Matsumoto's retellings of Maya mythological stories are more like plot summaries than any effort to really capture the feel and emotional context of the myths and stories involved. If writing down an oral story robs it of life, she gives us only the bones, not even the full corpse.
Life in a Medieval City Review
We’re all supposed to be getting away from the stock, default medieval Europe-inspired fantasy settings, because they’ve become passe. It’s true such settings can be overused, but they are mostly overused because so many authors fail to utilize books like Life in a Medieval City.
The Book of Memory Review
Medieval scholars had a wiser perspective not just on memory, but on what we might today call “knowledge work” as a whole. In their view, simply reading a book was a useless exercise.
The History of English (Podcast) Recommendation
Begun in 2012, the podcast is a history podcast about the English language, although it takes dozens of episodes for the host, Stroud, to reach the advent of the oldest English dialects from the start of the proto-Indo-European language.
An Aristocracy of Critics Review
Much of the text reads as an almost blow-by-blow accounting of the committee’s work. It somehow contrives to be exceptionally focused on its topic, replete with specifics and thorough research, and simultaneously lacking in detail.
The Discarded Image Review
It is about informing our understanding of our modern world, of the ideas we continue to echo, and of the assumptions which we make without questioning, without realizing they are assumptions at all, so fundamental are they to how we view the world.
A Story as Sharp as a Knife Review
The book spends more time on Bringhurst’s analysis, philosophizing, and linguistic and cultural musings than it does actually presenting Haida stories.
American Catholic Review
Perhaps of the greatest interest in American Catholic is the acknowledgement of some of the foundations, largely from the political and cultural movements of the 1960s, of the modern tensions between establishment and exercise.
The Healing Hand Review
The Healing Hand is a fantastic piece of nonfiction which I think anyone could find interest in, but it should be required reading for anyone writing about wounds in a historical (or secondary world historical) context.
The Light Ages Review
We continue to use insights developed during the middle ages, sometimes without even realizing it. If Falk spent more time examining ideas like that, rather than diverting into historical fiction, The Light Ages would be a far stronger book.
IGC Publishing 