburton.com
Montlake
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662516030, $16.99, PB, 351pp

https://www.amazon.com/Another-Girl-Lost-Mary-Burton/dp/1662516037

Synopsis: Ten years ago, fifteen-year-old Scarlett Crosby was held captive in a terrifying ordeal with a girl named Della. Scarlett escaped, their predator was killed, and Della simply vanished. Detective Kevin Dawson always wondered if Della even existed.

A decade later, Scarlett is a successful artist. As hard as she tries to move on, the mysterious Della remains her inescapable obsession. Then a girl's body is discovered (a link to Scarlett's horrific past) and all her old traumas resurface. So does Della. Scarlett has seen her hiding in plain sight. The girl who knows Scarlett's secrets, who understands the desperate compromises Scarlett made to endure hell, and who, like Scarlett, embraced the darkness to survive.

As a suspicious Detective Dawson once again comes calling, and obsessions turn deadly, Scarlett fears there isn't a living soul she can trust. As for Della, who's watching from afar, what could she possibly want from Scarlett now? And what new nightmare lies ahead?

Critique: A masterpiece of the Suspense/Thriller genre, "Another Girl Lost" by experienced and talented novelist Mary Buron is a simply riveting read from cover to cover. Original, compelling, expertly crafted, and highly recommended for community/public library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "Another Girl Lost" from Montlake is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $5.99).

Editorial Note: Mary Burton (www.maryburton.com) is the author of forty romance and suspense novels, including The House Beyond the Dunes, The Lies I Told, Don't Look Now, Near You, Burn You Twice, and Never Look Back, as well as five novellas.

Michael J. Carson
Reviewer


Robin Friedman's Bookshelf

Josiah Royce's 1909 Pittsburgh Loyalty Lectures
Josiah Royce, author
Mathew A. Foust, editor
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
https://cambridgescholars.com
9781527574168, $49.95, paperback

https://www.amazon.com/Josiah-Royces-Pittsburgh-Loyalty-Lectures/dp/1527574164

A Reading Group Studies Josiah Royce's 1909 Loyalty Lectures

Josiah Royce (1815 -- 1916) was an American idealist and pragmatist philosopher. He taught at Harvard with William James for many years and is part of what is sometimes called the "Golden Age of American philosophy." Royce's works faded after his death, but there has been some increase of interest in recent years. A small scholarly group, the Josiah Royce Society, is devoted to studying the works of Royce and showing their continued value.

Royce wrote prolifically, including works for professional philosophers and works for broadly educated lay readers. Today, perhaps his best-known book is "The Philosophy of Loyalty" (1908), which was based on a series of eight lectures Royce gave at the Lowell Institute in Boston for a lay audience. Writing with ardency and passion, Royce argues for the centrality of loyalty as the basis for ethical life. "The Philosophy of Loyalty" begins: "one of the most familiar traits of our time is the tendency to revise tradition, to reconsider the foundations of old beliefs, and sometimes mercilessly to destroy what once seemed indispensable. This disposition, as we all know, is especially prominent in the realms of social theory and of religious belief." Royce wants to counter what he sees as the rise of moral individualism, with what Royce sees as its exaggerated notions of atomism and autonomy. He also is concerned with moral skepticism and with a Nietzschean attempt at transvaluation of ethical standards. His book discusses the nature of loyalty and attempts to counter objections. such as the possibility of loyalty to bad causes, to loyalty as a basis for ethics.

Royce continued to develop and modify his philosophy of loyalty in his publications over the rest of his life. Royce also explored loyalty in various presentations that he did not publish. These sources include a series of three lectures Royce delivered that remained in manuscript among the philosopher's papers. A contemporary scholar of Royce, Mathew Foust, became interested in the manuscript and traced its source to the Twentieth Century Club, a women's organization in Pittsburgh. He established that Royce was invited to lecture at the Twentieth Century Club and delivered these three lectures in February, 1909. Foust lightly edited Royce's handwritten manuscript and added an introduction discussing the lectures, their place in Royce's thought, and their connection to the Twentieth Century Club. This unusual little book, "Josiah Royce's Pittsburgh Loyalty Lectures" (2021) is the result.

The heart of the book is the text of Royce's three lectures delivered at the Twentieth Century Club. Each essay is short and engagingly written, probably delivered in a presentation of about one hour. The lectures develop Royce's philosophy of loyalty for an audience that probably had little prior familiarity with it. They also show how Royce continued to think about loyalty and to emphasize parts of his position that were not included or only passingly included in his 1908 book. The three lectures are titled "The Conflict of Loyalties", "The Art of Loyalty", and "Loyalty and Individuality."

It is valuable to think of a philosopher of Royce's stature being invited to give a series of lectures for a non-specialist audience. This would be unusual today but was more common in the United States of Royce's day. And so, Royce begins his first lecture by observing that the Twentieth Century Club had asked Royce for his counsel on the nature of a wise, good human life which its members could consider and make use of as they saw fit. Royce said:

"In the course of my own work as a teacher of philosophy, I have been gradually led, as the years have gone on, to the formulation of a doctrine about the principles which should govern the conduct of a wise life. It is the duty of the teacher of philosophy to reflect, to formulate, to inquire where other people perhaps simply accept on faith, to reason about what other people regard as a matter of plain sense or of instinct; and so, as you know, philosophers are always talking about commonplaces, and are nevertheless disposed so to discuss these commonplaces as to make them appear often hopelessly mysterious. I believe that, in all this, the philosophers, if they keep to their own proper place, that is if they address only those who have asked to listen to them, and are ready to think carefully, are after all right. For nothing is so deep and so mysterious as are the most commonplace matters in our lives, - matters such as love, and sorrow and duty."

