THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE - James Kouzes and Barry Posner (2007 Revised)

The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner assists people in furthering their abilities to lead others in order to get extraordinary things done.  Every person has the capacity to develop the necessary skills and character qualities to reach a level of measurable leadership effectiveness.  Leadership is defined at the outset as “the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations.”

The central thesis of the book is that leaders are at their best when they participate at a heart level in five key areas.  Each chapter deals with these areas on a philosophical level and proceed to give practical suggestions on how to implement these principles.  Further, embedded in the five fundamental practices of effective leadership are behaviors that serve as the basis for learning to lead.  The authors call these the Ten Commitments.  These five fundamental areas of effective leaders as well as the Ten Commitments are spelled out below.

First, leaders are at their best when they challenge the process.  Kouzes and Posner suggest that effective leaders constantly challenge the status quo.  They are never satisfied and consistently monitor progress; they push for excellence.  Leaders are change agents who do not change merely for the sake of change but for the purpose of propelling the organization into the future.  “So leaders must challenge the process precisely because any system will unconsciously conspire to maintain the status quo and prevent change” write Kouzes and Posner.

Second, leaders are at their best when they inspire a shared vision.  Vision is defined as “an ideal and unique image of the future.”  The two Commitments that help leaders accomplish the above are envisioning an uplifting and ennobling future and enlisting others in a common vision by appealing to their values, interests, hopes and dreams.

The third essential quality of leadership is enabling others to act.  The central idea is to promote cooperative goals, seek integrative solutions and build trusting relationships.  It follows then, that the two Commitments that enhance this quality is fostering collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust. as well as strengthening people by empowering them.

The fourth plank in the book is modeling the way.  DWYSYWD is an essential step in this process: “Do What You Say You Will Do.”  Three ideas saturate this section.  They include, 1) Clarify personal values and beliefs and those of others, 2) Unify constituents around shared values and 3) Pay attention constantly to how self and others are living the values.  The two Commitments that drive this important aspect of the leadership challenge include setting the example by behaving in ways that are consistent with shared values and achieving small wins that promote consistent progress which builds commitment.

Fifth, effective leaders encourage the heart of constituents.  These leaders make a practice of building self-confidence through high expectations, connect performance and rewards and carry a positive attitude through the day.  The last two Commitments that enhance this process include recognizing individual contributions and regularly celebrating team accomplishments.

The final chapter crystallizes the content of the book by reviewing the central propositions and by proposing  practical application.  While the first twelve chapters make for excellent reading, chapter thirteen is worth the price of  the  book.  Kouzes and Posner present a matrix that serve to help leaders grow in their abilities.  The matrix suggests that leaders grow in three significant ways:  First, they grow through  a process of trial and error.  They experience hardships, job experience and job assignments that help them develop as leaders.   Here they learn new skill sets in the school of hard knocks.  Second, they grow educationally.  Effective leaders engage in formal training and education to enhance their leadership abilities.  It is recommended that leaders spend a minimum of fifty hours annually on personal and professional development.  Third, they grow by observation.  They develop key relationships and learn from personal mentors.  They also learn by observing bad examples, i.e. other people in the organization that exhibit poor behavior, a lack of integrity, etc.

The Leadership Challenge is a tremendous book.  Every pastor pursuing  kingdom purposes should read this book.  While the material is written from a secular perspective, many of the principles are transferable to the local church context.  The book is highly readable, practical and encouraging.  The broad research base that is utilized in the book add to its credibility.

I plan on visiting The Leadership Challenge again and again.  I anticipate utilizing the principles in ministry and sharing them with other leaders and pastors.  My ministry will only be stronger by studying this book!

4.5 stars

[Via http://baldreformer.wordpress.com]

Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

“ They promised me nine years of safety but only gave me three. Today my time has run out.”

For the past three years Meredith’s father has been locked up in prison for molesting her and many other children.  She thought she was safe, that she could move on with her life, but her father is coming home early. Her mother, who should have been on her side, is ecstatic to have her husband home, ignoring Meredith’s pleas.  Meredith knows he hasn’t changed and it’s only a matter time before her or someone else becomes his victim. She will do whatever it takes to get him locked up for good, even if that means sacrificing herself.

 Laura Wiess is brilliant at writing incredibly difficult and honest stuff. She doesn’t sugar coat or try too hard to make a point. What she produces is heartbreakingly raw. This is a very quick read, if you can suffer through the brokenness and destruction until the end. Meredith is a wonderfully dynamic character in that she is both paralyzed with her suffering and incredibly strong. She is so compelling, and her struggle so horrible that it’s hard to disconnect. Wiess does a great job of using flashback to give the reader a real sense of the abuse without becoming too graphic. In doing so I think she highlights that the story is about Meredith and her growth and strength, and not just the abuse. Overall, I thought the story was flawless.

 You might enjoy Such a Pretty Girl if you like books with: difficult and emotionally provocative topics, a real focus on a main character’s experience instead of a fast paced plot, a mature writing style

Other books by Laura Wiess: Leftovers  and How it Ends

 If you liked Such a Pretty Girl you might also enjoy:  Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, Leftovers by Laura Wiess, Chanda’s Wars by Allan Statton,

Additional Info: was awarded 2008 ALA Best Books for Young Adults award

Author website found here.

Here is a link to sexual assault centres in Southwestern Ontario. Please find one in your area if you need assistence.

Rating: W4/4   C4/4   P4/4   O4/4   PP2/4   CR3/4

Grade:  S

Covers:

[Via http://creatingdiscussion.wordpress.com]

Sources of misogyny in Islam: not from the Prophet at all

Sources of misogyny in Islam: not from the Prophet at all; (Mar 22, 2010)

            Many misogynic “disciples” to the Prophet Muhammad tried to calumny women in order to discard them from political and social leadership.  In a previous article we took care of the Hadith (a saying of the Prophet not included in the Koran) “No society will witness prosperity if commanded by a woman”.  This Hadith was annunciated by Abu Bakra after the battle of “The camel” that was mainly lead by Aicha (The youngest and most beloved wife of Muhammad).  This battle represents the first instance of “civil war” among the Moslems, 25 years after the death of the Prophet in 633. It is interesting to state that Abu Bakra was sentenced to be whipped by the second caliph Omar bin Khattab for calumny that could have resulted in the lynching of an innocent man.

            Another “disciple”, Abu Huraira, contributed to countless misogyny Hadith; he was a slave before submitting to Allah and just followed the Prophet and aided in cleaning the residences of Muhammad’s nine wives. The prophet’s nickname of Abu Huraira was because this new convert walked with his favorite female kitten. It is interesting to mention that the second Caliph Omar threatened Abu Huraira to be exiled back to Yemen if he resumed cranking Hadith so mindlessly.  Aicha discredited many of Abu Huraira Hadith and mocked him grandly, an attitude that exacerbated Abu Huraira’s misogyny.

            Abu Huraira claimed hearing the Prophet saying “Dog, donkey, and women disturb prayer when they cross the praying visual field.”  Aicha said: “What, Abu Huraira considers women in the same category of dogs and donkeys? I used to be lying down in front of the Prophet when he said his prayers.  I didn’t move in order not to disturb his concentration while praying”

            Abu Huraira also claimed that the Prophet said “Three things bring bad luck: the house, the wife, and the horse.” Aicha mocked Abu Huraira grandly and replied: “He has the tendency not to learn his lessons. Abu Huraitra entered as the Prophet was uttering the end part of his long sentence. The prophet was saying “May Allah fights the Jews: They claim that three things bring bad luck (the house, the wife, and the horse).”  Muhammad was fighting the Jewish tribes in Medina because they were complotting with the tribes of Mecca to discredit his message since Muhammad was winning more converts “at the expense of the Jewish prophets which were considered the sole properties of the Jewish sect”.  The Prophet could no longer comprehend the basic misogyny traditions of the Jewish sects in Medina; these Jewish teachings and attitudes toward women were giving arguments to the misogynic Moslems in Medina who were not ready to abide by the new laws that reformed drastically pre-Islamic customs and traditions.  

