Exploring The Science of Science Fiction

March 25, 2016February 5, 2016 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Are you a science fiction fan curious to see how close scientists have come to understanding or recreating the theories or gadgets of your favorite book or movie? Do you think much of the gadgetry and action of science fiction stories are completely impossible and want to see what we really can do, and what we might be able to do in the future? Here are some books that will help you understand how realistic some ideas like time travel really are, and how theories and realities surrounding our universe and the possibilities have changed in recent years.

Time Travel and Warp Drives: a Scientific Guide to Shortcuts Through Time and Space by Allen Everett and Thomas Roman
Lays out what humans really know about time and space and how to bend it to our will, and explains just how close we are to some of the ideas of science fiction novels.

Physics of the Impossible: a Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku
Looks at the scientific principles behind the technology of the future, examining the theoretical basis, as well as limitations, of the laws of physics to discuss how seemingly impossible devices could become commonplace in the future.

Spooky Action at a Distance: the Phenomenon that Reimagines Space and Time and What it Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything by George Musser
Presents a tour of modern physics that examines the new understanding of nonlocality–the ability of particles to affect each other across the vastness of space.

Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and time Along the Prime Meridian by Chet Raymo
A noted science writer and author of The Path offers an illuminating study of the interconnections among science, faith, psychology, and the arts in terms of the evolution of the human understanding of space and time as he walks along the Prime Meridian, the line of zero longitude and the standard for world maps and clocks, from Brighton to the North Sea.

What is Relativity?: an Intuitive Introduction to Einstein’s Ideas, and Why They Matter by Jeffrey Bennett
An astrophysicist offers an entertaining introduction to Einstein’s theories, explaining how well they have held up to rigorous testing over the years, and even describing the amazing phenomena readers would actually experience if they took a trip through a black hole.

Once you figure out hoe time travel works, or somehow or other gain a little extra time, you might want to explore further with: The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen W. Hawking, Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang by Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok, Cosmos by Carl Sagan, The Science of Star Wars by Jeanne Cavelos, The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss, or Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku.

Have You Thought about Being Mortal?

March 23, 2016January 13, 2017 / Mary / Leave a comment

Have you thought about dying? It’s such a scary topic, fraught with so much emotion. We like to think we’ll always have more time ahead of us. But what happens when something–an illness, an accident, a disease–sets a limit on our time? What happens when we are forced to confront the end of our lives?

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande explores this issue, an issue that we all must inevitably face.

Many folks first confront mortality when dealing with their aging parents, but illness can strike at any time of life. Then we are forced to make decisions about treatments. About living wills. About how we want to live the remainder of our lives. We want to live longer at all costs and we’d do anything to achieve that goal, right? Perhaps not. As Doctor Gawande discovered in his research on aging and dying, what most people want is not necessarily a longer life, but a quality life.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, notes that doctors are often committed to extending life at all costs. This can mean painful and expensive procedures, even for those for whom there is no cure. Gawande questions this rationale, while admitting he himself has often advised patients to pursue treatments that he knew would not extend their lives by more than a few months or year. However, patients, he came to realize, wanted procedures that would guarantee them ten or twenty more years of life.

But medicine often cannot deliver such outcomes. The exceptions, the people who do survive for years in spite of the odds, are just that–exceptions. Gawande equates it with winning the lottery. Everyone believes they will be lucky but very few actually are. Gawande also noted that, in the case of terminal illness, the trade-offs of pursuing treatment–time, money, pain, recovery–were often not worth the small extension of life to most people.

What the mortally ill or infirm person really wants is a meaningful life, even if there is only a few months left of that life. The terminally ill desire to retain independence and control, as much as they possibly can. They desire to stay in their homes. They want their loved ones around them. They fear prolonged and painful deaths. They fear bankrupting their families.

Gawande illustrates the importance of these issues with depictions of traditional nursing homes, which place safety and monitoring of vitals above the fulfilling lives people need and want. He counterpoints these with illustrations of models of care that take patients out of hospitals and nursing homes for a variety of assisted living facilities and hospice services.

I was especially intrigued by his description of hospice, a service I had (erroneously) believed was only for the last few weeks of life. Hospice gives the aged and terminally ill choices. Hospice workers ask what your goals are. They ask you to think about what you want. They ask you what you don’t want. They talk about your fears. And they address every issue.

And that is the gift of this wonderfully written book. It makes you ask those questions, of yourself and perhaps of those around you. For someday you may be in a position to have to make choices for a loved one, or in the position of having a loved one making choices for you.

