| Reader | Group | Book Title | Book Author | Book review or favorite quotes |
| Liuchun Deng | Faculty | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood | After reading the graphic novel adaptation, I returned to the original The Handmaid’s Tale. Knowing the plot made the reading somewhat easier, yet the author’s powerful writing still compelled me to pause frequently and reflect. In the preface, Atwood recounts her experience in Berlin. Her reflections on places that were once this or that resonated strongly with me. Berlin’s past, shaped by competing ideals and their human consequences, brings to mind many of our own living environments, places that have been shaped, and also consumed, by fervent communist ideals. I plan to revisit the novel again in the spring, reading it alongside the Chinese translation and the graphic novel adaptation. I am curious to see how meaning shifts across language and medium. |
| Liuchun Deng | Faculty | 我的母亲做保洁 | 张小满 | 这本是妻子在书店里偶然翻到的，里面的故事让我们各自想到一些故人。书讲的是在深圳的女儿接母亲过来生活，母亲在大城市当保洁员的故事，穿插着谈到了母亲过往的很多次打工经历和母女互动中的生活琐屑。作者的写法很社会学，观察到的细节反复让我想到已经消失了的调查记者。阅读过程中记下了很多有趣的片段，兹录三处： “母亲跟我讲完她在厕所的遭遇，末了，不忘提醒我：’你在公司上厕所的时候，听到阿姨打扫卫生的动静，你一定要尽快出来，不要让阿姨等，等得很着急。’” “保洁员们没有权限乘坐白领上班时用的客梯，只能乘货梯。货梯的轿厢四壁被复合木板保护着，上面涂画了各种笔迹。连气味都不一样，带着尘土和汗水的味道。” ”’儿子没有成家，我都没有奔头了。‘不止一位保洁员这么想我表达对生活的失望。[……]他们有一样的精神困境，似乎不看到儿子结婚、女儿嫁人，确认儿女获得世俗意义上的’幸福’，作为父母的他们就无法真正获得’自由’。” 书末有这么一段，我觉得写得特别好，让这本书没有掉进那种“感动中国”式的窠臼： “我并不希望引发过度的同情心，而是希望，通过保洁员群体的故事，我们也能关照自身的处境，对自身的生活有所反省。希望我们能多关心这个世界上的’他者’，理解一个人在有限的条件下如何做选择，理解一个人的命运并不仅仅由他‘是否足够努力’而决定。 |
| Liuchun Deng | Faculty | My Brilliant Friend | Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein) | The last summer we stayed in Ischia, I learned that the island had become famous because of a television series. The Chinese title of the show sounds rather melodramatic. Later, in Naples, I discovered Ferrante’s series of novels and realized that the story is not really about Ischia; it is about Naples. It took me some time to settle into her writing style, but the story gradually revealed its brilliance, with layers of social life woven tightly together. In many ways it reminded me of my own childhood in a large urban slum in Hongkou. The most rewarding moments in reading this kind of novel come when something feels both foreign and unexpectedly familiar. There is a scene in which Elena’s father sets off the end-of-year fireworks, and then Rino is an expert of playing with the unexploded bottles. Slumdogs all grow up the same, I thought to myself. What I cannot fully identify with, but it remains a fascinating experience to read, is the delicate emotional dynamic between Elena and Lila before Lila’s wedding. The subtle tensions are portrayed with remarkable skill, in ways that would lose their power if spelled out too directly by the author. I will watch the television series to see how this story translates into a visual form. |
