Local author Alexandra Mason will give a talk based on her newly released book, “A Handbook for Love,” at 11 a.m. this Saturday, Jan. 7, in the McEntee Room at the Newport Public Library.
Mason’s book is based on her own struggles and experiences, the universality of religious truths across cultures throughout time, portrayals of love in literature and film, and observations regarding love by historical and current writers. In an intimate and evocative style, inspirational chapters define kinds of love, traversing the cosmic to the mundane, the music of the spheres to the reader’s own song they quietly hum. “Loving Exercises” ending each chapter help readers to liberate the love within, beginning with themselves and moving into their larger communities with mindfulness of thought and action. The book implicitly addresses contemporary social issues of egotism, disrespect and lack of empathy, including love in the time of coronavirus.
Local experts Ruth L. Miller, Dean Shrock and Brent Burford have praised this volume. Miller said, “In this wonderful little guide, Dr. Mason has done what few of us are able to do: take a complex subject and present it in a way that we can feel as well as understand what she means … a blessing indeed!” Shrock endorses its “many glimpses of wisdom into the transformative power of love. It softly and thoughtfully invites us to love, simply love. May we all gain such wonderful insights into the joy of living and creating a life filled with hope, kindness, and serenity.” And Burford calls it “a deep, thoughtful, and delightful book.” Early reviews state that “this book deserves to be widely read.”
Mason is known as the local author of “The Lighthouse Ghost of Yaquina Bay,” “Shakespeare’s Pipe,” “Shakespeare’s Money Talks,” and two volumes of poetry, “Poems Along the Way” (new versions of Tang Dynasty poems) and “Lost and Found,” a chronicle of grief and recovery. She is former dean and professor emerita from Eastern Oregon University, former president of Writers on the Edge, founder of the Northwest Poets’ Concord, and long-time member of the Tuesday Writers of Waldport.
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
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Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.