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What's New at Crazy Wisdom - Music Reviews and What's New and Notable in Books

NEW MUSIC at Crazy Wisdom

Shaman’s Vision Journey cd
by David and Steve Gordon
The Gordon brothers are back again with this relaxing blend of hypnotic shamanic rhythms. Combined with native flutes, ancient chants, and crystal singing bowls, this recording is a smooth, meditative way to journey with a slightly less modern groove than other cds by them. The Gordon brothers have experienced an award-winning 25 year career and are considered unmatched in their ability to use rhythm to soothe and renew body and soul. This peaceful journey will nourish your meditation, yoga, and massage and is perfect for the end of the day. Shelved with Shamanic music. $15.98

Tandava Volume 2 cd
by Pathaan
As one of the modern architects of the global electronica sound, Pathaan has a mission: to create music that opens the door to an experience of inner peace. With this cd, he joins forces with a lineup of underground legends to bring you a “musical oasis amidst a world of chaos”. Pathaan’s mesmerizing mix of sacred sounds and modern chillout grooves is an “injection of universal love straight to the soul”. Very upbeat and modern, featuring Talvin Singh, Subsonar, and Bombay Dub Orchestra. Shelved with World music. $17.98

Rising Sun cd
by various Spirit Voyage Label artists
This is my current favorite new cd! My whole family loves listening to its upbeat but gentle music. Meant to be listened to in the morning, this is a lovely cd for flow yoga. From Snatam Kaur’s sweet vocals to the funky and unique sounds of Girish, to the lush duet of Dave Stringer and Karnamrita, each piece is a gem. Energizing and comforting, this cd will help begin your day with positivity and love. Shelved with Yoga music. $17.99

Lost Canyons cd
by Scott August
This cd is one of ritual and enchantment in the native tradition. Featuring the ancient, haunting sounds of the Anasazi flute, lost for over a thousand years, this newly rediscovered instrument evokes tranquil memories of the Southwest. August blends other native flutes, drums, guitar, piano, and exotic instruments to give this recording a unique world flair. Voice of the Wind magazine says, “...brilliantly conceived. Lost Canyons is captivating and exhilarating. It nourishes your spirit and is a balm for the soul.” Shelved with Native American music. $15.99


Collaborations: Mystical Strings cd
The Enchanted Cello
by Tanya Anisimova and Master Charles Cannon Synchronicity
Contemporary Meditation soundtracks enhance whole brain synchrony and deliver holistic awareness. It will create a peaceful, balancing ambience for your home or work space, promoting wakefulness and creative inspiration. Anisimova is an internationally known cellist whose music is "melodious, mystical, and deeply emotional."
$15.95


Temple Spa cd
Featuring Snatam Kaur, Mirabai Ceiba, Amrit Kirtan, and Dave Stringer
Sacred healing mantras for rest and rejuvenation, with beautiful instrumentals and gentle chants with various Spirit Voyage Music artists.
$16.49





Ocean cd by Mirabai Ceiba
These songs and chants will carry you on a gentle tide of harp, acoustic guitar, cello, bansuri flute, tablas, and the delicate interweaving of Gurmukhi mantra with English and Spanish lyrics. $16.49






Buddha Lounge VI Mixed by the Gordon Brothers
Unwind with the latest from this award-winning European series. Enjoy this enticing new set of satisfying global electronica. $15.98







Drum Spirit cd by Steven Halpern and The Sound Medicine Band
Drum Spirit connects you to 25,000 years of rhythm-based sound healing. This powerful music is sequenced to move your body as well as your spirit, taking you deeper and deeper into 'the zone'. $15.98

Flow of Grace: Chanting the Hanuman Chalisa Book and Double cd Set by Krishna Das
Krishna Das is an internationally acclaimed recording artist who introduces people to chanting as a spiritual practice on the path of devotion. This book explains who Hanuman is as well as how and why to chant the Hanuman Chalisa. Beautifully illustrated and 103 minutes total running time. 1591795513 $21.95




Sublime cd
by Jaya Lakshmi
Jaya's creative mix of global folk, ambient trance grooves, and layered vocals captures the essence of traditional Indian chants in a fresh, new way.
9991555668
$15.98

Soundings Global Rhythms Collection cd
Compiled by Dean Evenson
A musical feast spanning the globe from the Middle East, Africa, India, and Tibet to Native America and Australia. World fusion at its best!
9991556354
$15.98






Sound Sutras cd
by Govinda
Organic, lush grooves mixed with bohemian beats create a deeply passionate exploration of sensual electronica.
9991558853
$16.98



Into Silence cd
The Meditation Music of Deva Premal
International superstar of chant offers a soothing compilation of some of her most popular, divine, meditative chants and mantras to help "awaken the longing in your heart amidst the blessed space of silence."
1591799503
$17.98


Fairy Lullabies cd
by Gary Stadler cd cover
This softly beautiful music will soothe and enchant both children and adults. These are new instrumental lullabies of beloved melodies for a tranquil atmosphere for naps or yoga and massage. $15.98





Children of the Earth cd
by Joe Reilly
Featured on National Public Radio's Living On Earth, local musician Reilly sings with and for children about living "green" on our planet and loving Mother Nature. A current staff favorite!
$16.50

New and Notable Books

August 4, 2008

Unstoppable Confidence by Kent Sayre
Kent Sayre's acclaimed guide helps you burst out of your comfort zone, blast away limiting beliefs, and boost confidence levels--instantly. The secret is neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), the increasingly popular and scientifically proven personal development tool that teaches even the shyest person to act, look, sound--and ultimately become--more confident. It's the same winning program Sayre himself used to conquer a lifetime of shyness--and it works for everyone.
McGraw-Hill Companies · $15.95 · 9780071588454

This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation by Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich's first book of satirical commentary, The Worst Years of Our Lives, about the Reagan era, was received with bestselling acclaim. The one problem was the title: couldn't some prophetic fact-checker have seen that the worst years of our lives-far worse-were still to come? Here they are, the 2000s, and in This Land Is Their Land, Ehrenreich subjects them to the most biting and incisive satire of her career.
Taking the measure of what we are left with after the cruelest decade in memory, Ehrenreich finds lurid extremes all around. While members of the moneyed elite can buy congressmen, many in the working class can barely buy lunch. While a wealthy minority obsessively consumes cosmetic surgery, the poor often go without health care for their children. And while the corporate C-suites are now nests of criminality, the less fortunate are fed a diet of morality, marriage, and abstinence. Ehrenreich's antidotes are as sardonic as they are spot-on: pet insurance for your kids; Salvation Army fashions for those who can no longer afford Wal-Mart; and boundless rage against those who have given us a nation scarred by deepening inequality, corroded by distrust, and shamed by its official cruelty.
Henry Holt & Company · $24.00 · 9780805088403

Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World by Lynne McTaggart
Using cutting-edge research conducted at Princeton,MIT, Stanford, and many other prestigious universities and laboratories, The Intention Experiment reveals that the universe is connected by a vast quantum energy field.Thought generates its own palpable energy, which you can use to improve your life and, when harnessed together with an interconnected group, to change the world.
In The Intention Experiment, internationally bestselling author Lynne McTaggart takes you on a gripping, mind-blowing journey to the furthest reaches of consciousness.As she narrates the exciting developments in the science of intention, she also profiles the colorful scientists and renowned pioneers who study the effects of focused group intention on scientifically quantifiable targets -- animal, plant, and human.
McTaggart offers a practical program to get in touch with your own thoughts, to increase the activity and strength of your intentions, and to begin achieving real change in your life. You are then invited to participate in an unprecedented experiment: Using The Intention Experiment website to coordinate your involvement and track results, you and other participants around the world will focus your power of intention on specific targets, giving you the opportunity to become a part of scientific history. A new Afterword by the author recounts the successes of the several Intention Experiments so far.
The Intention Experiment forces you to rethink what it is to be human. It proves that we're connected to everyone and everything -- and that discovery demands that we pay better attention to our thoughts, intentions, and actions. Here's how you can.
Free Press · $15.00 · 9780743276962

Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Mark LeVine
An eighteen-year-old Moroccan who loves Black Sabbath. A twenty-two-year-old rapper from the Gaza Strip. A young Lebanese singer who quotes Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." They are as representative of the world of Islam today as the conservatives and extremists we see every night on the news. Heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, and reggae are each the music of protest, and in many cases considered immoral in the Muslim world. This music may also turn out to be the soundtrack of a revolution unfolding across that world.
Why, despite governmental attempts to control and censor them, do these musicians and fans keep playing and listening? Partly, of course, for the joy of self-expression, but also because, in this region, everything is political. In Heavy Metal Islam, Mark LeVine explores the influence of Western music on the Middle East through interviews with musicians and fans, introducing us young Muslims struggling to reconcile their religion with a passion for music and a desire for change. The result is a revealing tour of contemporary Islamic culture through the evolving music scene in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Heavy Metal Islam is a surprising, wildly entertaining foray into a historically authoritarian region where music just might be the true democratizing force.
Crown Publishing Group · $13.95 · 9780307353399

July 28, 2008

The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answer to Life's Essential Mysteries by Lama Surya Das
The best-selling author of Awakening the Buddha Within addresses life's most provocative and tantalizing questions simply, directly, and powerfully.
Every life is a journey through the unknown. Along the way, however, we tend to encounter the same perplexing questions again and again. Some are cosmic enigmas that have always tested the human mind: What is my purpose in life? What happens after I die? Others are puzzles presented by daily life in modern society: What, if anything, justifies assisted suicide? What is my personal responsibility to the homeless? According to Lama Surya Das, one of the foremost Western Buddhist scholars and teachers, the more we seek to resolve these mysteries, the more fully we live.
Along with his own personal beliefs, the author presents a variety of thoughtful points of view representing different schools of Buddhism, other religions, spirituality in general, and pragmatism. The Big Questions challenges readers in the most stimulating and thoughtful way to formulate individual, authentic responses to life's big questions.
Rodale Press, Incorporated · $17.95 · 9781594862083

Strong Medicine Speaks: A Native American Elder Has Her Say by Amy Hill Hearth
From the bestselling author of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years comes the inspiring true story of Marion "Strong Medicine" Gould, a Native American matriarch, and the Indian way of life that must never be forgotten.
Amy Hill Hearth's first book, Having Our Say, told the true story of two century-old African-American sisters and went on to become an enduring bestseller and the subject of a three-time Tony Award-nominated play. In "Strong Medicine" Speaks, Hearth turns her talent for storytelling to a Native American matriarch presenting a powerful account of Indian life.
Born and raised in a nearly secret part of New Jersey that remains Native ancestral land, Marion "Strong Medicine" Gould is an eighty-five-year-old Elder in her Lenni-Lenape tribe and community. Taking turns with the author as the two women alternate voices throughout this moving book, Strong Medicine tells of her ancestry, tracing it back to the first Native peoples to encounter the Europeans in 1524, through the strife and bloodshed of America's early years, up to the twentieth century and her own lifetime, decades colored by oppression and terror yet still lifted up by the strength of an enduring collective spirit.
This genuine and delightful telling gives voice to a powerful female Elder whose dry wit and charming humor will provide wisdom and inspiration to readers from every background.
Simon & Schuster Trade · $23.00 · 9780743297790

The Power of Sustainable Thinking: How to Create a Positive Future for the Climate, the Planet, Your Organization and Your Life by Bob Doppelt
'This is a how-to for the mind. Not just how to think sustainably, but how to actually live sustainably and begin addressing global warming.'
Bill Bradbury, Oregon Secretary of State
'In this important book, Doppelt brings his in-depth experience as a sustainability practitioner, and his professional background as a counselling psychologist, to bear. He illustrates that major thinking and behavioural changes are necessary to resolve the climate crisis, and that serious behavioural change requires us to consciously reframe our thinking and embrace a new logic of personal, social and environmental costs and benefits.'
Eban Goodstein, professor of economics, Lewis and Clark College, founder and project director, Focus the Nation
Earthscan/James & James · $29.95 · 9781844075959

Healers Almanac - Goddess Edition by Patty Shaw
Contained in the fabric of your body, mind and emotions are the keys to happiness. The Healers Almanac teaches you to access your own wisdom and become the principle healer in your life.
Alternative Healing. What is it? Who does it help? How does it help? In the Healers Almanac, we will define the many Alternative Therapies available and introduce you to health practitioners that provide those treatments.
More than just a reference book, the Almanac is your guide as you journey through a year of healing. Offering meditations, inspiration and humor, the Healers Almanac will bring you closer to achieving the physical and emotional well being you have longed for.
Included within:
Description of many alternative medical therapies
Informative articles by licensed health practitioners
Messages from the Goddesses of the 21st Century
Healing meditations with the Goddesses
Journal pages with insightful daily affirmations
Helpful hints for staying healthy all year long
Creative ways to work with the moon energy
Resource Section of local health practitioners
Patty Shaw is co-owner of Coventry Creations, creators of the Blessed Herbal Candles. Devoted to her spiritual path, Patty offers her clients support as a Spiritual Counselor and Reiki master and teaches her life-long passions of taking responsibility for your own health and healing. Patty Lives in Michigan with her husband and 2 children.
Coventry Creations · $18.95 · 0974102407