Royce proceeds in his three lectures to expound and explain what he understands as the centrality of loyalty to a good human life.

I had the good fortune to participate in a zoom reading group on Royce's Pittsburgh Loyalty Lectures. The reading group was a project of the Josiah Royce Society, whose current president is Mathew Foust, the editor of this book. The group met three times for two hour sessions every other week, with each session devoted to one of the Pittsburgh lectures. We had eight to ten participants for each session with a good core group that participated in two or all three of the lectures. The zoom format allowed for a wide geographical range of participants, including people from both the east and west coasts of the United States as well as participants from Europe. Unlike the non-specialist audience at the Twentieth Century Club for which the lectures were intended, the participants in the reading group all were individuals with a deep familiarity with Royce. Several were the authors of leading scholarly books about Royce.

The reading group began with each participant briefly introducing him or herself and their background in Royce to the others. Foust would offer brief opening comments on each lecture and open the meeting for discussion. The participants in this group were highly well-prepared and committed and had done and thought about the readings. The discussions were courteous, relevant to the subject matter, and conducted at a high level in elucidating and critically examining Royce's lectures. I found it, as I think the other participants did as well, a rare and inspiring reading experience, for participants who certainly are not strangers to reading groups.

The book and reading group reminded me of the joy of serious study in the company of other committed readers. In the course of the noise and the news of the present, our reading group does not loom large. Still, the group brought home to me the intrinsic value and worth of certain activities. Perhaps this little story of Royce's Pittsburgh Lectures and of our reading group will encourage other readers to explore Royce or the world of American philosophy.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays
Joan Didion, author
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
https://www.us.macmillian.com/fsg
9780374531386, $12.79, paperback

https://www.amazon.com/Slouching-Towards-Bethlehem-Essays-Classics/dp/0374531382

Coming To Terms With Disorder

Joan Didion's novel "Play it as it Lays" (1970) tells the story an emotionally distressed actress, Maria Wyeth, who lives in a lonely Hollywood world of casual sex, drugs, fast cars, and lack of human connection. The book was my first sustained reading of Joan Didion.(1934 -- 2021) I wanted to explore her earlier collection of essays "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1968), in part to compare its themes with those of "Play it as it Lays". The two works have much in common. Both books are included in a Library of America volume of Didion's writings from the 1960s and 70s. "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" includes twenty essays Didion wrote between 1964 -- 1967, which had earlier been published in magazines, including thirteen in the "Saturday Evening Post."

The title "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" derives from William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" which Didion quotes in part at the outset. The poem offers a bleak picture of the world, as Yeats notes "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity." The poet asks, "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last/ Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

In the Preface to the essays, Didion ties Yeats' poem to the theme of the book, which she describes as "the evidence of atomization, the proof that things fall apart." She found it necessary in her writing to "come to terms with disorder". The essays deal with many particularized aspects of American life in the 1960s, especially in California.

The longest essay in the book is also titled "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", and Didion describes it as "the most imperative of all these pieces to write and the only one that made me despondent after it was printed." The essay describes Didion's experiences in the Haight-Asbury District of San Francisco in 1967 at the time of its fame as a home for the hippies or "flower children". Didion offers a harsh, unblinkered portrayal of the hippies with their ignorance, pervasive drug use, sex, and crime, squarely at odds with some of the sentimental, romantic portrayals of the group by her contemporaries. She insists in her book's Preface that her essay was often misunderstood as simply a portrait of a local group of young people while the intent of the piece was to suggest the fragmented, lost character of American society. This theme ties in closely with the novel, "Play it as it Lays". In her essay, Didion made her point clearly. She wrote of Haight-Asbury:

"We were seeing the desperate attempt of a handful of unequipped children to create a community in a social vacuum. Once we had seen the children, we could no longer overlook the vacuum, no longer pretend that society's atomization could be reversed. This was not a traditional generational rebellion. At some point between 1945 and 1967, we had somehow neglected to tell the children the rules of the game we happened to be playing. Maybe we had stopped believing in the rules ourselves, maybe we were having a failure of nerve about the game. Maybe there were just too few people around to do the telling. These were children who grew up cut loose from the web of cousins and great-aunts and family doctors and lifelong neighbors who had traditionally suggested and enforced the society's values. They are children who have moved around a lot.... They are less in rebellion against the society than ignorant of it, able only to feed back certain of its most publicized self-doubts."

Quotation is important to show Didion's extraordinary style and skill as a writer. But what she says in this essay and throughout the book is provocative and important. Writing about Haight-Asbury or other matters, Didion's subject is herself. She is a wonderfully descriptive writer who always brings herself and her views to bear, in the essays and in "Play it as it Lays". The reader likewise should think for him or herself in reading Didion. A short essay in this book, "On Keeping a Notebook" is particularly insightful in Didion's recognition of the role self plays in her writing.

The book includes many outstanding essays in addition to the title essay, including the concluding work "Goodbye to all That" in which Didion discusses her life writing for magazines in New York City for eight years during her 20s. It is an eloquent portrayal of herself and of New York to complement her portrayals of California. The essay "Notes of a Native Daughter" describes Didion's early life in Sacramento. And Didion offers a moving tribute to the Duke, describing the filming of his last movie, "The Sons of Katie Elder" in her essay "John Wayne: A Love Song". Her essays are a mix of concern for the atomization and lack of cohesion in society combined with nostalgia and eulogy and with forcefully held and stated points of view.

Joan Didion deserves her status as a revered American author of both fiction and non-fiction. I am enjoying reading her work at last.

