amf's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 05 Apr 2025 17:17:12 -0700 60 amf's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality]]> 100629
After forty years of study with some of the greatest scientific minds, as well as a lifetime of meditative, spiritual, and philosophic study, the Dalai Lama presents a brilliant analysis of why all avenues of inquiry—scientific as well as spiritual—must be pursued in order to arrive at a complete picture of the truth. Through an examination of Darwinism and karma, quantum mechanics and philosophical insight into the nature of reality, neurobiology and the study of consciousness, the Dalai Lama draws significant parallels between contemplative and scientific examinations of reality.

This breathtakingly personal examination is a tribute to the Dalai Lama’s teachers—both of science and spirituality. The legacy of this book is a vision of the world in which our different approaches to understanding ourselves, our universe, and one another can be brought together in the service of humanity.]]> 224 Dalai Lama XIV 0767920813 amf 0 to-read 4.02 2005 The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
author: Dalai Lama XIV
name: amf
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place]]> 52227615 The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Boy explores the transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters who has become one of America’s most inspiring Buddhist practitioners while locked in a cell on death row.

Jarvis Jay Masters’s early life was a horror story whose outline we know too well. Born in Long Beach, California, his house was filled with crack, alcohol, physical abuse, and men who paid his mother for sex. He and his siblings were split up and sent to foster care when he was five, and he progressed quickly to juvenile detention, car theft, armed robbery, and ultimately San Quentin. While in prison, he was set up for the murder of a guard—a conviction which landed him on death row, where he’s been since 1990.

At the time of his murder trial, he was held in solitary confinement, torn by rage and anxiety, felled by headaches, seizures, and panic attacks. A criminal investigator repeatedly offered to teach him breathing exercises which he repeatedly refused. Until desperation moved him to ask her how to do “that meditation shit.� With uncanny clarity, David Sheff describes Masters’s gradual but profound transformation from a man dedicated to hurting others to one who has prevented violence on the prison yard, counseled high school kids by mail, and helped prisoners—and even guards—find meaning in their lives.

Along the way, Masters becomes drawn to the principles that Buddhism espouses—compassion, sacrifice, and living in the moment—and he gains the admiration of Buddhists worldwide, including many of the faith’s most renowned practitioners. And while he is still in San Quentin and still on death row, he is a renowned Buddhist thinker who shows us how to ease our everyday suffering, relish the light that surrounds us, and endure the tragedies that befall us all.]]> 272 David Sheff 1982128453 amf 0 currently-reading 4.26 2020 The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place
author: David Sheff
name: amf
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Desert Solitaire 214614 Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest form.

Through prose that is by turns passionate and poetic, Abbey reflects on the condition of our remaining wilderness and the future of a civilization that cannot reconcile itself to living in the natural world as well as his own internal struggle with morality. As the world continues its rapid development, Abbey’s cry to maintain the natural beauty of the West remains just as relevant today as when this book was written.]]> 337 Edward Abbey 0345326490 amf 5 4.18 1968 Desert Solitaire
author: Edward Abbey
name: amf
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1968
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:
2025 - update after reading something by McFee on public lands, and then perusing the comments here regarding Abbey's POV and politics. Abbey is akin to George Carlin in his lack of self-censorship. I will not condone Abbey's sexism or racism, and yet, I am all in for his advocacy regarding less roads and destruction of our precious public lands. We are where we are because too few people are willing to take a stand for our environment. I read this in the 90s for a field biology course and it seemed a bit outlandish. Fast forward to today with more drilling, more deregulation, and more lawsuits against those that dare to fight the pipelines...reminds me that Abbey was more the canary in the coal mine than a radical.
]]> The Fool's Progress 118541 The Fool's Progress, the "fat masterpiece" as Edward Abbey labeled it, is his most important piece of it reveals the complete Ed Abbey, from the green grass of his memory as a child in Appalachia to his approaching death in Tuscon at age sixty two. When his third wife abandons him in Tucson, boozing, misanthropic anarchist Henry Holyoak Lightcap shoots his refrigerator and sets off in a battered pick-up truck for his ancestral home in West Virginia. Accompanied only by his dying dog and his memories, the irascible warhorse (a stand-in for the "real" Abbey) begins a bizarre cross-country odyssey--determined to make peace with his past--and to wage one last war against the ravages of "progress.""A profane, wildly funny, brash, overbearing, exquisite tour de force." -- The Chicago Tribune]]> 528 Edward Abbey 0805057919 amf 0 to-read 4.21 1988 The Fool's Progress
author: Edward Abbey
name: amf
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times]]> 207294297 At a time when society is more fractured than ever before, beloved Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle invites us to see the world through a new lens of connection and build the loving community that we long to live in—a perfect message for readers of Anne Lamott, Mary Oliver, and Richard Rohr. Over the past thirty years, Father Gregory Boyle has transformed thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. The program runs on two unwavering (1) Everyone is unshakably good (no exceptions) and (2) we belong to each other (no exceptions). Boyle believes that these two ideas allow all of us to cultivate a new way of seeing. Every community wants to be a safe place, where people are seen, and then are cherished. By remembering that we belong to each other, we find our way out of chaos and its dispiriting tribalism. Pooka, a former gang member who now oversees the program’s housing division, puts it “Here, love is our lens. It’s how we see things.� In Cherished Belonging, Boyle calls back to Christianity’s origins as a subversive spiritual movement of equality, emancipation, and peace. Early Christianity was a way of life—not a set of beliefs. Boyle’s vision of community isn’t just a space for an individual to heal, but for people to join together and heal each other in a new collective living, a world dedicated to kindness as a constant and radical act of defiance. “The answer to every question is, indeed, compassion,� Boyle exhorts. He calls us to cherish and nurture the connections that are all around us and live with radical kindness.]]> 224 Gregory Boyle 1668061856 amf 0 4.46 Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times
author: Gregory Boyle
name: amf
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:
Gotta love the Jesuits for they are "woke" lol. If you read the book, you'll find that Father G. addresses wokeness and (to paraphrase) finds that to be woke (awake) is what the good book instructs us to be. Boyle's signature style of sprinkling the text with self-reflection, homeboy/homegirl stories, and a little bit of West & East theology/philosophy does not fail in this quick read. Bottom line, this shines a light on the WE and lays the groundwork to give grace to those who are trying to divide by recognizing that they are struggling to find their own wholeness.
]]> <![CDATA[Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters]]> 217812221
What can be done at a time of deep political instability and environmental crisis? Piketty and Sandel agree on much: more inclusive investment in health and education, higher progressive taxation, curbing the political power of the rich and the overreach of markets. But how far and how fast can we push? Should we prioritize material or social change? What are the prospects for any change at all with nationalist forces resurgent? How should the left relate to values like patriotism and local solidarity where they collide with the challenges of mass migration and global climate change?

To see Piketty and Sandel grapple with these and other problems is to glimpse new possibilities for change and justice but also the stubborn truth that progress towards greater equality never comes quickly or without deep social conflict and political struggle.]]> 128 Thomas Piketty 1509565507 amf 3
**updated 3.5 stars
I stand with previous thoughts after finishing the book. The final few pages delve into identity as one of the three ideologies that seem to be causing friction in achieving the goal of equality. It felt a bit simplistic and siloed. This feeling was reinforced by Sandel's example of his encounter with an Iowan in an elevator while they both were vacationing in Florida. The Iowa woman had asked Sandel where he was from and he replied Boston. She proceeded to state that she was from Iowa and went on about Iowans not being uneducated but in a manner that was very defensive. Sandel used this to emphasize his points about folks in rural areas feeling that they are being criticized and are viewed less than because of where they reside. While I understood his argument, I believe that identity politics are far more nuanced and a wide net cannot be cast. As a person who is also from Iowa, I've never felt inferior when traveling and meeting folks from larger urban areas. Granted, I never brag about IA being a place to visit (and it has gotten so much worse since our state is determined to be ruled by the folks behind Project 2025) yet, people are people and our intelligence manifests in many different ways. Anyhoo, I'd like to see a follow-up in May 2025 because the equality question has risen in complexity in the US in the last 30 days. ~]]> 3.98 2025 Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters
author: Thomas Piketty
name: amf
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:
75% done but feel that this transcript of a May 2024 conversation on equality between Sandel & Piketty is painfully dated for US readers as of February 2025. Reading it isn't without merit (pun kinda intended) for those, like me, who have not studied economics. What is amusing, however, is the deep dive into education equality and steps to bridge the gap since the US is now considering eliminating DoE, ergo, any idea seems preposterous... though I did find the lottery idea fascinating. Will update this mini review if there is a strong finish.

**updated 3.5 stars
I stand with previous thoughts after finishing the book. The final few pages delve into identity as one of the three ideologies that seem to be causing friction in achieving the goal of equality. It felt a bit simplistic and siloed. This feeling was reinforced by Sandel's example of his encounter with an Iowan in an elevator while they both were vacationing in Florida. The Iowa woman had asked Sandel where he was from and he replied Boston. She proceeded to state that she was from Iowa and went on about Iowans not being uneducated but in a manner that was very defensive. Sandel used this to emphasize his points about folks in rural areas feeling that they are being criticized and are viewed less than because of where they reside. While I understood his argument, I believe that identity politics are far more nuanced and a wide net cannot be cast. As a person who is also from Iowa, I've never felt inferior when traveling and meeting folks from larger urban areas. Granted, I never brag about IA being a place to visit (and it has gotten so much worse since our state is determined to be ruled by the folks behind Project 2025) yet, people are people and our intelligence manifests in many different ways. Anyhoo, I'd like to see a follow-up in May 2025 because the equality question has risen in complexity in the US in the last 30 days. ~
]]> <![CDATA[Spring and All (New Directions Pearls)]]> 8166046 96 William Carlos Williams 0811218910 amf 0 4.06 1923 Spring and All (New Directions Pearls)
author: William Carlos Williams
name: amf
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1923
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Patriot: A Memoir 210943348
Alexei Navalny began writing Patriot shortly after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020. It is the full story of his life: his youth, his call to activism, his marriage and family, his commitment to challenging a world super-power determined to silence him, and his total conviction that change cannot be resisted—and will come.

In vivid, page-turning detail, including never-before-seen correspondence from prison, Navalny recounts, among other things, his political career, the many attempts on his life, and the lives of the people closest to him, and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime.

Written with the passion, wit, candor, and bravery for which he was justly acclaimed, Patriot is Navalny’s final letter to the world: a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.

“This book is a testament not only to Alexei’s life, but to his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship—a fight he gave everything for, including his life. Through its pages, readers will come to know the man I loved deeply—a man of profound integrity and unyielding courage. Sharing his story will not only honor his memory but also inspire others to stand up for what is right and to never lose sight of the values that truly matter.� —Yulia Navalnaya]]> 496 Alexei Navalny 0593320964 amf 5
For fellow US folks who are on the fence to start this book..give it a go if you're at all concerned about where our country is headed in 2025 as we see our Judicial branch crumbling and our Congress not far behind. Navalny's end message certainly made me smh when he named the things that need to happen to create a different Russia, notably, a judicial branch and congressional system that are not corruptible against the powers in charge. We seem to be moving backwards....]]> 4.55 2024 Patriot: A Memoir
author: Alexei Navalny
name: amf
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
Started listening to this before the US elections in November 2024, however, it was a public library audio that didn't get finished in time so I waited in queue until two days ago. Fast forward to February 14, 2025, I finished the last quarter of the book in continued awe of Navalny and his vision. Unlike the "Navalny was pro imperialism" commentary in other recent reviews, I took away a very different view - a man proud of the land and its people but not its current politics. If he were an imperialist he'd not stirred the hornet nest with his first lawsuit. He continued despite the threats because social justice was imperative to creating a new way of politic for the people. He never stopped fighting for justice in a corrupt system. And while he doesn't proselytize, Navalny's references to his faith in the last part of his prison diaries tells me this truly was a man on a humanitarian mission advocating for a better way of life for his family and fellow Russians.

For fellow US folks who are on the fence to start this book..give it a go if you're at all concerned about where our country is headed in 2025 as we see our Judicial branch crumbling and our Congress not far behind. Navalny's end message certainly made me smh when he named the things that need to happen to create a different Russia, notably, a judicial branch and congressional system that are not corruptible against the powers in charge. We seem to be moving backwards....
]]> A Year of Last Things: Poems 208456780
Born in Sri Lanka during the Second World War, Ondaatje was sent as a child to school in London, and later moved to Canada. While he has lived here since, these poems reflect the life of a writer, traveller and watcher of the world � describing himself as a “mongrel,� someone born out of diverse cultures. Here, rediscovering the influence of every border crossed, he moves back and forth in time, from a childhood in Sri Lanka to Moliere’s chair during his last stage performance, from icons in Bulgarian churches to the California coast and loved Canadian rivers, merging memory with the present, looking back on a life of displacement and discovery, love and loss. At first sight it is a glittering collection of fragments and memories � but small, intricate pieces of a life are precisely what matter most to Ondaatje. They make an emotional history. As he writes in the opening poem: “Reading the lines he loves / he slips them into a pocket, / wishes to die with his clothes / full of torn free stanzas / and the telephone numbers / of his children in far cities�. Poetry � where language is made to work hardest and burns with a gem-like flame � is what Ondaatje has returned to in this intimate history.]]> 128 Michael Ondaatje 0771012314 amf 0 3.55 A Year of Last Things: Poems
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: amf
average rating: 3.55
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Burnout Society 25490360
]]> 60 Byung-Chul Han 0804795096 amf 0 to-read 3.88 2010 The Burnout Society
author: Byung-Chul Han
name: amf
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Tortilla Curtain 24731 355 T. Coraghessan Boyle amf 4
Update 01.11.2025
Currently fires burn in Topanga Canyon creating horrific destruction to thousands of peoples lives. As I read the updates and watch YT video clips (I don't have a TV), my mind wandered back to this book. Boyle's canyon fire is symbolic on many socio-cultural levels, yet it left an lasting impression about something I learned in environmental studies, building in areas that are fire or flood prone is risky. I cannot help but wonder about the folks that are living on the margins in these regions and how their already unstable lives are upended by the current fires. Praying folks find community even if they didn't previously have one.

Boyle's compelling narrative seems more relevant today than when I first read it in the early aughts. I feel we've become even more indifferent in how we treat each other, as well as how we treat Mother Nature. I don't read a lot of fiction, however, no book has left such an impression as TC. ]]> 3.65 1995 The Tortilla Curtain
author: T. Coraghessan Boyle
name: amf
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves:
review:
My first read of Boyle was The Tortilla Curtain. Years later the story still sticks. Boyle's style paints pictures; you can smell the landscape, and feel the grit of the highway. A wonderful piece of social/environmental commentary that is still so relevant today ~

Update 01.11.2025
Currently fires burn in Topanga Canyon creating horrific destruction to thousands of peoples lives. As I read the updates and watch YT video clips (I don't have a TV), my mind wandered back to this book. Boyle's canyon fire is symbolic on many socio-cultural levels, yet it left an lasting impression about something I learned in environmental studies, building in areas that are fire or flood prone is risky. I cannot help but wonder about the folks that are living on the margins in these regions and how their already unstable lives are upended by the current fires. Praying folks find community even if they didn't previously have one.

