bookpagedev

Religion & Spirituality

Books for Hanukkah and beyond

Review by bookpagedev

The “you” in Barbara Rushkoff’s Jewish Holiday Fun for You! targets a specific demographic: the hip, 30- or 40-something “who wants to crack the mystery of Jewish holidays.” Rushkoff, creator of the webzine Plotz, offers this crash course to instruct and entertain. She leads readers through the holidays using diverse conceits: a test booklet (multiple choice) for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; zaftig (Yiddish for “well-endowed”) paper dolls of Ruth, the Biblical character, for Shavuot; and a catalog of wacky prefabricated Sukkah kits for Sukkot (including inflatable, hypoallergenic and mother-in-law versions). Each holiday is introduced by a quirky, one-sentence definition: Passover is “the one with the big crackers,” Purim is “the one they call the Jewish Halloween” and Shabbat is “the one where you can’t do anything because it’s Saturday.” For years, I’ve heard similar descriptions when mildly curious non-Jewish buddies identify a current holiday with, “Is this the one where you build a hut in the backyard?” (Sukkot.) As the book’s title says, the accent is on “fun,” so don’t look for practical how-tos here. This is more an excuse to indulge in nostalgia with hip hindsight, sassy wit and retro-flavored graphics galore. Rushkoff fans: prepare to plotz (Yiddish for “burst with excitement”). Joanna Brichetto is a graduate student in Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University who longs for sassy wit and hip hindsight.

The "you" in Barbara Rushkoff's Jewish Holiday Fun for You! targets a specific demographic: the hip, 30- or 40-something "who wants to crack the mystery of Jewish holidays." Rushkoff, creator of the webzine Plotz, offers this crash course to instruct and entertain. She leads readers…
Memoir

Elizabeth Edwards’ survival stories

Review by bookpagedev

<b>Elizabeth Edwards’ survival stories</b> Parents, political junkies and life’s survivors that is, most of us will be caught up in the stories told by Elizabeth Edwards in Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers. This elegant memoir begins as Edwards discovers a lump in her breast just two weeks before the 2004 presidential election in which her husband, John Edwards, was the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Showing the pluck, smarts, self-depreciating humor and grace that she seems to display no matter the situation, Edwards puts off the biopsy until votes are counted, then discovers she has breast cancer. That cataclysmic event triggers memories of the many strangers, relatives and friends who have loaned Edwards the use of their metaphoric walking stick to help her get a bit further on life’s journey.

She discusses growing up on military bases across America and in Japan as the daughter of a naval aviator, her marriage to a politician, their grief after losing their cherished teenage son Wade in a car accident, helping their surviving daughter cope and move on to Princeton, and their decision to have two more children, Emma Claire and Jack. As Edwards accompanies her husband on the campaign trail as senate, vice presidential and presidential candidate, the former attorney also hosts lunches, speaks at dinners, hugs people, answers endless questions from ordinary citizens who hope for a better life, and leans on their kindness, too.

Moving from city to city each night, Edwards realizes that it’s the small gestures, the thoughtful service of the garbagemen, the compassionate doctor and the grocery bagger, neighbors and fellow PTA members who post on a grief bulletin board, as much as powerful people in Washington, that ease her way in the world. Everywhere I go, people smile back at me, she writes, so this . . . is a shout from up on the tightrope: thank you all.

<b>Elizabeth Edwards' survival stories</b> Parents, political junkies and life's survivors that is, most of us will be caught up in the stories told by Elizabeth Edwards in Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers. This elegant memoir begins as Edwards discovers a…