Last Exit To Brooklyn
Hubert Selby, author
Grove Press
https://www.groveatlantic.com
9780802131379, $14.49, paperback

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Exit-Brooklyn-Evergreen-Book/dp/0802131379

Still A Shocking Read

Hubert Selby's first book, "Last Exit to Brooklyn" was published in the 1964. It was subject to an obscenity trial in England although it escaped U.S. censors unscathed. The book was reissued in 1988, coinciding with the release of a movie loosely based upon it. The book's dark vision remains with the passage of time. It is not a book for the squeamish, faint-hearted, or for the conventional.

The book consists of a series of loosely related stories of varying length taking place in the tenements of Brooklyn. Many of the incidents center around an odious local bar known as "the Greeks" and its patrons. The longest story, "Strike" is about a long and ugly labor dispute and its effect on Harry, a worker and the strike organizer, on his marriage and on his sense of sexual identity. The story is detailed, sordid, violent, and fascinating. Other stories explore the world of cheap hookers, transvestites, drug users, petty crooks and drunks. The stories are raw told in a crude language of the streets appropriate to their subject matter.

The book reminded me of the early work of probably my favorite novelist, the Victorian writer George Gissing, in its concentration of the underlife in our cities. There is little of the express vulgarity and sexual crudity in the Victorian writer, but I think Gissing and Selby would have understood each other nonetheless.

This book is a disturbing picture of low life, partly written in the language and mores of its times but transcending that. There is little in the way of hope or love in the book and I think that the author wants to show us the consequences of a lack or hope and love. It is a book that in a materialist age can teach compassion in a language and style that pulls for attention. It is very sad, but the book invites and demands reflection. It shows us what is missing. This is probably a book that will be remembered in the literary history of America.

The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World
Matthew Stewart, author
W.W. Norton & Company
http://www.wwnorton.com
9780393329179, $13.98, paperback

https://www.amazon.com/Courtier-Heretic-Leibniz-Spinoza-Modern/dp/0393329178

Two Approaches To Modernity

In November, 1676, the German polymath and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1646 - 1716) visited the Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza (1632 -1677) at the Hague. Leibniz, age 30, was a rising and ambitious young man who had already, independently of Isaac Newton, invented the calculus. Spinoza, age 44, had been excommunicated from the synagogue in Amsterdam at the age of 24. He had published a notorious work, the Theological-Political Treatise, and his as-yet unpublished masterpiece, the Ethics, had been widely if surreptitiously circulated among learned people. At the time of his meeting with Leibniz, Spinoza had only three months to live.

In "The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World" (2005), Matthew Stewart takes as his pivot-point the Leibniz-Spinoza meeting. Little is known of what occurred at this meeting because Spinoza left no record of it and Leibniz rarely spoke of it. Nevertheless, Stewart uses this meeting as a fulcrum to illuminate the thought of these two philosophers and to show how their views developed into the two broad and competing responses to modernity and to the secular world that remain with us today. Stewart has the gift of presenting his story articulately and well. He combines elements of storytelling, historical narrative, and philosophy in an appealing and accessible fashion. He also shows a great dealing of learning and reflection. Stewart received a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford and is an independent scholar in California.

Spinoza was a self-contained individual. Stewart portrays him as the first and the prototypical secular thinker in philosophy. Stewart rightly places great emphasis on the Theological-Political Treatise, a work which until recently has not received the attention it deserves. Stewart emphasizes the political character of the work, its goal of freeing the state from the claims of revealed religion, its commitment to the value of free inquiry, and its leanings towards democracy. In this work, Spinoza used a historical approach to interpreting the Bible with the purpose of clearing away supernaturalism and establishing a basis for what became modern, secular life. In the Ethics, Spinoza rejected a transcendent God with a will and with commands for the good conduct of people. Spinoza equated God with nature and with the scientific laws of the universe. Human beings were subject to scientific law and could be studied, rather than constituting a realm separate from nature. The mind was tied to the activities of the body. Human ethics and well-being were naturalistically based.

Unlike Spinoza, Leibniz valued worldly success and the approval of others. For Stewart, Leibniz' mature philosophy, as set forth in the Monadology and elsewhere, developed as a response to and rejection of Spinoza's secularism. Leibniz argues for a transcendent God with a free moral will, for a plurality of independent and autonomous substances called monads, and for the immortality of the soul. Stewart places greater emphasis of the meeting between Leibniz and Spinoza, and on Spinoza's alleged influence on Leibniz, than would some historians of philosophy. But Stewart's philosophical approach doesn't appear to me to turn upon his reading of the historical record of Leibniz' actual contact with Spinoza. Rather, Stewart finds in Leibniz the first modern thinker who attempted, reactively, to restore many aspects of earlier, largely religious, thought, including a transcendent God, autonomous persons, and an afterlife, that have no place in Spinoza's thought. Thus, for Stewart, Leibniz is a distinctively modern thinker and the first to try to reconcile the world of physical science and physical law, with a form of transcendent, religious life not controlled by the dictates of science.

I found Stewart's reading highly challenging and suggestive, and he goes on to characterize the subsequent 300 year course of philosophy as a continuation of the basic divide between Spinoza and Leibniz. Thus, the basic issue that modern philosophy has addressed is the way in which meaning, purpose, and value are to be found in a secular world. Stewart finds that the dominant trend of modern philosophy has been an attempt to follow and strengthen Leibniz' approach and to answer Spinoza. He writes:

"Kant's attempt to prove the existence of a 'noumenal' world of pure selves and things in themselves on the basis of a critique of pure reason, the nineteenth-century-spanning efforts to reconcile teleology with mechanism that began with Hegel; Bergson's claim to have discovered a world of life forces immune to the analytical embrace of modern science; Heidegger's call for the overthrow of western metaphysics in order to recover the truth about Being; and the whole 'postmodern' project of deconstructing the phallocentric tradition of western thought- all of these diverse trends in modern thought have one thing in common: they are at bottom forms of the reaction to modernity first instantiated by Leibniz." (p. 311)

Stewart might also have included the American philosopher William James, whom I have been studying recently, in this latter group. Stewart does not come to a firm conclusion regarding the merits of the Spinozian and Leibnitzian positions, but he notes a strong tendency among most thinkers and most individuals to try to work a compromise between them. But to me Spinoza appears to have the last word with his famous conclusion that "fine things are as difficult as they are rare".

Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic
Matthew Stewart, author
W.W. Norton & Company
http://wwnorton.com
9780393351293, $22.94, paperback

https://www.amazon.com/Natures-God-Heretical-American-Republic/dp/0393064549

How The United States Became An "Empire of Reason"

Matthew Stewart's book, "Nature's God: the Heretical Origins of the American Republic" (2014) offers a wide-ranging history of the importance of philosophical ideas to the American Revolution and to American democracy. Stewart has written widely about philosophy, including his book "The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza and the Fate of God in the Modern World." The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World" . It will come as no surprise to readers of that book, that Spinoza emerges as one of the heroes of this new study. In his Preface, Stewart quotes the American Revolutionary figure Joel Barlow: "The present is an age of philosophy, and America the 'empire of reason'". Stewart tries to explain the way in which America is an "empire of reason" and to show that Barlow was correct in his assessment.

"Nature's God" is a lengthy, difficult and multi-faceted book that demands a great deal of perseverance and attention to read. The distinction between "popular" and "academic" writing frequently becomes blurred, no more so than it is in this book. The book examines historical events, such as the Boston Tea Party, the Second Continental Congress, the Battle of Ticonderoga, together with a large scope of philosophical and literary books. The love of learning and the erudition are inspiring. Yet, for all its length, it may move too fast in places over the complex intellectual arguments it conveys. The book frequently is an uneasy mix between disparate components of history, both well-known and obscure, and philosophy.

Stewart's book has a passionate, teaching tone about the message it wishes to convey which I find admirable and with which I largely agree. The converse side is a tendency to polemic and perhaps to underestimate one's philosophical opponents. Sections of this long book are muddled and repetitive but the heart of Stewart's position is clearly stated. Stewart writes about Enlightenment thought and its influence on the American Revolution. He takes Enlightenment well beyond 17th and 18th century Europe to begin with the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and the Roman poet, Lucretius in "The Nature of Things". Stewart argues that nature and ethics lack a supernatural base but instead rest upon reason, understanding, investigation, and what Stewart terms immanentism. He wants to reject Abrahamic theism and Christianity in favor of immanentism and understanding and he pursues and expands upon his path throughout the book.

When it comes to the Enlightenment, Stewart distinguishes between its "moderate" and "radical" as discussed in a series of important, controversial books by the scholar Jonathan Israel, e.g. Radical Enlightenment, Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750. Moderate Enlightenment for Israel reached an uneasy compromise with theism and is personified by John Locke among others. Radical Enlightenment carried the project of reason further and its key figure was Spinoza. Having made Israel's distinction, Stewart tries to collapse it. He tries to show that Locke was, in fact, a Spinozist and hid his commitment to Spinoza's philosophical programme behind the waffling, equivocal, contradictory language of his books that will be familiar to those who have struggled with Locke. Stewart doesn't look as closely as he might at Spinoza's metaphysics and its difficulties and at Spinoza's own use of language. In any event the heretical Spinoza, as captured for Stewart in the equivocations of Locke, becomes the founder of the ideas of the American Revolution. A difficulty with this argument is that there is little or no evidence that the American Founders knew of or had read Spinoza. It thus becomes critical for Stewart to transmit Spinoza to the Founders through the works of Locke. The Founders did know their Locke.

The book makes a great deal out of two early Americans whose achievements many will find unfamiliar. First, Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, wrote, or at least claimed to write, an obscure philosophical book, "The Oracles of Reason" which expressed non-theistical, immanentist thinking. Allen's friend, Thomas Young, was self-taught and a physician and a hero of the Boston Tea Party. Young gets attention in another new book of more historical than philosophical scope by Nick Bunker, "An Empire on the Edge" How Britain Came to Fight America." Stewart explores the parallel lives of Allen and Young in part to question the claim made by some scholars that Young wrote Allen's book. Some of this material on Allen and Young is fascinating. On the whole it is overdone and distracts from the flow and force of Stewart's presentation.

The book finds the glory and lasting significance of America and its Revolution not in the overthrow of a king but in its efforts to take a transcendental deity and claimed Revelation out of public life. The book is sharp, pointed and eloquent in this aim. Stewart draws another distinction, this time between the "radical" thought of the Enlightenment and the "common" thought of unschooled common sense. He tries to find the source of theism in "common" thought, so defined. The leaders of the Revolution, to a greater or lesser degree were committed to the "radical" project under the term of deism. The tension between "radical" and "common" thought was palpable in the Revolutionary Era and remains so in the United States today. Stewart attributes the American Revolution and the values that make the United States important to "radicalism" -- in freedom, intellectual curiosity, openness, economic opportunity, individual growth, and arts and culture. For the most part, Stewart stays relatively clear of current topical political issues which one cast one position as unequivocally right and the other position is unequivocally wrong.

The book brought to mind many discussions I have had with people about issues addressed in this book -- particularly a concern about the return of faith-based religions whether of a "conservative" or a "liberal" cast to American public life. For all their importance and complexity, the religious arguments in this book are done in places in an overly free-wheeling style. I have a great deal of sympathy with the approach and the argument and with Spinoza -- but that may be perceived by some as preaching to the choir.

