Edna Bonhomme’s frank, timely A History of the World in Six Plagues reveals how infectious diseases have been leveraged by colonialism and capitalism.

Design, Nonfiction

Defining Style

Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.

History, Nonfiction, Women's History

Nonfiction Women's History History

Expect Great Things!

The inspiring, companionable Expect Great Things! celebrates the legacy of the Katharine Gibbs School for women and its tenacious scholars.

All Nonfiction Coverage

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This poignant memoir from Nafisi, a professor of literature who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, is sure to resonate with readers. A native of Iran, Nafisi left the country to attend university, then returned to become a teacher in Tehran. When she resigned from her school because of its repressive atmosphere, she formed a group with some of her best female students, and they began a secret study of Western literature. The meetings quickly became an outlet for political and personal debate, as the women shared stories of love, marriage and persecution under the Iranian government. Blending their personal anecdotes with wonderful evaluations of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, Jane Austen and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others, Nafisi’s book is a fascinating portrait of the female experience in modern-day Iran and a testament to the redemptive power of literature a luxury most of us take for granted. A reading group guide is included in the book.

Sam Cooke: A change is gonna come

by bookpagedev

Religion & Spirituality

Religion & Spirituality

Inspiration for the season

Review by bookpagedev

by Margaret Feinberg

For many Americans, a renewed interest in prayer, faith and spirituality followed the tragic events of Sept. 11. Bible sales soared and copies of the Koran flew off shelves as the distraught turned to religion for hope and understanding. But people have always looked to spirituality in the search for encouragement, and this season is no different, as great scholars and thinkers continue to question our beliefs and celebrate the hope of faith. Whether you’re searching for a book to help answer your own questions or looking for an appropriate holiday gift, several new religious books offer inspiration and insight.

Where did we come from and where are we going? Almost every religion offers a different answer to these age-old questions. In The Quest for Paradise: Visions of Heaven and Eternity in the World’s Myths and Religions, authors John Ashton and Tom Whyte take readers on a journey that explores heaven and the afterlife from perspectives around the world. Drawing on the ancient cultures of Greece, Rome and Egypt, as well as the belief systems of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus, this book examines the similarities and differences between beliefs in the afterlife. From the Celtic and Greek Paradise to the Garden of Delights, you’ll discover the historical roots of both myths and religions. Profiles of Mechtild of Magdeburg, Alexander the Great, Buraq and Shangri-La are intriguing. While this book is both fascinating and easy to read, its strength lies in its layout and design. Lined with spectacular photos, drawings and artwork, the pages come alive for readers of all ages. Whether you’re a history or religion buff or just want a better understanding of what others believe, The Quest for Paradise is a great find.

The artwork in Thomas Merton’s Dialogues with Silence is equally thought-provoking and sure to engage your heart and mind. Merton, a Trappist monk who resided at the Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, focused his heart on God but kept his eyes open to the political and social storms of the modern world. Though he died in 1968, his books, journals and letters have been an enduring inspiration to spiritual seekers of every faith.

In Dialogues with Silence we get a glimpse of Merton as an artist. The collection of prayers is illustrated with previously unseen drawings that reveal his desire to know God in spite of his own humanity and shortcomings. The primitive but powerful black-and-white artwork includes hand-drawn pictures of monks, Christ, churches and women. Full of petitions, confessions and observations, the writing outlines one man’s attempt to know God. Whether you’re a long-time Merton fan or need an introduction, Dialogues with Silence is a great unveiling. Although he is a fictional character, Father Tim Kavanagh is a well-known religious figure to many readers. The local rector in Jan Karon’s best-selling Mitford series, Father Tim is dedicated not only to knowing God but making Him known to his small flock. He uses countless quotes and stories to share his wisdom and heart with everyone in the close-knit town.

Patches of Godlight: Father Tim’s Favorite Quotes is the journal of the Episcopal priest’s search for material to guide his spiritual journey and that of his congregation. It contains sayings, tidbits and passages from philosophers, humorists and poets, including C. S. Lewis and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Instead of using regular typesetting, this volume appears hand-written complete with loose notes, doodles and even coffee stains. The selections will make you laugh, think and pray. Full of hope and encouragement, this is a great gift book.

Those searching for a more serious read won’t want to miss Jack Miles’ Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God (audio). The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of God: A Biography is back with a new work and focus. The book explores Jesus as a literary character and challenges readers to examine the New Testament as a work of art rather than a work of religion.

This examination of the life of Christ one that began before the creation of the world and stretches to the end of existence is unique. Thoughtful, inquisitive and daring, Miles raises questions and highlights passages with a fresh vigor that challenges the ho-hum of accepted belief. Whether your interest in Christ is historical, scholarly or literary, you won’t be disappointed.

Margaret Feinberg wrote Enjoying God: Experiencing Intimacy with the Heavenly Father (Relevant Books) with S.J. Hill.

