The fifteen stories in this finely honed and well-polished collection have the power to cut away assumptions and alter a reader’s focus and direction...moreThe fifteen stories in this finely honed and well-polished collection have the power to cut away assumptions and alter a reader’s focus and direction as only a storyteller’s magic can do. Borrowed and reshaped from older folktales out of Anita Endrezze’s heritage and imagination, these stories take on new life in their contemporary settings.
In her author’s note, Endrezze writes, “I hope Butterfly Moon will take you adrift in another world that challenges and transforms your perceptions, yet leads you back home to yourself.”
Reality, the oldest shapeshifter we know, dances lightly on the pages of "Butterfly Moon" and often gives way to enchantments, supernatural events, and the whims of gods and fate. As prospective blessings for the reader’s journey, these stories don’t necessarily fit the traditional narrative arc of a problem leading to a climax. Endrezze’s tales are often unresolved slice-of-life glimpses into her characters and settings that end with a dire occurrence, an acceptance of fate, a troubling paradox or the workings of karma.
The joy, anger, life, and death in Endrezze’s vision are not bound by time, nor are they distinctly separate from the active and sentient world in which they’re set. “On This Earth” begins with the words, 'The house was a forest remembering itself. The pine trees that held up the walls dreamed of stars dwelling in their needles.' When Desetnica leaves home to roam the world in “The Dragonfly’s Daughter” because she is the tenth child, it’s clear that the forest is watching when 'The blackberry bushes parted their thickets as I waded through green knots of fruit. After I passed, still following the dragonfly, the vines knitted together again, so that I was lost to the other side of kinship and orphaned into the unnamed forest.'
While tightly knit into the stories’ plots, myth and symbolism add depth without intruding into the author’s economy of words, understated approach and matter-of-fact reverence to the cultural origins of her material. Endrezze does not explain or editorialize, but her omniscient care is everywhere through this collection from the paradoxes of “Raven’s Moon” to the grim unfolding of “The Vampire and the Moth Woman” to the humor of “Jay (Devil-may-care!)”
For the lovers of myths, legends, and folktales, this collection is highly recommended and a unique delight.(less)
We’re here! What should we do, what is there to see?” In the preface to his practical and well-illustrated Glacier National Park guidebook, Alan Leftr...moreWe’re here! What should we do, what is there to see?” In the preface to his practical and well-illustrated Glacier National Park guidebook, Alan Leftridge writes that as a park ranger, he often heard those questions from excited visitors who “wanted to start making memories.”
Many of Glacier’s two million annual visitors travel a long way to reach northwestern Montana, and when they arrive, they are not only in awe of the scenery but of the scope of the prospective activities that await them in a 1,012,837-acre preserve with 762 lakes and 745.6 miles of trails. While Glacier is best experienced without hurry or stress, the economics of vacation travel make it necessary for visitors to maximize their time in the park.
"The Best of Glacier National Park" highlights, as Leftridge puts it, the park’s “iconic features.” The book begins with an overview of park facts, geology, and cultural history. This is followed by twenty-six “best of” chapters describing everything from scenic drives, picnic areas and nature trails to wild flowers, birds and photography opportunities.
Each chapter includes a map, color photographs and clearly marked headings and subheadings that make the information easy to find. This book is meant to be used as a quick and easy reference whether you are stopped at an overlook on the Going-to-the-Sun Road or standing in a subalpine fir forest on the Swiftcurrent Nature Trail. The hiking sections, which are broken down into nature trails, day hikes and backpack trips, include directions and special features you’ll want to see and photograph.
Glacier’s rangers, naturalists, boat crews and saddle tour operators are probably asked more questions about the park’s flora and fauna than anything else. The “Best Wildlife” chapter includes a mammal checklist and tells you where to find marmots, deer, elk, bighorn sheep, moose and bears. The book includes appropriate warnings about Grizzly bears, suggesting that they be observed at a distance. “Best Birds” highlights ospreys, eagles and ptarmigans, among others.
Naturally, ”Best Wildflowers” begins with beargrass. Leftridge notes that “It is a myth that bears rely on this lily to satisfy their diet. If you see beargrass’ tall stalks with missing flower heads, know that other animals, including rodents, elk and bighorn sheep, nibbled here.”
According to the National Park Service, there are 1,400 plant species in Glacier. While “best” is a subjective term, this guidebook focuses on such popular and showy wildflowers as the Glacier Lily, Indian Paintbrush, Lupine and other visitor favorites.
