The Spell of The Sensuous by David Abram

A local author who also understands the non-human world -
          'Anna Birch' author of best-seller 'Call the Vet' 

If you're looking for depth and greater connection with the non-human world around you on holiday, this might be a good find.

A fine 'first book'. David Abram weaves magic around the very words you are reading, taking them back to their oral roots. In so doing, we find ourselves plunged into the sensuous world of 'other' or non-human.

Any lover of language, ecology or interested in how as a race we have become so dependent on the landscape of our minds to satisfy us rather than the intimacy of the landscape needs to read this book. Abram demonstrates in his own sensuous way how we may have become 'literally misplaced' as our worlds speak from the page rather than from the prairie. Rich narrative draws on his own experience as a magician in Indonesia, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling as well as  philosophical sources such as Merleau-Ponty.

A poignant study that reminds us, 'We have forgotten the poise that comes from living in storied relation and reciprocity with the myriad things, the myriad beings, that perceptually surround us.'  This is a book that gives you permission to lay down your book, gaze at the sky and listen to the crickets or rustling wind in the trees...