The Legend of the Fire Horse Woman by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Kensington Books, 2003. 329 pages. $15. By Eric Paul Shaffer When I opened The Legend of the Fire Horse Woman by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, I was expecting memoir, a personal account of historical events. I expected memoir because Jeanne Wakatsuki’s first book, co-authored with husband James D. … [Read more...] about Following the Fire Horse
A View of the Top from the Path
A Rare and Precious Thing: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Working with a Spiritual Teacher by John Kain, 2006, Crown Publishing Group, 2006, 288 pages, $23. Call me a religious skeptic, but the only people I really believe answer to a higher authority are the good folks at Hebrew National Beef Franks. They make some damn fine wieners. But God or gods, in whichever … [Read more...] about A View of the Top from the Path
Humility in Four Easy Lessons
Fame is not only elusive, it’s mean. It’s mean to everyone, famous or not. The famed complain about it, and the fameless lust after fame with a passion that makes a panting drop-kick dog humping your ankle seem coy. The itch for recognition is one you often can’t quite reach, and it’ll teach you to be humble. Just like Emily Dickinson, I’m nobody. Although with respect to Easy … [Read more...] about Humility in Four Easy Lessons
The Stupidest Angel
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Chris Moore gave to me 12 stupendous moments… The Stupidest Angel is a great Christmas novel. Death is funny—especially when it happens to someone else. And what better venue for disaster than a Christmas novel? One dude is a jerk jock hoping for heroism and the other a real(tor) A-hole, a contemptible homo sapiens no-thinking … [Read more...] about The Stupidest Angel
‘Da Language Dat We Breathe’
Lee A. Tonouchi is known as “Da Pidgin Guerrilla.” He’s a fierce advocate of the language folks on the islands call “pidgin.” As far as I know, everything he does and says and writes is in pidgin. Hawaiian pidgin is a Creole of languages evolved to facilitate communication among the many cultures meeting and mixing in the Hawaiian Islands through the 1800s and 1900s. Various … [Read more...] about ‘Da Language Dat We Breathe’