Windows: My Year in Books
The way out of the dehumanizing effects of modern capitalism and industrialism is not to change the system but to read good books.
— Thomas Moore, Original Self: Living with Paradox and Originality
A few years back, in The Antidote of Mirrors and Windows, I shared the following metaphor as a way to think about books and stories:
Windows and Mirrors. In the library we like to talk about how books function as windows and as mirrors.A book that is a mirror is one that you see yourself in. It’s comfortable and familiar and it makes you feel seen. It validates you, because it is someone else sharing experiences you know and feelings you have, and in doing so affirming that you are not alone. It makes you feel connected to the story, to the storyteller, and to others who also recognize themselves in that book. And, when it’s a really good mirror, it helps you realize new things about yourself. It finds words for things you know but haven’t yet figured out how to express. It helps you see dimensions of yourself you didn’t know were there, or to see them in new ways. The right book helps you see yourself more fully and accurately.A book that is a window is one that helps you see outside of yourself. It relates experiences you’ve never known, feelings you’ve never dealt with, perspectives you’ve never considered. It takes you somewhere else, gives you an opportunity to know life as someone you’ve never been. A window is for new information and new insight. It teaches empathy for difference, connection with others. A good one makes you bigger because it takes you outside of yourself in ways that, when you return, you bring some of the outside back with you. The right book helps you see the rest of the world, and those who live in it, more fully, more accurately, and with more understanding, appreciation, and love.
I'm thinking about that right now because, as I was compiling my annual list of favorite reading experiences for the end of the year, it struck me that many of them serve as windows for me. They are mirrors still in terms of being in my preferred writing styles and in feeding my confirmation biases on interests and topics, but for the most part I read them for exposure to new experiences and ideas. I'm pretty sure I would not be able to say the same for most years. My 2025 reading journey was more exploratory than most.
Read, not published, in 2025, though on the recent side for the most part. "When people write reviews, they are really writing a kind of memoir--here's what MY experience was eating at this restaurant or getting my hair cut at this barbershop." - John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed.
Anderson, M. T.
(Adult Fiction) M.T. Anderson doesn't simply tell stories. He conveys language, eras, settings, personalities, and worlds. He creates characters to embody the stories and let's them tell the stories in their own particular vernacular and style. This is one such book. In the middle of the middle ages, in southern Italy, a mild, inexperienced, and sequestered monk mentions he had a dream and finds himself suddenly swept up in political schemes, religious manipulations, and an international heist. He is drafted to join a deceitful expedition, along with a host miscreants and irredeemable sorts, to cross the ocean to the coast of western Asia and steal the bones of St. Nicholas. It quickly turns into a wild and rollicking misadventure full of unexpected turns, disastrous moments, and hilarious improvisation. The unlikeliest of adventures, made all the more amazing by the fact that Anderson's tale is based on actual events--"My primary sources for the novel were the two stunningly detailed contemporary accounts of the theft," he writes in the afterword. It is an incredible historical adventure conveyed with that particular M.T. Anderson accuracy and flair. Delightful.
Yong, Ed
(Adult Nonfiction) A delightful book that explores the many different types, forms, and varieties of senses that exist among the many different creatures of the world. All the diverse ways that animals can see, hear, taste, smell, and touch that we can't. Extreme examples for every sense--hearing at high frequencies and at low, at high volumes and low, etc.--how each sense has developed in different ways for different circumstances and uses. Yong is an informative, accessible, and entertaining writer, and his book is both endlessly fascinating and full of wonder. It leaves readers with new appreciation for both their own sensations, perceptions, and experiences of the world and how unique and distinct the experience of every other creature. No two creatures experience reality in quite the same way, and that's amazing.
