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Posted on 12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 3:05 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.   Written by: Albert Nolan Jesus Before Christianity was originally published in 1976, and is here re-published with a new preface by the author. What warrants this re-publication will be apparent when you pick this text up and begin reading. What could easily turn into simply a historical exercise becomes something much more: a critique of current forms of Christianity and a call for a return to something more real and closer to what Jesus himself actually lived and taught. Based firmly on actual history rather than hearsay or spiritual embellishment, this should be required reading for anyone who claims to be a Christian or anyone who wants to know the truth about the religion. The book is arranged into several sections, according to theme. Part One lays the groundwork for the coming of Jesus, including an overview of John the Baptist's prophecies. Part Two covers what Jesus both practiced and preached. Part Three delves into some of the specifics of what Jesus talked about, such as the kingdom of God and how it relates to the idea of wealth. Finally, Part Four talks about Jesus' death. Closing out the book are a notes section, a bibliography, and an index. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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Posted on 12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 8:07 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Grade: B+ Written by: Kent Nerburn Note: I have used the term "Indian" in this review to refer to the conglomeration of peoples living on the North American continent before whites came. This is the term the Indians in the book use, and as Dan points out in the text, each word was given by the whites and as false as any other, so why differentiate and pretend one is somehow better? Neither Wolf Nor Dog is a cross between travel narrative and Native American manifesto. We have the story of Kent Nerburn himself, summoned to Lakota lands at the behest of Dan, who appreciates some work Nerburn has done on other collections of Native tales. Dan wants Nerburn to help him write down his thoughts about what it means to be an Indian. There are a few faults with this book, unfortunately. Dan's thoughts are not always logical, which Nerburn is not loathe to mention, and the resulting problem is that we told over and over, in many poetic and emotional speeches, how horrible white men are, which we knew, but are not so much told what we can do about it. Perhaps this is because there is nothing we can do about it? But then, why go to all the trouble to write, edit, and produce the book at all? Over and over, we are told not to "use" Indians for their wisdom--which is a very good point--yet we are expected to see Dan's wisdom as valid and to listen to him; he sets himself up as the wise man, and yet doesn't want us to see him only as the wise man--perhaps this is why we see him, warts and all. Dan treats Nerburn rather badly frequently, but gets no word of apology, as if he should be made to suffer. In the end, Dan is a human being as we are, and this is a good point to learn: he's not some stereotypical "wise man." Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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Posted on 12.07.03 by Widge @ 5:54 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Written by Neil Gaiman Coraline Jones is a young lady who is very, very bored. Her family has just moved into a new flat and her mother and father have plenty of work to do that doesn't involve keeping her entertained. Her new neighbors, two former actresses and the ringmaster of an all-mouse circus, seem interesting enough--but interactions with them can only take up so much time. In her explorations of her new surroundings, Coraline finds a door that doesn't go anywhere. When the building, formerly a house, was converted into flats, they separated one half of the structure from the other with a brick wall--so this door opens onto brick. But one day the door opens on a corridor, one that leads to her other flat. And to her other parents, who want nothing more than to keep her entertained and well-fed...forever. Many, many moons ago I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Gaiman do a reading of about the first third of this novel, which he introduced as a "spooky story for little girls", and I never forgot Coraline or her button-eyed other parents...and how the entire thing creeped the hell out of me. And now that the rest of the story is known, I can say it was definitely worth the wait. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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Posted on 12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 5:31 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. 
Written by: Walter F. Otto Dionysus may not have been one of the Olympians and is therefore often left out of basic books on Greek religion. However, as Otto's book proves, this does not in any case prove that Dionysus' worship was not both vital and widespread. Forget what some people might tell you about Bacchus, the frat boy god--his cults were definitely more than wine, women, and song, even if that was, at times, part of them. First, a note on the use of the word "cult" by both the author and myself. As Palmer states in his translator's note, the word is not intended to carry any judgement or placement within a religion's hierarchy. Instead, it merely means the acts of worshippers, sometimes as distinct from concrete, formalized liturgy. Cults are, essentially, a particular expression of a given religion, along with the attendant rites and ceremonies. Nothing negative is meant by the term. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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Posted on 12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 3:59 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. 
Written by: A.S. Byatt Many people know of Byatt's work through her excellent and Booker prize-winning novel Possession. The Game, however, is nearly as worthy as that other novel, but relatively unknown. The plot revolves around sisters, Julia and Cassandra, who as children played a game revolving around a fictional world of Arthurian Romance. As adults though, Julia and Cassandra have not only been forced to leave their imaginary world behind, but have drifted from each other. The catalyst of the action is the arrival of a man from their past, one they have both loved, who is bent upon manipulating them for his own ends. The characters, while both brilliant, talented, and gifted in their own ways, can also be bitter, petty, vindictive, jealous, and selfish. In other words, just like real sisters can be. Cassandra, the smart, serious one, is a medievalist, teaching Arthurian literature at Oxford. Julia, the pretty, vivacious one, writes romance novels (that's "romance" with a little "r"). Both of them have suffered in love at the hands of Simon, a none-too-stable herpetologist. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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