July 21, 2008

The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop, Robert G. Cushing
In the tradition of The Affluent Society and Bowling Alone, a book that will redefine the way Americans think about themselves for decades to come.
America may be more diverse than ever coast to coast, but the places where we live are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think, and vote as we do.We've built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood-and church and news show-most compatible with our lifestyle and beliefs. And we are living with the consequences of this way-of-life segregation. Our country has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred, that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away. The reason for this situation, and the dire implications for our country, is the subject of this groundbreaking work.
In 2004, journalist Bill Bishop made national news in a series of articles when he coined the phrase "the big sort." Armed with original and startling demographic data, he showed how Americans have been sorting themselves over the past three decades into alarmingly homogeneous communities-not at the regional level, or the red-state/bluestate level, but at the micro level of city and neighborhood. In The Big Sort, Bishop takes his analysis to a new level in a brilliantly reported book that makes its case from the ground up, starting with stories about how we live today, and then drawing on history, economics, and our changing political landscape to create one of the most compelling big-picture accounts of America in recent memory.
Houghton Mifflin Company · $25.00 · 9780618689354

Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine by Jonathan Garfinkel
Jonathan Garfinkel can't make up his mind-not about his girlfriend, or Judaism, or Israel. After hearing about a house in Jerusalem where Jews and Arabs coexist in peace, he decides it's time to venture there. In Israel, nothing is as he imagined it, and nothing is as he was taught. Garfinkel gives us the people behind the headlines: from secret assignations with Palestinian activists and an uninvited visit at an Arab refugee camp to Passover with Orthodox Jewish friends and finding the truth about the mythic coexistence house, Ambivalence is the provocative, surreal, and often hilarious chronicle of his travels. In this part memoir and part quest, Garfinkel struggles with the growing divisions in a troubled region and with the divide in his soul.
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. · $25.95 · 9780393066746

Flower and Tree Magic: Discover the Natural Enchantment Around You by Richard Webster
Did you know that flowers have a unique language of their own? Or that the way you draw a tree reflects your life outlook and personality?
Flowers and trees have long been celebrated as sacred and powerful. By learning to read the special messages they hold, plants can help us navigate our life path and reconnect with nature. In this comprehensive guide, bestselling author Richard Webster uncovers the hidden properties of every major type of tree, herb, and flower that we encounter in our daily lives. From protection and healing to divination and worship, this book shows you how to apply ancient spiritual practices from many cultures to modern life-attract your ideal mate with valerian and sage, ward off psychic attacks with a sprinkling of rose oil, restore positive energy with nature meditations, and more.
Nature lovers, myth historians, and trivia lovers alike will embrace this all-encompassing guide to the vast history and extensive magic of flowers and trees.
Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. · $15.95 · 9780738713496

Tuna: A Love Story by Richard Ellis
The author of The Book of Sharks, Imagining Atlantis, and Encyclopedia of the Sea turns his gaze to the tuna-one of the biggest, fastest, and most highly evolved marine animals and the source of some of the world's most popular delicacies-now hovering on the brink of extinction. In recent years, the tuna's place on our palates has come under scrutiny, as we grow increasingly aware of our own health and the health of our planet. Here, Ellis explains how a fish that was once able to thrive has become a commodity, in a book that shows how the natural world and the global economy converge on our plates.
The longest migrator of any fish species, an Atlantic northern bluefin can travel from New England to the Mediterranean, then turn around and swim back; in the Pacific, the northern bluefin can make a round-trip journey from California to Japan. The fish can weigh in at 1,500 pounds and, in an instant, pick up speed to fifty-five miles per hour.
But today the fish is the target of the insatiable sushi market, particularly in Japan, where an individual piece can go for seventy-five dollars. Ellis introduces us to the high-stakes world of "tuna ranches," where large schools of half-grown tuna are caught in floating corrals and held in pens before being fattened, killed, gutted, frozen, and shipped to the Asian market. Once on the brink of bankruptcy, the world's tuna ranches-in Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and North Africa-have become multimillion-dollar enterprises. Experts warn that the fish are dying out and environmentalists lobby for stricter controls, while entire coastalecosystems are under threat. The extinction of the tuna would mean not only the end of several species but dangerous consequences for the earth as a whole.
In the tradition of Mark Kurlansky's Cod, John Cole's Striper, John Hersey's Blues-and of course, Ellis's own Great White Shark-this book will forever change the way we think about fish and fishing.
Knopf Publishing Group · $27.95 · 9780307267153

July 14, 2008

A Spring Without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food Supply by Michael Schacker
A century after the birth of Rachel Carson, the world faces a new environmental disaster, from a chemical similar to DDT. This time the culprit appears to be IMD, or imidacloprid, a relatively new but widely used insecticide in the United States. Many beekeepers and researchers blame IMD for Colony Collapse Disorder, which has wiped out 23% of America's beehives. Even trace amounts make bees unable to fly back to their hive. Since honeybees are essential to the production of most major food crops, their demise could spell catastrophe.
In a riveting, scientific/political detective story, Michael Schacker examines the evidence and offers a plan to save the bees. Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring, A Spring without Bees is both a powerful cautionary tale and a call to action.
Lyons Press · $24.95 · 9781599214320

Shapeshifting with Our Animal Companions: Reconnecting with the Spiritual Awareness of Animals by Dawn Baumann Brunke
Journeys with animals for personal transformation and enlightenment
· Reveals how shapeshifting with the animal kingdom allows us to experience different forms of consciousness and expand our perception of the world
· Examines the three phases of transforming consciousness: letting go, opening to experience, and integrating awareness
· Explores how shapeshifting provides an understanding of death as a transformation rather than an ending
In Shapeshifting with Our Animal Companions, Dawn Baumann Brunke moves beyond the "how" and "why" of animal communication presented in her earlier books to a profound journey of shared spiritual awareness. Through conversations, dreams, and merged consciousness with a variety of animals and spirit beings, she reveals the vast treasure of wisdom and experiences offered to us as we open ourselves to the consciousness of others, confront and release our fears of death, and expand our sensory perception to include other modes of existence.
Brunke reveals how by shapeshifting--moving in and out of shared awareness with others and particularly animals--we may better understand and embrace the diversity of consciousness in our world as we learn to awaken our true selves. Through encounters with shapeshifting animal teachers, she explores the three stages of transforming consciousness: letting go of old ideas and habitual modes of perception, experiencing different forms of consciousness through the eyes of others, and integrating these experiences into a greater awareness of our own being--thus discovering the deeper nature of who we all really are.
Inner Traditions International, Limited · $16.00 · 9781591430834

