Overview: Southern Cunning is a journey through the folklore of the American South and a look at the power these stories hold for modern witches. Through the lens of folklore, animism, and bioregionalism the book shows how to bring rituals in folklore into the modern day and presents a uniquely American approach to witchcraft born out of the land and practical application.

Verdict: Simply put, what we have here is a book where the skilled author - Aaron Oberon - brings forth a magnificently-hued offering which presents the reader with an important glimpse into southern witch-lore and how modern folk witch practices can draw inspiration from this rich source of power.

Moreover a rather fascinating look at the practice of American folklore witchcraft, and one that helps shine a more positively revealing light on the oft-ignored and wildly misunderstood American South, Southern Cunning: Folkloric Witchcraft In The American South by author Aaron Oberon brings with it a prose chock full of regional folklore, some fun spell work, and an impassioned relayed set of experiences within the subject to hand.

I personally loved every chapter of this book, especially the chapters on Familiars and Spirits of the Land and thus this book is thoroughly recommended reading for witches with roots in the American South who are interested in folkloric craft practices [and all those just genuinely curious outsiders, of course!].

About the Author - Aaron Oberon is a Southern folk witch with a passion for bringing witchcraft to people from different roots. Aaron writes about queer magic, bioregionalism, and witchcraft that gets down in the dirt.

It is deeply important to Aaron that he helps to make witchcraft and magic more accessible to those from underprivileged areas. His goal in writing is to demonstrate that there is power in the stories of families and local land. Aaron lives in Southwest Florida.

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Overview: Journey to the Dark Goddess will lead you on a powerful, healing path. In the stories of ancient Goddesses you will hear your own soul, calling out to you. The Dark Goddess is the creatrix of healing, change and renewal. She offers connection with the core of yourself.

If you have been unable to shake off depression, or fear its return; if you have inexplicable blank patches in your life, if you know that something is missing, or something is calling to you, if you seek the source of women’s power - it’s time to journey to the Dark Goddess.

Verdict: For, and given the aforementioned, this journey to the Dark Goddess exists in ancient myth. Weaving the stories of Inanna, Persephone and Psyche with self-inquiry and sacred ritual we learn to journey internally, creating maps in our darkest places and return enriched, integrating our deepest understandings. Meeting the Dark Goddess we see a mirror of our own soul.

Here in Journey to the Dark Goddess: How to Return to Your Soul by author Jane Meredith, we are lovingly taken by the hand and walked down a glorious path to the Underworld to confront and heal one’s inner darkness. Actually something not as foreboding as the sentence suggests, it focuses on the goddesses that exemplify the archetype of the Dark Goddess.

A little more prose reveals that the Dark Goddess is often associated with the Underworld where she leads the uninitiated through a transformative journey of self-discovery, change and soul renewal. She is connected with the unwanted, the forgotten, the ignored or even ashamed parts of our psyche.

However there is more to her than that. Encountering the Dark Goddess through Journey To The Dark Goddess enables author Jane Meredith to lovingly guide you through what this challenging facet of the Divine Feminine, the Dark Goddess, is truly about, and encourages you to step through the veils into her hidden realm.

Furthermore, she does the Shadow Self justice by not condemning or neglecting it, but rather viewing it as a divine aspect of the self and finding the gifts of healing and integration through confronting and working with it.

Thus she draws on myths of these Dark Goddesses and their journey into the Underworld - again, such as Inanna, Psyche and Persephone – which allows her to not only illustrate the gifts that come with exploring one’s own darkness; and with total, unskewed, uninhibited honesty, but allows the hope for a personal transformation and liberation to occur within each and every reader thereafter.

In closing, and full of fantastic exercises and wisdom, the book bravely tackles some very difficult subjects such as depression, fear, existential crises, and trauma. Best of all, the book is full of anecdotes from the author sharing her own journeys to the underworld and her own journey of healing.

About the Author - Jane Meredith is an Australian author and ritualist. Her books are: Falling through the Tree of Life: Embodied Kabbalah, Elements of Magic (co-authored with Fio Gede Parma), Aspecting the Goddess: Drawing Down the Divine Feminine, Magic of the Iron Pentacle: Reclaiming Sex, Pride, Self, Power & Passion (co-authored with Gede Parma), Circle of Eight: Creating Magic for Your Place on Earth; Rituals of Celebration: Honoring the Seasons of Life through the Wheel of the Year; Journey to the Dark Goddess: How to Return to Your Soul; and Aphrodite’s Magic: Celebrate and Heal Your Sexuality.

Some of Jane’s favorite things are cats, trees, books, dark chocolate and magic and she also loves traveling. Jane presents workshops on myth, ritual and the Goddess worldwide and as Distance Courses, she is also a teacher in the Reclaiming tradition. Her website is www.janemeredith.com and on Instagram and Facebook she can be found as @ janemeredithauthor.

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Overview: When a Pagan prays, there are many uncertainties - who we pray to, what we pray for, and what might happen to us as a consequence. Not having the same structures as other religions, Pagans can’t frame prayer in the same ways, and our experiences are likely to be wilder and more personal.

This book is both a wide ranging exploration of what prayer means in different faith and cultures, and a personal journey into a spiritual practice.

Verdict: To be honest with you, over the years I have myself read many books on Prayer, and from several faith perspectives, if truth be told. I have also painstakingly, yet dedicatedly taught Spirituality and Prayer out within the world, and studied theology at degree level, and thus I feel I am perfectly poised to be the right person to review this book; and report back that I truly believe this book by Nimue Brown is one of the most impassioned books on Prayer that I have come across in the past 20 plus years.

Now, for those not in the know, and taking a wide, yet at the same time somewhat pin-pointed view at it, Paganism is a Christian term used to designate those religions that do not worship the God of Abraham, the figure central to both Christianity and to other Abrahamic religions like Judaism and Islam. Indeed, Christians have used the terms paganism and pagan, which typically carry pejorative connotations, to draw clear distinctions between themselves and those who they believe are worshiping false gods.

Throughout most of the history of Christianity, few if any of those labeled pagan have adopted this label for themselves. However, since at least the first half of the 20th century, the term has been reappropriated as a self-designation by a family of related new religions. Often called modern Pagan or Neo-Pagan groups, they are inspired by the religions of Europe, North Africa, and West Asia that were rendered extinct by the spread of Christianity and the other Abrahamic traditions.

But, I digress, for what we have here in When a Pagan Prays: Exploring Prayer in Druidry and Beyond by author Nimue Brown is a prose that is both engaging and heartfelt one minute, yet informative and lucid the next. So much so that she, at times, reveal a raw honesty in relation to the problems they faced whilst writing the book.

Thus whilst most all of the text given to some ideas on Prayer and why people pray and the ethics behind such things are undoubtedly personally hued, overall she doesn’t lose her way in the mire of personalized spiritual practice, but moreover brings forth a more open-minded, nay a genuinely rewarding viewpoint on something that should also be of interest to open-minded, non-believers too.

About the Author - Druid, author, bard and dreamer. Nimue Brown is OBOD trained, a founding member of Bards of The Lost Forest, Druid Network member and previously a volunteer for The Pagan Federation. She lives in Gloucestershire, UK.

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Overview: China is facing tremendous economic, social and political challenges, as well as having become a predominant contributor to climate change. It has also become a predator against the Uyghurs, the Tibetans, and the Mongols, and taken over Hong Kong, silencing any forms of dissent.

It increasingly appears that one of the Communist regime’s main goals is to control the entire world, but this global ambition now faces mounting geopolitical difficulties.

Verdict: At the center stands Taiwan, which has become a full-blown democracy and, perhaps, a model for the entire Chinese nation. The United States - along with Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, and other states - are, more than ever before, willing to defend Taiwan. The possibility of a clash is real, making China along with Russia the main threat to the democratic world.

As I think we all know by now, ever since ancient times, contests among great powers have often involved contests of ideas. The Peloponnesian War was not simply a clash between a regnant Sparta and a rising Athens, but also pitted a liberal, seagoing protodemocracy that saw itself as the “school of Hellas” against a militarized, agrarian slave state.

