The Mezzanine is a startlingly inventive and witty novel that takes a seemingly mundane ride on an office escalator and transforms it into a brilliant exploration of everyday life. As the narrator returns to work after buying shoelaces, Baker lends the associative richness of Marcel Proust's madeleines to everyday objects like milk cartons and shoelaces.

This novel delves into the eight most significant advances in a human life, starting with the simple act of shoe-tying. It poses intriguing questions, like whether hot air blowers in bathrooms are indeed more sanitary than towels, and casts a dazzling light on our relationships with the objects and people we often take for granted.

Baker's unconventional, conversational style and sharp storytelling turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, making The Mezzanine a celebration of reflection and the importance of everyday human experiences.

Stephen Hawking, the brilliant theoretical physicist, invites readers on an extraordinary journey through the universe in his book, The Universe in a Nutshell. This sequel to his multimillion-copy bestseller, A Brief History of Time, is a lavishly illustrated work that unravels the mysteries of the major breakthroughs in physics since the release of his first acclaimed book.

In this major publishing event, Hawking takes us to the cutting edge of theoretical physics, where truth is often stranger than fiction. He explains in laymen’s terms the principles that control our universe, covering topics such as quantum mechanics, M-theory, general relativity, and superstrings. He guides us on his search to uncover the secrets of the universe—from supergravity to supersymmetry, and from holography to duality.

With characteristic exuberance, Professor Hawking invites us to be fellow travelers on this extraordinary voyage through space-time. The book is filled with copious four-color illustrations that help clarify this journey into a surreal wonderland where particles, sheets, and strings move in eleven dimensions. Here, black holes evaporate and disappear, taking their secrets with them, and the original cosmic seed from which our universe sprang was a tiny nut.

The Universe in a Nutshell is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the universe in which we live. It conveys the excitement felt within the scientific community as the secrets of the cosmos reveal themselves, making it a must-read for all curious minds.

Set in Vienna on the eve of World War I, this great novel of ideas tells the story of Ulrich, ex-soldier and scientist, seducer and skeptic, who finds himself drafted into the grandiose plans for the 70th jubilee of the Emperor Franz Josef.

This new translation is the first to present Musil's complete text, including material that remained unpublished during his lifetime.

Brilliant, shattering, mind-jolting, The Mind's I is a searching, probing cosmic journey of the mind that delves deeply into the problem of self and self-consciousness. From verbalizing chimpanzees to scientific speculations involving machines with souls, from the mesmerizing, maze-like fiction of Borges to the tantalizing, dreamlike fiction of Lem, this book opens the mind to new dimensions of exciting possibilities.

Explore the Black Box of fantasy, the windfalls of reflection, and the ever-changing landscape of consciousness. Edited by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett, this book is a sign of change in the understanding of the Self.