Advent countdowns go far beyond everyday gifts | Entertainment/Life

Need a last minute gift to complete a Christmas present?

Consider a new book.

People from all walks of life are fascinated by bells, and Jaan Whitehead’s Bells: Music, Art, Culture & Politics from Around the World examines bells from many of these 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 bells along the way. These were passed on to the granddaughter and then to the author.

Owning the bells drew the author into the world of bell collecting. This in turn combined with his training in politics, economics, art and culture. Whitehead began traveling in search of bells and their stories, which became this book.

After the introduction sharing the family history, Part I includes essays on the history and culture of the bells and on the music of the 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 significance. We even live in space.

Everyone’s stories are told in words and pictures. Even the music of Westminster wards, the familiar chime of Big Ben played on many clocks, is given in the book.

This is a beautiful book compiling what the bells mean in human history.

An Overview of African-American Religion

For those interested in African American religion, a small volume of photos has been released.

Double Exposure: Movements, Motions, Moments is filled with photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

It begins with two short essays, then contains many photos of black Americans in their spiritual practice.

Some are expected: Photos from the funerals of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson and Malcolm X. Harriet Tubman are included. Photos of other leaders are included.

Other photos are scenes of daily spiritual life across the country. All are not Christians; some are Muslims, Spiritualists and other movements.

The photos span from the early days of photography itself through the early 2000s. Most are black and white with a few modern color prints.

What does the AI ​​say?

A book for the geek in your life or for those who like to explore the depths of thought is What Makes Us Human?

It is written by Iain S. Thomas, poet, Jasmine Wang, philosopher and researcher, and GPT-3, an artificial intelligence developed by Open AI.

GPT-3 received 570 GB of writings, including the Bible, Quran, Tao Te Ching, Egyptian Book of the Dead, Rumi’s poetry, Leonard Cohen’s lyrics and more. Then basic questions were asked, including What is love? What is real power? What do I do when people are mean to me? and where should I focus my attention?

Next, GPT-3 was asked about 200 of the late-night philosophical questions humans ask.

Suffering, how we should live, what is childhood, our focus in many areas of life, inheritance, prayer, death, life and more are asked and answered.

The book is thrilling and scary. A machine answered these questions, although based on human writing, but what happens when the machine receives a different set of data?

Another book on questions

Danish author Svend Brinkman wrote My Year With God, which is a look at his diary for a year.

Each month, Brinkman focused on a different issue and tackled it.

January was Why a book about God?

April asked, does faith work? and August, Could there be many gods?

An important question for November was What about doubt?

December examines what Brinkmann has learned over the 12 months.