《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》榜單推薦:2024年度十大好書

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.《永恒美麗的背后：孟買地下城的生命、死亡與希望》By Katherine Boo.作者：凱瑟琳·布This National Book Award-winning study of life in Annawadi, a Mumbai slum, is marked by reporting so rigorous it recalls the muckrakers, and characters so rich they evoke Dickens. The slum dwellers have a skillful and empathetic chronicler in Boo, who depicts them in all their humanity and ruthless, resourceful glory.這份榮獲國(guó)家圖書獎(jiǎng)的報(bào)告記錄了孟買貧民窟Annawadi的生活。報(bào)告極其寫實(shí)的風(fēng)格使人想起狄更斯筆下的各色下層人物和角色。凱瑟琳·布嫻熟且入木三分地刻畫了貧民窟的居民，展現(xiàn)了他們的悲天憫人、冷漠無(wú)情以及足智多謀。FAR FROM THE TREE Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity.《背離親緣：父母、兒童與自我尋求》By Andrew Solomon.作者：安德魯·所羅門For more than a decade, Solomon studied the challenges, risks and rewards of raising children with “horizontal identities,” traits that they don’t share with their parents. As he investigates how families have grown stronger or fallen apart while raising prodigies, dwarfs, schizophrenics, transgendered children or those conceived in rape, he complicates everything we thought we knew about love, sacrifice and success.數(shù)十載來(lái)，安德魯一直在用“橫向自我”概念研究撫養(yǎng)子女的挑戰(zhàn)、困難和回報(bào)，以及子女不愿與父母分享的特性。作者涉及面十分廣泛，在探索撫養(yǎng)神童、侏儒兒、精神分裂癥患兒、變性患兒的家庭或所謂的強(qiáng)奸懷孕家庭的分離聚合時(shí)，安德魯告訴讀者：愛(ài)、犧牲與成功遠(yuǎn)比我們想象的復(fù)雜。THE PASSAGE OF POWER The Years of Lyndon Johnson.《走向權(quán)力的通道：林登·約翰遜的歲月》By Robert A. Caro.作者：羅伯特·A·卡羅The fourth volume of Caro’s prodigious masterwork, which now exceeds 3,000 pages, explores, with the author’s signature combination of sweeping drama, psychological insight and painstaking research, Johnson’s humiliating years as vice president, when he was excluded from the inner circle of the Kennedy White House and stripped of power. We know what Johnson does not, that this purgatory is prelude to the event of a single horrific day, when an assassin’s bullet placed Johnson, and the nation he now had to lead, on a new course.本書為卡羅的“約翰遜總統(tǒng)傳記”系列第四卷，這部卷帙浩繁巨作共有三千多頁(yè)。作者以包羅萬(wàn)象的戲劇手法、心理學(xué)洞察力以及細(xì)致艱辛的調(diào)查展現(xiàn)了約翰遜作為副總統(tǒng)的風(fēng)雨歲月。彼時(shí)，約翰遜受肯尼迪政府內(nèi)部排擠，同時(shí)還被剝奪了權(quán)力。今天看來(lái)，約翰遜當(dāng)時(shí)絲毫不曾料到會(huì)遇上那個(gè)可怕的日子——刺客的槍口頂著約翰遜，他所領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的國(guó)家正翻開(kāi)新的篇章。THE PATRIARCH The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy.《開(kāi)天辟地：老約瑟夫·P·肯尼迪時(shí)代的輝煌與動(dòng)蕩》By David Nasaw.作者：戴維·納索Nasaw took six years to complete this sprawling, arresting account of a banker-cum-speculator-cum-moviemaker-cum-ambassador-cum-dynastic founder. Joe Kennedy was involved in virtually all the history of his time, and his biographer persuasively makes the case that he was the most fascinating member of his large, famous and very formidable family.納索花了六年時(shí)間才完成這部煌煌巨著。喬·肯尼迪身兼銀行家、投機(jī)商、電影制作人以及大使等職，同時(shí)還是整個(gè)肯尼迪家族的創(chuàng)始人。他完全就是那個(gè)時(shí)代的歷史風(fēng)云人物，而他的傳記作者則令人信服地將其視為整個(gè)龐大出名且強(qiáng)盛的肯尼迪家族中最具魅力的人物。WHY DOES THE WORLD EXIST? An Existential Detective Story.《世界為何存在：一個(gè)關(guān)于存在的偵探故事》By Jim Holt.作者：吉姆·霍爾特For several centuries now, thinkers have wondered, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” In search of an answer, Holt takes the reader on a witty and erudite journey from London to Paris to Austin, Tex., as he listens to a varied cast of philosophers, scientists and even novelists offer solutions that are sometimes closely reasoned, sometimes almost mystical, often very strange, always entertaining and thought-provoking.幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來(lái)，思想家們一直在思索：“世界為何存在？”為解答這一問(wèn)題，霍爾特將讀者引入一段智慧博學(xué)的旅程；從倫敦、巴黎到奧斯汀及德克薩斯州，作者走訪了各個(gè)領(lǐng)域的哲學(xué)家、科學(xué)家乃至小說(shuō)家，得出或合理或神秘的答案，有些答案很奇怪，卻也很有意思、引人深思。