There are tons of books about fitness, about the hero’s journey to becoming our own optimized selves. But that seems to be Rovelli’s point: The less sense everything makes, the closer you’re getting to absolute truth. You’ll freak out, watch your life cohere and decohere before you, and leave with more questions than answers. Basically: Nothing exists except in relation to something else. Indeed, Helgoland-even more so than his better-titled last book, The Order of Time-finds Rovelli at his most Buddhist, close reading Nāgārjuna, pawing (catlike) at the emptiness of existence, and accepting the uncertainty that swirls all around us, all the while explaining, in rhythmic, wavelike prose, the ins and outs of his theory of quantum mechanics. For him, a guru of quantum gravity, the universe has enough suffering in it already. In his new book, Helgoland, he speaks of the phantasmic feline as though it were merely “awake” or “asleep,” explaining in a footnote: “I prefer not to play around with the death of a cat.” That’s Rovelli for you: dry and a bit disturbed. Saira MuellerĪvailable now Is Schrödinger’s cat alive or dead? The eternal question, but a bit vulgar, says Carlo Rovelli. It will leave you thinking about the power of choice and the importance of family.

Girl One explores some very deep themes, mostly concerning the often fraught relationship between mothers and daughters and the men who feel they have rights to women’s bodies. While the first half of the book is agonizingly slow, this trippy detective-style sci-fi thriller rewards readers who stick with it. Along the way, Josephine reconnects with some of her “sisters” (there were eight other girls born to different mothers using the same scientific breakthrough) to learn more about her past and some of the odd things that are happening to her. Mostly set in the '90s, Girl One follows Josephine Morrow-the first girl conceived and born without any male DNA-now in her early twenties, as she tracks down her missing mother, Margaret.

Specifically, it questions what would’ve happened if men were removed from the equation completely.

Full of multiverse alternate-timeline feels, Girl One all but dares you to imagine what the world would look like if humanity had made massive changes to reproduction in the 1970s.

Joss lake future feeling