The ideological threat that revolutionary France posed to the European order was just as serious as the military one. In the run-up to the Second World War, fascist powers and democracies squared off; during the Cold War, the superpowers divided much of the world along ideological lines.

The intertwining of ideology and geopolitics should not be surprising: At root, foreign policy is how a country seeks to make the world safe for its own way of life. Many analysts accept that U.S. foreign policy is driven by ideological impulses. Even hardcore international-relations “realists” concede the importance of ideology when they bemoan the grip that liberal passions have on Washington’s statecraft.

Curiously though, and focusing on the one side of this proffered discussion for now, there has been more resistance to the idea that there may be an ideological component to the grand strategy of America’s chief rival—the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Beijing is not making any “grand strategic effort to undermine democracy and spread autocracy,” has been said on more than one occasion around me, its foreign policy seemingly based on “pragmatic decisions about Chinese interests.”

Furthermore, realists say that China plays Realpolitik while America ignores John Quincy Adams’s 1821 advice to go “not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Other analysts suggest that it is a distraction or even a “delusion” to emphasize the ideological aspects of Sino-American rivalry at the expense of Beijing’s military and economic challenge.

In fact, the reverse is true, but I digress, for this whole debate has always gotten me riled up, it has become plainly obvious that over the past few years the unfolding world has shown us both Russia and China are a grave threat to democracy and existence of various governments in general; the US therefore showing itself to be the only one (most likely) who’s able to stop them.

As for Taiwan, well, it has gotten high marks when it comes to holding clean elections and protecting political rights. The public strongly supports democracy in principle and by and large approves the island’s system in practice. When it comes to performance, however, the political system does not do so well.

This is partly because of a set of structural factors. Selecting the president and legislature on a majoritarian basis fosters a degree of polarization and complicates the crafting of policy compromises. Periodically, social and political forces seek to circumvent the institutions of representative government (via mass protests, for example). They can block what they oppose but are unable to solve the problems that provoked their action in the first place.

But trying to stay on track again, as, well, these kind of heated discussions really get me worked up, as noted, as a whole, China is actually the world’s largest renewable energy producer and consumer. Indeed, its renewable power output nearly tripled between 2017-2022, averaging 26% annual growth during 2010-2022 which all means that China is home to one-third of the world’s renewable energy capacity.

And so here in China the Super Predator: A Challenge for the Planet by author Pierre-Antoine Donnet, we get to deep dive, and in a more pronounced, less frenzied manner than I have bounced off the walls here with, review of the factual elements that he melds together to showcase a much more cohesive, salient viewpoint of the discussional topic to hand.

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Overview: The Irish Pagan Book of Rites contains all the essential rites in an easy-to-follow format, presented in both the English and the Irish (Gaeilge) languages for those wishing to make their offerings in the beautiful indigenous Irish tongue.

Here you’ll find rites for regular use, blessings for water and the home, celebrations for the main Irish festivals, as well as in-depth explanations for the meaning, purpose, and lore behind each devotion.

Verdict: In what is a most beautifully written book on Irish Pagan prayers and rites of all kinds, author John McLoughlin has brought forth an incredibly impassioned prose within Pagan Portals - The Irish Pagan Book of Rites: Rituals and Prayers for Daily Life and Festivals, a much needed Pagan Irish devotional based in genuine Irish culture and history.

For those unaware, Paganism is a term applied to a number of religions and spiritual paths that have a strong connection with nature, many of which are based on traditional indigenous practices. Modern Pagans often perform seasonal and cyclical rites or ceremonies, known as Pagan rituals.

Indeed, the term Pagan usually refers to people who practice polytheistic religions (belief in many Gods) such as Wicca, Celtic Paganism, Druidry, Heathenry, and others. In contrast, religions like Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are called monotheist (belief in one God).

But, because Paganism is a very broad category, it includes many different religious beliefs and practices, and many different Gods and Goddesses. This diversity makes it difficult to define what exactly constitutes Paganism. However, there are some common traits that most Pagans share, such as a sense of connection with nature.

Thus, in what will obviously be of interest to anyone with ancestry from the far flung Irish and Celtic diaspora worldwide, I myself grew up a catholic in Ireland, but was late coming into my paganism and deprogramming much of what I had been taught in my early years.

However, what I do have in my favor though is a passion for the ancient Irish stories, a good memory, and a few years worth of actively building what I believe to be a Right Relationship with this ancient – and in my opinion awesome – Pagan God.

But I digress, this beautiful collection of rites is both engrossing and impassioned in such a way that the author has not only dutifully strived to preserve the traditions of pagan Ireland, but the original language in which they would have been performed.

About the Author - John Michael McLoughlin lives and writes on the brisk, beautiful shores of Lake Superior, MN. As a devotee and lover of traditional Irish spirituality, lore, and language, he is passionate about sharing these ancestral ways with others, providing strong foundations for seekers new to the path, as well as deep and enriching material for the experienced wayfarer.

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Overview: The Magic of Wolves explores a wide array of mythologies from around the world, demonstrating how humans have both understood and interacted with wolves - sometimes figures of admiration, sometimes seen as terrifying and savage. These sacred stories give insights not only into our own nature but also into the nature of wolves themselves.

Verdict: As I have grown up to learn, wolves held significant cultural and mythological significance in Norse mythology, primarily due to their association with the wolf Fenrir, a monstrous creature that played a prominent role in Norse mythology.

Fenrir was one of the children of the god Loki and was prophesied to bring great destruction to the gods during Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse. This prophecy led to the wolf being viewed as a powerful and fearsome creature, and as such, wolves were considered sacred in Norse mythology.

Indeed, for me, the most well-known story involving Fenrir is the binding of Fenrir. In this tale, the gods attempted to bind Fenrir to prevent him from fulfilling the prophecy of his role in Ragnarok. However, Fenrir broke free from multiple bindings until he was ultimately bound by the magical ribbon Gleipnir, which was made from seemingly innocuous materials like a cat’s footfall, a woman’s beard, and other impossible items.

Furthermore, this story portrays Fenrir as an incredibly powerful and untamable creature, adding to his status as a revered and feared figure in Norse mythology.

But I digress, wolves were also associated with Odin, the chief god of the Norse pantheon, who was often depicted accompanied by two wolves named Geri and Freki. These wolves were said to represent Odin’s hunting companions or symbolic representations of his attributes, with Geri meaning ravenous and Freki meaning greedy. This association further elevated the symbolic significance of wolves in Norse mythology.

Overall, wolves were considered sacred in Norse mythology due to their association with the powerful and mythical wolf Fenrir, as well as their connection to the chief god Odin. They were viewed as powerful and untamable creatures, embodying qualities such as strength, cunning, and ferocity, which were respected and revered by the Norse people.

The Magic of Wolves also considers practical issues in pagan ritual, and how people have communicated with wolf spirits and turned to them as ancestral figures. Blending zoology, mythology, sociology, psychology and theology, this text aims to give a broad overview of how wolves and their relationships to humans can be understood.

Chapters cover topics such as the lupine legends of Ancient Rome, Classical Greece, the Norse, the Celts, India and Japan. Whether you are passionate about wolves, lycanthropes, mythology or magic, there will be something here for you.

About the Author - Robin Herne is an educator, poet, storyteller, poet, artist, dog-owner and Druid. He has written numerous articles for Pagan magazines, has appeared in television documentaries and is the author of Old Gods, New Druids, Bard Song and A Dangerous Place. He lives in Suffolk, UK.

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Overview: Most Westerners, it seems, don’t relate to traditional Eastern spiritual practices, mainly because there is a disconnect between traditional Eastern approaches and modern society’s mindset and current environment. In The 7 Levels of Wisdom, a path toward a more enlightened and fulfilling life is analyzed.

Verdict: Meant to expand both knowledge and awareness, this path offers the richness of Eastern philosophies tailored for the Western mind. The 7 Levels of Wisdom covers different related topics crucial for understanding and leading a personal transformation, with an aim to inspire people to reach the highest levels of human consciousness, the most important goal, and to see it as something they can do, regardless of their responsibilities or life conditions.

By assessing and describing the different stages of human consciousness, The 7 Levels of Wisdom will help its readers identify where they are on the progressive path toward enlightenment, as well as what lies ahead.

