The Martial Arts Book by Laura Scandiffio

I was recently asked to recommend some good books on martial arts for kids. In the past, I was rather disappointed with most offerings. They were boring, commercial, talked down to kids and said nothing about ninjas. Clearly, not what the kids were looking for.

The Martial Arts Book, however, is just as comprehensive as its title suggests. It surveys the major styles of martial arts and their history, covering a lot of ground in a short, wonderful volume. Frequently martial arts books (especially those for children) have little information, are too sugar-coated, are too commercial, or are clearly biased towards one art over another. This book, however, presents all the different styles of martial arts in a fair and equal manner. The maps, pictures, and asides do an excellent job of untangling the often confusing history of martial arts. The authors do not make light of martial arts myths, either - they realize that martial arts history is as much legend as fact and that to ignore the legends is to ignore a rich history. The legends told in the book are some of the classic tales of martial arts.

Kids interested in martial arts will eat this book up. They will love seeing how how ninjas, monks, samurai, pirates and farmers gave rise to the martial arts of today. They will also love the colorful pictures and engaging layout. Parents will appreciate the emphasis on peace, compassion, and on growing internally as well as externally. Teachers will appreciate the accuracy of the information, the historical context it will give to their students, and the frank treatment of the "westernization" of martial arts.

I, personally, am impressed with how much information was packed into such a short volume in such an engaging manner.

Conquering the Impossible: my 12,000-mile Journey Around the Arctic Circle, by Mike Horn

This guy is pretty crazy! The book starts out shortly after Mike is done with his last crazy journey, which was to circumnavigate the globe around the equator. He did this on foot and in a sailboat. He decides to do this same thing around the Arctic Circle, but has no prior arctic experience whatsoever, so he hooks up with 2 people who are planning to cross Greenland by foot and after a few days they are stuck in their tents for 2 weeks because of horrendous weather and they give up on the project. Mike Horn decides he's now got enough experience to do a warm-up journey before the big one around the circle. How about a solo journey from the northernmost tip of Europe to the North Pole? With his (very little) experience he does go off on his next adventure towards the North Pole and on it he manages to get frostbite on the ends of all his fingers which ultimately makes him cancel the rest of the trip and get rescued. Back in civilization the doctors cut off the last joint of most of his fingers and thumbs and tell him he needs 2 full years of healing before he should expose his damaged fingers to extreme cold so what does he do? He plans and takes off on his trip around the Arctic Circle 4 months later. It's actually a well written and amusingly entertaining book about a guy with an amazing amount of drive.

The Divine Matrix by Gregg Braden

This review was written by Colville Library patron Ron Warsher, who specially requested this book from the library.

This is definitely a leading-edge book, almost fantasy, and hard to believe all of what it claims. Still, I'm really glad that the library chose to go ahead and purchase it.

The author looks at issues that most people (serious researchers included) ignore, due to the difficulty of integrating these insights into our normal models of how the universe works. Braden has been an explorer in the area of free energy for a number of years (which is what drew my interest initially), but this book is a bit afield from that. He stretches the mind, re-defining what may be possible.

The chapters begin with relevant quotes to get the mind THINKING. Two examples:

"Time is not at all what it seems. It does not flow only in one direction, and the future exists simultaneously with the past." - Albert Einstein [and Braden repeats this idea later in the chapter with another Einstein quote: "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."]

"There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true." - Soren Kierkegaard

It is easy to think of such ideas as "oh, clever" and then rush on with normal life. It is more difficult to ask "What is the import of these thoughts? What might the world really be like if we give these insights full standing in our thoughts?"

I cannot describe here the full extent of what Braden calls the divine matrix that connects the whole world instantaneously; but it deserves a place in our thoughts. Mind-stretching books are certainly appropriate for libraries to carry. Braden's interpretation of modern physics may or may not stand the test of time, but the journey itself is worthwhile. Thank you for making that journey possible.

-Ron Warsher