Recommended reading.

        There are books that are fun to read and there are books that are fun to read while making you think in new ways. I am neither a physicist nor a Buddhist so a novel that combines quantum theory and Zen Buddhism stretches my mind. The book jacket says about Ruth Ozeki's A Tale For The Time Being, "On a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, a Hello Kitty lunchbox washes up on the beach. Tucked inside is the diary of a sixteen-year-old Japanese girl named Nao Yatutani. Ruth--a writer who finds the lunchbox--suspects that it is debris from Japan's 2011 tsunami. Once she begins to read the diary, Ruth quickly finds herself drawn into the mystery of Nao's fate. Meanwhile in Tokyo, Nao, uprooted from her home in the U.S., bullied at school, and watching her parents spiral deeper into disaster, has decided to end her life. But first she wants to recount the story of her great-grandmother, a 104-year-old Zen Buddhist nun,  in the pages of her secret diary."

      There are interesting juxtapositions in this tale. Fictional Ruth, of Japanese descent, is married to fictional Oliver. Author Ruth's mother was Japanese and Ruth is married to Oliver in real life. The fictional couple live on an Island northwest Canada. In real life Ozeki lives in British Columbia and New York.

      The book is very engaging and the diary sections are a fascinating look at life in Japan. In fact the diary entrees were some of the most interesting and readable parts. Ozeki, herself is a Zen Buddhist priest. Her posing quantum theory next Zen Buddhism is mind stretching. In an appendix she gives a very clear explanation of Schrodinger's Cat. Can a thing be observed without the observation changing the thing observed? The fictional couples' fictional cat is named Schrodinger. 😀

       Well written, engaging, one reviewer said "it's bewitching, intelligent, hilarious and heartbreaking often on the same page. It was finalist for the Booker Prize, it's Ozeki's third novel. Yes, I definitely recommend it!

Takk for alt,

Al

It's Jimmy Carter's birthday today.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Jimmy Carter said: “A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.”