So, are you ready to embark on a transformative journey towards self-realization and higher consciousness? Sure, the pursuit of enlightenment may seem daunting, but the rewards are immeasurable.

For enlightenment is the key to unlocking your true potential and experiencing inner peace and harmony. It is a spiritual awakening that allows you to transcend the limitations of the material world and connect with something greater than yourself.

The Seven (7) Levels of Wisdom are:

Subheccha (good desire)
Vicharana (self-inquiry)
Tanumanasi (subtle mind)
Sattvapatti (attainment of light)
Asamsakti (inner detachment)
Padartha bhavana (spiritual vision)
Turiya (supreme freedom)

And thus, what we have here in The 7 Levels of Wisdom: A Path to Fulfillment by author Mónica Esgueva -- an author, therapist, teacher, and spiritual guide whose work touches people profoundly, inspiring transformations in their day-to-day lives -- is a well researched, dutifully constructed, and wholly impassioned examination on how to better understand ourselves, and the world around us, at a time when the Gates of Wisdom seem always locked to us.

About the Author - Mónica Esgueva is an author, therapist, teacher, and spiritual guide whose work touches people profoundly, inspiring transformations in their day-to-day lives. She is the author of nine self-development books and has studied with great spiritual masters, such as the Dalai Lama, for 10 years in India and Nepal. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a Master’s Degree in Foreign Trade. She lives in Spain.

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Overview: A fascinating guide for understanding your relationships with friends, family, and colleagues, involving a unique blend of Western and Chinese astrology.

Read about the astrological attributes of your child and other children in your life - and discover how the elements influence your astrological make-up - in order to further your understanding of yourself and those you encounter throughout life.

This guide aims to help you achieve fuller self-knowledge, as well as a rounded understanding of the people in your life.

Verdict: The differences between the Chinese Zodiac and Western Astrology, in principle, is that both systems are based on date and time of birth, with 12 symbols or signs used to communicate across meaning.

For those needing a little more, well, here are some of the small differences, to make things a little easier to understand. In both systems, there are the same number of signs: 12. Two are superficially similar: Ox/Bull and Goat/Ram.

The Chinese signs are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

The Western signs are: Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Scales, Scorpion, Centaur, Sea-Goat, Water Bearer, and Fish.

In Chinese astrology, the 12 signs are derived from a myth that when God was developing a calendar, all creatures on Earth were summoned to participate in a race. The first 12 to cross the line were awarded signs in the Chinese zodiac.

This differs from Western astrology where the 12 signs are based on constellations’ positions relative to the earth. The constellations were named according to Greek mythology.

But, I digress, as here in Astrolations!: A Unique Astrological Guide for You and All Your Relationships by author Jill Carr what she has dutifully done is cull together a very well organized, and wholly impassioned easy to read guide to astrology for both beginners and those already attune to it alike.

Simply put, this thoroughly informative, truly comprehensive book is intended for all those interested in the mysteries of life and whilst Jill has remained faithful to Western and Chinese astrological traditions -- to present us with a book focused on the connection between them -- she has also managed to refreshingly shine a light on a subject matter that we should all become more accustomed to reverting to on a monthly/yearly basis.

About the Author - Jill Carr’s passion has been astrology for all of her adult life, and she has studied and researched the subject extensively. Jill has a degree in Philosophy and Aesthetics, and performs astrological consultations on request. She has now settled in the wonderful county of Cornwall, where the natural beauty of this ancient and spiritual place constantly inspires her.

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Overview: Why do I live as a small human being in this huge universe? The answer to this question is simple and clear. It is to feel genuine happiness. Then, another question arises. How and what makes one happy?

And this question cannot be answered right away. Feeling genuine happiness is something that can’t be achieved easily in this world, where many complicated circumstances are intertwined.

In order to feel genuine happiness, one must understand oneself, know about the world and see through the universe. You are the one who feels happiness, you can’t be happy simply by yourself, and happiness is the universe’s response to your choices.

Verdict: This book contains the principles by which the universe responds to your choices. It contains the very specific details. This book elucidates the five constitutions of your mind to help you understand yourself, and it explains the nine essences of how you communicate with the universe to help you understand your fate.

Based on such understanding, it guides you to the path to happiness. We ought to be happy, because happiness is the fate, as well as an obligation, that we little human beings, living in this huge universe, have.

So, I hear you ask, what are these aforementioned five constitutions of your mind that author Yoon-Jeong Kim wishes us to know more about here in the truly fascinating, yet wordy titled How & What to Pursue in Life: 5 Pillars of Mind On HOW to Live / 9 Absolute Values of Chakras WHAT We Should Live For.

Well, they are: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, and this five elements theory is one of the central concepts of traditional Chinese medicine. Furthermore, the five elements theory is a framework used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to explain how we’re influenced by the world and weather around us, and how the organs of the body interact with each other.

I myself have been aware for the longest time that this five phases theory is a framework that’s been used for at least 2400 years in traditional Chinese medicine. Indeed, from the perspective of TCM, understanding which of the five elements has a dominant effect on you right now, can give you insight into your personal strengths and weaknesses.

If you’re feeling imbalanced, low in energy, or simply out-of-whack, understanding the elemental influences at play is also a quick way to help you know the kind of imbalances to watch out for, and guide you to simple steps you can take to restore harmony and balance.

And thus we come full circle back to this new book from Yoon-Jeong Kim this March, and as much as it covers much more than just those discussed above, to me personally, I have always been fascinated by the five elements theory.

For, as aforementioned, in order to feel genuine happiness, one must understand oneself, know about the world and see through the universe. You are the one who feels happiness, you can’t be happy simply by yourself, and happiness is the universe’s response to your choices.

In closing, How & What to Pursue in Life: 5 Pillars of Mind On HOW to Live / 9 Absolute Values of Chakras WHAT We Should Live For is a book that is dutifully impassioned, magnificently hued toward an ease of understanding and learning, and is something that if left on your coffee table for guests to peruse, will have gone home with one of them the very first night!

About the Author - Yoon-Jeong Kim’s curiosity about humans grew the more she studied Korean medicine. That is why when she became a doctor of Korean medicine, she focused more on individual constitution rather than the disease, and felt strong curiosity when she received an unfamiliar proposal regarding the origin and growth of an existence. She lives in Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.

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Overview: The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. In I Am Taurus, author Stephen Palmer traces the story of the bull in the sky, starting from that point 19,000 years ago - a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.

Verdict: Each of the eleven sections here in I Am Taurus is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Spain and elsewhere.

This is not just a history of the bull but also an attempt to see ourselves through the eyes of the bull, illustrating our pre-literate use of myth, how the advent of writing and the urban revolution changed our view of ourselves, and how even the most modern of rituals - bullfighting in Spain - is a variation on the ancient sacrifice of the sacred bull.

For thousands of years, the symbol of the bull has been surrounded with a mythical aura that spans not only eons of history, enduring to the present day, but also the vast range of cultures that have emerged in the Mediterranean world.

The legends and cults woven around the bull and the integral part that this wondrous, almost divine, animal played in people’s lives is the subject of I am Taurus, which is in and unto itself a gloriously dutiful exploration of the role of these animals in prehistoric culture and such.

Painted or engraved bulls on the walls of paleolithic caverns suggest that from prehistoric times, the bull was associated with cosmic energy and the forces of life and death. In Anatolia, the bull was worshiped as the son of the mother-goddess, and its horns, which supported the world, were seen as the pillars of the universe. This concept was probably the origin of horns as a mark of divinity.

In Mesopotamia, for instance, gods occasionally had bulls’ ears and, with almost no exception, wore a diadem with bulls’ horns. Another example, included in the exhibition, is the Hellenistic head of Zeus-Amon, a new Egyptian deity that emerged with the cultural fusion that followed Egypt’s conquest by Alexander the Great. The bulls’ horns that sprout from the head is again an attribute of divinity. The Roman deity Jupiter was portrayed, like other celestial gods of Syria and Palestine, with one or two bulls.

But, I digress, for as you can tell, the bull is an entity that I have followed along with for almost all my life, but here in the book, author Stephen Palmer traces connections between different times and places around the Mediterranean, all informed by the presence of a bull-like constellation.

