California Books

This book gives a fascinating glimpse into the minds and hearts of newspaper reporters. The section of how reporters covered the Black Dahlia murder case was interesting, if not a little disturbing. Very thorough look at L.A. and its newspapers.

Rob Wagner has performed a great and long overdue service. He has chronicled the history of L.A. newspapers in the first half of the 20th Century---a "Front Page" era when L.A. had a half-dozen dailies, with many editions per day. Wagner is to be particularly congratulated for recounting the rise and fall of the original L.A. Daily News, a peach-colored oversized tabloid much revered in its day. The DN, at one time the circulation leader, hosted an array of great writers, from the legendary Matt Weinstock (THE L.A. columnist of his day)to Jack Smith and Jim Murray. The book is painstaking in its research of circulation figures and union struggles---spiced with rollicking anecdotes about great newspapermen (and women) of the day. This is the definitive history of Los Angeles newspapers.

Red Ink, White Lies is an impressive and informative chronicle of the successes and failures of six Los Angeles daily newspapers during an era of the city's fiercest newspaper wars and competitions. Author Rob Wagner (who is a veteran of more than 26 years as a reporter, city editor, managing editor, and night editor) interviewed dozens of newsman and women, resulting in a vivid and candid portrait of prewar and postwar newspaper reporters, including their lifestyle, ethics and professionalism. From celebrity journalism to mob era police corruption, reportage of ethnic minority communities and the "red-baiting" 50s, Red Ink, White Lies is a thoroughly fascinating, insightful contribution to the 20th century history of journalism.

I love to read about Los Angeles history, and I thought I've studied just about everything on this city. But this book just blew me away. It's a totaly different take on early 20th century Los Angeles told by the men and women who lived it and reported on for the city's daily newspapers. It is filled with anecdotal accounts of L.A.'s most sensational crimes, mobsters, and bad cops. It tells the history of the city not from the scholarly ivory tower but through the eyes of the newspaper reporter, editor, and photographer who witnessed these actual awesome events. A real wonderful read. It's well-sourced. I got a kick out of the who's who at the end of the book that lists and provides bios of nearly 200 L.A. journalists of the day.

AMAZING BOOK, IF YOU LOVE YOUR ANIMAL COMPANION OR ANY ANIMAL THIS IS A MUST READ

Having a better understanding of the role of our animal companions, as this book has given me is wonderful. Ms Smith has given me a never before insight that has lifted me into a whole other realm of love for animals everywhere. I recommend this book to anyone who has animals. Feel the power of love with each story told. Imagine, a mirror to help guide us through our lives, in an unexpected source. Excellent!

This is a fascinating book to read. Many people are curious to know how closely some humans can communicate with animals and Sharon Callahan seems to have a very special gift. Luckily for the reader, Deborah Demoss Smith has a special gift as a writer because she really makes this story come alive. The stories of animals and their people are great reading and will help you understand your animal better.

This moving account of how our animal friends become so interrelated with our lives also has a strong message: the power of love to conquer obsticals in our daily lives.

So not only is this a great read about some incredible stories between folks and their animals but a lesson on more gracious ways to live.

It comes highly recommended.

A lovely book, plenty of inspirational photography and sufficient detail to inspire the intended pool builder or professional. Coffee table interest

The photography is fabulous. Many of the pools were designed by the author, but this does not detract from the book. It is well balanced. The chapters include: the natural pool, lap pools, infinity edges, indoor pools, historical pools, among others.

Detailed analysis of a few each of several different types of pools: lap pools, "natural" pools, indoor pools, famous pools, etc., all in California. Not a construction manual, but full of details worth considering when designing a pool. A must for anyone considering getting a pool on a difficult or very special piece of land.

This excelent book is focused exclusively on design. Very inspiring and unique. Do not expect to find anything about maintenance, it is a book meant for designers. A must for landscape designers and architects.

