Thought Train to Pusan

I told myself I would not end this year’s Cannonball read with a review of a textbook. And so, here is the second volume of Hellblazer , which I finally managed to find over a year after I read the first volume. Though I normally can pick up a series and remember most parts of what had happened previously once I get back into it, I had trouble this time, to be honest, and needed a refresher to really start enjoying the story again. Overall, my feelings towards the Hellblazer series so far are similar to my feelings regarding the Constantine tv show that the books have now spawned: it’s a pretty good read and interesting, though there isn’t really anything that makes me feel as though I need to keep going or need to know what happens next. The best thing this series has going for it is the main character, John Constantine, who is curmudgeonly and full of personal demons that all seem to want to spill out while he fights… literal demons (and I might add that the character is what I f

One last textbook review for the year! At least that’s what I’m telling myself. In Judith Rubin’s second edition of Approaches to Art Therapy , she invites various authors and therapists to contribute chapters on their different theoretical approaches towards art therapy. These are divided into various subsets, including the psychodynamic approaches, humanistic, psycho-educational, integrative, and systemic or group therapy approaches. As with any book written with various authors making contributions, some chapters read easier and are more inviting than others. Similarly, some of the theoretical frameworks are much easier to understand and I seem better able to connect with than others. Yet, seeing a vast range of approaches to one field is always important, as all the different frameworks contribute something different that may be more useful to some patients than others, and can be integrated into a therapist’s main theoretical approach that they develop personally over time.