The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life

Michael J. Puett, Christine Gross-Loh
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For the first time, an award-winning Harvard professor shares his wildly popular course on classical Chinese philosophy, showing you how ancient ideas—like the fallacy of the authentic self—can guide you on the path to a good life today.

Why is a course on ancient Chinese philosophers one of the most popular at Harvard? Because it challenges all our modern assumptions about what it takes to flourish.

Astonishing teachings emerged two thousand years ago through the work of a succession of Chinese scholars exploring how humans can improve themselves and their society. And what are these counterintuitive ideas? Transformation comes not from looking within for a true self, but from creating conditions that produce new possibilities. Good relationships come not from being sincere and authentic, but from the rituals we perform within them. A good life emerges not from planning it out, but through training ourselves to respond well to small moments. Influence comes not from wielding power but from holding back. Excellence comes from what we choose to do, not our natural abilities.

In other words, The Path “opens the mind” (Huffington Post) and upends everything we are told about how to lead a good life. Its most radical idea is that there is no path to follow in the first place—just a journey we create anew at every moment by seeing and doing things differently. “With its…spirited, convincing vision, revolutionary new insights can be gleaned from this book on how to approach life’s multifarious situations with both heart and head” (Kirkus Reviews).

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

20世紀中國知識分子精神史三部曲

錢理群
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榮獲第十一屆「香港書獎」

「20世紀中國知識分子精神史」三部曲，是錢理群教授橫跨二十年歲月寫成的當代知識分子精神歷史，分別寫共和國建立前、毛澤東時代及之後知識分子的命運與選擇，呈現「起承轉合」結構，將知識分子的個體命運與中華人民共和國的整體歷史交錯在一起，是首部無刪減作品。

一九四八年，正是兩個中國—所謂「新中國」與「舊中國」生死大決戰的時刻，同時，也是中國知識分子必須在歷史的大轉折中作出決定自己命運的關鍵時刻。

《1948：天地玄黃》就是記錄了一九四八年，圍繞各類知識分子的不同選擇而發生的極其複雜也極其豐富的社會、思想、文化、心理現像。

「改造」與「堅守」，這是建國後中國知識分子命運的兩個關鍵詞，也構成了本書的歷史敍述的兩個中心詞，寫成中國知識分子精神史上最沉重的一頁。是屈從抑或抵抗、要低頭抑或昂首？毛澤東時代的中國知識分子如何在黑夜裏前行，盡錄在《1949－1976：歲月滄桑》。

毛澤東逝世後，知識分子從絕地對裏重生。錢理群教授肩負起知識分子之名，用自身的經歷和反思，為整代中國知識分子精神史作一個總合，冀歷經滄桑後也守望著知識分子的本分。《1977－2005：絕地守望》，是錢教授留給年輕一代和後人的思想結晶和祝福。

(摘錄自香港城市大學出版社網站)

Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng 
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Named a Best Book of the Year (2017) by: 
People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more!

“To say I love this book is an understatement. It’s a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears.” - Reese Witherspoon

"Spectacular sophomore work...a magnificent, multilayered epic that’s perfect for eager readers and destined for major award lists." -- Library Journal (starred review)

"I read Little Fires Everywhere in a single, breathless sitting. With brilliance and beauty, Celeste Ng dissects a microcosm of American society just when we need to see it beneath the microscope: how do questions of race stack up against the comfort of privilege, and what role does that play in parenting? Is motherhood a bond forged by blood, or by love? And perhaps most importantly: do the faults of our past determine what we deserve in the future? Be ready to be wowed by Ng's writing -- and unsettled by the mirror held up to one's own beliefs." - Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and Leaving Time

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

因為有愛，才有這個學系

張文亮
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這是一個高學歷不希奇、文憑一張不夠看的時代，我們選擇科系的方式，逐漸從個人的性向志趣，轉為評估科系未來的發展和前瞻性。

在一窩蜂追求競爭力的氛圍之下，台大教授張文亮卻逆向操作，回頭追溯大學科系的起源。一門門精采的學系，透過一位位敬虔的先鋒而誕生：

醫學系的起源，來自一位無名卻偉大的醫生，對病苦者懷有深深憐憫的愛；
森林系源自一位熱愛山林的愛爾蘭醫生，一生努力的成果；
獸醫系的創始人，一生輾轉曲折、大落大起，卻始終沒忘記對動物的眷顧；
人類學系源自一名特使，在荒遠殺戮的帝國，以和平之心，記錄蒙古人的世界；
農業經濟學系，則是一個走出修道院、走進貧瘠土地、陪伴貧窮農民的遙遠故事。

本書一共述說了十九個曲折動人的故事，不僅幫助我們明白這些學系的由來，藉此激勵大學生對於所學領域更有使命感與意義感，更鼓勵所有在各行各業打滾的社會人，懷抱各科系起初的核心精神，在今日社會崗位上，活出豐盈的意義與價值。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

Leonardo da Vinci

Walter Isaacson
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“A powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life...a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it.” —The New Yorker

The author of the acclaimed bestsellers Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography.

Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.

His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history’s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo’s lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions.

Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it—to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

香港起飛

鄭楚衡, 達仁, 盧韋斯
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這是一個追逐夢想的故事，一個實踐夢想的記錄。

首架在香港自行組裝、註冊及認證，並於2016年完成環球飛行的小型飛機「香港起飛」B-KOO，從無到有，歷時八載，一切都由鄭楚衡的兒時夢想開始。

本書圍繞「香港起飛」兩位核心人物︰機師鄭楚衡及工程師達仁，由他們親述從夢想萌芽到完成環球之旅的漫長過程，當中經歷不少考驗和障礙，但都一一闖過，成就一段動人的勵志故事。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)