Monday, August 28, 2017

The Sellout: A Novel

Paul Beatty
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Winners of the Man Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction, and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature

A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality―the black Chinese restaurant.

Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens―on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles―the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family's financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that's left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.

Fueled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident―the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins―he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

王實味 : 文藝整風與思想改造

魏時煜
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榮獲「香港出版雙年獎」文學及小說類別的「最佳出版獎」

王實味是五四運動中成長起來的第一代人,因為一篇雜文〈野百合花〉,使他成為延安整風的重點批判對象,有人稱他為共產黨文字獄首位有姓名的犧牲者。本書作者自2008年開始,訪談了十多位與王實味同時在延安、親歷整風的老人;這些受訪者大多是近代歷史的見證者,並且對經歷過的一連串的政治運動都有反思。 本書透過口述筆錄、檔案資料、文本解讀,以及作者新發掘的材料,比較不同的聲音和視點,了解和記錄未能被成功改造思想的王實味的意義。作為珍貴的歷史材料,本書還首次全文附錄王實味1930年發表在「托派雜誌」《展開》上的中篇小說〈三代〉,以及他轉譯並加了按語的〈列寧遺囑〉,以伺讀者。

(摘錄自香港城市大學出版社網站)

Monday, August 21, 2017

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Elizabeth Kolbert
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WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes

Over the last half-billion years, there have been Five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In prose that is at once frank, entertaining, and deeply informed, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, Kolbert provides a moving and comprehensive account of the disappearances occurring before our very eyes. She shows that the sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

真希望我 20 歲就懂的事 : 史丹佛大學的創新 x 創意 x 創業震撼課程 (What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20)

婷娜.希莉格 (Tina Seelig)
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作者希莉格主持「史丹佛科技創業計畫」(STVP)多年,是非常成功的創意與創業導師,專門教導大學生(特別是以當工程師為志向)如何規畫未來及創業。幾年前當她的兒子快要上大學時,她回想起自己讀大學和初入社會的挫折與經驗,不禁希望當年20歲時有人能提點她,於是與兒子分享這些寶貴心情。後來她對一群史丹佛學生分享這些觀察和領悟,把演講題目訂為「真希望我20歲就懂的事」,引發熱烈迴響與共鳴,並應邀到全球發表演講,最後決定將她的豐富經驗和創意課程寫成這本激勵人心的精采著作。

希莉格說,每個人20歲時都會有茫然面對未來、不知何去何從的強烈焦慮感,其實你應該欣然接受這種不確定,不確定才是激發創新的火種,也是向前邁進的重要力量。最有趣的經驗往往發生在偏離既定道路、挑戰傳統假設、從失敗錯誤中看出全新契機的時候!

誰說南極不能賣比基尼?誰說餐廳不能賣蟑螂壽司?蘋果電腦的賈伯斯就會告訴你,被開除是他這輩子最棒的一件事,讓他展開人生最富創造力的一段時光!其實不管你是20歲、30歲、40歲甚至50歲,只要願意跳脫人生框架、勇敢嘗試失敗、以健康的心態挑戰所有「不可能」、把握每個大放異彩的機會,就會帶來無窮的可能性!

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, August 14, 2017

Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results

Stephen Guise
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What's A Mini Habit?

A mini habit is a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day; its "too small to fail" nature makes it weightless, deceptively powerful, and a superior habit-building strategy. You will have no choice but to believe in yourself when you're always moving forward. The barrier to the first step is so low that even depressed or "stuck" people can find early success and begin to reverse their lives right away. And if you think one push-up a day is too small to matter, I've got one heck of a story for you!

Mini Habits is a strategy to create permanent healthy habits. Some categories include: exercise, writing, reading, thinking positively, meditating, drinking water, eating healthy foods, etc.

Mini Habits combines Stephen's life-changing experience above with science, logic, and humor. It rejects common self-help and habit formation advice in favor of smarter strategies that work with a modern, hectic lifestyle. Having mini habits enables you to move forward consistently, even on your worst days.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

坐看雲起時 : 一本香港人的教協史 = A People's History of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union

陸鴻基
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香港電台第十屆 「香港書獎」獲獎書籍 

本書作者,前香港教育學院(二○一六年正名為「香港教育大學」)副校長陸鴻基教授花了五年時間搜集資料、閱讀文獻、訪談及編撰,奉獻了不少時間和心力,最後完成了三卷有關香港教育史的重要著作,以深度和廣度而言,仍屬首次。

全書共分三卷:

• 卷一戰後的香港與教協崛興的背景:從二戰說起,探討戰後香港的政治、社會、教育發展與變遷,闡述促使教協成立的因由;


• 卷二爭取教師權益與教育改進:詳述教協成立後,對香港教育界, 包括學校、教師、學生等所作出的貢獻;

• 卷三教協與公民社會的形成和互動:闡釋在社會、政治及教育的巨變下,教協多年來參與的社會活動,並推動公民社會的發展。

本書為香港的教育史填補空白及留下了客觀紀錄,特別適合對香港的歷史及政治轉變、社會運動與教育發展有認識和感興趣的讀者。

(摘錄自香港城市大學出版社網站)