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《经济学人》盘点年度好书 送给爱读书的你

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在暖暖冬日的闲暇时光,静静地阅读,真是再惬意不过的一件事情了。英国《经济学人》周刊网站近日盘点了2018年度图书,分类别推荐了今年值得一读的好书,推荐给爱好阅读的你。

一、历史类

1. A History of America in 100 Maps. By Susan Schulten.

《蕴藏在100张地图中的美国历史》(作者:苏珊·舒尔滕)

《经济学人》盘点年度好书 送给爱读书的你

A collection of maps, by turns beautiful and eccentric, which charts the making of America. It shows the role of maps in exploration and conquest and proves that, while some aspects of American political geography are enduring, much in the country’s make-up has, like the banks of the Mississippi, always been in flux.

一系列美丽又奇异的地图勾画了美国的形成。本书展现了地图在探索与征服过程中所发挥的作用,证明虽然美国政治地理的一些方面一成不变,但大部分构成却如同密西西比河的河岸一样,永远处在不断变化之中。

in flux:在变化的,处于不断变化中

2. Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History. By Steven Zipperstein.

《大屠杀:基什尼奥夫和历史的倾斜》(作者:史蒂文·齐珀施泰因)

The pogrom in Kishinev in 1903 became a byword for anti-Semitic violence for Jews everywhere. The event roused Zionists and Jew-haters alike.

1903年发生在基什尼奥夫的大屠杀成为针对世界各地犹太人的反犹暴力活动代表事件。这起事件既引发了犹太复国主义运动,也激起了仇恨犹太人的情绪。

二、商业与经济类

1. We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights. By Adam Winkler.

《我们这些公司:美国企业如何赢得民事权利》(作者:亚当·温克勒)

“For most of American history”, the author comments, “the Supreme Court failed to protect the dispossessed and the marginalized, with the justices claiming to be powerless in the face of hostile public sentiment.” Meanwhile “the court has insisted that broad public sentiment favoring business regulation must bend to the demands of the constitution.” A lively survey of a neglected but important feature of American history.

作者表示:“在美国历史上的大部分时间里,最高法院未能保护被剥夺财产者和被边缘化的群体,面对充满敌意的公众情绪,正义显得软弱无力。”与此同时“法院一直坚持认为支持商业规程的大众情绪必须服从宪法的要求”。这本书是对美国历史中被忽视但又很重要一面的真实调查。

dispossessed[,dɪspə'zɛst] : adj.被逐出的;无依无靠的;失去产业的

2. AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order. By Kai-Fu Lee.

《人工智能超级大国:中国、硅谷以及新世界秩序》(作者:李开复)

The writer anticipates the coming contest to dominate artificial intelligence. He thinks China will crush Silicon Valley because it has more data and competes more ruthlessly.

作者在书中预言了即将到来的主导人工智能领域的竞争。他认为中国将碾压硅谷,因为中国拥有更多数据而且在竞争方面更加残酷。

3. Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society. By Eric Posner and E. Glen Weyl.

《激进的市场:为建立公平社会而铲除资本主义与民主》(作者:埃里克·波斯纳、E·格伦·韦尔)

A law professor and an economist argue that the way out of liberalism’s impasse is to expand the role of markets, not to subdue them. Some of their ideas—on property rights, elections, immigration and much besides—are impractical, and others eccentric; but together they point to a possible response to the challenges of populism and protectionism.

身为法律学教授及经济学家的作者认为,摆脱自由主义僵局的方式是扩大市场,而不是削弱市场的作用。自由主义的某些观念,比如针对知识产权、选举和移民等的观点,是不切实际的,还有些观点甚至很离谱,但在面临民粹主义和贸易保护主义带来的挑战时,或许可以指出一种应对之道。

impasse [æm'pɑːs; 'æmpɑːs]: n.僵局;死路

三、传记与回忆录类

1. Barracoon. By Zora Neale Hurston.

《巴拉坑》(作者:佐拉·尼尔·赫斯顿)

Kossula, later called Cudjo Lewis, was one of the last Africans to be kidnapped into slavery in America. Interviewed at his home in Alabama in 1927-28, he vividly recalled his capture and illegal transportation on the eve of America’s civil war.

后来被称作库乔·刘易斯的科苏拉是被拐卖到美国做奴隶的最后一批非洲人。他在1927年到1928年间在位于阿拉巴马州的家中接受了作者采访,生动回忆了在美国南北战争前夕自己被抓并被非法运往美国的经历。

2. Napoleon: A Life. By Adam Zamoyski.

《拿破仑:一生》(作者:亚当·扎莫伊斯基)

In this superlative account, Napoleon is a mortal, with great virtues and equally great flaws, at once dazzling and gauche. “From the sublime to the ridiculous”, Napoleon himself said after his disastrous campaign in Russia, “there is but one step.”

本书生动刻画了拿破仑作为凡人的一面,既有伟大的优点,也有严重的缺陷,集光芒耀眼与不善交际于一身。拿破仑本人在攻打俄国的行动以惨败告终后曾说:“从崇高到可笑,只有一步之遥。”

gauche [gəʊʃ]adj. :笨拙的;粗鲁的;不善交际的

3. Churchill: Walking with Destiny. By Andrew Roberts.

《丘吉尔:与命运同行》(作者:安得鲁·罗伯茨)

Acknowledging its subject’s flaws and sometimes catastrophic mistakes, it nevertheless makes a compelling case for his greatness, both as a statesman and a writer.

