Review by Choice Review
Saul (emer., Royal Holloway, Univ. of London) has written a masterful account of the relationship between the English gentry and the parish church from the Norman Conquest to the early 16th century. The author of Chivalry in Medieval England (CH, Apr'12, 49-4681) and English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages (2009) combines analysis of episcopal registers and testaments with an encyclopedic knowledge of surviving church fabrics to argue that the gentry did not retreat from involvement in the parish in the late Middle Ages. Despite the popularity of domestic chapels and books of hours, the gentry remained invested in communal religious life. They built and modified churches, created family mausoleums, and established perpetual chantries, both to obtain intercession for their souls and to fulfill the responsibilities of what Saul calls "Christian lordship." Their stone tombs and heraldry made the parish church a "setting for lordly display," but the need for intercession meant that gentry families took their responsibilities as patrons and advocates seriously. By necessity, Saul employs a host of architectural terms that will be unfamiliar to many readers. Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students through faculty. --Matthew Wranovix, University of New Haven
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
IKE'S GAMBLE: America's Rise to Dominance in the Middle East, by Michael Doran. (Free Press, $17.) In the early years of his administration, President Dwight D. Eisenhower set out to woo President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. But instead of stabilizing the Middle East, the efforts helped further inflame the region. Doran's account offers a cautionary tale for contemporary diplomatic interventions. HUMAN ACTS, by Han Kang. Translated by Deborah Smith. (Hogarth, $15.) The 1980 massacre of student protesters in South Korea is the subject of this novel, as a teenager searches for his best friend's corpse. Han, who won the Man Booker International Prize for "The Vegetarian," helps readers "witness the impossibly large spectrum of humanity, and wonder how it is that one end could be so different from the other," our reviewer, Nami Mun, wrote. OTHER MINDS: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, by Peter Godfrey-Smith. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16.) Humans and cephalopods appear to have little in common but share some crucial characteristics, including complex nervous systems. Godfrey-Smith's investigation takes him millions of years into the past and miles below sea level. As he put it: "When you dive into the sea, you are diving into the origin of us all." HIMSELF, by Jess Kidd. (Washington Square Press/Atria, $16.) The supernatural and the past commingle in Kidd's debut novel. A mysterious letter leads Mahoney, a car thief in Dublin, back to his childhood village, where he was left at the door of an orphanage. As he untangles his family's history and coaxes out village gossip, he's joined by a bored, aging actress. "Add poisoned scones and letter bombs, and you have a fast-paced yarn that nimbly soars," our reviewer, Katharine Weber, said. ON LIVING, by Kerry Egan. (Riverhead, $16.) As a hospice chaplain, Egan writes, she deals in the "spiritual work of dying." Some patients asked her to share their stories, which resonate long after their death; Egan uses her book to recount them, along with reflections on her work and the issues surrounding end-of-life care. Together, these perspectives offer a guide for how to live with urgency and meaning. A GAMBLER'S ANATOMY, by Jonathan Lethem. (Vintage, $16.95.) Alexander Bruno - a debonair expat backgammon player with telepathic capabilities - travels the world beating wealthy opponents at the game. But when a tumor causes him to collapse during a high-stakes match in Berlin, he returns to California for an experimental treatment, on a wealthy childhood friend's dime.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 12, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Philosophers don't usually practice their discipline at the bottom of the sea, but, for Godfrey-Smith, observing and videotaping octopuses in the wild have provided invaluable keys to the evolution of consciousness. In an engrossing blend of avidly described underwater adventures off the coast of Australia in what he dubbed Octopolis for its unusual congregation of busy cephalopods, and a fluid inquiry into the brain-body connection, Godfrey-Smith considers the protean nature of the octopus, a complex animal utterly divergent in its evolutionary trajectory from our own. Nonchalantly elucidating complex concepts, he describes the octopus' decentralized nervous system, phenomenally malleable body, and multihued light-show skin, all propelled by a mischievously curious and intrepid intelligence, well illustrated by lively tales about laboratory octopuses with attitude. Godfrey-Smith also performs an exceptionally revealing deep dive into the evolutionary progression from sensing to acting to remembering to the coalescence of the inner voice, thus tracking the spectrum between sentience and consciousness. Godfrey-Smith concludes with wonder The mind evolved in the sea, which is the origin of us all and concern: the sea must be defended and preserved.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Deftly blending philosophy and evolutionary biology, Godfrey-Smith (Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection), an Australian philosopher of science, uses his passion for cephalopods to address "how consciousness arose from the raw materials found in living beings." Comparing vertebrate consciousness and intelligence with that of cephalopods is not as odd as it might seem, because "cephalopods are evolution's only experiment in big brains outside of the vertebrates." Godfrey-Smith demonstrates that octopuses are constructed from a dramatically different plan than vertebrates, with each of their arms having the ability to act and sense their environment semi-autonomously from their central brains. This striking difference raises intriguing questions about the nature of communication within organisms, as well as about the meaning of intelligence. Godfrey-Smith couples his philosophical and scientific approach with ample and fascinating anecdotes as well as striking photography from his numerous scuba dives off the Australian coast. He makes the case that cephalopods demonstrate a type of intelligence that is largely "alien" to our understanding of the concept but is no less worthy of wonder. He also ponders how and why such intelligence developed in such short-lived creatures (they generally live only a few years). Godfrey-Smith doesn't provide definitive answers to his questions, but the journey he leads is both thoroughly enjoyable and informative. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
What happens when a scuba-diving philosopher observing an octopus realizes that the octopus is observing him? The answer is this book: Godfrey-Smith (philosophy, CUNY Graduate Ctr.; Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection) weaves his undersea experiences with octopuses and cuttlefish with scientific and philosophical analysis. Conscious awareness has evolved more than once, Godfrey-Smith explains, as he investigates these otherworldly creatures and their ways of experiencing their aquatic environment. Avoiding technical scientific data, he -focuses instead on a few key evolutionary concepts explained by means of simple analogies comprehensible to the general reader. Philosophically-oriented readers will be left wanting more precise explorations of the nature of consciousness, self-consciousness, awareness, sentience, and so on. Others will wish the author had more imaginatively conceived the creature's inner life. Godfrey-Smith ultimately stops short of such speculations, remaining the outside observer, a philosopher of science, even while haunting the imagination of readers after the book's covers are closed to wonder, "What is experience like for them?" VERDICT Godfrey-Smith's forays into philosophical analysis here are immanently readable. [See Prepub Alert, 6/19/16.]-Steve Young, McHenry Cty. Coll., Crystal Lake, IL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
