Body Surfing by Anita Shreve

Fun story of love and betrayal at the beach.

The Turning Point by Fritjof Capra

I was attracted to this book because its underlying thesis is that developments in quantum mechanics are pointing to a new perception of reality that should have us turning away from Cartesian dualism (mind/body) and Newtonian physics (the world is separate from ourselves and can be measured objectively.)

As Capra puts it, "The universe is no longer seen as a machine, made up of a multitude of separate objects, but appears as a harmonious indivisible whole; a network of dynamic relationships that include the human observer and his or her consciousness in an essential way."

He also quotes British physicist James Jeans who in the 1930's said, "Today there is a wide measure of agreement . . . that the stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine."

Capra's clear and cogent presentation of human intellectual history draws on a wide variety of time periods and cultures. It's also well documented. However, Capra lost me when he started applying his thought to economics and sociology. The Turning Point; Science, Society, and the Rising Culture was first published in 1982 and smacks of 1960's and 1970's intellectual stylishness: the big bad military-industrial complex, small is beautiful, back to the farm, etc. Because I'd just read Friedman's The World Is Flat, I felt much of the economics in The Turning Point was outdated. In an odd way this made the book more interesting because you could assess Capra's views of the future against the way things have actually been turning out.

Very good book about the need to change our perception of reality.

The Company of Strangers by Robert Wilson

A young English mathematician named Andrea Aspinall is recruited by British intelligence for duties as a spy in Portugal during World War II. The cast of characters she works for and against are indeed a company of strangers. Many of them are double agents. They appear, disappear, and reappear in Andrea's life throughout the novel's time period of 1940 to 1989. Towards the end, with the Berlin wall coming down, it becomes difficult to keep track of who is spying for whom. The twists and turns and surprises keep happening and it all leaves the reader wondering if anyone really knows anything about their compatriots.

Good spy novel.

The Art of Seeing by Cammie McGovern

A story of two sisters, one of whom is going blind, Cammie McGovern's first novel focuses (pun intended) on the sisters' relationship. There is much overt and implied reference to visual perception (the younger sister is a photographer) as the two girls move into adulthood both supporting and competing with each other. Tightly written, The Art of Seeing has inspired me to go buy McGovern's second book, Eye Contact.

Good novel.

The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman

I can't believe I read the whole book! Thomas L. Friedman is fascinating in his exposition of how communications technology is globalizing and, as he puts it, flattening the world. I'm not sure he really needed to drag it out for 630 pages, but he is so entertaining in the stories he tells, especially of global businesses, that a little repetitiveness is easily forgiven.

His is a hopeful perspective paying much attention to India, China, Malaysia, and other countries with large populations of poor people. They are moving more and more people into the middle class, thanks to outsourcing in this country and the technological ease with which people can do business over great distances. Friedman realizes that Americans are going to have to compete more on a global basis and that we will probably experience some economic displacement because of this, but he believes that with better education Americans will adjust and remain leaders in innovation.

Furthermore, the world should be a better and safer place when wealth is more equitably distributed and more of us have a stake in keeping the global economic system going. It is almost as if what socialism and communism have failed to do, technology is going to bring about naturally with an underpinning of democracy rather than totalitarianism.

Excellent book.

Torch-Bearer to Light the Way by Neal Vahle

Ironically, I developed a cold while reading the biography of a spiritual healer. Torch-Bearer to Light the Way; the Life of Myrtle Fillmore is by Neal Vahle and includes an explanation of how Fillmore and her husband started the Unity movement from their home in Kansas City in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Along the way there is much connection with the contemporaneous Christian Science movement, but eventually the Fillmores distanced themselves from it. They felt it is more important to rely on your own inner knowing than to accept the dictates of outside authorities, especially in your spiritual life. And Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy appears to have been pretty dictatorial.

I try not to proofread when I'm reading for my own pleasure but this book was amazingly full of typos and mistakes. At one place I pondered over how a daughter could have been born before her mother until I finally realized that the author had inserted a birth date where he should have used a death date.

Adequate biography if you're interested in Unity.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

The ladies of my book club loved On Beauty and were amazed that the author who was born in 1975 was so able to get into the minds of characters in their 50s. She sets up two academic families, one in England and one in Massachusetts. The English family is black and conservative while the American one is mixed race and liberal. There is professional competition and hard feelings between the two patriarchs; and when the English professor comes to teach at his competitor's college, the men take opposing stands with regard to academic politics. In the small town environment their families also develop interesting relationships.

The juxtaposition of liberal and conservative attitudes is interesting and I kept watching to see which the author was going to prefer. However, she revealed no bias and showed both liberals and conservatives as a mix of good and bad traits with a touch of hypocrisy and a little infidelity here and there.

Good novel.