About the Author - Stephen Palmer is the author of twenty genre novels, ranging from eco-SF through dark fantasy to steampunk. His short stories have been widely published, and he is the author of the book Tangerine Dream In The 1970s. He lives and works in Shropshire, UK.

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Overview: As the turbulent 1960s draw to a close, an inexplicable crime forces two young Americans who are teaching in Africa, and those around them, to confront issues of motivation, culture and belonging.

Verdict: The shocking rape of a Peace Corps volunteer shatters the precarious balance of American idealism and hypocrisy in l969 Swaziland, a newly independent country dealing with its own equally fraught post-colonial issues.

In what is a mighty fine read, from start to finish, and chock full of fascinatingly characters, themselves, each and every one, a fully rounded, fully functional being for us to lock in on, The Narrow Window (A Novel) by author Gary D. Wilson is one of those books they term as a literal page turner.

As we grip immediately onto the story line from the off, the beautifully sculpted, and for the most part exotic locations are absorbed vicariously into us, our minds thus following along as if we were standing beside the characters on the page.

With personal agendas abounding, The Narrow Window is a somewhat heartbreak of a read, sure, but at the same time it is both breathtakingly thoughtful, deliciously alluring in its genuinely impassioned prose.

A dutiful tale of one’s very own identity, who we are, who we wish to become, and who we eventually become, along with the meaning of belonging (mentally and physically), it’s about everything we leave behind along with the accumulated baggage we take with us, of course.

About the Author - Gary D. Wilson is a fiction writer who currently lives in Chicago, Il. He has taught fiction writing at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago. His book publications include the novels Sing, Ronnie Blue and Getting Right, as well as the short story collection, For Those Who Favor Fire.

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Overview: As today’s emotional capitalism increasingly carries out its core operation of regulating the psycho-energy of individuals, the need to analyze a variety of methods for emotional production becomes important.

By bringing together the works of Byung-Chul Han, Bernard Stiegler, Emmanuel Levinas, and Judith Butler, this bold analysis offers a fresh perspective on the operation of emotional capitalism today, with various possibilities for evolving a sensitivity to social injustice and the suffering of others through an ethical, affective, and bodily inter-subjective connection.

Verdict: Growing up, I was fully aware that Advanced Capitalism (AC) was a macro-economic and macro-cultural system that exerts profound influence on individual well-being. Indeed, AC has led to great prosperity since the Second World War and has been of substantial benefit to well-being, providing levels of personal and political freedom, as well as infrastructure, health, and social provisions unheard of throughout most of human history.

Nevertheless, growing levels of inequality within AC countries alongside recent economic stagnation and constraints have resulted in diminished opportunities and increasing insecurity for many citizens.

Here in Emotional Capitalism: From Emotional Dictatorship to Emotional Redemption, author Peter Wing-Kai Lok asks how our repressed emotions which have been distorted and regulated by emotional capitalism can be transformed into ethical emotions.

In general, Capitalism feels like being eternally stuck on a hamster wheel, unable to get off unless there is a major crisis that forces you off- like a health issue, a pandemic, a relationship falling apart, extreme burnout, death of a loved one, etc. Then we hop off as we are forced to examine the state of our lives. Except we get back on once we’ve uncovered some band-aid solution to address the symptoms but never the root cause of our pain.

So what kinds of emotional experiences can transform a self-centered entity into an other-centered subject? Reading this enthused book, what is brought forth is a highly innovative set of constructs to the topic of emotional capitalism, all with theoretical courage and critical insight veined throughout.

In what is a genuine pleasure to read, from cover to cover this impassioned, dutifully sculpted prose is as thought provoking, as engaging as you could have ever hoped it would be.

About the Author - Peter Wing-kai Lok is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Creative Industries Program at the College of International Education, Hong Kong Baptist University. He is interested in cultural studies and contemporary French philosophy. He lives in Hong Kong, China.

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Overview: Drums & Demons The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon is the blazing rock opera of the greatest drummer of all-time, Jim Gordon, from the legendary Wrecking Crew to redefining rock on the Seventies’ biggest hits and outrageous tours, and ultimately to the most shocking crime in rock history — his is a story of musical genius and uncontrollable madness!

Verdict: In what is a most fascinating, at times eye-opening read from renowned author Joel Selvin, Drums & Demons The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon (born James Beck Gordon) quickly unveils to us the simply fact that Gordon was, and undoubtedly, one of the most important drummers in American rock history.

Having played with artists such as Buffalo Springfield, Alice Cooper, Jackson Browne, John Denver, the Beach Boys and even Randy Newman, Jim Gordon (07/14/1945 - 03/13/2023) always gave his all and never once backed down from a challenge. Which is remarkable, given the fact that this biography also leans into Gordon’s issues with mental illness and substance abuse, both of which would ultimately bring his life to a premature end, sadly.

Chock full to the brim with stories and wondrous memories galore, let alone some incredible, never-before-heard interviews and comments from Gordon’s immediate family [who, it is believed, had declined to do such interviews over the years for other inquirers], we soon learn that Gordon was a protégé of Hal Blaine, and whereas such drummer alums as the co-founder of Toto Jeff Porcaro, sessionist Jim Keltner, and Andy Newmark (Sly and the Family Stone) all looked up to him, it was a warm glow that he himself never self-consciously bathed in.

Now, I won’t be digging into his aforementioned mental health and drug issues, as that is most definitely not what this book has been created for, but what I will say is this: to get a more defined picture of Jim Gordon, we should first understand that the man was, for all intents and purposes, living in two worlds - the real one and an unreal one, where it has been told down the years inner voices started to take him over [schizophrenia].

I mean, it is true that his life was shattered by mental illness and a murder conviction (for having taken the life of his own mother), and thus spent nearly 40 years in prison thereafter, but I would implore you to focus more on the fact that Gordon was performing professionally as a teenager and as early as 1963 was playing drums with Frankie Knight and the Jesters.

But, and moving on from that, instead let us all bathe in his majestic musicianship that came to the fore in the late ’60s, when he did turns with such artists as Neil Young (1967), Connie Francis (1968), Ricky Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Rivers, Tiny Tim (1969), and crossing into the ’70s with George Harrison, and both Eric Clapton and Derek and the Dominos.

In closing, Drums & Demons is a what-we-are-led-to-believe accurately impassioned tale of Jim Gordon, a larger-than-life personality who before he got caught up in the maelstrom of schizophrenia, was knee deep in the laid-back L.A. sound one minute, yet ready to explode into a more frenetic being -- as witnessed on songs like Mason Williams’s “Classical Gas” (1968) or John Lennon’s “Power to the People” (1971); let alone when he toured with the late, great prolific workaholic Frank Zappa (who nicknamed him Skippy for his All-American demeanor and his all-American looks).

In closing, here are a couple of quotes from those who knew Jim Gordon well:

“Based upon my interactions with Jim Gordon, author Joel Selvin accurately portrays Jim’s genius as well as his development into the living hell he gradually occupied. Jim was always soft-spoken, and the first one to arrive at a session. His drums spoke for him, and he had a subtle but commanding presence. Years later, when he was scheduled for a session where I was producing a commercial, he arrived forty-five minutes late, was surly, and uninvolved. Someone else had taken over the Jim we knew and loved, and that was the last time I saw him.”
— Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere & The Raiders

“I loved Jim Gordon like a brother and am grateful for Joel Selvin’s unstinting notice of Gordon’s luminescence, which adds great leavening to this heartbreaking work of staggering genius.”
— Van Dyke Parks

About the Author - Joel Selvin a San Francisco–based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle, which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written more than 20 books covering various aspects of pop music — including the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock with Sammy Hagar — and published articles in Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, and Melody Maker.

He has written liner notes for dozens of recorded albums and appeared in countless documentaries. His most recent books are Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History and Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars and the Myth of the California Paradise

Overview: In Search of Hope delves into our lived experience today to discover the fleeting moments of hope available to us and offers stories, as well as easy practical exercises, to give us paths into the self so that we might create a personal landscape in which hope can flourish.

Inspired by the writings of one of the founders of Quakerism in the seventeenth century, Margaret Fell, In Search of Hope is an attempt to bring some of the first ideas of Quakerism into our lives in these challenging times.

