CAPSULE COMMENTS

May 1, 2008

New Books

Flowers bloom, trees leaf out, and robins nest – all over! It's May, the month that reminds us it's time to celebrate Mother's Day, Memorial Day, May Day, and Cinco de Mayo and that the Kentucky Derby and the Indianapolis 500 will be coming soon. These are big events and anniversaries, anticipated and celebrated by many.

But it’s also "Get Caught Reading Month", a perfect time to pick up Remarkable Reads : 34 Writers and Their Adventures in Reading, or The Book That Changed My Life : Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists, or maybe Reading Rooms : America's Foremost Writers Celebrate Our Public Libraries with Stories, Memoirs, Essays, and Poems. Harold Bloom’s How to Read and Why is also ready and waiting. Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish essayist and historian, said, "All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books". And the Belle of Amherst, Emily Dickinson, wrote, "There is no frigate like a book to take us worlds away". To them, and everyone represented in these books, reading ranks with the necessities of life, not the luxuries, as vital to personal well-being as clean air to breathe.

"National Meditation Month" is also observed in May. Dr. Jeffrey Brantley, founder and director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program at Duke University’s Center for Integrative Medicine, offers helpful and engaging suggestions for making simple and effective changes – five minutes at a time – in Five Good Minutes : 100 Morning Practices to Help You Stay Calm & Focused All Day Long and in Five Good Minutes in the Evening : 100 Mindful Practices to Help You Unwind from the Day & Make the Most of Your Night. Coming from a different angle, Richard Chilson explores meditation, not only in Yoga and Buddhism, but in Tai Chi, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in his book Meditation (part of the series Exploring a Great Spiritual Practice). This text might appeal to readers who would like to explore the ancient discipline without feeling they have to embrace the principles of a specific religion.

"National Preservation Month" is observed in May and anyone who would like to get in the spirit can read Along the Towpath : a Journalist Rediscovers the Ohio & Erie Canal by Al Simpson published in 2003. It is based on the author's series of articles which originally appeared in the Canton Repository from the fall of 1964 through early 1970. The Ohio & Erie Canal Corridor starts at Lake Erie in Cleveland and ends in Zoar in Tuscarawas County, some portions of the trail still being finished. It’s free for the walking, close by, and beautiful any time of the year.

May is also "Older Americans Month". Sherwin B. Nuland has lately penned The Art of Aging : a Doctor's Prescription for Well-being, in which he doesn’t sugar-coat the passing of the years but reminds us of the possibilities that time affords. Interestingly, one chapter is devoted to Michael DeBakey, who, at age 99, has just received the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor, for a lifetime of achievement in medicine, including his cardiac surgery advances, helping to create the military's Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (the MASH units), and inventing many medical devices and procedures. True, few will achieve similar distinction or fame. But Nuland encourages his readers to do their very best today, both physically and spiritually, because today is what we have – and because it is the foundation of tomorrow.