There are numerous books that I have read as part of a thematic review, those are listed under my "Thoughts: Thematic Book Reviews" page (see link at bottom).
Here on this page are links to individual books I have read, a small fraction of the books I have read, and how they impressed/influenced me.
The list is in aphabetical order by AUTHOR, not in any subject or time order.
IF you are interested in buying a book I have reviewed, please consider using this link to Amazon.com so I get some small rebate to help me pay for this website.
AUTHOR: Karen Armstrong
In late 2010 I am still in the process of reading and reviewing two books at the same time: (1) The Case for God by Karen Armstrong, which is an accounting of the ways humans have sought to experience "a sacred reality," and (2) In The Realm of Inorganic Beings by Brian T. Johnston, which is one person's account of exactly such an experience. The latter book is not available in stores, only online (click here to go there). In order to understand the Johnston book better, I also read (3) DMT, The Spirit Molecule, A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Rick Strassman, M.D.
AUTHOR: Reza Aslan
Impressions from reading Beyond Fundamentalism, Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization (Random House 2010, originally published as How to Win a Cosmic War). I found this book to be hopeful. More hopeful than I can be at this time.
AUTHOR: Michael Baigent
The Jesus Papers, Exposing the Greatest Cover-up in History (With a few personal notes at the end)
AUTHORS: Mario Beauregard and Denyse O'Leary
The Spiritual Brain, A Neuroscientists's Case for the Existence of the Soul. A very promising title. In my opinion, though, the book, even though it is very interesting, does not live up to the expectations the title created for me.
AUTHOR: Annie Besant
Re-reading Esoteric Christianity after about a forty year hiatus, in the context of books reviewed just prior to this reading by Sylvia Browne and Margaret Starbird (linked below).
AUTHOR: Beryl Singleton Bissell
In the title of her autobiography, The Scent of God, a Memoir, Bissell hints at the mystical, which is what attracts me to this book. Although that is not the main theme of this interesting life, it is a subtheme, and I am not disappointed.
AUTHOR: Harold Bloome
Bloome's latest book "Jesus and Yahweh, the Names Divine" did nothing to cheer me up, but he did share a few of my prejudices
AUTHOR: Mark Booth
I liked almost everything about Booth's book except one small part. I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to know the importance of the secret tradition through history and today. His book title is The Secret History of the World. and the book lives up to what its title promises. Of course I make some little critical observations even in the parts of the book I liked, and just a few nice remarks in the small part I didn't like. That is just me, being me
AUTHOR: Sylvia Browne
The Two Marys: The Hidden History of the Mother and Wife of Jesus but largely as reflected in The Mystical Life of Jesus, An Uncommon Perspective on the Life of Christ
AUTHOR: James Burge
New Thoughts on Heloise and Abelard a celebrated and tragic couple from 900 years ago
AUTHOR: Jeffrey J. Bütz
The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Early Christianity carries a very promising title, and keeps much of that promise. However, I do have a couple of sizable bones to pick with this author, as you will find out reading these impressions.
AUTHOR: Thomas Cahill
Mysteries of the Middle Ages I was positively impressed but did turn critical regarding two areas of the book's coverage, one of which (I felt) I was vindicated in criticizing when next I read the book "Montaillou" (see the Ladurie book review below.)
AUTHOR: Norman F. Cantor
The Last Knight, The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era Reading this book gave me some insights into our own times, unsettling insights in that some of the things I don't like about the current national and interational situation seem to have their roots in the times described by Cantor
AUTHOR: Paulo Coelho
"Eleven Minutes," with emphasis on the Courtly Love connection (second link on page).
A mixed review of Paulo Coelho's book Brida. (first published in English in 2008, but a much older book in Portuguese).
A belated review of my favorite Coelho book: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. I had read this book about 13 years ago and was impressed by its locales as well as its story. This review starts with a note from the author.
Long ago I also used, rather than reviewed, yet another Coelho book in telling, to a limited extent, stories of the Pilgrimage Route to Santiago de Compestela. That book was The Diary of a Magus.
In 2010 I bought and read Paulo Coelho's The Winner Stands Alone. I say very little about this book in an addendum to my review of William Irwin Thompson's The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light a historical look at the origins of civilization and patriarchy.
AUTHOR: Stephen R Covey
I read parts of an older book by Richard Kirby called The Mission of Mysticism and found it to have its primary theme in common with Stephen R Covey's book The Divine Center, Why We Need a Life Centered on God & Christ & How We Attain It (yes this is the famed "7-steps" Covey)
AUTHOR: James Cowan
Other James Cowan books such as A Saint's Way, A Mapmaker's Dream, and Letters From A Wild State are mentioned in the new Rumi Ruminations pages.