Boyle's compelling narrative seems more relevant today than when I first read it in the early aughts. I feel we've become even more indifferent in how we treat each other, as well as how we treat Mother Nature. I don't read a lot of fiction, however, no book has left such an impression as TC.
]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction]]> 7517330 The Art of Recklessness, Dean Young's sprawling and subversive first book of prose on poetry, imagination swerves into primitivism and surrealism and finally toward empathy. How can recklessness guide the poet, the artist, and the reader into art, and how can it excite in us a sort of wild receptivity, beyond craft? "Poetry is not a discipline," Young writes. "It is a hunger, a revolt, a drive, a mash note, a fright, a tantrum, a grief, a hoax, a debacle, an application, an affect . . ."]]> 167 Dean Young 1555975623 amf 0 currently-reading 4.14 2010 The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction
author: Dean Young
name: amf
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Tenderness: Awakening through Race, Sexuality, and Gender]]> 22609231
In The Way of Tenderness , Zen priest Zenju Earthlyn Manuel brings Buddhist philosophies of emptiness and appearance to bear on race, sexuality, and gender, using wisdom forged through personal experience and practice to rethink problems of identity and privilege.
Manuel brings her own experiences as a lesbian black woman into conversation with Buddhism to square our ultimately empty nature with superficial perspectives of everyday life. Her hard-won insights reveal that dry wisdom alone is not sufficient to heal the wounds of the marginalized; an effective practice must embrace the tenderness found where conventional reality and emptiness intersect. Only warmth and compassion can cure hatred and heal the damage it wreaks within us.
This is a book that will teach us all.]]> 152 Zenju Earthlyn Manuel 161429125X amf 4
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel writes in a way that takes you alongside without judgement or lecture. However, I am far from a perfect human and have errored many times in letting other get away with bad behavior because I believed a narrative about "us and them and me". ZEM reminds me that these embodied narratives are to be reflected upon and understood for what they are...which is often not the truth.

The first listen offered me two takeaways to immediately reflect upon: the dangers of letting ancestral and societal belief systems "live" regarding race, sexuality, and gender [I'd add age too] & believing that one's outward appearance is who we are....or a reflection of who we are...and letting others set that as our "worth" is an imprisonment of soullessness (my interpretation).

]]> 4.32 2015 The Way of Tenderness: Awakening through Race, Sexuality, and Gender
author: Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
name: amf
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves:
review:
Listened to a recent Dan Harris podcast with Zenju Earthlyn Manuel that struck a chord. In many ways, I thought I've nothing in common with Manuel, yet the words were felt too deeply for that to be true. Ergo, I got ahold of this on audio, read by ZEM, and did a deep dive. Granted, I need to relisten because it was at set at 2x speed, however, the gems that I needed to hear, stuck.

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel writes in a way that takes you alongside without judgement or lecture. However, I am far from a perfect human and have errored many times in letting other get away with bad behavior because I believed a narrative about "us and them and me". ZEM reminds me that these embodied narratives are to be reflected upon and understood for what they are...which is often not the truth.

The first listen offered me two takeaways to immediately reflect upon: the dangers of letting ancestral and societal belief systems "live" regarding race, sexuality, and gender [I'd add age too] & believing that one's outward appearance is who we are....or a reflection of who we are...and letting others set that as our "worth" is an imprisonment of soullessness (my interpretation).


]]> <![CDATA[Dreams of Dreams and the Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa]]> 118439
Some of the dreamers Tabucchi chooses to conjure up include Greek architect Daedalus; Carlo Collodi, author of Pinocchio; painter Caravaggio; poet Arthur Rimbaud; composer Debussy; and the father of dream analysis, Sigmund Freud. These short reveries center around memorable, jewellike details - Daedalus teaches a Minotaur trapped in a maze on his Greek island how to fly; Rimbaud wanders the French countryside with his own amputated leg under his arm, wrapped in a newspaper printed with his poems.

The recreation of Pessoa's last days is a complex narrative. All of the alternate poetic personae the poet ever created--including Antonio Mora, a mad philosopher; shy accountant Bernardo Soares; and the monarchist doctor, Ricardo Reis--visit him on his deathbed. Through these conversations with his own multiple personalities, the poet at last achieves peace. - Publishers Weekly]]> 136 Antonio Tabucchi 0872863689 amf 4 3.80 1992 Dreams of Dreams and the Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa
author: Antonio Tabucchi
name: amf
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves:
review:
This was a momento purchase after being taken to City Lights by a North Beach local (I the wandering lost 'tourist', though I really had no place in mind besides 'around'l. I didn't have much room in my luggage, and adore 'little books', ergo, this book fit the bill. Years later, Dreams has stuck with me and helped open my literary landscape. Who knows when I would have stumbled upon Pessoa on my own, but after reading Tabucchi's surreal account of Pessoa on his death bed, I knew I had to read more. In brief segments, Tabucchi paints vivid accounts of encounters with known 'characters' in history. Even if the reader is unfamiliar with the great artists featured (or their artwork), he or she will be all the wiser after this delightful romp.
]]> Infinite Jest 6759
Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.

Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human—and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do.]]> 1088 David Foster Wallace amf 0 currently-reading 4.26 1996 Infinite Jest
author: David Foster Wallace
name: amf
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Colored Television 201102398 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593544372

A dark comedy about second acts, creative appropriation, and the racial identity–industrial complex

Jane has high hopes her life is about to turn around. After years of living precariously, she; her painter husband, Lenny; and their two kids have landed a stint as house sitters in a friend’s luxurious home in the hills above Los Angeles, a gig that coincides magically with Jane’s sabbatical. If she can just finish her latest novel, Nusu Nusu, the centuries-spanning epic Lenny refers to as her “mulatto War and Peace,� she’ll have tenure and some semblance of stability and success within her grasp.

But things don’t work out quite as hoped. In search of a plan B, like countless writers before her, Jane turns her desperate gaze to Hollywood. After she meets with a hot young producer to create “diverse content� for a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a “real writer.� She can create what he envisions as the greatest biracial comedy to ever hit the small screen. Things finally seem to be going right for Jane—until they go terribly wrong.]]> 277 Danzy Senna amf 3 3.54 2024 Colored Television
author: Danzy Senna
name: amf
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves:
review:
3.5ish... but I'm not usually a popular fiction reader, ergo, this may be too low. I listened to this at a 2x pace and the reader was excellent. Danzy Senna addresses key themes of race, creative careers, and socio-cultural norms in pop culture and the entertainment industry. One could lightly compare it to Everett's "Erasure" without the biting dialogue or the clever plot line. Senna's characters brings to light problems often reinforced by the system | gatekeepers in the creative industries, academia, and american society. Senna unpacked a lot regarding racism, ageism, economics, and relationships, yet the novel remained upbeat and fast paced. The ending seemed rushed, but it did offer closure.
]]> The Message 210943364
The first of the book’s three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist, Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the “steampunk� city of “old traditions and new machinery,� but everywhere he goes he feels as if he’s in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream.

He takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he meets an educator whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates’s own books. There he discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed by the “racial reckoning� of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths of the community—a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares.

And in Palestine, Coates discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we’ve accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians—the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young, who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him—and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.]]> 232 Ta-Nehisi Coates 0593230388 amf 4
"The Message" was presented through the lens of Coates experiencing three very different places in the world (South Carolina, Senegal, and Israel & Palestine territories) with an underlying theme of oppression in various forms. Never does Coates claim to be an authority on Palestine or Israel. What he does repeat (as he has in many interviews) is that the Palestinian | Palestinian-American voice has remained non existent for decades in American media | publishing whereas the Israeli voice has agency within media | publishing. He was trying to shine a light where it is often not shown. The through-line of oppression | colonialism is not a stretch considering the writer is Coates, an African-American who has experienced his own oppression | racism as well as the ancestral legacy that is part of America's history. The fact that folks are drilling down on the part of the book about Palestine in a combative way is thought-provoking considering the larger context of the book.

We all come at things through a different lens. I felt that this was reiterated many times by Coates in the book and during interviews. He understands that to have someone speak for him, as a African-American man, is to cause erasure in the name of "othering", ergo, he was careful not to "other" by making his commentary of his visit to Israel & Palestine self-reflective. Recent podcasts with Ezra Klein & Trevor Noah are placing a lot of eyes on this book. If you are a humanists, I highly recommend reading it for yourself before wading into the divisive commentary.]]> 4.52 2024 The Message
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: amf
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves:
review:
Listened to this one...read by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Above all, I encourage folks to read this book through the lens in which it was written: to bring attention to the power of words, the destructive nature of oppression and colonialism, and the importance of giving voice to those that are marginalized.

"The Message" was presented through the lens of Coates experiencing three very different places in the world (South Carolina, Senegal, and Israel & Palestine territories) with an underlying theme of oppression in various forms. Never does Coates claim to be an authority on Palestine or Israel. What he does repeat (as he has in many interviews) is that the Palestinian | Palestinian-American voice has remained non existent for decades in American media | publishing whereas the Israeli voice has agency within media | publishing. He was trying to shine a light where it is often not shown. The through-line of oppression | colonialism is not a stretch considering the writer is Coates, an African-American who has experienced his own oppression | racism as well as the ancestral legacy that is part of America's history. The fact that folks are drilling down on the part of the book about Palestine in a combative way is thought-provoking considering the larger context of the book.

We all come at things through a different lens. I felt that this was reiterated many times by Coates in the book and during interviews. He understands that to have someone speak for him, as a African-American man, is to cause erasure in the name of "othering", ergo, he was careful not to "other" by making his commentary of his visit to Israel & Palestine self-reflective. Recent podcasts with Ezra Klein & Trevor Noah are placing a lot of eyes on this book. If you are a humanists, I highly recommend reading it for yourself before wading into the divisive commentary.
]]> <![CDATA[Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land]]> 50997645 Earth KeeperĚýis an impassioned defense of all that our endangered planet stands to lose."Ěý—Ě� Esquire

A magnificent testament to the earth, from Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday. One of the most distinguished voices in American letters, N. Scott Momaday has devoted much of his life to celebrating and preserving Native American culture, especially its oral tradition. A member of the Kiowa tribe, Momaday was born in Lawton, Oklahoma and grew up on Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo reservations throughout the Southwest. It is a part of the earth he knows well and loves deeply. InĚýEarth Keeper,Ěýhe reflects on his native ground and its influence on his people. “When I think about my life and the lives of my ancestors," he writes, "I am inevitably led to the conviction that I, and they,Ěý belong Ěýto the American land. This is a declaration of belonging. And it is an offering to the earth.â€�

In this wise and wonderous work, Momaday shares stories and memories throughout his life, stories that have been passed down through generations, stories that reveal a profound spiritual connection to the American landscape and reverence for the natural world. He offers an homage and a warning. He shows us that the earth is a sacred place of wonder and beauty, a source of strength and healing that must be honored and protected before it’s too late. As he so eloquently and simply reminds us, we must all be keepers of the earth.]]> 80 N. Scott Momaday 0063009331 amf 5 Dragonfly says, we go to the farther camps. Death is
not the end of life. There is life in the farther camps.
The stars are fires in the farther camps. (N. Scott Momaday, p.22)

Earth Keeper was a deeply moving read that allowed me to travel to the vast plains and the southwest canyons in my mind's eye. Poems are short and concise, mostly less than twenty lines, and their impact (at times) took me by surprise. Momaday honors the reader with insight into his Kiowa culture and weaves many poems with a special narrator, Dragonfly. The poems honoring the loss/gift of the horse, the man named "Stone", and the unknown woman buried in the east are so brief, yet they left me wishing to know each person more.

]]> 4.23 2020 Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land
author: N. Scott Momaday
name: amf
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves:
review:
There is no earth without the stars. When we die,
Dragonfly says, we go to the farther camps. Death is
not the end of life. There is life in the farther camps.
The stars are fires in the farther camps. (N. Scott Momaday, p.22)

Earth Keeper was a deeply moving read that allowed me to travel to the vast plains and the southwest canyons in my mind's eye. Poems are short and concise, mostly less than twenty lines, and their impact (at times) took me by surprise. Momaday honors the reader with insight into his Kiowa culture and weaves many poems with a special narrator, Dragonfly. The poems honoring the loss/gift of the horse, the man named "Stone", and the unknown woman buried in the east are so brief, yet they left me wishing to know each person more.


]]> <![CDATA[Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster]]> 357486 Written by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. Voices from Chernobyl is the first book to present personal accounts of the tragedy. Journalist Svetlana Alexievich interviewed hundreds of people affected by the meltdown—from innocent citizens to firefighters to those called in to clean up the disaster—and their stories reveal the fear, anger, and uncertainty with which they still live. Composed of interviews in monologue form, Voices from Chernobyl is a crucially important work of immense force, unforgettable in its emotional power and honesty.]]> 236 Svetlana Alexievich 0312425848 amf 0 4.39 1997 Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
author: Svetlana Alexievich
name: amf
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 1948 19195850 Ěý
Eschewing self-righteousness in favor of self-criticism, Kaniuk's book, winner of the 2010 Sapir Prize for Literature, is the tale of a younger man told by his older, wiser self—the self who realizes that wars are pointless, and that he and his friends, young men from good homes forming an offbeat band of brothers, were senseless to see glory in the prospect of dying young. But it is also a painful, shocking, and tragically relevant homage to the importance of bearing witness to the follies of the past, even—or especially—when they are one's own.]]> 154 Yoram Kaniuk 1590176480 amf 0 to-read 4.15 2010 1948
author: Yoram Kaniuk
name: amf
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Biomass Revolution (The Tisaian Chronicles #1)]]> 18032380
Welcome to Tisaia � The last hub of modern civilization in a world left scorched by the nuclear fires of the Biomass Wars. Surrounded by a fortress of steel walls and protected by a fierce and loyal Council of Royal Knights, Tisaia seems relatively safe to the average State worker and citizen. A plentiful supply of Biomass powers the cities and food is abundant, but security has come at a terrible cost. The State will do anything to protect its resources, even if it means suppressing the rights of its citizens and deporting immigrants into the Wasteland - a virtual death sentence.

Spurious Timur is one of the State workers helping keep the wheels of prosperity turning in Tisaia. As he starts to explore Tisaia and question his own worth, he realizes there may be more to his subsistence than he thought. When he meets and falls for co-worker Lana Padilla, he begins to understand he may hold the key to restoring Tisaia to a just and free State.

However, restoring Tisaia will come at a cost; both to Spurious and those he cares about, because in Tisaia nothing is ever what it seems. And as more of his past begins to surface, he is faced with the ultimate decision—on which side of the revolution should he fight?]]> 277 Nicholas Sansbury Smith 0989244717 amf 0 to-read 3.62 2013 The Biomass Revolution (The Tisaian Chronicles #1)
author: Nicholas Sansbury Smith
name: amf
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row]]> 34964905 A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence—full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon—transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty-four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.

With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty-year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy.]]> 272 Anthony Ray Hinton 1250124719 amf 5
I'm grateful that the title of this book stopped me when scrolling for a new audio book. It brought me to tears a few times today as I listened straight through. Hinton is a beacon. He shines a light for others, exemplifying how those that found faith in something that is beyond them can be a prism. He reminds me of the importance of believing in what cannot be known, and to let the imagination roam because it can save oneself and/or those around you because it generates resilience.

Finally, this book should be assigned to all L1 students to read. Law students will some day be in positions of power and must remember that the system still works against so many in this country. This book should also be read by anyone who thinks the death penalty is just. As Hinton and Stevenson show, there should not be a death penalty when the system deciding death is fraught with racism, classism, and economic inequality.

Court case summary here ]]> 4.64 2018 The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
author: Anthony Ray Hinton
name: amf
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:
The title of this book reminded me of Etheridge Knight's poem "The Sun Came", however, the tone of the two works are not the same. Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years on death row in Alabama due to a multitude of sins, none that were his own. Hinton story is horrific, a nightmare, yet if you are an American and paying attention to our criminal justice system, the narrative is nothing new. Hinton was failed by a system that has different sets of rules based on race, class, and sex. As a poor, young Black man in Alabama he got played by a system that included a racist prosecutor (McGregor), substandard appointed defense attorney, and a justice system that does not want to recognize its own failures. Hinton is another extraordinary man whose life was saved because of the diligence of Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy).

I'm grateful that the title of this book stopped me when scrolling for a new audio book. It brought me to tears a few times today as I listened straight through. Hinton is a beacon. He shines a light for others, exemplifying how those that found faith in something that is beyond them can be a prism. He reminds me of the importance of believing in what cannot be known, and to let the imagination roam because it can save oneself and/or those around you because it generates resilience.