PhotographyArts & Culture

Stars in our eyes

Review by bookpagedev

In Astronomy: A Visual Guide, British science writer Mark A. Garlick offers us the reassuring news that the sun has enough fuel to last another 5,000 to 8,500 million years. Of course, this is but one little info bite in his fact- and theory-packed, visually stimulating excursion through the night skies. Garlick first takes readers through humankind’s historical fascination with space, with quick-take lists and chronological rundowns concerning archaeoastronomy, early and later astronomical tools, the scientific discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and others, manned spacecraft, space disasters and the various unmanned probes that have been charting deep space for the past 30 years. The heart of the book is a star-gazer’s wonderland, offering a trove of hard data and interesting speculation on the Solar System, stars and galaxies, and the further reaches of the as-yet-unknown universe. Despite some spotted typographical errors, the text is otherwise eminently readable. But best of all are the stunning photos, taken from the world’s important observatories and from space-based cameras. Attractive and imaginative artist’s renderings, including star maps, fill out this intriguing astronomical tour.

 

In Astronomy: A Visual Guide, British science writer Mark A. Garlick offers us the reassuring news that the sun has enough fuel to last another 5,000 to 8,500 million years. Of course, this is but one little info bite in his fact- and theory-packed,…

Memoir

Bill Bryson strikes again

Review by bookpagedev

Don’t ever read a Bill Bryson book while drinking a carbonated soft drink, or (as in my case) draft root beer. A snort of laughter inevitable in a Bryson book will send frothing bubbles up your nose or (as in my case) out your nose, which can be momentarily very painful, albeit exceptionally amusing to anyone in your immediate vicinity. Bryson’s latest, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, chronicles the writer’s early years in Iowa, as well as the rich history of his alter-ego, the valiant Thunderbolt Kid, scourge of villains worldwide (well, perhaps just Iowa-wide). The Thunderbolt Kid arrived in Des Moines in 1951 (electron year 21,000,047,002), dropped off in a silver spaceship by his father, Volton, who hypnotized the Bryson family into thinking that Bill was a normal boy. In the manner of a latter-day Mark Twain, Bryson spins tales of everyday events that somehow transcend normality to a plane of wonderment and humor. When his father was once invited out for Chinese food, he reported back incredulously to the family: They eat it with sticks, you know. His mother’s horrified reply? Goodness! In one of a series of Midwest-inflected vignettes, Bryson rats out his sister, who could spot celebrity homosexuals with uncanny precision: She told me Rock Hudson was gay in 1959, long before anyone would have guessed it. She knew that Richard Chamberlain was gay before he did, I believe. For boomers, Bryson’s latest will serve up a steaming course of nostalgia for times long gone (he and I were born in the same year, as was Sting, but I digress): Sky King, TV dinners, the Brooklyn Dodgers, X-Ray Spex, Sputnik, Dr. Kildare, the Cold War, Tareytons and Strato Streak V-8 engines. For those who arrived later, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid will still be a hilarious look at bygone days, but you may need help from an old Saturday Evening Post or that old bald guy down the street to understand some of the references. Whatever your age, you will yuk it up big time reading Thunderbolt Kid. Just don’t forget what I said about the soft drinks.

Don't ever read a Bill Bryson book while drinking a carbonated soft drink, or (as in my case) draft root beer. A snort of laughter inevitable in a Bryson book will send frothing bubbles up your nose or (as in my case) out your…
PhotographyArts & Culture

Back to the Garden

Review by bookpagedev

Even if we allow New Yorkers a little slack for their endearing nearsightedness, we’d probably have to admit some truth to their contention that Madison Square Garden is the world’s most famous arena. George Kalinsky has been the Garden’s official photographer since 1966, and his nearly 40 years of work are the basis for Garden of Dreams: Madison Square Garden 125 Years, which uses stirring pictures to tell a story of international sports, politics, entertainment and celebrity. The volume benefits from a terrific introduction by journalist Pete Hamill, who takes the Garden through its various structural and site changes since the 19th century, complete with illustrative anecdotes that capture the distinctively New York mindset. Other brief essays are contributed by personalities for whom the Garden brings fond memories, including Bill Cosby, John McEnroe, Bill Bradley, Robert Klein and Spike Lee. Kalinsky’s photos supplemented by some black-and-white archival shots are by turns colorful and fraught with history. Subjects include New York Knicks basketball greats, world-class animal tamer Gunther Gebel-Williams, Muhammad Ali, Nadia Comaneci, Pope John Paul II, Peggy Fleming and Clinton/Gore together at the 1992 Democratic Convention.

