Book review

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“The End of Men: & the Rise of Women” by H. Rosin, part 1

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Required classes are over for me now — apparently I am now officially EBTD (Everything But The Dissertation) or ABD (All But Dissertation), depending on who you ask. Lucky me — as if I didn’t have enough alphabet soup after my name already! Let’s see, just off the top of my head, I can currently…

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Deepening thoughts on Griffin, women, & Nature

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I’ve had another professor write to me about the Ecofeminism independent study class I took last semester. Her comments were regarding my review of Griffin’s Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her. Thinking back now, I absolutely loved how Griffin connected women with nature. I remember quiet tears rolling down my cheeks as I read…

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Gaia’s Gift: Earth, Ourselves and God after Copernicus by Anne Primavesi

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This book was both a surprise and a delight; I very much enjoyed the reading. Gaia’s Gift is ordinarily presented as simply an analysis of Copernican heliocentric theory, as it applies to James Lovelock’s Gaia Theory, with a powerful refutation of both scientific and religious androcentrism. For example, the description from amazon.com suggests the book…

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“The Earth Path” by Starhawk

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I had to work my way slowly through Starhawk’s The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature; I find myself wishing this had been one of the first books assigned. Her description of finding a mostly-natural place for daily meditations is inspiring, especially the parts about using all one’s senses to drink…

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“Ending Violent Crime Cheaply & Permanently” by Medicine Story, pt. 2

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In a fascinating storytelling style, Medicine Story shares the startlingly successful program he and various other Native American elders created to assist incarcerated men. Initially it was just for Native Americans, and included women’s circles, but over the years (due to a wide variety of reasons) the men’s circles were the only ones that continued,…

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“Ending Violent Crime Cheaply & Permanently” by Medicine Story, pt. 1

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Ending Violent Crime Cheaply & Permanently: A Vision of A Society Free of Violence by Manitonquat (Medicine Story) is an astonishing little book — one I might have had trouble believing if I hadn’t already stumbled elsewhere across some of the statistics mentioned. It is self-published as well: surprisingly short but very concise and readable….

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“The Next American Revolution” by Boggs & Kurashige

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After reading The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs & Scott Kurashige, I confess my primary reaction was a frustrated, “Why is this not being better shared? Why must we keep re-inventing the wheel?” Upon reflection, I’d guess there must be some serious corporate (or socio-cultural?) interests involved, that…

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“Feminism & the Mastery of Nature” by Val Plumwood

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This is an astonishingly “chewy” book! I’m impressed, as well as greatly enjoying Plumwood’s fascinatingly erudite, logical — and yet, I feel, still thoughtfully spiritual — considerations on ecofeminism. She is, in fact, so logic-oriented that it was initially a bit disconcerting when her writing was also richly metaphorical. It’s always a pleasure to discover…

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“Unbowed: A Memoir” by Wangari Maathai, pt. 2

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Being a child of the US, I’ve only seen online, rather than face-to-face, the types of deeply vicious and misogynistic attacks which Maathai describes: [C]ertain people were jealous and wanted me to be taught a lesson and put in my place. They took pleasure in what they perceived as my comeuppance. The message was clear:…

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“Unbowed: A Memoir” by Wangari Maathai, pt. 1

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There is a phrase that’s apparently become popular on Twitter conversations where someone wishes to point out unconscious privilege: they state that the issue under discussion is an FWP, or “First World Problem.” Reading Wangari Maathai’s Unbowed: A Memoir, I found myself often reflecting with bleak amusement that all the issues I’ve ever faced —…