The Worlds of the New Norse

You could say we are fans of Norse mythology. We've watched both Thor and Thor: The Dark World, and we checked out the gender-bending Thor: Vol. 1, The Goddess of Thunder! But there are many other tales of Thor in the library catalog that we haven't read, because he's not our favorite Norse deity. Want to learn more about the Norse pantheon? Try Edith Hamilton's Mythology or, for kids of all ages, Treasury of Norse Mythology: Stories of Intrigue, Trickery, Love, and Revenge.

We have enjoyed Neil Gaiman's most entertaining Norse Mythology. Neil's pleasant narrative style and witty turn of phrase made this a fun read which discusses more of the Norse pantheon. We'd like to recommend the eAudiobook which is read by the author - Gaiman is a great reader. Consider giving his Odd and the Frost Giants a try, too, though it's technically a children's book, and of course American Gods. The library catalog also features Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, which was a primary source for Gaiman.

Want to see more of the Norse gods and goddesses explored, besides the ones touched on by Gaiman? One of our favorite television series is New Zealand's The Almighty Johnsons, wherein 4 brothers (and other relatives and various people they meet) discover on their 21st birthdays that they are the living incarnations of Norse deities. It's a great way to learn the stories behind Norse mythology (though this series is aimed at an adult audience), and features goddesses more prominently than some other tales - we were completely smitten with Iðunn,the keeper of the magic apples of immortality, and happy to learn to pronounce Sjöfn and Snotra.The library catalog features Season One.


Still want to immerse yourself in more Nordic culture? Here's a mixed bag of some other items you might enjoy - as refreshing as dipping your toe into the waters of a fjord, but definitely not  hygge, for those of you following Scanditrends. 

Fiction

Ragnarok: The End of the Gods by A.S. Byatt

Iron Axe by Steven Harper

Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson [YA eBook] 

Runemarks by Joanne Harris [YA] 

Triple Moon : Summer on East End by Melissa De la Cruz [YA]

Hammered by Kevin Hearne 

Vikings: The Complete First Season  [DVD]  

Valhalla Prophecy by Andy Mcdermott

Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo   

Northmen: A Viking Saga  [DVD]

Non-Fiction 

Gods of Asgard: A Graphic Novel Interpretation of the Norse Myths adapted and illustrated by Erik Evensen

Vikings [DVD]

Exploring the Northern Tradition: A Guide to the Gods, Lore, Rites, and Celebrations From the Norse, German, and Anglo-Saxon Traditions by Galina Krasskova 

Nordic Gods and Heroes by Padraic Colum

The Volsunga Saga translated by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson [eBook]

Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch  [eBook]

Viking Knits and Ancient Ornaments: Interlace Patterns From Around the World in Modern Knitwear by Elsebeth Lavold 

An Illustrated Viking Voyage: Retracing Leif Eriksson's Journey in an Authentic Viking Knarr photographs by Russell Kaye; text by W. Hodding Carter 

Beyond the Northlands : Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough 

The Book of Runes: A Handbook For the Use of an Ancient Oracle, the Viking Runes commentary by Ralph H. Blum

D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire [J]

Viking War: The Last Battle of the Vikings [DVD]

Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them by Nancy Marie Brown
 

Read Harder Challenge: Central or South American Author

Back in February, we posted about Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. Anyone still working on it? We've hit some stumbling blocks on a couple of the tasks - if you've checked out the discussions on the Goodreads challenge page, you'll see a lot of chatter, particularly on Task # 21 (read a book published by a micropress). We're still working on that one, so we'll concentrate on Task # 4 - Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author.

We were slightly confused at first, as a couple of the links Book Riot posted to help with finding titles for this task listed Latin American authors, which includes authors from Mexico and Cuba - not, according to Wikipedia, considered part of Central or South America (except Mexico, in one UN geoscheme). We are going by the letter of the law, as it were, for the purposes of this task, and sticking to fiction by authors from South and Central America only. Researching the titles to make sure they are also set in South or Central America has added another wrinkle to the process, as some of the authors have relocated - to Spain or the United States, primarily - and also write based on experiences not in their country of origin.

