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The third part of this novel reveals when most of Nao's story takes place, and "sharp knife slicing through time" (p. 265) brings me back to where I was and what I was doing when the world and its time beings were wounded. Like Nao, it seemed like a movie, playing at a weird hour on the wrong channel; like Ruth, I could take comfort in that I was in a quiet corner, far away. Like Masako, it is like the same old news.

Beyond the brave words a Yamato denshi is supposed to write to his family in time of war, this collection of letters Haruki #1 expresses more of the disillusion an intelligent person faces and the limited choices available in a military life. The disturbingly vague process of socialization leaves the scars that not even the most euphemistic description could not prepare Jiko for the war's most grievous inhumanities.

Mic drop! Smokebomb! Whatever phrase the Internet uses to express something's awesomeness: just got to the part when Oliver discovers Haruki #2's connection to quantum computer, and he hints at a qubit-like way of processing all the information Ruth has gathered from a floating freezerbag. Of the many incalculable directions this story could go (including a mainland visit to D-Wave), I am glad to hear from Haruki #1.

Very interesting to read the daily updates on the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, but more to hear about the myth of giant angry catfish causing earthquakes and social justice reforms. More myths are mention as Nao describes her first Obon at the temple, and how she met up with her father's uncle, first thinking he might be her father instead. Considering how she became a living ghost, she needs more kind spirit contact.

The seemingly random island activities that Oliver involves Ruth in have more to Miyagi, almost as if this area of interest gets virtually recreated by imported oysters, washed up debris and the invasive crows (all noticed first by Oliver). Jiko takes on an Oliverish role in Nao's life by seeing the funiness of everything from waves and mountains to the timeliness of human beings living so close to an ocean.

A lack of electricity on one end of the narrative spectrum causes more disturbance in Ruth's mind, chasing after the one digital scrap of evidence that would make the "À la recherche" a reality, when all she needed was to read ahead, during the blackout, to discover Nao's detailed account of the Jiko and Muji's temple, plus instructions on how to practice zazen, clearing the mind with not-thinking thoughts.

Trouble in the paradise known as Cortes Island, when gossips and ill-informed locals start guessing at radiation levels of items that found their way to Ruth (washed into the ocean before the Fukushima meltdown). Yet when rumours of life-savings vaults washing ashore start spreading, the community comes to gather. Back in Japan, Nao gives a good anatomical description of what a time being looks like bathing.

Fascinating metaphors woven in part two: tsunami backwash and oceanic gyres of our memories, the life span of barnacles compared to the half-life of various forms of information. Even the social isolation felt through Internet-connected media has a pretty tightly-stitched allegory to the spooky Onmyōgi living ghosts and metal-binding. Just as Nao discovers her eye-stabbing inner ikisudama, Jiko rescues her.

As stomach-churning as zen-in shikato—the extreme form of group bullying where everyone pretends their victim no longer exists—actually is, narrator Nao seems to be taking it in stride, as the Buddhist sense of anatma calmly plays out in her classroom. Of course she doesn't learn these coping skills until later, when she meets her great-grandmother Jiko, but her empathy for Daisuke-kun is her NOW moment.

Nao's narrative continues with the emotional pain of being an outsider among her junior high school classmates, as the bullying steps up to ignoring her. Even the odious substitute teacher gets points off of her misery, but the way that she is writing almost seems liberating: being present yet not there. She links this ghosting to her father freitering at home with origami insect. Ruth uncovers his side of the story.

Like the millions of moments that make a day's worth of setsuna, also like the Heraclitean river that will never be stepped in twice, reading a good book changes who we are in innumerable ways: no so much a physical or even mental change, more of an awareness of who we all are changing. If I had not posted my photo of unagi don (my favourite meal, as well as Nao's) on Instagram yesterday, would I have these thoughts?

This definitely is my kind of book: a transoceanic and intergenerational conversation between three unlikely women. Nao began her palimpsestic search for lost time by writing a purple-inked diary while texting questions to her ancient aunt Jiko. Ruth, many worlds away, is left to decipher the diary with the help of her husband Oliver and the indifference of their cat. An intriguing narrative between the here and Nao.

Published about a year ago, this book seems to have been waiting for me to read it now, and I am almost ready - one final paper that is taking forever to write notwithstanding - but I wouldn't be surprised if many of my own life events start crossing over into this narrative: trips to Japan, courses in ecoliteracy, time travel etc. Ozeki uses her background in Zen Buddhism to write stories that already feel lived in.

Yep, once more into the Kingdom of Hereford, and another class reading. This time the magic is multimodal as the active yet unfocused mind of the student I am tutoring needs to listen and hopefully create something from the narrative. What brought me to this point was a friend losing her ring at the Digital Learning Centre, and the realization that all stories have a mind of their own. Still not sure about footnotes.

Shifting in her conclusion from what early modern playing companies might have done (based on a mix of research and guess-work) to what current Original Production companies are doing finds that latter lacking in a complex, more complete experience of enskillment of younger players - some practices which could get artistic directors arrested if they were copied exactly as done way back when. Could perhaps be virtual?

