A cherry blossom is blooming and the air smells like freshly baked bread... A girl sprints through city streets, a French bulldog held in one hand, the package... A young man finds an egg yolk that simply refuses to be destroyed... Mountains are traversed, doors are opened and closed, and days come and go. With time, the distinctions that make up the world we know begin to fuse, to melt, to fade away... Small Infinities, Nikita Shorikov's debut collection of experimental short fiction and poetry, takes the reader on a one-of-a-kind surreal journey through beautiful worlds, somber dreams, heartwarming reminisces, and anxious nightmares. Exploring the nature of experience, as well as themes of life and death, nature and industry, coming-of-age, loneliness and alienation, art, urbanism, time, cyclicality, and infinity, Small Infinities is much like life itself—absurdly comical at points and deeply touching at others, and, overall, a dazzling and marvelous ride.

"You'll walk away with more gratitude for the slow burn of the healing process." — Alicia Cook, author of Sorry I Haven’t Texted You Back Tidal Pools and Other Small Infinities blurs the lines between endings and beginnings. The love story starts in the usual way: a whirlwind of confessions, late night conversations, and promises that seem sturdy. The years pass by, and novelty is replaced by a comforting routine – one that’s difficult to walk away from when things take a toxic turn. This is a collection about bravery and evolution. It takes courage to leave behind the familiar. To question all the things that once seemed undeniably true. To learn to stand on your own and, in doing so, become who you were really meant to be. Endings can be the best beginnings…once you realize you have the power to create them.

When Alice's dad moves out, leaving her with her troubled mother, she does the only thing that feels right: she retreats to her family's old Renaissance tent in the backyard, determined to live there until her dad comes home. In an attempt to keep at least one part of her summer from changing, Alice focuses on her quest to swim freestyle fast enough to get on her swim team's record board. But summers contain multitudes, and soon Alice meets an odd new friend, Harriet, whose obsession with the school's science fair is equal only to her conviction that Alice's best stroke is backstroke, not freestyle. Most unexpected of all is an unusual babysitting charge, Piper, who is mute—until Alice hears her speak. A funny and honest middle-grade novel, this sharply observed depiction of family, friendship, and Alice's determination to prove herself—as a babysitter, as a friend, as a daughter, as a person—rings loud and true.

Ian Stewart considers the concept of infinity and the profound role it plays in mathematics, logic, physics, cosmology, and philosophy. He shows that working with infinity is not just an abstract, intellectual exercise, and analyses its important practical everyday applications.

This book is an exploration of philosophical questions about infinity. Graham Oppy examines how the infinite lurks everywhere, both in science and in our ordinary thoughts about the world. He also analyses the many puzzles and paradoxes that follow in the train of the infinite. Even simple notions, such as counting, adding and maximising present serious difficulties. Other topics examined include the nature of space and time, infinities in physical science, infinities in theories of probability and decision, the nature of part/whole relations, mathematical theories of the infinite, and infinite regression and principles of sufficient reason.

The book contains popular expositions (accessible to readers with no more than a high school mathematics background) on the mathematical theory of infinity, and a number of related topics. These include G?del's incompleteness theorems and their relationship to concepts of artificial intelligence and the human mind, as well as the conceivability of some unconventional cosmological models. The material is approached from a variety of viewpoints, some more conventionally mathematical and others being nearly mystical. There is a brief account of the author's personal contact with Kurt G?del.An appendix contains one of the few popular expositions on set theory research on what are known as "strong axioms of infinity."

In this meditation on religion and science, Lightman explores the tension between our yearning for permanence and certainty, and the modern scientific discoveries that demonstrate the impermanent and uncertain nature of the world. As a physicist, he has always held a scientific view of the world. But one summer evening, while looking at the stars from a small boat at sea he was overcome by the sensation that he was merging with a grand and eternal unity, a hint of something absolute and immaterial. This is his exploration of these seemingly contradictory impulses, and the journey along the different paths of religion and science that become part of his quest. -- adapted from publisher info.