Heidegger
identified our perception of time as the “horizon of being.” This brief, very accessible book by
theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli looks at how human beings exist in time
through our consciousness.
It explains
how memory defines us, and gives us the experience of time itself. Every moment of our existence is linked to
our immediate and distant past by strands of memory. As Rovelli states, “our present swarms with
traces of our past. We are histories of
ourselves, narratives.”
This book makes
clear how each one of us is a long, ongoing novel, and how our relationship to
that narrative shapes our experience of self.
One of TIME's Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade
'Captivating, fascinating, profoundly beautiful. . . Rovelli is a wonderfully humane, gentle and witty guide for he is as much philosopher and poet as he is a scientist' John Banville
'We are time. We are this space, this clearing opened by the traces of memory inside the connections between our neurons. We are memory. We are nostalgia. We are longing for a future that will not come'
Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored…
This novel, first
published in 1963, looks at how we create meaning in our lives through the investment
and care we give to that life. A woman
vacationing in the Austrian mountains is suddenly cut off from the rest of
humanity by a mysterious cataclysmic event, of which she may be the sole human
survivor.
As a firsthand account, it examines her fear, loneliness, and ultimate commitment to creating a meaningful life in
her new reality. It can be seen as a
critique of modern life and how it has cut us off from the rhythms of
nature. It is also a feminist
novel depicting a woman’s devotion to making and nurturing a life.
Ultimately, it examines how we create value and purpose through our choices and actions.
“I can allow myself to write the truth; all the people for whom I have lied throughout my life are dead…” writes the heroine of Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall, a quite ordinary, unnamed middle-aged woman who awakens to find she is the last living human being. Surmising her solitude is the result of a too successful military experiment, she begins the terrifying work of not only survival, but self-renewal. The Wall is at once a simple and moving talk — of potatoes and beans, of hoping for a calf, of counting matches, of forgetting the taste of sugar and the…
This was my
second reading of this zany, idiosyncratic novel that I first read as an adolescent. It recently celebrated its fortieth
anniversary in print and feels as relevant today as ever, especially in its
theme of cultivating a “tolerance of intolerance” as we move through the world.
What hit me hardest this time around, that I
missed the first time, is that this is really a book about anxiety, and our
relationship to it. Young Garp loves to
swim in the ocean, but is repeatedly warned by his anxious mother to “Watch out
for the undertow!” What he hears is
“Under Toad”, a large, frog-like, subaquatic creature that can unexpectedly
snatch away all that we value in life.
As he grows up and creates his own family and career, he struggles with
this ever-present, always unseen Under Toad.
It is that terrible, unknown thing that will eventually happen to each
and every one of us.
A masterpiece from one of the great contemporary American writers.
'A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and heartbreaking...terrific' WASHINGTON POST
Anniversary edition with a new afterword from the author.
A worldwide bestseller since its publication, Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, struggling writer and illegitimate son of Jenny Fields - an unlikely feminist heroine ahead of her time.
Beautifully written, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP is a powerfully compelling and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers…
This book looks at what can happen
when the struggle to control or avoid certain thoughts prevents us from living
the life we want to live and being the person we want to be.
It’s centered
around six stories of individuals struggling with “Pure O” OCD, a subtype of
OCD focused on controlling or escaping disturbing thoughts, not
through overt rituals, but through avoidance or invisible thought-based
rituals. Problems making decisions, questioning feelings about a relationship,
excessive feelings of disgust or shame, and “analysis paralysis” can all
actually be manifestations of “Pure O” OCD.
This book helps readers take a
close look at exactly what thoughts are and examine their relationship
to problematic thoughts.
