addystape's reviews
290 reviews

Simple, beautiful, clear, and light. I have always loved Walker's impassioned prose, but love her poetry for just the opposite reason. It is beautiful and spare and rejoices in the small things.

A nice collection of essays about the yoga traditions (hatha, raja, karma, bhakti, etc.) from well-known teachers and gurus of Buddhism and Hinduism (Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Pilgrim, etc.). I have my favorites and it is interested to see the different and sometimes contrasting approaches to meditation among even experts.

Very satisfying to read the original works of these great astronomers and to follow their lines of arguments. A valuable reference work.

A condemnation of humankind (behavior, whimsies, etc). Not exactly my type of read and sometimes I felt ill-equipped to grapple with the political satire since I don't know the history and the source or particulars of the strife between the Whigs and the Tories. What I could relate to the current political arena and the base greed and general discourteousness of human beings (or brutes as Swift might have called them) I found interesting.

Sherlock always has the answer, and I am always willing to suspend disbelief to follow his so-called "deductive method". Doyle presents a unique hero here - a brilliant, infallible, free-thinking gentleman, a depressed loner with a hankering for narcotics and the antagonist Moriarty at his heels. He only dims compared to the even more perfect Mycroft. Despite his cold manner, his ends/goals were always good. Don't we all sympathize with Dr. Watson who constantly visits to observe/emulate/chronicle Holmes's brilliance.

Enjoyed the idea of the Grandmother Spirit in this book. I had read previously that while the archetype of masculine hero is in search of his father (think Ulysses, Theseus, Jesus even), the woman finds the pinnacle of her life's expression in her later years when she becomes the wisdom-filled crone. That the protagonist here goes off in search of the grandmother, I think, is appropriate in a book about a woman's search for identity. I did not find the writing as enjoyable as in Walker's other books and poems, but I enjoyed the themes present here.

Mrs. Sen's difficulty in adjusting to the United States not only speaks to the Indian immigrant experience, but all experiences where people of different backgrounds (cultural, ethnic, gender, etc.) must come together and try to live harmoniously. Lahiri visited Houston, TX as part of the Brown Imprint Author Series and read from another book she wrote. This book and Lahiri's reading and subsequent interview shows Lahiri to a very careful writer; she uses language in a powerful and yet economical way where there is a great deal unsaid between the lines (a society turning a blind eye to the acculturation/assimilation experience of immigrants).

I read this book at a time where I felt like some curiosity at my high school and at a time when I wanted to know all there was to know. I found this part of me reflected in Ellie and was happy to find a kindred spirit (although she was infinitely more talented than me). I think here Sagan is making the point that the discourse between religion and science need not be strained. There is some common ground in those in either camp who have an authentic desire to know share the same ends even if the means/methods/modes we have chosen are different.

One of my favorite poets. His poems, through their content and form, give me faith, encourage me to feel more than think, and touch my heart. As everyone knows, he abandons conventional syntax and sentence structure, but why does he do this? Because "the syntax of things can never wholly kiss you." How I ache when I think of the sacrifice of the lover in one of his poems when he says "Or if your wish be to close me,i and my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly, ..."

Thoroughly enjoyed this book that traces her intellectual development from her childhood in Georgia to her writing the Color Purple. Walker's work as a writer is known, but maybe few of us were aware of her work as an editor in college and in her early adult life. The author also points our Walker's love in beauty in nature but also in her home. Despite being poor, Alice would place a vase of wildflowers on her desk. I think this simply act is testament to Alice's quiet yet indomitable spirit.