Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High

Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Emily Gregory
online access from McGraw-Hill's AccessEngineering
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This New York Times bestseller and business classic has been fully updated for a world where skilled communication is more important than ever.

The book that revolutionized business communications has been updated for today’s workplace. Crucial Conversations provides powerful skills to ensure every conversation―especially difficult ones―leads to the results you want. Written in an engaging and witty style, it teaches readers how to be persuasive rather than abrasive, how to get back to productive dialogue when others blow up or clam up, and it offers powerful skills for mastering high-stakes conversations, regardless of the topic or person.

This new edition addresses issues that have arisen in recent years. You’ll learn how to:
Respond when someone initiates a Crucial Conversation with you
Identify and address the lag time between identifying a problem and discussing it
Communicate more effectively across digital mediums

When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation poorly and suffer the consequences; or apply the lessons and strategies of Crucial Conversations and improve relationships and results.

Whether they take place at work or at home, with your coworkers or your spouse, Crucial Conversations have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future. With the skills you learn in this book, you'll never have to worry about the outcome of a Crucial Conversation again.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

世界最強的思考武器 : 心智圖 (Mind Map Mastery)

東尼‧博贊 (Tony Buzan)
online access from iRead eBook
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撰寫報告、完成專案管理、寫最強履歷自薦信、工作求表現快速升遷、
辦一場結婚周年派對、完成馬拉松訓練、改善一段不友善的關係、
新事業計畫、難解的人生抉擇、探索未知學識，乃至於
幫寶貝選名字、學生提高學習成果、避免老年失智……

從創意發想到邏輯思考，從工作、家庭、教育與如何更幸福的思考，
只要幾枝（或一盒）彩色筆、一張紙，開始用世界最強的思考武器──心智圖，
通通都可以找到答案。因為大腦最愛這樣想事情。

目前，全球有超過100萬人正在使用。
最大私營石油公司BP、國際巴克萊、迪吉多（DEC）、惠普科技、IBM與
奧林匹克委員會，更將心智圖的思考納入員工的教育訓練。

何謂心智圖？心智圖是一種結合文字、圖像與顏色的筆記方法，
透過各種關鍵字的連結，幫助大腦有邏輯又充滿想像力的專注於某一項主題。

本書作者是英國腦力開發專家東尼‧博贊（Tony Buzan）
是心智圖的唯一發明者，也是發行數百萬本的暢銷書《心智圖聖經》系列作者，

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization

Roland Ennos
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
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A “smart and surprising” (Booklist) “expansive history” (Publishers Weekly) detailing the role that wood and trees have played in our global ecosystem—including human evolution and the rise and fall of empires—in the bestselling tradition of Yuval Harari’s Sapiens and Mark Kurlansky’s Salt.

As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood.

“A lively history of biology, mechanics, and culture that stretches back 60 million years” (Nature) The Age of Wood reinterprets human history and shows how our ability to exploit wood’s unique properties has profoundly shaped our bodies and minds, societies, and lives. Ennos takes us on a sweeping journey from Southeast Asia and West Africa where great apes swing among the trees, build nests, and fashion tools; to East Africa where hunter gatherers collected their food; to the structural design of wooden temples in China and Japan; and to Northern England, where archaeologists trace how coal enabled humans to build an industrial world. Addressing the effects of industrialization—including the use of fossil fuels and other energy-intensive materials to replace timber—The Age of Wood not only shows the essential role that trees play in the history and evolution of human existence, but also argues that for the benefit of our planet we must return to more traditional ways of growing, using, and understanding trees.

A brilliant blend of recent research and existing scientific knowledge, this is an “excellent, thorough history in an age of our increasingly fraught relationships with natural resources” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

偽歧視 : 拆穿政治正確、破解直覺偏見，用數字與邏輯重新認識歧視的真相！ (Discrimination and Disparities)

湯瑪斯‧索威爾 (Thomas Sowell)
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女性永遠拿不到跟男性相同的薪水，有色人種的犯罪率就是高……
社會中許多看似不平等的現象，都只能歸咎於歧視與偏見嗎？

─── 你所想的歧視，抱歉，都不是真的 ───

★顛覆傳統觀點，打破刻板印象
★史丹佛大學經濟學家教你如何分辨歧視的真偽，重新釐清思考邏輯

◆（　）請判斷以下何者屬於出於「歧視」目的而造成的結果？
（A）頭胎出生的小孩，其平均的智力測驗成績高於弟妹
（B）居住於海岸的民族，其生活與文化比居住於內陸的民族更富裕、先進
（C）在低收入、高犯罪率的社區中，連鎖商店為同樣商品訂定較高的價格
（D）底層20%級距的所得多年來沒有變動，窮人的所得停滯不前
◆【答案：以上皆非。請見以下介紹說明】