            Abu Huraira cranked many Hadith related to what women in periods of menstruation should not do; for example, women should not fast the day they forget to wash their genitalia before morning prayers and things like that. One of the wives of the prophet Umm Maimouna had this to say: “Occasionally, the prophet recited his prayers his head on the knees of one of his wives who was in menstruation. We would spread the Praying Nat in the mosque for the Prophet while we had our periods. The prophet used to do his morning prayers before washing off after a night of intercourse.”

            Indeed, for the first six years in Medina there were no dividing lines between the public and the private.  The door of Aicha’s apartment opened to the mosque; Aicha used to wash Muhammad’s hair at the door while the prophet was in the mosque. The Moslems used to enter the Prophets residences without invitations and behaved as if they were close relatives and “faite comme chez vous” in the presence of his wives. Finally, Muhammad had to put a stop to these inconsiderate behaviors and commanded that no one is to enter without invitations and instituted the dividing curtain; the curtain was to separate between men and him when in his residence. After the Prophet death, the misogynic Moslems developed the custom of Muhammad’s wives wearing veils when stepping outside their residences and this tradition was extended to all women gradually.

            Another misogynic “disciple” is Ibn Omar (the son of the second caliph Omar) who was a recluse and ascetics; thus, most of his Hadith were retained as valid since he was the son of a caliph. For example, Ibn Omar said: “Women were to let down their hair before passing their wet hands over before purification.” Aicha corrected Ibn Omar saying: “How strange! Ibn Omar might as well order women to shave their head.  I used to pass 3 times my wet hands over my unloosened hair before praying with the Prophet. I even used to wash with the Prophet in the same bucket.”

            This same Ibn Omar said: “The Prophet said: I had a look into paradise and the majority was of the poor communities. I had a look into hell and it was mostly crowded with women.”  There were so many misogyny pronouncements after the Prophet’s death that Moslems paid visits to Muhammad’s spouses for verifications and clarifications.

            The Prophet knew that Moslems would visit his wives for questions that they would not dare ask him directly; Muhammad thus mostly behaved contrary to Jewish daily rituals and customs related to women so that Moslems would learn his behaviors and refrain from misogynic attitudes. Politics of interests closed the doors on women after the Prophet’s death, shamelessly and openly.

Note: This article is extracted from Fatima Mirnissi’s “The politics of Harem”

[Via http://adonis49.wordpress.com]

The Whole Day Through by Patrick Gale

“When forty-something Laura Lewis is obliged to abandon a life of stylish independence in Paris to care for her elderly mother in Winchester, it seems all romantic opportunities have gone up in smoke. Then she runs into Ben, the great love of her student days – and, as she only now dares admit, the emotional touchstone against which she has judged every man since. She’s cautious – and he’s married – but they can’t deny that feelings still exist between them. Are they brave enough to take the second chance at the lasting happiness that fate has offered them? Or will they be defeated by the need to do what seems to be the right thing? Taking its structure from the events of a single summer’s day, The Whole Day Through is a bittersweet love story, shot through with an understanding of mortality, memory and the difficulty of being good. In it, Patrick Gale writes with scrupulous candour about the tests of love: the regrets and the triumphs, and the melancholy of failing.”

The first thing that came to mind when I began this novel was the written style and my initial dislike of it. My dislike of the written style made it a challenging novel to get absorbed into. However, after half an hour’s reading, the style seemed to become less important as I got to understand the characters and their backgrounds.
It was the character development in the novel that made it such a strong read for me. The way the author introduces you to both characters separately before the story bought them together, set the plot up well for the continuation of the novel and gave the reader a useful insight into each character’s personal life and family background. The made it easier to relate to both characters, which I think is possible for most readers, and therefore easier for the readers to feel the intended emotions later on.

Overall, not an incredible read, but one that is still worthwhile.

[Via http://voguedotcom.wordpress.com]

The Island of Lost Maps is the story of a curious crime spree: the theft of scores of valuable centuries-old maps from some of the most prominent research libraries in the United States and Canada.

The island of lost maps : a true story of cartographic crime    New York : Random House, c 2000  Miles Harvey Map thefts United States History 20th century, Bland, Gilbert Lee Joseph, Libraries United States Special collections Maps History Hardcover. 1st ed., later printing. xxiii, 405 p. : ill., maps ; 19 cm.  Includes bibliographical references (p. [355]-394) and index.  Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust jacket. No highlighting, underlining or marginalia in text.   VG/VG

The Island of Lost Maps is the story of a curious crime spree: the theft of scores of valuable centuries-old maps from some of the most prominent research libraries in the United States and Canada. The perpetrator was the Al Capone of cartography, a man with the unlikely name of Gilbert Bland, Jr., an enigmatic antiques dealer from south Florida whose cross-country slash-and-dash operation went virtually undetected until he was caught in December 1995.

This is also the spellbinding story of author Miles Harvey’s quest to understand America’s greatest map thief, a chameleon who changed careers and families without ever looking back. Gilbert Bland was a cipher, a blank slate–for Harvey, journalistic terra incognita. Filling in Bland’s life was like filling in a map, and grew from an investigation into an intellectual adventure.

Harvey listens to the fury of the librarians from whom Bland stole. He introduces us to America’s foremost map mogul, a millionaire maverick who predicted the boom in map collecting. He retraces Bland’s life, from his run-ins with the law to his troubled service in Vietnam. And finally, with the aid of an FBI agent, Harvey discovers the Island of Lost Maps. The deeper Miles Harvey investigates, the more we are drawn into this fascinating subculture of collectors, experts, and enthusiasts, all of them gripped by an obsession both surreal and sublime. Capturing that passion in perfect pitch, The Island of Lost Maps is an intriguing story of exploration, craftsmanship, villainy, and the lure of the unknown.

[Via http://oldsaltbooks.wordpress.com]

Fields-Black on <i>Deep Roots</i> of Rice Cultivation in West Africa and the Diaspora

Fields-Black, Edda L. Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora. Indiana University Press, 2008.

Gilbert, Erik.  “Coastal Rice Farming Systems in Guinea and Sierra Leone, Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora. By Edda L. Fields-Black.”  The Journal of African History 50, no. 03 (2009): 437-438.

From the review by Erik Gilbert:

“The role of African technologies and agricultural knowledge in the development of rice farming in the Americas has drawn considerable scholarly attention in the last decade. That Africans might have contributed not just their labor to the tidal rice-farming systems of the South Carolina Low Country but also essential knowledge of the techniques needed to grow rice in that challenging environment is highly appealing. It gives agency to enslaved Africans and recognizes the sophistication of West African riziculture. The most recent expression of this idea has been Judith Carney’s Black Rice.1 Carney’s work has been challenged by David Eltis, Philip Morgan, and David Richardson, who have argued that the number of slaves coming to South Carolina from rice-growing areas of Africa is too small to explain the development of American rice farming.2

Edda Fields-Black’s new book contributes to this debate primarily by adding to our knowledge of the coastal rice-farming systems of Guinea and Sierra Leone, where rice-farming techniques most closely resemble the tidal irrigation systems of the South Carolina Low Country. In this part of Sierra Leone, farmers clear mangrove swamps and, through careful control of the movement of fresh water through the fields, drain and desalinate the soil. This is a process that can take years and that can be reversed almost instantly if embankments built to keep salt water out are breached. Managing the water supply to these fields requires careful harnessing of tides in the river estuaries so that salt water is kept out but fresh water is allowed in. Early observers of this system assumed that the stateless societies of the coast were unlikely to have created so complex a technology and that it must have been introduced either by Europeans or by Africans from the states of the interior….”

Read the rest at Cambridge Journals ($$)

[Via http://africandiasporastudent.wordpress.com]

There's Nothing Like a New Book

My eyes feast on the cover, the title, the design. My hands become claws around the rectangle and I bring the wad of meticulously cut paper to my nose. I inhale and breathe in that virgin emanation of a brand new book, almost utterly untouched from the printer to my wrists. Graceful and fluid I carefully open the protective jacket and begin to fan the pages close to my face, still high from the inhale of the newness. I feel my heartbeat pick up. In just a few short moments I will be curled up on my couch and whisked away to another’s reality, entering back into my own only when I deem necessary.
I carefully choose a bookmark to hold my place in a wonderland so close to my grasp yet I know it only exists in my mind. The alluring pull of a surrealism mystified by the know of my conscience. I know I will enjoy it for I picked an author to guide me that I’ve visited with before, almost as mad as the Hatter himself.
I sink into my spot on the couch and begin. My eyes follow the depicted imagery like a hawk following their prey, waiting for the moment I can touch my pencil to the spot and parenthesize the ink that forms the words I so dearly feel. I mark up my books voraciously as to not forget words that tickle my tongue or swing my pendulum of linguistics. I adore authors who play with their words, slithering around the oblivious to hide the obvious.
The sheer joy of becoming enraptured in another’s mind is the pull to books for me. A brand new book excites my psyche and the Literature lover inside me takes over. I can’t control her, trust me I’ve tried. The words library or bookstore stirs euphoria in me that lie dormant at times.
But a brand new book brushes the cowlick on my sensations flat again, and I am once again myself, a reader of great literature and astounding authors. For now I must get lost in a new book that I received yesterday, it has been calling my name for almost twenty-four hours, and I must obey.
Describe your love of books and/or authors. I adore hearing from my readers.

