Sunday Salon ~ library loot and a kitty toy

The Lightkeeper's Daughters ~ by Jean E. Pendziwol, 2017, fiction (Canada)

Though her mind is still sharp, Elizabeth's eyes have failed.  No longer able to linger over her beloved books or gaze at the paintings that move her spirit, she fills the void with music and memories of her family — a past that suddenly becomes all too present when her late father's journals are found amid the ruins of an old shipwreck.  With the help of Morgan, a delinquent teenage performing community service, Elizabeth goes through the diaries, a journey through time that brings the two women closer together.  Entry by entry, these unlikely friends are drawn deep into a world far removed from their own — to Porphyry Island on Lake Superior, where Elizabeth’s father manned the lighthouse seventy years before.  As the words on these musty pages come alive, Elizabeth and Morgan begin to realize that their fates are connected to the isolated island in ways they never dreamed.  While the discovery of Morgan's connection sheds light onto her own family mysteries, the faded pages of the journals hold more questions than answers for Elizabeth, and threaten the very core of who she is.

I discovered this book on Sue's Book by Book blog, googled the book, and decided to put it on reserve at my library.  She wrote:

"On audio, I finished listening to The Lightkeeper's Daughter by Jean E. Pendziwol, an intriguing novel that reminded me a bit of The Orphan Train, with its mix of past and present.  A modern teen is sentenced to community service at a retirement home and gets to know one of the residents, who is wondering about secrets from her own childhood spent on a remote island where her father was the lighthouse keeper.  It was excellent, with warmth and emotion but also plenty of surprises!"

The Overstory ~ by Richard Powers, 2018, fiction

An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan.  An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut.  A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light.  A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another.  These four, and five other strangers — each summoned in different ways by trees — are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.  If the trees of this earth could speak, what would they tell us?  "Listen.  There’s something you need to hear."

I've been on the library's reserve list for many weeks waiting to read this one.  In the meantime, I found an article about it:  The Novel That Asks 'What Went Wrong With Mankind?'  (It was entitled "Rhapsody in Green" in the June 2018 print edition of The Atlantic.)

The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth ~ by Michio Kaku, 2018, science

Formerly the domain of fiction, moving human civilization to the stars is increasingly becoming a scientific possibility — and a necessity.  Whether in the near future due to climate change and the depletion of finite resources, or in the distant future due to catastrophic cosmological events, we must face the reality that humans will one day need to leave planet Earth to survive as a species.  World-renowned physicist and futurist Michio Kaku explores in detail the process by which humanity may gradually move away from the planet and develop a sustainable civilization in outer space.  He reveals how cutting-edge developments in robotics, nanotechnology, and biotechnology may allow us to terraform and build habitable cities on Mars.  He then takes us beyond the solar system to nearby stars, which may soon be reached by nanoships traveling on laser beams at near the speed of light.  Finally, he takes us beyond our galaxy, and even beyond our universe, to the possibility of immortality, showing us how humans may someday be able to leave our bodies entirely and laser port to new havens in space.

Interesting that this book I recently put on reserve arrives at the same time as The Overstory, but this one is nonfiction.  And both are about humanity's impending future.  I've also read Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible and rated it 9 of 10, so I look forward to reading this one, even though it looks daunting.

Home to Harmony ~ by Philip Gulley, 2002, fiction

In this inaugural volume in the Harmony series, Philip Gulley draws us into the charming world of minister Sam Gardner in his first year back in his hometown, capturing the essence of small-town life with humor and wisdom.

When I got home with this book, I pulled Gulley's Front Porch Tales (1997) off my shelf and discovered an article I'd printed out and folded inside the book:   "Beyond Belief" (March 31, 2015) from Indianapolis Monthly.



Clawdia watched this whole video, and then watched most of it again.  She has NEVER paid any attention to anything on my computer screen.  So I decided to buy this toy for her.  I like that it has two tracks for the balls.  From what Clawdia wrote yesterday, my cat apparently likes the catnip wafting into the air.  If this video quits, view it on YouTube.

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Sophisticated Dorkiness wrote a post today using these categories:  Around Here, Reading, Watching, Listening, Loving, Hating, Reflecting, Recommending, Anticipating.   I don't "watch" or "listen" to books, but I can use the other ways of sorting.

Reading

The Lightkeeper's Daughters ~ by Jean E. Pendziwol, 2017, fiction (Canada)

Morgan, a delinquent teen performing community service, helps elderly Elizabeth sort through her late father's journals, which were found in the ruins of an old shipwreck.  I got this book a month ago, but have been too busy reading other books.  Now I have only two renewals left and better start reading.