Finally, this book should be assigned to all L1 students to read. Law students will some day be in positions of power and must remember that the system still works against so many in this country. This book should also be read by anyone who thinks the death penalty is just. As Hinton and Stevenson show, there should not be a death penalty when the system deciding death is fraught with racism, classism, and economic inequality.

Court case summary here
]]> <![CDATA[The I Ching or Book of Changes]]> 534289 I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the 1st efforts of the human mind to place itself within the universe. It has exerted a living influence in China for 3000 years and interest in it has spread in the West.

Set down in the dawn of history as a book of oracles, the Book of Changes deepened in meaning when ethical values were attached to the oracular pronouncements; it became a book of wisdom, eventually one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, and provided the common source for both Confucianist and Taoist philosophy.

Wilhelm's rendering of the I Ching into German, published in 1924, presented it for the 1st time in a form intelligible to the general reader. Wilhelm, who translated many other ancient Chinese works and who wrote several books on Chinese philosophy and civilization, long resided in China. His close association with its cultural leaders gave him a unique understanding of the text of the I Ching. In the English translation, every effort has been made to preserve Wilhelm's pioneering insight into the spirit of the original.

This 3rd edition, completely reset, contains a new forward by Hellmut Wilhelm, one of the most eminent American scholars of Chinese culture. He discusses his father's textual methods and summarizes recent studies of the I Ching both in the West and in present-day China. The new edition contains minor textual corrections, bibliographical revisions and an index.]]> 740 Anonymous 069109750X amf 4

The I Ching has been a looming interest of mine since studying Eastern philosophy decades ago. The oracle felt too complicated to want to delve deeper, however, too many references to it as of late peaked my curiosity. This seems like a solid book, however, I remain cautious with translations and interpretations by outsiders that explore socio-cultural and philosophical matters. Even those with the greatest respect for another's cultural practices and philosophies can unknowingly bring their own biases and cultural ignorance. ]]> 4.19 -850 The I Ching or Book of Changes
author: Anonymous
name: amf
average rating: 4.19
book published: -850
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/23
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves:
review:
Wilhelm shares his scholarship and quest to make this a tangible translation for the West when there was not one. It details the history of how the oracle came to rise in Chinese culture and ways it was used by various rulers and visionaries over the centuries. There is a deep dive into the trigrams (yin & yang lines), the ten wings, and the evolution of interpretation.The yarrow sticks and coin method are briefly discussed in this text, but the methodologies are not the focus.


The I Ching has been a looming interest of mine since studying Eastern philosophy decades ago. The oracle felt too complicated to want to delve deeper, however, too many references to it as of late peaked my curiosity. This seems like a solid book, however, I remain cautious with translations and interpretations by outsiders that explore socio-cultural and philosophical matters. Even those with the greatest respect for another's cultural practices and philosophies can unknowingly bring their own biases and cultural ignorance.
]]> Bad Feminist 18813642 Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.

In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today. The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.

Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.

Feel me, see me, hear me, reach me --
Peculiar benefits --
Typical first year professor --
To scratch, claw or grope clumsily or frantically --
How to be friends with another woman --
Girls, girls, girls --
I once was Miss America --
Garish, glorious spectacles --
Not here to make friends --
How we all lose --
Reaching for catharsis : getting fat right (or wrong) and Diana Spechler's Skinny --
The smooth surfaces of idyll --
The careless language of sexual violence --
What we hunger for --
The illusion of safety/the safety of illusion --
The spectacle of broken men --
A tale of three coming out stories --
Beyond the measure of men --
Some jokes are funnier than others --
Dear young ladies who love Chris Brown --
So much they would let him beat them --
Blurred lines, indeed --
The trouble with Prince Charming, or, He who trespassed against us --
The solace of preparing fried foods and other quaint remembrances from 1960s Mississippi : thoughts on The help --
Surviving Django --
Beyond the struggle narrative --
The morality of Tyler Perry --
The last day of a young black man --
When less is more --
The politics of respectability --
When Twitter does what journalism cannot --
The alienable rights of women --
Holding out for a hero --
A tale of two profiles --
The racism we all carry --
Tragedy, call, compassion, response --
Bad feminist : take one --
Bad feminist : take two]]> 320 Roxane Gay 0062282719 amf 0 3.93 2014 Bad Feminist
author: Roxane Gay
name: amf
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Stay True 59900070 New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art.

In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken--with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity--is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes 'zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to. The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn't seem to have a place for either of them.

But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the textbook successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.

Determined to hold on to all that was left of one of his closest friends--his memories--Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he's been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.]]> 208 Hua Hsu 0385547773 amf 3
This felt like a very brief foray that starts whimsical and ends quite somberly. Hsu is relational in his writing and one is able to sit on the sidelines without much struggle to track his exploration of the past. As someone who grew up in the Midwest and is of relative age to the author, the 90s pop culture and phenomena Hsu unpacks was a Gen X walk down memory lane. Having lost friends in my late 20s and early 30s, I related to the grief that Hsu explores. I appreciated the insight into Hsu's world and hope that this book allowed him space to further process the loss of Ken.]]> 4.01 2022 Stay True
author: Hua Hsu
name: amf
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves:
review:
Listened to this memoir read by the author. Hua Hsu provides insight into personal experiences as an Asian American growing up in CA while having one of his parents (father) continue to keep residence in Taiwan. Hsu revisits his coming of age during the 90s through a socio-cultural lens with a heavy focus on his college years. In college, he meets Ken, a Japanese-American, who seems a bit Hsu's nemesis yet becomes one of his closest friends. To everyone's horror, especially Hsu's, Ken is killed in a carjacking on a night that Hsu had been with him at a party and decides to leave. The last few chapters explore survivors guilt and the natural struggles that Hsu has as he copes with this deep loss.

This felt like a very brief foray that starts whimsical and ends quite somberly. Hsu is relational in his writing and one is able to sit on the sidelines without much struggle to track his exploration of the past. As someone who grew up in the Midwest and is of relative age to the author, the 90s pop culture and phenomena Hsu unpacks was a Gen X walk down memory lane. Having lost friends in my late 20s and early 30s, I related to the grief that Hsu explores. I appreciated the insight into Hsu's world and hope that this book allowed him space to further process the loss of Ken.
]]> <![CDATA[Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir]]> 49985046
In Recollections of My Nonexistence, Rebecca Solnit describes her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, in an atmosphere of gender violence on the street and throughout society and the exclusion of women from cultural arenas. She tells of being poor, hopeful, and adrift in the city that became her great teacher; of the small apartment that, when she was nineteen, became the home in which she transformed herself; of how punk rock gave form and voice to her own fury and explosive energy.

Solnit recounts how she came to recognize the epidemic of violence against women around her, the street harassment that unsettled her, the trauma that changed her, and the authority figures who routinely disdained and disbelieved girls and women, including her. Looking back, she sees all these as consequences of the voicelessness that was and still is the ordinary condition of women, and how she contended with that while becoming a writer and a public voice for women’s rights.

She explores the forces that liberated her as a person and as a writer—books themselves, the gay men around her who offered other visions of what gender, family, and joy could be, and her eventual arrival in the spacious landscapes and overlooked conflicts of the American West. These influences taught her how to write in the way she has ever since, and gave her a voice that has resonated with and empowered many others.]]> 256 Rebecca Solnit 0593083334 amf 4 4.22 2020 Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: amf
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves:
review:
Rebecca Solnit traveled an independent, solitary road in her late teens and early 20s which set the foundation for her sociopolitical-cultural commentary that has gained traction over the last two decades. This memoir made me realize that I'd be a different person today if I'd encountered more brave women friends like Solnit in my early 20s. This brief book offers glimpses into Solnit living in San Francisco as a struggling independent student turned writer while the world of sexism, racism, and homophobia took shape around her in various districts throughout San Francisco and the country. She unpacks what it means to be a female writer in an industry dominated by white males. She understands her privilege of being white, but more times than not, being female created more closed doors than open ones when she was starting out. As a reader who is middle aged, nothing in this book is new or shocking, however, it is an apt reminder of where we have been, where we are now, and that the gains can quickly dissipate in a society that still heralds the patriarchy as the high court of North America. Women continue to fight for existence in the US, especially if Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQIA+. First Solnit book I've listened to...will not be my last.
]]> <![CDATA[Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now]]> 43605871 Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now, travels from Washington DC to Iowa City to Hong Kong in search of both individual and national identity. While displaying tenderness and a disarming honesty, Perry catalogs racial degradations committed on the campuses of elite universities and liberal bastions like San Francisco while coming of age in America.

The essays in Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now take the form of personal reflection, multiple choice questions, screenplays, and imagined talk-show conversations, while traversing the daily minefields of childhood schoolyards and midwestern dive-bars. The impression of Perry’s personal journey is arresting and beguiling, while announcing the author’s arrival as a formidable American voice.]]> 184 Andre Perry 1937512835 amf 4
While living in IC, Perry's name came up because he has done a lot since his WW shop days. He has revamped a major independent arts venue and has recently been appointed the Director of a major performing arts venue associated with the University. I became curious about Perry's perspective on IC, especially since he decided to stay all these years later. That mystery was not solved, however, his ability to re-energize two performing art centers in this town makes a lot of sense after reading his quips on various music genres and cultural scenes. Perry has excellent, eclectic taste and approaches art culture writing very briefly.]]> 4.18 2019 Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now
author: Andre Perry
name: amf
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:
3.5 Andre Perry offers a glimpse into his 20s & 30s through the lens of race and culture. Readers meet Perry in his 20s while he is living in San Fransisco as a struggling writer & band member. He reflects on living in several of the districts around San Fransisco in the early aughts as a creative and as a Black man. Perry becomes Midwest bound to continue his writing at UIowa Writers Workshop program. It is here where he unpacks several experiences of being a Black man in a state that is 90 percent white. He shares the nuances of Iowa City, a liberal oasis in a conservative state, that is still far from progressive when it comes to white folks addressing their own racism. Perry takes the reader along on his many benders, which offer insight into the times and how Perry navigates his internal tensions with becoming a writer and feelings of being an outsider. The writing style is conversational, descriptive, and deeply honest.

While living in IC, Perry's name came up because he has done a lot since his WW shop days. He has revamped a major independent arts venue and has recently been appointed the Director of a major performing arts venue associated with the University. I became curious about Perry's perspective on IC, especially since he decided to stay all these years later. That mystery was not solved, however, his ability to re-energize two performing art centers in this town makes a lot of sense after reading his quips on various music genres and cultural scenes. Perry has excellent, eclectic taste and approaches art culture writing very briefly.
]]> <![CDATA[Leaping Poetry: An Idea with Poems and Translations]]> 493511 93 Robert Bly 0807063932 amf 0 4.16 1975 Leaping Poetry: An Idea with Poems and Translations
author: Robert Bly
name: amf
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When We Cease to Understand the World]]> 62069739
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature

A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining.

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction.Ěý

Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger—these are some of luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the reader, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear.

At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.]]> 193 BenjamĂ­n Labatut amf 5 4.10 2020 When We Cease to Understand the World
author: BenjamĂ­n Labatut
name: amf
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves:
review:
Labatut does an amazing job weaving the scientific with the humanistic narrative to produce what reads like non-fiction until you realize some characters go too deep into the shadows. I remain intrigued with several of the biographic narratives and look forward to finding out where exactly the edges of reality got blurred by Labatut. I began to question if this approach was a clever metaphor for quantum physics. For folks that enjoyed this read, I highly recommend reading the play, "Copenhagen" by Frayen. It, too, offers a great deal of fact about the discoveries by two physicists, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, but zeroes in on what was possibly discussed during their historic, secret conversation in 1941 in Nazi occupied Copenhagen.
]]> <![CDATA[The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself]]> 26150770
In short chapters filled with intriguing historical anecdotes, personal asides, and rigorous exposition, readers learn the difference between how the world works at the quantum level, the cosmic level, and the human level--and then how each connects to the other. ĚýCarroll's presentation of the principles that have guided the scientific revolution from Darwin and Einstein to the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe is dazzlingly unique.

Carroll shows how an avalanche of discoveries in the past few hundred years has changed our world and what really matters to us. Our lives are dwarfed like never before by the immensity of space and time, but they are redeemed by our capacity to comprehend it and give it meaning.

The Big Picture is an unprecedented scientific worldview, a tour de force that will sit on shelves alongside the works of Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Daniel Dennett, and E. O. Wilson for years to come.]]> 480 Sean Carroll 0525954821 amf 0
Carroll's book concludes on a note of open acceptance that there will be those who will want to reject naturalism, specifically poetic naturalism, because of their inclination toward supernaturalism. It isn't that I reject it per se, but I'm bothered that Carroll has coined this term, poetic naturalism, which in itself is a human construct, ergo, is that any different from what his argues against? Or is this the messy byproduct of a physicists who delves into philosophy and then tries to create a bridge by dipping into quite a few different concepts/theories/models to support a point that cannot really be proven.

Bottom line, I'm glad I read it because I now desire to explore more science and math texts to broaden my small brain horizons - I remember reading about string theory 20 years ago and being blown away. Books like this remind me that this is why schools in the US NEED to be teaching more critical thinking skills, not less. ]]> 4.18 2016 The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
author: Sean Carroll
name: amf
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/30
date added: 2024/06/30
shelves:
review:
Cannot assign stars to this because I listened to it at 1.85x and it has been years since I've delved into the sciences. That said, and to make Carroll cringe, it seems the universe was aligned with my intentions because at the same time I became intrigued with the play "Copenhagen" when at the local library which in turn had me finally watch "Oppenheimer". Anyhoo, a couple of weeks later and synchronicity a la Jung not Carroll has me reading Sagan, Feynman, and Hoftsadter. It is ALL above my pay grade, however, it has also broadened my first opinions about Carroll's book.

Carroll's book concludes on a note of open acceptance that there will be those who will want to reject naturalism, specifically poetic naturalism, because of their inclination toward supernaturalism. It isn't that I reject it per se, but I'm bothered that Carroll has coined this term, poetic naturalism, which in itself is a human construct, ergo, is that any different from what his argues against? Or is this the messy byproduct of a physicists who delves into philosophy and then tries to create a bridge by dipping into quite a few different concepts/theories/models to support a point that cannot really be proven.