Even if we allow New Yorkers a little slack for their endearing nearsightedness, we'd probably have to admit some truth to their contention that Madison Square Garden is the world's most famous arena. George Kalinsky has been the Garden's official photographer since 1966, and…
Fiction

A divine comedy of errors

Review by bookpagedev

William J. Cobb’s Goodnight, Texas a not-to-be-missed story of remarkable beauty and power showcases fascinating characters who face devastation and hopelessness in the midst of this divine comedy, which overflows with the bittersweet joys of living and loving. When a colossal zebrafish washes up on the beach in Goodnight, Texas, the residents aren’t sure what to make of the ominous creature. Seventeen-year-old Falk, restless in his adolescence and his job as a cook at the Black Tooth CafŽ, wants to sell his photographs of the beached behemoth to make a name for himself. The cafŽ’s owner, cynical Russian immigrant Gusef, wants to transform the dead fish into an outlandish rooftop ornament for his cafŽ. Una, the seductive Vietnamese-Mexican waitress involved in a fiery relationship with the short-tempered Gabriel, remains indifferent to the grotesque fish even though it is drawing her dangerously closer to the younger Falk. Meanwhile, Gabriel cares nothing about the malodorous flotsam. He lost his job on the down-and-out shrimp boats, and he will soon need to do something desperate in order to reclaim Una’s affection. Clearly, pressures are building in this depressed Gulf Coast fishing community. People are beginning to make irreversible mistakes, and the mysterious zebrafish is not helping matters. Then, quite suddenly, all of Goodnight must confront other problems: Hurricane Tanya is on its way, and because of its apocalyptic ferocity no one in Goodnight will ever again look at life in the same way. Poignant and memorable, Goodnight, Texas is a luminous tale of buoyancy and endurance, and it ought to be required reading for anyone who has ever pondered the indifferent cruelty of cosmic irony, and for anyone who has ever faced life-changing choices or, perhaps more accurately, the illusion of such choices.

William J. Cobb's Goodnight, Texas a not-to-be-missed story of remarkable beauty and power showcases fascinating characters who face devastation and hopelessness in the midst of this divine comedy, which overflows with the bittersweet joys of living and loving. When a colossal zebrafish washes up…
History

Wartime remembrance

Review by bookpagedev

Armchair historians will revel in World War II, a strikingly informative and visually gratifying oversized omnibus supervised by three major British journalists: H.P. Willmott, Charles Messenger and Robin Cross. The authors provide the important background on events leading up to the war, especially the aftermath of World War I and the territorial disputes and economic situation in Europe, which became a breeding ground for the rise of Hitler’s Nazism. They then launch into cogent, authoritative accounts of events both political and military, from the Battle of Britain to Pearl Harbor to D-Day and beyond to the critical postwar period. Coverage is essentially chronological, yet the straightforward text is enhanced throughout with fascinating sidebars on national leaders and key generals (Churchill, Eisenhower, Stalin, etc.), enlisted men, tanks and airplanes, munitions and related issues including the Holocaust, civilian internments, women on the homefront, and even the war as depicted in cinema. Handy maps and timelines offer quick overviews of the bigger picture as well. For all its good writing, however, this volume’s value rests equally with its hundreds of (mostly) black-and-white photos, many very rare, which have been gathered from museums, libraries and newspaper and magazine archives the world over.

