A cheerful collection of paranormal phenomena, correct prophecies, alien encounters, and unlikely historical events.
A collection of wacky beliefs, incidents, and conspiracy theories that will amuse many readers.
Schreiber, co-host of the hit podcast No Such Thing as a Fish, assembles a selection of his more oddball interviews and adds a torrent of historical eccentrics and anecdotes. Skeptics will find good reason to gnash their teeth, and lovers of alternative facts will enjoy an embarrassment of riches. One fascinating story involves the work of neuroscientist John Lilly, who sought “to teach dolphins to speak the English language so perfectly that they would be given a chair at the United Nations to speak on behalf of all marine mammals.” Surprisingly, the chestnut about the faked Apollo landing is absent, but the astronauts themselves were apparently an offbeat bunch, deeply religious before or converted by the experience, when not preoccupied by the paranormal. The book is overpopulated with aliens, whether they were witnessed or were historical figures (Jesus may have been one). Stories of encountering ghosts or talking to the dead are almost too common to attract readers’ attention, but Schreiber collects a crowd of them. Billions of mildly interesting coincidences occur every day, and nearly every prediction of the future turns out to be wrong, but a few hit the mark. Schreiber delivers breathless accounts of many. The author portrays himself as a man of good sense partial to scientific evidence. He also knows that debunkers sell modestly, but outright zany authors and books often make the bestseller lists. He admits doubts about some particularly outlandish stories but otherwise confines his qualms to the occasional skeptical footnote or hint (“according to science”). Ghost hunters and conspiracy theorists will find plenty of red meat to chew on, whether Schreiber is discussing clairvoyance, “pyramid energy,” “the theory of the hollow earth,” or the idea that time travelers sank the Titanic, not an iceberg.
A cheerful collection of paranormal phenomena, correct prophecies, alien encounters, and unlikely historical events.Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9780063259195
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.
Two bestselling authors engage in an enlightening back-and-forth about Jewishness and antisemitism.
Acho, author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, and Tishby, author of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, discuss many of the searing issues for Jews today, delving into whether Jewishness is a religion, culture, ethnicity, or community—or all of the above. As Tishby points out, unlike in Christianity, one can be comfortably atheist and still be considered a Jew. She defines Judaism as a “big tent” religion with four main elements: religion, peoplehood, nationhood, and the idea of tikkun olam (“repairing the world through our actions”). She addresses candidly the hurtful stereotypes about Jews (that they are rich and powerful) that Acho grew up with in Dallas and how Jews internalize these antisemitic judgments. Moreover, Tishby notes, “it is literally impossible to be Jewish and not have any connection with Israel, and I’m not talking about borders or a dot on the map. Judaism…is an indigenous religion.” Acho wonders if one can legitimately criticize “Jewish people and their ideologies” without being antisemitic, and Tishby offers ways to check whether one’s criticism of Jews or Zionism is antisemitic or factually straightforward. The authors also touch on the deteriorating relationship between Black and Jewish Americans, despite their historically close alliance during the civil rights era. “As long as Jewish people get to benefit from appearing white while Black people have to suffer for being Black, there will always be resentment,” notes Acho. “Because the same thing that grants you all access—your skin color—is what grants us pain and punishment in perpetuity.” Finally, the authors underscore the importance of being mutual allies, and they conclude with helpful indexes on vernacular terms and customs.
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668057858
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Element
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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