Monday, June 4, 2018

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World

Andrea Wulf
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The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism.

NATIONAL BEST SELLER

One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, The James Wright Award for Nature Writing, the Costa Biography Award, the Royal Geographic Society's Ness Award, the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award

Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Royal Society Science Book Prize, the Kirkus Prize Prize for Nonfiction, the Independent Bookshop Week Book Award

A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Economist, Nature, Jezebel, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, New Scientist, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard, The Spectator

(Excerpt from amazon.com)


The Cabinets of Curiosities. From the Natural Sciences to the Art of Nature. Collections from France and Hong Kong” exhibition introduces Hong Kong audiences to over 250 natural and artificial artefacts from 10 museums, galleries and private collections. The displays reveal European collectors’ fascination with exotic animals, plants, minerals and art objects unknown in the West until a few hundred years ago. Organised by City University of Hong Kong in collaboration with Le French May Arts Festival, the exhibition is being held from 25 May to 19 August at CityU Exhibition Gallery (Gallery). READ MORE

香港人的政治心態

劉兆佳
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本書分析香港市民對政治領袖的態度,並分析了市民對領袖的低度信任、對政治低度參與的原因。劉兆佳指出,自由放任的資本主義體制導致政府在調節與再分配社會資源方面的低效率,加深了香港市民對政府的不信任,政府權威被削弱。政治犬儒心態和疏離感上升,不止是社會經濟情況惡化的結果,也反映了港人對特區政府的不滿。找出並解決政治不認同的徵結,調節香港社會政治心態,培養以大局為重、具備包容情操、目光遠大且有處理公共事務能力的本地政治領袖,提高市民對政府的信任度及政治參與度,均有利解決香港的管治難題。

(摘錄自cp1897.com.hk)


Monday, May 28, 2018

American Pastoral

Philip Roth
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Philip Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist. American Pastoral is one of Philip Roth's masterpieces. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

American Pastoral is an elegy for the American century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father's glove factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck deserts him.

For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longed-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, American Pastoral gives us Philip Roth at the height of his powers.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

立體書不可思議

楊清貴
online access from iRead eBook
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立體書(pop-up book)最早誕生於13世紀的英國。最初,立體書是提供成人使用的資訊處理工具,在中世紀的歐洲則被應用在天文、醫學等專業領域,直到18世紀中期,專供兒童閱讀的立體童書才逐漸面市。

立體書既是書,也是精妙的紙藝品,本書作者楊清貴集結22年來的珍藏及研究,以專業收藏家的淵博知識,引領讀者穿越立體書近八百年的時空。除了古今各類立體書經典一次盡收眼底,立體書的形式和技術演進歷程也有精闢的解說,為讀者打開另一番奇妙的藝術視野。

全書囊括:
★80本珍貴古董立體書、323幅精美藏品照片
★31款立體書形式、24種紙藝技術解析
★橫跨近800年的立體書深度歷史專論
★你不能不知道的32位立體書演進史重要人物
★42個精選線上典藏立體書QR code

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, May 21, 2018

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong about the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund
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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“One of the most important books I’ve ever read―an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates

“Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” ―Melinda Gates

Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends―what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school―we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.

In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective―from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).

Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases.

It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.

Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

人生問題的有益答案 : 偉大思想家如何解決你的煩惱 (Great Thinkers)

The School of Life; 艾倫‧狄波頓 (Alain de Botton) 主編
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艾倫‧狄波頓請客!與偉大思想家喝下午茶,
你的煩惱和問題,他們都有答案…


那些日常生活的難題和煩惱,思想家都有答案!
他們的見解一針見血,撫慰人心,甚至饒富趣味,
能幫助我們預做準備,面對困難時,更勇敢恣意。

跟柏拉圖一起了解自己、與歌德旅行、與馬基維利談領導…
跟珍‧奧斯汀諮商愛情、看維梅爾欣賞日常、跟著松尾芭蕉從禁錮中逃離…


古往今來,哪些思想最有助於克服當前重大問題?解決生活的棘手難題?

由英倫才子艾倫‧狄波頓主編的《人生問題的有益答案》,為我們尋找切乎此時此刻的實用哲思,從哲學、政治理論、社會學、精神分析、藝術、建築,以及文學等領域,選出今日最能啟發我們的偉大思想,並且應用在生活中。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)