Stewart has written a wonderfully challenging and provocative book for readers willing to make the effort. Not the least of it is his positive portrayal of America, its origins, and its promise, in face of an age of skepticism. Another large value of the book is its commitment to reason and understanding. Stewart rejects postmodernism, the "narrative" theory of understanding and history, and other forms of relativism which sometimes get used to provide an excuse for continued religious thinking. A commitment to reason and the pursuit of truth is refreshing. The book stresses the importance of learning, study, and the life of the mind. It is inspiring to see their importance and their pursuit in this book tied in so well with a discussion of the intellectual foundations of American life.

Robin Friedman
Reviewer


Suanne Schafer's Bookshelf

Bluebird, Bluebird
Attica Locke
Serpent's Tail
https://serpentstail.com
9781781257685, $18.99

https://www.amazon.com/Bluebird-Highway-Attica-Locke-author/dp/178125768X

Bluebird, Bluebird, the first in the Highway 59 trilogy, is an amazing Southern noir that it is so much more than the usual mystery. It's also about home, whether the place of one's birth or a found home; family; race; and justice.

The protagonist, Darren Matthews, leaves Texas for law school in Chicago but finds himself drawn back to his East Texas home and a job as a Texas Ranger. When he's sent to the hamlet of Lark, Texas, to unofficially investigate two murders, one of a local White woman, the other a Black man from Chicago, he must solve the crimes while being a stranger in town. Though Black, he is an outsider, thus not trusted by local Blacks. As a Black man, he is not trusted by Whites. As a ranger, he is not trusted by the local police. He must save himself, the wife of the murdered Black man, and solve two crimes. Matthews thinks the crimes are racially motivated even as the local police try to sweep the racial aspects under the rug in an attempt to maintain a semblance of goodwill between the races, a goodwill that is utterly missing. He uncovers local secrets, both old and new, as he solves the murders.

As the White mother of a child who identifies as Black, I am always interested in books that highlight how racial issues and how pervasive they are in American life. The prose here is taut yet lyrical and reeking with the atmosphere of East Texas as well as a sense of malice and that nothing has changed between the races since antebellum days. This antipathy culminates in the presence of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a White supremacist group, in Lark. As he investigates, Matthews carries his own haunted past with him: his new propensity toward excessive alcohol consumption, a drunk mother, and a wife who's unhappy with his desire to be a ranger. Matthews's personal journey is as intriguing as it colors the rest of the book. The title, Bluebird, Bluebird, references a John Lee Hooker rich bluesy tune of the same name, and a strong thread of music runs throughout. I will certainly finish the trilogy and probably the rest of Attica Locke's backlist.

The Medicine Woman of Galveston
Amanda Skenandore
Kensington
www.kensingtonbooks.com
9781496741684, $17.95

https://www.amazon.com/Medicine-Woman-Galveston-Amanda-Skenandore/dp/1496741684

The Medicine Woman of Galveston is the story of a female physician, Tucia Hatherley, at the turn of the 20th century. After her mother dies and her father remarries, she develops severe anxiety and copes with it with trichtillomania - pulling out her own hair to the point of baldness. She has always wanted to be a physician, and her sawmill-owning father permits it. She completes her schooling, but during her internship, she suffers harassment from her peers and from professors. After a forced sexual encounter followed by an unfortunate experience in the operating room, she gives up her profession. With a disabled son and heavily in debt, when a medicine show emcee offers her a job hoping to use her medical degree to lend legitimacy to his snake oil cures, she takes it - only to find it is more than she bargained for.

Skenandore does a great job depicting Tucia's PTSD and anxiety disorders as well as the problems of her Down syndrome son. The character she works with in the medicine show form an unusual aggregate but provide a sense of family. If readers think her journey through medical school is exaggerated; as a physician myself, I can attest that it is not, having suffered similar hazing from male physicians and peers, well into the 21st century. The depictions of Galveston during and after the great hurricane of 1900 were historically accurate. An enjoyable fast-paced book.

In Every Life
Rea Frey
Harper Muse
https://www.harpercollinsfocus.com/harpermuse
9781400243136, $18.99

https://www.amazon.com/Every-Life-Rea-Frey/dp/1400243130

In Every Life is a novel about Ben and Harper, a couple who are on their honeymoon when he becomes quite ill, and he is eventually diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. As his way of coping with his illness, he devises a plan in which he hopes to have her find someone new to love before he dies so he knows she will be okay in the future.

It is told in several timelines: the past when Harper loved Liam, a man she shared an intense week with ten years earlier, the "one that got away"; the present which is her life with her cancer-ridden husband; and when she does a magical moon ritual, a new future as a successful artist living with Liam, but without Ben; and, when she realizes she needs to be with Ben, she performs a second ritual and returns to her old, but significantly changed life - she finds a fancy new bathroom in her condominium and begins work on a solo art show.

Harper is an artist who walks away from her big break in New York City and her new love, Liam, when his old girlfriend returns. She returns to Chicago and becomes an art teacher, giving up her dream of becoming an artist. She has a meet-cute with Ben at an obstacle course, they fall madly in love, quickly marry, and move to Chattanooga. She still has thoughts of her long-lost love, Liam. Ben, as part of his coming to terms with his own death, wants to set Harper up with a new love. The New York Times gets wind of his plan and sends a reporter to interview him and Harper. That reporter, in bit too much of a coincidence, is Liam.