Anticipating

The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth ~ by Michio Kaku, 2018, science

Physicist Michio Kaku explores our need to leave planet Earth to survive as a species by developing a sustainable civilization in outer space.  This book is nonfiction, so I'll probably read it at the same time as the fiction above.  It, too, arrived a month ago and has gone unread.  Maybe I'll get to it this week.

Recommending

Although I moved to St. Louis four years ago, my Sunday School class in Chattanooga still includes me in their group email.  George emailed me yesterday, "I haven't heard from you in 'a month of Sundays.'   How are things in Saint Louis?  I trust you are doing well.  We are about to finish another book in our Sunday morning study class and could use any suggestions from you that you might share.   I have tried to copy you on my weekly notes to the group, so you know what we have been reading of late.  We have a list you shared with us a couple of years back, but have you read anything lately you would particularly recommend?"  Oh, yes, I highly recommend Bishop Spong's latest book:  Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today (2018).

Loving

Today's cooler weather.  It's been hot and humid for much too long, but today we have overcast gray clouds, and 77° feels like 77° at 1:30 pm.

Hating

I don't give space to "hated" books, mostly because I toss them aside and don't bother to finish them.  Why waste any more time on a book I don't like?  So am I hating anything else?  Yes, I feel oppressed by the boxes still unpacked after four years here and by the stacks of books and papers still in my apartment.  Resolved:  to throw away all of it ... uhm, most of it? ... a lot of it?  Let's start over.  I resolve to pitch a ton of it before the end of July.  A ton?  Well, you know what I mean.

Reflecting

On call blocking for robo-calls.  One number tried four times to reach me yesterday and already three times again today.  Reports say it's a debt collector, but I don't owe anyone anything.  (Edited to add:  Plus a fourth call from that number about 3:20 pm, when I was napping.)

I have now looked up how to block calls on my flip phone (yes, I choose to have a flip phone) and will work on doing it as soon as I post this.

Physics of the Impossible, by Michio Kaku

(click to enlarge the image)
Today's "Shoe" cartoon shows the wizard owl in a bookstore. In the first two panels he's thinking, "Because I'm a wizard, people think I have the answers to all the riddles of the cosmos" and "But, no matter how hard I look, there's one thing that still has me stumped." So in the last panel, he asks the bird behind the counter, "Is there parallel parking in a parallel universe?"

What made you want to read this book?
If you understood the joke, this may be a book you'd enjoy. The subtitle caught my attention back in November when I was drafting my novel about time travel. And the subtitle is...?

Title, author, date of book, and genre?
Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel, by Michio Kaku, 2008, physics

Share a quote from the book.
I got the book specifically to find out what a major physicist thinks about time travel, but I really enjoyed most of the rest of the book as well, especially all the "impossible" things that now seem possible, at least eventually.

In our ordinary world we sometimes joke that it's impossible to be "a little bit pregnant." But in the quantum world, it's even worse. We exist simultaneously as the sum of all possible bodily states: unpregnant, pregnant, a child, an elderly woman, a teenager, a career woman, etc. (p. 242)

I have told people that, now that I'm elderly, I have come to see that I am still all those other ages in my life -- which in my case would include pregnant and unpregnant, career woman and retiree. Some days I am twelve and hanging upside down from the swinging bar on the swing set -- and I can feel it, that rush of blood to my head hanging down and my weight on the backs of my knees as the bar swings back and forth. Not that I would ever try to do such a thing at my age. I couldn't, and not because of its lack of dignity, either. I just plain can't do what used to seem so simple and easy. (And sometimes I think I'm 112, but that's another story!)

One minority point of view is that there must be a "cosmic consciousness" pervading the universe. Objects spring into being when measurements are made, and measurements are made by conscious beings. Hence there must be cosmic consciousness that pervades the universe determining which state we are in. Some, like Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, have argued that this proves the existence of God or some cosmic consciousness. (Wigner wrote, "It is not possible to formulate the laws [of the quantum theory] in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness." In fact, he even expressed an interest in the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism, in which the universe is pervaded by an all-embracing consciousness.) (pp. 243-244)

I took note of this quote because of the reference to Hinduism -- some of you know I taught Religions of the World as an adjunct at Chattanooga State for about a decade -- and I noticed an error in the book where Shiva, one of Hinduism's trinity of gods, was a "goddess" (p. 44). Nope, the dancing god may seem feminine, but he's a he.

What did you like most about the book?
I discovered something I didn't know (or at least don't remember hearing or reading before) -- that the moon stabilizes Earth's spin (p. 134). That fascinates me, though I can't really explain why. What if we didn't have the moon?

