Review of The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle

The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle is the story of a young man named Adam Eddington who has landed a summer job abroad with a renowned marine biologist, Dr. Calvin O'Keefe. Due to unforeseen circumstances he winds up caught in the middle of an international conspiracy between Dr. O'Keefe and those that would steal his work. Adam must figure out who he can trust and decide whose side he wants to be on, but this decision is not as simple as he would like.

This book was an ok read. It was mostly a mystery thriller type novel with some light science fiction mixed in. The scientific concepts presented in the book were very interesting and there was a good bit of action as well. I'm not sure I entirely liked where the book ended though and felt it could have done with one more chapter to provide some additional closure, but I suppose the author wanted to leave that up to the reader's imagination. This book crosses over with L'Engle's Time Quintet series and features characters from that series, but all grown up with children of their own. This book takes place between books four and five of the Time Quintet and while it's not necessary to read the first four books before reading this book, I would recommend reading this book before reading the fifth book of the Time Quintet.

Review of Awakening: A Sufi Experience by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Awakening: A Sufi Experience by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan gives a good overview of the beliefs and ideals of Sufism. Admittedly there was some material that was over my head, but a surprising amount of what I read was familiar to me. This is because Sufism draws from many different religions and cultures and there were concepts discussed in this book that closely resembled things I had learned when studying new age spirituality. There is a lot of emphasis on meditation in this book and it describes many different meditation and breathing exercises. Some of these I was already familiar with, but many of them were new to me. One thing that I thought was really cool about this book is that scientific principles are often used to help explain metaphysical and spiritual concepts which certainly made them easier for me to understand. I thought this was an excellent book and I'd highly recommend it to anyone new to the subject. I really enjoyed reading it and just the act of reading this book helped me to feel more peaceful.

"If you think that you are handicapped in some way, you will find that your compensation for it is a quality that you wouldn't have cultivated if it were not for that innate flaw. Indeed, one is never so strong as when one is broken."

~Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Awakening: A Sufi Experience

"Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you --- indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you."

~Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and Ibn al 'Arabi, Awakening: A Sufi Experience

Review of Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett

In Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett the witches of Lancre return from their travels to find that a lot has been going on in their absence. Magrat finds that her boyfriend, the king, has been arranging their wedding before even proposing to her. There's also a new group of young witches who are experimenting with magic without really knowing what they are doing. With Magrat busy with her wedding plans and trying to learn how to be a queen, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg must put a stop to this new young coven and undo the damage they've done.

This book is a hilarious parody that is a mix of The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream. It made me laugh a lot and I'd highly recommend it. Lords and Ladies takes place after Witches Abroad and while I would recommend reading that book first to understand some of the references, it's not entirely necessary. It might also help to be at least somewhat familiar with the Shakespearian plays mentioned and have some basic knowledge of quantum theories, but again it's not entirely necessary to enjoy this book.

"In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded."

~Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

Review of The Moon by Night by Madeleine L'Engle

The Moon by Night by Madeleine L'Engle is the second book in the Austin Family series and takes place a couple of years after Meet the Austins. The father of the family gets a new job and they have to move, but they decide to take a road trip/camping vacation all across the country first to bond as a family. I'd say that a lot of the book was fairly dull and just described the various places they visited, though some of the scenery descriptions were quite nice. Things did get more interesting when the main character met a guy at one of the campsites and they seemed to become instantly fascinated with each other and he actually followed/stalked her around the country much to her delight and her family's dismay. There was still a lot of dull filler type stuff after that with a few exciting events here and there, but I did enjoy reading about the budding relationship which had a lot of ups and downs. Overall I'd say that I enjoyed this book a bit more than Meet the Austins, but I probably wouldn't rate it as more than three stars. There was one brief reference to A Wrinkle in Time which really made me smile.