I suppose this review may be a bit biased since I have been a Riata Girl for 32 years and am prominently featured in the book. The most impressive part of the book is not the photographs but the life lessons and philosophy skillfully articulated and paired with the physical activities of ranch life and western performance. Our founder, Tom Maier was a visionary and on the cutting edge of teaching and pairing life lessons and horsemanship for students young and old. Since his passing in 2002, I have continued to present the Riata program and up hold the teachings and life lessons found in "Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls, Life Lessons on the Back of a Horse"

All the Best,
Jennifer Welch Nicholson
Riata Ranch International

My niece loved the book and got it in time for her birthday!

Thanks!!!

This book trails one of the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls in her education about riding and horses. I had heard of the stunt team before and recently saw them featured in the 2004 Rose Parade on their Appaloosa horses but never really knew anything about them. After reading this book (suitable for anyone 10 and up I would say due to reading level) I have a hearty respect for the stunt team and their dedication to the advancement of horsemanship.

Although this is not a how-to book about riding, I think that it is a good addition to a horse or cowboy-lovers library because of its matter-of-fact exploration into what it takes to trully be a champion in horsemanship. Additionally, the story flows well and is very well illustrated with photos from Riata's heritage.

The story of Tom Maier and the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls is a remarkable one, and should be an inspiration to anyone, whether they're interested in horses or not. For years, Maier has worked with children and horses, and the Cowboy Girls are world reknowned. The girls who are part of his program excel in all aspects of thier lives, thanks to the training and discipline they learn as part of this team. The story is very well written, and the photos are lavish. This book would make a great gift for anyone interested in horses, western culture, or successful models for inspiring greatness in children.

I am like The Rice Sprout Song.Eileen chang is the greatest writer of China.

Another one of Eileen Chang's translations of her Chinese works, this is an excellent novel about China's farmers and the struggles they encounter as a result of Maoism in China. This is my second favorite novel of hers, behind Naked Earth. Unlike the latter, The Rice-Sprout Song is much easier to find, and now includes an excellent introduction by David Wang.

The Old Master who collected Chinese wisdom in Tao Te Ching some 2,500 years ago wrote pithily:
"The sage never has a mind of his own;
He considers the minds of the common people to be his mind."

Today, he would not change a word for the sage: the sheng-jen in Beijing. True, modern China, a colossus of 1.2 billion people, is fronted by Shanghai and other booming, skyscrapered, fiber-opticked, globally connected metropolises. But beyond the urban fronts, reality is 900 million peasants--75% of the total population--living a rural, feudal life with Marxist trappings. What gives the Beijing mandarin insomnia is not rhetorical exchanges with America like we saw earlier in 2001. No, it's much more the primal fear bad weather and bad crops might visit hunger upon the 900 million--if the peasants go hungry, the government goes down and chaos surely follows. Chaos, for the Chinese mind, being anathema (off the Tao, hindering wu-wei).

The Rice-Sprout Song by Eileen Chang (1920-95), first published in 1955, deftly evokes rural Chinese life in the early days of the Maoist Revolution. Though well known to Chinese readers everywhere, Chang's work has only recently been in print again for English readers. In 1998, three years after her death, the University of California reissued this novel and a companion work, The Rouge of the North.

Chang, a giant in Chinese literature, wrote and lived a self-proclaimed aesthetic of desolation, especially after immigrating to the United States in the mid-Fifties. A Garbo-esque recluse, Chang was found dead in a barren Hollywood, California, studio apartment. Her will asked that her body be "cremated instantly, the ashes scattered in any desolate spot, over a fairly wide area, if on land." If Chang, as she said, was haunted by thoughts of desolation, then The Rice-Sprout Song shows a corollary to her artistic hunger: Her writing transcends any simple, obvious political interpretation of her material. Neither pro-Mao nor anti-Mao, but a literary meditation on peasant lives caught up in the ironies of political will and human need when hunger stalks the countryside.

The Rice-Sprout Song gets underway with a common family event: a wedding. Gold Flower of T'an Village will marry Plenty Own Chou of neighboring Chou Village. This might not be a joyous occasion for Chang begins to summon the isolation and loneliness of village life: "Sunlight lay across the street like an old yellow dog, barring the way. The sun had grown old here." Yes, even that universal restorer of the spirit--the sun--can be menacing. That all is not right when the festive wedding occasion arrives is shown by note of the "inferior food" that of necessity is served. Big Uncle complains that he cannot see the rice in his bowl of watery gruel. This jho mush--anything but solid rice--becomes one thematic particular for hunger that haunts this novel.