Verdict: Taking it from the top, Quakerism started in England in the second half of the 17th century, during the aftermath of the English Civil War; a time when many people were interested in radically reshaping religion, politics and society. Early Quakers started preaching around the North of England, and then further afield around Britain, gathering followers who were convinced by their radical ideas.

The key beliefs of Quakerism were formed at this time. They include the idea that each individual can experience inner light, or the voice of God, without needing a priest, or the Bible. This belief has evolved to mean that Quakers don’t have strict set rules governing their Church – how each individual chooses to act, if it is driven by this inner light, is valid.

It also means that Quakers believe there is that of God in everyone, they seek to meet this in all people and see all humans as equal and deserving of equal treatment and respect.

Early Quakers also preached there was no need for churches, rituals, holy days, or sacraments, to practice religion. Rather religion should be something one lived and acted out every day.

These ideas were radical in a period where the established church held great political power, and many early Quakers were imprisoned and oppressed for these beliefs.

Here in this insightful, and at the same time thought-provoking new book from author Joanna Godfrey Wood, Quaker Quicks: In Search Of Hope A Personal Quaker, she straight talks about how the experiences we endure today formulate fleeting moments of hope that dutifully become available to us, therein offering us chances to explore, and embrace Quakerism into our lives in these challenging times.

Inspired by the writings of one of the founders of Quakerism in the seventeenth century, Margaret Fell, was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, known popularly as the mother of Quakerism, and is still today considered one of the Valiant Sixty early Quaker preachers and missionaries.

In 1652, Margaret heard the ministry of George Fox and was convinced. Over the next six years, Swarthmoor Hall became a centre of Quaker activity; she served as an unofficial secretary for the new movement, receiving and forwarding letters from roving missionaries, and occasionally sending admonitions to them from Fox, Richard Hubberthorne, James Nayler, and others.

She wrote many epistles herself and collected and disbursed funds for those on missions. After her husband’s death in 1658, she retained control of Swarthmoor Hall, which remained a meeting place and haven from persecution, even though it was sometimes, in the 1660s, raided by government forces.

Because she was one of the few founding members of the Religious Society of Friends who was an established member of the gentry, she was frequently called upon to intercede in cases of persecution or arrest of leaders such as Fox.

After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, she traveled from Lancashire to London to petition King Charles II and his parliament in 1660 and 1662 for freedom of conscience in religious matters. In her work A Declaration and an Information from Us, The People called Quakers, to the Present Governors, The King and Both Houses of Parliament, and All Whom It May Concern published in 1660 she explains the principles of Quakerism and pleads for religious freedom.

This work is regarded as the first public declaration of the peace testimony as it came some months before the declaration of January 1661.

There is, of course, much more to explore and learn here in this book, so I encourage you to buy it, find a quiet time and place to settle in with it, and with a hot beverage, submerge yourself within these pages; for you will, and without a shadow of a doubt, be a much wiser and learned person thereafter.

About the Author - Joanna Godfrey Wood has been a Quaker all her life and she attended a Quaker school. She recently took the Equipping for Ministry course at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, England, which gave her a chance to study the works of Margaret Fell. Joanna spent her working life as a book editor. Joanna lives in North London, UK.

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Overview: The challenges of examining the subjective experience of supernatural events prompted me to write this book. In these pages, I present some of my personal history with supernatural experiences and mention key people who influenced me.

I talk about my earliest experiences with hypnosis, the study of consciousness, and how I evolved as a professional, as well as how I developed deeper connections to my heritage.

I discuss how I improved my understanding of supernatural awareness and forged stronger connections with the universe - a universe alive with invisible beings, energies, and information that can interact with us. - Dr. Frederick Woodard

Verdict: Taking it from the top, extrasensory perception, or sixth sense, is an ability in and unto itself as well as comprising a set of abilities. Whereas clairvoyance is the ability to see things and events that are happening far away, and locate objects, places, people, using a sixth sense.

Personally, I have been fascinated by both and have allowed them in my older years to infiltrate my own personal life more often than the younger version of me could have ever imagined. I have also undergone hypnotherapy, but that did not take for me and I did not get one ounce of belief or comfort from it (but to each their own, of course).

As for this quite marvelous new book, Developing Your Supernatural Awareness: Connecting with an Interactive Universe by author Dr. Frederick Woodard, he uses his own personal, and wholly subjective experiences of supernatural events to showcase a better understanding of supernatural awareness around us; whilst at the same time dutifully detailing how forged stronger connections with the universe can enhance any and all of our lives.

It is said that when one is more attune to the world around them, let alone the spiritual wealth of realms that are both - at various times and dependent on various life moments - seen and unseen, the soul in question is at a much more advanced level of awareness than an ordinary person; and while ordinary people only notice things in general, they notice in detail.

Again, something that I myself have grown accustomed to allowing to freely infiltrate my life over these latter years of it, it is for this reason that users can plan and implement strategically and tactically what they should decide and how they should act, and (usually) without missing anything.

For to have such an increased sense of awareness far above those of the, shall we say average joe of the species, is to say that often, and to the extent that few, if any, little details miss their notice. Thus, I would urge you to go out and but this book, read it twice and then allow all its knowledge to flow freely through you so that you do not miss the little details of life either.

About the Author - Dr. Fredrick Woodard is a clinical psychologist and certified hypnotherapist who conducts original research on the supernatural/paranormal, hypnosis, and psychotherapy. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology and Doctor of Clinical Hypnotherapy (DCH) degree, as well as three psychology-related masters degrees.

In 2021 he was voted Hypnotist of the Year for 2021 in the Merrimack - Souhegan Valley Region of New Hampshire. He lives in Milford, NH.

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Overview: A transformation in human consciousness is taking place. And it’s generating a growing interest in how subtle elements of the human constitution play a part in the maintenance of our health and wellbeing.

You Are a Frequency introduces a new paradigm for health and healing based on the whole person, not the physical body on which traditional medicine focuses.

Verdict: In this book, Debbie Sellwood describes the human being’s various energy systems, indicating that everything - animal, vegetable and mineral - has its own unique vibration.

She explains how these energy bodies influence our health and wellbeing, that the physical body is a medium for the consciousness of the energy bodies.

You Are a Frequency explains that how we perceive and react to life events determine what experiences we attract into our lives, including health. Our reactions also impact the frequency of our vibrations, and by raising our vibrations, we become more empowered, able to take responsibility for ourselves.

For it is the author’s belief that understanding ourselves as energetic beings will ultimately inspire a future health paradigm and lead to the transformation of the medical system.

As we all know, energy is needed by every cell in your body to operate, whether that be muscle contractions for movement and exercise, the regulation of body temperature, sleep, breathing, or any other bodily function. Knowing more about the basics of human energy processes can be helpful for making healthier training and dietary decisions.

It’s common knowledge that the energy that the human body uses each day comes from the food we eat. But what’s less well known is what happens after we’ve eaten our meal to transform that food into something that the countless individual cells that make up our bodies can use.

The simplest useful way we can think about what happens is this: After we consume our meals, the solids and liquids in the foods are digested and broken down into macronutrients, the building blocks of nutrition carbohydrates, protein, and fats.

But what author Debbie Anne Sellwood sets out to do is offer a window into a variety of spiritual principles highlighted within the esoteric philosophy. Providing powerfully insightful, foundational understanding along the way, she reveals an intriguing new paradigm related to health and wellness.

This book offers the reader an in-depth understanding of the relationships and the energies of the soul and the tripod vehicle of the mental, emotional and physical bodies.

In conclusion, You Are a Frequency: How Personal Vibration Influences Health, Well-Being and Development will appeal to the increasing number of people who are aware of a spiritual component to their existence, who want to understand who they really are, and their potential, at a more holistic level.

The times in which we live are causing us to acknowledge that there is more to life, and to ourselves, than meets the eye - you are more than you think!

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Description: Once you’ve collected every 7 inch from your favorite label, broken your back in the mosh pit, and become so well-versed in the interpersonal dynamics of every hardcore band that there’s nothing more to learn, what’s a punk to do?