Rilke and Andreas-Salome: A Love Story in Letters by Rainer Maria Rilke, Lou Andreas-Salome, Edward Snow (Translator)
He would become one of the most important poets of the twentieth century; she a muse of Europe's fin-de-siècle thinkers and artists. In this collection of letters, a finalist for the PEN USA translation award, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salomé, a writer and intellectual fourteen years his senior, pen a relationship that spans thirty years and shifting boundaries: as lovers, as mentor and protégé, and as deep personal and literary allies.
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. · $17.95 · 9780393331905

Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid by J. Maarten Troost
The bestselling author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals returns with a sharply observed, hilarious account of his adventures in China-a complex, fascinating country with enough dangers and delicacies to keep him, and readers, endlessly entertained.
Maarten Troost has charmed legions of readers with his laugh-out-loud tales of wandering the remote islands of the South Pacific. When the travel bug hit again, he decided to go big-time, taking on the world's most populous and intriguing nation. In Lost on Planet China, Troost escorts readers on a rollicking journey through the new beating heart of the modern world, from the megalopolises of Beijing and Shanghai to the Gobi Desert and the hinterlands of Tibet.
Lost on Planet China finds Troost dodging deadly drivers in Shanghai; eating Yak in Tibet; deciphering restaurant menus (offering local favorites such as Cattle Penis with Garlic); visiting with Chairman Mao (still dead, very orange); and hiking (with 80,000 other people) up Tai Shan, China's most revered mountain. But in addition to his trademark gonzo adventures, the book also delivers a telling look at a vast and complex country on the brink of transformation that will soon shape the way we all work, live, and think. As Troost shows, while we may be familiar with Yao Ming or dim sum or the cheap, plastic products that line the shelves of every store, the real China remains a world-indeed, a planet-unto itself.
Maarten Troost brings China to life as you've never seen it before, and his insightful, rip-roaringly funny narrative proves that once again he is one of the most entertaining andinsightful armchair travel companions around.
Broadway Books · $22.95 · 9780767922005

July 07, 2008

The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germophobia, and Laser Hair Removal by Laurie Notaro
In her latest collection of essays, Notaro (The Idiot Girl's Action-Adventure Club) turns out a double-handful of chuckle-worthy vignettes, looking at episodes of panic on an airplane, spying on guests at a mountain resort, learning to live with the ex-con down the street and, of course, handling the numerous disappointments and betrayals of the human body. Notaro blends sardonic, often self-deprecating comedy with disarming sincerity, delving into weight gain and body hair issues without hesitation, but staying closer to house, hearth, and everyday life with husband and dog. Most of the time, her quips rise to the occasion, but occasionally fall flat (as in "Death of a Catchphrase"). Although the majority of Notaro's musings are light-hearted, she reveals an affecting serious side in her essay on a pet's death. With plenty of humorous insight into the everyday debacles of an average gal from Arizona, these entertaining essays should make satisfying, bite-sized beach reading.
Random House Publishing Group • $20.00 • 9781400065035

Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver by Arthur Allen
Vaccine juxtaposes the stories of brilliant scientists with the industry's struggle to produce safe, effective, and profitable vaccines. It focuses on the role of military and medical authority in the introduction of vaccines and looks at why some parents have resisted this authority. Political and social intrigue have often accompanied vaccination—from the divisive introduction of smallpox inoculation in colonial Boston to the 9,000 lawsuits recently filed by parents convinced that vaccines caused their children's autism. With narrative grace and investigative journalism, Arthur Allen reveals a history illuminated by hope and shrouded by controversy, and he sheds new light on changing notions of health, risk, and the common good. 16 pages of illustrations.
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. • $17.95 • 9780393331561

End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies about the End of the World by Sylvia Browne
The Apocalypse. The Rapture. The End of Days. Humans have long been concerned with the ultimate clash of civilizations, but never more so than now. The world has become a scary place—religious wars, global terrorism, and genocide are all over the news, and thanks to the Internet, the Information Age has ushered in the Anxiety Age. Who better to lead the way out than Sylvia Browne, the most popular psychic working today?
In End of Days, she tackles the most daunting of subjects with her trademark clarity, wisdom, and serenity. She does not shy away from the most daunting and difficult predictions about what will happen to the human race. And throughout she comments on all the End of Days prophecies and predictions that have people speculating that the end is indeed near.
For anyone who's ever wondered where we're headed, and what—if anything—we can do to prevent a catastrophe of biblical proportions, End of Days is a riveting and insightful must-read.
Penguin Young Readers Group • $23.95 • 9780525950677

The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain by George Lakoff
In What's the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank pointed out that a great number of Americans actually vote against their own interests. In The Political Mind, George Lakoff explains why.
As it turns out, human beings are not the rational creatures we've so long imagined ourselves to be. Ideas, morals, and values do not exist somewhere outside the body, ready to be examined and put to use. Instead, they exist quite literally inside the brain—and they take physical shape there. For example, we form particular kinds of narratives in our minds just like we form specific muscle memories such as typing or dancing, and then we fit new information into those narratives. Getting that information out of one narrative type and into another—or building a whole new narrative altogether—can be as hard as learning to play the banjo. Changing your mind isn't like changing your body—it's the same thing.
But as long as progressive politicians and activists persist in believing that people use an objective system of reasoning to decide on their politics, the Democrats will continue to lose elections. They must wrest control of the terms of the debate from their opponents rather than accepting their frame and trying to argue within it.
This passionate, erudite, and groundbreaking book will appeal to readers of Steven Pinker and Thomas Frank. It is a fascinating read for anyone interested in how the mind works, how society works, and how they work together.
Penguin Group (USA) • $25.95 • 9780670019274