| Liuchun Deng | Faculty | My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1 | Emil Ferris | This was another real find at the Shanghai Library, and surprisingly one I discovered on the open shelves, since most English-language graphic novels there are not available for browsing. The artwork is excellent, and the way the stories of uptown Chicago and wartime Berlin are woven together works perfectly. It is one of those books where I found myself drawn to every character, with Deeze, the brother, standing out in particular. Among the comics about the Holocaust that I have read, this one stands out as being in the caliber of Maus. It has a strong underground comix feel, yet unlike Art Spiegelman’s work, its female perspective brings something genuinely fresh and, on reflection, perhaps even more haunting. I can’t wait to read the second volume, which unfortunately is not yet available at the Shanghai Library. |
| Liuchun Deng | Faculty | 纳闷集 | 匡扶 | 在图书馆偶然看到匡扶摇的漫画，风格有些不同寻常，借了回来才知道他已经火了很久。 画风诡异，甚至不算讨人喜欢，但故事极佳。开篇外婆私奔，不知道为什么会想到王小波的《红拂夜奔》，一路上寻寻觅觅的奇怪纠葛，又会想到《三峡好人》，但是又跟它们不一样，一种只有图像加上文字印在纸上才能表现出来的魔幻。 第二篇关于二手书店，男孩偷偷等看书的女孩走了之后，问店员女孩刚才在看什么书。原来看的是日历。邂逅一本日历。还有那个自己写了书、偷偷塞到二手书店里来卖的人。 最后一篇关于父亲的故事，够拍几部电影，明明很痛的故事，作者知道在哪里轻轻用力，轻轻揉一揉读者的眼睛。 这是一本少见的中文图像小说佳作。 |
| Liuchun Deng | Faculty | Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari | After seeing this book so many times, I finally borrowed it from the Changning Library. I have always felt that the bestseller section at the airport bookshops often contains precisely the books to avoid. But this one was genuinely eye-opening. The first half of the book, in particular, is excellently done. It revisits topics that many of us first encountered in children’s science books or later in school textbooks, but does so in a remarkably fresh and engaging way. Many of the facts and interpretations can certainly be contested, as I later learned from Goodreads reviews, but I found the author’s way of organizing the material genuinely brilliant. It struck me again and again how narrowly the subject of development has often been treated in my own field, economics. The graphic novel adaptation has also been out for some time, and it has now moved to the top of my reading list. |
| Crispest Prefabs | Faculty | The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World | Peter Wohlleben | When you know that trees experience pain and have memories and that tree parents live together with their children, then you can no longer just chop them down and disrupt their lives with larger machines. |
| Andrew Field | Faculty | Testimony: A Memoir | Robbie Robertson | Ronnie [Hawkins] thought my reading binge was making me too distant and heady. “Son, what the hell are you reading now? You’re gonna get your head all tangled up in those damn books.” |