Does It Really Have To End ‘Happily Ever After’?

March 18, 2016March 7, 2016 / Linda / Leave a comment

beginnings

I’m a big reader of contemporary romances – the proverbial ‘happy ever after’ stuff. For a change of pace, I’ve decided to read books that end not quite so happy. Here’s a selection of titles.

Rainwater – Sandra Brown – In a time of drought and economic depression in 1934, Ella Barron runs her boardinghouse in Texas while caring for her son, Solly, and responds to the calm influence of one of her boarders, David Rainwater, while facing the tension and uncertainty around her.

The Pilot’s Wife – Anita Shreve – When her husband, a pilot, dies in an airplane crash off the Irish coast, Kathryn Lyons finds herself in the media spotlight as rumors abound of her husband’s shocking secret past.

The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje – Portrays the convergence of four damaged lives in a bomb-riddled Italian villa in the last days of the war.

The Awakening – Kate Chapin – In turn-of-the century New Orleans, Edna Pontellier, a woman who feels trapped in her stifling role as wife and mother, falls passionately in love with another man.

Me Before You – JoJo Moyes – Taking a job as an assistant to extreme sports enthusiast Will, who is wheelchair bound after a motorcycle accident, Louisa struggles with her employer’s acerbic moods and learns of his shocking plans before demonstrating to him that life is still worth living.

Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger – Passionately in love, Clare and Henry vow to hold onto each other and their marriage as they struggle with the effects of Chrono-Displacement Disorder, a condition that casts Henry involuntarily into the world of time travel.

My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult – Conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister, teenage Kate begins to question her moral obligations in light of countless medical procedures and decides to fight for the right to make decisions about her own body.

The Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein – Evaluating his life on the eve of his death, atypical canine Enzo considers the sacrifices his master, Denny Swift, has made in his pursuit of becoming a professional race car driver, and the dog’s own efforts to preserve the Swift family.

Bridges of Madison County – Robert James Walker – On assignment shooting the covered bridges in Iowa, photographer Robert Kincaid falls in love with Iowa native Francesca Johnson during four days of love, magic, and beauty.

The Girl With The Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier – A poor seventeenth-century servant girl knows her place in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, but when he begins to paint her, nasty whispers and rumors circulate throughout the town.

Time Travel Stories, That are NOT Science Fiction

March 15, 2016February 5, 2016 / Sharon Tyler / 1 Comment

Ever wish you could slip away to another time or place? Want to see how things really were during your favorite era of history or perhaps take a peek at a future that might not yet be written in stone?

I have always been intrigued by the notion, but no matter how much I enjoy science fiction I have never been a fan of books that paired the two. You might think that any book that has time travel is automatically science fiction, but this is far from the truth. While the two often overlap, there are many other kinds of books that feature time travel. There is a genre of time travel romance, sometimes magic or other aspects of the story trigger the travel, and sometimes in fiction it just happens.

Here are some of the best books I have seen that feature time travel, but are not science fiction.

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer
To alleviate her suffocating depression after the death of her twin brother and the break-up with her long-time lover, Greta Wells embarks on a radical psychiatric treatment that has an unexpected side effect, which transports her to the lives she might have had if she had been born in a different era.

Night Watch: a Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
Flung back in time by a mysterious accident, Sam Vimes has to start all over again. He must get a new name and a job, and there’s only one job he’s good at: cop in the Watch. He must track down a brutal murderer. He must find his younger self and teach him everything he knows. He must whip the cowardly, despised Night Watch into a crack fighting force – fast. Because Sam Vimes knows what’s going to happen. He remembers it. He was there. It’s part of history. And you can’t change history…

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Hurtled back through time more than two hundred years to Scotland in 1743, Claire Randall finds herself caught in the midst of an unfamiliar world torn apart by violence, pestilence, and revolution and haunted by her growing feelings for James Fraser, a young soldier.

11/22/63 by Stephen King
Receiving a horrific essay from a GED student with a traumatic past, high-school English teacher Jake Epping is enlisted by a friend to travel back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a mission for which he must befriend troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald.

Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan
Her life spinning out of control to the point that she wakes up one day among her Irish ancestors in 1844, Anna struggles to find her way home while navigating a time and culture completely foreign to her, a situation that is further complicated by her troubled teenage nephew.

More books that include time travel without being science fiction, but I did not have room for above, include: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Orfeo by Richard Powers, The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier, Replay by Ken Grimwood, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, Timebound by Rysa Walker, Morrigan’s Cross by Nora Roberts, and 1632 by Eric Flint.