June 30, 2008

Brida by Paulo Coelho
This is the story of Brida, a young Irish girl, and her quest for knowledge. She has long been interested in various aspects of magic but is searching for something more. Her search leads her to people of great wisdom, who begin to teach Brida about the spiritual world. She meets a wise man who dwells in a forest, who teaches her about overcoming her fears and trusting in the goodness of the world; and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the music of the world, and how to pray to the moon. As Brida seeks her destiny, she struggles to find a balance between her relationships and her desire to become a witch. This enthralling novel incorporates themes that fans of Paulo Coelho will recognize and treasure-it is a tale of love, passion, mystery, and spirituality from the master storyteller.
HarperCollins Publishers · $24.95 · 9780061578939

Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us by Robyn Meredith
The Elephant and the Dragon takes a compelling look at the major changes in store as America faces increasing competition from two emerging Asian giants, India and China. In it, Robyn Meredith tells how these two Asian nations, each with more than a billion people, have spurred a new "gold rush," and what this will mean for the rest of the world.
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. · $15.95 · 9780393331936

Past Life Dreamwork: Healing the Soul through Understanding Karmic Patterns by Sabine Lucas
In Past Life Dreamwork, Sabine Lucas examines "soul bloodlines"-character traits, talents, and life issues that are the common elements and circumstances of successive past lives. Found threaded through our dreams, these bloodlines reveal the forces manifesting in this life, and, taken together, they shape individuality as well as destiny within the reincarnation cycle. Though a wealth of past life material regularly surfaces in dreams, until now dreamwork has been largely ignored as a therapy for successfully integrating past life experiences.
Using the results of twenty-seven years of personal and professional work, Lucas explains that past life memories help us work out karma on the macro level and trauma on a micro level. She distinguishes three types of past life dreams-classic, informatory, and hybrid-and demonstrates how to distinguish these from other dreams. Her dramatic case studies illustrate the effectiveness of dream therapy in recognizing and integrating the resonant and recurrent circumstances and ethical dilemmas that are played out in the subconscious mind. These stories bear witness to how individuals are made whole through the integration of common strands of forgotten or repressed past lives. Lucas shows that the integration of past lives enriches the conscious self and also promotes universal tolerance through an understanding of our psychic soul inheritance.
Inner Traditions International, Limited · $16.00 · 9781591430759

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief by Lewis Wolpert
Why do 70 percent of Americans believe in angels, while others are convinced that they were abducted by aliens? What makes people believe in improbable things when all the evidence points to the contrary? And don't almost all of us, at some time or another, engage in magical thinking?
In Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, evolutionary biologist Lewis Wolpert delves into the important and timely debate over the nature of belief, looking at its psychological foundations to discover just what evolutionary purpose it could serve. Wolpert takes us through all that science can tell us about the beliefs we feel are instinctive. He deftly explores different types of belief-those of children, of the religious, and of those suffering from psychiatric disorders-and he asks whether it is possible to live without belief, or whether it is a necessary component of a functioning society.
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. · $15.95 · 9780393332032

June 23, 2008

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor
Jill Bolte Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained and published brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain.  Through the eyes of a curious neuroanatomist, she watched her mind completely deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered her mind, brain and body.  In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill shares with us her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the right and left halves of her brain.  Having lost the categorizing, organizing, describing, judging and critically analyzing skills of her left brain, along with its language centers and thus ego center, Jill's consciousness shifted away from normal reality.  In the absence of her left brain's neural circuitry, her consciousness shifted into present moment thinking whereby she experienced herself "at one with the universe."
Based upon her academic training and personal experience, Jill helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can 'tend the garden of our minds' to maximize our quality of life.  Jill pushes the envelope in our understanding about how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel, and how we react to life's circumstances.  Jill teaches us through her own example how we might more readily exercise our own right hemispheric circuitry with the intention of helping all human beings become more humane.  "I believe the more time we spend running our deep inner peace circuitry, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet."
Penguin Group (USA) · $24.95 · 9780670020744

The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World--Why They Work and How to Bring Them Home by Daphne Miller, Allison Sarubin Fragakis
 Pizza, pasta, hamburgers, sushi, tacos, and french fries . . . whether our ancestors were born in Madrid, Malaysia, or Mexico, chances are our daily food choices come from all around the globe. Unfortunately, we have taken some of the worst aspects of our varied ancestral menus to turn healthy cuisine into not-so-healthy junk food. Where did we go wrong?
Why is it that non-Western immigrants are so much more susceptible to diabetes and other diet-related chronic diseases than white Americans? How is it possible that relatively poor native populations in Mexico and Africa have such low levels of the chronic diseases that plague the United States? What is the secret behind the extremely low rate of clinical depression in Iceland-a country where dreary weather is the norm? The Jungle Effect has the life-changing answers to these important questions, and many more.
Dr. Daphne Miller undertook a worldwide quest to find diets that are both delicious and healthy. Written in a style reminiscent of Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver, this book is filled with inspiring stories from Dr. Miller's patients, quirky travel adventures, interviews with world-renowned food experts, delicious (yet authentic) indigenous recipes, and valuable diet secrets that will stick with you for a lifetime.
Whether it's the heart-healthy Cretan diet, with its reliance on olive oil and fresh vegetables; the antidepression Icelandic diet and its extremely high levels of Omega 3s; the age-defying Okinawa diet and its emphasis on vegetables and fish; or the other diets explored herein, everyone who reads this book will come away with the secrets of a longer, healthier lifeand the recipes necessary to put those secrets into effect.
HarperCollins Publishers · $22.95 · 9780061535659

The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change by Shari MacDonald Strong
Exploring the vital connection between motherhood and social change, The Maternal Is Political features thirty powerful, hard-hitting literary essays by women who are striving to make the world a better place for children and families-both their own and other women's-in this country and globally.
Each contributor tackles complex issues facing mothers and society today. Whether it's a mother teaching her children to live ecologically responsible lives, a mother struggling to get out of poverty while raising her kids, a mother's response to her child being sent to Iraq, or a mother voting for the first time, each writer forges the link, the crucial relationship, between the personal (life with family) and the political (life in the world) to give voice to, and thus empower, other women to realize and seize their collective political clout as mothers. Written by and for mothers, The Maternal Is Political is crafted to help motivate us to discover, appreciate, and use with greater effectiveness our tremendously powerful (and too often underutilized) political votes and voices to create positive social change.
Seal Press CA · $15.95 · 9781580052436

