沙滩阅读

林肯高速公路阿莫·托尔斯

Emmett Watson is released from prison when his father dies to take care of his younger brother Billy. Greeting Emmett as he arrives home is the banker, there to foreclose on the farm. 那天晚上打扫房子的时候, 男孩们发现了一些母亲寄来的明信片, 他在比利出生后不久就离开了他们. The last postcard was from San Francisco, and the boys decide to drive there and find her. Their trip is interrupted when two friends from prison, 公爵夫人和伍莉, appear and try to persuade Emmett to join them on their own adventure to 纽约, to claim a fortune that Woolly’s grandfather had hidden. On one level, this is just a fun adventure story, thoroughly enjoyable. 这也是一个很好的性格研究, 因为这四个男孩被画得很特别:埃米特, 理性的, practical good soul; Billy, the savant nine-year old; Woolly, 一个甜蜜的, sad naïf whom his wealthy family has shunned; and Duchess, 复仇的道德家是故事的核心. With wit and wisdom from a cast of memorable characters, 林肯高速公路 简直太棒了.

地狱之书——杰森·莫特

Magical is the best description of this exceptional work, 是去年美国国家图书奖的小说类得主. The plot is clever: an author on a book tour, promoting his book, 地狱之书, narrates his observations about society, life, love as he passes through each city. A parallel narrative is of a 10-year boy who is both real and imaginary: a real boy who was apparently shot and killed by the police and appears to visit with the author as he travels around the country. This may sound convoluted or disorienting, but it is woven together brilliantly. The author’s observations about race, anger, hopelessness, love, identity are profound. 一件真正神奇的艺术品.

人物王国——苏靖

How can thousands, tens of thousands, of pictorial characters work with modern technology? China’s written script is not only vast, it is highly nuanced. The strokes of each character must occur in a specific order, and the intonation of identical characters can yield completely different meaning? 此外, 有很多, 甚至上百种方言, 发音不同, 甚至在书面形式的语调. Specifically, how did one dialect, Beijing Mandarin, become the universal language? 怎么在打字机上用汉字呢, 然后翻译成键盘, 更不用说iPhone了? How could the dots and dashes of telegraphy incorporate Mandarin characters? Wouldn’t it have been better to adopt the Romanized alphabet? 所有这些问题可能看起来深奥或琐碎, but the story of how the Chinese language was able to enter the modern world is addressed brilliantly by Jing Tsu, 耶鲁大学教授. She makes a persuasive case for language as the most important unifying aspect of a culture, and highlights the brilliant people who shepherded the Chinese language, 和中国, 进入现代社会. 一段迷人而重要的历史.

完全的胜利凯文·威德尔

Most military histories of the American Revolutionary War focus, 适当地, 乔治·华盛顿, 因为他是所有大陆军的总司令. 军队, 复数, because while the main American force was under Washington’s direct command, 北方军, 由奥拉西奥·盖茨将军领导, 打了一场截然不同的战争. The British strategy in 1777 was for General William Howe to pursue Washington’s main army in the mid-Atlantic states while, 同时, 约翰·伯戈因将军从加拿大进攻, splitting the New England rebels from the (assumed) more loyal colonies in the south. 维德尔, a career Army officer and professor at the Army War College, describes in detail the series of battles that took place in and around Saratoga, 在1777年的纽约，结果是, 第一个, 美国在提康德罗加堡的惨重损失, and the remarkable turn of events over the subsequent few months that led to an American victory that sealed the fate of the war, 即使它将在接下来的几年里进行战斗. 维德尔’s strengths are both in the tactical details of the campaign, 的挑战, mistakes and brilliance of the generals and the field commanders on both sides (including the mercurial Benedict Arnold), and equally eloquent on the strategic picture that helped and hindered each side, as well as the critical importance of the American victory (primarily, 使法国参战). This will appeal mostly to those with an interest in military history, 因此, 这是我读过的几百本书中最好的一本.

天才的贵族艾德里安·伍尔德里奇

Plato argued for Athens to be governed by an enlightened aristocracy chosen by merit. Ancient China developed an extensive course of study and grueling exams to select the very best scholars to advise the emperor. Meritocracy appealed especially to the founders of the United States, eager to shed the advantages of birth and class so ingrained in Britain. Yet meritocracy has come under attack recently, from both the academic left and the populist right. The left argues that meritocracy cannot be objective when there are systemic biases in the system. The populist right decries the so-called expert class that has led the country astray, 无论是在战争中(越南), 阿富汗)或公共卫生. 作者，编辑 《yabo亚博网站登录》, comes down firmly on the side of meritocracy, while acknowledging some of its criticisms. You don’t have to agree with his prescriptions (greater use of standardized tests, for example) to appreciate the balanced overview of this important sociopolitical topic.

• 2016年4月7日

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  The 第一个 quarter began with a bang and ended with a whimper. 至少，这是波动率指数(VIX)传达的信息 ...

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  六月的阴霾将消散

  1024"June gloom" is what you get when a warming land mass meets a cooler ocean: a layer of marine fog that the sun burns ...

• 2015年1月28日

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  欧洲一片混乱, 每个人都同意:糟糕的人口结构, 僵化和压迫性的管制, 政治障碍. ...