[Via http://daniellefreelances.wordpress.com]

New blog features: Mailbox Monday and blogger hopping

 

 

Now that everything seems to be up and running on here and the blog is doing well, I’ve decided to incorporate a few daily traditions on here. They’re certainly nothing serious nor are they set in stone, most likely life will get in the waand they may be delayed a few days but the proposed ideas are as follows-

Mailbox Monday which was created by ‘The Printed Page’. If you wish to join in you can do so at http://printedpage.us/category/mailbox-monday/ Mailbox Monday is an alliterative day in which readers share with others what has arrived in the house in the past week- this can be library books, book to be reviewed or books bought. We share the most exciting ones and give a quick review of them. I think it will be great fun and lead to us all buying far too many books.

Tuesday’s Choosings will look at ‘Five of the best… ‘with a different theme each week. This coming week I shall be looking at Five of the best fairy tale anthologies (I’m just so predictable).

The Wednesday of Whimsy is exactly what it sounds like, the day in which I review a book which doesn’t really have a category. A purely fun, whimsical, absurd crazy book which deserves the honour of being reviewed purely for its imaginative scope. This review will start today so keep your eyes peeled, I’ve got a great one to start with.

The Book Blogger Hop founded by the lovely Jennifer over at Crazy For Books http://www.crazy-for-books.com/ It is a weekly event starting every Friday where you sign yourself up via her blog as a way of promotion your book blog and finding new ones. It gives great support and new opportunities to fellow bloggers.

Hope you like the sound of these new features.

[Via http://5minutespeace.wordpress.com]

Do You Know Where To Start????

You want to do hard things.
But you don’t know where to start.
 
You are changing the world around you.
But you are tired and burned out.
 
You feel called to do the extraordinary for God.
But you feel stuck in the ordinary.
 
Do Hard Things inspired thousands of young people around the world to make the most of the teen years. Now Alex and Brett Harris are back and ready to tackle the questions that Do Hard Things inspired: How do I get started? What do I do when I get discouraged? What’s the best way to inspire others? Filled with stories and insights from Alex, Brett, and other real-life rebelutionaries, Start Here is a powerful and practical guide to doing hard things, right where you are.
 
Are you ready to take the next step and blast past mediocrity for the glory of God?
 
START HERE.

This book was provided by Multnomah Press for review and can be purchased at: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com    and many other Christian Retailers.

[Via http://word4women.wordpress.com]

Book Review: Beyond Black, by Hilary Mantel

Darkness and light mingle in this equally chilling and hilarious novel

It’s a fact universally acknowledged that people called Hilary must be the best at everything. Especially if it’s spelled with one ‘L’. And true to form, Ms Mantel won the Booker Prize in October 2009 with Wolf Hall, a book I really want to read but it’s about the size of a large-print hardbacked Bible and costs a massive £20 in Waterstones. So I’m going to review Beyond Black instead which I found in a charity shop for £1.50. High five!

Primarily a ghost story, Hilary Mantel’s novel is also a book about women. The story revolves around women’s lives, the trials, tribulations, loss, indignities and marginalisation that lead them to seek answers in psychic fairs and tarot cards, and in the attentions of Alison, a psychic who passes on otherworldly messages to the hordes who come to see her in dingy pubs and community halls just off the M25.

She’s not a fake, crook or charlatan, but nevertheless she elides and obscures the truth because the true nature of the afterlife isn’t the happy, peaceful realm that people imagine. Yes, there are harmless old lady ghosts obsessed with missing buttons, and confused queues of spectral, doddery relatives. But there are also the fiends.

Her spirit guide is one of them, a lowly, grotesque and unhygienic spook named Morris who plagues Alison’s every moment. Her live-in ‘human’ guide isn’t much better, a ruthlessly efficient woman named Collete who is two-thirds bully, one-third matter-of-fact divorcee forging a new life as Alison’s live-in manager (“I’m not a lesbian”, she frequently asserts to Gavin, her ex).

Together they roam the South of England, which in Mantel’s novel is a wasteland: a withered landscape of oozing, polluted substances and toxic dumps, of traffic and service stations, truck stops and burger vans. A perfect home for the fiends, the ghosts of the evil men who took her childhood and haunt her now, wriggling out of the woodwork like the mutated white worms infesting her neighbour’s garden.

Aitkenside, Pikey Pete, Keith Capstick and the shadowy, dreaded Nick: dog fighters, abusers, criminals and murderers in life morphed into ungainly demons in death, almost cartoonish in their lowbrow wickedness- more horror-show gargoyle than otherworldly spook. They seem almost amusing at times, but the humour of their unghostly earthiness and appetites gradually pales as Al gradually remembers the details of her past.

Bleak? Yes, but Mantel lightens the mood by dwelling on the mundane details of life, of trips to buy sheds, the psychic fairs, hen parties and Al’s bland neighbours and their squalling children. And mirroring this is the blandness of death: the old lady looking for her friend- even the fiends’ desire for pies and racing. She layers light, deft touches of humour on even the harshest of Al’s recollections until the overall effect is one of deep and resonant contemplation. Beyond Black, indeed.

[Via http://ladyribenaberet.wordpress.com]

Theology and Culture

Theology and Culture: A Guide to the Discussion, D. Stephen Long (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2008). 114pp. 

 As the pastor of two local churches, I am constantly told that our church must be culturally relevant if weare to reach more people. Every week I get junk mail offering the latest workshop on connecting with ‘Gen-X’ or planting a church in a coffee house. It would appear that if the Gospel is to be proclaimed we must be tuned in to the latest cultural trend. But why all the push to be culturally relevant? Or perhaps a better question: what kind of assumptions are at work when we seek to relate the Christian faith and culture? And for that matter, why is that we invoke the word culture anyway? Isn’t theology complicated enough without tying it to the language of culture?

In this short work, Steve Long offers us a guide to understanding these questions and many more. Long is careful to name that the book is indeed a guide, seeking not so much to offer definitive answers as to lead us through the complexities of our modern preoccupation with culture. This preoccupation brings with it both promise and peril, which Long explores in the first lesson. The next several lessons work toward defining culture, its many uses in various disciplines, as well as its relationship to both nature and language. These are dense chapters as the material is complicated and doesn’t lend itself well to one or two page descriptions. Here we are forced to remember that Long offers not an in-depth explanation but rather ”A Guide to the Discussion’.

 The second half of the book begins to focus in on specific theologians and their engagement with culture. Long leads the reader through a who’s who list including: Ernest Troeltsch, H. Richard Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, George Lindbeck, James McClendon, Katherine Tanner, Sara Coakley, and John Milbank among others. As the as the list indicates, this is certainly terrain that calls for a skilled guide. It is this second half of the book that really shines as Long helps the reader to see the development of ourpreoccupation with culture, as well as six contemporary approaches to engaging theology and culture.

 In the end, Long’s guide shows that the relationship between theology and culture is a question of Christology. Every question of the relationship between theology and culture is a question of how we will relate Christ’s two natures: the human and the Divine. Following the example of the Christological definition set forth at Chalcedon, ultimately, these are questions which call for engagement and discernment, not airtight explanations. Steve Long’s ”Theology and Culture” is an essential guide to this discernment process.

[Via http://pastorjakewilson.wordpress.com]

Language, Reality and the Brain

Language and the Brain

The Language Problem

So, here I am again, after two years, wrestling with the language problem. The last time was when I was preparing a talk for a Bahá’í Conference on the etiquette of expression.

