https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-10-best-books-of-2020-11607556369 The 10 Best Books of 2020 The editors of the Journal’s books pages pick the year’s most distinguished fiction and nonfiction. Dec. 9, 2020 6:26 pm ET SAVE PRINT TEXT 9 Listen to this article 5 minutes
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Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times By David S. Reynolds | Penguin Press Antebellum America was a rough-and-tumble proposition, with the dangerous and uncouth life of the frontier reflected in a fractious political scene in which violent language often crossed over into fistfights and worse. In this revelatory work of cultural biography, Abraham Lincoln emerges as a leader who embodied the wildness and exuberance of the era. Read the full review
Actress By Anne Enright | Norton NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP Books Be the first to find out what's new and what's good. Get the weekend book reviews before the weekend. PREVIEW SUBSCRIBE This marvelously layered novel recounts, through a daughter’s eyes, the rise and tragic collapse of the midcentury Irish actress Katherine O’Dell. Ms. Enright’s matchless prose is the star of the performance, capturing the glamour and seduction of life under the stage lights yet darkening to deliver a sequence of devastating surprises. Read the full review
A Dominant Character: The Radical Science & Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane By Samanth Subramanian | Norton The Oxford-educated polymath Jack Haldane (1892-1964), a man of outsize personal charisma, published significant papers in nearly every branch of science, from genetics to cosmology. He was also a daring soldier, a popular writer and broadcaster, and a leading light in Britain’s Communist Party. A master biographer brings this original, impulsive and politically misguided figure into sharp focus in this rare account of intellect and temperament in action. Read the full review
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family By Robert Kolker | Doubleday Raising a flourishing family outside of Colorado Springs, Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to represent the 1950s American Dream itself. But as their children grew, six of the boys were beset by hallucinations and psychotic breaks with reality, some catastrophic. Mr. Kolker tells their real-life story—and shows what it meant for the scientific understanding of mental illness—with novelistic flair. Read the full review
Impostures: The Maqāmāt of al-Harīrī Translated from the Arabic by Michael Cooperson | New York University In the most audacious translation feat in recent memory, Mr. Cooperson brings an 11th-century Arabic masterpiece known for its linguistic variety and dexterity into a joyous medley of English styles, idioms and dialects, honoring the genius of the original while also showing off the astounding possibilities of the English language. Read the full review
Missionaries By Phil Klay | Penguin Press Mr. Klay’s bravura novel homes in on the ground-level consequences of American interference in Colombia’s ongoing civil war and tumultuous peace process. But the engrossing local conflict is only part of the book’s revelatory, panoramic portrayal of the remote yet interconnected ways that American-sponsored wars are waged across the globe. Read the full review
Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl By Jonathan C. Slaght | Farrar, Straus & Giroux Like the work of John McPhee and Helen Macdonald, Mr. Slaght’s tale of pursuing a majestic raptor native to the Far East Russian woodlands marries science and adventure, a naturalist’s eye and a storyteller’s gift. If its glimpses of the region’s winged denizens delight, so do its portraits of the human outlaws and eccentrics who call the place home. Read the full review
1774: The Long Year of Revolution By Mary Beth Norton | Knopf This accomplished history doesn’t challenge the traditional account of the American Revolution, from the Boston Tea Party of 1773 to the outbreak of hostilities in 1775. What it does do, as no book before it, is re-create the past reality of a momentous year in all of its particularity—physical, social, political and emotional. Reader, you are there. Read the full review
Transcendent Kingdom By Yaa Gyasi | Knopf This scalpel-sharp novel by the author of “Homegoing” expertly dissects the messy subjects of exile, grief, racial identity and religious faith. Perhaps the themes sound overly familiar, but Ms. Gyasi stands out among her peers by exploring them in the service of universal questions—most of all: How can we find meaning in suffering? Read the full review
What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics By O. Carter Snead | Harvard Under American law, a person is defined largely by his capacity to formulate and pursue future plans of his own invention. But where does that leave those unable to make choices—the mentally impaired, those in extreme pain, children in the womb? This important work of moral philosophy argues that all of us are, first and foremost, embodied beings, and that public policy must recognize the limits and gifts that this entails. Read the full review
https://idubooks.com/booklist/the-best-reviewed-books-2020/
豆瓣2020年度读书榜单 – 中国文学(小说类) 《小行星掉在下午》 作者:沈大成 《仙症》 作者:郑执 《鸳鸯六七四》 作者:马家辉 《夜晚的潜水艇》 作者:陈春成 《秋园》 作者:杨本芬 《两京十五日》 作者:马伯庸 《逍遥游》 作者:班宇 《流溪》 作者:林棹 《南货店》 作者:张忌
