Need a small last minute gift to fill out a Christmas present?
Consider a new book.
People from many walks of life are fascinated by bells, and “Bells: Music, Art, Culture & Politics from Around the World,” by Jaan Whitehead, looks at bells from many of those angles.
This lovely hardback begins with the author’s great-grandmother Nannie Spelman Melville who in 1924 sailed around the world on a three-year trip by herself.
Melville picked up handbells along the way. These were passed to granddaughter and then to the author.
Owning the bells drew the author into the world of bell collecting. This in turn combined with her education in politics, economy, art and culture. Whitehead began traveling to seek out bells and their stories, which have become this book.
After the introduction sharing the family story, Part I includes essays on the history and culture of bells and on the music of bells.
The rest of the book tells stories of bells in geographic regions: Asia and Africa, Britain, Europe and Russia, and America.
Some of the bells are well-known: Big Ben and the Liberty Bell. Others have deep religious meaning. One even lives in space.
The stories of each are told in words and photos. Even the music for the “Westminster Quarters,” the familiar chime of Big Ben played on many clocks, is given in the book.
This is a beautiful book compiling what bells mean in the history of humans.
A glimpse at African American religion
For those interested in African American religion, a small photo volume has been released.
“Double Exposure: Movements, Motions, Moments” is filled with photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
It starts with two short essays and then has many photos of Black Americans in their spiritual practice.
Some are expected: photos of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson and Malcolm X. Harriet Tubman’s funeral is included. Photos of other leaders are included.
Other photos are scenes of everyday spiritual life around the country. Not all are Christian; some are of Muslims, Spiritualists, and other movements.
The photos stretch from the beginnings of photography itself through the early 2000s. Most are black and white with a few modern color prints.
What does AI have to say?
A book for the geek in your life or for those who love exploring the depths of thought is “What Makes Us Human?”
It is written by Iain S. Thomas, a poet, Jasmine Wang, a philosopher and researcher, and GPT-3, an artificial intelligence developed by Open AI.
GPT-3 was fed 570 GB of writings, including the Bible, the Quran, Tao Te Ching, Egyptian Book of the Dead, poetry from Rumi, lyrics from Leonard Cohen and much more. Then it was asked basic questions, including “What is love?” “What is true power?” What do I do when people are unkind to me?” and “Where should I focus my attention?”
Then GPT-3 was asked about 200 of the late-night philosophical questions humans have.
Suffering, how we should live, what is childhood, our focus in many areas of life, legacy, prayer, death, life and more are asked and answered.
The book is fascinating and creepy. A machine answered these questions, albeit based on human writing, but what happens when the machine is given a different set of data?
Another book about questions
Danish author Svend Brinkman wrote “My Year With God,” which is a look at his journal for a year.
Each month, Brinkman concentrated on a different question and grappled with it.
January was “Why a book about God?”
April asked, “Does faith work?” and August, “Could there be multiple gods?”
An important question for November was “What about doubt?”
December looks at what Brinkmann learned in the 12 months.