Inspiration for the season

by bookpagedev

Essays, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Essays

A doctor without borders

Review by bookpagedev

by Deanna Larson

Many medical school graduates want to establish lucrative private practices, but for Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., the Bronx-born son of an Irish physician, that was never enough. Instead, Cahill became a leading specialist in tropical medicine, treating victims of famine, violence, war and disease for 45 years in some of the most volatile areas of the globe. He has also become a potent force in humanitarian assistance and international relief efforts as lecturer, teacher, activist, diplomat and advocate, becoming involved in a “major move to alter the ways that America delivers health services abroad.” To Bear Witness: A Journey of Healing and Solidarity is an illustrated collection of Cahill’s writings from op-ed pieces and essays to speeches and articles documenting the metamorphosis that occurred in his life as he became “immersed in the tragedies of third world countries.” Tales of Cahill’s humanitarian and medical missions to Lebanon, Somalia, Nicaragua, Libya and Ireland, among other countries, lead to his desire to change the way governments form foreign policies, offering insights often left off the table in political debates, legal arguments and military planning. Cahill speaks movingly about the landmine crisis, “one of the great scourges of history . . . turning vast areas of the earth into wastelands of death, economic ruin and social disintegration.” And as the chief medical advisor for Counterterrorism to the New York City Police Department, he offers another perspective on the losses of 9/11; with millions dead of disease and starvation in Somalia and Sudan, nearly a million hacked to death in Rwanda, along with massive human causalities in Armenia, Srebrenica, Congo and Central America over recent decades, “it is important to keep a balance if we are to live in an international world that also knows the constant fear of death and the reality of tragedy.” A professional from a privileged nation, Cahill’s chosen work has drawn him into a personal relationship with suffering and the inequities experienced by the “downtrodden masses” who survive incredible challenges and have become his “role models in how to live with courage and joy in a harsh but still hopeful world.” Deanna Larson is a writer in Nashville.

Journey to the light

by bookpagedev

Memoir

Memoir

An American in Paris, London, Warsaw . . .

Review by bookpagedev

by MiChelle Jones

In 1946, Paula Fox boarded a converted Liberty Ship and sailed to Europe, following a well-worn trajectory of young Americans seeking to find themselves. This 22-year-old’s journey took on an added layer of meaning, however, as she was heading toward a continent still in ruins after the war. The stories of what she found are told in The Coldest Winter: A Stringer in Liberated Europe, the follow-up to her well-received first memoir, Borrowed Finery.

Fox, a writer with six novels and a Newbery Award-winning children’s book to her credit, maintains a sparse, steady tone throughout The Coldest Winter, whether writing about good times or painful memories. Her short chapters go by like scenery through the window of a moving train as she rapidly recounts experiences in Paris, London, Warsaw distilling each into remarkably acute images.

Before turning to Europe, she writes briefly of her life in New York, alternating between a world-weariness that belies her then-tender years, but not the life chronicled in Borrowed Finery ("For what seemed one hundred years, I paid rent to landlords"), and sheer delight at life in a city where she could happen upon the likes of Paul Robeson and Billie Holiday. As she puts it: "People, some of them now names on headstones, were walking around the city in the days of my youth, and you might run into them in all sorts of places. I met Duke Ellington on a flight of marble steps leading down from an exhibit by the painter Stuart Davis." Her meetings with ordinary people overseas are no less interesting. After listening to a Holocaust survivor during a tram ride through a frigid Prague night, she writes: "I was unable to take in the meaning of his story except suddenly, and then for only a few seconds at a time. When I did, it was as though I grasped broken glass in my hand." Yet, in spite of the devastation, despair and shock she encounters, Fox returns to the U.S. with a new sense of self. She has had the proverbial experience of an American abroad after all.

In 1946, Paula Fox boarded a converted Liberty Ship and sailed to Europe, following a well-worn trajectory of young Americans seeking to find themselves. This 22-year-old's journey took on an added layer of meaning, however, as she was heading toward a continent still in…

Questioning the Bush legacy

by bookpagedev

History

History

The corpse without a country

Review by bookpagedev

by Howard Shirley

In January of 1776, no one knew what the outcome of the American rebellion would be or could be. In the midst of this confusion, Thomas Paine published Common Sense. Arguing that America should not be ruled by kings, but by her people, Paine gave the country a glorious cause and clear purpose. Had he stopped there, he would have earned a secure place at the top of America’s pedestal of heroes. But he didn’t.

In 1794, Paine’s The Age of Reason blasted Christianity, and America blasted Paine. Paine went from hero to pariah at the speed of the printing press. When at last he died, no one would bury him. Even the Quakers refused to accept the apostate’s corpse. Paine had no family to care for his remains, and his country did not care for them either. Finally, a friend interred him in land on Paine’s own farm. But like Marley’s ghost, Paine’s body was doomed to walk the earth. A well-meaning admirer dug up the corpse, planning to build a suitable monument for the prophet of freedom . . . and from there began travels unimaginable. Unimaginable, except to Paul Collins.

