An island of illusions
352938
This is a really good book and the best part is "no bad language". I loved the mystery and did not have this one figured out. Very good  reading!
2450334
This book takes place partly on Mt. Desert Island in Maine. It tells the story of two people, through different parts of their life times until they end up together. There are parallels and differences and at times you, the reader, wonder where you are. I think this is is not the fault of the writer, but instead is done on purpose.

The book ends and you are left with your imagination.

I wanted to read the book all over again.
3224320
In 1976, Mahony receives a picture with an inscription on the back explaining his mother came from a small town in Ireland.  He, himself, had grown up in orphanages, never knowing if he was abandoned intentionally or by accident.  With his new information, he sets out to learn more about his past and hopefully find answers to his lifelong questions.  What he finds instead is a town steeped in mystery, ghosts and the timelessness that only Ireland can provide. This is a wonderful book, written with an eye towards the magical and mysterious;  both at work as Mahony grapples with his own questions while awakening the town's not-so-fond memories of his mother 26 years earlier.  The author has an amazing talent that cannot be overstated.  I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
4534429
H.G. Wells' fantastic imagination is readily apparent within his visionary books such as The Time Machine and The Invisible Man, however I consider The Island of Dr. Moreau to be his greatest work in this regards. In less than 200 pages, Wells' manages to trap the reader within the mind of an uninvited "guest" on a remote island strewn with subhuman creatures, ghastly experiments, and a raving mad scientist.

This is simply an amazing story, made even more so given its 1896 publication date.
4596856
This is one amazing book. An incredible effort in locating, getting into, and then photographing these hidden places. Each chapter is a like a joyful hop from island to island and from garden to garden. An amazing experience. Technically, I have never seen a book where the photographs looked as vivid and alive. The authors must have spent weeks in selecting and preparing each picture for print. The bilingual text is a help as well. Looking forward to more from these authors.
2007147
I always call the Dingle Peninsula my favorite place on earth, and several years back I took a brief day trip to the Great Blasket Island. I fell in love with the island's beauty, and the island's story as captured by its own storytellers. Kanigel does an astonishing job painting a picture of island  life and why it was so captivating to its visitors. His research is impressive, and his writing is lyrical and deft. I found to be most interesting the parts about the islanders themselves, but the stories of the visitors also greatly illuminated the life of the island. Although I knew it was coming I felt greatly saddened when the last of the islanders left for the mainland.
187188
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and John Nelson's Pikipikilauifi took both of them and many more.  Born on an island under the sea, she's taken by curious warriors on an enchanting journey of magic, myth, and mystery.  What is real and unreal is up to the reader to decide; you will be guessing throughout.  The action fantasy Disney release of Moana later this year will provide added interest in Mr. Nelson's heroine, but until then journey off with Pikipikilauifi.  The book will make an enjoyable summer read.
1054289
Imagine you have placed a psychic filter on your senses and traveled thru the world taking in the minutia of daily life. What you would see is a world where every landscape, every situation, every fragment of life exists in a web of previously unrealized interconnections. The Mothman's Photographer is a glimpse of such a world. This collection is really quite admirable in its relentless, single-mindedly driven unearthing of the psychic underbelly of the world we live in. Taken as a whole (and reading the notes and descriptions provided by the artist) the collected images meld into a collage emoting one man's quest for meaning in the seeming detritus of our world.

Considering the natural limitations of the book format (size), the images evocatively weave together a chronicle of related artifacts and observances from the artist's life and travels. I look forward to seeing these images presented in a gallery setting where I can imagine the power of the works would be even further enhanced by larger image formats and room to relate the images in smaller and intimately evocative groupings. I'm sure such an on site treatment would take the strength of the book's presentation and render the artist's vision in an even more oblique and involving meditation on our world of shadows.

This book sneaks up on you and encircles you in the potent evocations of this singular artist's vision. We can all look forward to enveloping ourselves in these images in the future.
3962023
Take a modern day journalist, toss in some intrigue and stir it up with some paranormal time travel and what you get is&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Island-of-Secrets/dp/B004DNWQ98/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Island of Secrets</a>.

This is one of those books that will surprise you at every turn.  A woman who is pretending to be someone else on a mysterious island where nothing is as it seems.  Everyone has secrets, including the island.  Will anyone survive when the secrets are revealed?

You should really read this book....I guarantee you will have an entertaining visit to the Island of Secrets.
3283300
The Writing of Stones is a fascinating meditation on the human imagination contemplating the interior of stones. Caillois examines patterns that are revealed by polishing sections of minerals such as agate, jasper, and onyx. He considers the impact these configurations have had upon the human imagination throughout history and he reviews man's attempt to categorize and explain them.

Marguerite Yourcenar [in her introduction] points out that "there had taken place in [his] intellect the equivalent of the Copernican revolution: man was no longer the center of the universe, except in the sense that the center is everywhere; man, like all the rest, was a cog in the whole system of turning wheels. Quite early on, having entered 'the forbidden laboratories,' Caillois applied himself to the study of diagonals which link the species, of the recurrent phenomena that act, so to speak as a matrix of forms." Caillois found the presence throughout the universe of a sensibility and a consciousness analogous to our own. One way which this consciousness expresses itself is in a "natural fantasy" that is evident in the pictures found in stones. Man's own aesthetic may then be no more than one of many manifestations of an all-pervasive aesthetic that reveals itself in the natural world.

Caillois also studies the artist's collaboration with nature in the modification of these picture stones. By cutting and framing a picture found or by elaborating the pattern in the stone, the artist admits that nature, with or without an artist, can produce shapes and colors that are works of art. Caillois reminds us that "nature not only provided a stock of models but also directly created works worthy of admiration--works capable of competing on equal terms with human achievements without having to pass through the alchemy of human art."