We feel pretty confident that readers will be familiar with some of the most famous authors of Central and South America - Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa, Roberto Bolaño, Paulo Coelho spring to mind - but how about some you might not have heard of? Here's a list of some we hope might surprise you, from Nicaragua, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Titles are translated works unless otherwise noted.  


Thus Were Their Faces: Stories by Silvina Ocampo

Delirium by Laura Restrepo [Spanish]

El lugar sin límites by José Donoso [Spanish]

Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra 

The Scroll of Seduction by Gioconda Belli [Spanish]

Men of Maize by Miguel Ángel Asturias

El mañana by Luisa Valenzuela [Spanish]

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands: A Moral and Amorous Tale by Jorge Amado

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez  [Spanish]

Savage Theories by Pola Oloixarac 

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin [eBook]

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector 

A Crack in the Wall by Claudia Piñeiro [eBook]

El beso de la mujer araña by Manuel Puig [Spanish]
 

  

The Bible As Literature

Bible.. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/300_252750/1/300_252750/cite. Accessed 14 Jun 2017.

We can see this on a global scale when we look at the overall format of the Bible. That format is the literary anthology—a collection of varied literary genres written by multiple authors over the span of many centuries. In its details, too, the Bible is a literary book. Most of it is embodied in the genres of narrative, poetry, letters, and visionary writing. Dozens of smaller genres accumulate under those big rubrics. Why should we read the Bible as literature? Because its literary format requires it. C. S. Lewis sounded the keynote when he wrote in Reflections on the Psalms that “there is a sense in which the Bible, since it is after all literature, cannot properly be read except as literature; and the different parts of it as the different sorts of literature they are.”
~Leyland Ryken, "The Bible as Literature"

"Bible as literature" is actually a subject heading we stumbled across in the library catalog, but it turns out many schools teach it as a class - from MIT and Yale to BYU and University of Colorado, and even our own UNM! Perhaps unsurprisingly, the literary study of the Bible falls under the English course heading rather than Religion.  Literary forms such as parable, poetry, hero narratives, and proverb are studied, along with typical literary concerns such as setting and character; historicity is examined along with biography; sometimes a particular version of the Bible is the focus, such as the King James. The core of the studies seems to remain the influence of the Bible on the Western literary canon - in the Huffington Post's article about teaching high schoolers about the Bible, it is suggested that "It is one thing to teach the Bible as if it were the word of God, and another to teach about the Bible — its stories, characters, events, and lessons — as a human book, and to discuss the many interpretations that have been advanced over the centuries." A book that could be called "the single most influential piece of literature in the world" (it certainly is a bestseller) deserves to be studied for literary merit as well as religious content - you can find references to Biblical writings in other great works by Shakespeare, Milton, Hemingway, and even in the movie The Matrix. The author Marilynne Robinson writes, "Literatures are self-referential by nature, and even when references to Scripture in contemporary fiction and poetry are no more than ornamental or rhetorical — indeed, even when they are unintentional — they are still a natural consequence of the persistence of a powerful literary tradition."

Interested  in studying the Bible's literary influences? If you don't want to take a class in the Bible as literature, there's a reading group on the Librarything website, or you could just check out a book from the library catalog on the topic.

The Book of the People: How to Read the Bible by A.N. Wilson

The Good Book: Writers Reflect on Favorite Bible Passages  edited by Andrew Blauner

Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God by Jack Miles

The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach us by Douglas A. Knight and Amy-Jill Levine 

How to Read the Bible by Harvey Cox 

The Bible's Cutting Room Floor: The Holy Scriptures Missing From Your Bible by Joel M. Hoffman  [eAudio]

The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book by Timothy Beal 
 

Fiction in Unusual Settings

SOUTH CAROLINA. RED LOBSTER RESTAURANT. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/300_1828034/1/300_1828034/cite. Accessed 9 Jun 2017.

Tired of  reading the same old, same old plots? Have mysteries solved by Scotland Yard, edgy fiction set in big cities, dysfunctional surburban family dramas and the like started to seem like old hat? Are you tired of contemporary backdrops to the stories you read? We've combed our catalog to find a selection of books with somewhat unusual settings, in a variety of genres, which we hope will pique your interest. Do you recommend any fiction with unusual settings? Let us know in the comments!