Try jazz, recommends Bob Suren. No, really. Suren, who wrote Crate Digger about his life and work in punk, turns his obsessive gaze onto another form of rebellious, improvisational outsider music, but this time with more sax.

Verdict: What does Dixieland have in common with D.R.I.? Did Charles Mingus write the first punk song? And who was the Butthole Surfer of jazz? Suren answers these questions and many more.

Reading his irreverent guide to jazz, filled with punk references and colorful language, is more fun than getting arrested for vandalism. Learn about the surprising history and scandalous etymology of jazz, explore its connections to punk, and take in biographical sketches of over 25 notable artists—with plenty of recommendations thrown in for your listening pleasure.

Personally, I have been a fan of author Bob Suren’s writing since his brilliant band Failure Face was introduced to me! I mean, for gawd’s sake, surely they must be one of the most underrated ’90s hardcore powerhouse groups of their time, but I digress!

Weird Music That Goes on Forever: A Punk’s Guide to Loving Jazz is a rather excellent, and wholly unexpected, in truth, overview of the jazz scene from the early days up to about the mid-’80s and is throughout an informative and thoroughly entertaining read.

Impassioned and enthralling in equal measures, the book lovingly serves as a great guide throughout the genre - and rightly titles the book accordingly - and is one that will provide all you ever needed to know (or had forgotten) about each recording highlighted.

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Overview: Natural Happiness can help you dig deep and stay cheerful in these stormy times. It shows how you can use gardening methods such as composting, mulching, and crop rotation to cultivate human nature, too.

A gardener applies skills like observation, patience and creativity - and you can adapt them to deal with daily stresses and big issues such as climate change.

Alan’s approach is positive and practical, easy to use for gardeners and others. Natural Happiness explores Alan’s Seven Seeds of Natural Happiness, which grows from 30 years’ experience of helping people learn from nature, and from creating gardens and an organic farm.

Verdict: A book that had me engrossed from the very first chapter onward, and one that takes a wholly different stance to our levels of obtaining happiness throughout over lives that I have personally seen/read in many a year, author Alan Heeks’ simply superbly honed Natural Happiness: Use Organic Gardening Skills to Cultivate Yourself is a book I can heartily recommend to anyone who is having second thoughts about their lives, the direction it is taking, or even deeper than that, what their life is worth.

Based on decades of hands-on experiences, we get entwined gardening strategies with mindful exercises that come together in a way that are proven, yes proven to introduce improvement to your overall state of wellbeing.

Indeed, if you want an even better diving board on which to spring into this book from, try this. Alan asks that if you wanted to improve your life by growing just the one solitary thing, what would you choose? His answer, Yourself! And my goodness, is that not just the most perfect of responses to a question that your mind would never have gone to ordinarily before having been introduced to this marvelous book!

Thus here in Natural Happiness, Alan details how we can restore happiness within our everyday lives, but moreover, we also get to physically cultivate our gardens. Well, ok, both mentally and physically, I should stress, as if we tend to the physical one we soon notice the essentials - soil, sun, air, compost, and water - that once we have made small adjustments to our mental vibrancy linked towards the physical, both the garden and our own mental happiness can grow equally; as we tend to, and fix, everything that is ailing those specific areas.

Broken down into seven chapters - Nourish Your Roots, Use natural Energy Sources, Compost Your Troubles, Shaping Uncertainty: The Co-operative way, Cultivating Community, and both Growing through Climate Change and Natural Inspiration - the book is dedicated to Mother Earth, Gaia, who nourishes our bodies and souls, with a hope that humanity realizes its oneness with all life, and that we grow through this together.

About the Author - Alan Heeks is a group leader, author and pioneer who has over 30 years’ experience helping people to grow their wellbeing through contact with Nature. He left a successful business career to set up a 130-acre organic farm and education centre, and the Seeding our Future project, which helps individuals, local communities and NHS doctors to build resilience in the face of climate change and other stresses. Alan and his wife, Linda, are keen gardeners, and grow much of their food in their garden at home.

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Overview: Everyone has a unique journey, a life purpose, and an inner light which guides them. You simply need to listen. The Mindful Medium is an inspiring, practical guide for awakening.

Verdict: Inside these pages, Alison Grey applies her knowledge and understanding of the spirit world to help you understand yourself better, to change to a more positive mind-set, and to develop your own healing and intuitive gifts with easy, practical step-by-step exercises and visualizations.

Detailing the initial signs she received from guides, angels, and her loved ones, Alison acknowledges how these first steps of her own journey led her to where she is today - a successful psychic medium, healer, spiritual teacher and counselor.

Her teaching weaves a fascinating and accessible alternative way of thinking, encouraging mediums to deepen their own intuitive and psychic skills while helping them to find answers to life’s important questions.

In what is a most gratifying read, and from start to finish, author Alison Grey’s vast experiences as a teacher come magnificently to the fore as she calmly, diligently, and importantly expertly not only explains the principles and practice of relaxation techniques, guided meditation, and psychic awareness, but dutifully shows how her guidance can easy become an essential tool for all budding mediums on the next stages of their spiritual path.

Broken down into three parts - Welcome, Understanding Spirituality and The Mindfulness Approach - and 32 chapters, Alison soon explains that when we are aligned with our joy, we are living an authentic life, and hopefully spreading our joyous positivity to others.

She reveals that listening to her intuition over the years has enabled her to make some very important decisions in life, and therefore wonders how many of us find it hard to listen to our own inner voices?

Thus, and whilst steering the more advanced practitioners towards developing their own style, she also, and comfortably encourages all aspiring practitioners to walk step-by-step through her book, to take each chapter at our own pace, in hopes we can all come across a better guide to this often confusing area.

About the Author - Alison Grey is a Reiki master, crystal healer and PLR regressionist, as well as a psychic, medium, healer and spiritual teacher. When she isn’t giving professional readings that incorporate guidance and spiritual counsel, she is running successful spiritual and healing development circles, as well as mentorship programs. She is based in the beautiful Cotswolds, UK.

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Overview: Adventures of an American Medical Student by author James Champion is a gritty, fictionalized memoir that explores a range of human suffering with heart, soul, and humor.

Verdict: James Banks is a medical student in Brighton, a rural town in Kentucky’s Appalachia, a region stricken with poverty and an opioid epidemic. James just wants to match with a good psychiatry residency and graduate.

But he has just received a rejection from a residency he applied to, and he has a bad feeling that he failed a medical licensing exam. Failure is not an option. James must become a doctor to pay off $230,000 in student loans.

James runs a gauntlet of clinical rotations in different specialties: family medicine, osteopathic medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, emergency medicine, cardiology, neurology, and neurosurgery.

He encounters a motley cast of patients and doctors - including a patient with blue skin and a hostile, tantrum-throwing ob-gyn - who teach him how to become a physician. He sees the best and worst in humanity and even patients who have glimpsed heaven and hell.

Ergo, Adventures of an American Medical Student is a gritty, fictionalized memoir that explores a range of human suffering with heart, soul, and humor.

Chronicling James Banks’ third and fourth years of medical school- the clinical years where he does monthly rotations with different specialties - some might indeed call this a novel, but I would categorize it as a fictionalized memoir, as Dr. Champion makes sure to note at the beginning that some names (but not all) have been changed.

While the passages about the patients he sees were indeed colorfully interesting, it was a shame that every woman he met was described as either attractive, cute, or obese and the men were described as either handsome or overweight, but hey-ho, that is just my own thoughts on that small portion of what is, and genuinely, a very pleasing prose to read.

In short, Champion narrates his physician’s journey throughout his residency in some fine style here, with medical cases getting brought forth (some in great detail) along with casual observations about his chosen path taken.

Indeed, most of the detail is about patients seen and medical cases, which is rather interesting and highly educational. Interestingly, each chapter has footnotes and definitions of what was discussed so the reader can learn about medications and conditions.

About the Author - James Champion is a psychiatrist practicing in Appalachia. He supervises psychiatry residents, teaches medical students, and collaborates with nurse practitioners. He has a D.O. degree from an Appalachian medical school. He lives in Tennessee, US. This is his first book.

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Overview: Paths to the Personal: Thinkers on the Way to Postcritical and Theopoetic Depths seeks to define and explore the dimension of the personal underlying all knowing, doing, being, and religion.

