An elegant and thoughtful book on human wisdom hampered by some omissions.
A debut work turns to ancient wisdom for guidance on humanity’s future.
An environmental geologist, Borden has become increasingly dismayed with the “void in modern culture” that replaces the “philosophical wisdom of our ancestors” with “shallow ideas.” A flourishing future for people, he suggests, will not exist by divorcing themselves from the past but by following the “universal and applicable” ideals conveyed by humanity’s greatest thinkers. After introductory materials defending the value of “the wisdom of great historical figures,” the book is divided into two main sections, the first of which provides concise biographies of 18 “sages” identified by the author as philosophers worth following in the modern age, spanning from Ptah-Hotep of Egypt’s Old Kingdom in 2400 B.C.E. to Gandhi of the 20th century. Though the lives of nearly all the men and women surveyed did not overlap, Borden emphasizes a cohesiveness in their teachings that focuses on their “respect for what is divine…on the Earth, and in life” rather than the theological differences in their approaches to God (or gods). The volume’s second half distills quotations from the 18 sages into maxims that are divided thematically into nearly 70 chapters whose topics range from “Anger” and “Children” to “Possessions” and “Work-Life Balance.” Complemented by an ample assortment of maps, timelines, images of artworks, and historical photographs, this well-organized compendium of sagacity makes for an excellent coffee-table book. But the decision to ignore the “distinctive flaws” of the “great historic figures” in their biographies sometimes leads to unsettling narratives that, for instance, ignore Winston Churchill’s support of imperial conquests or paint George Washington as a benevolent owner of enslaved people. Moreover, though the work is intentionally diverse in its chronology, men make up a disproportionate number of its sages, with only Queen Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great representing the views of women. Similarly, while the book does an admirable job of downplaying Western figures with its considerable and varied inclusion of Asian and Middle Eastern thinkers, not a single sage from sub-Saharan African or pre-Columbian American civilizations appears.
An elegant and thoughtful book on human wisdom hampered by some omissions.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-95-004323-1
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Archangel Ink
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
