《银行家的新衣:银行业出了什么问题以及如何纠正》(The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong With Banking and What To Do About It)
作者:阿纳特·阿德马蒂(Anat Admati)、马丁·黑尔维希(Martin Hellwig)(普林斯顿大学出版社)
过去的一年,各种有关最近这场经济危机的著作纷纷上市,其中最重要的一本简单地告诉我们如何防范下一次的危机。
《最后的枪声:1944年的西欧之战》(The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944)
作者:里克·阿特金森(Rick Atkinson)(亨利·霍尔特出版社)
过去的一年是世界大战类书非同凡响的一年。克里斯托弗·克拉克(Christopher Clark)、马克斯·黑斯廷斯(Max Hastings)和玛格丽特·麦克米伦(Margaret MacMillan)都出版了有关一战初始的绝佳又明显不同的记述,而伊恩·布鲁玛(Ian Buruma)的《零年》(Year Zero)是对二战伊始的几近完美的描写。不过,里克·阿特金森有关1942年至1945年美国陆军参与解放欧洲过程的三部曲的最后一部,甚至超过了第一部和第二部引发的高度期待。
《为了亚当:新英格兰殖民地一个家庭的故事》(For Adam's Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England)
作者:阿尔格拉·迪·博纳文图拉(Allegra di Bonaventura)(Liveright出版社)
改编自康涅狄格州一个丧偶造船工人的详尽日记,是对新英格兰殖民地社会的无比生动的全景式描写,显示了奴隶制度对北方人生活的深刻影响。
《巴赫:天堂城堡中的音乐》(Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven)
作者:约翰·埃利奥特·加德纳(John Eliot Gardiner)(Knopf出版社)
这位莱比锡宫廷乐队队长的音乐是人类最伟大的成就之一。几十年来,约翰·埃利奥特·加德纳在讲台上一直是巴赫最能言善辩的支持者,如今又出版了这本非凡之作。
《玛格丽特·撒切尔》(Margaret Thatcher)
作者:查尔斯·摩尔(Charles Moore)(Knopf出版社)
她接手的是一个潦倒不堪、蒙受耻辱、萎靡不振的国家,将其打造得繁荣、自信、自由。在这本引人入胜的传记中(两部中的第一部),查尔斯·摩尔向我们展示了撒切尔自信的来源,以及这位店主的女儿如何击败工会领袖、保守派权贵、欧共体官员和阿根廷强人。
《大脱节:数字时代保护童年及家庭关系》(The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age)
作者:凯瑟琳·斯坦纳·阿代尔(Catherine Steiner-Adair)(哈珀出版社)
这本貌似励志书的引人入胜之作按时间顺序记叙了新科技如何破坏了家庭生活。家长用iPhone安抚宝宝,刚刚学步的幼儿玩暴力游戏,儿童收发性短信。这本书没有提供简单的答案,但温和地鼓励缺乏自律的人们戒除电子设备。
《理论最小值:开始学物理时需要了解的东西》(The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics)
作者:莱昂纳德·萨斯坎德(Leonard Susskind)、乔治·拉博夫斯基(George Hrabovsky)(Basic出版社)
如今我们生活中的每一分钟都依靠技术,然而基本科学的奇妙之处对我们很多人来说都很陌生。每个记得哪怕一点数学知识的人都应该阅读这本引人入胜、通俗易懂的物理学读物。
《熏肉的先知:得克萨斯烤肉之旅》(The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue)
作者:丹尼尔·沃恩(Daniel Vaughn)(Ecco出版社)
如果烤肉在得克萨斯州是一种宗教,那么丹尼尔·沃恩就是使徒保罗。在他驾车沿着乡村公路而行,进入农村小镇,大嚼美味烤肉之际,他也为得克萨斯州描绘了一副五彩缤纷的全景画像。
《费城染色体:一个变异的基因以及基因层面治疗癌症之路》(The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level)
作者:杰西卡·威普纳(Jessica Wapner)(The Experiment出版社)
2013年有众多有关癌症的好书,但这本对数十年来寻找抗慢性骨髓性白血病的药物的记述是最棒的。杰西卡·威普纳将复杂的医学科学解释给普通读者,展示了两个传统敌人——学术界和大药企——之间合作的必要性。
《我的光明深渊》(My Bright Abyss)
作者:克里斯蒂安·威曼(Christian Wiman)(FSG出版社)
这本书可以说是"一个现代信仰者的冥想",每一代人都需要有人能像克里斯蒂安·威曼在这本书中一样清晰透彻地说说信念的问题。
The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong With Banking and What To Do About It
By Anat Admati & Martin Hellwig (Princeton)
In a year of important books about the recent economic crisis, the most important one told us simply how to stop the next one.
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944
By Rick Atkinson (Henry Holt)
It's been a notable year for books on world wars. Christopher Clark, Max Hastings and Margaret MacMillan all published superb, and markedly different, accounts of the start of the First, and Ian Buruma's 'Year Zero' is an almost perfect account of what was left in the wake of the Second. The final volume of Rick Atkinson's account of the U.S. Army's role in liberating Europe in 1942-45, though, exceeded even the lofty expectations set by volumes one and two.
For Adam's Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England
By Allegra di Bonaventura (Liveright)
Based on the detailed diary of a widowed Connecticut shipwright, this is an incomparably vivid panorama of Colonial New England society and a reminder of how deep slavery reached into Northern life.
Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven
By John Eliot Gardiner (Knopf)
The Leipzig Kapellmeister's music is one of mankind's greatest achievements. John Eliot Gardiner has been Bach's most eloquentchampion on the podium for decades and, now, in this extraordinary book.
Margaret Thatcher
By Charles Moore (Knopf)
She took a country that was bankrupt, dishonored and demoralized and made it prosperous, confident and free. In this utterly absorbing biography (the first volume of two), Charles Moore shows us whence her self-belief came and how this shopkeeper's daughter knocked aside trade-union leaders, Tory grandees, Eurocrats and Argentine strongmen.
The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age
By Catherine Steiner-Adair (Harper)
This riveting piece of journalism disguised as a self-help tome chronicles how new technology has disrupted family life. Parents pacify infants with iPhones, toddlers play violent games and pre-teens are sexting. The book offers no easy answers but gently encourages all of us who lack the discipline to unplug.
The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics
By Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky (Basic)
Every minute of our lives is now dependent on technology, yet the wonders of basic science are foreign to many of us. Everyone who remembers even a bit of math should read this inviting and accessiblesurvey of physics.
The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue
By Daniel Vaughn (Ecco)
If barbecue is a religion in Texas, Daniel Vaughn is its St. Paul. As he rides down back roads and into rural towns to eat 'cue-great, good and gag-inducing-he paints a rich portrait of Texas as a whole.
The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level
By Jessica Wapner (The Experiment)
There were numerous strong books about cancer in 2013, but this account of the decades of work to find a drug to fight chronic myelogenous leukemia was the strongest. Jessica Wapner translates the complexities of medical science for the general reader and demonstrates the necessity of collaboration between two traditional enemies, academia and Big Pharma.
My Bright Abyss
By Christian Wiman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Every generation needs someone to write about faith as lucidly as Christian Wiman does in this 'meditation of a modern believer.'