City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World

by Catie Marron
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In this important collection, eighteen renowned writers, including David Remnick, Zadie Smith, Rebecca Skloot, Rory Stewart, and Adam Gopnik evoke the spirit and history of some of the world’s most recognized and significant city squares, accompanied by illustrations from equally distinguished photographers.

Over half of the world’s citizens now live in cities, and this number is rapidly growing. At the heart of these municipalities is the square—the defining urban public space since the dawn of democracy in Ancient Greece. Each square stands for a larger theme in history: cultural, geopolitical, anthropological, or architectural, and each of the eighteen luminary writers has contributed his or her own innate talent, prodigious research, and local knowledge.

Divided into three parts: Culture, Geopolitics, History, headlined by Michael Kimmelman, David Remnick, and George Packer, this significant anthology shows the city square in new light. Jehane Noujaim, award-winning filmmaker, takes the reader through her return to Tahrir Square during the 2011 protest; Rory Stewart, diplomat and author, chronicles a square in Kabul which has come and gone several times over five centuries; Ari Shavit describes the dramatic changes of central Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square; Rick Stengel, editor, author, and journalist, recounts the power of Mandela’s choice of the Grand Parade, Cape Town, a huge market square to speak to the world right after his release from twenty-seven years in prison; while award-winning journalist Gillian Tett explores the concept of the virtual square in the age of social media.

This collection is an important lesson in history, a portrait of the world we live in today, as well as an exercise in thinking about the future. Evocative and compelling, City Squares will change the way you walk through a city.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

旅行是為了放大生命的極限 : 出走不是為了逃避現實, 而是想讓人生更加精采 (Vagabonding)

羅夫‧帕茲 (Rolf Potts)
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你的生命因為旅行而有無限可能

流浪旅行不是一種逃避，而是一場冒險和一份熱愛，能夠幫助你克服自身的恐懼，活出最豐富的人生。

流浪旅行 Vagabonding
詞性：名詞
（1）拋開遵行常規的世界，獨自出發旅行一段較長的時間。
（2）一種對個人特別有意義的旅行方式，強調的是創造力、冒險精神、覺察力、簡單化、發掘力、獨立、現實感、依靠自我，以及靈魂的成長。
（3）一種刻意為之的生活方式，讓人能夠隨時出發旅行。

為什麼我們需要流浪旅行？為什麼我們想要去流浪旅行？

這不是什麼流行趨勢，我們只是用一種少見的方式看待生活，不斷探索與學習、不斷面對恐懼與改變習慣、不斷開發所有人和地點的新魅力。

流浪旅行的意義在於抽離你的常規生活，離開六個禮拜、四個月，甚至是兩年，用你自己的方式去探索體驗這個世界。只要你擁有獨立自主的精神，隨時都能出發旅行，不是幾天的小旅遊，而是長時間體驗流浪的感覺。這本書提供你必要的資訊，例如：
　　◎旅行中的經濟來源
　　◎決定目的地
　　◎適應旅途中的生活
　　◎到海外工作或當義工
　　◎應付旅途中的不順利
　　◎重新適應普通生活

流浪旅行不只是一種旅行的形式，而是一種生活型態；一旦你選擇這樣的生活，旅行就不再是閒暇時的娛樂，而是你人生的一部分。

「作者將自己多年的旅行經驗彙整而成這本不同凡響的旅行指南，這不只是一本不限定目的地的旅行教學手冊，還蘊含啟發人心的哲思，作者運用他的機智、精闢見解和才華教你如何將人生活得像一趟冒險旅程。如果你曾經考慮過要休一段長假，這本書將開拓你的眼界。」──《全球郵報》

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

Home Fire: A Novel

Kamila Shamsie
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WINNER OF THE 2018 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

“Ingenious… Builds to one of the most memorable final scenes I’ve read in a novel this century.” —The New York Times

The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences

Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she’s accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume a dream long deferred. But she can’t stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London, or their brother, Parvaiz, who’s disappeared in pursuit of his own dream, to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. When he resurfaces half a globe away, Isma’s worst fears are confirmed.

Then Eamonn enters the sisters’ lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to—or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz’s salvation? Suddenly, two families’ fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined, in this searing novel that asks: What sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

愛的進化論 (The Course of Love)

艾倫‧狄波頓 (Alain de Botton)
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◎一本誠實的愛情奮鬥史，探索長長久久的關係，以及背後的酸甜苦辣。狄波頓將試圖回答史上最難的兩性問題：愛了，然後呢？

愛，才不是什麼一頭栽進去的「熱情」，而是緩慢地、苦痛地學會的「生存技能」。

愛丁堡的拉畢與柯絲汀相愛了。他們結婚生子，但絕對不是那種「從此過著幸福快樂的生活」的簡單結局。然而所有的愛情故事，只會停在這裡，之後的彆扭、包尿布、外遇、婚姻諮詢，一概省略。

當愛情誕生，經歷一連串的驚喜與無聊之後，要如何保持浪漫的鮮度？在生存的壓力之下，愛的面貌會如何幻化（請注意：不是幻滅）？從哲學與心理學的細膩洞察，狄波頓告訴我們，浪漫主義總是幫倒忙，現實裡極少有任何事物能夠達到完美。度過人生需要極大的勇氣，即使再平庸的人生也不例外，這時身邊若有個人，是否就能給予我們足夠力量面對人生的種種要求？

等了20年的續集，繼全球2百萬暢銷《我談的那場戀愛》，艾倫‧狄波頓全新力作！當年的英倫才子，華麗轉身變人夫人父，一樣的犀利風趣，不一樣的人生體悟。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


由香港貿易發展局主辦的第 29 屆香港書展將於7月18至 24日於香港會議展覽中心舉行，年度主題為"愛情文學"。

Less : A Novel

Andrew Sean Greer
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A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of "arresting lyricism and beauty" (New York Times Book Review).

WINNER OF THE 2018 PULITZER PRIZE--Fiction

Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes--it would be too awkward--and you can't say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world...

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

微塵記

張婉雯
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榮獲第十一屆「香港書獎」

本書十二個短篇小說以香港為背景，以寫實的風格，反映市民日常生活，還原他們立體的面貌，從中折射社會變遷。〈陌路〉、〈拘捕〉、〈周年誌〉以雨傘運動為題材；〈明叔的一天〉、〈老貓〉、〈打死一頭野豬〉、〈離島戀曲〉、〈鳥〉、〈禮芳街的月光〉呈現基層的悲歡；〈使徒行傳〉由宗教角度探討複雜的人性；〈玫瑰誄〉、〈回家的路上〉則重塑一代精神貴族的形象與消逝。全書立足於本土生活，以「小敘事」刻劃香港人的情與愛。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)