ruth author of a tale for the time being

Now in its 11th year, the texts for this year’s Three Books program address the theme of “Science”: Physics for Future Presidents by Richard Muller, My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki, and Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss. I spoke with Ruth Ozeki at Stanford in 2013 and then corresponded with her during the book tour that followed, and am delighted that My Year of Meats was selected as one of the three books all incoming frosh will read at Stanford this autumn. They are concerned with our minds and bodies, but even more particularly with our spirit, and with our commitment to the future. Her books are deeply involved in issues of science, technology, gender, and attend both to deep history and to the contemporary. The reviews in the United Kingdom tended to stress that, as The Independent had it, “her novels are witty, intelligent, and passionate.” The reaction of the American press was more boisterous: The Chicago Tribune noted “their shrewd, playful humor, luscious sexiness, and kinetic pizazz.” In 2013 A Tale for the Time Being was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize as well as for a National Book Critics Award it won the Kitschies Red Tentacle Award for Best Novel, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction.

Her website and other web sources portray a diverse and fascinating set of life experiences and a considerable skill set: she worked on cult SF classic Robot Holocaust and has done straightforward commercial film work, started a language school in Japan, worked as a bar hostess there, made award-winning films herself (Body of Correspondence, Halving the Bones ), done extensive study of Zen, and worked as a Zen teacher. She is the author of three novels: My Year of Meats (1998), All Over Creation (2003), and A Tale for the Time Being (2013). Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and a Zen Buddhist priest.

Ruth author of a tale for the time being