本书承认了丘吉尔存在的不足以及有时犯下的灾难性错误,同时以令人信服的笔触描写了他的伟大,无论是作为政治家还是作家而言。

四、文化类

1. The Personality Brokers. By Merve Emre.

《人格经纪人》(作者:梅尔韦·埃姆雷)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the best-known personality test, is the focus of an entertaining cultural history of the personality-assessment industry. Its enduring popularity ought not to be surprising: after all, it offers both the “rush of self-discovery” and “the comfort of solidarity” with others of the same type.

最著名的人格测试“迈尔斯-布里格斯类型指标”在人格评估业成为娱乐文化一部分的过程中扮演着核心角色。它经久不衰的热度应该并不令人意外:毕竟,它可以让人“迅速发现自我”,同时又因为同一种类型的其他人的存在而获得“抱团取暖的安慰”。

2. The Prodigal Tongue. By Lynne Murphy.

《英式英语与美式英语爱恨交织的关系》(作者:琳恩·墨菲)

The first and perhaps only book on the relative merits of American and British English that is dominated by facts and analysis rather than nationalistic prejudice. For all its scholarship, this is also a funny and rollicking read.

关于美式英语与英式英语相对而言的优点,这是第一本、可能也是唯一由事实和分析而不是民族主义偏见占主导的书。尽管是学术性著作,读来却轻松有趣。

rollicking['rɑlɪkɪŋ] : adj.欢乐的;喧闹的

3. Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece. By Michael Benson.

《太空漫游:斯坦利·库布里克、阿瑟·克拉克与杰作的诞生》(作者:迈克尔·本森)

An illuminating account of a collaboration that resulted in a landmark film. The author’s scientific background helps him to explain its pathbreaking visual effects. The making of a great work of art has rarely been anatomized so thoroughly.

富有启发意义地记述了一段协作关系,这段关系最终缔造了一部具有里程碑意义的电影。作者的科学背景帮助他解读了影片中开创性的视觉效果。伟大艺术作品的形成过程很少得到如此全面的剖析。

五、小说类

1. The Long Take. By Robin Robertson.

《长镜头》(作者:罗宾·罗伯逊)

The wondrous story of a Canadian veteran of the World War II who washes up in New York and then Los Angeles. Walker, the protagonist, is haunted by his experiences in combat and by memories of his youth.

关于一名加拿大籍二战老兵漂泊到纽约、然后又到洛杉矶的奇妙故事。主人公沃克无法摆脱战争经历和年轻时的回忆。

protagonist[prə'tæg(ə)nɪst]: n.主角

2. The Silence of the Girls. By Pat Barker.

《女孩们的沉默》(作者:帕特·巴克)

The “Iliad” reimagined from the perspective of Briseis, the captured slave-girl who is the cause of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon—and in the original is almost silent.

从被抓获的奴隶女孩布丽塞丝的角度重新构思《伊利亚特》,她成为阿喀琉斯与阿伽门农争吵的原因——而在原作中,她基本上沉默不语。

3. Milkman. By Anna Burns.

《送奶人》(作者:安娜·伯恩斯)

The winner of this year’s Man Booker prize is set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in an unnamed city that looks like Belfast. A haunting depiction of the impact of violence on ordinary lives.

这是2018年的布克奖获奖书籍,以北爱尔兰动荡时期为背景,故事的发生地点是一座看起来像贝尔法斯特的无名城市。本书描写了暴力对普通人的生活所产生的影响,让人难以忘记。

六、科技类

1. Beyond Weird. By Philip Ball.

《怪诞之外》(作者:菲利普·巴尔)

Wearing deep learning lightly, this author explains quantum mechanics simply and thoughtfully, revealing the theory’s true power as a way of knowing what can be said about nature.

本书作者举重若轻,简练而有创见地阐释了量子力学,揭示了该理论作为了解自然界的一种方式所具有的真实力量。

2. Rocket Men. By Robert Kurson.

《火箭人》(作者:罗伯特·古尔松)

A gripping account of Apollo 8, the first manned space flight around the Moon. The story of the dangerous mission that laid the ground for the Moon landing has not been told in such detail until now.

扣人心弦地讲述了关于首次载人绕月飞行的“阿波罗8号”的故事。这次危险的任务为登月打下了基础,在此之前,从来没有哪一本书如此细致地讲述这段往事。

3. Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine and Mysteries of Blood. By Rose George.

《九品脱》(作者 罗丝·乔治)

This history of blood takes its name from the quantity in a human body. The author visits high-tech facilities, a South African slum and Nepalese villages to convey what is known and what remains mysterious about the liquid.

这本系统阐述血液的书是根据人体内血液的数量命名的。作者探访了高科技场所、南非的一处贫民窟以及尼泊尔的村庄,为的是告诉读者有关这种液体的众所周知以及依然神秘的知识。

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