The next Books & Beyond meeting will be on Tuesday, November 30th at 6:30pm in the Library’s conference room. As usual, if you’d like to attend via Zoom, please register with your email address and I’ll send the link out the morning of the meeting: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/4597975.
The topic will be American masters and there is no parameters for what that American has mastered! Novels, plays, music, painting, architecture, essays, photography…the sky is the limit and you get to chose how far you rise!
If that
seems overwhelming, have a look at some suggestions on the Shelf Care page of
the website (BAB is the 5th row down): https://oneallibrary.org/adults---reading-recommendations
The topic selections for the 2022 BAB meetings are ready to
whet your reading appetite!
January 25 - Author Study: Stephen King
February 22 - Ancient Civilizations
March 29 - Academy Award-winning Films
April 26 - National Parks/World Heritage Sites
May 24 – Audiobooks
June 28 - Man Booker Prize-winners
July 19 - Reader's Choice
August 30 - Women In Translation month
September 27 - Banned Books
October 25 – Trivia
November 29 - Biography/Autobiography
December 27 - Reader's Choice
BAB met last night to discuss world spiritual beliefs.
The Way of Fire and Ice reimagines Norse
Paganism with mystical practices and rituals for today's world as well as tips
for building community and resisting fascism. This approach to working with
Norse deities and beliefs is a living, adaptable tradition, representing a
strong alternative to the reconstructionist perspectives of Asatru and
Heathenry.
Vikings
(1958)
Viking Prince Einar (Kirk Douglas) doesn't know it, but his
most fearsome enemy, the slave Eric (Tony Curtis), is actually his half
brother. Their feud only intensifies when Einar kidnaps Princess Morgana (Janet
Leigh), the intended bride of the brutal King Aella (Frank Thring). Einar
intends to make the beautiful girl his own. Unfortunately for him, Morgana has
eyes only for Eric -- leading to much bloodshed and the capture of their
father, King Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine).
Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
Few ancient works have been as influential as the Meditations
of Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and emperor of Rome (A.D. 161–180). A series of
spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound
understanding of human behavior, it remains one of the greatest works of
spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus’s insights and advice—on
everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting
with others—have made the Meditations required reading for statesmen and
philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the
straightforward intimacy of his style. For anyone who struggles to reconcile
the demands of leadership with a concern for personal integrity and spiritual
well-being, the Meditations remains as relevant now as it was two thousand years
ago.
“Perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for
the contemporary West, Alan Watts had the rare gift of ‘writing beautifully the
un-writable’. Watts begins with scholarship and intellect and proceeds with art
and eloquence to the frontiers of the spirit. A fascinating entry into the
deepest ways of knowing.” — LA Times
Where
the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places by Peter
Nabakov
For thousands of years , Native Americans have told stories
about the powers of revered landscapes and sought spiritual direction at
mysterious places in their homelands. In this important book, respected scholar
and anthropologist Peter Nabokov writes of a wide range of sacred places in
Native America. From the “high country” of California to Tennessee’s Tellico
Valley, from the Black Hills of South Dakota to Rainbow Canyon in Arizona, each
chapter delves into the relationship between Indian cultures and their
environments and describes the myths and legends, practices, and rituals that
sustained them.
Venus and Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire by Bettany
Hughes (not available in JCLC, click
here to request from Interlibrary Loan)
Aphrodite was said to have been born from the sea, rising
out of a froth of white foam. But long before the Ancient Greeks conceived of
this voluptuous blonde, she existed as an early spirit of fertility on the
shores of Cyprus -- and thousands of years before that, as a ferocious
warrior-goddess in the Middle East. Proving that this fabled figure is so much
more than an avatar of commercialized romance, historian Bettany Hughes reveals
the remarkable lifestory of one of antiquity's most potent myths.
From
Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician
Caitlin Doughty embarks on a global expedition to discover how other cultures
care for the dead. From Zoroastrian sky burials to wish-granting Bolivian
skulls, she investigates the world’s funerary customs and expands our sense of
what it means to treat the dead with dignity.
The Dawn of Belief: Religion in the Upper Paleolithic of
Southwestern Europe by Bruce Dickson (not available in JCLC, click
here to request from Interlibrary Loan)
Hunter-gatherers of the Upper Paleolithic period of the
late Pleistocene epoch in western Europe left a legacy of cave paintings and
material remains that have long fascinated modern man. This book draws on
theories derived from cultural anthropology and cognitive archaeology to
propose a reconstruction of the religious life of those people based on the
patterning and provenience of their artifacts.
Cave
of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
In this documentary, filmmaker Werner Herzog and a small
crew are given a rare chance to film inside France's Chauvet Cave, where the
walls are covered with the world's oldest surviving paintings. To preserve the
art, people are allowed to enter the site for only two weeks a year. Examining
the 30,000-year-old drawings, Herzog discusses how the artwork represents
humanity's earliest dreams with scientists and art scholars conducting research
at Chauvet.
