The Science Book Club Meetup Group

…Our Futures (2020) by Merlin Sheldrake, 368 pages [Biology]

• Paperback
• Hardcover
• Kindle
• Audiobook
• Library: https://fcplcat.fairfaxcounty.gov/search/title.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.1&pos=1&cn=415906

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### Review

“[An] ebullient and ambitious exploration… Reading [Entangled Life] left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do.”—The New York Times

“A gorgeous book of literary nature writing, ripe with insight and erudition… Food for the soul.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Nearly every page of this book contained either an observation so interesting or a turn of phrase so lovely that I was moved to slow down, stop, and re-read… [Entangled Life] reminded me that fungi are, like the Universe, sublime.”—Science

“An exuberant introduction to the biology, ecology, climatology, and psychopharmacology of the earth’s ‘metabolic wizards.’”—Harpers Magazine

“A poetic, mind-bending tour of the fungal world.”—Scientific American

“Wondrous… Humans should consider fungi among the greatest of earth’s marvels.”—Time (Books of the Year)

“An astonishing book.”—The Observer

“Completely mind-blowing.”—The Sunday Times

“Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense World
“I fell in love with this book. Merlin Sheldrake is a scientist with the imagination of a poet and a beautiful writer.”—Michael Pollan, author of How to Change Your Mind (Bay Area Book Festival, 2020)

“A magical journey deep into the roots of Nature by an expert storyteller… a must-read.”—Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running

“Reading this book, I felt surrounded by a web of wonder. The natural world is more fantastic than any fantasy, so long as you have the means to perceive it. This book provides the means.”—Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget

“Urgent, astounding, and necessary.”—Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk

“Dazzling, vibrant, vision changing.”—Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland

“Gorgeous.”—Margaret Atwood, author of The Testaments

### About the Author

Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller and

winner of the Royal Society Book Prize and the Wainwright Prize. Sheldrake is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam and works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks and the Fungi Foundation. A keen brewer and fermenter, he is fascinated by the relationships that arise between humans and more-than-human organisms.

352 pages [Neurology]

• Paperback
• Hardcover
• Kindle
• Audiobook
• Library: https://fcplcat.fairfaxcounty.gov/search/title.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.1&pos=1&cn=535599

Check the COVID Safety section for Zoom Link

### Review

“Being You is an engaging and accessible tour through the field’s boldest theories, most creative experiments and most surprising findings. You could give the book to a smart teenager and get them asking questions that they will be thinking about for the rest of their lives.”

—Current Biology

“[Seth] tells us about the Japanese roboticist who builds ‘Geminoids’—robots as similar to human beings as possible, including one resembling himself, which delivered a 45-minute lecture to a large audience of students. It is a brilliant book…”
—Claire Tomalin, New York Times Book Review

"Exhilarating… a vast-ranging, phenomenal achievement that will undoubtedly become a seminal text."
—The Guardian

“Seth makes a convincing case that perception masquerades as conscious reality… Fluent and accessible.”
—Financial Times

“Drawing on philosophy, biology, cognitive science, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, he argues that our brains are prediction machines that constantly invent our world and then correct our mistakes, so that our sense of self derives from our body.”
—Nature
“Imaginative and compelling…”
—Scientific American

“A fantastic exposition to a family of revolutionary ideas gaining increasing support both from neuroscience and artificial-intelligence research. It is a much-rewarding read, both for people familiar with the central questions of consciousness and the interested newcomer.”
—World Literature Review

“Exhilarating, informed, passionate and provocative in equal measure—as much a groundbreaking work of philosophy as of science. It’s a book that lingers with you, while at the same time forcing you to rethink exactly who and what “you” are."
—Research Professional News

“In lucid, engaging prose Seth deftly navigates long-standing philosophical debates over the nature of consciousness… awe-inspiring.”
—New Statesman

“An accessible, unfailingly interesting look inside the workings of the human brain, celebrating its beguiling nature.”
—Kirkus

“[Seth’s] extraordinary debut sets out his exhilarating new theory about how we experience the world.”
—The Bookseller (Editor's Choice)

“[Anil Seth] takes on the prodigious task of defining consciousness and explaining its origins in this intense survey.”
—Publishers Weekly

“One of the most authoritative voices in a central question of neuroscience: what is consciousness? His new book is a page-turner and a mind-blower. If you've ever wondered how billions of neurons chattering in the dark equate to your experience, start here… Beautifully written, crystal clear, deeply insightful.”
—David Eagleman, neuroscientist at Stanford University, author of Livewired and Incognito

“Seth provokes us to think about thinking. And he offers what the interested reader always needs—a book which makes complex ideas readable, relatable, and gripping. If you want to understand his subject better—he’ll help you. And who wouldn’t want to better understand consciousness? In our lives, there is nothing weirder or more fundamental.”
—Alex Garland, director of EX MACHINA

“Reality is real, but how our brains construct a picture of reality—perceiving, integrating, predicting—is far from direct. It's a complicated, fascinating mess, which neuroscientists are just beginning to piece together. Anil Seth's Being You is a wonderfully accessible and comprehensive account of how our minds capture the world, and how that makes us who we are.”
—Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden

“In this lucid and thought-provoking exploration of the nature of consciousness, Seth takes us closer than ever to making sense of our experience of being conscious selves. A must-read.”
—Anil Ananthaswamy, award-winning journalist and author of Through Two Doors at Once and The Man Who Wasn’t There
“Insightful and profound. The nature of consciousness is still one of the hardest problems in science, but Anil Seth brings us closer than ever before to the answer. This a hugely important book.”
—Jim Al-Khalili, author of The World According to Physics

“Seth is uniquely placed to truly advance our understanding of one of humanity’s deepest riddles.”
—Chris Anderson, Curator of TED
“Anil Seth thinks clearly and sharply on one of the hardest problems of science and philosophy, cuts through weeds with a scientist’s mind and a storyteller’s skill.”
—Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

“Anil Seth was my most anticipated guest in 2021, and our conversation was one of the highlights of the year. If you can only read one book this year, it should be Being You.”
—Ginger Campbell, MD, host of Brain Science, the world’s leading neuroscience podcast