The Hermetic Code in DNA: The Sacred Principles in the Ordering of the Universe by Michael Hayes
An examination of the precise code that connects ancient spirituality with modern science
· Shows how the numerical patterns in ancient philosophies are evident in both the structure of the universe and the helical structure of DNA
· Reveals that music theory comes from an intuitive understanding of the resonant harmony of the cosmos
Many have observed the distinct numerical patterns embedded in ancient philosophies and religions from all over the world; others have noted that these same patterns are apparent in many of the theories of groundbreaking science. Michael Hayes reveals that there is a precise code, the Hermetic Code, that connects these patterns--information once known to ancient cultures but apparently lost over time. Mirrored in the structure of this code are the ordering principles of the universe and, intriguingly, also the harmonic ratios of music. Our notions of what is harmonious in music may therefore arise not from an abstract aesthetic sense but as a response to an intuition of a fundamental cosmic harmony.
The resonance between biology and cosmology shows that life is music, complete with "overtones"--nowhere more strikingly present than in the helical structure of life itself: DNA.
Inner Traditions International, Limited · $18.95 · 9781594772184

June 16, 2008

Amazing Grace by David Wolfe, Nick Good
It’s official; embraced by everyone from stars like Uma Thurman and Woody Harrelson to average people who are seeking the best health possible, raw food and the live food lifestyle is “in.” But making that transition can be a challenge. That’s where Amazing Grace comes in. Written by raw-foods authority David Wolfe with life coach Nick Good, this combination of personal story and motivational guide offers a wealth of ways to improve life, health, and spirit by adopting this nurturing, intuitive lifestyle. Amazing Grace shares Wolfe’s secrets on how to become a superhero and lead a life full of fun, synchronicity, and magic. These secrets are based both on the personal experiences of the authors and the seven principles of Huna, the ancient Hawaiian shamanic tradition. With the addition of Grace and Forgiveness, they comprise nine powerful principles for success. Equally useful whether reading cover to cover, sampling for nuggets of wisdom and inspiration, or retaining as a reference for support and guidance, Amazing Grace shows readers how to experience a new yet basic paradigm of possibility in an increasingly complex and confusing world.
North Atlantic Books - $16.95 - 9781556437304

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and How We Can Do Better by Amanda Ripley
It lurks in the corner of our imagination, almost beyond our ability to see it: the possibility that a tear in the fabric of life could open up without warning, upending a house, a skyscraper, or a civilization.
Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality–anything we’ve ever learned, thought, or dreamed of–ultimately matter?
Amanda Ripley, an award-winning journalist for Time magazine who has covered some of the most devastating disasters of our age, set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation. In this magnificent work of investigative journalism, Ripley retraces the human response to some of history’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to a plane crash in England in 1985 that mystified investigators for years, to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Then, to understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts, formal and informal, from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear.
Finally, Ripley steps into the dark corners of her own imagination, having her brain examined by military researchers and experiencing through realistic simulations what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire.
Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain’s ability to do much, much better, with just a little help.
The Unthinkable escorts us into the bleakest regions of our nightmares, flicks on a flashlight, and takes a steady look around. Then it leads us home, smarter and stronger than we were before.
Crown Publishing Group - $24.95 - 9780307352897

Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel by Anne Cushman
Nearing age thirty, Amanda thought she’d be someone else by now. Instead, she’s just herself: an ex-nanny yogini-wannabe who cranks out “For Idiots” travel guides just to scrape by. Yes, she has her sexy photographer boyfriend, but he’s usually gone—shooting a dogsled race in Alaska or a vision quest in Peru—or just hooking up with other girls. However, she’s sure her new assignment, “Enlightenment for Idiots,” will change everything; now she’ll become the serene, centered woman she was meant to be. After some breakup sex, she’s off to India to find a new, more spiritual life.
What she finds, though, is an ashram run by investment bankers, a yoga master who trashes her knee, and a guru with a weakness for fashion models. She escapes a tantra party at the Taj Hotel, has a nasty argument outside the cave where the Buddha used to meditate, then agonizes through the ten-day silent retreat that’s supposed to make her feel better.
No, India is not what she had pictured. But she finds a friend in Devi Das, a redheaded sadhu who refers to himself as “we.” And when a holy lunatic on the street offers her an enigmatic blessing, Amanda realizes a new life may be in store for her—just not the one she was expecting.
Crown Publishing Group - $24.00 - 9780307381644

Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever by Joel Derfner
Joel Derfner is gayer than you.
Don’t feel too bad about it, though, because he has made being gayer than you his life’s work. At summer day camp, when he was six, Derfner tried to sign up for needlepoint and flower arranging, but the camp counselors wouldn’t let him, because, they said, those activities were for girls only. Derfner, just to be contrary, embarked that very day on a solemn and sacred quest: to become the gayest person ever. Along the way he has become a fierce knitter, an even fiercer musical theater composer, and so totally the fiercest step aerobics instructor (just ask him—he’ll tell you himself).
In Swish, Derfner takes his readers on a flamboyant adventure along the glitter-strewn road from fabulous to divine. Whether he’s confronting the demons of his past at a GLBT summer camp, using the Internet to “meet” men—many, many men—or plunging headfirst (and nearly naked) into the shady world of go-go dancing, he reveals himself with every gayer-than-thou flourish to be not just a stylish explorer but also a fearless one. So fearless, in fact, that when he sneaks into a conference for people who want to cure themselves of their homosexuality, he turns the experience into one of the most fascinating, deeply moving chapters of the book. Derfner, like King Arthur, Christopher Columbus, and Indiana Jones—but with a better haircut and a much deeper commitment to fad diets—is a hero destined for legend.
Written with wicked humor and keen insight, Swish is at once a hilarious look at contemporary ideas about gay culture and a poignant exploration of identity that will speak to all readers—gay, straight, and in between.
Broadway Books - $23.95 - 9780767924306

