This is a place holder page for the Meeting library cataloguing project, and for the catalogue itself!
Catalogue
The Meeting Library catalogue is here, and uses the librarything online catalogue.
Book/Pamphlet reviews
Guidelines for Submitting Book/Pamphlet Reviews
Send draft reviews to Matthew Manera (librarian@viquakers.ca)
Reviews should be a maximum of 2 pages long, single-spaced, Tahoma, 12 pt. The title of the book you are reviewing should include the call number (Dewey Decimal number or Fiction call) found on the spine of the book. As librarian, I will do any necessary editing for grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. and mail it to you for approval before sending it to the Fern Street News editor for posting. If you have any further questions about the process, email Matthew.
- The Wisdom of John Woolman by Reginald Reynolds (921 W00)
This book is in two parts: the first is an Introduction and a series of essays by Reynolds on John Woolman; the second consists of excerpts from Woolman’s writings. It is, therefore, an excellent introduction to John Woolman if you are coming to him for the first time. Reynolds sets the stage quite well, putting the life of Woolman (1720-1772) into an historical and religious context. As a Quaker, Woolman focused his energies on the plight of Negro slaves and on the abuse of Indians [the most commonly used designation of Indigenous peoples in Woolman’s time]. He writes that… Read more: The Wisdom of John Woolman by Reginald Reynolds (921 W00) - Against the Machine. On the Unmaking of Humanity
By Paul Kingsnorth (383.064 KIN) Kingsnorth—novelist, poet, essayist—addresses what he calls the age of the Machine, where state power merges with tech power, potentially resulting in the unmaking of humanity. Though we “have every gadget and recipe and website and storefront and exotic holiday in the world available to us, […] we are lacking two things that we seem to need, but grasp at nonetheless: meaning and roots.” Kingsnorth argues that our culture—a story that a people tells itself—is not dying, but already dead, and the culprit is civilization—the growth of cities that have overwhelmed the culture of the… Read more: Against the Machine. On the Unmaking of Humanity - The Hicksite Separation: A Sociological Analysis of
Religious Schism in Early Nineteenth Century America By Robert W. Doherty (289.6 DOH) This book traces the sociological or societal, as well as the religious, issues, particularly in the Philadelphia area of 19th century America, that led to the so-called Hicksite Separation (named after Elias Hicks) of 1827. Doherty points out that the early 19th century Quakers in and around Philadelphia headed towards this separation because they “lacked any institutional means for resolving conflict.” There were problems with methods of appointment and with jurisdiction, and with the fact that all decisions were supposed to be unanimous. As for their… Read more: The Hicksite Separation: A Sociological Analysis of - Rufus Jones. Essential Writings
Selected with and Introduction by Kerry Walters (289.6 JON) At his birth in Maine in 1863, Rufus Jones’s Aunt Peace said of him, “This child will one day bear the message of the Gospel to distant lands and to peoples across the sea.” And so, he did. By the time he was four years old, he said that he “had formed the habit of using corporate silence in a heightening and effective way.” In his undergraduate years at Haverford College, he studied religion, philosophy, and history, and wrote his senior thesis on mysticism. In 1917, he was one of… Read more: Rufus Jones. Essential Writings - A Librarian Muses about LibrariesIf, as a librarian, I allow myself some time to muse about libraries, it is only fitting that I begin with reference to the great Library at Alexandria in Egypt, which is believed to have been instituted by Ptolemy II, pharaoh and basileus of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, sometime in the 3rd century BCE. It formed part of the Mouseion, a place dedicated to the Muses. At its height, it is said to have contained up to 400,000 papyrus scrolls. At their best, libraries, of whatever size and grandeur, are repositories of the human endeavour to know about our world,… Read more: A Librarian Muses about Libraries
- Jung and the Quaker Way by Jack H. Wallis (289.6092 WAL)