Inspired by a letter in a 19th-century English newspaper, Collins set out to track Paine’s corpse, recording both journeys in The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine. The book follows Paine’s body back and forth across the Atlantic, to London and to forgotten bits of English countryside, into the heart of Manhattan and out to rural New York state. Alongside this physical travel, Collins leads the reader through time, wandering with Paine’s remains through the 19th century and even the 20th. It is a tale filled with odd philosophies, arcane beliefs, fervent quackery, honest intentions, elaborate hoaxes and out-and-out fraud.

The book is delightfully constructed and deliciously written. Collins delves into remarkable bits of historical minutiae but that minutiae is always fascinatingly bizarre, wonderfully entertaining, and complementary to Collins’ quirky story. Howard Shirley is a writer in Franklin, Tennessee.

The blues ain’t what they used to be

by bookpagedev

Arts & Culture, Photography

Photography Arts & Culture

The power of pictures: illuminating gift books for photography lovers

Review by bookpagedev

by Linda Stankard

Photography is an amazing thing. It takes a real-time moment and captures it in a two-dimensional image we can look at again and again. It is the chronicle of a split second that contains all the history that went before it and all the history that has come after it. And of course, certain photographic images have the ability to burn into our imaginations, transform our individual and collective psyches and become part of our makeup. Who can forget seeing the Earth photographed for the first time from space, or the image of President Kennedy riding confidently in the open motorcar? Here are four books packed with stunning photographs that will sit handsomely and disarmingly on a coffee table until someone opens them, beholds their pages and unleashes their latent power.

A provocative retrospective of the last half-century, Harry Benson: Fifty Years in Pictures by Harry Benson, gives insight into the renowned photographer’s world. A gutsy, tenacious and award-winning photojournalist, Benson’s career includes numerous covers for magazines such as Life, People and Vanity Fair. Here are portraits of the people who once captured the headlines the Beatles, the presidents, sports figures like Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and a young O.J. Simpson images sure to evoke a mixture of emotions, from joy and angst to nostalgia. One of the more poignant photographs is Benson’s shot of President Nixon giving his farewell speech to his Cabinet and White House staff. The anguished faces of his wife and children as they stand loyally by his side speak as eloquently about that agonizing moment as any prose document could. Benson’s first-hand captions and behind-the-scenes stories add an exciting element to the visual chronicles. If there’s a historian, "culture-as-art" buff or budding photojournalist in your life, Benson’s book would be a wonderful inspiration. Another career spanning 50 years is celebrated in Ansel Adams at 100 by John Szarkowski, which marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of America’s foremost landscape photographers. Szarkowski, director of the Centennial Exhibition of Adams’ work, (which will be on tour through fall 2003) has chosen 114 of the artist’s characteristically striking black and white landscape photographs, in which, as he puts it, "each element is articulated with perfect precision." Ansel Adams is best known for his photos of Yosemite National Park, the California coast and other wilderness areas of the American West and this hefty volume contains many of his signature prints. A master at conveying both the enormous grandeur and the fragile details of a landscape, Adams had a tremendous impact not only on the art world, but on the environmental movement as well. For black and white film aficionados or nature lovers, this book is a treasure, and it even includes a reproduction print, suitable for framing a gift within a gift! Allowing nature to be its own best advocate is also the idea behind Remains of a Rainbow: Rare Plants and Animals of Hawaii by David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton. Liittschwager and Middleton have been photographing endangered animals and plants since 1986, but this volume is the result of a four-year collaborative effort dedicated to the ecosystem of Hawaii. Many of the state’s endangered flora and fauna species are so rare they do not exist anywhere else on earth. The authors have showcased 142 of these singular species in exquisite, individual photos to accentuate the magnificence of each and bring attention to the tragedy of declining biodiversity on the island and in the world at large. What at first seems just a lovely picture book of exotic plants and animals is also an urgent exhortation to save one of the richest natural environments on the planet. This book is a call to action; seeing these photos is sure to evoke a response in even the most unwilling environmentalist.

And for the environmentalist who doesn’t need much prodding, consider a beautiful new version of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, with photographs by Michael Sewell. Leopold’s Almanac is a classic of nature writing that should be on the main shelf of any environmentalist’s library, right next to Thoreau’s Walden and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

First published in 1949, a year after the author’s death, the Almanac takes readers on a seasonal journey as Leopold works to restore the land at his small homestead in Sand County, Wisconsin. In this new edition, Sewell’s photography illustrates the time-honored text with splendid color photographs taken on location at Leopold’s property. This is a great book to read snuggled under a blanket (treat yourself!) or to give to anyone on your list who could use a closer communication with the natural world.

Linda Stankard is a writer in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Reporter’s notebook

by bookpagedev

Trending Nonfiction

Nonfiction Politics Memoir

How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Maria Ressa

By Sarojini Seupersad

Maria Ressa’s book is a political history of the Philippines and an intimate memoir, but it’s also a warning to democracies everywhere: Authoritarianism is a threat to us all.