Fascinating Authors

Book Review
by
John H. Manhold

Personali Trees, ISBN 9781844091911, Findhorn Press, Hardcover, 112 pages, $14.95 by Joan Klostermann-Ketels is an allegorical tale that really belongs to another, more gentle, time. In fact, the book was not published in America, but by a Press in Scotland, where even today, people occasionally “take time to smell the roses”.

The book consists of a dedication, a forward that is split into “Awakening”, Dedication and “The Four Seasons,” followed by pages where the right side provides a picture of a tree and the left a quotation that the picture might bring to mind. The author’s intent of providing something upon which the reader may spend time in thought is quite subtly emphasized by the fact that the pages are without numbers. The reader is not aware of whether he/she is on the tenth, twentieth, fiftieth, or other page.

The pictures are vivid and the quotations are from an eclectic group ranging from Ovid, Plato and Aristotle, through Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo, Victor Hugo, Tecumseh, Mark Twain and Henry David Thoreau to Albert Einstein and numerous others in between.

Joan Klostermann-Ketels has set forth a gentle, thought-provoking work that is a little nostalgic, a little sad and yet, in many ways, quite uplifting. The book is not for everyone, and most unfortunately in today’s frenetic world, perhaps will be enjoyed by few. However, if a reader will do themselves a favor and take the time to spend some time with this little book, they will be greatly rewarded.