Sex, drugs, Einstein, & elves by Clifford A. Pickover

Obviously, the book is a grab bag of topics, arranged into chapters, each primarily about perceived reality and it's transcendence. Two problems: the author mentions not once but three times his academic credentials (ivy league, graduating in only three years, etc.), and although he dismisses the relevance of psychedelic drugs in general, he is particularly impressed by DMT, believing in the consistency and credibility of reported experiences while on the drug. The elves, by the way, are a common element of these accounts, and the author suggests that they may be real inhabitants of a parallel reality.

The most interesting chapters are in fact those that require the least suspension of disbelief. One is an account of how language creates reality, or at least it's interpretation. He writes about isolated speakers of unique languages, and the ways in which their tense structure, vocabulary, and arrangement of pronouns reflect a different (sometimes remarkably so) perspective and world view.
Otherwise, if any particular topic frustrates the reader as being too gratuitously speculative or naive, another one is only a few pages further on.

The beats : a graphic history by Harvey Pekar et al.

Graphic novel is a clear misnomer: many are not novels, many are not even fiction. Harvey Pekar is known as perhaps the least fictitional of writers in the genre. He has, however started to expand from his diary-like accounts of his own life (the mundane as art) to a broader historical repertoire while keeping his countercultural and non-mainstream artistic perspective.

"The Beats" as a subject clearly merges with his obvious love for jazz, poetry, and the iconoclast artist. As with his own books, his approach is totally biographical rather than historical and even though he is not the credited author for some stories, there is a consistency of style and perspective. Long chapters are given to Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs with shorter accounts of important beat (or proto-Beats) like Kenneth Rexroth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, LeRoi Jones and Tuli Kupferberg. An effort at gender balance has contributions from Pekar's wife Joyce Brabner called "Beatnick Chicks," along with essays about Diane di Prima and Jay DeFeo.

Given the conscious adaptation of jazz free styling , Buddhist philosophy, and all manner of "found" inspiration by many Beat poets as an inspiration for their poetry and art, the comic book style is more appropriate for their stories than it might be for mainstream artists. It shares with them in it's impressionistic, surreal and dada elements, but even more as a contrast to expectation and formats. Like any other worthwhile biography, readers are given a taste of the poetry and encouragement to discover original works.

The Family Man by Elinor Lipman

The Family Man is Elinor Lipman’s latest foray into the romantic comedy genre. The main character is Henry Archer, a gay, retired lawyer who in his younger years was briefly married to a woman, Denise, a widow with a young daughter. Henry actually adopted the daughter, Thalia and he felt a genuine bond with her. After two years of marriage, Denise leaves Henry for another man. Henry is devastated for his loss, not of his wife but of his daughter. Thalia is eventually adopted by Denise’s new husband and they are all out of Henry’s life for the next twenty years. Henry becomes reacquainted with Denise (and Thalia) when Denise’s third husband dies suddenly. Denise mostly annoys Henry, but he is thrilled to be reconnected with Thalia. Henry eventually invites Thalia to move into his maisonette and the two become friends. In the meantime, Thalia, an aspiring actress, gets herself involved in a complex arrangement pretending to be the love interest to a has-been star for the publicity. Lipman’s dialogue and her wacky, yet lovable characters are what raise this novel up a notch. The Family Man is a fun read.

Kant : a very short introduction by Roger Scruton

Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" is one of those books (like the Bible, War and Peace, most by Thomas Pynchon) that are well known, frequently referred to, often cited, and rarely read. The book is claustrophobic and interior - Kant uses reason to study reason, consciousness to explain consciousness. What Descartes disposed with in one famous quotation, Kant prefaces, minutely analyzes, quantifies and expands. What is "I", what can "I" know, how can "I" be sure.
Afterward, Kant was so pleased with his dialectic, that he applied the same method to atomize aesthetics, metaphysics, and even politics.

This introduction is excellent. It makes Kant's technique accessible, while explicating no more content than necessary to make a point. If someone wants to pursue the original texts, a couple of entry points are provided, along with warnings and cautions.

In search of time by Dan Falk

Copernicus and Galileo were not the first to challenge the accepted and fiercely defended idea of a uniform and predictable universe as promised by Newton. But their experience proved how dangerous it is to question basic definitons of reality - especially when those definitions are precepts of the church, and also seem completely obvious and natural.

Einstein's relativity theories suggested that time and space were not invariable, but in fact depended entirely on perspective.
The final challenge (setting aside for now those of mystics, psychics, and practitioners of Eastern religions) to reality as accepted was quantum physics in general and such physicists as Heisenberg and Schrodinger in particular.
So - how to we analyze time? Unlike space it is invisible and everywhere at once. Also, rather than different people
occupying different spaces, we are all woven in the fabric of time together, and carried along as one in its flow.
So how do we react when scientists (not swamis) tell us that time does not exist in any objective sense - that it is a product of consciousness and not of the universe? That there is no distinction between past, present and future - that all exist together and are equally real, or not?

Physicists apparently do not feel an obligation to explain exactly how reality works, before they state that it works entirely differently than we think. In this book various theories are presented and discussed by some of the best known scientists working. In the end, the thesis is that not even the most fundamental of concepts can be taken for granted, and that our hierarchical systems of reality are built on less than thin air.

Mysticism and the new physics by Michael Talbot

There is a growing library of books that try to explain quantum physics, and many (but not all) attempt to follow the implications for biology, psychology, cosmology, etc. Some even note parallels to religious doctrine, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. They quote phrases from ancient sacred texts that can be interpreted as describing reality in a manner very similar to modern physicists.
This book makes the connection explicit. The Buddhist belief in a material reality created, or at least projected from consciousness supports Heisenberg and Schrodinger by offering an explanation for their equations that they themselves found radically non-material. The Hindu idea of a consciousness that permerates, creates and interpenetrates everything else offers support for views that some physicists are reluctant to follow from implication to conclusion.

Additionally, the author uses quantum theory to support his personal belief in paranormal experience. He suggests that such experiences are not only provided for, but are in fact a nearly inevitable consequence of quantum reality.

Nietzsche in 90 minutes by Paul Strathern

Presumably the book could be skimmed in an hour and a half, but Nietzsche is not easily understood, and less so when summarized. The author gives a biography that hits the highlights, but doesn't miss the heriditary insanity and syphillis, nor the last ten painful increasingly catatonic years of his life. The philosophy is presented in an aphoristic style, deliberately mimicing the style of most of Nietzche's writing. Ultimately. The book is less an intoduction and more of a greatest hits, and most of those hits came from Zarathustra. I like the author's statement that Nietsche, like Hesse and Dostoevsky, can only be fully appreciated by a teenager. For grownups, this volume is more appropriate as a review than an overview.