Naturalist John Muir said Glacier National Park includes the “the best care-killing scenery on the continent” and suggested that visitors “Give a month at least to this precious reserve. The time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead…it will make you truly immortal.”
Whether you have a month, a week or a only few days for the high country known as the Crown of the Continent, "The Best of Glacier National Park" is an excellent all-purpose, general guidebook for discovering everything to do and see when faced with thirty-seven named glaciers, 175 mountains, and 151 maintained trails of waiting memories.(less)
Marshall Moore follows his collection of enigmatic and delightfully twisted short stories, "Infernal Republic," with an equally inventive novel about...moreMarshall Moore follows his collection of enigmatic and delightfully twisted short stories, "Infernal Republic," with an equally inventive novel about a character we can’t always see. Notice how protagonist Seth Harrington is already fading away on the book’s cover.
If "Bitter Orange" were a feature film showing at your local theater, a sign on the door would say: ABSOLUTELY NO ONE ADMITTED DURING THE LAST 15 MINUTES. The why of things doesn’t appear until the final pages and it’s well worth the wait.
The problem Seth Harrington thinks he has isn’t the worst problem he has. Personally impacted by 9/11, Harrington has allowed his days and nights to take on an out-of-focus aimless quality as though he isn’t engaged in his life. In spite of a fling with Elizabeth in Spain, he can’t connect with people, either because he isn’t sure of what, if anything, he wants or because others aren’t seeing him as he is.
Others not seeing him is the problem he thinks he has. By fits and starts, he is becoming invisible—literally. But unlike the daring-do characters out of comic books and high fantasy, Harrington not only can’t control his growing ability, he doesn’t seem inclined to use it to save the world or fight crime. In fact, he first uses it to steal a bottle of wine from a convenience store.
Other than his aimlessness, Harrington’s a likeable enough everyman trying to negotiate the world while getting past bitter memories and making sense of the seemingly random chaos of his daily life. In Spain, after telling Seth that Seville Oranges are bitter and bullfights are cruel, Elizabeth says, “So we came all this way for bitter oranges and cruelty to animals. And we meet here instead of back home in the States. What does that say about us?”
Back in San Francisco, Elizabeth—who becomes Seth’s tattoo artist of choice because she’s very good—wants to remain as important to him as she ever-so-briefly was in Spain. While Seth is, or potentially is, more attracted to his roommate Sang-hee (even Elizabeth begrudgingly sees it), he cannot seem to embrace the life he prefers. He speculates about just what that says about him.
As the invisibility problem becomes more complex, Seth travels to Portland and Las Vegas to try and find himself. He notes that the people in those towns can’t see him either. He feels bad taking advantage of that fact.
Marshall Moore tells an inventive story, one with prose as likeable as his protagonist, though some readers may want a more highly focused plot. Moore keeps both the reader and his protagonist guessing about just how and why a man becomes invisible and whether the problem Harrington thinks he has is literal or figurative.
The solution to the problem provides a fitting climax to a well written, fanciful tale. Poor Seth: he didn’t see it coming. (less)
"If he would lift his face i could see his eyes, see if he's singing now a soul-dissolving song."
from "Song Maker," by Anita Endrezze
Imagine a magical, f...more"If he would lift his face i could see his eyes, see if he's singing now a soul-dissolving song."
from "Song Maker," by Anita Endrezze
Imagine a magical, fictional book that contains words that change with the rising and falling tides so that they are always focused and appropriate for any reader at any time. The words of the seven lyrical women poets in "The Book of Now: Poetry for the Rising Tide" appear to be the same words each time I read the soul-dissolving poems in this book. But they aren't. They change with the reader's moods and rise and fall on the Earth's voice right now because, as a long-ago guru once said, "the point of power is in the present."
The poems, from Endrezze's "Song of Our Times," to Crystal Good's "Boom Boom," to Naomi Ruth Lowinsky's "Sisters of My Time" are more urgent than the breaking news and they speak with relevant power for this moment, and the next moment, and the moments after that.
In the introduction, Shelleda writes that in considering what poetry is saying now, she had to "listen to the voices, and listen for those who understand the present, and know the future will not be the same." Each poet included in this book writes with that understanding, an understanding that is amplified by Shelleda's introductions to their work, resulting in a 110-page collection of great depth and of breath-taking immediacy.
