Inprint - New Books of interest

A Tree on Turtle Island by Sheila Seclearr. (Open Passage Press, $25.95, Hard Cover.)

This novel tells of two women who uncover a centuries-old crime as they travel in Pennsylvania during the fall of 2002. It begins when one of them unearths a Native American artifact that affects her dreams and provides a window to the past through the eyes of Maggie, a blacksmith's wife during the period prior to the Revolution. It was the time when Americans were deciding what "union" meant to them.

The aftermath of September 11th is juxtaposed with life in a historical multi-national Indian village that allows Moravians to establish a blacksmith shop and trading post in their midst. Europeans and Native Americans share tools, farming skills and cultural ideas until the initial violence of the French and Indian War explodes a few miles away and everyone scatters. Maggie witnesses treaty councils as well as deep tears in the first fabric of America. Born of prejudice, the tears influence the modern travelers and they find ties to a deeply rooted pattern of violence, bigotry and homophobia in American culture.

We learned that this is the last book edited by June Rouse. Anyone familiar with her work might sense her touch in it. Sheila Seclearr appears at Transitions Bookplace for a book signing on Wednesday, April 2. Call 312/951-READ for details.

Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood by Naomi Wolf. (Anchor Books, $14.00, Paperback.)

Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, has written a passionate critique of our culture focusing on the myths surrounding pregnancy and birth in America and how motherhood fundamentally changes a woman's self-image and her relationship to the world. Using her experience, she talks about how pregnancy and motherhood profoundly changed her most basic assumptions about feminism. She criticizes our health care industry that overemploys fetal monitors, drugs and C-sections, and that dismisses the needs of laboring women and their babies. She presents a model of childbirth that relies on true midwifery and self-standing birthing centers as one that is safer, more satisfying and more cost effective.

Through interviews with other women, she reveals how prevalent postpartum disillusionment and isolation are, and how a woman's status in even the most committed and enlightened relationship takes a backseat to that of her partner's. She talks about the less than perfect childcare options and the inequality experienced by the women who offer it.

The book concludes with a "Mother's Manifesto" that calls for an overhaul of the entire birthing industry, flexibility in the workplace for families, and more social support for mothers and children. Her story helps women to better prepare for the challenges of balancing a growing family with career and freedom.

There Must Be More Than This by Judith Wright. (Broadway Books, $23.00, Hard Cover.)

Author Judith Wright says there is more than this and we can have it. She tells us that what keeps us from living a rich and fulfilling life is our dependence on seemingly harmless habits like shopping, watching TV, gossiping or surfing the net. These are soft addictions and they form a powerful net that traps us, preventing us from having more love and meaning in our lives. They fill up our time while leaving us feeling empty.

From years as an educator and life coach, Wright found that students would experience insights in class but be unable to fully apply them to their lives. She found that they were limiting their experience and enjoyment of life by engaging in unsatisfying routines. These time wasters and draining habits, which she named soft addictions, satisfy certain wants — to zone out, feel busy, numb painful feelings — but ignore deeper hungers for love, beauty, spirituality and meaning. They substitute a superficial high or sense of activity for a sense of genuine purpose and fulfillment.

There Must Be More Than This offers an eight-step program that helps you to identify your soft addictions, overcome them and open to the life you were meant to live.

The Power of Partnership: Seven Relationships That Will Change Your Life by Riane Eisler. (New World Library, $14.95, Paperback.)

In The Power of Partnership Riane Eisler claims that we cannot "help the self" in any realistic and lasting way without becoming fully aware of and responsive to the down-to-earth practicalities of the seven key relationships in our lives.

These significant relationships include our relationship with ourselves, our intimate relationships, our work/community relationships, relationships with our national and international communities, and even our relations within nature and spirit. Eisler guides us through these, offering practical action steps and tools necessary to break free from what she calls the old dominator model and enter into one of partnership.

The Power of Partnership is a new genre of self-help book that combines personal and social transformation. It is based on over three decades of research, and shows that the self cannot be helped in isolation from the web of relationships around us.

The Red-Haired Girl From the Bog: The Landscape of Celtic Myth and Spirit by Patricia Monaghan. (New World Library, $22.95, Hard Cover.)

Ireland: land of rambles, long, disjointed conversations, burning peat, dark beer, lilting speech, enchanting melodies, green hills, ruddy faces and goddesses. Like many Irish-Americans before her, Patricia Monaghan traveled to Ireland for the first time as an adult, seeking her roots. What she found on her spiritual pilgrimage was much more than her physical ancestors. She found spiritual ancestors in the legends and landmarks of spirited women: witches, hags, wanton girls, mothers. This is the story of her journeys, and the story of the journeys the legends have created through time, such as the legend of the red-haired girl on the bog, who attracts lovers — who then tend to disappear.

This book brings together decades of study about mythology with one seeker's travels through the landscape of Ireland. The stories instruct and teach, as Monaghan points to ways that these myths still reveal the truths of human life, and the contradictions of love and hate, mother and seductress, harmony and struggle that are embodied not only in women's lives, but in all of human existence.

Wisdom's Blossoms: Tales of the Saints of India by Doug Glener and Sarat Komaragiri. (Shambhala, $14.95, Paperback.)

Wisdom's Blossoms is a collection of twenty-six traditional stories that recount the personal spiritual journeys and true acts of selflessness by saints from various religious traditions indigenous to India, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Sufism. The authors present a diverse selection of these inspirational tales about both men and women saints from a variety of time periods and from all over India, and make them relevant for a modern audience. The stories reveal that, despite their perceived differences, the same spiritual principles underlie all the great religious traditions.

These stories present a panoramic view of India's spiritual heritage and offer Western readers — though separated by time, distance, and in many cases spiritual tradition — inspiration for the challenges we face in our own lives.