【你的差異不是我的歧視】
《偽歧視》根據完全不同的出發點來分析社會的「歧視」現象，經濟學家湯馬斯‧索威爾想要說明的是，許多現象並不是真的來自於加諸於特定族群的歧視或剝削，而是由天生的差異、經濟成本，以及有意或無意的統計與文字誤導所造成。透過現實世界的日常案例與數字，一一拆解歧視的真相。

▍天生的差異 ▍
排行老大的小孩受到父母較多的關注，因此其智力與生涯發展都高於其他手足。因為運輸成本的差異，居住於海邊的人，發展機會比居住於山區的人要多得多。

▍歧視的成本 ▍
在高犯罪率的社區經營商店，必須付出更高的成本，包括應付更高比率的順手牽羊、破壞等行為。若不藉由商品價格反映成本，將面臨倒閉的風險。

▍統計的誤導 ▍
實際上，有95%的人在一段時間後即脫離底層20%的所得級距；最高所得級距亦同，原本屬於頂層1%的人，10年後只剩不到一半。

【我的想法不是你的判斷】
本書探究的不只是社會問題，也與經濟學和公共政策息息相關，重點不在於建議特定的政策「補救方法」，而是釐清為什麼有這麼多政策結果不如預期或甚至產生反效果。揭露這些政策背後隱藏的邏輯謬誤，培養獨立思考與判斷的能力，讓社會往更好的方向前進。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World – the sequel to Prisoners of Geography

Tim Marshall
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central Perpetual Titles
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*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*

'I can't imagine reading a better book this year’ Daily Mirror

Tim Marshall's global bestseller Prisoners of Geography showed how every nation’s choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Since then, the geography hasn’t changed. But the world has.

In this revelatory new book, Marshall explores ten regions that are set to shape global politics in a new age of great-power rivalry: Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, Turkey, the Sahel, Ethiopia, Spain and Space. Find out why Europe’s next refugee crisis is closer than it thinks as trouble brews in the Sahel; why the Middle East must look beyond oil and sand to secure its future; why the eastern Mediterranean is one of the most volatile flashpoints of the twenty-first century; and why the Earth’s atmosphere is set to become the world’s next battleground.

Delivered with Marshall’s trademark wit and insight, this is a lucid and gripping exploration of the power of geography to shape humanity’s past, present – and future.

‘Another outstanding guide to the modern world. Marshall is a master at explaining what you need to know and why.’ Peter Frankopan

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

山鳴谷應：中國山水畫和觀眾的歷史

石守謙
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藝術史學者石守謙長期關注中國畫史的發展，《山鳴穀應：中國山水畫和觀眾的歷史/藝術史界》即為其聚焦於“山水畫”一門，嘗試透過“畫家與觀眾互動”此一角度，對“山水之史”何以產生變革的根本問題予以反思和解答。

山水畫擁有豐富的內涵，不僅與社會、政治等外在因素息息相關，亦涉及人們內在心理、價值觀念、宗教信仰等文化層面，故而成為中國畫史上受尊崇的科目，引發眾多討論。唯論者大多較注意其中形式風格本身的變化發展、或畫家之間的相互影響，由此雖累積出相當之成果，卻也讓人逐漸意識到所謂“風格內在規律”已無法充分解釋山水畫此一藝術形式的歷史發展。

有鑑於此，作者在一面回顧始於十世紀、止於二十世紀第二次世界大戰前各種山水畫變化的歷史之餘，更著重於在此過程中繞過傳統畫史獨尊“畫家”的迷思，轉而揭示“畫家”與“觀眾”間互動關係的不同面貌，尤其聚焦於各個時代、甚或中日韓不同地域的山水畫家們如何與其特定的社群觀眾建立起互動關係，促成各種值得注意的新主題誕生，于山水畫史上帶引出新的畫意、新的境界。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

香港故宮文化博物館現正展出九百多件來自故宮博物院的珍貴文物，其中有166件是一級文物，屬「國寶」級別。特別展覽包括「國之瑰寶 — 故宮博物院藏晉唐宋元書畫」及 「馳騁天下 ― 馬文化藝術」。專題展覽包括「紫禁萬象 ― 建築、典藏與文化傳承」、「紫禁一日 ― 清代宮廷生活」、「凝土為器 ― 故宮珍藏陶瓷」、「龍顏鳳姿 ― 清代帝后肖像」 、「器惟求新 ― 古代工藝對話當代設計」、 「同賞共樂 ― 穿越香港收藏史」 及「古今無界 ― 故宮文化再詮釋」。