Book review

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Unreliable Truth (I of IV)

Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory by Maureen Murdock Fact can exist without human intelligence but truth cannot. — Toni Morrison For a piece of writing to be called a memoir it must include self-reflection. Without it, the recollection of an incident or incidents lacks depth and cannot lead to transformation. Like any good piece…

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The “Women, Religion, & Society” papers (IV of IV)

Originally written in the late ’90s regarding the reading list of a truly fascinating anthropology class. The papers are extremely light — basically just some quick review and discussion questions. I include them here mostly because the books were excellent and well worth reading for thoughtful perspectives on women’s roles in a variety of religions….

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The “Women, Religion, & Society” papers (III of IV)

Originally written in the late ’90s regarding the reading list of a truly fascinating anthropology class. The papers are extremely light — basically just some quick review and discussion questions. I include them here mostly because the books were excellent and well worth reading for thoughtful perspectives on women’s roles in a variety of religions….

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The “Women, Religion, & Society” papers (II of IV)

Originally written in the late ’90s regarding the reading list of a truly fascinating anthropology class. The papers are extremely light — basically just some quick review and discussion questions. I include them here mostly because the books were excellent and well worth reading for thoughtful perspectives on women’s roles in a variety of religions….

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The “Women, Religion, & Society” papers (I of IV)

Originally written in the late ’90s regarding the reading list of a truly fascinating anthropology class. The papers are extremely light — basically just some quick review and discussion questions. I include them here mostly because the books were excellent and well worth reading for thoughtful perspectives on women’s roles in a variety of religions….

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A pentacle of urban fantasy reviews (IV of IV)

Amazon Ink I loved the basic premise of this story, which was that the Amazons of myth and legend still exist, hidden within our modern-day culture. Unfortunately, past that initial premise I found myself asking a ton of anthropologically based questions which were never answered — I think it was a case of me knowing…

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A pentacle of urban fantasy reviews (III of IV)

Norse Code The back of the book suggests the story is about the newly created Valkyrie named Mist, but this is not actually the case — it is more about the Norse deity Hermod, and Mist is mostly along for the ride. Further, I cannot say I enjoyed the author’s (extremely unsubtle) re-hashing of the…

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A pentacle of urban fantasy reviews (II of IV)

Touch of Evil This book was, interestingly enough, a free digital book from Tor which my friend had downloaded in mid-2008, and suggested I might enjoy if I wanted another urban fantasy. Checking on amazon, I find that the book was first published in 2006, and is the first of a series of three books….

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Papal Sin (III of III)

Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit Another critic I found on the web saw double standards in Wills’ book — a desire within Wills to dispense with ritual even as he promoted it. However, the critic’s examples of this which I read demonstrated a double standard only if the “Church” is equated to the current ritual-bound,…