Sunday Book Review, May 11, 2008
May 11, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
God's cold, dark waters
Exiles: A Novel by Ron Hansen (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 228 pp., $23)
May 11, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
'The James Brown Reader,' edited by Nelson George and Alan Leeds
The James Brown Reader
May 11, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
'Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God' by Amos Nur with Dawn Burgess
WHAT IF Troy was destroyed by an earthquake? What really brought down the walls of Jericho or the Colossus of Rhodes? These are some of the questions Stanford University geophysicist Amos Nur raises in "Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God" (Princeton University Press: 324 pp., $26.95), a book that posits seismicity -- rather than invaders or social forces -- as the prime dynamic behind the fall of ancient civilizations.
May 11, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
'The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican' by Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner
MICHELANGELO studied the Kabbalah and Talmud? It's all right there, above our heads, as Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner demonstrate in their fascinating study of the Sistine Chapel, "The Sistine Secrets" (HarperOne: 336 pp., $26.95). I understand the desire to reach Dan Brown's audience with the book's provocative subtitle -- "Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican" -- but this book is hardly a "Da Vinci Code" knockoff. The authors, both experts on Judaica, scoured Michelangelo's work and found many oddities, raising such questions as: Why does the serpent in Eden have arms? Why, in that scene, is the Tree of Knowledge a fig tree instead of an apple tree? And, hey, why does the shape of "The Last Judgment" resemble the tablets of the Ten Commandments?
Calendar of literary events
Saturday, May 17
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