Harper's journey towards acceptance and peace is the best of women's fiction as she learns what love is, what her career means to her, and learns to cope with the loss of the husband she dearly loves. It's quite an emotional book. I did get a bit weepy at the end. I was glad that Harper has time after losing Ben to learn to rely on herself and mature into an artist (and mother, a last minute "gift" from Ben)

Bear
Julia Phillips
Hogarth
https://hogarthbooks.com
9780525520436, $28.00

https://www.amazon.com/Bear-Novel-Julia-Phillips-ebook/dp/B0CJTK3R72

Having read Julia Phillips's debut novel, Disappearing Earth, with its lush descriptions of a place no one has heard of before (a remote Russian peninsula called Kamchatka, where one goes for "bears and volcanoes"), I wanted to read her newest. Bear is set on the scenic island of San Juan in Pacific Northwest on several acres of land that belonged to the grandparents of two sisters, Sam and Elena, born a year apart. They dream of getting off the island and finding a different life. Their plans are turned topsy-turvy when their mother develops health problems from long exposure to toxic fumes in a beauty salon. Both adore their beautiful mother, so they refuse to pull her away from everything she's known. The sisters postpone their dreams to care for her, remaining in their low-level, dead-end jobs that barely keep the family afloat. Then, the pandemic hits, and their economic situation declines further.

Things change when Sam, while at work on a ferry, spots a bear swimming in the channel. She tells her elder sister, and everything changes: the relationship between the sisters, their mother, and their newfound relationship to the bear which enchants Elena. She develops - much to Sam's dismay - a somewhat mystical attachment to the animal, a sense that it is her spirit animal.

The story is quite loosely based on the fairy tale, "Snow White and Rose Red," which also involves two sisters. A touch of unreality contrasts with the hard-core reality the sisters face trying to make ends meet. Bear is told in the point of view of Sam, the younger sister, who is somewhat distant and a bit misanthropic who fears the bear will change her relationship with her sister; Sam's abrupt manner and self-absorption raise the tension and ominous tone. Bear is quite short at 289 pages, an easy read but one that will stick with you.

Lithium Fire
Liam Taliesin
Bookland Press Inc.
https://www.booklandpress.com
9781772312249, $21.95

https://www.amazon.com/Lithium-Fire-Modern-Indigenous-Voices/dp/177231224X

Canadian author Liam Taliesin scores with his debut novel, Lithium Fire. In it, he develops a vision of Winnipeg, Canada in the year 1984. The Royal Albert Arms Hotel is the central setting in a seedy neighborhood in Winnipeg, a "dive now but had a reasonably comfortable bar which would be warm." The worn-down hotel is itself a character that influences the novel's human characters as well as providing them homes, jobs, and social interaction. It is the hub of a community of mostly creative, often troubled, misfits.

All the characters, ranging from art dealers, to desk clerks, waitresses, and barkeeps at the hotel, as well as an unusual stock of hotel customers and residents in Lithium Fire ring true to life, and the reader probably knows similar real-life folks. Scott Kostyk, a gallery owner and painter, is haunted by the fiery arson death of his ex-wife, but the tragedy invigorates his painting career. The eponymous Banjo Bob plays old folk songs on his banjo. The Bender family are brothers who perform illegal acts for fun and profit, including setting the fire that killed Kostiuk's wife. Cowboy is the hotel's front desk clerk, doorman, lobby manger, and bouncer who has more than a finger in the till. A Metis woman, Sarah Grant, is dealing with the sexual abuse of her eight-year-old daughter. These characters are trying to survive in a poverty-stricken, seedy neighbor that is sliding further into decline, all while dealing with significant other issues: addiction, racism, family trauma, sexual abuse, and mental health issues.

The prose is tight but with many well-constructed lines that I had to highlight such as "Punks swaggered around the pool table brandishing cue sticks like erections" and "Kostyk woke with a bad case of cubism". While I have never been to Winnipeg, the descriptions seem accurate to me and certainly capture the essence of a particular time and place - even the bone-chilling winter cold.

Babylonia
Costanza Casati
Penguin
https://www.penguin.com
9781464228216, $27.99

https://www.amazon.com/Babylonia-Casati-Costanza/dp/024160964X

Babylonia is set in ancient Assyria with its brutal, warlike society. The heroine, Semiramis, is orphaned when her mother commits suicide. In the village of Mari in western Assyria, she's adopted by the chief shepherd. He is brutal and sadistic, frequently beating her. Rather than bring about her submission, she becomes self-righteous and angry and when given the chance to escape with Onnes, a soldier, to Kalhu, the capital city, she does so. There he marries her and introduces her to his brother and, friend, and perhaps lover, the king, Ninus.

The book revolves around the relationship between the three, an amazing love triangle. All three are complex, at least in part broken, the men (especially Onnes) possibly suffering from PTSD. From being jealous of Semiramis, Ninus moves to falling in love with her, complicating his relationship with Onnes, with Ninus's own mother, Nisat, and other members of the court. Semiramis, a village girl, must make her way through court intrigues and politics, but her native intelligence helps her out-maneuver more-experienced courtiers as she attempts to fulfill a prophecy a diviner spoke to her in her childhood. Eventually she becomes the only female queen of Assyria.

The book is quite bloody, especially when Onnes, Ninus, and Semiramis go to Bactria to conquer the city of Balkh, but Casati doesn't glorify the bloodshed, merely recognizes it as a fact of society at the time.

Hot Hex Boyfriend
Carly Bloom
Forever
c/o Hachette
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/imprint/forever
9781538741092, $17.99

https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Hex-Boyfriend-Carly-Bloom/dp/1538741091

Hot Hex Boyfriend is a cute enemies-to-lovers paranormal romance.