Where, then, do these speculations lead us? By turning on its head, as it were, the quintessential modern dilemma--whether expressed as a dualism of mind and body, as an antithesis of matter and soul, or as the separation of subject and object--Caillois carries the reader beyond the usual arguments about what is and what is not human.

The Writing of Stones will interest all who wish to understand what can be learned about the world and its slow and patient formation. Archeologists, gemologists, sculptors, students of art, aesthetics, history, literature, and philosophy will confront questions that they have felt but have not possessed, so far, a way to study in new ways. Here Caillois offers many fresh approaches that we have yet to resolve.
4939351
The book "Dream-Hunters of Corsica" is a rather specialized but well-written and easy to read account of the esoteric traditions based in Corsica, which is now a province of France. Although we all may know that that's where Napoleon Bonaparte came from, I don't think many can claim any detailed knowledge about the island, and more specifically about the occult that this island nurtures on its soil. The mazzeri, or the dream-hunters are unlike the dreamers in the Eurasian or Mesoamerican traditions, they are not "dreamers-for-hire" nor are they part of any specialized organization. They simply complete "the call" and you would have to read the book to find out more about it.

The history of the island has a lot to do with its special topography, which includes the marshes and the mountains, as well as low forests, the macchias. However, some, like mountains are considered favorable for human inhabitants, while others, such as the streams and the rivers are not considered a good thing, and are generally considered to inhabit evil influences. They are present in the world of the dream-hunters who sometimes complete their assignments near them, or other times receive specialized messages about someone's death, which is the only professional direction of the mazzeris' "work".

Writer masterfully relates Catholicism that has become the dominant religion of the island to the independent attitude of its inhabitants. Although, it is present in the people's life, apparently deep down inside, the Corsican psyche is still susceptive towards the ancient winds that are brashly blowing through that rough terrain. Corsicans live out their past in the present, and while the future is dim, the past is clear, and they, for the most part are not looking to abandon it. The cult, if I could call it that way, of the dream-hunters is not as powerful now, as it was say in the end of the 19th century, but there are still people around who are walking at night, and depending on which way our civilization will turn, it will either come back to its fully-fledged ancient form, or will almost disappear all together. I sure hope it doesn't as the world would be at a loss without this very rare, and exquisite connection to the other civilization which dominated the island, and perhaps even the bigger part of the Earth many a millennia ago, of which the mazzeri could be a remnant.
3113264
This book, ninth in the "Mysteries in Our National Parks" series, is set in the Virgin Islands National Park.  The authors deftly weave information about endangered coral reefs and hawksbill turtles into the story, as well as Caribbean culture and history: Jumbies (evil spirits), basket-making, sugar plantations, the 1733 slave revolt, Haitian Macoutes, and the smuggling of illegal aliens from Haiti to the Virgin Islands.  A map of the park and an afterword by a marine ecologist are included.  The story's politically-correct ending is somewhat unbelievable, but the story will appeal to middle grade students reading at approximately fifth-grade level.
4812826
A rare and wonderful insight into an island community, caught in the struggle between modernity and "the old ways". Naturally, there is an exodus of young people seeking experiences, and hoping to escape the claustrophobia of an insular way of life.  Written with the perception and  talent of a poetic author,  it is kindly, incisive, humorous, gentle and a totally beautiful read.  Don't miss it.  (I read it first about 15 years ago, and was fortunte enough to find a copy - through Amazon - recently).  It's a jewel  .
3918289
Italo Calvinos INVISIBLE CITIES is phantasmagorical, fantastical, and ultimately a very puzzling read.  Marco Polo and Kublai Khan embark on a dense, layered discussion about the cities within Kublais sclerotic empire that Polo has visited.  What follows is one of the strangest and loftiest experiences Ive had with fiction.  Aside from the Khan/Polo relationship, there is no plot in any normal sense.  Its more of a prose poem than anything.

INVISIBLE CITIES is a challenging experience.  Each very short story describes a fictive city and its inhabitants.  Symbolism and metaphor dovetail with themes of linguistics, semiotics, and nearly everything that cities represent and breed.

While a few of the cities stuck with me, I never felt my inner world rearranged the way I wanted it to be.  I used the word puzzling at the beginning of this review, and I feel thats the operative word when it comes to INVISIBLE CITIES: everything feels like a puzzle.  Some of the puzzles I could solve, others left me cold and I moved on.  The writing is excellent - the opening passage describing the state of Kublais empire is vibrant and evocative.  This is a book Ill likely return to again as I seek out meaning that was lost during my first reading.

[I have a sneaking suspicion this book would earn five stars and beyond if it were paired with some cannabis.  Its that kind of book.  Id finish a story and then, in the back of my head, Id hear Jeff Spicoli cry out Whoa! Dude! Please note, I am not a physician, so Im not recommending this combination of Italian fabulist literature and psychotropic medication, but I do think it should be stated]
3321333
Artwork offers impressive, unusual perspectives which surprise the eye.
3600506
This book makes you long for the Hebrides Islands and being part of a close knit community. The stories are interesting and the look at life on an island makes one realize that such a life is not for the faint of heart. Although much of the book shows how welcoming people can be in a small village, especially when the newcomers have needed skills, one of the stories illustrates quite well how well secrets can be kept. These people are not busybodies unless you invite them in, but they are there for each other. If you are looking for complex medical cases or medical miracles, look elsewhere. This is medicine in the early 1970's, and on a somewhat isolated area. Things that we take for granted simply don't exist on the island or even on the mainland.

The epilogue talks of the author going back to the island someday and recounts the things she would like to see again. Some of these are no doubt still there but others likely still exist only in her memory. All in all, a satisfying, easy read.
401717
interesting theories.  The last book I read was Jonathan Livingston Seagull.  Reading original Illusions now