Salida Book Review

The Terracotta Warriors: The Secret Codes of the Emperor's Army
TERRACOTTA WARRIORS: The Secret Codes of the Emperor's Army by Maurice Cotterell, HC from Bear & Co./Inner Traditions, ISBN 159143033X. When the first emperor of China, Ch'in Shi Huangdi, felt his death approaching, he decreed that he be entombed within a pyramid protected by an immortal army of terracotta warriors. In 1974, archeologists discovered the first of more than 8,000 life-size terracotta warriors near this emperor's pyramid tomb. Shi Huangdi was a keeper of the sacred solar science of the ancients. Using his unique understanding of how and why ancient civilizations encoded this extraordinary knowledge, Cotterell decodes the emperor's farewell message concealed in the terracotta warriors.

Nature's Way : Native Wisdom for Living in Balance with the Earth
NATURE'S WAY: Native Wisdom for Living in Balance with the Earth by Ed McGaa (Eagle Man), HC from HarperCollins, ISBN 0060514566. From the beloved author of Mother Earth Spirituality comes a new call to heed the warning signs from our planet. Eagle Man Ed McGaa tackles the traditions of the dominant society and deconstructs them by using the wisdom of Native belief systems. At the same time, McGaa illustrates the powerful lessons from Nature that surround us every day, offering a plan for living - one we can all follow in order to help heal our planet and ourselves.

The Chalice of Magdalene: The Search for the Cup That Held the Blood of Christ
CHALICE OF MAGDALENE: The Search for the Cup That Held the Blood of Christ by Graham Phillips, TPB from Bear & Co., ISBN 1591430380. The popular Arthur legends of the Middle Ages depict the Holy Grail as Christ's cup from the Last Supper. But a much earlier tradition claimed the Grail was the vessel used by Mary Magdalene to collect Christ's blood when he appeared to her after the resurrection. This book traces the holy relic known as the Marian Chalice from Christ's empty tomb to Rome, to Britain, to the forgotten attic where the treasure was found at last.

MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change
MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change, by MoveOn.org. TPB. With more than 2 million members, MoveOn is at the cutting edge of a new model for political activism. In their first-ever book, they take their message offline with MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change, in an effort to jumpstart an even broader civic dialogue and inspire all to become involved in our political process. With introductions by Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Gail Sheehy, David Fenton, and the MoveOn staff, MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country is a political call-to-action guide that includes 50 essays from MoveOn members across the country. Each essay is a compelling personal story with action items and resources. Simple ideas are illuminated, such as "Vote, No Matter What," about a dying man’s wish to cast a ballot, as are more dynamic actions, such as "Start a Petition," which chronicles a couple’s quest to protect endangered wolves in Alaska." For those who feel powerless or overwhelmed, angry or apathetic – or just want to do something, but don’t know how – MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country answers the question so many people are asking, "What can I do?"

The 50 Best Ways to Simplify Your Life: Proven Techniques for Achieving Lasting Balance
The 50 Best Ways to Simplify Your Life: Proven Techniques for Achieving Lasting Balance, by Patrick Fanning, Heather Garnos Mitchener, TPB. Many yearn to right the imbalance in their lives but hesitate to make what they think are radical changes often associated with true simplicity. However, as this book shows, the kind of simplicity that brings real happiness is not about complex principles but about evaluating one's thoughts and feelings and rebuilding one's life around personal truths. Using practical techniques that lead to real change, the authors help readers examine their values and prioritize their goals. Through a series of exercises ranging from simple tasks to soul-searching, the authors guide readers in finding a true center of focus between work and home, discipline and pleasure, relationship and solitude.

300 Handcrafted Soaps : Great Melt & Pour Projects
300 Handcrafted Soaps: Great Melt & Pour Projects, by Marie Browning, TPB. Soaps fragrant with cinnamon, "painted" with natural coloring, stamped or laminated, that fizz in the bath, and even have a written message. These 300 beautiful, easy-to-make soaps are gentle on the skin and a charming addition to bathroom décor. All use a simple melt and pour technique, and any craft, grocery, health food or drug store will have the supplies you need: a glycerin or coconut soap base, fragrances, additives (such as flowers and green tea), colorants (spices, dried herbs, cosmetic-grade color), and molds. What's really special are recipes for bee-shaped fruited honey bars; deliciously scented lemon sage scrub; a heart swirl with smaller, decorative soap pieces embedded inside; a French cameo; the leaf-shaped mountain therapy blend with gold luster powder; and many more.

The Dew Breaker
The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat. HC. From the universally acclaimed author of Breath, Eyes, Memory and Krik? Krak!, a brilliant, deeply moving work of fiction that explores the world of a “dew breaker”—a torturer—a man whose brutal crimes in the country of his birth lie hidden beneath his new American reality.We meet him late in his life. He is a quiet man, a husband and father, a hardworking barber, a kindly landlord to the men who live in a basement apartment in his home. He is a fixture in his Brooklyn neighborhood, recognizable by the terrifying scar on his face. As the book unfolds, moving seamlessly between Haiti in the 1960s and New York City today, we enter the lives of those around him: his devoted wife and rebellious daughter; his sometimes unsuspecting, sometimes apprehensive neighbors, tenants, and clients. And we meet some of his victims.In the book’s powerful denouement, we return to the Haiti of the dew breaker’s past, to his last, desperate act of violence, and to his first encounter with the woman who will offer him a form of redemption—albeit imperfect—that will change him forever.The Dew Breaker is a book of interconnected lives—a book of love, remorse, and hope; of rebellions both personal and political; of the compromises we often make in order to move beyond the most intimate brushes with history. Unforgettable, deeply resonant, The Dew Breaker proves once more that in Edwidge Danticat we have a major American writer.

Mythic Worlds, Modern Words : On the Art of James Joyce
MYTHIC WORLDS, MODERN WORDS: On the Art of James Joyce by Joseph Campbell, edited by Edmund L. Epstein, HC from New World Library, ISBN 1577314069. In 1927, Joseph Campbell went to Paris to study medieval philology and encountered James Joyce's recently published Ulysses - "and that was almost the end of my interest in medieval philology," he later recalled. Campbell became one of the great Joyce scholars, applying the methods of psychology, anthropology and comparative religion to Joyce's experimental language, which stimulated his wide-ranging study of world mythology in turn. Epstein has arranged Campbell's writings and talks on Joyce as running commentary on Joyce's three great novels.