Staff Favorites from 2015

March 12, 2016March 5, 2016 / Linda / Leave a comment

so many 2

Working at a library affords the staff an abundance of materials to read, listen to, and watch. But being surrounded by this bounty can be frustrating too. Like many of you, time is against us. But the staff did manage to fit in some reading and if you’re wondering what our favorites of 2015 were, here they are!

Non-fiction

Keep Moving and other tips and truths about aging – Dick Van Dyke – A movie and TV star, as he approaches his 90th birthday, shares how to embrace old age with a positive attitude.

Bargain Fever: how to shop in a discounted world – Mark Ellwood – An investigation into bargain hunting traces the evolution of promotional pricing and sales, exploring the impact of negotiable pricing on markets, the machinations of price consultants, and the growing empowerment of consumers.

When the Balls Drop – Brad Garrett – In an uproarious collection of personal essays, the Everybody Loves Raymond TV sitcom star and standup comic, embracing middle age with everything he’s got, touches on such topics as genetics, genitals, weight and women, leaving no stone unturned in a funny look at getting older.

Modern Romance – Aziz Ansari – The acclaimed comedian teams up with a New York University sociologist to explore the nature of modern relationships, evaluating how technology is shaping contemporary relationships and considering the differences between courtships of the past and present.

Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption – Bryan Stevenson – The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.

Children

Wonder – R.J. Palacio – Born with a facial deformity that initially prevented his attendance at public school, Auggie Pullman enters the fifth grade at Beecher Prep and struggles with the dynamics of being both new and different, in a sparsely written tale about acceptance and self-esteem.

Fiction

Second Chance Summer – Jill Shalvis – When Lily Danville returns to her despised hometown for a job at the local resort, she gets a second chance to make things work with rescue worker and fire fighter Aidan Kincaid, whom she left behind ten years earlier.

The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah – Reunited when the elder’s husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways.

Friction – Sandra Brown – Petitioning to regain custody of his young daughter in the aftermath of a reckless decision, a Texas Ranger intervenes during the attempted assassination of an attractive judge, who he risks his life to protect when the gunman escapes.

The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt – Taken in by a wealthy family friend after surviving an accident that killed his mother, thirteen-year-old Theo Decker tries to adjust to life on Park Avenue.

The Girl On The Train – Paula Hawkins – Obsessively watching a breakfasting couple every day to escape the pain of her losses, Rachel witnesses a shocking event that inextricably entangles her in the lives of strangers.

All The Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr – A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance tracker struggle with respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.

The Martian – Andy Weir – Stranded on Mars by a dust storm that compromised his space suit and forced his crew to leave him behind, astronaut Watney struggles to survive in spite of minimal supplies and harsh environmental challenges that test his ingenuity in unique ways.

Seveneves – Neal Stephenson – Five thousand years after a catastropic event sends a small surviving remnant of humanity into outer space, the progeny of those survivors–seven distinct races now three billion strong–embark on a journey into the unknown to return to Earth.

Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel – The sudden death of a Hollywood actor during a production of “King Lear” marks the beginning of the world’s dissolution in a story told at various past and future times from the perspectives of the actor and four of his associates.

This Gun For Hire – Jo Goodman – While protecting a powerful mine owner with many enemies, former cavalryman Quill McKenna hires a flame-haired beauty to help guard his boss’s daughter, but is unable to control his attraction to his new employee as death threats come hard and fast.

Karen Memory – Elizabeth Bear – A tale set in late nineteenth century steampunk Seattle finds orphaned Karen working in a high-quality bordello, where she confronts a powerful man who owns a dangerous mind-control machine.

Uprooted – Naomi Novik – A tale inspired by the “Beauty and the Beast” story follows the experiences of Agnieszka, who becomes the latest girl chosen to serve an immortal wizard who protects their village from the malevolent forces of a nearby forest.

The Aeronaut’s Windlass – Jim Butcher – An airship’s crew become humanity’s lone defenders when an ancient enemy reawakens and threatens the world with monstrous creatures and perpetual darkness.

Palisades Park – Alan Brennert – Sharing a family life in the 1930s near the legendary Palisades Amusement Park, a family of dreamers explores ambitions and cultural boundaries that are challenged by the realities of the Great Depression, multiple wars and the park’s eventual closing in 1971

A Man Called Ove – Fredrick Backman – A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship

All The Stars In The Heavens – Adriana Trigani – This tale reimagines the career of actress Loretta Young, tracing the decades she shared with her assistant Alda, a former nun, as they face successes, scandals, and obstacles that threatened their bond.