Just the thing to slip into your carry-on.
In which the ancients tell us to pack our bags and see the world.
Travel can cure prejudice and xenophobia, expand horizons, and teach us that the rest of the world doesn’t always see things as we do. In the case of Herodotus, the lead author of this lively anthology, a few local unpleasantries teach us that “custom is king.” The Persian shah Darius, Herodotus writes in his Histories, asked a group of Greeks how much money it would take for them to eat their dead parents, “and they replied that they wouldn’t do it at any price,” while a group of Indians, asked how much it would cost for them to refrain from doing so, “begged Darius not to blaspheme.” Today, presumably, feasting on one’s kinfolks is too rare to make the guidebooks, but some of the verities assembled here are truly eternal. Writes the Roman philosopher Seneca, in a passage that classicist Usher gamely titles “Wherever You Go, There You Are,” the heaviest baggage a traveler carries is mental. “You must lay down the mind’s burden,” Seneca counsels. “Until you do, nowhere will satisfy you.” Usher’s authors travel the known world over, and farther still. One, Hanno, sails beyond the Pillars of Hercules and heads down the west coast of Africa, while another, the Syrian Greek novelist Lucian, heads to the Moon, discovering there “men who ride on huge vultures, making use of the birds as horses.” Closer to home, Pausanias, a traveler who wandered around Greece on the back of a donkey, visits the sacred shrine of Delphi, which “marks the center of the whole earth” and thus obviously warrants a visit. One of numerous Princeton University Press titles in which ancient writers and thinkers offer advice to moderns, this volume celebrates curiosity—and, on that note, even has a few words about dead cats.
Just the thing to slip into your carry-on.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9780691259062
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 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.