June 9, 2008

Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang -- Rewriting Cosmic History by Neil Turok, Paul J. Steinhardt
Two world-renowned scientists present an audacious new vision of the cosmos that "steals the thunder from the Big Bang theory." -Wall Street Journal
The Big Bang theory-widely regarded as the leading explanation for the origin of the universe-posits that space and time sprang into being about 14 billion years ago in a hot, expanding fireball of nearly infinite density. Over the last three decades the theory has been repeatedly revised to address such issues as how galaxies and stars first formed and why the expansion of the universe is speeding up today. Furthermore, an explanation has yet to be found for what caused the Big Bang in the first place.
In Endless Universe, Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok, both distinguished theoretical physicists, present a bold new cosmology. Steinhardt and Turok "contend that what we think of as the moment of creation was simply part of an infinite cycle of titanic collisions between our universe and a parallel world" (Discover). They recount the remarkable developments in astronomy, particle physics, and superstring theory that form the basis for their groundbreaking "Cyclic Universe" theory. According to this theory, the Big Bang was not the beginning of time but the bridge to a past filled with endlessly repeating cycles of evolution, each accompanied by the creation of new matter and the formation of new galaxies, stars, and planets.
Endless Universe provides answers to longstanding problems with the Big Bang model, while offering a provocative new view of both the past and the future of the cosmos.  It is a "theory that could solve the cosmic mystery" (USA Today).
9780767915014 - $14.95 - Broadway Books

Fairy Bible: The Definitive Guide to the World of Fairies by Teresa Moorey
Fairies of the water, air, and earth, the trees and flowers, the house and hearth: all these mysterious, elusive creatures materialize on the pages of this distinctively beautiful guide to fairyland. Illustrated throughout with captivating artwork in glorious color, it examines fairy legend and lore through the ages and leads us into fairy cities, landscapes, rings, and paths. Find out what clothes they wear (fairies can be fussy about their dress), what they like to eat and drink, and what plants and animals they cherish. Discover the secrets of fairy festivals, and the various names they like to be called-including the Little Folk and Good Neighbors. Altogether, it's a privileged glimpse into a paradise that vibrates at a different frequency than ours... and that few can ever see.
9781402745485 - $14.95 - Sterling Publishing

In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God by Gene Robinson
Gene Robinson is bishop of the tiny, rural Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, but he's at the center of a storm of controversy raging in the Episcopal Church and throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion involving homosexuality, the priesthood, and the future of the Communion. This book offers an honest, thoughtful portrait of Robinson, the faith that has informed his life, and the controversy that continues to rock his Church.
9781596270886 - $25.00 - Church Publishing, Incorporated

Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times by Amy Goodman, David Goodman
Standing Up to the Madness not only is a timely, inspiring, and even revolutionary look at who wields the greatest power in America-everyday people who take a chance and stand up for what they believe in-but also offers advice on what you can do to help.
Where are the millions marching in the streets to defend human rights, civil liberties, and racial justice? Where is the mass revulsion against the killing and torture being carried out in our name? Where are the environmentalists? Where is the peace movement?
The answer: They are everywhere.
The award-winning sister-brother team of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and investigative journalist David Goodman traveled the country to detail the ways in which grassroots activists have taken politics out of the hands of politicians. Standing Up to the Madness tells the stories of everyday citizens who have challenged the government and prevailed.
As the Bush administration has waged war abroad and at home, it has catalyzed a vast groundswell of political action. From African-American residents of deluged New Orleans who are fighting racism and City Hall to regain their homes; to four Connecticut librarians who refused to spy on their patrons, challenged the USA PATRIOT Act, and won; to a group of high school students who were barred from performing a play they wrote on the Iraq War based on letters from soldiers; to the first U.S. Army officer to publicly refuse orders to deploy to Iraq, charging that his duty as an officer is to refuse to fight in an illegal and immoral war, Standing Up to the Madness profiles citizens rising to extraordinary challenges. And, in the process,they are changing the way that politics is done, both now and in the future.
In communities around the United States, courageous individuals have taken leaps of faith to stop the madness. They could only hope that if they led, others would follow. That is how movements are born. What begins as one, eventually becomes many. In that tradition, the authors have included the ways in which any individual can take action and effect change.
9781401322885 - $23.95 - Hyperion

June 2, 2008

Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking, 17 Years of Silence by John Francis
When the struggle to save oil-soaked birds and restore blackened beaches left him feeling frustrated and helpless, John Francis decided to take a more fundamental and personal stand—he stopped using all forms of motorized transportation. Soon after embarking on this quest that would span two decades and two continents, the young man took a vow of silence that endured for 17 years. It began as a silent environmental protest, but as a young African-American man, walking across the country in the early 1970s, his idea of "the environment" expanded beyond concern about pollution and loss of habitat to include how we humans treat each other and how we can better communicate and work together to benefit the earth.
Through his silence and walking, he learned to listen, and along the way, earned college and graduate degrees in science and environmental studies. The United Nations appointed him goodwill ambassador to the world’s grassroots communities and the U.S. government recruited him to help address the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Was he crazy? How did he live and earn all those degrees without talking? An amazing human-interest story, with a vital message, Planetwalker is also a deeply personal and engaging coming-of-age odyssey—the positive experiences, the challenging times, the characters encountered, and the learning gained along the way.
National Geographic Society - $26.00 - 9781426202759

Playing with the Grown-ups by Sophie Dahl
For Kitty, growing up at Hay House amongst bluebell woods and doting relations is heaven. But for her mother, the restless Marina, a bohemian beauty who paints and weeps with alacrity, this comfortable domesticity cannot provide the novelty and excitement she craves. Marina is utterly beguiling, but more often than not Kitty can only gaze on her antics with awe and toe-curling trepidation.
When Swami-ji, Marina’s Guru, sees Marina’s future in New York, the family relocates, leaving Kitty exiled in a colorless boarding school. Reprieve comes in the form of the Guru’s summons to the ashram; but then, just as Kitty is approaching enlightenment, she and Marina are off again, leaving for an England that is now fast and unfamiliar. This time no god, man, or martini can staunch Marina’s hunger for a happiness that proves all too elusive. And Kitty, turning fifteen, must choose: whether to play dangerous games with the grown-ups or begin to put herself first.
Playing with the Grown-ups is an enchanting novel about growing up in a loving, utterly chaotic household; it is also hilarious, heartbreaking, and scandalous. The offbeat and often comic adventures of the free-spirited heroines—Marina and Kitty alike—will remind readers of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. With her magnificent talent for storytelling and creating unconventional characters, Sophie Dahl ably carries on the literary legacy of her grandfather, the beloved children’s book author, Roald Dahl.
Doubleday Publishing - $24.00 - 9780385524612