Using a lens combining Michael Polanyi’s postcritical and Stanley Hopper’s theopoetic thought, which carries the author into and beyond their explorative depths of the personal, Keiser asks to what degree the personal is present in the thinking of Augustine, Tillich, H.R. Niebuhr, Fritz Buri, Freud, Mircea Eliade, Merleau-Ponty, William Poteat, Hopper, and Polanyi.

The immersive issues in these pages are: how we know; how words (symbols, metaphors, myths, and religious talk) work; contributions of philosophy to justice and peace-making; and the nature of religious thinking and being. While not focused on Quaker thought and spirituality, the author’s Quaker perspective undergirds these inquiries.

Verdict: Although a book that sounds and looks, at first glance, as something weighed down in its own prose heavy text on electronic noise, political antagonism, and general discontent, what author Melvin Keiser provides the reader is an extensive menu of thinkers who provide such guidance from distinct but largely compatible perspectives.

Aptly entitled Paths to the Personal: Thinkers on the Way to Postcritical and Theopoetic Depths, the book presents the authors quest to understand what personal, at its most profound, actually means.

While not focused on Quaker thought and spirituality, persay, between his post-critical theopoetics and his Quaker Silence, Keiser still reveals an impassioned, and at times imaginative in its honesty, and always rigorous in its contemplation, viewpoint on what personal is to each of us.

So, here in this age of electronic noise, political antagonism, and general discontent, where can one find guidance to coherent living that matters? Well, Keiser provides the reader with not just his own dedicated thoughts, but seasons his thought process, with such additional influences as Augustine’s reflections and confessions and, amongst others, Merleau-Ponty’s notion of figure and ground.

In closing, Paths to the Personal delivers to the spiritually hungry a delicious feast of peaceful promises, but not without some diligent homework undertaken by the reader. I mean, nothing easy ever came to those just holding their hand out, did it?

About the Author - R. Melvin Keiser, Professor Emeritus of Religious and Interdisciplinary Studies, Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, is a member of Swannanoa Valley Friends Meeting, and has been co-director with his wife, Beth, of the Quaker-based Common Light Meetingplace in the Asheville, North Carolina area. He lives in Black Mountain, NC.

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Overview: Fairy, The Otherworld By Many Names is a comprehensive look at beliefs in and views of the Otherworld across Celtic, English, and modern folklore.

Verdict: The world of Fairy has intrigued humanity across folklore and literature for as long as we have written records and into the modern period.

This book seeks to detangle the convoluted history of the world of Fairy by looking at the various cultural beliefs that form the basis of the wider view and explore how those beliefs interact and impact each other.

Thus author Morgan Daimler lovingly explores the Irish Soal Eile, Scottish Elfland, English Fairy, and Welsh Annwn before delving into modern and popcultural understandings of this Otherworld so intrinsically bound to our own.

In Fairy, The Otherworld By Many Names, Daimler passionately teaches us that the fairy world, amongst other things, actually evolves and is a stunningly diverse and constantly changing entity, in and unto themselves.

For it is here, in this Fairy world, that Daimler truly thrives, presenting us a host of helpful information that both allow the reader to understand what can be a contradictory subject and to come to their own conclusions along the way also.

Simply put, Fairy, The Otherworld By Many Names is a quite marvelous work of scholarship that will have readers, both knowledgeable and bystandingly curious, enthralled from the very first page turned.

A veritable treasure trove of knowledge, research, and scholarship from one the most prolific authors of Celtic and Irish traditions and history (Fairy Witchcraft, A New Dictionary of Fairies, Fairy Queens, Living Fairy, et al), the way Daimler explains things is as perfectly prosed as anything that has come before it (save for her own previous works, of course).

About the Author - Morgan Daimler is a blogger, poet, teacher of esoteric subjects, witch, and priestess of the Daoine Maithe. Morgan is a prolific pagan writer, having published more than a dozen books under Moon Books alone, and she is one of the world’s foremost experts on all things Fairy. She lives in Connecticut, US.

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Overview: Often pictured running in the woods, Artemis is a goddess unto Herself. She is wild, and She is the Wild. Through Her, we can learn about tapping back into our wildness, learning to care for our hearts, and returning to the places that we have been told to fear.

Artemis’ aim is always true, some say, and building a relationship with Her can help set the best direction for our own arrows.

Verdict: Through the use of research, stories, personal experiences and a variety of hands-on tools, Irisanya Moon’s book brings forth a profound prose on one of the most powerful and complex deities there has ever been, Artemis.

But, first of all, who is Artemis? As many of you probably know, Artemis is a goddess of the pantheon of Ancient Greeks. More than just this, She is a complex and multi-faceted goddess, of course.

It is unknown when Her actual worship originated, though some sources suggest that it could have been as ancient as 1300 BCE with the Mycenaeans, who along with their predecessors the Minoans, actually worshipped archaic forms of the Greek gods we know today.

In fact, Artemis in particular is often associated with the Minoan Potnia Theron or Mistress of Animals – an association that later became an epithet of Artemis in Greek’s Classical Age.

Just before this Classical Age, in the first myths that were recorded – many of them from the oral traditions of Homer and Hesiod — we find Her emerging as the twin sister of the god Apollon and daughter to Leto and Zeus.

It was told that Artemis helped Leto with Apollon’s birth just after She herself was born and it was this action that associated Her with childbirth, specifically as a protector of infants. This is sometimes viewed with a bit of irony as She is a virgin goddess and never has or will give birth herself.

She is generally depicted as a maiden, mostly due to Her virginity and close association with young girls. It is told that Artemis asked Zeus when She was young if She could remain a virgin forever and He granted Her request.

This added to Her association with young maidens and Her role as protector of young girls from infancy to marriage. Upon marrying, girls would cut off locks of their hair as an offering to Artemis, along with their “virginal lingerie.”

Artemis is often also known as a goddess of hunting, often bearing a bow and arrows in artistic representations. She was given a bow and arrows from Her father Zeus as one of Her wishes, according to the poet Callimachus.

She is very skilled with hunting with a bow and it is one Her favorite pastimes. Titles such as Artemis Iokheaira, meaning “delighting in arrows”, and Theroskopos Iokheaira, meaning “the huntress who delights in arrows”, are very common descriptors of Her.

She was also very confident in Her abilities and considered herself the best at hunting. Several mortals lost their lives to Her due to foolishly bragging they were more skilled.

I could go on, but I digress, as what we have here in Pagan Portals: Artemis by author Irisanya Moon is moreover an image of Artemis as running free in the woods, a Goddess in and unto herself. She is Wild, and she IS the Wild, and through her we can learn about tapping into our wilderness, learning to care for our hearts, and returning to the places that we have been told to fear.

As the author herself freely reveals, is that as we move forward within the book, at our own pace, she trusts us to take what we can, will and want from said book. To take what makes sense and what calls to our wild hearts. For no matter where you are in your spiritual journey, and where you want to go, she encourages us to trust in what feels good.

About the Author - Irisanya Moon is a Moon Books author who has published six books on deities, Reclaiming, and activism. She is also a priestess, teacher, and initiate in the Reclaiming tradition. She has taught classes and camps worldwide, including in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. She lives in Santa Rosa, CA.

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Overview: Lightbulb Moments in Human History: From Peasants to Periwigs continues the humorous and informative series exploring the big ideas that have shaped humanity.

Packed with laughs and fascinating insights, it documents the progression from the boozy peasants of the Middle Ages to the bewigged boffins of the Scientific Revolution.

Along the way, you’ll find answers to burning questions such as: Why did a mob of peasants follow a divinely inspired goose to the Crusades?

Verdict: Other questions asked, and answered include: Was Captain Cook really devoured by cannibals, or was it just a terrible misunderstanding? What the hell is a periwig, and why did the best-dressed seventeenth-century men insist on wearing them?

Free flowing with totally scintillating wit and dark humor, and created for an open-minded observer, Lightbulb Moments in Human History (Book II): From Peasants to Periwigs by author Scott Edwin Williams not only manages to evoke empathy and hope for the human spirit, but coming complete with a dry narration with cloud of dust floating surrounding it, well, you also get to learn more from a book that also purposely touches on parts of history less talked about.

