Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York
by Barbara Weisberg
A 19th Century Setting, Yet Contemporary Feel (1/11/2024)
Barbara Weisberg has given the world another fine book. Even in light of the unfolding of this true tale of a tempestuous union, with all its details, she manages to keep us engaged through all the passions and the circumstances that both bind and divide a marriage and a family. The story may be centered within privileged New York society in the 1860's, yet STRONG PASSIONS comes along when marriage, sexuality, and gender seem front and center, even in these times, both legally and within the court of public opinion.
Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe
by Carl Safina
A wise and inciteful book! (10/4/2023)
Clearly, Carl Safina is a master teacher, touching on so many crucial and relevant issues with the premise of a couple saving an owlet, and all that entailed. In the end, Safina teaches us about the tricky business of nurturing, of saving, and the pain of letting go. Added to the lessons was the cultural wisdom of the Indigenous communities, as well as a range of spiritual theologies, and the classical philosophers such as Descartes and Plato, whose words helped to shape our perception of caring for our universe and for our fellow animals. At times, Safina veers towards love of human animals, as well, such as the touching chapter about his uncle.
Some readers may feel the book loses some focus during the philosophical transitions interludes as Alfie matures, but the book pierces to the core of what I came away with as it's urgent message: that nature must remain, and that the absence of it will be what, ultimately, does us in. Safina's just does this telling in a way that few environmentally-themed books attempt. I found myself going back again and again to the Algonquian story about the grandfather who took his grandson to the lake and gave him a stick to "stir up the water". After the child happily stirred up the water and mud and sand and leaves into a cloudy swirl, the boy was instructed "to put everything back as before". Such an incredible analogy, about the challenge of reversing what we've made of this earth, is what I will carry with me for quite a while.
I am thankful for having had the chance to read "Alfie & Me". Simply put, it invites us all to do even one thing, to treat one another with kindness, to save this world.