Alsaid, Adi
(Teen Fiction) An unexpected delight. I found the lighthearted narrative voice charming and loved spending time in its company. It's conversational, personable, and personal. It spends the largest part of its time relating the perspective of James, a smaller but significant portion giving us insight through Michelle's eyes, bounces around into the heads of various other characters, and every so often speaks directly to readers; usually with foreboding warnings of ill to come. Because for all the lightheartedness of the narration, the story it tells includes some real horror and tragedy. Not only darkness, but some is definitely there. For, ultimately, this is a story about humanity, about human existence in an unpredictable, unexplainable, absurd world. In an amplified, accelerated microcosm. James and Michelle are stuck in an airport waiting for delayed flights to depart, when something kind of weird happens. Then the weirdness escalates. To share specifics would delve into spoilers, so I'll simply say that eventually the airport seems to become its own pocket universe, cut off from the outside world, where the laws of physics, cause-and-effect, and normalcy are broken. The social contract breaks among the airport's occupants, too; the bonds of normalcy and consideration and compassion. People react in different ways, some forming tribes among the anarchy. James and Michelle find each other. Through it all, the narrator provides commentary, insight, and perspective, shedding light on different human reactions and tendencies. How do you deal with the fact that life is scary and confusing? How do you find meaning and happiness in the midst of it? This book reminds me in many ways of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's surreal and magical realism and romance, with just a bit of social commentary and philosophy thrown in; almost glib in its lighthearted representation of tragedy and horror. It's an odd, inventive, and unique mix that I'm sure doesn't work for everyone. And yet it, somehow, feels accurate to me; it captures some essence of truth in a way that makes me feel happy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Harari, Yuval N.
(Youth Nonfiction) Marvelous storytelling. Harari takes a long, complex, convoluted idea about the nature of human societies and turns it into an accessible, engaging narrative covering the span of human history since the Agricultural Revolution. It is a clear, concise, compelling narrative. So, the book's title asks why the world isn't fair. Its answer, in brief: Agriculture and harmful Stories. The creation of agriculture roughly 10,000 years ago led to changes in humans and the way we interact with the world and each other, which in turn led to collective, shared stories that are beneficial for some and harmful for others. In between was a long, cumulative chain of what Harari calls "unintended consequences." (The 10 Plagues of Agriculture, from the book's most prominent graphic: Unbalanced Diet, Hard Work, Drought, Flood, Pests, Plant Disease, Animal Disease, Human Disease, War, Slavery.) On and on to the world we know today. All of it enabled, both the good and the bad, by the ability of humans to have society-wide shared beliefs. Power comes from stories, both the power to harm and the power to heal. That's the story this book tells. It is a powerful story. Both depressing and hopeful; you can't fix a problem unless to you understand the causes of the problem, so much of the book is about how the world has become so unfair--but the end is about how to use that insight to be able to make the world more fair. Powerful and compelling.
Sharlet, Jeff
(Adult Nonfiction) The subtitle of this book is "A Book of Strangers," but I don't think that's accurate. I think a more apt name for what Sharlet has accomplished here is the title of a book--and movement--by Valerie Kaur: "See No Strangers." Because this book is about Sharlet taking time for those society often shuns to the exile of being unwanted, condemned to a status of permanent stranger, of Sharlet taking the time to really see them. Not as strangers, but as people. He takes a moment to tell their stories, documents his interactions with them, makes them the protagonists of this collection of reported moments. The people featured in this book are those that Game of Thrones might call "broken and sullied." People working the night shift at 24-hour stops along the road; fellow customers; an older woman who has spent her life bouncing around the adult social services system; underground, recently outlawed LGBTQ community members in Russia; those who threaten and beat them; a long middle section about the death and life of an undocumented immigrant living on the street in Skid Row in L.A. who was shot by police. Random encounters and pursued, journalistic ones. Working people, addicts, homeless, the mentally ill. Sharlet doesn't tune them out as background noise the way the vast majority of us do--he gives them his time, attention, and compassion and, in this book, shares their humanity. This is a quietly powerful, understated book that presents--and demonstrates--humanity.
Chakraborty, S. A.
(Adult Fiction) A wonderful, historical, atmospheric setting, engaging characters, adventure and intrigue aplenty, magic, myth, and legend, and excellent storytelling. All the ingredients needed for an excellently fun book. - Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean's most notorious pirates, she's survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural. But when she's tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she's offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade's kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family's future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God's will. Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there's more to this job, and the girl's disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there's always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power . . . and the price might be your very soul.