In her introduction to Dunya Mikhail's poems, Shelleda notes that here "a woman is writing of war in her own imagery, in her own voice." Mikhail, who left Iraq and now resides in the United States, writes in "I was in a hurry,"
"Today I lost a country. I was in a hurry, and didn't notice when it fell from me like a broken branch from a forgetful tree."
Frances Hatfield, a psychologist and Jung Institute candidate, writes in "Just Like a Woman,"
"Wouldn't you guess Linda might steal out between rounds of radiation & chemo her body on fire, her bones ice to plant a cornfield in her back yard
& isn't it just like Julie to remark "I'm dying-- but it's not as bad as you think."
Kensington, California poet Jane Downs, in "Spring," speaks of the "restlessness of lilacs," Shelleda in "Extinct Birds," hears the lyrebird mimicking songs and finds her newest rendition is a chain saw, and in the volume's last poem, Lowinsky says that it's time for sisters to gather their knowledge "for the root cellars of memory, the mason jars of prayer--emergency rations--for the daughters of the daughters of our daughters."
These poets have heard the rising tide and prepared for us a survival guide containing the basic essentials of the Earth and the changing seasons for that time, as Lowinsky writes of today's wise women, "long after that Old Black Magic has spirited us away." While there is great variety in this collection, there is a unity of focus: the beauty and value of all life.
Well-steeped in Earth's wisdom, these poems are hymns in praise of Gaia. They celebrate beauty and diversity worth preserving and, for those times when this moment or the next moment calls for it, they also sing of warnings and laments. There is magic here and it's all true. (less)
In music, "crescendo" indicates a gradual increase in force or loudness. If Deborah J. Ledford’s three-book Steven Hawk/Inola Walela Thriller Series (...moreIn music, "crescendo" indicates a gradual increase in force or loudness. If Deborah J. Ledford’s three-book Steven Hawk/Inola Walela Thriller Series (Staccato, 2009, Snare, 2010, Crescendo, 2013) were a concerto, the audience would leave the concert hall at the end of the performance electrified by the force of the third movement and the virtuosity of soloist Inola Walela.
Crescendo (Second Wind Publishing, January 27) begins with great force when antagonists Preston Durand and private investigator Hondo Polk push Billy Carlton to tell them what he knows about the location of Durand’s son and ex-wife. The book’s volume increases when Inola’s partner is killed during a traffic stop by a bullet that might have come from her gun and a female passenger in the stopped car is struck and killed by another vehicle just after she says, “I got you the money. Where is my son?”
Though she’s a decorated Bryson City, North Carolina police officer, Inola is put on administrative leave pending a departmental investigation into the deaths at the scene. She’s told to stay away from the investigation, including trying follow up on her gut feeling that the woman’s son has been kidnapped.
Inola’s fiancé Steven Hawk, now the county sheriff, wants to play everything by the book. He tells Inola that there’s no evidence of a kidnapping and the city police and county sheriff’s departments can’t take action until evidence and leads, if any, materialize—and she is to stay home.
Readers of the Steven Hawk/Inola Walela Series were introduced to Inola in Staccato when Hawk, who was a sheriff’s deputy then, first became aware of her: “Hawk had noticed Inola Walela, the only female cop on the Bryson City police force. She was captivating, beautiful, smart, tough, exactly what he hoped to find in a woman.”
Inola, who played a larger, but secondary, role in Snare, is Ledford’s on-the-hot-seat protagonist in Crescendo. She comes into her own in this tense novel as a three-dimensional, risk-taking police officer who needs to find the young woman’s son and who has kidnapped him even though she may be suspended or terminated regardless of what she learns.
This is a richly told psychological and physical thriller. Ledford, who knows her characters and her settings well, increases the volume of this story until the last shot is fired. (less)
This well-written book set in Victorian England is simultaneously a dark fantasy, an historical novel and a mystery. The author's concept of the fores...moreThis well-written book set in Victorian England is simultaneously a dark fantasy, an historical novel and a mystery. The author's concept of the forest is world building at its best. The pacing is taut as the author mixes unobtrusive flashbacks into the novel's "present-day" police investigation and the impact it has on the primary characters.