If Chang were less an artist, the reader's easy-to-hate nemesis would be Comrade Wong, the kan pu of T'an Village, the local representative of the Party. For it is Comrade Wong's unenviable task to carry out a political action showing support for the People's Liberation Army in their fight on the Korean front: a gift the peasants cannot afford: half a pig and forty catties of rice cakes from each family. But before this leads to the tragic end to The Rice-Sprout Song, we follow, in flashback, Wong as he finds the love of his life, Shah Ming. He loses her in the vagaries of fighting for the PLA. When at last he sees her again, she waves from a window in the facade of a collapsed building on the battlefield. Inside the building, Wong sees only rubble and overhead, at the window, nothing. He knows his hallucination proved Shah Ming was saying good-bye from beyond. For Comrade Wong, fate gave him nothing but the Party.

We also see dramatic irony when Comrade Ku, the city intellectual, comes to live in T'an Village, to learn the ways of the peasants. His goal of a movie script about village life suffers from writer's block; he habitually sneaks off to another town to buy food to eat on the sly. And when Big Aunt, who spouts Communist rhetoric that is appallingly upbeat, breaks down in a fit of anger. She says they are all empty-bellied and she doesn't care if she is reported. And when Moon Scent, the wife of Gold Root, returns from working three years as a maid in Shanghai. A force to be reckoned with, Moon Scent, in an act of righteous anger, gives this tragedy its capstone.

Essential reading that shares the texture, the heritage, and the yearnings of nearly a billion of our fellow earthlings, search out this reissue of The Rice-Sprout Song. As one t'ai chi ch'uan teacher said, "Perfect doesn't exist. Near-perfect does." The Rice-Sprout Song is a "near-perfect" evocation of the common people in the timeless Middle Kingdom.

Rice Sprout Song is possibly the best work of literature I have ever read. It was first recommended to me as descriptive of the collectivization era shortly after the 1949 Revolution in China, a classic tale between the state and the individual. It is a spellbinding, troubling work, and is almost impossible to believe that it was Eileen Chang's first work in English. The language she uses is sparse, beautiful and conveys greatest impact after the last page is read, and the cover closed. It is more than an interesting story about conflict between the state and the individual. It is an unsettling story of physical starvation and the death of hope and love.

In an episode of Seinfeld, George makes a comment about physiotherapists, and I think professionals in general. He claims that "everyone's guy is the best". Certainly this can be true for many authors as well.

This is not the case here because I am not enamored with his other works. But in the Rise of Scientific Philosophy, Reichenbach brings you through questions and observations which need addressing. He begins his assault on poor Philosophy on page three, and continues through the book. He separates out the poetic philosophers, from the more tough minded philosophers that actually say something.

I don't think that I am exaggerating when I write: I don't believe someone can truly say they have some philosophical background without having read and digested the work contained with in Reichenbach's book.

But, it is not an easy read, and will take time. But the time taken is very much worth it.

Note: I must confess that I bought my copy of the book fully a year before actually reading it.

I read Reichenbach's Rise of Scientific Philosophy when I was a freshman in college, forty years ago. I have read many books over the years, but to this day I would say that this is the most influential book of my life. I started college as an ordinary Christian protestant. A philosophy course taught me about critical thinking. Then I started reading Reichenbach over Christmas vacation and I found it so fascinating that I couldn't put it down. I underlined a lot of passages. I added lots of exclamation points!!! By the time I was finished I was no longer a Christian. I was an atheist. Reichenbach makes it clear that you don't have to have religion to be a good, moral person. For a while I was a militant atheist, but I soon matured out of that. Still wanting something to belong to, I was a Humanist with a capital H for awhile. Then I joined an ultra-liberal Unitarian church that didn't require people to believe any doctrine, but which discussed all sorts of philosophical and religious views and emphasized the importance of freedom of speech and religion. Now, after much reading in psychology, anthropology and philisophy, I continue to be fascinated by the need for religion as a universal human characteristic. Nobody can deny the power of religious beliefs to affect human emotions and behavior, for both good and evil. But some people are capable of deeper, more critical thinking about religion. Some people have the strength to exist and thrive without a God, but with love for people, for human rights, and for the natural world. This book is for those people. ...

