Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces

Laura Tunbridge
online access from De Gruyter eBooks
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A major new biography published for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, offering a fresh, human portrayal

“Illuminating. . . . Tunbridge’s pithy A Life in Nine Pieces is different and welcome: a biography presented through the focus of nine different compositions.”—Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian

“Rewarding. . . . A lot of information is packed into her musical portraits.”—Richard Fairman, Financial Times

The iconic image of Beethoven is of him as a lone genius: hair wild, fists clenched, and brow furrowed. Beethoven may well have shaped the music of the future, but he was also a product of his time, influenced by the people, politics, and culture around him. Oxford scholar Laura Tunbridge offers an alternative history of Beethoven’s career, placing his music in contexts that shed light on why particular pieces are valued more than others, and what this tells us about his larger-than-life reputation. Each chapter focuses on a period of his life, a piece of music, and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. We discover, along the way, Beethoven’s unusual marketing strategies, his ambitious concert programming, and how specific performers and instruments influenced his works. This book offers new ways to understand Beethoven and why his music continues to be valued today.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

香港電影王國 : 娛樂的藝術 (Planet Hong Kong : Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment)

大衛博維爾 (David Bordwell）
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著名電影史學家及理論家David Bordwell《香港電影王國—娛樂的藝術》 2020年香港增訂版。2001年香港中譯第一版早已絕版多年，增訂版新加了兩章及兩個附篇（「無間道」三部曲及杜琪峯專論），全書共360頁，內頁插圖幾乎全部轉為彩色，極盡精美。

David Bordwell對香港電影情有獨鍾，對香港電影七十年代至今的藝術成就及其對國際影壇的貢獻分析入微。全書旁徵博引，圖文並茂，喜歡香港電影的影癡必讀。

(摘錄自filmcritics.org.hk)

Interior Chinatown

Charles Yu
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
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2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"One of the funniest books of the year. . . . A delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire." —The Washington Post

From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?

After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.

"Fresh and beautiful. . . . Interior Chinatown represents yet another stellar destination in the journey of a sui generis author of seemingly limitless skill and ambition.” —The New York Times Book Review

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

思考之法

梁光耀
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作為萬物之靈，人的獨特之處就是有思考能力，但思考必須學習和培養才有所成。
作者認為，有三種思考對個人的發展和成功最為基本和重要，一種是批判思考，另一種是創意思考，還有一種是積極思考。

本書所講的思考之法，共有六法，前四法屬於批判思考，即語理分析、邏輯方法、科學方法和謬誤剖析，可以歸納為兩個重點：思考清晰和推論正確；後兩法則對應着創意思考和積極思考，跟批判思考不同，創意思考和積極思考的重點不在於「思考方法」，而在於心態，如放鬆、幽默、樂觀及勇氣等。人類文明的發展實有賴於這三種思考，積極進取、批判和創造。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

Lori Gottlieb
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central Perpetual Titles
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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

"An irresistibly addictive tour of the human condition."--Kirkus, starred review

"Wise, warm, smart, and funny. You must read this book."--Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet

From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world--where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).

One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.

As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives -- a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys -- she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.

With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is rev­olutionary in its candor, offering a deeply per­sonal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

大武山下

龍應台
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★ 本書為龍應台的首部長篇小說，超越政治與社會議題，直探生命的本質。
★ 本書所描述的動、植物多為台灣特有種與原生種，是龍應台最貼近土地的創作。
★ 本書插畫為龍應台親筆手繪，呈現創作軌跡與多元的創作能量。

龍應台以孩童似的無止盡的好奇、田野調查者追根究柢的執著、文學家時而空靈婉轉、時而深沉大氣的文字，刻畫出大武山的世界，既是煙火人間，又是冷月無聲。

自覺身心「脫臼」的不知名作家，彷彿命運牽引，回到闊別五十年的鄉間，與一位停格在十四歲的失蹤少女相遇。一段光影交織的魔幻旅程，讓生命和土地、植物、動物、歷史，相互因緣見證。一樁塵封的謀殺案，把遺憾和思念、擁抱和捨下，層層打開，像打開一條密密折疊、藏著香氣的手帕。

深山有野獸，小鎮有鬼神，
植物有記憶，動物有靈魂，
《大武山下》，是一次對於愛和生命的思辨跋涉……

「書中所有的人物都是虛構的，唯一真實的是人物的精神，所以不必對號入座。只是下回走進任何一個鄉間小鎮，你知道，馬路上走著的、市場裡蹲著的、田裡頭跪著的，斗笠和包頭布蒙著的，皮膚黑到你分不出眉目的，每一個人，都有他生命的輕和重、痛和快，情感負荷的低迴和動盪。」 ──龍應台

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)