Delia Merriweather is approaching her thirtieth birthday and still living with her eccentric but adorable extended family in Willow Root, Texas. She's tried multiple careers, but nothing has ever taken off. Her family alleges that they are cor witches, witches who work with their hearts. Centuries ago, the family was hexed. Thus, they lost their magic. They believe Delia is a "blue witch" who is kissed with fairy magic as well as witch magic, and she alone can break the curse. Delia doesn't believe in magic or the hex. She doesn't want a relationship, because when the women in the family fall in love, their partners die a horrible death.

Their next-door neighbor has recently died, and his nephew, Max Halifax, comes from Shadowlark, a witch-world near San Francisco, and moves into the home to settle the estate. He is a logos witch, ruled by his logical mine. He is also present to ensure Delia doesn't break the hex on her thirtieth birthday. He is rude to Delia, and her family but is quite hot.

Bloom builds a creative and interesting magical system inhabited by various types of witches and demons. Both main characters have intriguing families and family dynamics, and both have to find their own destinies and each other. I always enjoy Bloom's romances. They are a touch above the usual and have real "heart." Though I have to admit, I missed the dearth of buttonless cowboy shirts here.

Doctors and Friends
Kimmery Martin
Berkley
https://www.penguin.com/publishers/berkley
9781984802866, $27.00

https://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Friends-Kimmery-Martin/dp/1984802860

Doctors and Friends centers around a group of female physicians who've been buddies since medical school. Kira is an infectious disease doctor; Compton, an ER doc; Hannah, an OB-GYN; Georgia, a urologist; and Vani, an internist. These five go on vacation in Spain and Morocco while two other friends remain in the States. Accompanying Kira is her ex-boyfriend, Declan, and her two children, Beau and Rorie. During this vacation, a rapidly-spreading unknown illness, eventually named Artiovirus, begins killing people.

Doctors and Friends was apparently written pre-Covid-19 pandemic, but author Martin captures the strains infectious diseases and pandemics can put on health care workers as well as the general population. As a physician myself, I can assure you, Martin got the details right from those first few days in medical school where students face weeks of dissecting a stinky cadaver to the horrific details of countless deaths and the wear-and-tear on physicians, other health care professionals and hospitals.

These female physicians, even when far from home initially, work ceaselessly to save anyone they can, though their efforts are frequently futile. The physical, emotional, and mental stress is immeasurable and often life-changing. Despite the bleakness of the artiovirus pandemic, this isn't a novel without light moments and happy endings that let the characters - and the reader - maintain their hope for the future.

Suanne Schafer, Reviewer
www.SuanneSchaferAuthor.com


Susan Bethany's Bookshelf

A Dementia Caregiver Called to Action: The Journey
Dr. Macie P. Smith
Independently Published
9798879607659, $12.99, PB, 59pp

https://www.amazon.com/Dementia-Caregiver-Called-Action-Caregivers/dp/B0CVQ7W1D6

Synopsis: Finding out your loved one has dementia feels like a gut blow. The things that you hear about how the disease affects the person and the family is sometimes unbearable -- especially when you're not prepared. But, is anyone ever prepared for a diagnosis like this?

Because our current healthcare system is not geriatric centered, many medical professionals are not well informed about what supports are available to offer family caregivers. Therefore, "A Dementia Caregiver Called to Action: The Journey" by Dr. Macie P. Smith will offer guiding practices for families diagnosed with dementia. The information provides informed and informative direction on what to consider before the diagnosis, at diagnosis, and after the diagnosis.

Although there's not a cure for progressive types of dementia, like Alzheimer's, there is care - your care. So, here's to getting ahead of the journey.

Critique: Absolutely indispensable reading for anyone called upon to care for a loved one suffering from Alzheimer's, "A Dementia Caregiver Called to Action: The Journey" is exceptionally and impressively 'reader friendly' in tone, subject matter, organization and presentation for the non-specialist general reader. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Alzheimer's & Aging Parent/Adult Children Relationship collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted that "A Dementia Caregiver Called to Action: The Journey" is also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99) as well.

Editorial Note: Dr. Macie P. Smith (https://drmaciesmith.com) boasts over twenty years of expertise as a Licensed Social Worker and Gerontologist, dedicated to serving aging and vulnerable populations alongside their family caregivers. Her multifaceted role encompasses conducting research, crafting programs, evaluating their efficacy, and facilitating professional development training in the pivotal areas of healthcare management, family caregiving, Alzheimer's, dementia, and cognitive impairment.

The Beginner's Guide to Crystal Healing
Shirley O'Donoghue
Healing Arts Press
c/o Inner Traditions International, Ltd.
www.innertraditions.com
9781644116753, $14.99, PB, 208pp

https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Crystal-Healing/dp/1644116758

Synopsis: "The Beginner's Guide to Crystal Healing" by Shirley O'Donoghue is a full-color guide to working with gemstones for self-healing, energy work, and spiritual growth. It explains how to choose your crystals and cleanse them, how to energize and charge them, as well as how to get to know your crystals and attune to them.

It explores the correspondences between gemstones and colors and discusses the effects of crystals on the chakras, the meridians, and the aura.

"The Beginner's Guide to Crystal Healing" reveals to the aspiring crystal healing practitioner how to craft crystal essences, heal animals with gemstones, work with crystal grids, and combine crystal therapy with ancestral healing, Reiki, reflexology, acupuncture, and massage

"The Beginner's Guide to crystal Healing" is a full-color guide that is filled with explanatory diagrams and step-by-step photographic instructions, as Shirley O'Donoghue shares the basics of crystal healing, enabling anyone to learn to use crystals for self-healing, energy work, and spiritual growth.