Bottom line, I'm glad I read it because I now desire to explore more science and math texts to broaden my small brain horizons - I remember reading about string theory 20 years ago and being blown away. Books like this remind me that this is why schools in the US NEED to be teaching more critical thinking skills, not less.
]]> Copenhagen 435488 132 Michael Frayn 0385720793 amf 4 As for the nuts and bolts of the play, it is a reflective cataloguing of events that happened between Bohr (Team occupied Denmark & seen as the mentor/father figure) and Heisenberg (Team Germany & the mentee/son) regarding the atomic bomb with an interesting narration by Bohr's wife, Margrethe, who helps us navigate the humanistic-philosophical implications of these dialogues. Fryan's postscript goes on for many pages explaining his approach and the texts he relied on to formulate what could have been the dialogue during the historic 1941 Copenhagen visit. While this is a play and not a historic account, it alludes to the fact that all historic accounts, even when the dialogue can be recanted by those in attendance, tends to become subject to memory and distortion.|
Sidebar - this play was made into a film and can be found online. On a personal note, I happened to be reading this when Prime released Oppenheimer, which is notable because I rarely go to films so had not seen it. Let me say that this allowed me to look at the turn of events of the Manhattan Project with a really different perspective. I look forward to reading more in-depth accounts, but overall I remain disturbed by the lack of forethought by all the players.]]> 3.90 1998 Copenhagen
author: Michael Frayn
name: amf
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves:
review:
Roaming around the 800s at the local library looking for something else I found this play. I couldn't resist the premise despite taking not a one physics course in my day. Frayn is a master at his craft and research, ergo, after reading this play and the postscript, I've a greater grasp on the evolution of quantum physics and a great many questions about the ethical implications involved with the creation of the A-bomb.
As for the nuts and bolts of the play, it is a reflective cataloguing of events that happened between Bohr (Team occupied Denmark & seen as the mentor/father figure) and Heisenberg (Team Germany & the mentee/son) regarding the atomic bomb with an interesting narration by Bohr's wife, Margrethe, who helps us navigate the humanistic-philosophical implications of these dialogues. Fryan's postscript goes on for many pages explaining his approach and the texts he relied on to formulate what could have been the dialogue during the historic 1941 Copenhagen visit. While this is a play and not a historic account, it alludes to the fact that all historic accounts, even when the dialogue can be recanted by those in attendance, tends to become subject to memory and distortion.|
Sidebar - this play was made into a film and can be found online. On a personal note, I happened to be reading this when Prime released Oppenheimer, which is notable because I rarely go to films so had not seen it. Let me say that this allowed me to look at the turn of events of the Manhattan Project with a really different perspective. I look forward to reading more in-depth accounts, but overall I remain disturbed by the lack of forethought by all the players.
]]> <![CDATA[The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire]]> 133938687
Within every woman lies a powerful a vibrant, sizzling spirit that lives life to the fullest. For so many of us, the burdens of responsibility, caretaking, and social expectations cause us to bury this essential part of ourselves under six feet of niceness. Yet as Jungian analyst Lisa Marchiano says, “Our inner flame of embodied wisdom, sharp-witted cunning, burning passion, and empowered confidence is never truly extinguished.� With The Vital Spark , she invites us on an immersive journey to reclaim the split-off parts of ourselves that enliven and rejuvenate us―and allow us to become who we were meant to be.

Combining personal stories, intercultural mythology, and guidance for inner exploration, Marchiano shares invaluable resources for breaking free from the conditioning that has kept us confined to rigid roles and muffled the sound of our souls. Here she invites us to explore eight core aspects of shrewdness, disagreeableness, desire, trickiness, sexuality, anger, authority, and ruthlessness. Each chapter reinforces the truth of our relentlessly human narrative in the truest sense―allowing us to retrieve our “outlaw� energies, our discarded talents, and the deepest parts of our authentic selves.

“When we try to domesticate our wild, assertive, and liberated spirit,� says Marchiano, “she flies away to some shadowy part of our soul, where she waits for us to find her again. Though she can be a bit savage and uncivilized, she is also the very best of us―and what we need to become whole.� The Vital Spark is a guide to recovering our courageous inner spirit so we can access her wisdom, her fire, and her burning aliveness.]]> 272 Lisa Marchiano 1649631006 amf 0
Marchiano uses feminine centered fairytales from various global cultures to illustrate her points about feminine complexes and their shadows. Many will sound familiar, especially if one has read any of Clarissa Pinkola Estés writings. As someone who has entered the early stages of the second half of life, and who is bent on getting friendly with my shadow side, this book was quite illuminating. Chapters cover archetypes on the trickster, authority, anger, shrewdness, and many more. Marchiano uses her therapy client's presented issues as a pushing off point to then insert an appropriate fairytale to narrate a way to understand aspects of shadow and psyche at play. These non-saccharine tales are an entertaining tool that really helped me to have a couple of a-ha moments about my own approach to life. Marchiano is an excellent storyteller in her own right and keeps Jungian jargon to a minimum without losing the depth of her analysis.]]> 4.46 The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire
author: Lisa Marchiano
name: amf
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
review:
Lisa Marchiano is one of the three Jungian analysts that offer context to everyday life and everynight dreams through the lens of depth psychology in a podcast called, This Jungian Life. I happened to listen recently and Marchiano's book was mentioned, so here we are after a visit to the local library's Libby app to give it a listen.

Marchiano uses feminine centered fairytales from various global cultures to illustrate her points about feminine complexes and their shadows. Many will sound familiar, especially if one has read any of Clarissa Pinkola Estés writings. As someone who has entered the early stages of the second half of life, and who is bent on getting friendly with my shadow side, this book was quite illuminating. Chapters cover archetypes on the trickster, authority, anger, shrewdness, and many more. Marchiano uses her therapy client's presented issues as a pushing off point to then insert an appropriate fairytale to narrate a way to understand aspects of shadow and psyche at play. These non-saccharine tales are an entertaining tool that really helped me to have a couple of a-ha moments about my own approach to life. Marchiano is an excellent storyteller in her own right and keeps Jungian jargon to a minimum without losing the depth of her analysis.
]]> <![CDATA[Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life]]> 9963483 199 Richard Rohr 0470907754 amf 3
This was recommended to me by a spiritual director as I am on what I can only call a quest after a recent job loss. I fit the age demographic, but was reluctant because I've read Rohr's essays in the past and they often reflect a more dogmatic view than I favor, or perhaps it was simply I couldn't get around his word choices. This book is far from dogmatic and delves into many faith traditions. Rohr does not shy away from owning his own opinions/reflections on the Catholic church and its faults. However, this should not matter to Catholics and/or Christians because faith is never about the organized religion and everything to do with Jesus...trust me, Rohr is a big fan. He will also be the first to remind the reader that all the prophets tell us that we must never go by blind faith, so to read something a bit slant from my own biases allows me to explore my own internal compass.

I think this book is an apt reminder of the dualistic nature of how we often formulate our beliefs in contrast to the over arching non-dualistic nature of the Divine. Rohr provides fresh insight on how to embrace a more through-line way of looking at our life and how we are in relation to all that is. He also gave me a bit of solace as I search for meaningful work and life direction. It is a cautionary tale to pay attention when you sense that there is MORE to your life than how you've been approaching it because that means there is more to explore in a contemplative way. To help that exploration, one might try Thomas Merton's "New Seeds of Contemplation"(I'm listening to the newest edition). Peace, and enjoy this one precious life :) (a little Mary Oliver to close things out)]]> 4.21 2004 Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
author: Richard Rohr
name: amf
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves:
review:
3.75 stars...only because now I'm reading Thomas Merton, who is considering some of the same topics, ergo, I realize Rohr is too easy on us readers.

This was recommended to me by a spiritual director as I am on what I can only call a quest after a recent job loss. I fit the age demographic, but was reluctant because I've read Rohr's essays in the past and they often reflect a more dogmatic view than I favor, or perhaps it was simply I couldn't get around his word choices. This book is far from dogmatic and delves into many faith traditions. Rohr does not shy away from owning his own opinions/reflections on the Catholic church and its faults. However, this should not matter to Catholics and/or Christians because faith is never about the organized religion and everything to do with Jesus...trust me, Rohr is a big fan. He will also be the first to remind the reader that all the prophets tell us that we must never go by blind faith, so to read something a bit slant from my own biases allows me to explore my own internal compass.

I think this book is an apt reminder of the dualistic nature of how we often formulate our beliefs in contrast to the over arching non-dualistic nature of the Divine. Rohr provides fresh insight on how to embrace a more through-line way of looking at our life and how we are in relation to all that is. He also gave me a bit of solace as I search for meaningful work and life direction. It is a cautionary tale to pay attention when you sense that there is MORE to your life than how you've been approaching it because that means there is more to explore in a contemplative way. To help that exploration, one might try Thomas Merton's "New Seeds of Contemplation"(I'm listening to the newest edition). Peace, and enjoy this one precious life :) (a little Mary Oliver to close things out)
]]> <![CDATA[From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time]]> 6371455 A rising star in theoretical physics offers his awesome vision of our universe and beyond, all beginning with a simple question: Why does time move forward?

Time moves forward, not backward, everyone knows you can’t unscramble an egg. In the hands of one of today’s hottest young physicists, that simple fact of breakfast becomes a doorway to understanding the Big Bang, the universe, and other universes, too. In From Eternity to Here, Sean Carroll argues that the arrow of time, pointing resolutely from the past to the future, owes its existence to conditions before the Big Bang itself, a period modern cosmology of which Einstein never dreamed. Increasingly, though, physicists are going out into realms that make the theory of relativity seem like child’s play. Carroll’s scenario is not only elegant, it’s laid out in the same easy-to- understand language that has made his group blog, Cosmic Variance, the most popular physics blog on the Net.

From Eternity to Here uses ideas at the cutting edge of theoretical physics to explore how properties of spacetime before the Big Bang can explain the flow of time we experience in our everyday lives. Carroll suggests that we live in a baby universe, part of a large family of universes in which many of our siblings experience an arrow of time running in the opposite direction. It’s an ambitious, fascinating picture of the universe on an ultra-large scale, one that will captivate fans of popular physics blockbusters like Elegant Universe and A Brief History of Time.]]> 447 Sean Carroll 0525951334 amf 0 to-read 4.05 2009 From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time
author: Sean Carroll
name: amf
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Playwriting: Structure, Character, How and What to Write]]> 44130025
Playwriting reveals the various invisible frameworks and mechanisms that are at the heart of each and every successful play. Drawing on a huge range of sources, it deconstructs playwriting into its constituent parts, and offers illuminating insights into:

Structure an in-depth exploration of the fundamental elements of drama, enabling you to choose instinctively the most effective structure for your play
Character advice on how to generate and write credible characters by exploring their three essential dimensions: story, breadth and depth
How to Write techniques for writing great dialogue, dynamic scenes and compelling subtext, including how to improve your writing by approaching it from unfamiliar directions
What to Write how to adopt different approaches to finding your material, how to explore the fundamental 'Nine Stories', and how to evaluate the potential of your ideas
Written by a true master of the craft, this authoritative guide will provide playwrights at every level of experience with a rich array of tools to apply to their own work.

This edition, edited by Maeve McKeown, includes a Foreword by April De Angelis.]]> 224 Stephen Jeffreys 1848427905 amf 0 to-read 4.62 Playwriting: Structure, Character, How and What to Write
author: Stephen Jeffreys
name: amf
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Life of Meaning: Exploring Our Deepest Questions and Motivations]]> 50403429 A Masterful Author and Jungian Analyst Examines the Qualities that Bring Meaning to Our Human Journey

What is it that brings meaning to your life? Our culture tells us to seek wealth, power, prestige, or even enrollment in someone else’s idea of a worthy cause—yet where do we turn when these myths fail to fulfill our need for purpose? “When the old stories and beliefs that once defined us have played out and grown exhausted,� teaches Dr. James Hollis, “our task is to access our inner compass, the promptings of the psyche that help us find our way through the complex thickets of choice.�

Investigate the Mystery of Your Existence Through the Portal of Depth Psychology

A Life of Meaning is a profound audio exploration of the nature of meaning and how we can orient toward it or away from it with the choices we make. Through examination of myth, literature, historical figures, and the wisdom of depth psychology, Hollis provides penetrating insight into the search for purpose. Here you’ll explore:

� How our story-seeking mind forms our sense of meaning from early experience
� Why these early stories inevitably fail as we are called to our own path
� Skillfully accessing the inner oracle of your dreams
� Shadow work—where we fear to tread, yet where our greatest treasures may be found
� Missing the mark—examining the archetype of the Seven Deadly Sins through a psychological lens
� Dispelling the “ghosts� that haunt our memories and possess our psyche
� Finding personal resilience in times of internal and external change
� Living more fully in the presence of our mortality
� Guidance for coming into alignment with your soul’s abiding quest for meaning at any stage of your life

Nobody else can provide you with a sense of meaning. Anyone who tries is attempting to enroll you in their own version. In A Life of Meaning, James Hollis offers no easy answers or feel-good certainties—instead, he shares his most valuable questions and reflections to help you find the courage, persistence, and inspiration to navigate your own odyssey. “It’s humbling work, this process of getting our lives back,� he teaches. “Yet I submit to you that's worth the price of the ticket, for in the journey our lives become ever more luminous.”]]> 0 James Hollis 1683646169 amf 4 4.38 2020 A Life of Meaning: Exploring Our Deepest Questions and Motivations
author: James Hollis
name: amf
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics]]> 40630082
With "Wild Mercy", Mirabai shares the subversive wisdom and fierce compassion of the feminine mystic across cultural boundaries and throughout history. From saints and sages, to goddesses and archetypal energies, to contemporary teachers and seekers—you’ll meet women who blazed a path that will illuminate your own.

Each chapter explores a different facet of feminine mysticism through a tapestry of teachings, reflections, and stories, along with a practice for integrating the chapter’s themes into your own life. As you journey through these pages, you’ll explore: Taking refuge in contemplative practice with St. Teresa of Avila and the Shekinah

� Longing, embodiment, and union as the heart of feminine spiritual practice with the Hindu poet Mirabai and Mary Magdalene
� Your relationship with the Earth, motherhood in all its forms, and a loving call to action alongside Gaia and Ix Chel
� Community and the web of life with Indra, the Beguines, and female prophets throughout history
� Wild, playful, and compassionate mercy with Tara and Kuan Yin
� Finding joy in creativity and the arts with Saraswati and Chiyo-ni
� More inspiration from archetypal goddesses and amazing women past and present—Julian of Norwich, the Sufi saint Rabia, Pachamama, Sophia, Old Spider Woman, Hildegard of Bingen, Demeter, Kali, and more

"Wild Mercy" provides a much-needed alternative to the models of religion and spirituality that have dominated history. Here, Mirabai invites you to welcome the wisdom of women back into the collective field where it may transform the human family, heal the ravaged Earth, and awaken the divine love in our hearts.]]> 264 Mirabai Starr 1683641566 amf 3 4.22 2019 Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics
author: Mirabai Starr
name: amf
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/26
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza]]> 59418414 Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry

These poems emerge directly from the experience of growing up and living one’s entire life in Gaza, making a life for one’s family and raising a family in constant lockdown, and often under direct attack.

In this poetry debut, conceived during the Israeli bombing campaign of May 2021, Mosab Abu Toha writes about his life under siege, first as a child, and then as a young father. A survivor of four brutal military attacks, he bears witness to a grinding cycle of destruction and assault, and yet, his poetry is inspired by a profoundly universal humanity.