Okorafor, Nnedi
(Adult Fiction) This is a novel about a novel in which a novel saves the world, about the power of stories. This is a story about the complexities of relationships, of independence and interdependence. This tale is about Artificial Intelligence, disabilities, physical augmentation, and what it means to be human. This book is about an individual at the intersection of tribes and cultures, pressed and pulled by all of them, torn by expectations. This tells a story about family, consideration for others and the collective good, and the needs of individuality. This is a book about love and identity. This is marvelous storytelling.
Sepetys, Ruta and Sheinkin, Steve
(Youth Fiction) A gripping tale of war, family, spies, espionage, riddles, and code breaking told masterfully. Suspense, mystery, historical accuracy, realism, and propulsive plotting and pacing. Deserves the widest of audiences. - Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they're living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II - Britain's eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley's top minds to crack the Nazi's Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother. The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler's invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother's disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues which unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?
Rovelli, Carlo
(Adult Nonfiction) A fascinating, clear, and concise explanation of our current mathematical understanding of existence--without using math. Or, at least, Rovelli's current understanding, as he makes clear this is what makes the most sense to him as a leading scientist based on the evidence available, and that there are others who draw different conclusions from that same evidence. Regardless, it was revelatory to me and, most important, understandable. The book explains concepts and ideas without getting technical so that readers come to understand the thoughts and logic and theories, even without being able to apply them with math and equations. I found reading it fascinating, entertaining, and exciting. It's a whole new way to conceptualize the world. This book was a pleasure to read.
Berlin, Lucia
(Adult Fiction) Never have I more appreciated the short story form nor more enjoyed a short story collection. Berlin is an amazing writer, and here portrays so much humanity in all its beauty and ugliness with compassion and acceptance; so powerfully captures the human experience. Her writing is vivid, fleshy, and sensual; poignant, authentic, and true. The stories are labeled fiction, but they are clearly autobiographical and tell fragments of a life that was varied, rich, traumatic, joyous, and overflowing with experiences. They tell of life lived in many parts of the Western Hemisphere, from north to south. Of living with privilege. Of living in squalor. The highs and lows of addiction. Love and passion. The clash of cultures and economic classes. Religion. Rehabilitation, jail, homelessness; hard jobs, easy wealth, parenting, education; abortion, illness, bodily functions. Love and passion. So much passion, for all aspects of life. Truly compelling, savory, and satisfying reading.
King, A. S.
(Teen Fiction) Wow. This book's short description includes the detail that Jane's father confines Jane's mother in a series of pneumatic tubes, tightly controlling her ability to interact with the family. "Confined to pneumatic tubes" may seem like a metaphorical description of a situation, but my guess is King would say that it is literally expressing a lived experience, whether factually accurate or not. For all its fantastical elements and unexpected turns, this story is real. It is one version of the story of growing up in a house of psychological torture and abuse, of what that does to children, spouses, and families. And of the societal structures and systems in place that permit it to continue to happen. This book is real. And it is wow.
Lennon, Ferdia
(Adult Fiction) A heartrending tale of tragedy and joy told with an irreverently animated and humorous voice. Lampo is a wry and sarcastic unemployed man-child in ancient Syracuse, sharing events right after their city has repelled an invading force from Athens. He and his best mate, both potters by trade, have a particular passion for stories and theater--and no particular love for violence or aggression. They decide upon the most outlandish scheme imaginable: force some of the Athenian prisoners of war, imprisoned in the city's quarry pit, to perform Euripides so they can finally become directors. Improbable events lead to a rich sponsor for material support, and soon it seems possible their mad idea might come to fruition. Though, of course, not without much conflict and struggle. Most of their compatriots want to see the Athenians suffer for killing loved ones, not celebrated on a stage. Lampo also finds himself falling in love with the enslaved barmaid at their favorite hangout and vows to buy, free, and marry her despite having no possibility of ever obtaining enough money to do so. The circumstances grow more twisted--and entertaining--from there. This is a gritty yet madcap narrative that, at its heart, is all about the power of stories and storytelling.
Ogle, Rex
(Teen Biography) Ogle's third and final book about his traumatic youth. After escaping the abusive home of his mother and stepfather, 17-year-old Rex is ready to start college from his dad's house. But then his dad learns Rex is gay and kicks him out. Feeling he has nowhere to turn, Rex ends up living on the streets of New Orleans. This book describes his emotional turmoil and desolation, the realities of hunger and weather and being an outcast, and a number of experiences with violence and assault. It ends with his finding a way out and the hope that he has gone from that desperate situation to a successful and happy life. It's a tough read, but not a bleak one. Moving and compassionate.
