This story of personal growth and spiritual exploration, Jett’s debut, is part memoir and part exploration of The Urantia Book, a large religious text that explains a variety of subjects such as the origins of Earth, the nature of evolution and the life of Jesus Christ.
Jett’s book begins with Urantia views on the background of intelligent life on Earth: “500,000 years ago…Lucifer, the System Sovereign of Satania, gave orders to his first lieutenant, Satan, to assign a Planetary Prince to be dispatched to the primitive peoples of Earth.” From there, the book goes on to explain complex topics such as evolution and the afterlife, with a particular focus on the life of Jesus Christ. Following Jesus’ life from his childhood through his Crucifixion and Resurrection, the story is largely a familiar one, though several distinctions are made, including references to Jesus’ contact with other beings: “Before traveling to the city, Jesus was contacted by the Planetary Overseers to ascend the mountain to attend a celestial conference regarding universe matters as they pertained to his bestowal on earth.” Turning from Jesus’ life to the author’s, the book details Jett’s life of constant change, as she lived mostly in Hawaii in the 1970s and experienced a variety of relationships and life paths while consistently exploring The Urantia Book. Dense and surprising at times for readers unfamiliar with The Urantia Book, the concepts here become more grounded when the author explains her own life. Detailing many of the real-world struggles of the Urantia community—many involving copyrights and the complications arising from a text that is purported to come from celestial beings—this book ultimately succeeds in explaining the human side of what may seem to many to be a strange, obscure belief system. Some of the Urantia community’s struggles and Jett’s world travels are less than invigorating—e.g., the author’s impression of Sydney, Australia: “To me it seemed a blend of the best of New Zealand and the best of the U.S., at the same time truly Australian.” Nevertheless, the book offers an accessible introduction to any reader interested in The Urantia Book.
Dense at times but a worthwhile primer for a lesser-known belief system.
Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 565
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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