In direct, vivid language, Abu Toha tells of being wounded by shrapnel at the age of 16 and, a few years later, watching his home and his university get hit by IDF warplanes in a bombing campaign that killed two of his closest friends. These poems are filled with rubble and the ever-present menace of surveillance drones policing a people unwelcome in their own land, and they are also suffused with the smell of tea, roses in bloom, and the view of the sea at sunset. Children are born, families continue traditions, students attend university, and libraries rise from the ruins as Palestinians go on about their lives, creating beauty and finding new ways to survive.]]> 144 Mosab Abu Toha 0872868605 amf 5 4.74 2022 Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza
author: Mosab Abu Toha
name: amf
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/26
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves:
review:

]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett amf 5 4.47 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: amf
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/05/19
shelves:
review:
James is a book one reads and already sees it projected onto the big screen. As a reluctant fiction reader I will honestly say that it has been what I've look forward to returning to every night. If I still led book clubs, this would be my book of the year with a discussion that would run over the allotted time. Percival Everett is genius.
]]> <![CDATA[Body and Mind Are One: A Training in Mindfulness]]> 16202066 An Unparalleled Training in Mindfulness with Thich Nhat HanhWhen your body and mind work together as one, you are fully and naturally present in the moment. This is the essence of mindfulness practice—allowing us to touch the wonders of life in the here and now. Body and Mind Are One is at once a practical teaching series covering fundamental Buddhist principles for a joyful life and a living transmission of insight from beloved Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who has practiced, shared, and lived this profound wisdom for over seven decades.Your The Bridge between Mind and BodyIn our hectic modern world, many of us race from one to-do to the next, planning this and worrying about that. Thoughts and unconscious habits often consume us, numbing us to our true experience and to the suffering we create for ourselves and those around us. The Buddha taught how to break this cycle and come home to our bodies—and to the wonders of life found only in the present moment. Your breath is the key. On Body and Mind Are One, Thich Nhat Hanh teaches you the Buddha's exercises for using your breath to cease internal conflict, release tension and anxiety, and become aware of the conditions for happiness and freedom that are always available.The Greatest of All Miracles"Through mindfulness," teaches Thich Nhat Hanh, "we can recognize the miracle of being alive, and that is the greatest of all miracles." Experience the wise and healing presence of this unsurpassed teacher, as breath by breath, you follow his simple guidance into what he calls, "The Pure Land of the Buddha, the Kingdom of God, in the here and the now." life-changing energies of mindfulness, concentration, and insight Your presence, the greatest gift you can offer the world Being the first aim of meditation The meaning of emptiness, impermanence, and interbeing Touching the Buddha within you Transforming discrimination, fear, anger, and other inner afflictions Karma as actions of thought, speech, and body The Buddha's exercises for mindful breathing How to nourish the seeds of compassion and lovingkindness within you The Five Mindfulness Trainings as concrete guidelines for reducing suffering and increasing our happiness and true freedom Course Summarize and practice the Buddha's exercises for mindful breathing Define the meaning of emptiness, impermanence, and interbeing Discuss the life-changing energies of mindfulness, concentration, and insight Practice touching the Buddha within you—nourishing the seeds of compassion and lovingkindness Define the Five Mindfulness Trainings as concrete guidelines for reducing suffering and increasing happiness and true freedom]]> 0 Thich Nhat Hanh 1604078545 amf 4 4.16 2013 Body and Mind Are One: A Training in Mindfulness
author: Thich Nhat Hanh
name: amf
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/05/16
shelves:
review:
Listening to Thich Nhat Hanh is meditation itself. If one needs to be convinced that mindfulness is the way to compassion and oneness...just listen. Each session has wisdom teachings that remind us of our humanness, our fragility, and our ability to find joy. Nothing is ever rejected or sugar-coated, anger is not the enemy, nor is sorrow. I think what I loved the most was when he'd remind spouses to share their hurts, he'd always use "darling" and it brought a smile because of the love in his voice. ~
]]> The Selected Shepherd 161627194 168 Reginald Shepherd 0822948214 amf 0 to-read 4.11 The Selected Shepherd
author: Reginald Shepherd
name: amf
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Courting the Wild Twin 53041206 Master mythologist Martin Shaw uses timeless story-wisdom to examine our broken relationship with the world.

There is an old legend that says we each have a wild, curious twin that was thrown out the window the night we were born, taking much of our vitality with them. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on Earth, we can be sure that the wild twin is holding the key.

In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild twin––a metaphor for the part of ourselves that we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms––to invite them back into our consciousness, for they have something important to tell us. He challenges us to examine our broken relationship with the world, to think boldly, wildly, and in new ways about ourselves—as individuals and as a collective.

Through the use of scholarship, storytelling, and personal reflection, Shaw unpacks two ancient European fairy tales that concern the mysterious wild twin. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he suggests we can restore our agency and confront modern challenges with purpose, courage, and creativity.

Courting the Wild Twin is a declaration of literary activism and an antidote to the shallow thinking that typifies our age. Shaw asks us to recognize mythology as a secret weapon—a radical, beautiful, heart-shuddering agent of deep, lasting change.]]> 128 Martin Shaw 1603589503 amf 3 4.27 Courting the Wild Twin
author: Martin Shaw
name: amf
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice]]> 143273 The Judgment for her in one night of feverish activity. Kafka always inferred to the traumatic, public breaking-off of their engagement as his "tribunal," and indeed he began work on The TrialĚýwithin a month of that event.

Kafka's letters to Felice offer rare insights into the writer's life and art. Elias Canetti's brilliant and sensitive examination of this moving correspondence to shows is the origins of Kafka's voice as a writer and his torment as a man.]]> 126 Elias Canetti 0805207058 amf 0 to-read 4.06 1969 Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice
author: Elias Canetti
name: amf
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gospel of Wildflowers and Weeds: Poems (Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series)]]> 60881625 96 Orlando Ricardo Menes 0826363997 amf 0 to-read 4.33 The Gospel of Wildflowers and Weeds: Poems (Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series)
author: Orlando Ricardo Menes
name: amf
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Antipoems: How to Look Better and Feel Great]]> 572207 Antipoems, the first twenty-three are taken from Parra's 1985 collection, Hojas de Parra ("Vine Leaves" or "Leaves of Parra"), two others appeared in his Paginas en Blanco ("Blank Pages," 2001), while the rest come straight out of his notebooks and have never been published before, either in Spanish or English. The book itself is divided into two parts, "Antipoems" (im)proper and a selection of Parra's most recent incarnation of the antipoem, the hand-drawn images of his "Visual Artefactos."


As his anti-translator Liz Werner explains in her Introduction, Parra's scientific training infuses his work. "Viewed through the lens of antimatter," she writes, "antipoetry mirrors poetry, not as its adversary but as its perfect complement."]]> 144 Nicanor Parra 0811215970 amf 0 to-read 4.26 Antipoems: How to Look Better and Feel Great
author: Nicanor Parra
name: amf
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life]]> 57800575 A remarkable exploration of the therapeutic relationship, Dr. Mark Epstein reflects on one year's worth of therapy sessions with his patients to observe how his training in Western psychotherapy and his equally long investigation into Buddhism, in tandem, led to greater awareness - for his patients, and for himself.

For years, Dr. Mark Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. Content to use his training in mindfulness as a private resource, he trusted that the Buddhist influence could, and should, remain invisible. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings, he was surprised to learn how many were eager to learn more. The divisions between the psychological, emotional, and the spiritual, he soon realized, were not as distinct as one might think.

In The Zen of Therapy, Dr. Epstein reflects on a year's worth of selected sessions with his patients and observes how, in the incidental details of a given hour, his Buddhist background influences the way he works. Meditation and psychotherapy each encourage a willingness to face life's difficulties with courage that can be hard to otherwise muster, and in this cross-section of life in his office, he emphasizes how therapy, an element of Western medicine, can in fact be considered a two-person meditation. Mindfulness, too, much like a good therapist, can "hold" our awareness for us--and allow us to come to our senses and find inner peace.

Throughout this deeply personal inquiry, one which weaves together the wisdom of two worlds, Dr. Epstein illuminates the therapy relationship as spiritual friendship, and reveals how a therapist can help patients cultivate the sense that there is something magical, something wonderful, and something to trust running through our lives, no matter how fraught they have been or might become. For when we realize how readily we have misinterpreted our selves, when we stop clinging to our falsely conceived constructs, when we touch the ground of being, we come home.]]> 320 Mark Epstein 0593296613 amf 4 I'm fascinated by all the topics, ergo, this was an immersive exploration into how Epstein approaches the therapy room dialogue through the lens of a profoundly educated practitioner of mindfulness. I was specifically curious how he applied the concept of no-self or non dualism when many of us arrive at our therapy sessions driven by a cartesian construct. It was refreshing exploration, and most of the sessions shared are relatable without getting too bogged down. For this reader, what helps is his references to Winnicott, an UK psychoanalyst and pediatrician, who paved the way for developmental psych. and is known for the oft cited "good enough mother" theory. Winnicott's ways of knowing draw an interesting parallel to Buddhist philosophy when Epstein is at the helm. All that to say, that this novice reader on the ways of Winnicott and/or Buddhism would not have been able to see the links. Another amazing association Epstein uses throughout is John Cage. Cage popping up was a bit of a surprise, however, having read a bit of Cage years ago, it makes sense as Cage delved into practices that were Zen in nature (his use of the I Ching when composing music is a common reference).
Epstein's use of koans throughout the book were a delight. He never leaves the reader hanging as to their meaning, or at least how he is using them to thread a narrative. Another delight is a few brief cameos with Ram Dass. It isn't that I'm a huge Ram Dass reader or fan, it is the way Ram Dass's wisdom and character are brought forth, especially in the end, to offer the reader a bit of levity. "See yourself as a soul" or "Do you see them as already free? (Ram Dass asked Epstein that once regarding his patients) are used several times in the book and they resonated.
If your curious about the intersection of insight meditation, Tibetan buddhism, & western psychotherapy in application to the mind/body/spirit conundrum this might be the book for you.]]> 3.89 2022 The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life
author: Mark Epstein
name: amf
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/05/02
shelves:
review:
Epstein is a gifted weaver of psychotherapy, Buddhist philosophy, and personal narrative, ergo, a reader with an interest in any or all of these topics will walk away seeing a broader horizon.
I'm fascinated by all the topics, ergo, this was an immersive exploration into how Epstein approaches the therapy room dialogue through the lens of a profoundly educated practitioner of mindfulness. I was specifically curious how he applied the concept of no-self or non dualism when many of us arrive at our therapy sessions driven by a cartesian construct. It was refreshing exploration, and most of the sessions shared are relatable without getting too bogged down. For this reader, what helps is his references to Winnicott, an UK psychoanalyst and pediatrician, who paved the way for developmental psych. and is known for the oft cited "good enough mother" theory. Winnicott's ways of knowing draw an interesting parallel to Buddhist philosophy when Epstein is at the helm. All that to say, that this novice reader on the ways of Winnicott and/or Buddhism would not have been able to see the links. Another amazing association Epstein uses throughout is John Cage. Cage popping up was a bit of a surprise, however, having read a bit of Cage years ago, it makes sense as Cage delved into practices that were Zen in nature (his use of the I Ching when composing music is a common reference).
Epstein's use of koans throughout the book were a delight. He never leaves the reader hanging as to their meaning, or at least how he is using them to thread a narrative. Another delight is a few brief cameos with Ram Dass. It isn't that I'm a huge Ram Dass reader or fan, it is the way Ram Dass's wisdom and character are brought forth, especially in the end, to offer the reader a bit of levity. "See yourself as a soul" or "Do you see them as already free? (Ram Dass asked Epstein that once regarding his patients) are used several times in the book and they resonated.
If your curious about the intersection of insight meditation, Tibetan buddhism, & western psychotherapy in application to the mind/body/spirit conundrum this might be the book for you.
]]> <![CDATA[Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom]]> 74445 234 John O'Donohue 006092943X amf 4
John O'Donohue entered my realm while on a roadtrip through WI with my pup. It was a Sunday, I think, and I was lost on a country road without a map (circa 2008). Public Radio was on and the next thing I knew I was aimlessly driving listen to Krista Tippet interview a man with the most beautiful thoughts and voice to match. I bought the book but never read until now. It is one to savor, to read without rush, to meditate on. O'Donohue sadly died shortly after the 2008 interview. This knowledge is a bit haunting while reading the last chapter on Death. There is no doubt, though, that if anyone is walking among us in the vast spaces of non-emptiness it is John O'Donohue, a man who embodied spirit and was a blessing. ~ ]]> 4.30 1996 Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
author: John O'Donohue
name: amf
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/04/23
shelves:
review:
Anam Cara, in Gaelic, means soul friend. A friendship that unfolds beyond space and time. A friendship that is a sacred union that one will hold in this lifetime and beyond. To have an anam cara is a blessing. And for those of us who have not had such a blessing yet...O'Donohue provides a lovely consolation through this text. It creates space to explore one's own interiority. A gentle gift of encouragement to be open to thin places and not discount when a chance encounter with a stranger feels suddenly like home.

John O'Donohue entered my realm while on a roadtrip through WI with my pup. It was a Sunday, I think, and I was lost on a country road without a map (circa 2008). Public Radio was on and the next thing I knew I was aimlessly driving listen to Krista Tippet interview a man with the most beautiful thoughts and voice to match. I bought the book but never read until now. It is one to savor, to read without rush, to meditate on. O'Donohue sadly died shortly after the 2008 interview. This knowledge is a bit haunting while reading the last chapter on Death. There is no doubt, though, that if anyone is walking among us in the vast spaces of non-emptiness it is John O'Donohue, a man who embodied spirit and was a blessing. ~
]]> <![CDATA[There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension]]> 181346634
There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it's basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.]]> 334 Hanif Abdurraqib 0593448790 amf 4 4.33 2024 There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
author: Hanif Abdurraqib
name: amf
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/18
shelves:
review:
Hanif Abdurraqib is an artist who happens to use words as his medium. I state this to honor his absolute gift AND to acknowledge that it is hard to write about art objectively. All said, I loved this book. I also realize what I loved about it is interpreted through the lens of this reader's lived experiences. I guess what I am trying to say rather inelegantly is that this may have been a book heavy on LeBron James, the Cavaliers, and the game (especially the second half of the text) however in my world that was part of a bigger game so Abdurraqib could populate the court with inner narratives/winning plays on love, loss, underdogs, and ones place in the world. I will go out on a limb to say it read a bit like an ode to the end of a special love relationship. Wedged between quarters were endings and beginnings, and by the end of the game, I hope HA felt victorious because he did ascend...
]]> <![CDATA[The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays]]> 11987 212 Albert Camus amf 4 This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. -Albert Camus.

The Myth of Sisyphus has been on my TBR list for years after loving The Stranger and various Camus essays. Honestly, though, I was not prepared for this absurdist adventure.

Where lucidity dominates, the scale of values become useless...

And that will be my only word of warning delving into Camus's text. If you do not know the premise, he is utilizing the myth of Sisyphus who wrangles with the gods and is cursed with rolling a rock up a mountain only for it to roll back down, day after day after day. All of this is for Camus to address absurdity and suicide. And how it ends...

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.


And a quote from one of my favorite essays (Helen's Exile) in this volume:
We have exiled beauty; the Greeks took up arms for her.

Though I must say there are quite a few. I made the "mistake" of listening to this while out walking errands. Ended up finding pdf's for a couple of the essays just so I could read them again. Camus's mind... lovely.]]> 4.23 1942 The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
author: Albert Camus
name: amf
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves:
review:
This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. -Albert Camus.

The Myth of Sisyphus has been on my TBR list for years after loving The Stranger and various Camus essays. Honestly, though, I was not prepared for this absurdist adventure.

Where lucidity dominates, the scale of values become useless...

And that will be my only word of warning delving into Camus's text. If you do not know the premise, he is utilizing the myth of Sisyphus who wrangles with the gods and is cursed with rolling a rock up a mountain only for it to roll back down, day after day after day. All of this is for Camus to address absurdity and suicide. And how it ends...

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.


And a quote from one of my favorite essays (Helen's Exile) in this volume:
We have exiled beauty; the Greeks took up arms for her.

Though I must say there are quite a few. I made the "mistake" of listening to this while out walking errands. Ended up finding pdf's for a couple of the essays just so I could read them again. Camus's mind... lovely.
]]> <![CDATA[All Things Are Possible and Penultimates Words and Other Essays (English and Greek Edition)]]> 876073 239 Lev Shestov 0821402374 amf 0 to-read 4.48 All Things Are Possible and Penultimates Words and Other Essays (English and Greek Edition)
author: Lev Shestov
name: amf
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Psychotherapy East and West 45876 196 Alan W. Watts 0394716094 amf 3
An article titled: "Alan Watts and the re-vision of psychotherapy" by Colin Sanders (2017, Self & Society) provides an excellent overview of the book in context to the 21 Century.]]> 4.13 1961 Psychotherapy East and West
author: Alan W. Watts
name: amf
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/29
date added: 2024/03/29
shelves:
review:
Above my pay grade, however, I gained valuable insight as a lay person interested in mental health treatments. I listened to this and had to backtrack many times after realizing I'd missed a key point or hearing a key point and wanting to properly absorb it. The last two chapters of the text skillfully juxtapose key points of eastern philosophy in context to western psychotherapy, so much so that I have now secured a hard copy to reread with bibliography. Watts masterfully presents thought-provoking arguments without jargon. This may have been written in the 60s, but the material didn't feel dated except for the jarring use of racial & cultural terminology that was acceptable at the time.

