A highly readable account of extraordinary visitations.
Papagapitos (Artemis Bound, 2001), in this memoir, claims to have had encounters with aliens over the course of two decades.
In 1951, at the age of 4, the author states, she was “carried to a beautiful ship surrounded by bright, white light in the desert” of Arizona. She goes on to say that she met alien beings—and that it would not be the last time. However, this book doesn’t contain sinister accounts of alien abduction; indeed, the author maintains that the beings that visited her were always friendly and she “thrived on the visitations.” That said, the aftermath of these encounters still created some trouble in her life, including unexplained nosebleeds and apparent evidence of surgery on her ovary—things that she says that doctors often couldn’t explain. Although the author says that she knew not to worry, her mother found these issues alarming. Even so, Papagapitos’ own stories of aliens are enthusiastically positive; they were her titular “Bright Friends,” and, in her view, they were simply conducting some sort of experiment on her—one that wasn’t meant to be hostile. Indeed, in later years, she says, she would proactively drive out into the desert to meet them. This is an earnestly told tale that effectively interweaves family history, poems, and the author’s own drawings. Some of the more personal details, such as the story of the Papagapitos’ parents coming to America, help to provide readers with a clear image of the author, despite her claims, which most will find hard to believe; they include the far-fetched idea that “some day inter-planetary stock markets will be trading DNA commodities as routinely as they do ‘gold and silver’ shares today.” The author concludes with the hope that she will get to see “an official worldwide acknowledgement of UFOs and alien visitors.”
A highly readable account of extraordinary visitations.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5043-6872-8
Page Count: 242
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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