Sedivy, Julie
(Adult Nonfiction) What a delight! Informative, entertaining, beautiful, and profound. Sedivy uses her own life to frame a meditation on human interaction with language over the course of a lifetime, how language is learned and acquired in childhood, used and confused in adulthood, and lost and transformed with age and misfortune. She delves deeply into science and sociology without even a whiff of the dry, technical language often associated with academic writing. Sedivy is a wonder with imagery and metaphor and word combinations that are full of energy and life. Her passion for language is embodied in every sentence she writes. Starting with her wildly multilingual childhood and moving through her life to her current, near-elderly state having new trouble recalling words, discerning speech in noisy environments, and facing the fear of a stroke that damages the linguistic part of her brain, Sedivy covers a wealth of topics, including her professional work as a linguist, the differences between written and spoken language, poetry, sign language, and so much more. Chapters can vary in style, such as the reflection on her youth composed as a letter to her mother and the one titled "How to Be a Success!" that debunks many myths in that realm. This is a great book for: anyone, such as educators and parents, who helps children acquire language and literacy; anyone who wants insight into better language for interacting with others; anyone who worries about language loss with age; anyone who writes; and anyone who loves reading. Highly recommended.
Brown, Rosalind
(Adult Fiction) You might not think an entire book about fighting distraction--the course of one day, from waking to sleep, inside the head of an Oxford student trying to focus on writing an essay about Shakespeare's Sonnets, intentionally isolated in her room--would be engaging and entertaining, but this one is. Marvelously so. Brown's writing is lovely. Equally intellectual and sensual, focused both on the world of the mind and the intrusions of the body. Sometimes overwrought and hyperbolic as Annabel might want it to be, other times beautifully capturing everyday moments with simple language. To Annabel, literature and literary thoughts are on a pedestal, and those who engage with them almost holy; otherworldly and ethereal. Yet the opening page ends with a description of her leaving the bed to urinate; other bodily functions are described, perhaps most of all her sexual ones. Annabel is at odds with herself, her romantic notions against her fully human urges. Most of all, Brown's story is highly relatable to anyone who has ever tried and failed to focus, hounded by interior and exterior distraction, feeling a great thought is right there, tickling, taunting, just out of reach. Yet the associative subconscious continues to work, and hope remains. It seems a book about almost nothing, yet each time I opened it to read further I was joyful.
Tsong, Jing Jing
(Youth Graphic Fiction) An excellent story of a middle grade girl navigating American life as a Chinese immigrant and her efforts to figure out how to meld the two cultures into her identity. Very everyday, slice of life and relatable; not preachy; sometimes poignant, but understated and not dramatic. It's a personal and personable story. - Between homework, studying, and Chinese school, M Y+ng's summer is shaping up to be a boring one. Her only bright spots are practice with her soccer team, the Divas, and the time spent with her n i nai, who is visiting from Taiwan. Although M Y+ng's Mandarin isn't the best and N i Nai doesn't speak English, they find other ways to connect, like cooking guMti together and doing tai chi in the mornings. By the end of the summer, M Y+ng is sad to see N i Nai go-she's the comƯplete opposite of M Y+ng serious professor mother-but excited to start fifth grade. Until new kid Sid starts making her the butt of racist jokes. Her best friend, Kirra, says to ignore him, but does everyone else's silence about the harassment mean they're also ignoring Sid . . . or her? As Sid's bullying fuels M Y+ng's feelings of invisibility, she must learn to reclaim her identity and her voice.
Macfarlane, Robert
(Adult Nonfiction) It has become fairly common knowledge that, in most countries, corporations are granted legal personhood, with the same protections, rights, and responsibilities as individual people. Less well-known is the recent movement to secure rivers (and other aspects of the natural world) legal personhood, to consider rivers a form of life with all the legal protections and ramifications of those afforded to people and corporations. Numerous nations now have laws officially granting such status to particular river bodies, and the list is growing. This movement, in a sense, is the topic of this book. Macfarlane is not a legal analyst, however, but a nature writer. And in this book he does not focus on delving into the particulars of legal cases and their political ramifications. Instead, he explores the values and philosophical underpinnings behind those cases. And, most of all, he tells the stories of journeys he undertook to explore three different rivers around the world and of the people working to see those rivers respected and protected. It is passionate and personal, lyrical and profound. It is meant to share ideas and worldviews with readers, to persuade through immersion into experiences. It is moving and compelling. This is a delightful book to read.
