The White Rose (The Day the World Looked Up) by Theodore Norbert Bromley (Reign of Blessings, 194 pages, price unknown, paper) is the sort of book that gives the term "New Age" a bad name. Stanley, growing up in a devout Catholic family in Yellowknife, recognizes early in his youth that he is drawn to crystals. When he befriends Marita, a new girl in his class, he discovers that her grandmother is his spiritual guide. He continues to learn more about crystals and his own spiritual nature until, in adulthood, he is called forward to meet his destiny-which is to save the world by projecting an octahedron-shaped energy field into the sky above the United Nations building.

Clichés run rampant throughout the book, and the writing itself is an embarrassment. Anyone who feels the urge for a New Age fix would do better to re-read The Celestine Prophecy