Category Archives: Books

Ekkehart Malotki’s Kokopelli: The Making of an Icon

Kokopelli, the humpbacked, enormous-phallused iconic flute player of the American Southwest, has become something of a pop culture phenomenon in recent decades. I’ve eaten at restaurants called Kokopelli’s, seen jewelry and collectibles made in his image, and even had a … Continue reading

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Ed Cray’s The Erotic Muse: American Bawdy Songs

Brendan Foreman wrote this review. Anyone who remembers anything of their childhood will recall how important those dirty words and dirty jokes were to their very existence. Without the ability to transgress society’s boundaries simply by uttering a phrase like … Continue reading

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John Berger’s Into Their Labours

‘My people are the poor ones their country made of stones Their wealth is in persistance, in stories and in bones… – Oysterband, “One Green Hill” Between 1979, when he wrote Pig Earth, the first volume of what was to … Continue reading

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Stephen Baxter’s Silverhair

Eric Eller wrote this review. How is the world viewed through nonhuman eyes? Authors have looked at the world from the perspective of animals since at least as long ago as Aesop, often with a lesson to tell us about … Continue reading

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Ronald Reichertz’s The Making of the Alice Books: Lewis Carroll’s Uses of Earlier Children’s Literature

Thomas Wiloch wrote this review. What inspired Lewis Carroll to write his classic tales about that intrepid English girl, Alice? Contemporary readers may think his stories sprang full-blown from his brow in Zeus-like fashion. Others may focus their attention on … Continue reading

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Fred Saberhagen’s Ariadne’s Web: Book of the Gods Volume II

Naomi de Bruyn wrote this review. I’ve been an admirer of Mr. Saberhagen’s for almost sixteen years, ever since I was first introduced to his Swords series. Fred’s skill at creating an entertaining and wonderful tale has only sharpened over … Continue reading

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Mary Norton’s Bed-Knob and Broomstick

Irene J. Henry penned this review. This reprint of two short children’s novels (The Magic Bed-Knob and Bonfires and Broomsticks) was a favorite of my grade-school contemporaries, but for some reason I never read it then. I recall my friends … Continue reading

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Allison Thompson’s Lighting the Fire: Elsie J. Oxenham, The Abbey  Girls, and the English Folk Dance Revival

Allison Thompson, a Pennsylvania-based writer, musician and dancer, has written a sharp little booklet that adds an interesting bit to the history of English country dance and its American cousin, contra dance.English country dance as it is known today came … Continue reading

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Shane K. Bernard’s Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues

I didn’t think I knew what swamp pop was. Chances are you aren’t familiar with the term either. But if you are a member of the Baby Boom generation as I am, or if you’ve ever listened to “oldies” radio, … Continue reading

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Manuel Peña’s The Mexican-American Orquesta

Mexican American music has its roots in the history of the American Southwest, which was born in the 1840s when the U.S. won the territory in the Mexican-American war. Suddenly, people whose families had been citizens of New Spain and … Continue reading

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