Armchair historians will revel in World War II, a strikingly informative and visually gratifying oversized omnibus supervised by three major British journalists: H.P. Willmott, Charles Messenger and Robin Cross. The authors provide the important background on events leading up to the war, especially the…
Science Fiction & FantasyShort Stories

Many-splendored things

Review by bookpagedev

Neil Gaiman’s latest collection, Fragile Things, compiles 31 Short Fictions and Wonders, including such varied items as a story based on tarot cards and short pieces written for Tori Amos CD booklets. However, the book is also full to the brim (and spilling over there is even an extra story in the introduction) with Gaiman’s incredibly imaginative stories. In some of his best, Gaiman opens up other writers’ fictions, examines the core and shines quite a different light on them.

In The Problem of Susan, he considers Susan’s unsatisfying fate at the end of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. In the poem Instructions, the reader is given advice on how to survive various fairy tales. And in the first story, the Hugo Award winner A Study in Emerald, Gaiman mixes H.P. Lovecraft’s Elder Gods and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes with great panache. Other stories play with familiar forms: Gaiman likes to tell stories, or have his characters sit around and tell stories, so that in pieces such as Sunbird, the reader almost has the sensation of hearing the story read aloud.

Gaiman began as a journalist, wrote comics and now writes everything from poetry to films. His work shows the ease with which he moves between these worlds; he straddles many genres and crosses many lines, one of which is the (sometimes invisible) line between adult and young adult fiction. As with many of the pieces here, Instructions was originally published in a young adult anthology. But Gaiman’s popularity among both sets of readers shows that, while occasionally facile, he neither talks down to or waters down his work for either set.

Only one new story, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, is included in Fragile Things, but due to the wide range of venues the other stories have appeared in, most readers will find plenty of new material here to enjoy. Gavin J. Grant is the co-editor of The Year’s Best Fantasy &andamp; Horror: 2006 (St. Martin’s).

Neil Gaiman's latest collection, Fragile Things, compiles 31 Short Fictions and Wonders, including such varied items as a story based on tarot cards and short pieces written for Tori Amos CD booklets. However, the book is also full to the brim (and spilling over there…
Religion & Spirituality

Who, what, where

Review by bookpagedev

The National Geographic Society is uniquely qualified to produce an exhaustive and fascinating new book, The Geography of Religion. With more than 400 pages of stunning photographs, maps, illustrations and authoritative text, the writers and editors of National Geographic trace the origins and spread of the world’s five great religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. More than just an incredibly beautiful coffee-table book, The Geography of Religion is part history book, part travelogue, part theology text. The authors examine the development of religion in ancient cultures as well as contemporary practices that trace their roots to ancient texts. The twin roles of conflict and persecution as a means of spreading religion are investigated. By identifying those common threads that bind the peoples of the earth together our belief in a higher being, belief that kindness rewards both the giver and the receiver, belief in a hereafter we may at last come to understand one another. Perhaps then there may truly be peace on earth.

The National Geographic Society is uniquely qualified to produce an exhaustive and fascinating new book, The Geography of Religion. With more than 400 pages of stunning photographs, maps, illustrations and authoritative text, the writers and editors of National Geographic trace the origins and spread of…
Self-HelpFamily & Relationships

The wisdom of the ages

Review by bookpagedev

According to King Solomon, wisdom cries in the street, imploring the simple to acquire her reproof. If it were only that easy. Wisdom may cry in the street, but it also hides in the nooks and crannies of our psyches, walks on the waters of our adversities and disguises itself in paradox and poetry. In his inspiring book, Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?, literary critic Harold Bloom explores the great writing of Western culture in his quest for wisdom. Bloom’s criteria are simple: he is searching for Truth, Beauty and Insight. Drawing from the writings of the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, the classic literature of Shakespeare and Cervantes, and the philosophical musings of Goethe and Nietzsche, Bloom attempts to synthesize the wisdom of the ages into a succinct syllabus. “We read and reflect,” he writes, “because we hunger and thirst for wisdom.”

