This one has taken me forever to come out with. To be honest, I contemplated stopping this whole ‘book report blog” thing entirely. But, I love reading, and I love sharing what I’ve read with others, so I will continue with these simple posts from time to time.
THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER WORKBOOK
By Dave Ramsey
This one is all about “financial fitness”. That’s actually a metaphor that the author makes quite often throughout the book, and it really resonated with me. Just like training is all about habits and exercises that compound into major gains over time, Ramsey’s workbook is full of practical activities that can help you better understand and master your finances. Why is this important to your overall health? For all the obvious reasons (food, clothing, shelter), and the slightly less-obvious, like calm and peace of mind.
BUILDERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST
By Lloyd Kahn
In 1973, Kahn’s “Shelter” book revolutionized the world of natural builders. 30 years later, he went on the road with a camera, visiting builders along the West Coast inspired by his work. The result is a smorgasbord of gorgeous photos of the most wildly artistic natural buildings. The idea is to create human habitations in harmony with their environments and pleasing to our aesthetic sensibilities, comfortable to the body, inspiring to the mind, and healing to the spirit.
I first discovered this book as a gift for an architect friend because it featured his cousin SunRay Kelley. Then, many months later, I ordered a copy for myself. SunRay’s buildings moved me on a deep level, and I’m sad that I only got to know him for such a brief time. This book helped me connect more with his work, and with the work of many other builders quite like him.
MEMBERS OF A NEW RACE: THE TEACHINGS OF H.I.M. HAILE SELASSIE I
Compiled by Ras Junior Ista J Manning
I picked this one up in Jamaica of the I-Nation book table at Kingston Night Market. I love the idea of a pocket manual of teachings from Haile Selassie I, something for quick reference. And the book was full of wisdom and word-sound-power.
However, none (or very few) of the speeches were cited with the dates and occasions where they were delivered. This makes it difficult to verify the accuracy of the attribution. For example, there is one reprinted “teaching” here that is well-known not to have been uttered by His Majesty at all, but was actually the editor’s introduction to another book of His Majesty’s teachings. This introductory piece by the editor has since often been repeated as if it were the words of Haile Selassie I, rather than one of his followers. In this lies the danger in reprinting fragments of speeches or writings without properly citing the source and attributing the quote.
I would like to see more books like this, with the high quality of graphic design (shout out to Wadadah II) and handy pocket format, but with a more robust and scholarly treatment of the source material.
MAYFLOWER
By Nathaniel Philbrick
This one was a gift from my father, and it is quite personal to us. You see, over on my father’s side of the family in Massachusetts–along with Greeks and Gypsies, maybe Portugese or Brazilians, and that reputed daughter of Chief Sitting Bull–we have some family that is directly traced to John Alden & Priscilla Mullins, Myles Standish & Barbara Standish, amongst the first families of the Mayflower expedition and Plymouth Colony. But, other than genealogical papers, we really know nothing about them.
This book shed a lot of light on that first generation’s experience leaving Europe for North America. It provides context for the religious, political, and economic forces that propelled colonialism, and for the complex relationship the early Anglo settlers had with the Natives of the Northeast. Disastrously, it chronicles a devastating war between their descendants and the Native peoples just 50 years after their landing.
I have often felt prone to oversimplifying these matters and villainizing the Pilgrims, but–as with most things–a greater understanding of context has granted me a more nuanced view of the issue.
ETHIOPIA & THE BIBLE
By Professor Edward Ullendorff
The picture on the cover of this book of a modern, socialist map of ethnic provinces in an Ethiopia lacking union with Eritrea is misleading, as it was actually written during Haile Selassie I’s unified and prosperous era, the “Ethiopian Golden Age”.
This is a very difficult book to read, written for a high level of Ethiopic scholar or Orientalist. The author neglects to translate quotations and references in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, French, or Italian, assuming that the reader can read those on their own (!). He often does the same with Ethiopic (Ge’ez, Amharic, and others), only rarely translating passages of Fidel or Arabic script.
I found it fascinating, and it does shed much light on the history of Ethiopia and her relationship to both the Old and New Testaments. However, this book also illuminated the perspective of the author, famed translator and Ethiopianist, who doubts and disparages Ethiopians’ own beliefs about themselves and their history.
THE BLACK HISTORY BOOK
By DK Publishing
I’ve written about this one a couple times. An interesting reference book, though oversimplified, with some problematic politics and inconsistencies in moral perspective (the product of multiple authors). I haven’t finished it yet, but I often read it at lunch, stumbling upon gems like this:
DIVINE LITURGY OF THE ETHIOPIAN TEWAHEDO CHURCH, 14 ANAPHORAS OF THE APOSTLES AND COVENANT PRAYERS
By Waheba Selassie (collecting materials of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church)
Another one I haven’t finished, but keep by my bedside for nighttime reading. In it I find much wisdom and light.
Nic Nakis 