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Musings of a Book Addict
I'm married to a scavenger of sorts and he often totes home rescued boxes of books that I paw through with shiny, hungry eyes. I pull out the odd and interesting and add them to my teetering stack.
Currently reading
The Hound of the Baskervilles
E.B. White: A Biography
Murder on the Orient Express
There Is Nothing Wrong with You: Going Beyond Self-Hate
Living Buddha, Living Christ
No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger
The Snare of the Hunter
Paintings of Henry Miller
Dreamways of the Iroquois: Honoring the Secret Wishes of the Soul
Pentimento (Back Bay Books)
Navaho Symbols of Healing
Published in 1979, this is an incredibly well-researched book diving deep into the Navaho methods of healing, including the Singing Way and sand paintings. The introduction claims to relate Navaho traditional healing to "modern" medicine, but in reality the book is a detailed description of the many myths and symbols of the Navaho healing journey, with passing mention of modern medicine (and that's fine by me). Entire chants are printed verbatim, as well as long conversations the author had with medicine men and shamans about their training, preparation and implementation of healing rituals. This really is for the scholar anthropologist or those that really enjoy this kind of encyclopedic detail. There's just a touch of "the noble Indian" kind of writing, but not bad, considering when the text was written. It is also clear in the introduction that the author published this text to "reveal the rigorous training" that Navaho medicine men go through, as if to "legitimize" their practice (again, a product of the time and culture he was writing in). This is an important historical document, but not for the casual reader.