notanotherbookreview

With an economy of space and words, Rebecca Solnit's essays often encompass complex issues not easily defined. Her new book ,  NO STRAIGHT ROAD TAKES YOU THERE :  Essays for Uneven Terrain (Haymarket, 5/13) explores   the organic process of life and change.   The introduction ,  In Praise of the Indirect, the Unpredictable, the Immeasurable, the Slow, and the Subtle , explains the book's intended for "anyone considering history, power, change, and possibility." This is Solnit territory, where you meander through her visions, revisions, and conclusions--which felt "right," though could be a surprise. In "Tortoise at the Mayfly Party, she sums up the approach, "I try to see the long trajectory of events leading to the present moment, because it is this time to see change. To understand change is essential to understanding politics and culture, let alone trying to participate in it. The short view generates incomprehension and ineffectuality. Event...

  In  M agician and Fool,   the first book of Susan Wands' Arcana Oracle Series ,   the Golden Dawn organization's main purpose was to  acquire magical knowledge. The Victorian era of science and invention included magic as a field of exploration for educated young men. They wanted to harness the forces of nature through hidden knowledge. In reality, there was a historical Golden Dawn organization. And magical knowledge, in Wands' fantasy novels, creates forces that shapes the fates of historical characters, in theater, art, and politics.  For them to succeed in  Emperor and Hierophant , book three of the Arcana Oracle Series , they must go beyond their mastery of magical knowledge to become masters of themselves. In this novel, Pamela Coleman Smith is on tour with the Lyceum Theatre in Manchester, England, when she is suddenly kidnapped by a mysterious force and incarcerated in a stone prison. When she learns that Henry, the director and leading light...