I am only half way through this AMAZING book, and the revelations are incredible. The first third is a history of philosophy and epistemology up until Kant, and shows you what true science is all about. This is a manifest for clear thought, if I've ever seen one, and I have... Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World". This book explains everything with reason and rationale, he has not yet gone into the metaphysic to explain anything. He doesn't expect the reader to go to another source, he explains it all in the book, says who he got it from, even what book. If you ever wanted to know what the scientific philosophy truly was you have to read this. It is not just about its rise, but explains WHAT it is, with that very important geneological information about how it came about. If you are religious, watch out. It will really shake your world, and you will understand why the highest percentage of agnostics is found in the intellectual, scientific fields that required the intellectual philosophic framework of science in order to be comprehended completely. EVERY SCIENCE STUDENT SHOULD READ THIS! Got to close up the computer lab, and happy reading.

Reichenbach pulls no punches. By the time he's finished, traditional, speculative philosophies are dead, buried and left without a headstone. (That these "undead" philosophies continue stalk the land, well, that's another story...)

According to Reichenbach - and his logic is impeccable - while the rationalist philosophers painted their mystical canvases, the parallel development of science, and scientific method handed the empiricists the tools they needed to produce the first grounded philosophic view. The search for certainty had the classic philosophers barking up the wrong tree. And meanwhile, the exploration of the microscopic world, coupled with the creation of a new mathematical tool - statistics - bootstrapped the scientific community into a model of the universe that was not causal, but probabilistic.

And what of ethics? Just as there are no absolute answers to the physical world, Reichenbach leaves the moral bucket empty as well. Your ethics, he argues, are ultimately what you choose to posit for yourself.

There is much more, lurking in this dense and difficult book. Published in 1951 - two years prior to his death - this is a tour-de-force of a man who was a contemporary of Einstein, and a participant in the famed "Weiner Kreiss" (Vienna Circle) which included such mighty minds as Kurt Godel. (See my review of D. Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach...") Reichenbach was one hot potato, armed with superior weaponry, and ready to take on the world.

The tragedy of this pursuit of consistency, which is the trademark of the scientific view, is that it probably will never come to guide society at large. Empty as it is, it is unacceptable to the majorities, whom Reichenbach was certainly not writing to, and who have no working concept of the scientific method. Most people do not want to hear that there are no ultimate answers.

One very big problem I see with this philosophy lies not with its truthfulness, but in its usefulness. We humans have a tough situation all around. We have a state of awareness which far exceeds that of our animal brethren, but we are bound with all the other animal traits, including mortality. Therefore, since we became aware of our frailties, we have consistently sought a coping mechanism. The rationalist view offered some hope - be it a blatant lie - but scientific philosophy, alas, does not. In truth, it runs counter to any coping mechanism one might choose to create. It is certainly not a philosophy for the weak and sick. This is the largest difficulty I see with its acceptance. As correct as Reichenbach may be, how can we stomach sending our children into a world where there's no intrinsic good or bad? How can we prepare them? The search for an easy answer may be wrong - but it's easy! And like water, humanity will likely take the easy path. There are many sweeter smelling flowers out there. Why choose this one? The author could have spent some effort making this philosophy more appealing to the masses, but he chose not to.

So is it just for scientists after all? The implications of scientists, blindly searching for more empty knowledge, as pawns of the capitalists, guided by a philosophy of blind greed, creating new and better tools and toys for the rest of us, yields a rather uncomfortable image in my mind of the future of the human race. But, after all, it truly doesn't matter what we do. And even though the truth is sometimes a bit scary, I do like the concept of creating my own vision and values.

Now it's true that humans created both traditional and scientific philosophy, and however different their origins may have been, they are both here to stay. Are there any implications for the future of society in general? After reading this book, I would have to say: "Probably".

