Jane Merryman

a fish trapped inside the wind*

Archive for the 'Mini Book Reviews' Category

Where the Wind Lives

Posted: Friday, February 16th, 2007 @ 4:25 pm in Mini Book Reviews | Comments Off

Zwinger, Ann H., and Beatrice E. Willard. Land Above the Trees, A Guide to American Alpine Tundra. The University of Arizona Press, 1972.
 
The land above the trees is a harsh land. Mostly rock—boulders, talus, scree, pebbles, grit. The sun is merciless; even shadows hide from it. The wind lives here, close to the thunder that […]

Found in Translation

Posted: Friday, February 16th, 2007 @ 1:08 pm in Mini Book Reviews | Comments Off

Calvino, Italo. The Road to San Giovanni. Translated from the Italian by Tim Parks. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.
 
I tend to stay away from translated books, even though I know my life would be enriched by reading fiction, poetry, and other works not originally written in English. But I dread translations. Translators, even good ones, […]

The Bird Man

Posted: Friday, February 16th, 2007 @ 1:04 pm in Mini Book Reviews | Comments Off

 
Bolen, Jean Shinoda. The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and the Self. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1979.
         At the night market of Kowloon, in a corner near the jade sellers, a crowd perpetually gathers around the bird man. You pay him a Hong Kong dollar, then point to one of six tiny bamboo cages stacked on […]