O'Donoghue also explains how to choose your crystals and cleanse them, how to energize and charge them, and how to get to know your crystals and attune to them. Examining the correspondences between stones and colors, she looks at how to use crystals in color therapy and how to work with color to create crystal mandalas. She discusses the effects of crystals on the chakras, the meridians, and the aura and explains how to craft your own gem essences and how to identify and deal with toxic crystals.

Also examined is the relationship between crystals and astrology, numerology, and sacred geometry (while providing several crystal grid layouts) as well as how to use gemstones for connecting with spirit guides, angels, and ascended masters.

"The Beginner's Guide to Crystal Healing" also explores techniques for using crystals for healing animals, for ancestral healing, and for combining crystals with other healing modalities, including Reiki, reflexology, acupuncture, and massage.

Of special note is that this comprehensive guide also includes a directory of more than 20 common crystals and stones, enabling you to begin your crystal healing journey right away.

Critique: A complete and detailed course of instruction in the use of crystals for healing and health, "The Beginner's Guide to Crystal Healing" is the ideal and thoroughly 'user friendly' introduction to the subject and a welcome, unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library metaphysical studies and alternative health/medicine collections.

Editorial Note: Shirley O'Donoghue has been teaching crystal healing for more than 30 years. The principal of Lucis College, she is an experienced lecturer and teacher in a wide range of holistic therapies including Reiki, color therapy, and flower and gem essence therapy. She is the host of a podcast, Consciousness Unveiled, Alchemy Unveiled, as well as a director of Holistic Harmony, a nonprofit that provides access to complementary therapies and energy healing for disadvantaged groups and individuals. Born in London, she now lives in Dorking, Surrey, England. (https://www.luciscollege.com/practitioners/shirley-odonoghue)

Susan Bethany
Reviewer


Willis Buhle's Bookshelf

The Mahdi
Robert Cook
River Grove Books
c/o Greenleaf Book Group Press
www.greenleafbookgroup.com
9781632997906, $19.95, PB, 368pp

https://www.amazon.com/Mahdi-Novel-Robert-Cook/dp/1632997908

Synopsis: "The Mahdi" is a narrative geopolitical battlefield where Islamic and Jewish ideologies clash, seen through the lens of a modern, liberal Muslim. Raised in a blend of Bedouin tradition and Western education, Alex Cuchulain, Cooch, is a former US Marine, CIA operator, and entrepreneur. Partnered with Dr. Caitlin O'Connor, the self-described "smartest person in the world," they make an unlikely yet formidable duo.

When Alex takes on a mission to reclaim stolen Bedouin land, he finds himself imprisoned and branded a criminal. Meanwhile, Caitlin faces her own dangers, becoming the target of an extremist plot. But the rules of warfare change forever when Caitlin condenses an electromagnetic pulse into shootable ammunition and deploys an AI chatbot - quantum computer that can use the internet to control secure Israeli communications and provide strategic intel.

As tensions escalate, some begin to believe that Alex may actually be the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam. But can he shoulder that mantle? And can technology and enlightened thinking prevail over entrenched dogma?

Critique: A simply riveting read from start to finish, this paperback edition of novelist Robert Cook's "The Mahdi" from River Grove Press is the fourth and newest title in the author's 'Cooch' series. A riveting read from cover to cover, "The Mahdi" has all the necessary features of a spy suspense thriller including intrigue, violence, unexpected plot twists and sex. While a strongly recommended pick for community/public library action/adventure political suspense collections, it should be noted for the growing legions of Robert Cook fans that "The Mahdi" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99) as well.

Editorial Note: Robert Cook (www.robertcooknovels.com) is a United States Army Vietnam veteran, who attained the rank of Major and holds the parachutists badge, Bronze Star Medal and the Army Commendation Medal. Cook was named the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Metropolitan Washington, DC Region in 1987. He is also an active philanthropist who endowed the Robert E. Cook Honors College of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Crude: Ukraine, Oil and Nuclear War
Mike Bond
Big City Press
9781949751321, $18.99, PB, 454pp

https://www.amazon.com/Crude-Ukraine-Oil-Nuclear-War/dp/1949751325

Synopsis: On an October night, far out in the South China Sea, a diver sets explosive charges under a huge oil platform. On the platform above, geologist Liz Chaplin stands watching the Southern Cross sink beneath the waves.

In New York, Ross Bullock, the CEO of Rawhide Energy and the platform's owner, states during a televised press conference that our country has made a fatal mistake in Ukraine and is headed for nuclear war.

Immediately the White House, intelligence agencies, the media and financial world attack Rawhide for raising the specter of nuclear war and thus threatening the president's reelection.
The action expands to Mongolia, Indonesia, Washington D.C., and Ukraine. The true perpetrator of these crimes becomes known - it is impossible, unbelievable, but true. Is the White House behind it?

The president threatens nuclear war with Russia to distract voters from his fraudulent Ukraine and China deals and worsening polls. The Russians respond by increasing their nuclear readiness. But the president alone can decide to launch a nuclear war as he clings to the nuclear button.
So begins "Crude", author Mike Bond's new super-thriller that takes us to the door of world annihilation and shows us what's inside.

Critique: Another riveting read from start to finish by novelist Mike Bond, "Crude" is a thriller of a story that, given today's international political climate, could well be prophetic. With his signature storytelling style, "Crude" is the stuff of which block buster movies are made. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Suspense/Thriller Fiction collections, it should be noted for the growing legions of Mike Bond fans that "Crude" is also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format ($0.99) as well.

Editorial Note: Mike Bond (https://mikebondbooks.com) is a novelist, war a human rights journalist, and an environmental activist. He has covered guerrilla wars, death squads, and military dictatorships in Latin America and Africa, Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, and ivory poaching and other environmental battles in East Africa and Asia.

Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer


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Editor-in-Chief
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