I Am A Strange Loop - Douglas Hofstadter

I remember back in the 80's reading Hofstadter's book Godel, Escher, Bach.  I still have that copy.  This book had been on my TBR for years and I finally found it this year at Bookmans.  Wonderful, wonderful read, full of challenging thinking and science and philosophy.  He asks us to think about how our brain can have the concept of ourself - the "I" in "I am".  

Quotes/Clips:

        p 153 "analogy has force in proportion to its precision and its visibility."

p 174 "This tendency to proceed slowly from intuitive understanding at a high level to scientific understanding at a low level is reminiscent of the fact that the abstract notion of a gene as the basic unit by which heredity is passed from parent to offspring was boldly postulated an then carefully studied in laboratories for many decades before any "hard" physical grounding was found for it.."

          p 179 "The key point, though, is that we perceive essentially everything in life at this level, and essentially nothing at the level of the invisible components that, intellectually, we know we are made out of.          ...The general rule is that we swim in the world of everyday concepts, and it is they, not micro-events, that define our reality."

"p 299 ...the Morton sale logo"..infinite images of self-reference of girl holding the salt box.

In Chapter 21 he discusses Reason and Persons, a book by  Derek Parfit... and Eugene Onegin by Pushkin, a novel in verse; added it to my TBR.

 

Published: 2007  Read: Feb-March 2020  Genre: Science, Philosophy

The Weight of Ink - Rachel Kadish

This is a long book with beautiful writing and detailed characters.  It is the story of a young woman who becomes a scribe for a blind rabbi in the Jewish community of London in the 1600s, shortly before the plague.  She strives for knowledge denied women and corresponds with noted philosophers of the time.  Her writings are revealed in our modern times by a grumpy woman historian who is bitter about where life has brought her.  It's an interesting parallel with commentary on the Sephardi Jewish community in London, philosophers before the Renaissance, women's work lives and the struggle to survive.  Worth the read.

Published: 2017  Read: April 2020  Genre: Historical Fiction, Jewish history

The True Story of Arthur Truluv - Elizabeth Berg

I'd read the sequel to this story several months ago, The Night of Miracles, and picked up this volume on a used book run.  I've read many of Elizabeth Berg's books and this one did not disappoint.  She has a gentle way with her stories that make me very real, very vulnerable and very relatable. 

Arthur is a widower who visits his wife's grave daily.  He's concerned about his neighbor across the street and about a young girl who hangs out in the cemetery he visits.  They form an unlikely friendship that nourishes them all by finding the next steps after grief and loss.


Quotes I liked:

[Her school teacher] "taught her the Welsh word 'hiraeth' that means homesickness for home you can't return to or that maybe never was; it means nostalgia and grief for lost places."

[When Arthur's neighbor friend questions his perceived lack of purpose] "What are needed are readers [for authors] ...[and for actors] what are they without an audience of some sort?  That's what I do.  I am the audience, the witness, the great appreciator." 

Published: 2017  Read: April 2020  Genre: Fiction

The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett

This was a fun read!  My niece suggested it to me when we were shopping at Bookman's Used bookstore after Christmas.  It's the story of a brave girl who fights an evil Queen in a parallel world to rescue her annoying little brother.  The Wee Free Men are her army of mini-heroes who tackle anything and butt heads to defeat evil.  Delightful!!

Quotes I liked:

[When she's visiting an outdoor education fair where tents are set up to learn different bits of knowledge and sees] "apprentice teachers looking for anyone trying to overhear education without paying."

"Nothing's louder than the end of a song that's always been there"

"She used words as if they cost money"

[And a new word] susurrus - whispering, murmuring or rustling

Published: 2015  Read: April 2020  Genre: Teen Fantasy

Rosalind Franklin - Brenda Maddox

Sub-title: The Dark Lady of DNA

Fascinating read of the evolution of the discovery of DNA and the interaction of the scientists who were involved. Dr Rosalind Franklin, had taken the decisive x-ray photos and did the analysis that lead to the discovery.  She was not properly acknowledged by the men who received the Nobel Prize -  Drs James Watson, Crick, and Wilkins.  She died of ovarian cancer in 1958 and was caricatured in the book, The Double Helix, written by Watson. 

Published:  2002   Read: March 2020  Genre: Biography