According to King Solomon, wisdom cries in the street, imploring the simple to acquire her reproof. If it were only that easy. Wisdom may cry in the street, but it also hides in the nooks and crannies of our psyches, walks on the waters…
Fiction

Oates returns to familiar themes

Review by bookpagedev

Joyce Carol Oates is masterful at depicting ugliness, and the list of what is ugly in her world seems endless: the smell of unwashed flesh with its grease and pimples, overflowing trash, ill-fitting clothes, dying canals gleaming with toxins, the indignity of the female body and its processes. Moreover, there’s the ugliness of her characters’ dark, unspeakable and sometimes murderous impulses. The Bryn Mawr-like campus in her latest novel, though pretty enough to an outsider, partakes of this general ugliness.

As one might guess from the book’s title, the perversity of American race relations is one of the themes of Black Girl/White Girl. It’s the mid-1970s and Genna, a descendent of the school’s founder and the child of burnt-out, ex-hippie parents, has asked to be placed in a suite with an African-American girl. The girl is Minette, whom Genna comes to idolize despite the fact that Minette’s a singularly unpleasant, and in the end, unbalanced, piece of work. She’s sarcastic, bitter, closed off even from the few other black girls in the school, and has a touch of religious fanaticism about her her father is a minister. She’s also intolerably lonely and lost, for even Oates’ monsters have a side to them that calls forth sympathy. But Genna seems to be enchanted by nothing more than the color of Minette’s skin, and her background as a scholarship student. She sees Minette not as a person, but as a symbolic black girl overcoming oppression. This reader figures that if Genna saw Minette for who she really was, she’d have nothing to do with her and ask for a transfer.

Oates has been tackling race relations on and off for decades, which makes her no less brave for doing so again. We enjoy, with a pleasurable, familiar pain, her descriptions of the ugly, the sad, the things that most Americans would rather not look at. Black Girl/White Girl is another success for its author. Arlene McKanic writes from Jamaica, New York.

Joyce Carol Oates is masterful at depicting ugliness, and the list of what is ugly in her world seems endless: the smell of unwashed flesh with its grease and pimples, overflowing trash, ill-fitting clothes, dying canals gleaming with toxins, the indignity of the female body…
Self-HelpFamily & Relationships

The only thing that stays the same

Review by bookpagedev

Popular author Marianne Williamson begins her new book, The Gift of Change, on the seemingly unremarkable premise that life is tough and rapidly getting tougher. In a world where the only constant is change, Williamson advocates the radical concept of embracing change as the only efficacious avenue for spiritual growth. Whether we like it or not, she writes, life today is different. The speed of change is faster than the human psyche seems able to handle. In a time when the “center does not hold,” Williamson insists the most important thing to remember during these times of momentous change is to fix our eyes on the one thing that doesn’t change God. Indeed, while many see this era as the precursor to Armageddon, Williamson believes it is the time of the Great Beginning. “It is time to die to who we used to be and to become instead who we are capable of being,” she writes.

Popular author Marianne Williamson begins her new book, The Gift of Change, on the seemingly unremarkable premise that life is tough and rapidly getting tougher. In a world where the only constant is change, Williamson advocates the radical concept of embracing change as the…
Religion & Spirituality

Water from the well

Review by bookpagedev

Max Lucado may be the most recognizable Christian author on the planet. His 50-plus books have sold more than 39 million copies and have been translated into more than 20 languages. A quick glance at his latest work, Come Thirsty, will reveal the reason for Lucado’s popularity: bite-sized chapters filled with folksy stories that succinctly illustrate his insightful, spiritual points. Comparing spiritual dryness with physical dehydration, Lucado declares soul-thirst resulting in fear, anxiety, hopelessness and resentment to be one of the most common and under-diagnosed ailments in America. The good news, he says, is that there is a well of living water. And Lucado invites, encourages and even commands us to drink our fill. The result of imbibing this spiritual libation is joy, peace and confidence. As an added bonus the book includes a chapter-by-chapter study guide suitable for individual or small group study.

Max Lucado may be the most recognizable Christian author on the planet. His 50-plus books have sold more than 39 million copies and have been translated into more than 20 languages. A quick glance at his latest work, Come Thirsty, will reveal the reason…

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