What a fabulous read! Everything you wanted to know about ancient history but were afraid to ask. Well, maybe not exactly afraid to ask, but afraid to be bored by a traditional history book, at the very least! Williams’ book is a blessed relief – telling the history, but with a light touch and a comedic twist - for reading this is a genuine pleasure. Williams’ prose is so smooth throughout, his humorous anecdotes well chosen.

Again, it’s not a straight list of great inventions or things that may or may not have happened in out history, but rather a book of the ideas that were once born and are still in effect in one form or another, their ramifications echoing around us.

The book is written with professional, but also with witty style that keeps the reader reading along. Smiling, laughing, re-reading and at all times engrossed and delighted page turn after page turn.

Some of the topics delved into include: A Hard Day’s Knight (The European Middle Ages, Rock the Casbah (The Islamic Golden Age), Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (The Aztecs and the Incas), Just Like Starting Over (The Renaissance), Losing My Religion (The Reformation), Ship of Fools? (The Age of Discovery), Takin’ Care of Business (The Great Trading Companies), and Weird Science (The Scientific Revolution).

And so, in closing, Lightbulb Moments in Human History: From Peasants to Periwigs by Scott Edwin Williams is not the history you were taught in school. It demonstrates that, despite all evidence to the contrary, our world is actually getting better. So grab a mug of mead, slap on your finest periwig, and dive into the rich history of human ingenuity.

About the Author - Scott Edwin Williams is an optimistic smartass, writer, humorist, and history nerd. His fascination with humanity’s lightbulb moments began as a child while watching the first moon landing. Scott splits his time between writing and making learning fun for his students. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

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Overview: Earth has been decimated by nuclear warfare and a new world has emerged from the ashes. A world where highway robbery, disease, famine, and cannibalism have become the new norm.

Join Joseph, a former lawyer attempting to navigate through this lawless nightmare, and his small band of traveling companions while they embark on a perilous journey full of bloodshed as they attempt to reach The Outpost: a safe haven offering food, shelter, and security to anyone who can reach its fortified walls.

Arriving at this relative oasis, situated in an otherwise desolate wasteland, will come at a high price for Joseph and his companions. Once on the inside, Joseph will quickly realize that their greatest tribulations are yet to come and that someone is always willing to fight for power, even if there is nothing left to rule over.

Verdict: In what is a gripping, fast paced, thoroughly engrossing, and above all, genuinely well written, elegantly sculpted new book from author Ben Date, I cannot stress enough how much of a page turning pull his prose had on me (especially late afternoon into the evening into the night time.

Captivating and vibrantly interesting, from start to finish, which is a genuine rarity in this business for this genre, I just could not put this book down, yet had to twice (for sleep), but still managed to have it read within two and a half days.

Indeed, aside from the writing, I truly loved the writing, for the characters and the plot both came alive and off the pages and into the mind. You could picture what these characters looked like just by reading and understanding the first chapter, which aided greatly in the book then being a free flowing aspect to its overall prose.

Thus, and in what was an interesting take on a post apocalyptic/wasteland environment, this intriguing, world building book is one that I not only highly recommend, but one that fully deserves to garner a worldwide audience.

About the Author - Ben Date graduated from the University of Ottawa in the spring of 2022, completing his major in criminology with the standing of Magna Cum Laude. Currently residing in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Ben uses fictional writing as a medium of catharsis and desires to create mesmerizing worlds for readers to get lost in.

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Overview: As the largest professionally trained group in the world, teachers know who is sick, missing, orphaned by disasters, and at risk for human trafficking. They are the glue that holds society together, and a development army in everyone’s backyard.

Teachers are not the problem. They are the solution. Their voices must be heard. In the Small Places is a testament to teacher changemakers for our world’s intractable challenges: education in emergencies, corruption, racism, war, human rights, and girls’ education.

Verdict: Eleanor Roosevelt once asked, Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.

Thus, In the Small Places is about teacher agency in those small places and has been written by someone - author Dr. Fred Mednick - who writes with a heartfelt passion and who, and importantly, wants you to hear their words to garner yourself a better stronghold on the subject to hand.

As I think we can all agree, teachers can equip their pupils to be life-long learners. Learning to love learning is one of the most important skills that a teacher can pass on to his or her students. If a child learns to embrace new skills and always pursue a challenge, that child can achieve incredible goals. Teachers are role models.

What we get here in In the Small Places: Stories of Teacher Changemakers and the Power of Human Agency is a reminder that teachers, in any shape or form, truly matter in our lives and worlds.

With their roles in our lives having played a massively creative bent to forming a better future for us all, whilst at the same time embodying the spirit and power of teachers, this book also shows us, and without a shadow of a doubt, how support for teachers is an investment in a highly sustainable future.

About the Author - Dr. Fred Mednick founded Teachers Without Borders (TWB) in 2000 to connect teachers to information and each other to close the education divide. He is a Professor of Education Sciences at Vrije Universiteit, Brussels and was a Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Mercer Island, WA.

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Description: Welcome to the world of hobo art and railyard subculture.

In Texas in the early 1900s, a little chalk drawing started to appear on boxcars: a minimalist sketch of a figure with a 10-gallon hat, smoking a pipe, signed “Bozo Texino.” This famous railroad tag defied the human lifespan, appearing over 100,000 times over 90 years.

Verdict: So, who exactly was Bozo Texino? Artist and filmmaker Bill Daniel set out to solve the mystery of the man behind the pipe and hat. It turned into a 25-year quest, taking Daniel on a tour of railyards and graffiti throughout the US.

The result was the documentary Who is Bozo Texino? and the book Mostly True—a chronicle of modern-day hobos, rail workers, and a forgotten outsider subculture. Obscure railroad nostalgia, freight-riding stories, interviews with hobos and boxcar artists, historical oddities, and tons of photos of modern-day boxcar tags are all presented in the guise of a vintage rail fanzine.

With the book’s design team noted as being Rich McIsaac, Gary Fogelson, Phil Lubliner, Jordan Swartz, and Vald Nahitchevansky, it is easy to see why it took so many to create such an engrossing, entertaining, and thoroughly alluring book that I myself have now perused - front to back - four times in the past few weeks!

A book chock full of most wondrous prose from author Bill Daniel along with the aforementioned design team’s efforts, Mostly True: The West’s Most Popular Hobo Graffiti Magazine is just one of those reads that you simply find oh-so hard to put down.

A cultural anthropologist’s delight, not only is it all that a whole lot more, but it is an endlessly fascinating, and highly impassioned documentation that weaves known facts with dreamy folklore about the lost world of the rail yard.

The book also spotlights beloved railroad artists Matokie Slaughter (Margaret Kilgallen), Colossus of Roads (Russell Butler), Herby (Herbert Meyer), Mind Detergent (Big Will), Twist (Barry McGee), and others, including an interview with itinerant sign painter Heidi Tullman. Contributing writers, researchers, photographers and artists include: John Held Jr., Joey Alone, Duke Riley, Old Broads, Daniel Leen, Eden Batki, Andy Dreamingwolf, North Bank Fred, Michele Lockwood, The Historical Graffiti Society, Susan Phillips, Walt Curtis, Beau Patrick Coulon, O. Winston Link, Murray Hammond, Brad Wescott, Marisa Evans, Roxy Gordon, and many, many others.

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Description: Frolic in a fungal forest, repose upon a toadstool, honor the amanita, whisper to the chanterelle, power up your foraging game, and bask in buttery morel righteousness!

Verdict: Furthermore, tease your taste buds and expand your consciousness as you color these lush landscapes and mindscapes in search of delight, inspiration, and that distinctive red-and-white fly agaric, the Waldo of the mushroom world.

Gerta O. Egy’s illustrations are enchantingly detailed, proliferating across pages and pages. Single-sided art means you can color as intensely as you need to, and tear out each page to share or display.

Trust me when I say that this coloring book is as wonderful a time passer as you would have already hoped it could ever be, just by its title alone!

Now, we are obviously not advising you to dive into a magic mushroom experience of your own before attempting to pick up your coloring pens to have at this most joyful of books, no, far from it, but if you did, my goodness, what a most wonderful world it could be!

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