豆瓣2020年度读书榜单 – 中国文学(非小说类) 《大山里的小诗人》 作者:“是光”的孩子们 《她们》 作者:阎连科 《失落的卫星》 作者:刘子超 《长安客》 作者:北溟鱼 《顿悟的时刻》 作者:张悦然 《单读·十周年特辑》 作者:吴琦主编
豆瓣2020年度读书榜单 – 外国文学(小说类) 《烧纸》 作者:[韩]李沧东 《坡道上的家》 作者:[日]角田光代 《云游》 作者:[波兰]奥尔加·托卡尔丘克 《鞋带》 作者:[意]多梅尼科·斯塔尔诺内 《正常人》 作者:[爱尔兰]萨莉·鲁尼 《银河系边缘的小失常》 作者:[以色列]埃特加·凯雷特 《光明共和国》 作者:[西]安德烈斯·巴尔瓦 《证言》 作者:[加拿大]玛格丽特·阿特伍德
豆瓣2020年度读书榜单 – 外国文学(非小说类) 《回归故里》 作者:[法]迪迪埃·埃里蓬 《不要和你妈争辩》 作者:[瑞典]弗雷德里克·巴克曼 《诗歌手册:诗歌阅读与创作指南》 作者:[美]玛丽·奥利弗(MaryOliver) 《碎片》 作者:[日]青山七惠,[所罗门群岛]竺家荣,青山七惠作品
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Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times By David S. Reynolds | Penguin Press Antebellum America was a rough-and-tumble proposition, with the dangerous and uncouth life of the frontier reflected in a fractious political scene in which violent language often crossed over into fistfights and worse. In this revelatory work of cultural biography, Abraham Lincoln emerges as a leader who embodied the wildness and exuberance of the era. Read the full review
Actress By Anne Enright | Norton
NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP Books Be the first to find out what's new and what's good. Get the weekend book reviews before the weekend. PREVIEW SUBSCRIBE
This marvelously layered novel recounts, through a daughter’s eyes, the rise and tragic collapse of the midcentury Irish actress Katherine O’Dell. Ms. Enright’s matchless prose is the star of the performance, capturing the glamour and seduction of life under the stage lights yet darkening to deliver a sequence of devastating surprises. Read the full review
A Dominant Character: The Radical Science & Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane By Samanth Subramanian | Norton The Oxford-educated polymath Jack Haldane (1892-1964), a man of outsize personal charisma, published significant papers in nearly every branch of science, from genetics to cosmology. He was also a daring soldier, a popular writer and broadcaster, and a leading light in Britain’s Communist Party. A master biographer brings this original, impulsive and politically misguided figure into sharp focus in this rare account of intellect and temperament in action. Read the full review
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family By Robert Kolker | Doubleday Raising a flourishing family outside of Colorado Springs, Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to represent the 1950s American Dream itself. But as their children grew, six of the boys were beset by hallucinations and psychotic breaks with reality, some catastrophic. Mr. Kolker tells their real-life story—and shows what it meant for the scientific understanding of mental illness—with novelistic flair. Read the full review
Impostures: The Maqāmāt of al-Harīrī Translated from the Arabic by Michael Cooperson | New York University In the most audacious translation feat in recent memory, Mr. Cooperson brings an 11th-century Arabic masterpiece known for its linguistic variety and dexterity into a joyous medley of English styles, idioms and dialects, honoring the genius of the original while also showing off the astounding possibilities of the English language. Read the full review
Missionaries By Phil Klay | Penguin Press Mr. Klay’s bravura novel homes in on the ground-level consequences of American interference in Colombia’s ongoing civil war and tumultuous peace process. But the engrossing local conflict is only part of the book’s revelatory, panoramic portrayal of the remote yet interconnected ways that American-sponsored wars are waged across the globe. Read the full review
Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl By Jonathan C. Slaght | Farrar, Straus & Giroux Like the work of John McPhee and Helen Macdonald, Mr. Slaght’s tale of pursuing a majestic raptor native to the Far East Russian woodlands marries science and adventure, a naturalist’s eye and a storyteller’s gift. If its glimpses of the region’s winged denizens delight, so do its portraits of the human outlaws and eccentrics who call the place home. Read the full review
1774: The Long Year of Revolution By Mary Beth Norton | Knopf This accomplished history doesn’t challenge the traditional account of the American Revolution, from the Boston Tea Party of 1773 to the outbreak of hostilities in 1775. What it does do, as no book before it, is re-create the past reality of a momentous year in all of its particularity—physical, social, political and emotional. Reader, you are there. Read the full review
Transcendent Kingdom By Yaa Gyasi | Knopf This scalpel-sharp novel by the author of “Homegoing” expertly dissects the messy subjects of exile, grief, racial identity and religious faith. Perhaps the themes sound overly familiar, but Ms. Gyasi stands out among her peers by exploring them in the service of universal questions—most of all: How can we find meaning in suffering? Read the full review
What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics By O. Carter Snead | Harvard Under American law, a person is defined largely by his capacity to formulate and pursue future plans of his own invention. But where does that leave those unable to make choices—the mentally impaired, those in extreme pain, children in the womb? This important work of moral philosophy argues that all of us are, first and foremost, embodied beings, and that public policy must recognize the limits and gifts that this entails. Read the full review
这一点真是,翻译的书也要考虑是不是阉割版