Scandals are full of them. Gossip tries to root them out. There are so many stories of good people going bad it is almost a stereotype. It’s as old as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, if not older. Even so, it can still be a shocker to someone when a person of honor suddenly falls into some trap of vice. Maybe even more so if that someone is one’s self. Read more….. »
Experiencing the death of someone is always a tough time in a person’s life. Teenagers, oft touted as thinking they are invincible, and unshaped by life, have special struggles that tend to be overlooked, written off as adolescent angst. But death does have an impact on this cohort. With the twin tragedies of September 11 and the overseas wars on top of all the other circumstances of death, this issue seems timely and relevant. Author Helen Fitzgerald has written “The Grieving Teen”, which is a handbook for both grieving teens and those who are concerned about them.
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Grief is supposed to come in a neat package. You can’t believe something bad happened to you, you get ticked off, you wail at God to change things so they go back to normal, they don’t so you get sad, really sad, and when the sadness gets too boring you get over it and then it’s all good. Or at least, the so-called five stages of grief give the deceptive illusion it goes so smoothly. Read more….. »
Get into the groove and just enjoy the ride. Sounds like a great deal if you can get it. In fact, says psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, if you want to really feel good about your life, then getting into the flow is a real requirement. In his book, “Finding Flow”, he discusses what it means to get into the flow and what it will mean for your life if you do. Read more….. »
The condition of the developing world usually gets strange treatment in the media of the developed one. Read more….. »
There is no question that providing fresh water for a population that is growing in not only numbers but civilization is a pressing problem in the twenty-first century. What are the best means to provide this precious resource to the masses? Read more….. »
When discussing how the Arctic is in peril, it seems the polar bear gets all the attention. The predator of the North may be in trouble, but that is not the only thing that is at stake. Read more….. »
If you could live a healthful, active life into your nineties or even beyond, would you want to know how? Creating a formula for a successful trajectory into the later years seems more than taking a magic pill. Read more….. »
Money can’t buy us happiness, we are told. And yet, the culture of consumerism that we find ourselves residing in tells us otherwise. This sets up a contradiction that is bound to make most of us miserable. So says psychology professor Tim Kasser in his short book, “The High Price of Materialism”. Read more….. »
It is easy to live with the delusion that when something is discarded it somehow magically disappears from the world. Obviously it does not, but not many people are willing to delve into the next stage of the life of detritus. So, where does the trash go when we have divorced it from our lives? Heather Rogers explores this question in her book, “Gone Tomorrow”. Read more….. »
Many histories of the world have chronicled civilizations via religion, culture, and the physical environment in which a society creates itself. Steven Solomon has entered his contribution of grand world historical accounts with his new book, “Water”. As may be gleaned from the title, Solomon writes how human civilization has been affected by that most universal of substances, water. How civilizations have utilized it to grow their civilization, have managed it to help them survive, and what they have done when it runs scarce are just some of the ways that Solomon writes about the entwining relationship with this vital substance. Read more….. »
After the attacks on September 11 in New York and Washington, the United States was thrust into a direct confrontation with terrorism. What was the best way to combat terror? How terrorists were brought to justice, questioned and detained became a debate of the ethics involved in the vindication of those lost in the terrorist attack, as well as those who were killed in the military exercises afterwards in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read more….. »
With global warming in the public eye, a lot more attention has been given to the life that will be affected by it. Most experts believe that climate change is adversely affecting the polar regions more quickly than the rest of the world. Read more….. »
Anyone who thinks that slavery went the way of the nineteenth century will be disabused of that belief when reading “Slave: My True Story.” Read more….. »
If you want to travel to Greece, or are interested in the history of the Mediterranean country, “Travelers’ Tales: Greece” is a must read. In the style of Travelers’ Tales, which is not so much a guidebook as essays of narrative nonfiction, editors Larry Habegger, Sean O’Reilly and Brian Alexander have selected wonderful essays which give the character and history of Greece. The essays cover many of the islands, Crete, and the entire peninsula of the mainland. Some of the essays evoke the romantic notion of seaside paradise, while others give a darker tone. There are excerpts from well-known travel writers such as Paul Theroux as well as relative newcomers. Enjoy this compilation of Greek travel, whether as preparation for a trip, substantial but entertaining reading on a beach in Crete, or as armchair travel and amateur anthropology. “Travelers’ Tales: Greece” is a very enjoyable book indeed.