For those who love fantasy, this novel is a true wonder.(less)
"I did step off and put my feet on the ground, so that as well as being the product of my readiness to tell untruths, this little book partly has its...more"I did step off and put my feet on the ground, so that as well as being the product of my readiness to tell untruths, this little book partly has its origins in the time I spent in the Azores. Basically, its subject matter is the whale, an animal which more than any other would seem to be a metaphor; and shipwrecks, which insofar as they are understood as failures and inconclusive adventures, would likewise appear to be metaphorical." - from the Introduction
Widely known for “Pereira Declares: A Testimony” and “Indian Nocturne,” Italian novelist Antonio Tabucchi (1943 - 2012) brings his trademark minimalist prose to The Woman of Porto Pim, a collection of fragments and stories about small islands and a large sea. While reading, one understands again why Tabucchi has been compared to the late Italo Calvino: the words here suggest possibilities rather than defining certainties.
The fragments and stories are organized into "Part I - Shipwrecks, Flotsam, Crossings, Distances," "Part II - Of Whales and Whalemen," and an appendix of notes, references and a map. The boundaries, if there are any, of this work are established in the opening "Hesperides: A Dream in Letter Form" where Tabucchi writes, "Having sailed for many days and many nights, I realized that the West has no end, but moves along with us, we can follow it as long as we like without ever reaching it."
One reads each fragment looking for (and expecting) clarifications and certainties in much the same way that a sailor in a small boat rides the apparently real winds and currents with the expectation of shouting "land ho" this afternoon or tomorrow then the world will once again be redeemed upon sure footings within solid walls. One learns stories about old men and the songs they sang while seeking whales and, while they find them and kill them, the whales never seem to die. The whales here think about men and see us as odd and out of place on the sea, leaving our women behind while singing songs that serve something less than the songs of whales, and while the whales are wise, they do not quite grasp what man is.
The title story, "The Woman of Porto Pim," is a story within a story that might be less than true due to additions, deletions and alterations over the years. Here are two lovers, a mysterious woman who lives in a utilitarian hut beneath her means and a naive young man who sings a song to attract her attention:
"The moon was coming up in a veil of red, a summer moon. I felt a great longing, the water lapped around me, everything was so intense and so unattainable, and I remembered when I was a child, how at night I used to call the eels from the rocks: then an idea came to me, I couldn’t resist, and I began to sing that song. I sang it very softly, like a lament, or a supplication, with a hand held to my voice."
The song brings him wonders, betrayal, violence and years of memories that--depending on the reader's point of view--stop short of atonement or define in bittersweet spells all that is known about the magic of being human. Tabucchi says many things in a few words. In this numinous collection about dreams, whales, islands and ships, the result of his apparent clarity is a haunting mirage that floats forever in the middle distance like a prospective speck of land above the infinite sea.
One yearns for more here and perhaps that's enough. (less)
On July 1, 1997, the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong became the unique Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, en...moreOn July 1, 1997, the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong became the unique Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, ending 156 years of colonial rule. Hong Kong, which translates to “Fragrant Harbor,” had for years been considered in financial, governmental and tourism circles, as a shining jewel.
The colony attracted many expatriates who were lured there for the heady “East-Meets-West” mix of people, the city’s dazzling cultural attractions and nightlife, the innovative high-density architecture and by the prospects of fortunes to be made and new lives to be started. Expats, however, always live within a curious limbo because they are never quite native and never quite who they were before they arrived. This limbo became more intense in Kong Kong as the date of the handover from British to Chinese rule approached.
Three interlocking stories comprise Paul Blaney’s novella "Handover" (Signal 8 Press, November 2012). His three expat Brits arrive in Hong Kong and find that the complexities of their own lives are somehow made more urgent and dear because of the changes and potential turbulence of the long-awaited handover.
Tess, whose aunt and uncle live in Kong Kong, graduates from college and then arrives and finds work as a photo editor. Rob arrives with a head filled with memories of a former girlfriend who once lived there and begins to relive them while working as a bartender. Sally, a magazine editor, must confront on-the-job sexual harassment and the abandonment of her family when she defends herself and ends up in the colony’s criminal justice system.
The novella’s sections, each of which is—like Kong Kong—a compact and shining jewel, are bound together by the setting, minor characters and by the looming political and cultural manifestations of the handover. The stories are told in a non-linear style, giving them a kaleidoscopic organization and texture akin to that of Hong Kong itself. As such, the the novella depicts multiple slices of life rather than a traditional tale with a plot line leading through conflicts to an overt resolution.
Well-read readers may see the dark and gritty world of Blaney’s expats as a prospective new level of hell for Dante’s Divine Comedy: here in a heady world where everything wonderful is so close and so possible, doom is a likely result. Adventurous readers, those who love new things, new things with a hint of danger and intrigue, will discover that Paul Blaney’s "Handover" has many gritty delights to offer.