How would you rate this book?
Because it was slightly more difficult than I expected (Hey, it was written by a quantum physicist!), I give it a 9 out of 10.

What I've been reading

I woke up this morning thinking, "January 10th. It's the Day to Read." Oh, no! The Day to Read was on January 10th of 2008. Last year I was psyched up on January 9th and wrote a report of my reading on January 11th.

I took note when SMID (Soccer Mom in Denial) challenged us to do it again in 2009. I even posted about it on my blog.

But then something came along and got in the way of my thinking ~
I moved.

Yep, I haven't been thinking. Correction: I haven't been thinking in my normal channels. I've been moving, but I've been reading. Here's a list of the books I completed in the last half of December, during the time from signing the lease to getting moved into my new place:

Dec. 15 ~ Catherine Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman, young adult historical fiction, 1994
Dec. 16 ~ One True Thing, by Anna Quindlen, fiction, 1994
Dec. 17 ~ The Secret School, by Avi, young adult fiction, 2001
Dec. 19 ~ Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel, by Michio Kaku, physics, 2008
Dec. 21 ~ Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really DO Make a Difference, by Lynne Truss, punctuation, 2006
Dec. 24 ~ The Alpine Christmas, by Mary Daheim, mystery, 1993
Dec. 25 ~ Maxine: Yelling It Like It Is, by John M. Wagner, humor, 2001
Dec. 26 ~ Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach, fiction, 1977
Dec. 27 ~ We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy, by Maurice Sendak, children's (sort of), 1993
Dec. 28 ~ Too Bad, Ahab, by Marilyn Lashbrook, children's Bible story, 1990
Dec. 29 ~ The Reincarnationist, by M. J. Rose, fiction, 2007

I was reading a lot, as you can see. Eleven books in fourteen days. It was a good way to relax when I was tired from packing and lifting and transporting and lifting and unpacking at the new place. But it made me forget the correct 2009 Day to Read. Dang!

Nevertheless, I can write a report on what I read. Even if I failed to notify the world I'd be reading more than blogs. And even though I didn't take notes during the actual Day of Reading.

Report on my Day of Reading
While moving, I've been loading and unloading boxes. That means I found stacks of old newspapers and magazines. I seem to have the idea that I can't throw things away unread. Think about it -- "unread" is one of the worst words in the English language for readers. So I skimmed the old newspapers and read parts of old magazines. And at my new place (a gated community for seniors) we have a "library" of sorts -- people contribute books and magazines and others are welcome to borrow whatever they want to read. It's small, but I looked it over and found Avi's The Secret School (see above) that I completed it overnight on December 17th. So on Thursday, January 8th, I happen to know I was reading two copies of AARP: The Magazine that I borrowed from "the library" here.

I picked up the January/February issues of 2008 and 2009. Last year's issue had Caroline Kennedy on it, and this year's has Glenn Close -- because AARP begins the year by presenting ten people who make a difference. I read about those twenty people (ten twice) and all the other articles in each magazine.

What else did I read? The menu when I went out to eat with my two daughters and my youngest granddaughter that evening, and the signs all over the Creative Discovery Museum when I took my granddaughter there after we ate. (You remember Cady, don't you? Now you know we do more than swim together and review books.)

Mind isn't confined to brain ― or even body

"It’s impossible to completely disentangle our subjective view of the world from our interactions."

Scott Shepard posted this link on Facebook, saying, "Fascinating blurb."  So I read the article.  I've been thinking about consciousness a lot lately, as I've read books by Michio Kaku and Robert Lanza, but my interest isn't new.  I read this book decades ago:

My paperback edition

Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind ~ by Richard Maurice Bucke, 1900

This is a scientific study of illuminated individuals.  Bucke provides three dozen very consistent examples of "cosmic consciousness."  Some of these are the usual suspects, and others are contemporary case-histories he collected.  These enlightened figures, Bucke says, are evolutionary jumps, the predecessor of a more advanced species.

My Kindle edition

I just pulled two copies of this book from the shelves across the room; I bought a hardback edition in the 1970s and the paperback in 1985.  (I know because I wrote "bj 12/21/85" on the first page" when I was in my second year of seminary.)  While searching online for an image of the cover, I discovered there are multiple covers and that the book is now available for Kindle.  Usually it's an oversight when I buy a second copy of a book, but it costs only $2.99 for Kindle, so I bought a third version of it.  The Kindle "cover" I just got is shown on the left.

My hardback has a quote from William James on the front cover.

"I believe that you have brought this kind of consciousness 'home' to the attention of students of human nature in a way so definite and unescapable that it will be impossible henceforward to overlook or ignore it.  You are a benefactor of us all."