Book Review: Custodians of Wonder

This Sunday, you’ll find the library table in Collins Hall after the 10:30 service, where we will have some of the new acquisitions to the collection, as well as other good reading choices, some of which have been chosen by Mika Liu for display and checkout.  Look for us there on the second Sunday of each month. 

One of the new selections is a book recommended by Cal Brockman, Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions and the Last People Keeping them Alive. Here is Cal’s review:

Elliot Stein is a reporter with the BBC who hosted a feature that ran for several episodes describing rapidly disappearing and obscure skills, the people who are the last in a long line of artisans who attained those skills, what their loss will mean.

Stein witnessed the ritual and preparation and exacting creation of the last hand crafted Inca rope bridge spanning a canyon in the Amazon. He undertook a dangerous trek to meet the guardians and players of the sacred 400 year old Balaphon under constant protection in old Mali, and spent days following the last hand painted movie poster artist in Taiwan as he did his work.

Stein recorded the history and work of these and other living treasures to create a fascinating and unfamiliar world to find yourself caught up in and wanting more.

Reading the first page of the preface already had me looking forward to what other remarkable stories I would read in this collection. I was fascinated and astonished and I thoroughly enjoyed it.