Very interesting book, but not for everyone.

Steve Edwards' book was my first purchase as an avid rockclimber when I visited Santa Barbara in January 2002 to prepare for my transfer to the area. Even before using the guide to locate the local climbing I enjoyed it immensely for the history and personal flavor given by the author.

There is much more to this book than a climbing guide. It is also a personal pilgrimage. Steve experienced a golden era in Santa Barbara climbing that he describes so vividly yet knows has passed forever. His is the passion of a personal life transition that we all go through and there is both joy and sadness in the writing. His obsessive intensity and endurance for physical training is mirrored by an affection for caffeine, alcohol and nicotine that make him such an interesting character. Steve is also a movie connoisseur from his early days running a video shop in the student quarter (Isla Vista) next to UCSB and he blends this knowledge with climb descriptions for occasional flashes of brilliant humor. And I should refrain from commenting on the Reverend Speefknarkle! Steve's defining picture is buffed and honed on "Pieces of You" atop the fantastic Pine Mountain boulderfield.

The book fulfills its primary purpose as a tool for guiding the climber in locating and selecting appealing routes exceptionally well. My copy is already dogeared and marked up with yellow highlights after just one season and it has never led me astray. Only rarely have I disagreed with the grades Steve gives for difficulty and quality but this is to be expected for these subjective ratings.

In summary, this book is a must buy for any climber interested in the Santa Barbara - Ventura region yet it has deeper appeal as literature capturing one man's personal journey through the 90's. How we all wish to turn back the hands of time!

I visit the Santa Barbara area often. So I picked up this book and thumbed through and became intrigued enough to buy it. Not for the rock climbing information (although the personality and names given to each trail had me captivated); instead I became curious to know this philosophical guide writer, Steve Edwards. Formerly thinking all rock climbers were a bunch of daredevils, this guide opened my eyes to the depth of committment it takes to be a rock climber, much less, write a guide! And their love of the earth is more honest and real than most armchair environmentalists. Reading this book definitely helped me grow. I hope you will read it and then go hug a rock - and maybe even a rockclimber!

I am the author of this title and didn't know where else to submit corrected info. The book is called: Rock Climbing: Santa Barbara & Ventura

220 pages

The guide features over one thousand routes and boulder problems along California's central coast from the outskirts of Los Angeles to the wine country north of Santa Barbara.

I have a jpg of the cover that I will send to you if you email me at: mannyvarjak@hotmail.com

Whether served up with a tray of Bombay Sapphire martinis (shaken, two olives) or a six-pack of ice cold Oly, let this text be your companion to some of the best and most scenic climbing areas in America! Looking for steep, gargantuan sport routes that make your tendons twitch just looking at 'em? How about classic sandstone slabs with holds so fragile they may break if you merely pass gas? Or maybe you're into divine boulderfields so vast that first ascents are possible until Jesus comes back to spot you? This book has it covered. Steve Edwards has done a first class job of directing you in entertaining fashion to the climbing, history, and lifestyle that Santa Barbara climbing is all about. Read it over coffee and cigarettes not just as a guide, but as fine literature. It's better than 'Atlas Shrugged', and shorter too!

I had heard of Charley Parkhurst, but would have thought a story about a stage driver who swears and spits, gets blinded by a horse, and dies of tongue cancer would be an unlikely choice for a children's book.

Wow! So beautifully done that if you don't know who Charley was, you'll be drawn in, and if you do, you won't find the foreshadowing obvious or cloying.

I humbly opine that the cryptic rhyme is superior to that of Shaw, although I very much enjoy the Sheep in a Jeep series.

The first day I had this book in my hands I read it out loud to 50 fourth graders (a group who normally consider themselves way too old for read alouds) and it was one of the best received books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I will now search for everything written by Verla Kay.

A picture book with a surprise twist even this grownup couldn't guess? You bet! I loved ROUGH, TOUGH CHARLEY! Verla Kay wrote an exciting biography on a lesser known character in history without ever letting on regarding the surprise at the end of the story. And Adam Gustavon's illustrations ROCK!!! It's exciting, rough, tough, and everything in between! I highly recommend this book for all families to enjoy together! MY kids LOVED it!!!

