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The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines That Divide Us
The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines That Divide Us
Nick Hayes | 2020 | History & Politics, Natural World
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Book of Trespass is a non-fiction book that looks at how the land and waterways in England used to belong to everyone as Common Land, and afternoon various acts of Parliament, they were enclosed and sold to the highest bidder. People who were able to previously eke out a living on shared, common land, found themselves without income, food, a place to live, and forced to work for the family that now owned what had been everyone’s.

Fast forward a few centuries, the few rich people still own the majority of the land in the UK, and seem to guard it jealously. There’s no way that they can use all that land, but they won’t share it. In fact, the law backs them up - if you trespass, you could be prosecuted.

Nick Hayes has written a book where he charts the history of how land has changed ownership from the many to the few, the links to colonisation and the slave trade, those who have fought to keep us and our world safe and he stages his own rebellions throughout the book. He takes us over the fences and walls to look at the land we wouldn’t otherwise see (and the descriptions are beautiful, you can feel the love he has for the countryside). He shows us that this is not a communist ideal, as some would think. In countries such as Sweden, Norway and closer to home, Scotland, there is a culture of space for all. Maybe if we could all use this land, we would learn how to best look after it.

The added bonus were the pictures (woodcuts) - bold and beautiful.

I’m already trying to think of people who would appreciate this book as a gift. It’s definitely a book to share.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and Nick Hayes for making this book available for us to read!
  
The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story
The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story
Kate Summerscale | 2020 | History & Politics, Mystery, Paranormal
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Haunting of Alma Fielding is the non-fiction account of Nando Fodor and his investigation in to the haunting of a London housewife. Fodor was a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and worked for the International Institute for Psychical Research. When Fodor was tipped off about a possible poltergeist haunting, he rushed to Alma’s house to try and work out what exactly was going on. He was scrupulous. He involved trusted mediums, wrote detailed notes (lucky for us!) and whilst reading the book, it became obvious that Fodor became obsessed. His obsession however, had a deleterious effect on Alma. The more access to her that he had, the more physically ill she seemed to become and the more she seemed to be haunted.

There does seem to be a theme of obsession running through this with regards to Fodor. I was never quite sure if his obsession was with Alma’s haunting, or with Alma herself. She was an attractive woman, after all. He would certainly have been stopped a lot sooner if this had happened today (but I do wonder whether this would have happened at all).

The historical background and the build up to the Second World War was very interesting, and I enjoyed the historical detail throughout. I also liked that there was an ending. Summerscale researched up to the deaths of those involved - I appreciated that closure. But what interesting lives these people had!

This was a great story for a sceptic like me. Ghost stories fascinate me. I don’t believe that there are ghosts, but I still like that they have the ability to unnerve and scare me! And this was certainly unnerving!

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this book. I probably would have gone on the waiting list at the library because of the (well-deserved) buzz around it, but I really do much prefer not having to wait and reading along with my fellow pigeons!
  
Jewels of Truth: The Journey of the Soul Continues, Vol. 3
Jewels of Truth: The Journey of the Soul Continues, Vol. 3
Atrayo | 2015 | Mind, Body & Spiritual
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Genre: Non-fiction, Spiritual, Non-romance

Page Count: 258 pages

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Your spiritual journey of self-improvement continues in volume three of the Jewels of Truth series by Ivan A. Pozo-Illas, a.k.a. Atrayo. In this new compendium of 365 statements of spiritual wisdom, Atrayo shares daily inspirational tools to explore all of the must-haves in your life, including love, faith, forgiveness, and certainly, God(dess).


From these poignant and concise statements, rather than lengthy diatribes, you can easily and quickly find the essential kernel of truth to help you on your journey today.

No matter your religious or spiritual traditions or background, this volume is written from an all-inclusive perspective. Jewels of Truth: The Journey of the Soul Continues is the sacred and uplifting result of clairvoyant automatic writing as the genesis motivation to reach the masses. The channeled spirit teachers are all angelic in divine nature. They are nameless as a united continuum of the Holy Spirit.

Spirituality has a core need in our lives. No matter where you are on your journey, these messages of hope are shared in love.

Let me start off by saying that I am really not qualified to be reviewing this book. Ivan A. Pozo-Illas was generous enough to donate to the Borgen Project in exchange for an honest review. While I am happy to do it, I am probably not doing this book justice.

As someone with absolutely no background in philosophy or religion, this was a difficult book to get through and review.

I do know that despite the author’s claims of it being all-inclusive for all religious backgrounds, the book was more tilted to the Christian faith, with most of the proverbs talking about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. There were plenty of mentions of God(dess) as well, which was the basically only indication these statements of wisdom were not strictly for Christian. While Mohammed, Buddha, and Krishna are mentioned maybe four times, and always in a list of other important religious figures from different religions (never for their specific teachings), Jesus is mentioned 22 times, usually in passages like this:

It has been written in the Biblical New Testament that “Jesus the Christ” once stated that to enter the “Kingdom of God” one must be as innocent as a child in spirit.

On top of that, these statements of wisdom, to me at least, were pretty long and wordy. It was difficult to get through. A lot of the time I did not understand what was being said, but that could just be chalked up to my own ignorance on the subject.

This is probably more useful to people more educated about spirituality than me, but it is definitely not for the everyday person, at least not most of it. There were some things that were interesting, like this quote celebrating diversity in religions.

No one religion can have a monopoly on God and/or on his favoritism. To say so is a lie and a sin to the diversity within Creation itself.