The much briefer section on getting smarter, compared with preceding one on how humans have already demonstrated stupidity in numerous ways, comes with a warning that even the best tools might have us on the monumentally stupid side of the problem. Our habit to name things SMART (phones, cars, whiteboards etc.) may set us up on the losing side of the "what do YOU think WE should do?" game, but we can't fool everyone.

Hands down, if I haven't yet mentioned, this is the most exciting book I've read on Shakespeare scholarship, and the main reason for its excellence happened a few pages back: connecting Lev S. Vygotsky to the plays performed at the Globe. There must be a dozen or so more references sharing the socio-cognitive theory of scaffolding to what Shakespeare writes in Henry V as being unworthy, but this is my first!

Oh man, did I ever stumble upon a book that lays out all the crazy ways our primitive hunter-gatherer minds have evolved into modern civilizations more capable of causing catastrophes than finding solutions to complex problems. Among the many easy, American target to aim at: religion, Religious Right, corporations and economic (also ecologic) criminals alike, it is the frozen institution of academia Gee wants to fix.

Moving from the way the plays were written to whom they were written for (sadly not for English scholars as many people throughout the ages seem determined to prove otherwise) includes the actor's voice and perhaps more intriguingly their gestures. Tribble writes of the hand-language-brain nexus which helped establish the fluid forgetting early modern actors needed in order to play the daily amount of scripted parts.

Continually impressed with the connectivity and candor of James Gee, whose discourse on the positive value of gaming and virtual reality over less effective (yet widely accepted) forms of education, religion and politics is easy to understand without the dreaded fear of being dumbed down - especially as so much of our mediated lives have already made us "stupid." A conference session with Gee would be a game-changer!

Then there were three, with an interesting sisterhood formed between adventurousness and economic savvy. Their skillful ransom negotiation adds Boo as a fourth member and their return to the Kingdom of Snodd proves that old adage 'you cannot go home again.' Then the technical glitch shutting down Goodreads yesterday because bad magic is on the rise and it will be another long wait for Strange and the Wizard.

Like those darn eagles of Middle Earth, the Cloud Leviathans could have made a more timely appearance and assisted Jennifer and her team escape the Hollow Men's army, yet in a now officially recognized quest, there have to be some sacrifices: such as a toe, a hand or a loved friend. Both Tolkien and Fforde know that such a deus ex machine would not have helped the story until the heroes learn to value something else.

There is often that terrific point in a book where many of the diverse and seemingly unrelated events ravel together; and at the 'entering the cave' part of Jennifer's heroic quest, many of the unknowns become clear, like a fog of lighter-than-air bones being lifted from her view. Bones that may also be mined by someone's hollow men. What makes a book great is the first three fourths that illuminate the last quarter.

Shady economics gets the princess into and out of various ordeals, almost as if this were her superpower, while magic and the law seem to butt heads on a few occasions. Jennifer still remains the moral ballast in this story, but with all the insanity happening in Llangurig she seems to be swayed more and more by the "all other considerations secondary" line both Wilson and Moobin used. Does she have a breaking point?

It took a while to figure out who Gabby actually is, and will have to wait to see if Prince Nasil gets what he wants out of this arrangement. Some of Jennifer's friends are lost while other reappear, each with an explanation of how honour and the stock market work in their favour. With many of the plot twists seeming to be imaginary, they also have a grim sense of happening all too often in the actual United Kingdom.

In addition to the other works of literature this epic story recalls, the most epically fantasy shows its teeth as the storyline breaks apart, just like the final two thirds of Lord of the Rings, the plot staying with Jennifer as she journeys through the Empty Quarter with two or three unexpected travellers joining her. What happened to Perkins, Addie, "Laura" and even Gollumesque Curtis get explained later.

Trouble is brewing on the homefront, and there are incomplete messages to and fro which only makes it the more exciting and imperative that the search for the Eye be completed promptly. Wilson gets to unpack some of his baggage, giving more details about the Troll Wars and their excessive waste (bit of an echo of Findley's The Wars, too). Curtis, Ignatius and Ralph are reimagining Lord of the Flies.

The further into the Cambrian Empire, the the more pragmatic Addie becomes: first in negotiating with a rival kidnapping clan, swapping their captive Wilson for Perkins and then abandoning the others in the Empty Quarter. Unless she is going solo for a raid to recapture Perkins, there is plenty of reason to suspect she is up to something underhanded, and Jennifer's ethics may be the only thing keeping the boys alive.

The drive into the Cambrian Empire is that classic 'crossing the threshold' in the unofficial quest, and Fforde fictive land is a lot like my Cascadia (based upon Callenbach's Ecotopia particularly the war against flying machines). Addie is another strong female character, bumping up the Bechdel-Webster points, and no sooner is she introduced but a few more friends, enemies and cannon fodder begin to appear.

With the plot in motion, we get to find out how far the wizards at Zambini Towers are ready to go in order to protect the last two remaining dragons. Hardly out the front door, it seems, except for helpful Perkins and a surprisingly helpful princess with Colin joining later. Really like how the quest is not an official Quest, too much paperwork, but it involves mysterious Sky Pirate and an equally elusive Leviathan.