The novella is also a spot-on description of the the beauty and poverty of Kong Kong during a time in its history when nothing was certain.(less)
Sheridan Hough's romantic and philosophical mystery brings lovers of language a beautiful word portrait of Malta in the late 1890s linked via an antiq...moreSheridan Hough's romantic and philosophical mystery brings lovers of language a beautiful word portrait of Malta in the late 1890s linked via an antique mirror with the well-rendered world of a London housewife in 2009. The two stories in the impeccably researched "Mirror's Fathom" are an exploration of lovers, relationships, trust, and Søren Kierkegaard's claim that "temporality, finitude is what it is all about."
In 2009, Rowena is losing herself to a life of increasing tedium and lack of direction. To her credit, she has a growing (if not slightly obsessive) interest in archeology and a 5,000-year-old terra cotta figurine called "The Sleeping Lady." Rowena owns a fix-foot high looking glass, a mirror so tall that it makes "any pose quite naked, even though she is wearing her ballet gear."
In 1898, Tycho Wilhelm Lund, a disinterested descendent of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is invited to appraise antiquities at the home of Regine Schlegel. When he arrives, Mrs. Schlegel is hosting a discussion of her Kierkegaard reading group and insists that Tycho sit through it before he looks at the house's old furnishings. The group is shocked to hear that a descendent of Kierkegaard is painfully unaware of the philosopher's works.
Tycho, whom Rowena will hear described 111 years later as "the Brigand Tycho," endures the discussion because he must. In the process, he becomes infatuated with the stunning and articulate Juliana Sophie whom, it would appear, sees him as a prospective project, a man needing to be schooled in the ways and means of creating a true self. When their relationship develops, Juliana's father tells Tycho he will approve of a prospective courtship only after Tycho travels to Malta to find a missing six-foot tall mirror.
While Tycho agrees, he soon discovers that his short trip has become an arduous journey that not only keeps him away from Juliana but is involving him in one complication after another. The meaning of the mirror in Rowena's life and the location of the mirror in Tycho's life join together to form a haunting mystery leading to an unexpected conclusion.
Along with the well-written dialogue and the plot's complexities, descriptions of location settings and events are one of the novel's greatest strengths. These descriptions are also somewhat of a weakness because they delay the reader's interaction with the plot in rather the same way that too much ornate and built-up icing on a cake postpones the enjoyment of the cake.
Even so, the story is unique, inventive and dark, making "Mirror's Fathom" an enjoyable experience for readers who understand that there is a difference between what a mirror sees and what it reflects. (less)
"The Raven Boys" has a compelling premise" and a very interesting set of characters in a contemporary fantasy playing off "locals" (including a family...more"The Raven Boys" has a compelling premise" and a very interesting set of characters in a contemporary fantasy playing off "locals" (including a family of psychics) against the ultra rich male studens at a local upscale school.
The life of protagonist Blue Sargent, who is the adolescent member of that psychic family of readers, intersects with several of the young men from Aglionby Academy when she learns that one of them is about to die--and he might be the one she'll fall in love with.
I enjoyed the premise and the characters, but didn't like the ending or the pacing. Inasmuch as this book is the beginning of the series, the ending seemed abrupt, skewed off on a secondary character, and more designed to prepare readers for the next installment than to properly wrap of Blue's involvement. The pacing dragged because the rich students had a heavy but essential backstory and (possibly) to keep the book from straying too far into the territory reserved for the next book.
"The K Street Affair" is filled with enough international intrigue, corrupt corporations, laundered money, and dead bodies for the authorities (assumi...more"The K Street Affair" is filled with enough international intrigue, corrupt corporations, laundered money, and dead bodies for the authorities (assuming you know which authorities to trust) to call Batman or James Bond. Instead, they call Lena Mancuso, an associate at a prestigious law firm, and ask her to use her insider position to spy on her employer.
Lena thinks the FBI is nuts when two agents show up on her doorstep immediately after terrorists strike multiple Washington, D. C. Metrorail stations and ask her to search for incriminating documents that will help the government prove its charges of bribery and money laundering against a once-powerful lobbyist defended by the firm. If she agrees, she would be serving as an informant under provisions of the USA Patriot Act; yet why isn't the FBI focusing on the biggest terrorist attack since 9/11?
