Book arrivals

Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks (1981) includes these chapters:

• Sexism and the Black Female Slave Experience
• Continued Devaluation of Black Womanhood
• The Imperialism of Patriarchy
• Racism and Feminism: The Issue of Accountability
• Black Women and Feminism

The next three books fit the World Religion reading challenge.

A friend gave me The Visual I Ching: A New Approach to the Ancient Chinese Oracle, with cards and commentary by Oliver Perrottet. The boxed set includes not only the book, but a set of cards and a cloth for laying out the cards. A quick perusal gives me the impression that this system may be more complicated than the usual I Ching that I've seen, but I'm curious and willing to give it a try.  I must say the cards are really beautiful.

The other two are library books for children, but I have long been interested in the variety of creation stories in the world -- and I know nothing (so far) about Mayan gods and goddesses:

Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Maya ~ by Leonard Everett Fisher, 1999

From the dustjacket:  "The Ancient Maya created a remarkable civilization, one known for its skill at astronomy, mathematics, and building.  Their pyramids still dot the landscape of Central America, where they flourished more than a thousand years ago. ... Fisher describes twelve of the most important Maya gods, explaining their powers, their gifts, and their images."

In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World ~told by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Barry Moser, 1988

Twenty-five creation myths have been collected, and every one has at least one illustration.  The dust jacket gives some examples:  "In an Eskimo myth, for example, the first man pushes his way out of a pea pod.  In a story from the Kono people of Guinea, death starts the world.  A dramatic myth from China tells that the universe was originally in the shape of a hen's egg -- and from this burst the first being."

We've been hearing warnings since the late 1970s about climate change, and I've heard this book is good.  Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert was published in 2006, and I'm finally getting around to reading it.  At 194 pages, plus notes and index, it's smaller than I expected.  The book looks very reader-friendly and inviting, so maybe it won't take me very long to read through it.

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Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal?  Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids.  Susan at Color Online came up with the idea of New Crayons as a metaphor for the new books that have arrived at your house.
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So what new books have you gotten lately?