by Mary Giraudo Beck, Marvin Oliver (Illustrator)
I'm still reading Labyrinth , but it's a big hardcover, and just not very portable. I like having a book that I can
take to lunch or on the walk to the park with me. So I'll keep reading Labyrinth at home and on the weekends,
but I need a book to take with me to work. Something that I can read little bits of while I wait on a bench somewhere as
my Wife runs errands or visits the *shiver* craft store.
And I think I've got the the perfect one. Shamans and Kushtaka is a 127 page book of nine Tlingit and Haida
(Pacific Northwest Coast Natives) legends. Legends and myths from that culture are some of my favorite.
Here's the oddly short Publisher's Blurb:
"A powerful mix of history and legend dramatizes the values and traditions of Tlingit and Haida societies in Southeast
Alaska."
2 comments:
This book I am loving. The legends are great, and oddly familiar. It doesn't seem like the author has done much as far as "sprucing them up" or trying to modernize them. And that makes them even better. On the surface, the legends are enjoyable for what they are.
One layer deeper and they give insight to the lives of the natives living along the northwest coast.
Another layer, and you find lessons buried in the stories. Some that we as a society have outgrown, and some that we should try to remember again.
Another layer, and there are these half shadowed glimpses of something more universal. Something about how magic touches all of our histories, and themes in the old legends that are somehow shared with other old legends from across the globe.
This was supposed to be my carry along book while I read Labyrinth at home, but I'm having a hard time keeping myself from pulling it out of my backback and reading it INSTEAD of Labyrinth.
Finished this book Saturday (4/15) while we were visiting relatives for easter. I loved it. I've got to find more of these. I picked up a book on the Legends of Japan over the wekend, but I left it somewhere in Minnesota. Maybe I'll start in on the Celtic Myths next. Or finish that dang Labyrinth book.
Anyway.... If you like legends,or are interested in native culture this is a great book. HIGHLY reccomended. About an 8.5 on my oh-so-inaccurate rating system.
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