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Susan Brind Morrow

Author of The Names of Things

4+ Works 268 Members 11 Reviews

About the Author

Susan Brind Morrow was born in the Finger Lake region of New Yokr. She attended Barnard College, studying Arabic and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Morrow translated contemporary Arabic poetry and ancient Egyptian folk tales into English and worked on an archaeological survey in the Western Desert. Her show more book, The Name of Things: A Passage in the Egyptian Desert, tells of her adventures among the nomads of the Red Sea Hills. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Susan Brind Morrow

Associated Works

MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 1991 (1991) — Author "The Sea Peoples" — 17 copies

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Common Knowledge

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Reviews

Kept trying but just couldn't get seem to through this book. Finally gave up. Guess the writing style just wasn't my cup of tea.
 
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ellink | 6 other reviews | Jan 22, 2024 |
A collection of nature essays by a linguist, it's lyrical but disjointed and scattered, like reading scattered pages of her personal journal.
 
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Charon07 | 2 other reviews | Jul 16, 2021 |
I don't remember how exactly this book ended up on my to-read list, but after reading the novel The Pyramid Texts (unrelated, except the pyramids), I decided to finally put in an ILL-request for this book.

This book was amazing and awe-inspiring and sometimes repetitive and insightful and refreshing and made me rethink a lot of what I thought I knew about the birth of Christianity.

Morrow challenges the primitive, mythological, and coarse translations by Egyptologists of the earliest known pyramid hieroglyphs, and she does so in no uncertain terms. She brings us a new translation, rooted in poetry and astronomy, and with a contextual understanding of Egyptian culture. The result is a revelation -- much more accessible and recognizable -- both in the stars and in the countless ways the Egyptians shaped modern life -- from the Greeks to the early Christians to today.

I was sometimes frustrated with the organization of this book -- with its commentary and explanations sometimes so separated from the verses being referred to. But there is such an embarrassment of riches here for further thought. There were so many passing references that I wanted to delve into. I would like to borrow Morrow's brain for a little while. There is so much beyond what was the focus of this particular book that I was fascinated by. I've added another of her books on language to my to-read list, but I think I'm going to have to look up some comparative religion as well.
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1 vote
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greeniezona | Dec 1, 2017 |
This short book is just packed with word pictures of the natural world; with simple facts about bees and coyotes and apples (or figs); with bits of history, word origins and geology. And much to my delight, it is centered around all of those things as they exist (or once did) in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, a place I love and recognize. It wanders a bit, or sometimes feels as though it's wandering, but ultimately everything fits together in a personal way. I think it is absolutely brilliant, and belongs on the shelf with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and High Tide in Tucson and everything John McPhee and Stephen Jay Gould wrote.… (more)
½
 
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laytonwoman3rd | 2 other reviews | Jun 17, 2016 |

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Works
4
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268
Popularity
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Rating
3.9
Reviews
11
ISBNs
17
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