Then, as now, the words of Robert Graves came to mind. For a poet he was surprisingly suspicious of language:

There’s a cool web of language winds us in,
Retreat from too much joy or too much fear:
We grow sea green at last and coldly die
In brininess and volubility.

But concluded that we couldn’t stay sane without it:

But if we let our tongues lose self-possession,
Throwing off language and its watery clasp
. . . . .
We shall go mad no doubt and die that way.

I looked at a system of psychotherapy (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: ACT), which draws on many traditions of psychology philosophy and spirituality, shares this same suspicion about language and seeks to undermine our simple confidence in it in various ways. For instance they point out that it can lead to such circular and irresolvable torments as:

This statement is false.

You have only to ponder that for a few seconds to realise there is no way out!

I found similar reservations in the Bahá’í Writings.

People for the most part delight in superstitions. They regard a single drop of the sea of delusion as preferable to an ocean of certitude. By holding fast unto names they deprive themselves of the inner reality and by clinging to vain imaginings they are kept back from the Dayspring of heavenly signs.

(Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Haifa 1978: page 58)

Language is cast here in terms that summon up the idea of ‘veils’ as used in the sense of things that come between us and the truth.

Let not names shut you out as by a veil from Him Who is their Lord, even the name of Prophet, for such a name is but a creation of His utterance.

(Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: page 176)

Obviously names are not all there is to language. ACT uses language to cover all symbolic activity. They feel we are all too prone to mistake a metaphor, which is only a map after all, for the territory itself.

The way we get seduced by the deceptive certainty of our maps is an aspect of those problems in the political arena that I looked at in previous posts (one on party politics and the other on complexity and climate change). I hadn’t realised how deep the problem lies until a week ago when I began to read a certain book.

Its Roots in the Brain

The book was published late last year. It looks at this problem from another angle again and makes an impressive contribution to the debate. It is The Master and his Emissary by Ian McGilchrist. I am only just about a quarter of the way through but am already mightily impressed.

At this point I’ll give only a couple of examples to illustrate why. I’m sure I won’t be able to resist revisiting this book in later posts rather in the same way as I kept going back to The Evolution of God of Is God a Delusion?

In the second chapter of McGilchrist’s book there is a section on Certainty.

Before plunging in to the specifics here perhaps I need to explain that his book is about the way that the two hemispheres of the brain operate. His thesis is not the simplistic left-brain equals language and sequential processes and is the foundation of all our achievements in science while the right-brain deals with holistic arty stuff of little real value. He is not happy with the way our science-based civilisation deifies the left-brain mode but neither is he going to sign up to the opposite camp that wants to glorifies the stereotype of the right hemisphere as the intuitive and organic guru, the one to follow. He is keen not to quarantine the left-hemisphere in the Hades occupied by tyrants when they’re overthrown.

He digs much deeper. He accepts that there is something contradictory about the way the two hemispheres of the brain work. He argues that the price of the relative suppression of the right in favour of the left has not been properly understood because we have disparaged the necessary and considerable abilities of the right hemisphere. However, we should be seeking to re-establish the right balance between them not reinforcing some kind of competition. If either hemisphere wins the race outright it will be no better than if we hopped around for the rest of our lives using only one leg.

So, back to his thought about certainty.

The left hemisphere likes things that are man-made. Things we make are also more certain . . . . They are not, like living things, constantly changing and moving, beyond our grasp.

(page 79)

Language, he argues, is a tool of the left-hemisphere in its battle to control and manipulate reality. It tends to relate to the world of the living as though it was all a machine of some kind that can be captured by analysis. Language provides its main map of reality, a representation, which the left-hemisphere in its hubris insists is all there is to know.

The Hemispheres

Because the right hemisphere sees things as they are . . . . it cannot have the certainty of knowledge that comes from being able to fix things and isolate them. In order to remain true to what is, it does not form abstractions, and categories that are based on abstraction, which are the strengths of denotative language. By contrast, the right hemisphere’s interest in language lies in all the things that help to take it beyond the limiting effects of denotation to connotation: it acknowledges the importance of ambiguity. It therefore is virtually silent, relatively shifting and uncertain, where the left hemisphere, by contrast, may be unreasonably, even stubbornly, convinced of its own correctness. As John Cutting puts it, despite ‘an astonishing degree of ignorance on the part of the left (supposed major) hemisphere about what its partner, the right (supposed minor) hemisphere, [is] up to, [it] abrogates decision-making to itself in the absence of any rational evidence as to what is going on.’

(page 80)

He goes onto summarise this:

So the left hemisphere needs certainty and needs to be right. The right hemisphere makes it possible to hold several ambiguous possibilities in suspension together without premature closure on the outcome. . . .The right hemisphere is able to maintain ambiguous mental representations in the face of the tendency to premature over-interpretation by the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere’s tolerance of uncertainty is implied everywhere in its subtle ability to use metaphor, irony, humour, all of which depend upon not prematurely resolving ambiguities.

(page 82)

All of this is grounded in a mass of evidence that there is not the space to include here.

He then moves onto an equally fascinating topic: morality.

He sees the left hemisphere as fixated on utility. If something isn’t useful in some obvious practical sense it’s a waste of time.

Moral values are not something that we work out rationally on the principle of utility, or any other principle for that matter, but are irreducible aspects of the phenomenal world, like colour. . . . . [M]oral value is a form of experience irreducible to any other kind, or accountable for on any other terms; and I believe this perception underlies Kant’s derivation of God from the existence of moral values, rather than moral values from the existence of God. Such values are linked to the capacity for empathy, not reasoning; and moral judgements are not deliberative but unconscious and intuitive, deeply bound up with out emotional sensitivity to others.

(page 86)

He points out the organic basis for this and I feel I need to quote it this time:

The Brain

Moral judgement involves a complex right-hemisphere network, particularly the right ventromedial and orbitofrontal cortex, as well as the amygdala in both hemispheres. Damage to the right prefrontal cortex may lead to frank psychopathic behaviour.

(Ibid)

The amygdala can perhaps be called the emotional centre of the brain and is relatively old in evolutionary terms. The others are all part of the higher brain centres in the right hemisphere which came along later.

Given how central the idea of justice is in Bahá’í thinking, it is also intriguing to find it has has its own seat in the brain:

Our sense of justice is underwritten by the right hemisphere, particularly by the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. . . . . The right frontal lobe’s capacity to inhibit our natural impulse to selfishness means that it is also the area on which we most rely for self-control and the power to resist temptation.

(page 86)

There is also (page 92) apparently ‘a slow accumulation of evidence  in favour of religious experience being more closely linked with the “non-dominant” hemisphere.’

Conclusion So Far

I am now poised at the beginning of my exploration of his unpacking further implications of all this. I have just got past the bit that says:

I believe the essential difference between the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere is that the right hemisphere pays attention to the Other, whatever it is that exists apart from ourselves, with which it sees itself as in profound relation. . . . By contrast, the left hemisphere pays attention to the virtual world that it has created, which is self-consistent, but self-contained, ultimately disconnected from the Other, making it powerful, but ultimately only able to operate on, and to know, itself.

(page 93)

If these ideas have grabbed your imagination as much as they have grabbed mine, may be you won’t be able to wait for the drip-feed of bits and pieces that will come via this blog over the next few weeks. Perhaps you will prefer to go out and buy the book for yourself. I think it would be well-worth it.

[Via http://phulme.wordpress.com]

Tales of a Female Nomad

So I just finished the book Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman. It was a very interesting book. Its about how Rita getting into a Nomad lifestyle in her late 40s after living in LA and getting a divorced. Then it goes into the place, people, and her experiences for the next 15 years around the world. Mexico, Indonesia, New Zealand are the major stops along the way. It was a fun book to read and see how a single women in her 50s traveled and trusted people to help her around.

I just hope some day I can do some of the traveling she did. I don’t know if I could ever really do the whole nomad thing, I would get to homesick. I need a place to call home but then again my mind might change. Asked me 4 years ago if I would live in Bulgaria and have not been home or to American in going to be over 30 months I would of told you where crazy. But for now I know I need to go “home” and the problem is money. Today people are doing the Nomad lifestyle thanks to money back home or interest business that they can take with them on the road. But I don’t have either. Its hard you miss a lot at home I would think. So maybe when I’m in my 60s I will keep this in mind, in fact I know I will have the travel culture bug, because I now have it and its something that will never go away.