| Joseph Giacomelli | Faculty | Fascism, the War, and Structures of Feeling in Italy, 1943-1945 | Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi | In this book, Falasca-Zamponi uses people’s diaries to reconstruct the experience of living in Italy during a tumultuous two-year span at the end of World War II. The diaries are written by a wide range of people, including children, intellectuals, workers, soldiers, and many others. This book inspired me to want to keep a journal and record more of my own thoughts. As Falasca-Zamponi shows, it’s especially important for ordinary people to record their impressions of life, because unlike famous people, we risk being “lost” to history unless we leave something behind. And you never know when a future scholar might use your diary to recover the actual lived experiences of the past! |
| Anonymous | Other | 喜鹊谋杀案 | 安东尼·霍洛维茨 | 很精彩的一本悬疑小说，小说中的现实与小说中作者所写的作品互相交织，作品中的人物都有现实中的原型，围绕着最后一章的寻找的线索，逐渐让作家的死因浮出水面，当一切揭晓的那一刻，心中的谜团随之解开，舒服 |
| Anonymous | Staff | 荣格心理学入门 | 邓小松 | I’m intrigued by the book not only because Jung was a great psychiatrist, but also because he was inspired by classic Chinese philosophers such as Lao Tze. |
| Haiyan Zhou | Staff | 人类简史：从动物到上帝 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | 尤瓦尔•赫拉利 Yuval Noah Harari, 译者：林俊宏 | 历史与现实的反思 “历史从无正义。” “历史的铁则就是：事后看来无可避免的事，在当时看来总是毫不明显。” “我们之所以研究历史，不是为了要知道未来，而是要拓宽视野，要了解现在的种种绝非‘自然’，也并非无可避免。” 农业革命与文明代价 “人类以为自己驯化了植物，但其实是植物驯化了智人。” “我们从农业革命能学到的最重要一课，很可能就是物种演化上的成功并不代表个体的幸福。” “历史只告诉了我们极少数的人在做些什么，而其他绝大多数人的生活就是不停挑水耕田。” |
| Anonymous | Staff | 发现苏丹之美 | 王艳，吴富贵 | 因为一个偶然的机会对苏丹这个国家产生了兴趣。能查找到的相关中文书籍很少，这本虽然写作时间比较早（2012年），内容有些浅（主要涉及作者自身经历和当地风土人情），依然暂时满足了需求，对这个国家有了相对全面的了解，获得了一些新知。感兴趣的话，不妨一读。 |
| PengCheng Tan | Staff | 普京传 | 王国章 | 《普京传》从普京的童年生活讲起，描述了他在圣彼得堡的成长岁月，包括求学经历和对体育的热爱。之后着重讲述他在克格勃的特工生涯，这段经历对他的性格和价值观产生了深远影响。苏联解体后，普京进入俄罗斯政坛，逐步崭露头角。书中详细介绍了他在不同政治岗位上的工作，面对的诸多挑战与机遇。在成为俄罗斯总统后，普京在经济改革、军事建设、外交政策等方面采取了一系列举措，致力于恢复俄罗斯的大国地位，书中也对这些方面进行了深入分析。 |
| Anonymous | Staff | Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas | Seymour Papert | “学语法能让你说话说得更好！” (page 79); “这是学生想要的吗？他已经知道陀螺仪会直立，但这个知识让他不舒服，因为这和他的直觉发生了冲突。学生需要的是什么呢？不是陀螺仪是怎么运作的，而是他自己的想法是怎么运作的！他想要知道的，是为什么直觉会告诉他错误的答案。他想要知道的是怎样才能修正自己的直觉。” (page 195) |
| Anonymous | Staff | 茶馆 | 老舍 | 因为买了茶馆的话剧票所以把这本书找出来看了一遍。老舍先生以戊戌变法、军阀混战和新中国成立前夕为历史坐标，通过裕泰茶馆的兴衰演绎了旧中国半个世纪的沧桑变迁。茶馆里有各色各样的人群，除了老板王利发，还有吃皇粮的旗人、办实业的资本家、清宫里的太监、信奉洋教的教士、穷困潦倒的农民，以及特务、打手、警察、流氓、相士等，每个人都有自己的心酸和无奈和不同的结局。世道的不稳造就了每个人的悲剧，让人更加珍惜当下安稳的生活。 |
| PengCheng Tan | Staff | 百年孤独 | 作者: [哥伦比亚] 加西亚·马尔克斯 译者: 范晔 | 百年孤独》是魔幻现实主义文学的代表作，描写了布恩迪亚家族七代人的传奇故事，以及加勒比海沿岸小镇马孔多的百年兴衰，反映了拉丁美洲一个世纪以来风云变幻的历史。作品融入神话传说、民间故事、宗教典故等神秘因素，巧妙地糅合了现实与虚幻，展现出一个瑰丽的想象世界，成为20世纪最重要的经典文学巨著之一。 |
| Anonymous | Staff | 桃花源没事儿 | 马伯庸 | 这部小说以妖喻人、以幻写实，将现实故事巧妙融入充满寓世意味的奇幻设定中。故事发生在想象力丰沛的桃花源，虽为虚构世界，但种种事端皆暗合现实逻辑，形成独特的叙事张力。 角色塑造层面，主角玄穹作为月薪二两三钱的俗务道人，被“遇财呈劫”的穷命锁死财富通道，却意外成为道门最后的良心。他调解妖怪邻里纠纷、处理繁杂文书，甚至将天雷劫转化为反杀反派的武器，这种“工资二两，良心无价”的生存哲学，恰是当代打工人的精神镜像。 世界构建层面，桃花源并非传统避世净土，而是充满市井气的“妖怪社区”：青丘狐族需持证上岗、龙宫太子被发配基层、白娘子暴打出轨许仙……妖怪们遵循人类社会的规则，为身份证、学区房等现实问题焦头烂额。 所谓乌托邦，不过是琐碎日常的另一种修罗场。 |
| Librarian | Staff | Beautiful on the Outside: A Memoir | Adam Rippon | Adam slays in words. The drug test story is one of the many highlights. |
| Anonymous | Undergraduate student | On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous | Ocean Vuong | |