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
Setting: last day of business at a Connecticut  Red Lobster
  

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

Setting: a planet, Oasis, where only one plant grows and one animal lives 

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

Setting: a religious pilgrimage in the era of the Black Death 

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown

Setting: on the ship of a female pirate in the early 1800s  

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

Setting: the kitchen of the last tsar   

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong

Setting: the kitchen of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas   

Watergate by Thomas Mallon

Setting: Washington, D.C. in 1972   

White Heat by M.J. McGrath

Setting: Inuit territory at the Arctic Circle   

The Boy from Reactor 4 by Orest Stelmach

Setting: Chernobyl

The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beyon Rees

Setting: a Palestinian refugee camp

The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O'Melveny

Setting: 16th-century Venetian female doctor's travels across Europe in search of her father

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

Setting: Chechnya 

The Fire Child by S. J. Tremayne [eBook]

Setting: Cornish mine country 

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Setting: coastal Essex estuary

The People's Act of Love by James Meek

Setting: Siberia 1919 

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

Setting: one block of a city street 

The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirahk

Setting: a fantastical version of medieval Estonia 

Timothy, or, Notes of an Abject Reptile by Verlyn Klinkenborg

Setting: an English garden

 

Music Therapy

Association Musique Et Sante. Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/181_763596/1/181_763596/cite. Accessed 1 Jun 2017.

Did you know, there have been proponents of music therapy in the United States since 1950? The American Music Therapy Associaton [AMTA] defines music therapy as "the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. Music Therapy is an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals."  Music therapists must have a bachelor's degree or higher in music therapy and other credentials. Apparently music therapists contributed to helping Congresswoman Giffords to regain her speech after surviving a bullet wound to her brain. The AMTA differentiate music therapy from "therapeutic music," which includes a piano player player in the hospital lobby, nurses playing background music, artists in residence, an Alzheimer's patient listening to his or her favorite songs on an iPod, and the like - probably helpful, but not clinical music therapy.

We've compiled a list of items from the library catalog that will take you on a journey into the "transformative power of music." We hope this list of items focusing on the therapeutic power of music is balm to your soul, but if you are truly interested in music therapy, we recommend checking out the AMTA website for more information.

Waking the Spirit: A Musician's Journey Healing Body, Mind, and Soul by Andrew Schulman

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

Fallen: A Trauma, A Marriage, and the Transformative Power of Music by Kara Stanley

The Healing Touch of Music: An Exploration by Alana Woods 

Manage Your Stress and Pain Through Music by Suzanne B. Hanser and Susan E. Mandel 

Music and Cancer: A Prescription for Healing by Nimesh P. Nagarsheth

Essential Musical Intelligence: Using Music as Your Path to Healing, Creativity, and Radiant Wholeness by Louise Montello    

Self-Healing with Sound & Music: Revitalize Your Body & Mind with Proven Sound Healing Tools by Andrew Weil, Kimba Arem [eAudio]

Sacred Verses, Healing Sounds: The Bhagavad Gita and Hymns of the Rig Veda by Deepak Chopra [eAudio]  

Alive Inside [DVD]

Harp Music for Healing by Sarajane Williams [CD]
According to Amazon, "Williams' Vibroacoustic Harp Therapy® (VAHT) is now being used by hospitals and health practitioners to help patients relieve tension and physical pain, reduce stress and anxiety." 

For more titles, try a subject search of "Music therapy."

Parody vs. Satire

Don Quijote statua and Torre del Oro in background. Sevilla. Spain. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/164_3215895/1/164_3215895/cite. Accessed 2 Jun 2017.

It seems to be a rule of thumb that for every popular book/television show/film, there will exist a parody: The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up begat The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck; Game of Thrones begat Game of Groans; Fifty Shades of Grey begat Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, etc. Some you might have heard of, some not so much - parody is an ephemeral medium. Now that Downton Abbey is off the air, is there really going to be a lot of demand for Agent Gates and the Secret Adventures of Devonton Abbey? Probably not. But it just shows the impact these items had on pop culture that someone got paid to create a parody of them.  