[Via http://andreaekruse.wordpress.com]

Sister Carrie in Chicago and New York

‘Sister Carrie’ by Theodore Drieser (1900)

‘Sister Carrie’ is about an eighteen year old young woman who leaves her family and small town in Wisconsin to go to the booming city of Chicago in the 1890s. Her family is so poor that they can’t give her any money beyond the train ticket, but she does have a married sister who lives in Chicago with whom she moves in. Her married sister and husband are also extremely poor, so Carrie must get a job. She gets a job with one of the magnificent new department stores in Chicago at the time, but they pay her so little she can’t buy anything in the store. All Carrie’s experience at the luxurious department store does is make Carrie want more out of her poverty-stricken life. Her sister’s husband expects Carrie to give most of her meager income to him and his wife. She escapes from her sister’s family by moving in with a pleasant young man she had met on the train to Chicago named Drouet. Later she meets a married man named Hurstwood who has a devastating impact on her life.

Theodore Drieser wrote ‘Sister Carrie’ in 1900, but it was withheld from publication until 1912 because of its ‘sordid’ subject matter. It wasn’t published in its original form the way Drieser actually wrote it until 1981. Here is our heroine, Carrie, living with a man without the benefit of marriage. I had read ‘Sister Carrie’ a long time ago before I discovered what a compelling writer Theodore Drieser is. Since then I’ve come to treasure Theodore Drieser’s novels and short stories. Thus when I had a chance to listen to the audiodisk of ‘Sister Carrie’, I went for it. This novel turned out to be perfect for listening on audiodisk, because Drieser tells his story in direct straightforward prose, and there was no chance of getting lost between listenings. It held my attention throughout.

Theodore Drieser’s background was as a journalist, and one facet of ‘Sister Carrie’ I liked was the attention to details about both the rich side of life with its department stores, horse races, and theatrical performances and the poor side of life with its hunger, grinding poverty, and violent labor strife. Theodore Drieser started the school of naturalism in United States fiction, which can be described as telling things the way they really are rather than the way they could be or should be.

I can’t imagine two writers more different from each other than Theodore Drieser and Henry James. Henry James is exquisite, and Theodore Drieser is a barbarian. So far, I’m still very much in the Drieser camp rather than the Henry James camp when it comes to early 1900s writers. Of course, both Willa Cather and Edith Wharton may be better writers than these two gentlemen. Opinions on Drieser range from “among the American giants, one of the very few American giants we have had” (Irving Howe) to “If  he’s the great American novelist, give me the Marx Brothers every time” (Rupert Hart-Davis).

If you want an easy way to appreciate Theodore Drieser, watch the 1951 film, ‘A Place in the Sun’, starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters. This movie is based on another excellent Drieser novel, ‘An American Tragedy’. This movie is one of my favorite movies of all time.

[Via http://anokatony.wordpress.com]

A New Kind of Whole Foods, by Brian McLaren, via Jim Hamilton

Jim Hamilton has written a very interesting parable that you must read. What would it look like if Brian McLaren were advocating for a new kind of Whole Foods Store (instead of a New Kind of Christianity)?

Here’s a snip:

Brian McLaren decided to open his own Whole Foods store. He started small, and the business grew. After a struggle through the early years, he had his own storefront with the sign in the parking lot and everything: Whole Foods.

More and more, though, people complained about the high prices, and they were a little disappointed that while the food was supposed to be healthy, it just didn’t taste as good as what they were used to eating. McLaren wrestled with the problems of price, access, taste, and image, and after much turmoil he began to move toward a solution that he was sure would address the issues.

The change didn’t happen all at once, and McLaren didn’t announce what he had decided to do. In fact, there are some indications that this was, we might say, an organic development, a slow transformation. Once it had happened, though, the results are clear for all to see.

Though the sign out front still says Whole Foods, things are very different within. Instead of all that expensive, healthy, tasteless food, inside you can buy what looks and tastes just like fast food burgers and fries. In fact, Brian’s stuff is just like McDonald’s! And now the shelves of the store are stocked with things that people really want to eat, things that people can afford, things that are easier for McLaren to acquire and market, and things that taste just like what we used to eat when we didn’t bother about health food at all. Perfect! Affordable prices and food that tastes great—healthy to boot.

Brian even lets people smoke in his Whole Foods store. Here is a new kind of Whole Foods store we can love. Can you imagine? Here is a place where you can smoke and not feel guilty about needing a nicotine fix, a place you don’t have to worry about having an expensive, destructive addiction.

Brian understands and teaches that people are born with a proclivity to addiction. Some people are hard wired to love cigarettes, and those people who are against smoking just weren’t born with the same kinds of inclinations.

Trust me, it just gets better. Read the whole thing here. Also, be sure to check out the panel discussion on McLaren’s new book at SBTS on Thursday involving Drs. Mohler, Ware, Wellum, Wills and Hamilton.

[Via http://mercyswimming.wordpress.com]

Most magical liquid glass

Most magical liquid glass; (Mar. 10, 2010)

            A manufacturer in Germany has discovered a great application for nano-technologies. Particles of dioxide of Silicon (sand of fine quartz) are mixed with just water or alcohol; the mixture produces a fine layer of liquid glass no thicker than 500 times less the thickness of a hair.  No resin or other toxic substances are combined; water or alcohol evaporates and the liquid glass layer protect against water, bacteria, dirt, heat, and moister. Nothing can get attached to what the liquid glass covers.

            Thus, if the mixture is sprayed or painted over cloths then you could dive in arctic water or walk in arid desert climate and reach destination feeling comfortable. This liquid was sprayed on buildings such as the mausoleum of Ataturk in Turkey.  The edifices will need no further cleaning for decades.

            The liquid glass can be added on hospital equipments, kitchen utensils, or anything so that bacteria are out the window.  Everything slides easily on this ultra thin mixture. I am not sure if army uniforms that are sprayed with this mixture can protect against phosphorous bombs or orange gas.  I would not rule out if this magic liquid glass is categorized as security and military material sooner than later!

[Via http://adonis49.wordpress.com]

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (via WVFC)

Another one to add to my to-read pile.

Chris Lombardi wrote about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for WVFC.

The book, written by Rebecca Skloot

began to trace the story of a young mother of five who came to a clinic at Johns Hopkins, in 1951 “the only hospital in Baltimore that would see black patients,” after discovering a lump on her cervix.

Back then, “informed consent” laws didn’t exist, she added. The only consent needed was the patient’s signature on a form granting Johns Hopkins permission “to perform any operative procedures that they may deem necessary in the surgical treatment of Henrietta Lacks.”

It was immediately clear that Lacks had a full-blown tumor. She was given the prescribed treatment of the time, a course of radiation. But her diagnostic lab sample soon took on a life of its own.

That specimen, Skloot explained, was sent somewhere having nothing to do with treatment: to cell biologist George Gey, inventor of the “roller drum” used in labs worldwide, who was in the process of gathering all the cervical-cancer cells he could find.

“Gey thought he could isolate cells that had characteristics that were only cancer,” said Skloot. “So he collected them, but until he got Henrietta’s, the cells just always died. Hers didn’t.”

In fact, they doubled every four hours. The manically reproducing cells behaved the same way in Lacks’s body: she died eight months after entering the clinic. But her cells now had their own rooms at Johns Hopkins, and Gey was beginning to publish the fact that he’d found and perfected the line he called HeLa. Soon every scientist wanted his own supply, and eventually facilities were built to mass-produce HeLa cells and ship them around the world.

Read the full story at Women’s Voices For Change.

[Via http://elizabethwillse.com]

Part 6: “Wild trails of Mount Lebanon”

Part 6: “Wild trails of Mount Lebanon” (Mar. 8, 2010)

            Pierre Bared, a middle aged man, tall, svelte, with graying beard and three children decided to walked alone for 22 days on the wild trails of Mount Lebanon crossing it from the upper northern town of Kobayat to the southern town of Marje3youn  in June 2008.      

            On the 17th day, two Syrian workers, guarding a newly renovated villa, did their best to welcome Pierre; they reserved him one of the two beds for the night and purchased a roasted chicken; many Christians refused Pierre even a listening ear during his walking trip.  The place allocated to the workers was miserable: “the others” must have been used to miserable conditions!