Verla Kay did a great job of entertaining and informing in Rough, Tough Charley. In a quick cryptic rhyme read I was finished with this book and smiling. I am not a historical fan but I am glad that I have added this book to my collection. She has made history fun. And the ending....I didn't expect. Clever, very clever!

In the old west, Orphan Charley lived and worked in stables from a very young age while carefully hiding a potentially life-changing secret. Though he was gruff and unusual, he was also punctual and in high demand as a stagecoach driver. Late in life, Charley ran a stage stop, voted in elections and joined a lodge. It wasn't until his death that it was discovered that Charley was really a woman.

Based on a true story, Rough, Tough Charley is a unique children's book to be treasured. Verla Kay's "cryptic rhyme" is reminiscent of Nancy E. Shaw of Sheep in a Jeep fame and Kay's folksy style will appeal to fans of Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books (Winters), yet she blends the styles to create something nearly exotic with flawless cadence. The illustrations perfectly complement the text to fashion a children's book for the ages. This author has won many awards for her work.

My three children give it six thumbs up. This mama agrees.

Armchair Interviews says: Both boys and girls will love the story of Charley who lived a life unlimited by gender in a time when gender mastered what a person could be.

This is one of the most moving and sensitive books I've ever read. I couldn't put it down. I shed many tears as I read of the hardships and tragedies Rose, Alex and their families endured. I rejoiced when things went well. The descriptions and the illustrations gave me an insight as to how life was in Szatmar and in Budapest. "Ruchele" is a wonderful tribute to a family and I shall never forget it. I have recommended it to all my friends. I think it is important for students of all ages to read it. This time in history should never be forgotten.

A review originally published in the Los Angeles Jewish Times, June 12-18, 1998.

Ruchele was the youngest daughter in an Orthodox Jewish family of ten children in Szatmar, Romania. Like may of her contemporaries, she saw her childhood cut short by the outbreak of WWII and the Holocaust. In this memoir Ruchele, now named Rose, recounts her difficult girlhood in pre-war Romania and nazi-occupied Hungary. She tells how she survived under a Gentile identity in Budapest, and tells in plain words the price that she and other survivors among her family and friends had to pay. Los Angeles author Rose Farkas gives an eye-witness account of the history that changed Europe-and the World-forever in "Ruchele". (Fithian Press, Santa Barbara)

Excerpted from a letter from Greti Herman, July 1998

I have read the book and found it fascinating and especially enjoyed the details and touching anecdotes about neighbors and family members which bring to life the lost world of orthodox Judaism in Eastern Europe. As an added feature, her book is wonderfully illustrated by "Ruchele's" husband, Alex. The drawings give us the feel of the old country where we grew up.

Bittersweet Memories by Berverly Grey

Excerpted from The Jewish Journal, Dec. 11, 1998

They came from the same small town of Szatmar, Romania. But throughout their childhood and throughout the dark days of World War II, Rozsi Katz and Sanyi Farkas never laid eye on one another. Sanyi spent much of the war in a forced labor camp; Rozsi led a precarious life in Budapest, posing as a Christian. They did not meet until 1945, when both were back in Szatmar, waiting for family members who would never arrive.

Married and living in the United States, Rozsi and Sanyi, who have become Rose and Alex, prefer to focus on the positive. Since their arrival from Communist Romania in 1965, they have parlayed hard work and quick wits into a comfortable living.

Given their special closeness, it's not surprising that Rose's recently-published memoir is actually a family affair. The book is called "Ruchele: Sixty Years from Szatmar to Los Angeles" (Fithian Press) after Rose's childhood nickname, and it traces her personal history from the crowded apartment in Szatmar to the spacious home in Bel Air with its million dollar view. Rose recounts her harrowing experiences in wartime Budapest (at one point she sought shelter within the Hungarian Nazi Party) and depicts the grim days of Romanian Communism in full detail.

Proceeds from the sale of "Ruchele" will go to Sinai Temple, and they hoe to supply copies to school libraries so that all children can learn from it.