There's also a market for children's books reworked for adult eyes, like Go the F*ck to Sleep and Goodnight iPad (sometimes challenging for our shelvers, as they appear to be actual children's books at first glance). Some publishers, like Quirk Books and Harvard Lampoon, regularly skewer classics and bestsellers - The Meowmorphosis and Android Karenina in the first case, The Hunger Pains and Bored of the Rings in the second. Some filmmakers, like Mel Brooks and Monty Python, have made a career of parody.

Satire is related to parody, with a slight but important difference. Cliffs Notes has this to say about satire: "...[it] is intended to do more than just entertain; it tries to improve humanity and its institutions. A satire is a literary work that tries to arouse the reader's disapproval of an object — a vice, an abuse, a faulty belief — by holding it up to ridicule." Or, to quote Publishers Weekly, "You can aim it at governments, you can aim it at institutions. You can aim it at bureaucracies, businesses, special interests, religions and of course at individuals. Any place where hypocrisy and vice lurk – and where don’t they lurk?" A very famous and biting early satire is Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal.

Satire or parody - which would you rather read? Have you read any you'd particularly recommend? Let us know in the comments! Or, check out some parodies and satires from the library catalog:

Parodies

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: A Parody by Chelsea Cain

The Autobiography of James T. Kirk: The Story of Starfleet's Greatest Captain by James T. Kirk

You & Me by Padgett Powell

Redshirts by John Scalzi 

Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones (J) [eBook]

An Apology For the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews by Henry Fielding

Want more? Try a subject search of  "Parodies, imitations."

Satires
 

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Master and the Margarita by  Mikhail Bulgakov

Look Who's Back by Timur Vernes

Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison [eBook; basis for Soylent Green]

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway 

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

The Trial by Franz Kafka 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

 

 For more, try a subject search of "Satire."

Agnosticism: The Divine "Maybe"

Temple of Doubt and Hope, Gothenburg, Sweden, Kent Karlsson. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Accessed Jun 3, 2017.
http://quest.eb.com/search/104_316754/1/104_316754/cite.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. 

-Max Ehrman "The Desiderata"

In the beginning, there was the smell of the polished wooden pew and the light streaming through the glorious stained glass windows of Holy Rosary Catholic Church, prayers at bedtime, and my illustrated children's Bible that omitted the more bloodthirsty details. I was five years old when I experienced my first questions about creation while coloring a Tyrannosaurus Rex in my coloring book: Which came first? The dinosaurs or God?

My scrupulosity was wired with an obsessive-compulsive anxiety. On a hike with my father as a preteen girl, I wanted to know if we would at least make it to the 5:00 p.m. Mass. He pointed out that we were in nature, which was more than sufficiently worshipful. I seethed all the way uphill, hoping that I was covered by last week's attendance if a mountain lion suddenly appeared to eat me and dispatch me to the hereafter.

In adulthood, I strayed from Catholicism and became a church-hopping Goldilocks sampling all the Protestant denominations. This church was too big, too small, too hot, too cold, too hard, and too soft. It was never just right, but if I could find a church to meet my precise needs, I would be comfortable and my doubts could be assuaged.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines an agnostic as :a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (such as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly: one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god.

Here are some books for seekers of all or no denominations:


Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto by Lesley Hazleton

The Astronomy Bible: The Definitive Guide to the Night Sky and the Universe by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest.

  
Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening by Stephen Batchelor 

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch

The Curious Nature Guide: Explore the Natural Wonders All Around You by Clare Walker Leslie.

Finding Your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life by Craig Nakken.

Divinity of Doubt: The God Question by Vincent Bugliosi

The Good Book: A Humanist Bible by A.C. Grayling 

In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions Without Becoming a Fanatic by Peter L. Berger and Anton C. Zijderveld

The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom by Michael Shermer

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams

 
Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries and Librarianship (ebook) by Nancy Kalikow Maxwell

10 Things Your Minister Wants To Tell You: (But Can't, Because He Needs the Job) by Oliver "Buzz" Thomas. 

The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness by Karen Armstrong

Through the Narrow Gate by Karen Armstrong

To Believe or Not to Believe: The Social and Neurological Consequences of Belief Systems by Rahasya Poe