Actually, they are. The FBI thinks the firm's founding partner and the lobbyist knew the Metrorail attacks were going to happen. When Lena agrees to help, she soon realizes that money laundering paperwork is the tip of the iceberg in a huge international conspiracy and that the FBI has undersold the dangers of looking beneath the surface of the defense team's case.
Author Mari Passananti ("The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken") has used her experience as an attorney to write the kind of story that reviewers often call a "dandy thriller" and a "page-turner." The novel's tension is accentuated by the fact that in a world of thugs, guns and plots against major public officials, Lena is in over her head.
However, what Passananti's protagonist doesn't know about serving in a Batman or James Bond capacity, she balances out with legal knowledge, high intelligence and--she will surprise herself about this--more grit than she knew she possessed. The character has great depth even though her role in uncovering an international conspiracy may be somewhat implausible.
"The K Street Affair" story begins quickly with the terrorist attacks. It slows down a little after that because, due to the nature of defense team files and attorney's offices, Passananti must fill in the reader with a fair amount of backstory narration about the issues, documents and the people involved. Then, to put it mildly, all hell breaks loose. Lena finds her life in shambles and, the only way to put it back together is to become a "soldier" and help the FBI stop her country from being torn apart as well.
Passananti delivers a highly entertaining story in "The K Street Affair." (less)
Each chapter heading of Patricia Damery's beautifully written novel "Goatsong" begins with the words "tell me about." Sophie's daughter Stacey is aski...moreEach chapter heading of Patricia Damery's beautifully written novel "Goatsong" begins with the words "tell me about." Sophie's daughter Stacey is asking her mother to tell her the old and ever-changing family stories about the days she spent as a ten-year-old child with the three Goat Women on Huckleberry Mountain and was reborn into the fullness of the world.
Young Sophie's single mother works as a waitress at an all-night diner and sleeps all day, sometimes alone and sometimes with the man she brings home: "Ma didn't want me making noise during the day while she slept, so I left the house and did all kinds of things most kids would not have the opportunity to indulge in, you might say."
That summer, Sophie meets Nelda, Dee and Ester on the mountain above the Russian River in northern California, and in the process of learning about herding goats, "logging in" garbage dumped alongside the roads, and dancing naked in the meadow, she discovers love and acceptance from her ad hoc surrogate family. Among other things, Sophie learns to see and acknowledge that which others often miss, roadside trash included.
Wise, practical and nurturing, Nelda knows the "Goatsong." Strong, persistent and dependable, Dee takes exception to those who dump garbage on the mountain as well as those who won't lift a hand to stop it. Forever taking notes as the women do their daily errands, the relatively silent Ester is a witness, logging in the garbage. She finds, for example:
"1 beer bottle, label torn and unreadable, green. 1 plastic freezer bag, Safeway, good condition. 1 16 oz. paper cup, 7-11, good condition."
The three Goat Women, who know they are "undesirables" from the townspeople's point of view, accept Sophie as one of their own during their daily adventures on a mountain that Damery describes with the prose of a poet. The novel is a hymn to nature and natural living as well as an eternal and memorable story. Original, unorthodox and wise, the Goat Women provide Sophie with an unfettered, practical and loving worldview that is absent at her home and school.
In their own way, the goats (Natalie, Boris and Hornsby) are also Sophie's teachers. The author, who has run a biodynamic farm in the Napa Valley for the past twelve years with her husband, said on her blog this past summer that "Walking the goats is truly an art." Damery brings her knowledge of that art into her novel, creating goat characters who are as three dimensional and essential to the story as the women.
In the introduction, Damery writes that "Goatsong is the mysterious combination of humility and that essential ability to climb above, like a goat, or a song. To know the Goatsong of tragedy, Nelda told me, is to be reborn."
When you read "Goatsong," you are breathing in fresh air off the Pacific ocean, smelling the sweet scent of the bay laurel, and cooling your tired feet in sacred streams flowing through old redwoods in the company of wise women who, without agenda, may well change you as they changed the ten-year-old Sophie in those old family stories about the town of Huckleberry on the Russian River. (less)
Wonderful introduction to the classic Thoth tarot deck. A bit difficult for beginners. Often easier to come to your own conclusion about the meaning o...moreWonderful introduction to the classic Thoth tarot deck. A bit difficult for beginners. Often easier to come to your own conclusion about the meaning of each card first; then read this book.(less)
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