Painting
Time by Maylis de Kerangal
With the attention of a documentary filmmaker, de Kerangal
follows Paula’s, an art student, apprenticeship, punctuated by brushstrokes,
hard work, sleepless nights, sore muscles, and long, festive evenings. After
completing her studies at the Institute, Paula continues to practice her art in
Paris, in Moscow, then in Italy on the sets of great films, all as if
rehearsing for a grand finale: a job working on Lascaux IV, a facsimile
reproduction of the world’s most famous paleolithic cave art and the apotheosis
of human cultural expression.
No
Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh
The secret to happiness is to acknowledge and transform
suffering, not to run away from it. In No Mud, No Lotus, Thich Nhat Hanh
offers practices and inspiration transforming suffering and finding true joy.
No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton (not available
within the JCLC, click
here to request through Interlibrary Loan.)
A recapitulation of his earlier work Seeds of Contemplation,
this collection of sixteen essays plumbs aspects of human spirituality. Merton
addresses those in search of enduring values, fulfillment, and salvation in
prose that is, as always, inspiring and compassionate.
Saffron
Cross: The Unlikely Story of How a Christian Minister Married a Hindu Monk
by J. Dana Trent
Saffron Cross is the intriguing memoir of the
relationship between Dana, a Baptist minister, and Fred, a devout Hindu and
former monk. The two meet on eHarmony and begin a fascinating, sometimes
daunting but ultimately inspiring journey of interfaith relationship and marriage.
The
Source by James Michener
In his signature style of grand storytelling, James A.
Michener transports us back thousands of years to the Holy Land. Through the
discoveries of modern archaeologists excavating the site of Tell Makor,
Michener vividly re-creates life in an ancient city and traces the profound
history of the Jewish people—from the persecution of the early Hebrews, the
rise of Christianity, and the Crusades to the founding of Israel and the modern
conflict in the Middle East.
The
Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep
philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic
Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission
entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent
extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a
series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.
Great
World Religions: Christianity by The Great Courses
In this lecture series, you'll consider fundamental issues
including Christianity's birth and expansion across the Mediterranean world,
the development of its doctrine, its transformation after Christianity became
the imperial religion of Rome, its many and deep connections to Western
culture, and the tensions within Christianity today.
Great
World Religions: Hinduism by The Great Courses
In this 12-lecture series, you'll encounter a religion that
is perhaps the most diverse of all; one that worships more gods and goddesses
than any other, and one that rejects the notion that there is only one path to
the divine. These lectures provide a window into the roots of, perhaps, all
religions.
Gnosticism:
From Nag Hammad’I to the Gospel of Judas by The Great Courses
This fascinating 24-lecture course is a richly detailed
guide to the theology, sacred writings, rituals, and outstanding human figures
of the Gnostic movements. What we call "Gnosticism" comprised a
number of related religious ideologies and movements, all of which sought
"gnosis," or immediate, direct, and intimate knowledge of God. The
Gnostics had many scriptures, but unlike the holy texts of other religions,
Gnostic scriptures were often modified over time. Gnostic cosmology was
extraordinarily intricate and multidimensional, but religious myth was simply a
means to the ultimate end of gnosis.
The
Celtic World by The Great Courses
In The Celtic World, discover the incredible story of
the Celtic-speaking peoples, whose art, language, and culture once spread from
Ireland to Austria. This series of 24 enlightening lectures explains the
traditional historical view of who the Celts were, then contrasts it with
brand-new evidence from DNA analysis and archeology that totally changes our
perspective on where the Celts came from. European history and culture have
been profoundly affected by the Celts, from the myth of King Arthur to the very
map of the United Kingdom, where the English confronted the peoples of the
"Celtic Fringe."
The renowned library of Gnostic manuscripts discovered in
Egypt in 1945, which rivaled the Dead Sea Scrolls find in significance. It
includes the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and the recently discovered
Gospel of Judas, as well as other Gnostic gospels and sacred texts.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
My Favorite Murder – Cadaver recovery divers
https://myfavoritemurder.com/291-welcome-to-the-comfort-zone/
My Favorite Murder is the hit true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen
Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Since its inception in early 2016, the show
has broken download records and sparked an enthusiastic, interactive
“Murderino” fan base who come out in droves for their sold-out worldwide tours.
The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by Corinne
May Botz (not available within the JCLC, click
here to request through Interlibrary Loan.
The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death offers
readers an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of a master criminal
investigator. Frances Glessner Lee, a wealthy grandmother, founded the
Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard in 1936 and was later appointed captain
in the New Hampshire police. In the 1940s and 1950s she built dollhouse crime
scenes based on real cases in order to train detectives to assess visual
evidence. Still used in forensic training today, the eighteen Nutshell
dioramas, on a scale of 1:12, display an astounding level of detail: pencils
write, window shades move, whistles blow, and clues to the crimes are revealed
to those who study the scenes carefully.
18
Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of
Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb
Official biographer Bruce Goldfarb delves into Frances Glessner Lee's journey
from grandmother without a college degree to leading the scientific
investigation of unexpected death out of the dark confines of centuries-old
techniques and into the light of the modern day. Lee developed a system that
used the Nutshells dioramas to train law enforcement officers to investigate
violent crimes, and her methods are still used today.
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