Everything about this book is of the speaks of quality. The numerous color prints are excellent,and the paper and binding have a luxurious feel.

This is a combination art book, art history book, book about religion, and travel book. The different perspectives that are brought together in this one volume makes it absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in Haiti. I have read it cover to cover twice, and plan to read it a third time.

Only one chapter suffers from a dry, academic approach, that is the one on African Voudou, and may be safely skipped without missing much. That chapter, which contains no color prints, is much below the standards of the rest of the book.

I am surprised that I am the first person to write a review of this book, because it is really an incredibly well done volume.

The authors include anthropologists, folklorists, art historians, voudou practioneers, and artists. Yet the organization of the book makes each chapter fl! ! ow into the other. Well worth the $100.00 purchase price.

Don't be put off by the word "voudou". This is not a goofy "new age" kind of book that teaches you to do spells. It is high quality, facinating analysis of the art, culture and lif of Haiti.

This book is the catalogue of the recent New Orleans Vodou exhibit. I had studied comparative religions when I was in college, so the origins and practice of vodou are of natural interest to me, but I knew absolutely nothing about vodou until seeing this exhibit. Having lived in New Orleans, I had always thought that voodoo involved sticking pins into dolls to bring bad luck or disease to an enemy and other darkly occult rituals. Obviously, I didn't understand vodou at all, not even to know the correct spelling. The Hollywood film industry is responsible for a large part of our misconceptions about vodou.

I quote André Pierre, a contributor to the catalog: "The Vodou religion is before all other religions. It is more ancient than Christ. It is the first religion of the Earth. It is the creation of the World. The World is created by Vodou. The world is created by magic. The first magician is God who created people with his own hands from the dust of the Earth. People originated by magic in all countries of the world. No one lives of the flesh. Everyone lives of the spirit."

Spirits (lwa) of vodou define parts of the universal human experience. The spirits all have names and personalities, very much like Roman Catholic saints. Like Mexican altars to deceased ancestors for El Dia de los Muertos, these vodou spirits are offered their favorite things that represent these personalities. These items are placed on altars or sewn in sequins and beads on 36" x 36" flags in their honor. The spirits, like saints, are invoked to grant favors or assist in getting through a difficult time, or they are praised for their virtues and help.

My two favorite Vodou spirits are Ezili Freda and Ezili Danto. These cousins are diametrically opposed forces of femininity. Ezili Freda represents love and luxury, a city girl who has elegant fashion sense, likes sweet drinks and Virginia Slims cigarettes. She looks pretty, dressed in white lace with pink trim. Her day is Thursday. Mater Dolorosa represents Ezili Freda.

Her country cousin Ezili Danto is linked to protective motherhood. She dresses in bright red and blue calicos and drinks strong rum. Black pigs symbolize Ezili Danto and her favorite food is fried pork. She smokes unfiltered Camel cigarettes and her days are Tuesdays and Saturdays. Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Mater Salvatoris represent Ezili Danto.

This catalog allows a closer study of the brilliant sequin art associated with vodou. Spirit bottles, mirrors, jackets, vests, leggings and flags are covered with the flash of sequins that are anchored with seed beads. The symbols of the vodou spirits and their aspects are reflected by the designs made with the sequins and beads.

The Sacred Arts catalog is an obviously well researched and comprehensive look at Vodou. I highly recommend it for a broad range of people, from cultural anthropologists to decorative artists.

I've been obsessed with this book ever since I was introduced to it. I find it well-researched and unbiased. It provides an accurate glance into this unfairly shunned religion.

As the title says, if you are interested in Vodou-influenced Haitian art (in other words, most Haitian art), this is the definitive book on the subject. If you are not interested in the subject, the breathtaking illustrations are likely to make you a convert.

Consentino has compiled some excellent information to go along with the pictures, including interviews with Vodouisants and artists. He avoids the all-too-common sensationalist treatments of Haitian Vodou, and is never condescending or patronizing. He (correctly) treats Vodou like a world religion, and gives it due respect; his scholarship is impeccable both in art and comparative religion. Well worth the cost: this is a coffee table book you will cherish.