An article titled: "Alan Watts and the re-vision of psychotherapy" by Colin Sanders (2017, Self & Society) provides an excellent overview of the book in context to the 21 Century.
]]> Tao Tê Ching 11350204 The Tao Tê Ching is one of the foundation stones of Chinese ethics, culture and philosophy, ranking alongside the great religious works. The oldest extant text, written on slips of bamboo, dates from around 300 BC. No one knows whether one author or several lie behind the legendary figure of Lao Tzŭ, but beyond question is the lyrical intensity of the 81 short chapters of mystical poetry, which describe the limitless creative force of the Tao � or the Way � and how it may be harnessed. Itself built on Confucianism, the Tao in turn heavily influenced the development of Chinese Buddhism. At its centre lies the system of opposites and paradoxes amongst which the sage, the ruler and the enlightened must find their path of perfect balance.
This celebrated translation by Arthur Waley was first published in 1934. Waley, a scholar and sinologist, was a member of the Bloomsbury set with an ear for poetry and language which has rarely been matched. Tao Tê Ching: The Way and Its Power and Its Place in Chinese Thought includes Waley’s copious notes, glosses and extensive introductory essay, making it an accessible and authoritative version of one of the world’s most important religious and philosophical doctrines. This edition is illustrated with scroll paintings inspired by the Tao Tê Ching, and includes fold-out sections which allow the reproduction of two especially beautiful landscape scrolls.
Tao never does;
Yet through it all things
are done
~
We turn clay to make
a vessel;
But it is on the space where
there is nothing that the
usefulness of the vessel
depends
~
Banish wisdom, discard
knowledge,
And the people will be
benefited a hundredfold

[Source: ]]]> Lao Tzu amf 4 4.00 -350 Tao TĂŞ Ching
author: Lao Tzu
name: amf
average rating: 4.00
book published: -350
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/28
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dancing with the Dead: The Essential Red Pine Translations]]> 80055413 Featuring An essential collection from the leading figure of Chinese poetry translation, presenting work of insight, humor, and musicality that continues to resonates across thousands of years.

Red Pine is one of the world's finest translators of Chinese poetic and religious texts. His new anthology, Dancing with the The Essential Red Pine, gathers over thirty voices from the ancient Chinese past—including Buddhist poets Cold Mountain (Hanshan) and Stonehouse (Shiwu), as well as Tang-dynasty luminaries Wei Yingwu and Liu Zongyuan.

Dancing with the Dead also includes translations from such religious texts as Puming’s Oxherding Pictures and Verses and Lao-Tzu’s Daodejing, as well as poems and woodblock illustrations from Su Po-Jen’s Guide to Capturing a Plum Blossom, one of the world’s first printed books of art. �

Throughout the book, poems are accompanied by footnotes providing historical context, and each section includes a new and illuminating introduction chronicling Red Pine’s relationship to the poet—discovery, travel, scholarship. Dancing With The Dead is more than a book, it is a part travel essay, part road map, part guided meditation. It is a history translated in poem.Ěý

For Red Pine, “translating the words in a Chinese poem isn’t that hard, but finding the spirit that inspired those words, the music of the heart, and asking it to inspire [his heart], that is how, and why, [he] translates.”ĚýĚ�

Ěý“our luggage is full of river travel poems Ě�

may we ride forth together again.”�

� Wei Yingwu


]]> 344 Red Pine 1556596456 amf 4 4.50 Dancing with the Dead: The Essential Red Pine Translations
author: Red Pine
name: amf
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/28
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Power of Myth 1799118 Joseph Campbell 1565115104 amf 3 4.34 1988 The Power of Myth
author: Joseph Campbell
name: amf
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/03/27
shelves:
review:
**rating is actually skewed by a recent discovery of a podcast from the J.C Foundation that shares his recorded lectures & follow-up Q&A. Each one is unpacked by the host of the podcast allowing for a nice summation, even a differing viewpoint, allowing for greater depth than what is presented here regarding the same myth/idea. I finished this quickly, walking a lot more miles because I was entranced by the beautiful flow of conversation between Moyers and Campbell. Campbell's opinions and interpretations on various texts and writers has sent me down a rabbit hole. It seems that I've a lot more to explore.
]]> <![CDATA[Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia]]> 360648
In "Black Mass," celebrated philosopher and critic John Gray explains how utopian ideals have taken on a dangerous significance in the hands of right-wing conservatives and religious zealots. He charts the history of utopianism, from the Reformation through the French Revolution and into the present. And most urgently, he describes how utopian politics have moved from the extremes of the political spectrum into mainstream politics, dominating the administrations of both George W. Bush and Tony Blair, and indeed coming to define the political centre. Far from having shaken off discredited ideology, Gray suggests, we are more than ever in its clutches.

"Black Mass "is a truly frightening and challenging work by one of Britain's leading political thinkers. John Gray is the author of many critically acclaimed books, including "Straw Dogs "and "Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern." A regular contributor to "The New York Review of Books," he is a professor of European thought at the London School of Economics.]]> 256 John Gray 0374105987 amf 0 to-read 3.97 Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia
author: John Gray
name: amf
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy]]> 21024 272 Irvin D. Yalom 0060958383 amf 3 4.11 1999 Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
author: Irvin D. Yalom
name: amf
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves:
review:
After reading a few of Yalom's later works, it was insightful to delve into this older one. This book helped me to humanize a man who has contributed much to psychotherapy. As an interested observer, not a clinician, I can only say I know what I do not know yet as a human I know what I know through experience. Yalom's humanity comes though in this book, especially the fictionalized tales of those "what if" scenarios (are they really fiction or clever amalgamations of all that he has seen & heard). His ego shows up and gives insight into just how hard this model of manufactured healer-listener can be in the realm of psychotherapy. Even with all the training and insight in the world, therapists are as human as their clients and it seems easy to get in the mud rather quickly. I'm grateful that he unmasks his process...it makes the therapy room a bit more real.
]]> <![CDATA[The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling]]> 970831
In this new look at age-old themes, Hillman provides a radical, frequently amusing, and highly accessible path to realization through an extensive array of examples. He urges his readers to discover the "blueprints" particular to their own individual lives, certain that there is more to life than can be explained by genetics or environment. As he says, "We need a fresh way of looking at the importance of our lives."

What The Soul's Code offers is an inspirational, positive approach to life, a way of seeing, and a way of recovering what has been lost of our intrinsic selves.]]> 352 James Hillman 0446673714 amf 3 3.89 1996 The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling
author: James Hillman
name: amf
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves:
review:
Insightful at times, disorienting at others. I often questioned who Hillman had in his mind's eye while writing this book. If I had to theorize, it changed over time, even over topic. It was a worthwhile read, if anything, the topical items on historical greats and their formative interests / biographies was thought provoking. Last couple of chapters I struggled with completing...the narrative seemed weaker. Perhaps that was just me tiring though...
]]> <![CDATA[Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions]]> 33608721 Tell Me How It Ends (an expansion of her 2016 Freeman's essay of the same name) humanizes these young migrants and highlights the contradiction of the idea of America as a fiction for immigrants with the reality of racism and fear both here and back home."]]> 128 Valeria Luiselli 1566894956 amf 0 to-read 4.41 2016 Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions
author: Valeria Luiselli
name: amf
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Solito 59900688 Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day, you’ll
take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure.�

Javier Zamora’s adventure is a 3,000-mile journey from his small town in
El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border.
He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a
mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling
alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote� hired to lead them to safety,
Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.

At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents� arms,
snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He
cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns,
arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two
weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants
who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.

A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and
intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey,
but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most
unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story
of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.]]> 384 Javier Zamora 0593498062 amf 0 to-read 4.46 2022 Solito
author: Javier Zamora
name: amf
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail]]> 25405023 The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.

Drawing on the four major fields of anthropology, De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention through Deterrence,� the federal border enforcement policy that encourages migrants to cross in areas characterized by extreme environmental conditions and high risk of death. For two decades, this policy has failed to deter border crossers while successfully turning the rugged terrain of southern Arizona into a killing field.

In harrowing detail, De LeĂłn chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert.

The Land of Open Graves will spark debate and controversy.]]> 384 Jason De LeĂłn 0520282752 amf 0 to-read 4.57 2015 The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail
author: Jason De LeĂłn
name: amf
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth]]> 60423701
Although for a great many people, the human impact on the Earth—countless species becoming extinct, pandemics claiming millions of lives, and climate crisis causing worldwide social and environmental upheaval—was not apparent until recently, this is not the case for all people or cultures. For the Indigenous people of the world, radical alteration of the planet, and of life itself, is a story that is many generations long. They have had to adapt, to persevere, and to be courageous and resourceful in the face of genocide and destruction—and their experience has given them a unique understanding of civilizational devastation.

An innovative work of research and reportage, We Are the Middle of Forever places Indigenous voices at the center of conversations about today’s environmental crisis. The book draws on interviews with people from different North American Indigenous cultures and communities, generations, and geographic regions, who share their knowledge and experience, their questions, their observations, and their dreams of maintaining the best relationship possible to all of life. A welcome antidote to the despair arising from the climate crisis, We Are the Middle of Forever brings to the forefront the perspectives of those who have long been attuned to climate change and will be an indispensable aid to those looking for new and different ideas and responses to the challenges we face.]]> 368 Dahr Jamail 1620976692 amf 0 to-read 4.46 2022 We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth
author: Dahr Jamail
name: amf
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Masters and Servants (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)]]> 17802941 176 Pierre Michon 0300180691 amf 0 to-read 4.20 1990 Masters and Servants (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)
author: Pierre Michon
name: amf
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 17125 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]> 182 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn amf 4 Humbling. 3.98 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: amf
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves:
review:
Humbling.
]]> Recitatif 34842610 A beautiful, arresting short story by Toni Morrison—the only one she ever wrote—about race and the relationships that shape us through life, with an introduction by Zadie Smith.

Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

Written in 1980 and anthologized in a number of collections, this is the first time Recitatif is being published as a stand-alone hardcover. In the story, Twyla's and Roberta's races remain ambiguous. We know that one is white and one is black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?

Morrison herself described this story as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." Recitatif is a remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and about how perceptions are made tangible by reality.]]> 19 Toni Morrison amf 0 to-read 4.31 1983 Recitatif
author: Toni Morrison
name: amf
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1983
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Meditations on the Soul: Selected Letters]]> 954594 Marsilio Ficino 0892815671 amf 0 to-read 4.42 1997 Meditations on the Soul: Selected Letters
author: Marsilio Ficino
name: amf
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard]]> 41123429 288 Clare Carlisle 0241283582 amf 0 to-read 4.05 2019 Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard
author: Clare Carlisle
name: amf
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Fortune for Your Disaster 40207220 The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different version of themselves than the one they knew. It's a book about a mother's death, and admitting that Michael Jordan pushed off, about forgiveness, and how none of the author's black friends wanted to listen to Don't Stop Believin'. It's about wrestling with histories, personal and shared. Abdurraqib uses touchstones from the world outside--from Marvin Gaye to Nikola Tesla to his neighbor's dogs--to create a mirror, inside of which every angle presents a new possibility.

Read by the author.]]> Hanif Abdurraqib amf 5
Every reader is going to come to a book of poems with their own lived experiences and take in poems differently. A lot of what Abdurraqib writes about I cannot begin to understand however I am still left with a residue of his words. Sometimes I felt like I had entered conversation that was not for me to hear. Hard describe...truly a gifted writer. ]]> 4.48 2019 A Fortune for Your Disaster
author: Hanif Abdurraqib
name: amf
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves:
review:
Raw and brilliant honesty on every page. The second I saw that the audio contained Abdurraqib reading...no hesitation, had to listen. I became transfixed as he laces bits of backstory before he reads a poem. It is mind boggling really for here is a man exposing the wounds of his humanness while offering a slight chuckle as he explains a why or how the poem came to be. I know I now need to buy this volume to truly appreciate the craft, however, listening to it was a pure gift.

Every reader is going to come to a book of poems with their own lived experiences and take in poems differently. A lot of what Abdurraqib writes about I cannot begin to understand however I am still left with a residue of his words. Sometimes I felt like I had entered conversation that was not for me to hear. Hard describe...truly a gifted writer.
]]> <![CDATA[Gold (New York Review Books Classics)]]> 58089773 A vibrant selection of poems by the great Persian mystic with groundbreaking translations by an American poet of Persian descent.

Rumi’s poems were meant to induce a sense of ecstatic illumination and liberation in his audience, bringing its members to a condition of serenity, compassion, and oneness with the divine. They remain masterpieces of world literature to which readers in many languages continually return for inspiration and succor, as wellas aesthetic delight. This new translation by Haleh Liza Gafori preserves the intelligence and the drama of the poems, which are as full of individual character as they are of visionary wisdom.]]> 87 Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi 1681375338 amf 0 to-read 4.39 2022 Gold (New York Review Books Classics)
author: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
name: amf
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients]]> 21025 288 Irvin D. Yalom 0060938110 amf 4 4.31 2001 The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients
author: Irvin D. Yalom
name: amf
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life]]> 50891570 The refreshingly original debut memoir of a guarded, over-achieving, self-lacerating young lawyer who reluctantly agrees to get psychologically and emotionally naked in a room of six complete strangers—her psychotherapy group—and in turn finds human connection, and herself.

Christie Tate had just been named the top student in her law school class and finally had her eating disorder under control. Why then was she driving through Chicago fantasizing about her own death? Why was she envisioning putting an end to the isolation and sadness that still plagued her in spite of her achievements?

Enter Dr. Rosen, a therapist who calmly assures her that if she joins one of his psychotherapy groups, he can transform her life. All she has to do is show up and be honest. About everything—her eating habits, childhood, sexual history, etc. Christie is skeptical, insisting that that she is defective, beyond cure. But Dr. Rosen issues a nine-word prescription that will change everything: “You don’t need a cure, you need a witness.

So begins her entry into the strange, terrifying, and ultimately life-changing world of group therapy. Christie is initially put off by Dr. Rosen’s outlandish directives, but as her defenses break down and she comes to trust Dr. Rosen and to depend on the sessions and the prescribed nightly phone calls with various group members, she begins to understand what it means to connect.

Group is a deliciously addictive read, and with Christie as our guide—skeptical of her own capacity for connection and intimacy, but hopeful in spite of herself—we are given a front row seat to the daring, exhilarating, painful, and hilarious journey that is group therapy—an under-explored process that breaks you down, and then reassembles you so that all the pieces finally fit.]]> 282 Christie Tate amf 3
For me, I questioned the allowance of a sexual relationship between two group members. This is just a boundary "no", empowerment or not. Rosen is big about "no secrets" and a laissez faire attitude about most actions, but the sexual dynamic between group members strikes as destructive. I've never read Yalom's book on group therapy, but would love to know his thoughts on boundaries.

I saw a pilot once about group therapy and do think it would be a fascinating reality show for those of us who learn through other people's sh*tshow.

While I didn't hate this book (actually, I found Tate a bit fascinating and had to remind myself that her lack of self reflection was due to the naiveté of being mid to late 20s, though by the end she is mid 30s) the content could be triggering to some that struggle with unrecognized issues or are in recovery.]]> 3.77 2020 Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life
author: Christie Tate
name: amf
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/14
date added: 2024/02/14
shelves:
review:
This was recommended to me after I had some choice thoughts about group therapy actually working. While I think the insight into how group therapy functions - this confirms group is not for the meek, they will dig right into your sex life, your quirks, etc, there are many questionable things about Dr. Rosen's dynamic that would make me double down on my opinion of group if I didn't know about the therapist's role in other groups. I get that Rosen doesn't take away the client's power by allowing them to make choices (even intergroup relations), however, there comes a point when if the group is not vocalizing a proper intervention, the therapist should become proactive to help us see into our own void.

For me, I questioned the allowance of a sexual relationship between two group members. This is just a boundary "no", empowerment or not. Rosen is big about "no secrets" and a laissez faire attitude about most actions, but the sexual dynamic between group members strikes as destructive. I've never read Yalom's book on group therapy, but would love to know his thoughts on boundaries.