Durst, Sarah Beth
(Youth Fiction) An engaging and exciting story of two kids following clues on a treasure hunt through history. It reminds me of the Nicolas Cage movie National Treasure, except presenting established facts and theories--with clear explanations about which is which and why--about George Washington's Culper spy ring during the U.S. Revolutionary War. Thoroughly fun, top-notch storytelling. Highly recommended. - With codewords and secret signals perfected, best friends Rachel and Joon are ready to spend their summer practicing spycraft, especially if they can uncover secrets like the one Joon's parents have been keeping, that his family is about to move out of town. When eavesdropping leads them to a ring rumored to have belonged to Anna "Nancy" Smith Strong, according to local Long Island legend, the only female member of George Washington's famed Culper Spy Ring, they think they've hit the jackpot. Then they discover Nancy left a coded message in the ring! Decoding her message leads to another cryptic clue, and then another, and soon Rachel and Joon are racing to decipher a series of puzzles that must surely lead to hidden treasure! But can they solve the final mystery before Joon's moving day? And just what did the centuries-old spy hide away, and why?
Labatut, Benjamín
(Adult Fiction) A uniquely fascinating and stimulating book. One that presupposes that great genius is inherently unstable, then creates fictionalized details of the lives of a few great thinkers to illustrate the point. Human genius, in this case, involved in the creation of machine genius. A short opening section focuses on Paul Ehrenfest in the early twentieth century; a long middle section on John von Neumann a handful of decades later; and a final section about the recent development of Artificial Intelligences capable of defeating the world's best players of the complex game of Go. Each of the early figures developed ideas that have helped lead to our current situation, and the story Labatut tells of each is compelling, thoughtful, and dramatic. While not a reliable history lesson, it makes for excellent reading.
Grandin, Temple
(Adult Nonfiction) In this book, Temple Grandin makes a compelling case for acknowledging and nurturing visual thinkers. A majority of us are verbal thinkers. Our thoughts are given form by words, we understand instructions, ourselves, and the world best through language. Visual thinkers' brains work differently; they think in pictures. Words and language are helpful tools, but not natural to how they process and understand. These are not exclusive, binary modes of thinking, of course; they exist on a continuum and everyone uses some measure of both verbal and visual thinking. Grandin, as someone with autism, is at the far end of the visual spectrum and thus understands it better than most. She also differentiates between two types of visual thinking: object visualizers and spatial visualizers. For someone who claims limited verbal ability, Grandin is skilled with language and writes an excellent book. Aside from establishing the fact of visual thinking, the main thrust of the book is advocating for wider acceptance of visual thinkers and more development of their natural skills. It is an engaging, accessible, and convincing book.
Lynskey, Dorian
(Adult Nonfiction) An insightful, fascinating, and engaging look that sense of apocalyptic angst that pervades human cultures. Because humans are highly prone to chronocentrism, a belief that the current moment in time is more significant than any other, a bias towards the present as unique, special, and momentous, we are highly prone to feeling the dangers we face are uniquely significant and dangerous. It always feels like the end of the world is just around the corner. In a convergence of history, science, and culture, this book looks at the all the popular stories that have captured, reflected, and encouraged that feeling over time. Though he delves a bit into earlier times and other places, most of the book focuses on the past few centuries--through to the present--in Europe and the U.S. He explores books, plays, movies, music, news, and more, mostly science fiction, and their relationships with the science of their day. There's a comfort in seeing how wrong so many people have been for so long about the immediacy of disaster; it's a wonderful exercise in perspective. Though there remains a sense of dread about the fact that even if the fears of the past have yet to come to pass, they remain among the ever accumulating list of potential possibilities. While far from delightful reading, it is nevertheless a wonderful book.