            Pierre descends a valley to the river and crosses a rickety bridge; he reached the town of Bzebdine by 1 pm. It is Sunday; Pierre’s friends Joseph and Saba were to meet him for a picnic. The son of the owner of a building, studying for his public exam, gathers red and green prunes from his garden and offers them for the three men.  Two armed civilian militia of the socialist Druze party pay them a visit for questioning.

            Pierre has hard time locating the trail to Kornayel using the useless guide book.  He traverses a forest and hears gun shots and various arms firing.  The forest is degraded by men.  By 6 pm, Pierre is in Falougha.  Kids are playing soccer by the church yard: it is an unknown notion in Lebanon to reserve playing grounds and spaces for kids.

            In Falougha, the mayor stops to pick up and collect detritus off the sides of streets: an example that renders this town clean. Joseph, a member of the association “Sentiers du Mont Liban”, meets Pierre in an ice cream parlor.  Joseph claims that the wild trails are not marked so that people call them up! What an excuse given that the association was awarded $3 millions for that project.  It seems that part of the budget was allocated to restore a few welcoming houses for travelers.  It is good to know that the project is done by volunteers and the private company is doing nothing.

            Chamoun, the one who called Pierre to join him for the remainder of the trip, called Pierre and they agreed to meet at the main fountain in the morning. Pierre sleeps at Joseph’s house.  Next morning, Chamoun arrives decked in kaki outfit and all kinds of small flags pinned on the uniform; he even brought a spare boot.  They both ascend to Dahr el Baidar; an army post is there but did not disturb the travelers.  The walkers take a break under the shadow of a lonely tree.  They cross Damascus Highway to catch the old train tunnel: no train rails are left.  They see a quarry, so many unlicensed quarries in Lebanon that are disfiguring the landscape. Many Lorries are suffocating the climate with dirt.  They meet a 10 year-old girl shepherding goats: Pierre gives the girl water to drink.

            A couple of old folks are gathering cherries and apricots; they welcome the travelers as if they knew them.  The walkers see another quarry that inflicts significant pain to the eyesight.  They meet an old cultivator who invites them to his one room depot.  They continue to Ain Dara.  They meet workers rebuilding the bridge of Mdayrej that Israel bombed in 2006; they eat with the workers at the central town square restaurant and good boy jokes fuse from everywhere. Chamoun is carrying promotional materials concerning his exploits, adventures, and recommendation in health care; he never stops talking once he is carried away for his aggrandizement attitudes.

            Pierre and Chamoun resume their trip to Nabe3 el Safa; they cross a small natural farm of cows and chicken co-existing.  They come into an orchard of peach trees (best peaches in the world).  They stumble over a sofa under a tree: they could not let this luck be missed for a well deserved pause. For the first time in the trail, Pierre sees a notice warning against landmines, cluster bombs, and unexplosed missiles left by Israel recurring bombing of Lebanon.  They reach the “Cedar reserve” of Chouf; the guard of the forest reserve offers them a room with two real beds and a real hot shower facility (5 stars accommodation).

            The next day, the photographer Alfred shows up for photo sessions of the routine cedar tree planting.  Planting a cedar tree in the reserve cost $250, including entrance card to the forest any time, having your name attached to the tree, and a certificate; the tree has the number 116.  The mayor accompanies Pierre. The walkers return to Falougha for another planting ceremony, and then to Mtein.

            Chamoun calls up his sister to give them ride to the cedar reserve; she drops Pierre in Mdayrej; Chamoun calls it quit and returns with his sister home.  Pierre waits 30 minutes to be picked up by a truck to Nabe3 el Safa; the next target town for Pierre is Barouk.

[Via http://adonis49.wordpress.com]

FANTASY FROM WATERBROOK/MULTNOMAH

Raven’s Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet

Following the beacon of Auralia’s colors and the footsteps of a mysterious dream-creature, King Cal-raven has discovered a destination for his weary crowd of refugees. It’s a city only imagined in legendary tales. And it gives him hope to establish New Abascar.

But when Cal-raven is waylaid by fortune hunters, his people become vulnerable to a danger more powerful than the prowling beastmen–House Bel Amica. In this oceanside kingdom of wealth, enchantment, and beauty, deceitful Seers are all too eager to ensnare House Abascar’s wandering throng.

Excerpt

About the author:

Jeffrey Overstreet is the author of The Auralia Thread, the fantasy series which begins with Auralia’s Colors, a thrilling adventure twice-nominated for a Christy Award, and Cyndere’s Midnight. He is an award-winning film critic and columnist, his work appearing in many publications including Image and Paste. He is also the contributing editor for Seattle Pacific University’s Response magazine.

To buy this book, click here.

Lady Carliss and The Waters of Moorue by Chuck Black

Lady Carliss faces the challenge of her life. Can she save the kingdom before it’s too late?

Determined, smart and a master of both the sword and the bow, Lady Carliss has proven herself as a veteran Knight of the Prince. Returning from a mission of aid, Carliss is plunged into adventure once again as she searches for the marauders responsible for kidnapping a friends’ family. Along the way she is reunited with Sir Dalton and discovers that the struggle in her heart is far from over. When Dalton falls to the vicious attack of a mysterious, poisonous creature, Carliss finds herself in a race against time. As Dalton clings perilously to life, she must find the antidote in the distant and strange city of Moorue.

While there, Carliss uncovers the master plot of a powerful Shadow Warrior that will soon overtake the entire Kingdom. Her faith in the Prince and her courage as a knight are tested as she faces evil Shadow Warriors and a swamp full of dreadful creatures. The lives of many, including Dalton’s, depend on Carliss. But she cannot save them all, for time is running out.  She faces an impossible choice: save Dalton, or let him die so that others may live.

Excerpt

About the author:

Chuck Black, a former F-16 fighter pilot and tactical communications engineer, is the author of ten novels, including the popular Kingdom series. He has received praise from parents across the country for his unique approach to telling biblical truths. His passion in life is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and to love his wife, Andrea, and their six children. He lives with his family in North Dakota.

To buy this book, click here.

My Impressions:

Reading fantasy requires a lot of work.  The pages are populated with fantastic beings.  The landscape is strange;  the language is foreign. Usually there is no point of reference for the reader to use.  Imagination is all the reader has to work with.

Christian fantasy is a little different.  Although the worlds described exist only in the imagination of the author, a familiar thread runs through the books. So it is with Jeffrey Overstreet’s Raven’s Ladder and Chuck Black’s Lady Carlis And The Waters of Moorue.

Raven’s Ladder is the lastest installment of Overstreet’s Auralia’s Thread series.  The first two books in the series are Auralia’s Colors and Cyndere’s Midnight.  The author is currently working on the fourth and last book of the series.  I would suggest anyone interested in this series to begin with book one.  I have not read the first two books, and I was a little lost at first, but I soon became entangled in this fantastic tale.  House Abascar has been destroyed and sent into exile.  Many have forgotten the source of their existence, the Keeper.  King Cal-Raven desires to bring his people to their rightful home and reestablish them as followers of the Keeper, who most often appears in dreams.  Cal-Raven and the people of Abascar face many and diverse obstacles in their journey.  There is open evil seeking to destroy them, and there is a false security and beauty lulling them into accepting good over what is best.  Overstreet uses a fantasy world to expose the struggles we all face in a world that denies God or seeks to find a substitute for Him.  I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the other books in this series.

Recommended.

My youngest son, Thomas, loved Chuck Black’s Kingdom series (available in the library).  So when I was offered another of Black’s books to review, I jumped at the chance. Lady Carliss And The Waters of Moorue is the fourth book in the Knights of Arrethtrae series.  These books expand on the earlier Kingdom series.  Though written for teens, this book caught my attention immediately.  There is plenty of action for any fantasy lover — dangerous creatures, sword fights, mysterious castles.  The book also has a definite christian worldview, but it is subtle, unless you are looking for it. Thomas was half way through the 6-book Kingdom series before he realized it paralleled God’s story.  I know boys generally read books with knights and dragons, but this book should appeal to girls as well.  The main character, Lady Carliss, is a valiant knight yet someone girls can easily relate to.  All in all I would highly recommend this book.  I will probably get the other books in the series for the library as well.

