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REVIEW BY JOANNA BRICHETTO Chinese Natural Cures: Traditional Methods for Remedies and Preventions demonstrates that traditional Chinese medicine's 3,000 years of clinical experience requires no further translation to address modern American health concerns. For people seeking to regain or maintain health with alternative medicine, this ancient healing modality presents a venerable and reliable option. Beginning with an overview of philosophy and methods, the book presents diagnosis and treatment in extraordinary detail. Treatment often combines food therapy, medicinal herbs, acupuncture, and therapeutic exercise. For sheer volume of information and comprehensive coverage by a renowned expert, Chinese Natural Cures will undoubtedly become an essential source book for patients and practitioners.
Traditional Methods for Remedies and Preventions Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, $24.98 ISBN 1579120563
REVIEW BY MICHAEL SIMS Over the centuries Christians have considered Rome almost as sacred as Jerusalem. Nothing proves this better than a stunning new book entitled Pilgrimage: A Chronicle of Christianity Through the Churches of Rome. The book unites a respectful but nicely gossipy text by June Hager, who has been writing about the churches of Rome for 15 years, with hundreds of beautiful photos by Grzegorz Galazka, who is one of the official papal photographers. All of the requisite stops on the tour are here, of course -- the Sistine ceiling, the towering dome of Saint Peter's. But you encounter more than the top ten tourist sights. From Filippino Lippi's amazing frescoes in Rome's only Gothic church, S. Maria Sopra Minerva, to the S. Andrea della Valle's Barberini Chapel, where Puccini set the first act of Tosca, the tour rambles engagingly from one unexpected stop to the next.
Handy cross-referencing allows you to move easily between essays and site maps. Sidebars provide useful historical and cultural information. Calendars give schedules of millennial celebrations. More than 200 photos show an up-to-date Rome, after the current restorations of many monuments. Where is the only evidence of an Arian cult in the whole of Rome? Which church claims to have the chalice from which St. John drank poison? What are the best times to visit the most popular sites? The answers are all here. Before you go, you may want to read up on Christianity and other beliefs in the newest contribution to Merriam-Webster's lineup of world-class reference books -- the fat, gorgeous Encyclopedia of World Religions. These 1,181 pages literally range from the African Methodist Episcopal Church to Zen, with stopovers in between for Halloween and the Qabbalah. You will find the dietary restrictions of the Jains and the Sermon on the Mount, Joan of Arc and the apocryphal Pope Joan, the concept of Limbo and a biography of spiritualist Madame Blavatsky. Whether you seek information on the Twelve Tribes of Israel or the Five Pillars of Islam, on Odin or Billy Graham, this impressive, exhaustive work will provide the answer.
A Chronicle of Christianity Through the Churches of Rome By June Hager Weidenfeld and Nicolson, $40 ISBN 0297825178
Holy Rome:
Encyclopedia of World Religions
REVIEW BY ALAN BIRD Okay, usually we list only seven, but that's because we used to be ignorant. Not anymore. The ancient world -- which includes every continent -- boasted many noteworthy sites and accomplishments. Dozens of them appear in The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World, edited by Chris Scarre. The subtitle sums it up: The Great Monuments and How They Were Built. This book features lush photos of the ruins as they look now, alongside thoughtful reconstructions of how they appeared in their prime and how they were constructed. Ancient rock drawings, diagrams, Roman aqueducts, Chinese canals, Incan roads, Herod's artificial harbor at Caesarea, the giant Nazca drawings in the Peruvian desert -- they're all here. From Stonehenge to Easter Island, the tour goes around the world and throughout history -- even prehistory.
The Great Monuments and How They Were Built Edited by Chris Scarre Thames and Hudson, $40 ISBN 0500050961
For your heroine REVIEW BY PAT REGEL Recently, much attention has been paid to the mythical heroes of the ancient world. Their representations have been primarily masculine, and if you read the ancient literature, it's easy to see why. The timeless tales of heroes were created by men for the enjoyment of men. Women, for the most part, played minor roles. With Women of Mythology by Kay Retzlaff, we see, at last, ancient myth from a feminine perspective -- women as doers. From the no-nonsense ferocity of the Amazon queen, Myrine, who captured Atlantis, to the exploits of Chinese General Mulan, women arise from myth in much the same way as their male counterparts. Illustrated with exquisite full-color reproductions of famous depictions of art, Women of Mythology takes readers, young and old alike, on an inspiring journey of women as seen through the eye of the ages.
By Kay Retzlaff Friedman/Fairfax, $27.98 ISBN 1567997570
REVIEW BY GEORGE WELD The dirge for the demise of letter writing in the age of e-mail usually has an undertone of nostalgia for a certain literary mode -- the piercing love note, the minutely detailed, sunburnt vacation letter. Typically, published collections of letters play to this tune, reprinting the letters in uniform type, editing them for clarity and to literary effect. But what we really miss about letters is showcased beautifully in Illustrated Letters: Artists and Writers Correspond, which presents letters as visual and tactile artifacts. Reprinting facsimiles of letters from scores of French artists and writers, the book demonstrates that what makes letters wonderful is the expressiveness of all their elements -- the stationery, the handwriting, the ink. Each of the letters comes with an English translation and contextual notes, but even readers who don't know French will want to linger over the reproductions of letters from Delacroix, Picasso, Baudelaire, and others.
Artists and Writers Correspond Abrams, $60 ISBN 0810906538
REVIEW BY MICHAEL SIMS Science writer James Trefil and the National Geographic Society have joined forces to create a gorgeous new book about the gorgeous old universe, Other Worlds: Images of the Cosmos from Earth and Space. It does indeed contain splendid images, ranging the spectrum from an astronaut driving a Lunar Rover across the surface of the Moon to a double-page spread of galaxies distorting each other as they collide. However, there is more to this book than pictures. With his usual offhand expertise and dry wit, Trefil contributes a lucid narrative that looks at both the physics involved (the odd games gravity can play, for example) and the technological advances and international cooperation required to produce such images -- and the growing understanding to which they contribute. Equally beautiful and informative, while focusing entirely on our home planet, is Forces of the Wild, the companion volume to a new BBC series about the world out there that ignores the human presence and proceeds with its own natural cycles and seasons. An example of this book's approach: Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are presented not in terms of damage to humans and their constructions, but as vital, dynamic natural phenomena that demonstrate the ongoing creativity of the planet. Like most such companion books, Forces of the Wild surpasses its televised inspiration in both depth and subtlety.
Images of the Cosmos from Earth and Space By James Trefil National Geographic Society, $35 ISBN 0792274911
Forces of the Wild
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For your health
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For pilgrims and seekers
Pilgrimage will make you yearn to go to Rome, and you will need a guidebook worthy of your new ambition. Fortunately Fodor's has anticipated your every wish with a new full-color guide in their Thematic Itineraries series, Holy Rome: Exploring the Eternal City: A Millennium Guide to the Christian Sights.
It's a wonderful life
Long live the letter
For worldly ones