Brooks-Dalton, Lily
(Adult Fiction) A story of a lifetime of change. It begins with Wanda's birth in a Florida Hurricane and ends with elderly Wanda ready let go of life in a tree house community surrounded by water, a Florida reclaimed by swamp and ocean due to global warming and sea level rise. She has lived the entirety of her life in the same location while that location has drastically transformed. The book tells the story of that change, but much more it tells the story of Wanda and the people in her life living through the change. Their hopes, dreams, thoughts, reactions, grief. It's an internal, introspective story of emotion. Beautifully written. Aching, brutal, bittersweet, and, in the end, accepting and hopeful. Lovely.
Smith, Patricia
(Poetry) Powerful, powerful words. Fiery spells of passion, of love and pain and fury. Of identity and strength, of despair and resolve. Lamentations and celebrations. Vulnerability and hope. And so much power and fire. - The Intentions of Thunder gathers, for the first time, the essential work from across Patricia Smith's decorated career. Here, Smith's poems, affixed with her remarkable gift of insight, present a rapturous ode to life. With careful yet vaulting movement, these poems traverse the redeeming landscape of pain, confront the frightening revelations of history, and disclose the joyous possibilities of the future. The result is a profound testament to the necessity of poetry--all the careful witness, embodied experience, and bristling pleasure that it bestows--and of Smith's necessary voice.
Mura, David
(Adult Nonfiction) An amazingly clear and cogent examination of the perspectives of white American identity--and a deconstruction of them--as communicated in literature, history, and current events. Complex ideas articulated lucidly in a series of essays that complement each other, layer and reinforce the main point with a multitude of examples. That main point being: the white American perspective, as conveyed in countless implicit background narratives, is blind to race and racism. Willfully so. And rejects minority viewpoints that might say otherwise. In many ways this book is a work of literary criticism, examining the racial perspectives captured in pieces of writing. But Mura includes film and other storytelling media besides literature, then puts those stories in dialogue with U.S. history and current events. Chapter titles run along the lines of "Racial Absence and Racial Presence in Jonathan Franzen and ZZ Packer," "The Killing of Philando Castile and the Negation of Black Innocence," "Lincoln Was a Great American, Lincoln Was a Racist," and "Psychotherapy and a New National Narrative." Mura is an academic and his writing definitely has an academic bent, but his thoughts never isolate themselves to an academic tower, as he always moves into everyday, relatable ramifications. Rarely have I seen racial dynamics articulated so well. I can see how this book might be a hard one to sell as appealing, but it is powerful, important, and valuable. Most highly recommended.
El-Kurd, Mohammed
(Adult Nonfiction) This is a passionate and powerful plea articulated by a young Palestinian poet and journalist who has grown up in war-torn Jerusalem, his family having been forced to give half their house to Jewish settlers from New York. El-Kurd's writing is both personal and academic, focusing on one general argument: that institutional and internalized racism have dehumanized Palestinians in the eyes of the world--and in how we--and they--engage in conversation about the conflict. He is not arguing issues, policies, or politics, but the essence of the narrative that frames the entire conflict, the way "the West" conceives, talks about, and reports on the conflict. He wants Palestinians to be accepted and respected as fully deserving, understandable, sympathetically humans. Whether readers agree or disagree with El-Kurd's politics--or are relatively neutral--in this book he provides an essential perspective that deserves to be carefully read, digested, and understood. Not for readers to have their feelings, opinions, or politics changed, but simply to understand. Because that is what he is asking for.
Rovelli, Carlo
(Adult Nonfiction) Exhilarating and mind-blowing. Brimming with succinctly, coherently, and poetically described big, exciting ideas. Quantum mechanics described in conceptual terms, without the math or, well, mechanics, in dialogue with philosophy and how we conceive of reality. To give you a taste, the beginning of Part One. Title: "A Strangely Beautiful Interior." Subtitle: "How a young German physicist arrived at an idea that was very strange indeed, but described the world remarkably well--and the great confusion that followed. First section heading: "The Absurd Idea of the Young Heisenberg: Observables." Rovelli knows the basic ideas of quantum mechanics are strange and seemingly absurd, at odds with what we have been taught is common sense and the basic workings of things, and brilliantly manages to convey them in a sensible, digestible way. This is a brief and highly enjoyable meditation on a series of absurd ideas.
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