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The January, 2010 Carnival of Children's Literature is up at Jenny's Wonderland of Books. The theme is "Winter Wonderland," but not all posts relate to the theme. It looks like an interesting bunch of posts. Personally, I think I'm going to have to check out the "Secret of the Puking Penguins" book; it sounds fascinating! Thanks to Jenny for all her hard work putting this together!

If you aren't familiar with blog carnivals, they're a monthly roundup of posts that generally rotates from blog to blog. It's a great way to see what people have been posting about recently, learn about new books, and find great new blogs to follow. Anastasia Suen has a great page with information about the Carnival of Children's Literature, including the 2010 schedule. The February Carnival will be hosted at Whispers of Dawn.

Mark Booth surveys "The Age of Freemasonry" in his new book The Secret History of the World, recently published by Overlook. Included in a fascinating chapter on the secret mission of freemasonry are some interesting bits on George Washington, whose birthday we will celebrate this President's Day weekend. Washington, Booth notes, was initiated as a Freemason in 1752, and eventually became a "Master Mason," the highest rank you can achieve as a Freemason. Who were the original Freemasons? What do they believe, and what influence have they had on the world? Find out in The Secret History of the World.

Mark Booth's incendiary study of the world's secret societies, The Secret History of the World, lands on The New York Times Bestseller List at #32 for the week of February 3.

The Secret History of the World explores the stories and teachings put forward by the various cults, societies, and Mystery Schools throughout history. Charging through time and space, Booth produces nothing short of an alternate account of the past three thousand years.

Mark Booth, author of The Secret History of the World, will be Scott Cluthe's guest on "Positively Incorrect," broadcast nightly on the Sirius Satellite Network (channel 114) and streamed LIVE on Lime Radio.

The Secret History of the World examines the various secret societies throughout history. ForeWord Magazine recently commented: "Booth's luminous prose, his fast-paced storytelling, and his astonishing breadth and depth of knowledge about a multitude of secret societies provide breathtaking glimpses into worlds that heretofore have been little explored."

Maybe Sean Penn has a point. The San Francisco Chronicle seems a little dazed and confused these days, especially after reading Simon Apted Maxwell's bizarre review of Mark Booth's The Secret History of the World this weekend. Maxwell, an assistant editor at Lapham's Quarterly, seems most offended by Booth's wide-ranging survey of the influence of Secret Societies: "Concocting a sort of literary Long Island Iced Tea, Booth throws every liquor he can find into his cocktail. The predictable result is overwrought, overflavored and overblown. A Long Island Iced Tea can be an entire night's worth of drinking in one glass; Booth's history is an attempt to cram an entire library's worth of scholarship into a single volume."

Mark Booth's controversial new book, The Secret History of the World, is now in bookstores across the country. After a lifetime of research, Booth offers nothing less than a complete history of the world, from beginning of time to the present day, based on the beliefs and writings of the secret societies. Based in London, Mark Booth is also blogging away under the non de plume of Jonathan Black, offering his views on secret societies, esoteric teaching, and the world at large with his inside-out thinking.

Dear Friends,
I don’t write letters very often in support of our books. This one is really worth special attention. The world has always been interested in something other than what our moms or dads told us, what our teachers told us, what our churches told us, what the media told us. As we get older there’s often a deep suspicion about received wisdom. In a new book that arrives in bookstores this week,The Secret History of the World, brilliant editor and author Mark Booth has, after a lifetime of research, assembled a book that looks at the deepest histories of our universe and of our world—three thousand years of hidden knowledge and wisdom. Booth’s is a relentless approach, charging through time and space and thought in interdisciplinary fashion: Booth covers Lewis Carroll, Philip K. Dick, Schrödinger, Duchamp, and Bob Dylan with equal flair; and he deals with the subjects of Cognitive Science, Religion, Psychology, Historiography, and of course Philosophy in drawing up this new history of our world. I don’t think Overlook has ever published a book at once so marvelously speculative and so solemnly grounded by research into the corners of our lives and often the well springs of our religious and political beliefs, whether they be Greek and Egyptian mythology, Jewish folklore, Christian cults, Gnosticism, early American philosophy, Catholic conspiracy theory, Freemasons, Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, and people like Shakespeare, Washington, Newton, Dostoevsky, Wagner, Hitler… all of them do more than make their appearance in these pages. I think this book will sell and sell, this season and this year, and for many years. It is certainly unlike any book we’ve ever published, nor are we likely to come upon another one. Please take a look at The Secret History of the World.

Peter Mayer
Publisher
The Overlook Press