I saw a pilot once about group therapy and do think it would be a fascinating reality show for those of us who learn through other people's sh*tshow.

While I didn't hate this book (actually, I found Tate a bit fascinating and had to remind myself that her lack of self reflection was due to the naiveté of being mid to late 20s, though by the end she is mid 30s) the content could be triggering to some that struggle with unrecognized issues or are in recovery.
]]> Dare to Lead 40109367 In her #1 NYT bestsellers, Brené Brown taught us what it means to dare greatly, rise strong and brave the wilderness. Now, based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put those ideas into practice so we can step up and lead.

Leadership is not about titles, status and power over people. Leaders are people who hold themselves accountable for recognising the potential in people and ideas, and developing that potential. This is a book for everyone who is ready to choose courage over comfort, make a difference and lead.

When we dare to lead, we don't pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don't see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it and work to align authority and accountability. We don't avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into the vulnerability that’s necessary to do good work.

But daring leadership in a culture that's defined by scarcity, fear and uncertainty requires building courage skills, which are uniquely human. The irony is that we're choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the same time we're scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines can't do better and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection and courage to start.

Brené Brown spent the past two decades researching the emotions that give meaning to our lives. Over the past seven years, she found that leaders in organisations ranging from small entrepreneurial start-ups and family-owned businesses to non-profits, civic organisations and Fortune 50 companies, are asking the same questions:

How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders? And, how do you embed the value of courage in your culture?

Dare to Lead answers these questions and gives us actionable strategies and real examples from her new research-based, courage-building programme.

BrenĂ© writes, â€One of the most important findings of my career is that courage can be taught, developed and measured. Courage is a collection of four skill sets supported by twenty-eight behaviours. All it requires is a commitment to doing bold work, having tough conversations and showing up with our whole hearts. Easy? No. Choosing courage over comfort is not easy. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and work. It's why we're here.’]]> 332 BrenĂ© Brown 147356252X amf 4 4.17 2018 Dare to Lead
author: Brené Brown
name: amf
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/02/13
shelves:
review:
Listened to the author read this book which I think always changes the delivery and the ability to reckon with the content and context. Like a lot of BB other work, you've got to be open and ready to understand your own level of tolerance for doing the work on vulnerability, shame, and resilience. I happened to listen to this right after I left a fairly new organization because it was not a good fit. I realized through reading that my level of tolerance for organizational culture is going to come from how I encounter feedback and various communication styles. I think it gives great insight into how to spot toxic organizational culture vs cultures that are willing to "rumble". I will also say that lower level folks who are not management (such as myself) cannot exactly bring these conversations to the table easily or at all, unless there is a very open leadership style. It would be an interesting read for leaders in an organization who want to pivot after their dismal 360 review - make it a book club.
]]> Vita Nostra (Vita Nostra, #1) 38633526
Our life is brief . . .

While vacationing at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin.

As the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. As summer ends, her domineering mentor directs her to move to a remote village and use her gold to enter the Institute of Special Technologies. Though she does not want to go to this unknown town or school, she also feels it’s the only place she should be. Against her mother’s wishes, Sasha leaves behind all that is familiar and begins her education.

As she quickly discovers, the institute’s "special technologies" are unlike anything she has ever encountered. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures; instead, their families pay a terrible price. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences which are nothing she has ever dreamed of . . . and suddenly all she could ever want.

A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work of speculative fiction—brilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Hersey—is reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Max Barry’s Lexicon, and Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place far beyond those fantastical worlds.]]> 408 Marina Dyachenko 0062694596 amf 0 to-read 4.00 2007 Vita Nostra (Vita Nostra, #1)
author: Marina Dyachenko
name: amf
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On a Wing and a Prayer: One Woman's Adventure into the Heart of the Rainforest (Bloomsbury Nature Writing)]]> 22929664
Sarah sought the native wisdom of the indigenous Embera, deep in the Darien Jungle, in order to encounter the world's largest and most powerful birds of prey--the elusive harpy eagle. Using razor-sharp talons to hunt and kill sloths and monkeys with deadly precision, these mammoth, winged dinosaurs hide a lesser-known, softer devoting great care to raising their young for the first two years of their lives. Seldom seen in the wild, Sarah struggled to demystify the fear-riddled legends and superstitions that earned the harpy eagle its name from early explorers.

Her voyage taught her much about the rich glories and mesmerizing spectacle of the natural world and also its challenges and dangers. She met the albino 'moon children' of Kuna Yala, swam in the Panama Canal, encountered left-wing guerrillas at the heart of Colombia's five-decade conflict, and witnessed Amazonian beliefs and customs surrounding shape-shifting and the jungle afterlife. Sarah survived landslides, crash landings, mammoth floods, and culture clashes in mysterious untrodden lands, learning much about aspects of herself from the incredible wildlife and tribal peoples she encountered--arguably her biggest journey.]]> 272 Sarah Woods 1472912136 amf 3 3.46 2005 On a Wing and a Prayer: One Woman's Adventure into the Heart of the Rainforest (Bloomsbury Nature Writing)
author: Sarah Woods
name: amf
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/12/26
shelves:
review:
I was reluctant to read this book when it arrived for review - it was still in manuscript form making it seem cumbersome. Sarah Woods, however, matter-of-fact writing engages you allowing you to be part of her adventure through Central & South America. While her focus is to see a rare hawk in its natural habitat, one can easily not be a birder and enjoy Woods exploration of various cultures and the lush environments she explores. It may just inspire those female readers who have contemplated a far adventure solo to take the leap for as Sarah Woods explains, there is something to be said when one travels alone.
]]> Kafka on the Shore 4929 Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle—yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.]]> 467 Haruki Murakami 1400079276 amf 0 4.14 2002 Kafka on the Shore
author: Haruki Murakami
name: amf
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah]]> 195650 427 Ajahn Chah 0861713230 amf 0 to-read 4.49 1992 Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah
author: Ajahn Chah
name: amf
average rating: 4.49
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Portrait of a Lady 269
New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
Biographies of the authors
Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
Footnotes and endnotes
Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
Comments by other famous authors
Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
Bibliographies for further reading
Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

The Portrait of a Lady features one of the author’s most magnificent heroines: Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American who becomes a victim of her provincialism during her travels in Europe. As the story begins, Isabel, resolved to determine her own fate, has turned down two eligible suitors. Her cousin, who is dying of tuberculosis, secretly gives her an inheritance so that she can remain independent and fulfill a grand destiny, but the fortune only leads her to make a tragic choice and marry Gilbert Osmond, an American expatriate who lives in Florence. Outwardly charming and cultivated, but fundamentally cold and cruel, Osmond only brings heartbreak and ruin to Isabel’s life. Yet she survives as she begins to realize that true freedom means living with her choices and their consequences. Richly complex and nearly aesthetically perfect, The Portrait of a Lady brilliantly portrays the clash between the innocence and exuberance of the New World and the corruption and wisdom of the Old.]]> 635 Henry James 1593080964 amf 3 3.74 1881 The Portrait of a Lady
author: Henry James
name: amf
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1881
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism]]> 57425775
This book is not easy: it contains no quick-fix plan for a better, brighter tomorrow, and gives no ready-made answers. Instead, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira presents us with a challenge: to grow up, step up, and show up for ourselves, our communities, and the living Earth, and to interrupt the modern behavior patterns that are killing the planet we’re part of.

Driven by expansion, colonialism, and resource extraction and propelled by neoliberalism and rabid consumption, our world is profoundly out of balance. We take more than we give; we inoculate ourselves in positive self-regard while continuing to make harmful choices; we wreak irreparable havoc on the ecosystems, habitats, and beings with whom we share our planet. But instead of drowning in hopelessness, how can we learn to face our reality with humility and accountability?

Machado de Oliveira breaks down archetypes of cognitive dissonance–the do-gooder who does “good enough,� then retreats to business as usual; the incognito capitalist who, at first glance, may seem like a radical change-maker–and asks us to dig deeper and exist differently. She explains how our habits, behaviors, and belief systems hold us back…and why it’s time now to gradually disinvest. Including exercises used with teachers, NGO practitioners, and global changemakers, she offers us thought experiments that ask us to:

� Reimagine how we learn, unlearn, and respond to crisis
� Better assess our surroundings and interact with difference, uncertainty, complexity, and failure
� Expand our capacity to hold personal and collective space for difficult and painful things
� Understand the �5 modern-colonial e’s�: Entitlements, Exceptionalism, Exaltation, Emancipation, and Enmeshment in low-intensity struggle activism
� Interrupt our satisfaction with modern-colonial desires that cause harm
� Create space for change driven neither by desperate hope nor a fear of desolate hopelessness

For fans of adrienne maree brown, Sherri Mitchell, and Charles Eisenstein, Hospicing Modernity challenges our assumptions and dares to ask more of us, for the sake of us all.]]> 272 Vanessa Machado De Oliveira amf 0 to-read 4.37 Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism
author: Vanessa Machado De Oliveira
name: amf
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wolves of Eternity (Morgenstjernen, #2)]]> 75293514
In 1986, twenty-year-old Syvert Løyning returns from the military to his mother’s home in southern Norway. One evening, his dead father comes to him in a dream. Realizing that he doesn’t really know who his father was, Syvert begins to investigate his life and finds clues pointing to the Soviet Union. What he learns changes his past and undermines the entire notion of who he is. But when his mother becomes ill, and he must care for his little brother, Joar, on his own, he no longer has time or space for lofty speculations.

In present-day Russia, Alevtina Kotov, a biologist working at Moscow University, is traveling with her young son to the home of her stepfather, to celebrate his eightieth birthday. As a student, Alevtina was bright, curious and ambitious, asking the big questions about life and human consciousness. But as she approaches middle-age, most of that drive has gone, and she finds herself in a place she doesn’t want to be, without really understanding how she got there. Her stepfather, a musician, raised her as his own daughter, and she was never interested in learning about her biological father; when she finally starts looking into him, she learns that he died many years ago and left two sons, Joar and Syvert.

Years later, when Syvert and Alevtina meet in Moscow, two very different approaches to life emerge. And as a bright star appears in the sky, it illuminates the wonder of human existence and the mysteries that exist beyond our own worldview. Set against the political and cultural backdrop of both the 1980s and the present day, The Wolves of Eternity is an expansive and affecting book about relations—to one another, to nature, to the dead.]]> 800 Karl Ove Knausgård 0593490835 amf 0 to-read 4.13 2021 The Wolves of Eternity (Morgenstjernen, #2)
author: Karl Ove KnausgĂĄrd
name: amf
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Michael Kohlhaas 398145
It has become, in fact, a classic tale: that of the honorable man forced to take the law into his own hands. In this incendiary prototype, a minor tax dispute intensifies explosively, until the eponymous hero finds the forces of an entire kingdom, and even the great Martin Luther, gathered against him. But soon even Luther comes to echo the growing army of peasants asking, "Isn’t Kohlhaas right?"

Widely acknowledged as one of the masterworks of German literature, Michael Kohlhaas is also one of the most stirring tales ever written of the quest for justice.]]> 133 Heinrich von Kleist 0976140721 amf 0 to-read 3.58 1810 Michael Kohlhaas
author: Heinrich von Kleist
name: amf
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1810
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Goya and the Mystery of Reading]]> 62042767
Goya and the Mystery of Reading explores the critical impact this transition had on the work of an artist who aimed not to copy the world around him, but to see it anew—to read it. Goya's creations offer a sustained reflection on the implications of reading, which he depicted as an ambiguous, often mysterious one which could lead to knowledge or ecstasy, to self-fulfillment or self-destruction, to piety or perdition. At the same time, he used reading to elicit new possibilities of interpretation. This book reveals for the first time the historical, intellectual, and artistic underpinnings of reading as one of the pillars of his art.

This book is the recipient of the 2023 Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press for the best book in the area of art or medicine.]]> 268 Luis MartĂ­n-Estudillo 0826505325 amf 0 to-read 0.0 Goya and the Mystery of Reading
author: Luis MartĂ­n-Estudillo
name: amf
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd Ed.]]> 17744 This is the second edition of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Recently published, this new edition provides excellent color reproductions of the many graphics of William Playfair, adds color to other images, and includes all the changes and corrections accumulated during 17 printings of the first edition.]]> 197 Edward R. Tufte 0961392142 amf 0 to-read 4.39 1983 The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd Ed.
author: Edward R. Tufte
name: amf
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1983
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Death of Socrates (Profiles in History)]]> 1234790
Beginning with the accounts of contemporaries like Aristophanes, Xenophon, and, above all, Plato, the book offers a comprehensive look at the death of Socrates as both a historical event and a controversial cultural ideal. Wilson shows how Socrates' death--more than his character, actions, or philosophical beliefs--has played an essential role in his story. She considers literary, philosophical, and artistic works--by Cicero, Erasmus, Milton, Voltaire, Hegel, and Brecht, among others--that used the death of Socrates to discuss power, politics, religion, the life of the mind, and the good life. As highly readable as it is deeply learned, her book combines vivid descriptions, critical insights, and breadth of research to explore how Socrates' death--especially his seeming ability to control it--has mattered so much, for so long, to so many different people.]]> 256 Emily Wilson 0674026837 amf 0 to-read 3.74 2007 The Death of Socrates (Profiles in History)
author: Emily Wilson
name: amf
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> What IS Sex? 36304803 Zupancic argues that sexuality is at the point of a "short circuit" between ontology and epistemology. Sexuality and knowledge are structured around a fundamental negativity, which unites them at the point of the unconscious. The unconscious (as linked to sexuality) is the concept of an inherent link between being and knowledge in their very negativity.

]]> 164 Alenka ZupanÄŤiÄŤ amf 0 to-read 4.33 What IS Sex?
author: Alenka ZupanÄŤiÄŤ
name: amf
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hell, I Love Everybody: The Essential James Tate: Poems (Ecco Essentials)]]> 112973660 112 James Tate 0063306077 amf 0 to-read 4.29 Hell, I Love Everybody: The Essential James Tate: Poems (Ecco Essentials)
author: James Tate
name: amf
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Discourse on Colonialism 86598 Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and antiwar movements.

Aimé Césaire eloquently describes the brutal impact of capitalism and colonialism on both the colonizer and colonized, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy implicit in western notions of "progress" and "civilization" upon encountering the "savage," "uncultured," or "primitive." He reaffirms African values, identity, and culture, and their relevance, reminding us that "the relationship between consciousness and reality is extremely complex. . . . It is equally necessary to decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society."

An interview with Aimé Césaire by the poet René Depestre is also included.]]> 102 Aimé Césaire 1583670254 amf 0 to-read 4.43 1950 Discourse on Colonialism
author: Aimé Césaire
name: amf
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1950
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lost Body 161960 132 Aimé Césaire 0807611484 amf 0 to-read 4.30 Lost Body
author: Aimé Césaire
name: amf
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Watch Your Language: Visual and Literary Reflections on a Century of American Poetry]]> 62366360
From the National Book Award–winning author of Lighthead , Terrance Hayes, a fascinating collection of graphic reviews and illustrated prose addressing the last century of American poetry—to be published simultaneously with his latest poetry collection, So to Speak

Canonized, overlooked, and forgotten African American poets star in Terrance Hayes's brilliant contemplations of personal, canonical, and allegorical literary development. Proceeding from Toni Morrison's aim to expand the landscape of literary imagination in Playing in the Dark ("I want to draw a map, so to speak, of a critical geography"), Watch Your Language charts a lyrical geography of reading and influence in poetry. Illustrated micro-essays, graphic book reviews, biographical prose poems, and nonfiction sketches make reading an imaginative and critical act of watching your language. Hayes has made a kind of poetic guidebook with more questions than answers. "If you don't see suffering's potential as art, will it remain suffering?" he asks in one of the lively mock poetry exam questions of this musing, mercurial collection. Hayes's astonishing drawings and essays literally and figuratively map the acclaimed poet's routes, roots, and wanderings through the landscape of contemporary poetry.]]> 240 Terrance Hayes 0143137735 amf 4
There is joy in this book and quick wit that is wrapped around the very real truth that many poets Hayes presents are not in the cannon because Black poets were|are rarely given their time to shine. Even if they were it was often undercut by white ego in the academy (thinking Sontag's disrespectful conduct to Miss Brooks). Hayes does not preach, he sings of these losses and we readers become even more curious of their words and where we can find them today.