If you’re familiar with Quaker practice, but not with the psychological principles of Carl Jung, this book is a good introduction to Jung, as well as being an interesting perspective on the intersection of his principles with Quakerism. Jung, like Quakers, believed “that any true religion should be founded on experience, not on dogma, doctrine or a dutiful faith.” Jung had little interest in theology, but an intense interest in religion. He maintained, as Wallis says, that it is “the province of religion and psychology to work together in helping individuals towards integration, balance, and wholeness.” Wallis, via Jung,… Read more: Jung and the Quaker Way by Jack H. Wallis (289.6092 WAL) - On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century By Timothy Snyder (321.9 SNY)
Reviewed by Matthew Manera. Though this book was published in 2017 and deals with the aftermath of Trump’s election in 2016, it applies just as well, perhaps even more so, to where we are in 2025. Snyder begins with a Prologue on History and Tyranny to set the stage for the rest of the book. The second of these twenty lessons is “Defend Institutions,” in which he writes, “The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions—even when that is exactly what they have announced that they will do.”… Read more: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century By Timothy Snyder (321.9 SNY) - Review: Friends for 300 Years by Howard H. Brinton (289.6 BRI)
Reviewed by Matthew Manera. Brinton’s overview of Quakerism, unlike Elfrida Vipont’s The Story of Quakerism 1652-1952 and Ben Pink Dandelion’s An Introduction to Quakerism, “is not”, as Brinton says in his Introduction, “to produce a history of Quakerism, but, by means of historical illustrations, to examine a method.” In this way, it is a useful complement to these two books. Brinton examines early Quakerism by focusing on George Fox’s pastoral Epistles and Robert Barclay’s Apology, the former portraying “Quakerism as felt,” or experienced; the latter portraying “Quakerism as thought about.” I’m trusting that those of you who read this are… Read more: Review: Friends for 300 Years by Howard H. Brinton (289.6 BRI) - Review of A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski (Fic SLO)
Reviewed by Alex Roberts Ever heard of Quaker science fiction? In 1986, Joan Slonczewski published a novel set on the distant aquatic planet of Shora, whose inhabitants resist an extractive military-colonial force with the power of nonviolent resistance. Some parts of it will feel familiar to Friends, and not just because the amphibious people of Shora, called “Sharers,” seem to be organized around a seafaring system of Monthly Meetings! The story begins with a young man, a citizen of the colonial empire, who is brought to Shora by two Sharers who want to see if an outsider can learn their… Read more: Review of A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski (Fic SLO) - Book Review: This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared…
Matthew Manera’s Review of This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared. The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation by Rabbi Alan Lew (296.43 LEW) At first glance, this is a book about the Jewish High Holidays, and, of course, it is. But though it addresses the specific holidays, from Tisha B’Av [the day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem] to Sukkot [the autumnal harvest festival], it speaks to anyone who is concerned with spiritual transformation. All significant religious texts will overlap in some degree when it comes to the most substantial understanding of… Read more: Book Review: This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared… - Book Review: Barclay’s Apology in Modern English
Matthew Manera’s Review of “Barclay’s Apology in Modern English (289.6 BAR)” July 2025 “What I have written comes more from what I have heard with the ears of my soul. I have declared what my inward eyes have seen and what my hands have handled of the Word of Life. It is what has been inwardly manifested to me of the things of God.” So writes Robert Barclay at the beginning of his Apology, which consists of fifteen theological theses, or propositions, published in 1676 in Latin, then in English in 1678. It should be noted that this edition… Read more: Book Review: Barclay’s Apology in Modern English - Review: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Review: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (150.195 FRA) by Matthew Manera June 2025 This book by Frankl, a leading European psychiatrist in the mid-twentieth century, originally written in 1946, is in three parts: “Experiences in a Concentration Camp; “Logotherapy in a Nutshell”; and “The Case for Tragic Optimism,” a postscript written in 1984. Part One: Experiences in a Concentration Camp Frankl explains at the outset that this section answers the question, “How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?” He observes that there were three phases of the inmate’s… Read more: Review: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