AUTHOR: Glen Craney
The Fire and the Light, A Novel of the Cathars and the Lost Teachings of Christ (this is a link to Glen Craney's website) Craney wrote an exciting work of historical fiction. It is fiction, it is a tapestry of thoughts, words and actions woven into a credible fabric and anchored by historical places, events and characters. It is historical fiction at its best. My observations are linked here, as are the observations of a friend who volunteered to also write a book review.
AUTHOR: Paul Davies
Paul Davies published another book (I reviewed his The MInd of God under a 'Thematic Review,' see link below). I heard it discussed on National Public Radio, went and got it, read it, liked it, and reviewed it. It is called Cosmic Jackpot, Why Our Universe is Just Right for Life.
AUTHOR: Richard Dawkins
In late 2008 I read and commented on two books on religion with extremely opposing views. Ursula King's Christian Mystics, The Spiritual Heart of the Christian Tradition, and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. Why? Because I thought I could find a common thread, a very thin one, by which to hang my own God-concept using insights gained from the diametrically opposed viewpoints expressed in these two books. And I did!
AUTHOR: Daniel C Dennett
Here is a case where a title sold the book to me. Did it live to its title's promise? Partly, yes. And what was this attracting title? Breaking the Spell, Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
AUTHOR: David Ebershoff
My impressions and recollections upon reading The 19th Wife.
AUTHOR: Dan Goodrich
A convoluted review of Mercury Champagne by Dan Goodrich and The Terror by Dan Simmons
AUTHOR: James Harpur
Love Burning in the Soul; The Story of the Christian Mystics, from Saint Paul to Thomas Merton (New Seeds, 2005)
AUTHOR: Sam Harris
The End of Faith I was disturbed by this book so wrote down and shared some of my impressions. In 2007 I updated this review to include his newest book Letter to a Christian Nation
AUTHOR: Andrew Hussey
Paris, The Secret History- (Bloomsbury 2006)-- I found this book both interesting and disturbing. I used it to pick three places in Paris for a first-time visit, and four places to visit again with a new understanding of their history. Hussey's treatment of the liberation of Paris, by the resistance, at the end of World War II was nicely augmented by my also reading Lynn Sheene's novel on that topic, the last time i saw Paris (Berkley Books 2011). Note that these two books are NOT reviewed, they are just cited on a page describing a visit to Paris.
AUTHOR: Nicholas Ifkovits
Cloud Drops was an entertaining book featuring a very delightful afterlife. I discuss it briefly in a very short review, and contrast it with Connie Willis' novel Passage, which also takes a peek into the afterlife. Willis' afterlife is not delightful.
AUTHOR: Brian T. Johnston
In late 2010 I am still in the process of reading and reviewing two books at the same time: (1) The Case for God by Karen Armstrong, which is an accounting of the ways humans have sought to experience "a sacred reality," and (2) In The Realm of Inorganic Beings by Brian T. Johnston, which is one person's account of exactly such an experience. The latter book is not available in stores, only online (click here to go there). In order to understand the Johnston book better, I also read (3) DMT, The Spirit Molecule, A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Rick Strassman, M.D.
AUTHOR: Dan Kane
To Our Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Friends I received a copy of this book from a co-worker, the book's author, Dan Kane. I had previously reviewed the web-based precursor to this book. Kane builds an internally coherent belief structure soundly based on his reading of the Bible. I do not share his beliefs. I see the Bible and Christianity very differently. I am an unbeliever.
Impressions while reading IS YESHUA THE PROPHESIED MESSIAH OF THE HEBREW BIBLE? By Dan Kane (WinePress Publishing, Enumclaw, WA 2009). A second Dan Kane book, both interesting and evocative. It is designed to reach into the minds and hearts of Jewish believers and teach them how Christ was a Jew who lived, taught, and died what the scriptures of Judaism prophesied.
AUTHOR/Editor: J. Douglas Kenyon
In late 2009 I used my bookstore gift certificates to purchase this volume, Forbidden Religion, Suppressed Heresies of the West, because of the promises of several of its chapter titles. Although I found one chapter not at all to my liking, the balance of the parts of the book I have so far read was quite positive in terms of content that I thought was both instructive and interesting.
AUTHOR: Ursula King
In late 2008 I read and commented on two books on religion with extremely opposing views. Ursula King's Christian Mystics, The Spiritual Heart of the Christian Tradition, and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. Why? Because I thought I could find a common thread, a very thin one, by which to hang my own God-concept using insights gained from the diametrically opposed viewpoints expressed in these two books. And I did!