| Coco Zhang | Undergraduate student | Made You Up | Francesca Zappia | I wouldn’t recommend this book, though I took the time to finish it. In a vain attempt to highlight the struggles of schizophrenia, what manifests is a childish over-romanticization of mental illness and trauma. This novel was nominated for best YA novel in 2015, but it was poorly deserved. |
| Liam Roj Mendoza Curaming | Undergraduate student | My Year of Rest and Relaxation | Ottessa Moshfegh | “For a moment I felt joyful, and then I felt completely exhausted.” “Oh, sleep. Nothing else could ever bring me such pleasure, such freedom, the power to feel and move and think and imagine, safe from the miseries of my waking consciousness.” |
| Anonymous | Undergraduate student | Project Hail Mary | Andy Weir | Amaze amaze amaze! This is a great hard sci fi book that makes real science easy to understand in the form of an engaging stranded-in-space story/saving humanity. |
| Hao Echo Gong | Undergraduate student | 阿伦特在中国:五十年后 | 王寅丽，等 | |
| Anonymous | Undergraduate student | 十八岁出门远行 | 余华 | Though this story is short, it encapsulates much of Yuhua’s overall view of life, especially as his debut novel. It follows the journey of a young man, a wonderer, as he takes the blows of life one by one. We don’t know how his story ends or where it goes from the end of the story, but we walk away with a valuable perspective of life– that people are not as trustworthy as they seem and we can only grow up through suffering. |
| Mary Mulualem | Undergraduate student | Beloved | Toni Morrison | This book was difficult to read because it reminded me how hard life was for Black Americans even after the abolition of slavery. Narratively it was also very complex, involving characters and story lines that the reader is never certain they can fully trust or believe in. This also allowed Morrison to experiment with aspects of religion and southern culture. A powerful quote I took from the book is “Something that is loved is never lost.” |
| HMOB | Undergraduate student | Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping [On a Dead Man] | Jesse Q. Sutanto | A very compelling read, a good balance of charming and serious. |
| Ceyun Zhang | Undergraduate student | 你想活出怎样的人生 | 吉野源三郎 | 值得一看。因宫崎骏的同名电影知道此书，以为也是童话，实则不然。 首先，本人的版本非常顶配。我的中译版依凭作者担任岩波书店顾问期间版本。该版是本书最后一版，但又以初版作为底稿。尽管使用的是岩波版本，中译版在翻译过程中大量保留了初版的措辞。而书后作者朋友给他写的悼文中展现了岩波版和前几版的区别，对内容进行一定的剖析，并介绍写作背景。 和宫崎骏一样，作者是左，而写作时间在1937。吉野源三郎与其说是作家，不如说是编辑。当时他正和另外几个朋友筹划青少年文库，此书为文库最后一卷，但因执笔者突发眼疾，他被动下场。在那个疯狂的战争年代，书里面却有对军国主义含沙射影式的批判，反战，批判阶级对立，承认日本历史等。可以说是一股清流。即便是二战以后的岩波版本，也无和谐部分。 从书名看，似是鸡汤，但写的是在一个孩子日常的点点滴滴，以及他舅舅对这些的思考。可以说作者真的在试图与年幼的读者平起平坐，进行交流，而不是说教。内容非常深刻，没有任何心灵鸡汤。 |
| Kenneth Richie Jr. | Undergraduate student | Think like a Freak | Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner | I absolutely loved the advice this book gives. From the layered real world examples it used to the scientific studies used as a backing. This book helps give you a strong and applicable baseline for human psychology as a whole. I definitely recommend it for anyone looking to get batter at problem solving of influencing people. |