If you want a quirky immersion to learn about voices/spirits that often didn't reach mainstream academia (or the local bookstore) this one is a keeper.
]]> 4.20 Watch Your Language: Visual and Literary Reflections on a Century of American Poetry
author: Terrance Hayes
name: amf
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/28
date added: 2023/08/28
shelves:
review:
Hayes is a poet & thinker that makes every thought he writes about thought provoking. This small volume is full of amusing, serious, and thought provoking posts on poets he'd place in the American Poetry cannon. He starts with Whitman as a pushing off point (but not necessarily advocating for his place in the cannon) and meanders from there, though, this meandering is sectioned with a creative timeline that introduces poets and movements...complete with a list of what-if and did-you-know that I flunked quite well as a lurker who has been lazy with my poetry self-education. Wanda Coleman is a fine example of the poet who is motivated because the words refused to not rise from her even when traditional education was not her vibe.

There is joy in this book and quick wit that is wrapped around the very real truth that many poets Hayes presents are not in the cannon because Black poets were|are rarely given their time to shine. Even if they were it was often undercut by white ego in the academy (thinking Sontag's disrespectful conduct to Miss Brooks). Hayes does not preach, he sings of these losses and we readers become even more curious of their words and where we can find them today.

If you want a quirky immersion to learn about voices/spirits that often didn't reach mainstream academia (or the local bookstore) this one is a keeper.

]]> <![CDATA[Voodoo Libretto: New and Selected Poems]]> 60525555 Voodoo Libretto is in many ways a book of memories, a chronicle of both the personal and the political sensibility of a black baby-boomer. Driven by a restless and wide-ranging imagination, the poems are sometimes humorous, sometimes deadly serious, sometimes erotic, sometimes mystical, and occasionally all of these things at once.]]> 308 Tim Seibles 1733674187 amf 0 to-read 5.00 Voodoo Libretto: New and Selected Poems
author: Tim Seibles
name: amf
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics]]> 385655 248 bell hooks 0896083853 amf 0 to-read 4.25 1990 Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics
author: bell hooks
name: amf
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Art on My Mind: Visual Politics]]> 51389 Art on My Mind, bell hooks, a leading cultural critic, responds to the ongoing dialogues about producing, exhibiting, and criticizing art and aesthetics in an art world increasingly concerned with identity politics. Always concerned with the liberatory black struggle, hooks positions her writings on visual politics within the ever-present question of how art can be an empowering and revolutionary force within the black community.


]]> 240 bell hooks 1565842634 amf 0 to-read 4.36 1995 Art on My Mind: Visual Politics
author: bell hooks
name: amf
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Killing Rage: Ending Racism 17602
Killing Rage speaks to this imbalance. These twenty-three essays are written from a black and feminist perspective, and they tackle the bitter difficulties of racism by envisioning a world without it. They address a spectrum of topics having to do with race and racism in the United States: psychological trauma among African Americans; friendship between black women and white women; anti-Semitism and racism; and internalized racism in movies and the media. And in the title essay, hooks writes about the "killing rage"—the fierce anger of black people stung by repeated instances of everyday racism—finding in that rage a healing source of love and strength and a catalyst for positive change.

bell hooks is Distinguished Professor of English at City College of New York. She is the author of the memoir Bone Black as well as eleven other books. She lives in New York City.]]> 288 bell hooks 0805050272 amf 0 to-read 4.35 1995 Killing Rage: Ending Racism
author: bell hooks
name: amf
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Communion: The Female Search for Love (Love Song to the Nation, #2)]]> 32886 272 bell hooks 0060938293 amf 0 to-read 4.36 2002 Communion: The Female Search for Love (Love Song to the Nation, #2)
author: bell hooks
name: amf
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom]]> 27091 Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks—writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual—writes about a new kind of education, educations as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal.

Bell hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom?

Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise critical questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself.

"To educate as the practice of freedom," writes bell hooks, "is a way of teaching that any one can learn." Teaching to Transgress is the record of one gifted teacher's struggle to make classrooms work.

–from the back of the book]]> 216 bell hooks 0415908086 amf 0 to-read 4.46 1994 Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
author: bell hooks
name: amf
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heart First Into This Ruin: The Complete American Sonnets]]> 58723867
Wanda Coleman was a beat-up, broke Black woman who wrote with anger, humor, and ruthless intelligence: “to know, i must survive myself,� she wrote in “American Sonnet 7.� A poet of the people, she created the experimental “American Sonnet� form and published them between 1986 and 2001. The form inspired countless others, from Terrance Hayes to Billy Collins.

Drawn from life’s particulars, Coleman’s art is timeless and universal. In “American Sonnet 61� she writes:

reaching down into my griot bag
of womanish wisdom and wily
social commentary, i come up with bricks
with which to either reconstruct
the past or deconstruct a head....
from the infinite alphabet of afroblues
intertwinings, i cull apocalyptic visions
(the details and lovers entirely real)
and articulate my voyage beyond that
point where self disappears

These one hundred sonnets―borne from influences as diverse as Huey P. Newton and Herman Melville, Amiri Baraka and Robert Duncan―tell Coleman’s own tale, as well as the story of Black and white America. From “American Sonnet 2�:

towards the cruel attentions of violent opiates
as towards the fatal fickleness of artistic rain
towards the locusts of social impotence itself
i see myself thrown heart first into this ruin
not for any crime
but being]]> 120 Wanda Coleman 1574232533 amf 0 to-read 4.25 2022 Heart First Into This Ruin: The Complete American Sonnets
author: Wanda Coleman
name: amf
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You]]> 91001 383 Frank Stanford 0918786509 amf 0 to-read 4.67 1977 The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You
author: Frank Stanford
name: amf
average rating: 4.67
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pedagogy of the Oppressed 72657 Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire's work has taken on especial urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm. With a substantive new introduction on Freire's life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donaldo Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.]]> 183 Paulo Freire 0826412769 amf 4 For those that have heard about Freire or this infamous book and are not sure of time or capacity to read it in full, I highly recommend at least taking in the 50th Anniversary intro by Freire’s long time friend and colleague Donaldo Macedo. The introduction is quite digestible to the point of inspiring. His summary creates a foundation for one to understand key concepts of Freire as well as the philosophical framework. Frankly, it will make the curious more curious and propel one’s critical thinking mind to want to read more to fully immerse in a philosophy that is much about lifting up humanity as it is about pedagogical discourse.
A spoiler from the introduction is an apt reminder to all of us readers, and especially those of us who are library workers or educators, there can be no banning of books if we champion the ideology that we are a human society that believes all voices must have the ability to heard because there is no them, just US.]]> 4.30 1968 Pedagogy of the Oppressed
author: Paulo Freire
name: amf
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/08/20
shelves:
review:
Humbling, and above my pay grade…which is to say I’m not sure my intelligence can grasp all that Freire presents. Ergo, I immediately started to listen again which prompted this follow up review.
For those that have heard about Freire or this infamous book and are not sure of time or capacity to read it in full, I highly recommend at least taking in the 50th Anniversary intro by Freire’s long time friend and colleague Donaldo Macedo. The introduction is quite digestible to the point of inspiring. His summary creates a foundation for one to understand key concepts of Freire as well as the philosophical framework. Frankly, it will make the curious more curious and propel one’s critical thinking mind to want to read more to fully immerse in a philosophy that is much about lifting up humanity as it is about pedagogical discourse.
A spoiler from the introduction is an apt reminder to all of us readers, and especially those of us who are library workers or educators, there can be no banning of books if we champion the ideology that we are a human society that believes all voices must have the ability to heard because there is no them, just US.
]]> <![CDATA[Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth]]> 6493321 This graphic novel recounts the spiritual odyssey of philosopher Bertrand Russell. In his agonized search for absolute truth, he crosses paths with thinkers like Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert & Kurt Gödel, & finds a passionate student in Ludwig Wittgenstein. But his most ambitious goal—to establish unshakable logical foundations of mathematics—continues to loom before him. Thru love & hate, peace & war, he persists in the mission threatening to claim both his career & happiness, finally driving him to the brink of insanity.
This story is at the same time a historical novel & an accessible explication of some of the biggest ideas of mathematics & modern philosophy. With rich characterizations & atmospheric artwork, it spins the pursuit of such ideas into a satisfying tale.
ĚýProbing, layered, the book throws light on Russell’s inner struggles while setting them in the context of the timeless questions he tried to answer. At its heart, Logicomix is a story about the conflict between ideal rationality & the flawed fabric of reality.]]> 347 Apostolos Doxiadis 1596914521 amf 4
This is a graphic novel for the times too despite being published in 2008. It ends with Turing and the introduction of computers in relation to logic. The questions I was left with tell me that perhaps I too can benefit from learning from the logicians even if they are a wee crazee (must read GN to fully understand that one ;)).]]> 4.05 2009 Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
author: Apostolos Doxiadis
name: amf
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/13
date added: 2023/08/13
shelves:
review:
If you are at all interested in logic, Vienna Circle, Wittgenstein, the evolution of mathematics and philosophy, and, of course, Bertrand Russell...give this a go. It is fun, approachable, and gave this ignoramus a schooling on some mathematical concepts that a grandfather clause in early education made me blissfully ignorant of until now. Ironically, I came to this book after watching a fabulous film on Srinivasa Ramanujan "The Man Who Knew Infinity" and was googling about SR who briefly interacted with Russell. Sadly, Ramanujan does not make the cut in the graphic novel...actually, he deserves his own.

This is a graphic novel for the times too despite being published in 2008. It ends with Turing and the introduction of computers in relation to logic. The questions I was left with tell me that perhaps I too can benefit from learning from the logicians even if they are a wee crazee (must read GN to fully understand that one ;)).
]]> <![CDATA[Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (American Music Series)]]> 41864516 The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib digs into the group's history and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself. The result is as ambitious and genre-bending as the rap group itself.

Abdurraqib traces the Tribe's creative career, from their early days as part of the Afrocentric rap collective known as the Native Tongues, through their first three classic albums, to their eventual breakup and long hiatus. Their work is placed in the context of the broader rap landscape of the 1990s, one upended by sampling laws that forced a reinvention in production methods, the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that threatened to destroy the genre, and some record labels' shift from focusing on groups to individual MCs. Throughout the narrative Abdurraqib connects the music and cultural history to their street-level impact. Whether he's remembering The Source magazine cover announcing the Tribe's 1998 breakup or writing personal letters to the group after bandmate Phife Dawg's death, Abdurraqib seeks the deeper truths of A Tribe Called Quest; truths that--like the low end, the bass--are not simply heard in the head, but felt in the chest.]]> 207 Hanif Abdurraqib 1477316485 amf 4
This love letter to A Tribe Called Quest is an education. A reader walks away not only with a new appreciation of ATCQ, but the greats that hit the hip hop stage in the 80s & 90s forging a musical history that lends insight into hip hop /rap beginnings. As a GenXr, this historical retracing was illuminating since I loved these beats and followed the East West Coast riffs, yet I never was steeped in the commentary for the internet was still in its infancy and frankly I consumed a lot at music in my 20s but was paying more attention to the women on the rise trying to bust through the glass ceiling created by the patriarchy. It is no secret that they also tried to keep hip hop / rap down inserting racism for sexism...this is where Crenshaw's intersectionality comes in to play when you factor in greats such as Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill, and Salt-N-Pepa. I digress for this was not a part of the commentary (the female aspect) but there is a lot of valuable commentary from the author on how music is a cultural creation, specifically hip hop, and groups like Tribe were addressing many of the heartaches and heartbreaks of what was going on, what had gone on historically to Black People in american society. Social commentary at its absolute best and most brilliant were the hallmarks of many of the rising stars...it was another reason why "the man" tried to keep the artists down. Still do...

It was not intentional to take this book on as hip hop celebrates 50 years. However, it just made viewing | listening | reading some of the tributes that much sweeter.
]]> 4.47 2019 Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (American Music Series)
author: Hanif Abdurraqib
name: amf
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/13
date added: 2023/08/13
shelves:
review:
Abdurraqib is an older millennial who has been immersed in music from a young age. Out of that rich cultural environment, Abdurraqib not only learned music by playing and listening to it, but is one of those gifted visionaries that lives the music through immersion of beats, lyrics, and understanding the synergy of what goes on to create these musical multitudes of possibility. He is a phenomenal music critic and essayist as well as a poet.

This love letter to A Tribe Called Quest is an education. A reader walks away not only with a new appreciation of ATCQ, but the greats that hit the hip hop stage in the 80s & 90s forging a musical history that lends insight into hip hop /rap beginnings. As a GenXr, this historical retracing was illuminating since I loved these beats and followed the East West Coast riffs, yet I never was steeped in the commentary for the internet was still in its infancy and frankly I consumed a lot at music in my 20s but was paying more attention to the women on the rise trying to bust through the glass ceiling created by the patriarchy. It is no secret that they also tried to keep hip hop / rap down inserting racism for sexism...this is where Crenshaw's intersectionality comes in to play when you factor in greats such as Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill, and Salt-N-Pepa. I digress for this was not a part of the commentary (the female aspect) but there is a lot of valuable commentary from the author on how music is a cultural creation, specifically hip hop, and groups like Tribe were addressing many of the heartaches and heartbreaks of what was going on, what had gone on historically to Black People in american society. Social commentary at its absolute best and most brilliant were the hallmarks of many of the rising stars...it was another reason why "the man" tried to keep the artists down. Still do...

It was not intentional to take this book on as hip hop celebrates 50 years. However, it just made viewing | listening | reading some of the tributes that much sweeter.

]]> <![CDATA[Lautréamont (Twayne's world authors series, TWAS 284. France)]]> 656752 Book by Fowlie, Wallace 135 Wallace Fowlie 0805725113 amf 0 to-read 5.00 1973 Lautréamont (Twayne's world authors series, TWAS 284. France)
author: Wallace Fowlie
name: amf
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters]]> 128457 enfant terrible of French letters, Jean-Nicholas-Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91)Ěýwas a defiant and precocious youth who wrote some of the most remarkable prose and poetry of the nineteenth century, all before leaving the world of verse by the age of twenty-one. More than a century after his death, the young rebel-poet continues to appeal to modern readers as much for his turbulent life as for his poetry; his stormy affair with fellow poet Paul Verlaine and his nomadic adventures in eastern Africa are as iconic as his hallucinatory poems and symbolist prose.

The first translation of the poet's complete works when it was published in 1966, Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters introduced a new generation of Americans to the alienated genius—among them the Doors's lead singer Jim Morrison, who wrote to translator Wallace Fowlie to thank him for rendering the poems accessible to those who "don't read French that easily." Forty years later, the book remains the only side-by-side bilingual edition of Rimbaud's complete poetic works.

Thoroughly revising Fowlie's edition, Seth Whidden has made changes on virtually every page, correcting errors, reordering poems, adding previously omitted versions of poems and some letters, and updating the text to reflect current scholarship; left in place are Fowlie's literal and respectful translations of Rimbaud's complex and nontraditional verse. Whidden also provides a foreword that considers the heritage of Fowlie's edition and adds a bibliography that acknowledges relevant books that have appeared since the original publication. On its fortieth anniversary, Rimbaud remains the most authoritative—and now, completely up-to-date—edition of the young master's entire poetic ouvre.]]> 370 Arthur Rimbaud 0226719731 amf 4 4.40 1966 Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters
author: Arthur Rimbaud
name: amf
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1966
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/08/09
shelves:
review:

]]>