AUTHOR: Richard Kirby
I read parts of an older book by Richard Kirby called The Mission of Mysticism and found it to have its primary theme in common with Stephen R Covey's book The Divine Center, Why We Need a Life Centered on God & Christ & How We Attain It (yes this is the famed "7-steps" Covey). In response, I received a note of disagreement on one partuclar observation I made from a very astute online reader, a note which is attached here and is now also linked into the Kirby review itself. In light of that note, I admit I was unfair and wrong in judging part of Kirby's book.
AUTHOR: Paul Kriwaczek
In Search of Zarathustra, The First Prophet and the Ideas That Changed the World This is an almost perfect book. This author did what I would have loved to do, travel the Fertile Crescent and investigate the religions that grew up in this spiritually fertile area.
AUTHOR: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
on Life after Death (Celestial Arts 2008) was reviewed in the same review that addressed Lynn McTaggart's The Field, The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe (Harper 2008). Both books caused many thought, mostly pleasant ones.
AUTHOR: Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
Montaillou: Promised Land of Error This book (to me) vindicated a criticism I made about the Cahill book (listed above). It also brought me back to 2001-2002, when I was on the trail of a woman dead for 700 years with whom I felt a strong/strange connection until I told her tale on this website.
AUTHOR: Judith Lindbergh
a thrall's tale A very, very impressive book.
AUTHOR: Hermann Löns
Aus der Bauerenchronik DER WEHRWOLF (The War Wolf -- war in the defensive meaning of the word) Illustrated with woodcuts by Hans Pape, published in 1943, during the Second World War, in Gouda, the Netherlands, supposedly to raise the spirits of the German occupation forces in the Netherlands. Images of the book are posted here. I WAS working on a translation, but gave up (my German is elementary-school level). I used one of the AMAZON banners on this page to order me a copy of an English-language edition (used, about $14 including shipping). When I read it, I came back and corrected several errors in my version. To read a very detailed review of the English translation, and its historical credibility, see the next book in the list below. To see where .Hermann Löns is buried, click here.
AUTHOR: Hermann Löns, as translated by Robert Kvinnesland
The Warwolf, A Peasant Chronicle of the Thirty Years War As compared with the previous title by the same author, this version is ten times longer and more detailed, with several helpful historical footnotes. To judge Löns' novel's historical credibility, about five historical sources were consulted and are discussed in this lenghty review. Illustrations of the setting for the story, and several etchings made during the Thirty Years War by a reporter, are provided as part of this review. Finally, a theory is set forth in the review above this one, as to why the Nazi in charge of the Dutch occupation passed this book out to his soldiers and shortly thereafter killed himself, is strengthened by this additional reading (in my opinion).
AUTHOR: Kathleen McGowan
The Expected One Comments relating to how this very well written book impressed me.
The Book of Love is similarly well-written but at its very end let me down, well, a little. I review it as part of the review of Marion Meade's Sybille.
AUTHOR: Lynne McTaggart
The Field, The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe (Harper 2008). This book was reviewed in the same review as was on Life after Death by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (Celestial Arts 2008). These two books provoked many thoughts, mostly pleasant ones.
AUTHOR: Marion Meade
Stealing Heaven, The Love Story of Heloise and Abelard offers a very sympathetic look at these two lives. The way the book is written illuminates the institutions of their time and how those institutions, the church and the nobility/monarchy were intertwined and governed society. A touching read, full of pathos and hope.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, A Biography is the definitive life story of this great and complex twelfth century woman, a Queen of two nations, a prisoner and a nun. She was a woman who was able to live by her own rules to a surprsing extent, at a time when women were officially chattel and worse. But my review touched in very little in this magnificently broad and detailed story. I had read it about 14 years ago, and this time was just checking some facts pertaining to other recently reviewed and related stories.
Sybille is the story of a woman troubadour living at the time of the crusade against her neighbors and friends the Cathars. The review ends with some observations from Kathleen McGowan's The Book of Love.
AUTHOR: Lisa Miller
Heaven, Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife, is the most perfect reflection of my own beliefs, at this time, that I have yet come across. In fact, it so perfectly reflects my own feelings that I may just stop looking at this subject for a while. To me this book was like a great mutli-course meal, and I am satisfied, satiated. (Additional notes added 2/18/2012, in case you looked at a previous version of this review.)
AUTHOR: Kate Mosse
Labyrinthe Just a comment on one page in the book, not a full review. It is another story about the Cathar heretics, or Good Christians, in Southern france, with a modern twist, very well written.
AUTHOR: Robert Munroe
The Ultimate Journey is a book from which one can learn about life and its structure and purpose. Discussion in this review is focused on intellect, revelation, religion, lost souls, and the goal of existence.