Can't Remember What I Forgot: Closing in on a Cure for Memory Loss by Sue Halpern
An essential behind-the-scenes foray into the world of cutting-edge memory research that unveils findings about memory loss only now available to general readers.
When Sue Halpern decided to emulate the first modern scientist of memory, Hermann Ebbinghaus, who experimented on himself, she had no idea that after a day of radioactive testing, her brain would become so “hot” that leaving through the front door of the lab would trigger the alarm. This was not the first time while researching Can’t Remember What I Forgot, part of which appeared in The New Yorker, that Halpern had her head examined, nor would it be the last.
Halpern spent years in the company of the neuroscientists, pharmacologists, psychologists, nutritionists, and inventors who are hunting for the genes and molecules, the drugs and foods, the machines, the prosthetics, the behaviors and therapies that will stave off Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia and keep our minds–and memories–intact. Like many of us who have had a relative or friend succumb to memory loss, who are getting older, who are hearing statistics about our own chances of falling victim to dementia, who worry that each lapse of memory portends disease, Halpern wanted to find out what the experts really knew, what the bench
scientists were working on, how close science is to a cure, to treatment, to accurate early diagnosis, and, of course, whether the crossword puzzles, sudokus, and ballroom dancing we’ve been told to take up can really keep us lucid or if they’re just something to do before the inevitable overtakes us.
Beautifully written,sharply observed, and deeply informed, Can’t Remember What I Forgot is a book full of vital information–and a solid dose of hope.
Crown Publishing Group -$24.00 - 9780307406743

Awakening the Energy Body: From Shamanism to Bioenergetics by Kenneth Smith
A practical guide to understanding and enhancing the functionality of the human energy body
• Shows how the energy body and its interactions are the principal determinant of all we see, feel, think, or otherwise perceive
• Details strategic skills to manage the infinite alternate realities available to the energy body
Each of us inhabits an energy body whose interactions are the principal determinant of all we see, feel, think, or otherwise perceive. Even as modern science is establishing the uncertainty of physical matter, it is asserting the reality of our existence as interconnecting quantum energy fields. For over 5,000 years, shamans of the Toltec tradition have studied and worked with the energy body, learning to recognize and understand its structure and perceptual capacities as well as mapping it as an objective, measurable part of our anatomy. In Awakening the Energy Body, Kenneth Smith’s thorough grounding in the Toltec tradition allows him to bring forth an instructive overview for non-Toltec adherents of the latent possibilities available to the energy body and how to bring awareness and objective form to it.
Using evidence from the emerging scientific discipline of bioenergetics, which studies the flow and exchange of energy, Smith shows that conscious awareness not only creates our reality but enhances the functionality of the human energy body, allowing it to navigate the myriad realities of our world. He offers a specific set of strategies to manage the energy body in ways that are beneficial to both material existence and spiritual development. He also discusses the ethical considerations of developing consciousness and how one can quicken personal evolution in order to live a full and complete life, while revealing where the worlds of ancient tradition and modern science meet.
Inner Traditions International, Limited - $15.00 - 9781591430841

May 26, 2008

The Chocolate Cake Sutra: Ingredients for a Sweet Life by Geri Larkin
The Chocolate Cake Sutra demonstrates that when the best aspects of a spiritual life converge, we are better able to take the slings and arrows of our lives in stride with grace and a grin. What are the right ingredients for a life filled with delectable treats?
    * 3 cups of living an adventurous life
    * Include a large portion of true friendship
    * Add a dash of genuine generosity, extreme tolerance, and clear-headedness
    * Leave dish open to all kinds of knowledge
    * Stir with great energy
    * Bake ethically and serve with exceptional amounts of wisdom
Chock full of moving and enlightening stories, The Chocolate Cake Sutra will help you let go of perfectionism and celebrate the sacred nature of the life you already have.
HarperCollins Publishers - $13.95 - 9780060859589

The Night Trilogy by Elie Wiesel
Night is one of the masterpieces of Holocaust literature. First published in 1960, it is the autobiographical account of an adolescent boy and his father in Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel writes of their battle for survival, and of his battle with God for a way to understand the wanton cruelty he witnesses each day. In the short novel Dawn (1961), a young man who has survived the Second World War and settled in Palestine is apprenticed to a Jewish underground movement, where the former victim is commanded to execute a British officer who has been taken hostage. In Day (previously titled The Accident, 1962), Wiesel questions the limits of the spirit and the self: Can Holocaust survivors forge a new life without the memories of the old?
Wiesel's trilogy offers meditations on mankind's attraction to violence and on the temptation of self-destruction.
Hill and Wang - $17.00 - 9780809073641

Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side by James Van Praagh
 Everyone loves a good ghost story. Perhaps the human fascination with the supernatural stems from the fact that most of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced something we couldn't quite explain. From a very young age James Van Praagh was aware of a dimension that most of us cannot see, and he has dedicated his life to explaining it to the rest of us. Ghosts Among Us takes us on an incredible journey into the spirit world that brings to light one of our greatest mysteries-what happens to us after we die?
Van Praagh, the New York Times bestselling author and co-executive producer of the CBS series The Ghost Whisperer, shares his knowledge and life experience about ghosts, a subject that can seem to many of us both bizarre and terrifying. But when the world beyond is explained fully by an experienced guide, dismissal and apprehension can be turned into knowledge and inspiration. With incredible true ghost stories and surprising details about how ghosts actively participate in our lives, Van Praagh challenges us to question our perceptions and shows us how we can live more fully through understanding the world of spirits. Including eerily accurate readings, the author's development as a medium, and detailed how-to information, Ghosts Among Us is an all-encompassing guide to the supernatural.
HarperCollins Publishers - $24.95 - 9780061553394

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments by George Johnson
From the acclaimed New York Times science writer George Johnson, an irresistible book on the ten most fascinating experiments in the history of science-moments when a curious soul posed a particularly eloquent question to nature and received a crisp, unambiguous reply.
Johnson takes us to those times when the world seemed filled with mysterious forces, when scientists were dazzled by light, by electricity, and by the beating of the hearts they laid bare on the dissecting table.
We see Galileo singing to mark time as he measures the pull of gravity, and Newton carefully inserting a needle behind his eye to learn how light causes vibrations in the retina. William Harvey ties a tourniquet around his arm and watches his arteries throb above and his veins bulge below, proving that blood circulates. Luigi Galvani sparks electrical currents in dissected frog legs, wondering at the twitching muscle fibers, and Ivan Pavlov makes his now-famous dogs salivate at ascending chord progressions.
For all of them, diligence was rewarded. In an instant, confusion was swept aside and something new about nature leaped into view. In bringing us these stories, Johnson restores some of the romance to science, reminding us of the existential excitement of a single soul staring down the unknown.
Knopf Publishing Group - $22.95 - 9781400041015