Highly Recommended.

[Via http://rbclibrary.wordpress.com]

Working Girl Reviews Gives "Whispers" Golden Slipper Award!

My first professional review for WHispers in Autumn is in!

I was thrilled when I received Whispers in Autumn for review. I’ve read other M. Jean Pike novels and I’m particularly fond of her paranormal’s. This is the second in the Love On The Lake series and although the paranormal aspect was absent from the first (Shadow Lake), it’s back with this installment.

In this second novel we meet for the first time Emma’s friend, Dove. An expert in paranormal studies and a physic medium, Dove has just helped the Philadelphia Police Department solve a brutal murder and picked up a stalker along the way. This madman believes Dove is a witch and wants her dead. After receiving an invitation to Emma and Shane’s wedding, she decides a sabbatical is in order. She’ll go to the wedding and stay at Shadow Lake where she can enjoy the peace and quiet as well as hide out with the hope her stalker won’t be able to find her before the police find him.

Shadow Lake is everything Emma had told her it would be—peaceful, beautiful, and serene. Unfortunately the spirits haunting the park are not so at peace. They clamor for Dove’s attention, but she’s learned over the years to shut them out when necessary for the sake of her sanity. One thing she hadn’t counted on was meeting Dusty and the immediate passion she feels for him. Dusty is a man with a past; living with the grief of a heart wrenching tragedy he can’t let go of. Although he feels unworthy of loving a woman like Dove, he can’t resist the overwhelming physical and emotional effect she has on him.

Ms. Pike’s powerful characterizations, vivid imagery, and fast pace captures the reader from the first sentence and holds them until the last, making Whispers in Autumn a true winner. This is not a cookie cutter romance; Ms. Pike’s attention to detail and unique storytelling ability sets this one apart. The suspense is nail-biting in intensity at times. The love scenes are beautifully done without being too graphic and the spine tingling ghostly encounters are right on.

All the characters in Whispers in Autumn are vibrantly alive, with their own individual flaws. The main players are likable, even lovable—generating sympathy and a true desire from the reader for them to overcome the many obstacles to their happiness. I appropriately hated the villain, but still managed to feel a tiny drop of compassion for his madness.

This is a shorter novel and can be read in one sitting, which is good because you won’t want to stop reading once you start. But don’t let the shorter length fool you. Whispers in Autumn is chock full of romance, paranormal activity, and suspense. There’s something for everyone and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes contemporary romance, paranormal romance, and romantic suspense.

–Willow

http://workinggirlreviews.wordpress.com

[Via http://mjeanpike.wordpress.com]

People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks

People of the Book is a lovely story. At its heart is an appreciation of a sacred Jewish text and the sacrifices different people with differing religious beliefs have been prepared to go to to keep it safe over the centuries. It is a fictionalised history tracing the turbulent journey of an actual document, the Sarajevo Haggadah.

The story is told in alternating chapters. Hanna, a rare book restorer from Australia is invited to Bosnia for a precious viewing of the Haggadah which has surfaced after many years. While examining it, a mystery of sorts presents itself. Where has it been? What do the small clues she finds reveal about it’s history. Hanna follows these clues around Europe and calls on her contemporaries and mentors to help her along the way. Hers is the contemporary voice of the story and is balanced nicely with the historical chapters which trace the life of the Haggadah through the centuries, countries and wars. These historical chapters are thoroughly researched and each chapter is beautiful in its own right – introducing us to life in a different time and place.

While the style of the alternating chapters worked well, I liked the present day character and story of Hanna less than the historical parts – she was a little brash and over patriotic at times for me!

This is a huge story – not so much in the number of pages but what it covers. The edition I read had an interview with Geraldine Brooks at the back where she acknowledged the huge task it was and that it took several years on and off to complete. I guess all authors give a lot of themselves when writing a book but I could sense that especially with this book.

Lovely. Read for the Aussie Author, Bibliophilic and Support Your Local Library challenges.

[Via http://giraffeelizabeth.wordpress.com]

Current reading: Tokyo Real

Iconic enough, kids?

This book, Tokyo Real by “Ryu” is something of a milestone for me! It’s the first Japanese book I have read completely, from beginning to end, in Japanese. This isn’t as much of an achievement as some might think, because it’s a “keitai shosetsu” (Mobile phone novel), I think, or at least it might as well be. Being a keitai shosetsu means that

• it’s in large font, double-spaced lines, with lots of very short lines for dialogue
• The kanji (japanese characters) are drawn from the limited set on a phone, and a lot of them I can read
• It’s only 190 pages long, with a blank page at the start of each chapter
• chapters are short

so, you know, not really such a big deal. But it’s in Japanese! Since it’s untranslated as far as I know, and a pretty crap book, I’m going to lay out the plot, because there’s not much else to the review really. This means there are spoilers below. If you really want to read a crappy Japanese mobile phone novel about sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, skip the next paragraph:

Aya is a schoolgirl who takes lots of ecstasy and parties a lot with her friend Yuko. She is raped after a trance party by 3 guys in a van and goes into a bit of a downward spiral that is arrested by a friendly yakuza chap called Naoya who is very rich and likes her very much (presumably because she’s a schoolgirl?). They fall in love but she can only have sex on ecstasy and he won’t let her use ecstasy because drugs are bad oh no! This means they don’t get to have sex (stupid man!) so he goes and hangs out with his favourite hostess (this is really not a relevant point in the story, it fills 3 sentences at at the very end). Aya starts using ecstasy during the day because she’s sad, and then she realises that she can have sex on ecstasy with men other than her lover, so she goes to her drug dealer and spends a lot of time having lots of sex with him, on ecstsasy, and becomes a junkie, and loses weight, and Naoya notices but doesn’t want to admit that his girlfriend’s a junkie loser so he ignores it. Anyway, Aya’s dealer gives her K and she has an overdose and her friend Yuko stumbles on her being a freak ,so she calls Naoya, who comes over to the dealers house, and Aya, in the middle of her k-hole dream, stabs him to death by mistake while she thinks she’s a god. Then she goes to prison (this takes a page) and when she comes out Yuko is there for her, so she decides to try living again.

That’s it. It’s a classic overwrought teenage-junkie story, but it has a sweet ending: Aya has been in prison till she is 22 years old, and this means she missed coming of age day and spent it instead in her cell thinking about her dead boyfriend. When she gets out, Yuko takes her to a hairdresser and then a photographers, and reveals that, because Aya was not there for her, Yuko too didn’t go to her coming of age day celebration – she wanted to wait. So on the last page they’re wearing their kimono and having their coming-of-age day photo taken, and Aya gets to say “thank you” just before the flash of the camera and that’s it.

It’s a perfect movie script, and in fact it was turned into a movie. Happy days!

So, my Japanese is definitely not good enough for me to comment on the writing style. I asked a friend, though, and she told me that the narrative style is very plain and direct, really just stating the facts without any poetic twists or style. However, the dialogue is written in a very naturalistic style, like young people speaking, which helps to give a certain atmosphere of trashiness to the novel. Unfortunately, this means that for me it’s the equivalent of a Japanese student of English, having done one 6 month intensive course and a bit of self-study, trying to read the dialogue from Trainspotting. Bad plan. Fortunately by the miracle of Japanese characters (kanji) I could get the general gist of the dialogue without having to understand the nuance of teenage slang. Whew!

My main complaint about the novel is that Aya’s slide into disgrace doesn’t seem to be related to her rape at all, which means that the rape scene could be construed as slightly gratuitous. Once she reveals to Naoya that it happened, and he says “you’re not dirty”, that’s it! It just kind of slides out of her pscyhe. But, even though it’s emotionally overwrought and sentimental, I really liked the ending. The final meeting between Aya and Yuko was quite moving. Maybe if I could actually read Japanese like a native it would have come off as trite and contrived (scratch that maybe). Incidentally, I worry about this with my Japanese in general – because my education is always going to be sub-standard compared to even a middle-school graduate, I’m going to be very vulnerable to sentimentalism, cheap imagery, etc. I don’t think this is true in English, even though I like Last of the Mohicans.