AUTHOR: Barbara Newman
Sister of Wisdom, St. Hildegarde's Theology of the Feminine (lenghty excerpts used by permission)
AUTHOR: Zoé Oldenbourg
Destiny of Fire (some thoughts on love, life and time after reading this tale from the crusade against the Cathars. . . Also see the Thematic Reviews (link below) page entry involving two Oldenbourg books dealing with Courtly Love, The Cornerstone and Cities of the Flesh, with a historical introduction taken from Oldenbourg's Massacre at Montsegur)
The Cornerstone (some thoughts on the disturbing relationship between faith and war after reading this tale from the time of the crusades)
AUTHOR: Kenth Pedersen
A Strange American (reviewed on the same page as the Ahmad Shavary book listed below)
AUTHOR: Mark Gregory Pegg
Impressions while reading A Most Holy War, The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom. The issue of whether or not Cathars ever existed is addressed.
AUTHOR: Simone Pétrement
AUTHOR: Otto Rahn
Impressions while reading Otto Rahn's Crusade Against the Grail, The Struggle Between the Cathars, the Templars, and the Church of Rome (2006, first English translation by Christopher Jones). This is a book that took me back to the 1990s when I first "discovered" and read all I could about ideal, esoteric, courtly love.
AUTHOR: Anne Rice
Christ the Lord Comments relating to how this superbly written book impressed me in the context of where I am in my life at the moment.
Impressions on reading Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. An overall positive review that starts with a discussion of Rice's walking away from her church, and my own somewhat similarly motivated self-unchurching, some time ago.
AUTHOR: Jana Richman
Riding in the Shadows of Saints, A Woman's Story of Motorcycling the Mormon Trail. (With a note from the author.)
AUTHOR: Mary Doria Russel
A Thread of Grace (Fiction with deep insight into human nature.)
A medley of thoughts from reading books by Mary Doria Russell, including her latest Dreamers of the Day and her foreword in a new edition of A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Mention is also made of Uranium by Tom Zoellner.
AUTHOR: Mona Lisa Schulz
AUTHOR: Ahmad Shavary
The World Outlook of Rumi (reviewed on the same page as the Kenth Pedersen book listed above)
AUTHOR: Dan Simmons
A convoluted review of The Terror by Dan Simmons and Mercury Champagne by Dan Goodrich
AUTHOR: Margaret Starbird
The Alabaster Jar the Mary Magdalene story
Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile (part of a 2-book review)
AUTHOR: Rick Strassman, M.D.
I did not write a specific review on Strasman's book, instead I used it to better understand Brian T. Johnston's book mentioned above. Strassman's book is called DMT, The Spirit Molecule, A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences
AUTHOR: William Irwin Thompson
The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light a historical look at the origins of civilization and patriarchy; with a short addendum on Paulo Coelho's The Winner Stands Alone.
AUTHOR: Frank Tipler
The Physics of Christianity I was initially pleased, then dismayed at this book, but upon reflection realized it is not all that different (except for its strident pro-Catholic/Christian bias) from some of the books I read as part of a thematic review on what is new in physics last year (see this link to go back to that thematic review).
AUTHOR: Amy Wallace
Sorcerer's Apprentice, my Life with Carlos Castaneda. (With a note from the author.)
AUTHOR: Frank Wilczek
The Lightness of Being; Mass, Ether and the Unification of Forces, a truly readable overview of progress in modern physicsby a Nobel Laureate (published in 2008).
AUTHOR: Connie Willis
Passages was an entertaining book about a 'scientific' (science-fiction) peek into the afterlife. I discuss it very briefly in a very short review and contrast it with Nicholas Ifkovits' novel Cloud Drops, which features a much more entertaining peek into the afterlife.
AUTHOR: Barrie Wilson
How Jesus Became Christian is the perfect response to the second Dane Kane book I reviewed (see above), on why Jesus was the Messiah the Jews had been looking forward to. Wilson turns the Bible on its head and shows there was a vast conspiracy, which included manipulating the order in which books would appear in the Bible and overpower those who witnessed for a Jesus that was simply a human rabbi with a sizable and devoted following. This conspiracy was and is much greater than the one in Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, according to Wilson. Wilson provided a final thought for my review by email.
AUTHOR: Robert Wright
With a title that promised to outline The Evolution of God how could I resist this massive volume? I wanted to read about three things that, to my surprise, turned out to be somewhat interrelated. If you want to know what those three things are, click on the book title.
AUTHOR: Eric Zuesse
Christ's Ventriloquists a hard-hitting expose of Paul, the self-appointed apostle, and how he essentially admits in his own letters to having stolen Christ from his Jewish followers, deified him, and created a new and anti-Jewish religion around him.
AUTHOR: Gary Zukav
The Seat of the Soul and Soul Stories (reviewed on one page).
A third Zukav book, one on physics, was reviewed under the Thematic Reviews category.
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