by Whitley Strieber ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 5, 2012
Embellished, hyper-imaginative entertainment or a snapshot of the future? Readers will have to decide.
The author allegedly abducted by aliens in 1985 returns to further his case in this “true sequel.”
It’s been a quarter-century since prolific horror author Strieber (Hybrids, 2011, etc.) frighteningly comingled extraterrestrial science fiction with reality in his factual accounting of an alien visitation (Communion, 1987). His testimonial unleashed a flood of stories from others similarly terrified after encounters with “the grays.” In this cathartic update, the author engagingly discusses his troubled childhood fraught with tortuous medical maladies, and then details sinister events at the upstate New York cabin where the original event occurred, and where he’d since forged a “relationship with our visitors.” But Strieber’s attempt at both clarification and further extrapolation of the facts oscillates between compelling and confusing, which muddies both his intent and his credibility. He directs more skeptical readers toward his appraisals of anomalies like crop-circle formations, civilian abductions, UFOs, orbs, random animal mutilations and the bizarre ear implant he received in 1989 that still “occasionally turns on.” Strieber is a convincing if frenetic theorist, but much of what he calls “truth” remains speculative or has previously been debunked. The author does not know how these celestial beings got here or what they want, only that “they are in control.” While he provides a wealth of material to digest (for those with an open mind), what remains static is that the indefatigable Strieber is still sticking to his story, even with the daunting burden of proof yet to be realized.
Embellished, hyper-imaginative entertainment or a snapshot of the future? Readers will have to decide.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-58542-917-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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by Kerry Egan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2016
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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