My next attempt at Japanese reading will be the Japanese Pathfinder. I don’t want to tell you why because it’ll jinx me. This is going to be a lot easier to read than Tokyo Real because:

• I don’t need to care about nuance
• I already know what it will say
• The language is like a formal document, say, a stats text, and I’ve studied that language before (plus it’s simple)
• I can use rikaichan to read kanji I don’t know as I go (My God, rikaichan is the most miraculous software ever invented).

Anyway, if you’re as crap at Japanese as me, I recommend this book. If you can actually read Japanese well, I strongly suggest reading something good.

[Via http://faustusnotes.wordpress.com]

Herbs Hanging from the Rafters

Henry Beston, author of The Outermost House, described Herbs and the Earth as “part garden book, part musing study of our relation to nature through the oldest group of plants known to gardeners.” Beston’s wonderful prose leads us through the history, lore and uses of herbs. He wrote this book from his study in his farmhouse in Maine. Beston called it his herb attic — book-lined, with bunches of dried herbs hanging from the rafters. This is clearly a book written by someone in love with his subject. Beston himself considered this book among his finest writing.

The Outermost House is the book that most people know Henry Beston for, and it remains in print to this day. In the 1920’s Beston spent a year alone in a small dune cottage along Cape Cod’s eastern shore. What came from his isolation with sand and sea was one of the greatest meditations on the land that we have. He hoped to “know this coast and share its mysterious and elemental life“, and he succeeded brilliantly.

[Via http://landlibrary.wordpress.com]

Dracula - Bram Stoker

I can’t actually write a review of Dracula, that’d be sacrilegious so I’m just going to tell you why I had to read it now and then ramble on about it a bit.

Last year I was very excited to win a competition on Twitter. The prize was Dracula The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker. Yes, Dacre is a descendent of Bram, in fact, he’s a great nephew and this book is the sequel. It’s a bit silly to read the sequel without having read the original so when DD borrowed Dracula from the library I took the opportunity of reading it also.

I suspect I’ve read it before as some parts of it were rather familiar but the bulk of it wasn’t. I do recall reading a short story with some similarities fairly recently and it’d be nice to be able to remember the name of this story so I could tell you but I generally don’t pay much attention to the names of short stories. The similarity was in the location of the house and also in dealing with a dead person so they would stop haunting the family, it also felt very much like Dracula in the writing style.

There were several bits that really annoyed me about Dracula. The leading characters were all sweetness and light. Nothing was too hard for them and they were always absolutely perfectly behaved in thought, word and deed. I don’t mind the odd character like that but it’s impossible for everyone to be like that. I found the focus on the protection provided by the Cross to be rather annoying, I do understand that Christianity was the most prominent religion at the time of writing and that’s why that particular symbol was used but as a non-Christian I find it annoying…it also annoys me in Buffy. I did like Dracula’s castle, though.

Dracula in the book is rather different to modern perceptions of vampires. Just look at Buffy, for example. Vampires in Buffy can’t go out in daylight and can’t change their shape. Also, in Buffy, the vampires kill immediately with the first bite while Dracula takes his time to kill over several days, sucking a little blood at a time and stretching tension just so much without actually breaking it.

At this point I could do something really silly and mention George Hamilton in Love at First Bite, a movie screened in 1979 which really has very little similarity to Stoker’s Dracula but is fun and George Hamilton was very good looking (still is, to be honest). We were discussing this the other night over dinner and someone suggested that Bram Stoker had not done enough research, completely missing out Buffy, Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and Twilight.

I’m going to stop at this point before I get myself into too much trouble.

[Via http://suzsspace.wordpress.com]

“The old wise man died; an entire library burned”

“The old wise man died; an entire library burned”; (Mar. 4, 2010)

            African author, Amadou Hampate Ba (1900-91) was born in eastern Mali and had said “In Africa, (verbal culture still strong), when an old wise man dies then an entire library burns with him”.  In one of his books he wrote: “Aissata told her son: “Learn to cover the material nudity of man before you cover by word his moral nudity”

            Author and poet Wole Soyinka received the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1986. Soyinka was born in western Nigeria from the tribe of Yoruba in 1934.  During Nigeria civil war, Soyinka was jailed for two years in secrecy (1968-69); he wrote in jail “This man has died”.  In his speech at Stockholm during the Nobel ceremony and titled “Let this past talk to this present” he lambasted the philosophers and thinkers of Europe’s 19th century (such as Voltaire and Hegel) for accepting the principle of slavery.  Wole said “All who have the passion for peace must make a choice: Either they include peace in this modern world, bring it to rational situations, and let peace participate in the spirit of human associations or force Blacks in Africa to kneel in abject conditions and deny them human dignity.  There is nothing more pressing than suppressing racism and apartheid; their structures have got to be dismantled.”

            Historian and Egyptology from Senegal, Cheikh Anata Diop (1923-86) published “Negro Nations and culture, 1954”.  He claimed that African civilization precedes Greek civilization that borrowed form and content via Egypt of Antiquity.  Colonial powers were ready to admit that the black skinned (from head to toe) and the frizzled hair Egyptians were no proof enough to claim that the civilization of Egypt of Antiquity was necessarily African. This awkward logic was necessary in order to colonize Africa as devoid of civilizations, rational people, and high spiritual capacity.  European Egyptology erudite went as far as proclaiming that it was “inadmissible” that Ancient Egypt in Africa was a Black civilization.  Diop book was published in several languages and the Blacks in the USA used it for renewal of their civilized roots.

Note: You may refer to my new category “Black culture/Creole” for short biographies and literary samples of Black leaders and intellectuals.

[Via http://adonis49.wordpress.com]

More trips to Ireland

I love Maeve Binchy!! Love her! But I am sad to say I do not love Circle of Friends.  I do not love the first 370 pages of this book that I painstakingly read for 2 weeks!!   I consider myself a fast reader and this 570 page novel is something I usually fly through, but this just took too long.  As a fan of herbooks, I figured I’d love this one as well but sadly I did not and I will now, put my foot in my mouth after disagreeing with Kelly’s review of Tara Road and her statements saying it took too long to get into the story. 

This novel is about a ‘circle of friends’ in 1950s Dublin, all from different backgrounds.  The books primary characters are Benny (short for Bernadette…from what I remember, it was so long ago) and her friend Eve, both girls that grew up in the outskirts of Dublin.  The girls attend UCD (University College Dublin for you non-Irish) in first year, and form bonds with the other characters in the book.  In this group, there are all the stereotypes, the handsome jock from the upper class family (Jack), the gorgeous blond who hides who she really is (Nan), the outcast (Eve), the ‘larger girl’ (Benny), the guy everyone likes (Aidan), etc.  The relationship of Benny and Jack is an unlikely one yet his love for her seems true throughout the book. But obviously something will rattle this circle there is something that will undoubtedly pull someone from the inner circle to the outer circle and perhaps out of the circle forever.  When I finally got the last 200 pages of this book (the good part), I knew immediately how Binchy would make this happen and it made me mad.

 It made me mad, that I had spent the past 2 weeks reading this book and the ending was going to be so anti-climatic and predictable.  Could the uncertainty I had for Benny and Jack be true?  I couldn’t possibly believe that Benny, a girl a little bigger than average, would actually end up with the Donnybrook Jock that all the girls pined after??  Could their relationship be torn apart by someone slimmer, more attractive, and much more desired, a gorgeous blond perhaps?  The answers to these questions maybe be obvious yet there are twists leading you to them.  Predictable twists.

Now do not get me wrong, I did enjoy this book, eventually.  As I lived in Dublin for a year and a half, I loved how I could picture where the characters are when they talked about the quays, or Saint Steven’s Green, or Dun Laoghaire, or Donnybrook!  The characters’ dialect made me feel like I was right back there.  But all that aside, I feel she spent too much time building up the stories of the characters lives and then rush to the ending.  The climax is nearly in the last 70 pages of the book (at least for me it seemed that way) and then just kind of ends, leaving you wanting more.  But I guess that raises the question, is the sign of a good author an ending where they leave you wanting more even though you couldn’t stand the first 350 pages of a book?? Or a book where you loved the first 350 pages and the ending just left you feeling, unfulfilled?   I’m going to have to watch this movie now and see if it leaves me with the same feeling, which I pray it won’t.  And hopefully Binchy’s next book will leave me feeling a little more full and help me remove the foot out of my mouth. 

-Anne

Next book: Friends Like These by Danny Wallace

[Via http://novelladies2010.wordpress.com]