jean@douban&Twitter - 标记
此岸 豆瓣
7.8 (17 个评分) 作者: 马曳 中信出版社 2016 - 4
踏上美国国土的时候,王微想,美国总是被称为大洋彼岸,现在她是在大洋此岸了。
中文系毕业的王微一举考入哈佛法学院,这真是转运汉巧遇洞庭红一样的开头。然而这世界毕竟是公平的,命运给王微打开一扇通往光明前途的门,便也顺手结束了她少年时的恋情。
多年以后王微回想起她和陈正浩的分分合合,确如萧世伯所说:既不单纯,也不勇敢。
从波士顿到纽约,再从律所到投行,王微慢慢从初来乍到的国际学生成长为纽约中城众多金融才俊里的一员。她在此岸收获了事业,友情和相濡以沫的伴侣,一切看起来都很美。只是当经济下行的周期到来,每个人都不得不重新审视自己生活的方向。王微发现,历史仿佛又在重演……
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编辑推荐:
☆《此岸》是一部未出先火的长篇小说。小说仅凭最初几个章节,便在精英人群高度集中关注的公众号“奴隶社会”一炮而红,成为周末黄金档热门,数万读者每周疯狂追看。
☆《此岸》取材于作者在哈佛法学院求学和中美两地工作的见闻,记录了中美金融圈的生活,以及身为留学生的情感经历。小说在细节上见微知著,情感细腻丰富,让每一个曾经有过海外生活经历,或是曾经面临过与主人公类似的职业与感情冲突的读者,都能产生深深的共鸣。
☆30万字的篇幅,通过讲述主人公王微从北京高中生到美国投行精英的人生经历,她的朋友们各自不同的人生选择,全景呈现大时代背景下一代年轻人的成长,他们的迷惘和困惑,以及对个人价值的追问和寻求。
☆美国律师的职业身份赋予作者犀利又不乏细腻的语言风格。叙事干脆,直击要害,却又总能在寥寥数语中,让人读出起承转合、风清云淡的慈悲心肠。
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人生中的每一次选择,都是一种渡,有人越过小溪,有人越过海洋。
2016年5月11日 已读
还不错,留学爱情故事是主线,反倒是作为背景的法学院,投行,律所和法院的职场细节很吸引人。
中文 小说
1453 豆瓣
作者: Roger Crowley Hyperion 2006 - 8
Now in trade paperback, a gripping exploration of the fall of Constantinople and its connection to the world we live in today The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history, and the end of the Byzantium Empire. Roger Crowley’s readable and comprehensive account of the battle between Mehmed II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Constantine XI, the 57th emperor of Byzantium, illuminates the period in history that was a precursor to the current jihad between the West and the Middle East.
2016年3月20日 已读
看完了。守城的希腊人和意大利人可真悲壮啊!八千人破衣烂衫老弱病残对二十万精兵良将加最新最大的大炮居然还守了57天才被攻破。康斯坦丁十一世拒绝跑路逃命与城共存亡一直战死在城墙上。。。//刚看到13%。好看。以康斯坦丁堡为首都的洞罗曼帝国居然如此长寿。我那么喜爱的苏菲亚大教堂原来有那么厚重的历史!现在的世界秩序有着与它的寿命不相符的牢固感,太具有误导性了。。。
历史 英文
In the Freud Archives Goodreads 豆瓣
作者: Janet Malcolm NYRB Classics 2002 - 11
<i>Includes an afterword by the author</i> <br /><br /><i>In the Freud Archives</i> tells the story of an unlikely encounter among three men: K. R. Eissler, the venerable doyen of psychoanalysis; Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, a flamboyant, restless forty-two-year-old Sanskrit scholar turned psychoanalyst turned virulent anti-Freudian; and Peter Swales, a mischievous thirty-five-year-old former assistant to the Rolling Stones and self-taught Freud scholar. At the center of their Oedipal drama are the Sigmund Freud Archives--founded, headed, and jealously guarded by Eissler--whose sealed treasure gleams and beckons to the community of Freud scholarship as if it were the Rhine gold.<br /><br />Janet Malcolm's fascinating book first appeared some twenty years ago, when it was immediately recognized as a rare and remarkable work of nonfiction. A story of infatuation and disappointment, betrayal and revenge, <i>In the Freud Archives</i> is essentially a comedy. But the powerful presence of Freud himself and the harsh bracing air of his ideas about unconscious life hover over the narrative and give it a tragic dimension.
2016年3月15日 已读
Masson这种人搁今天公众评判应该是psychopath吧?!//看到一半,感觉像一篇超长的纽约客报道。。。
纪实 英文
状元媒 豆瓣
8.3 (15 个评分) 作者: 叶广芩 北京十月文艺出版社 2012 - 4
《状元媒》著名作家叶广芩的最新长篇小说,是作者家族系列作品最精彩最具代表性之作,讲述了清朝最后一位状元刘春霖做媒,促成了皇室后裔父亲金瑞祓与平民母亲陈美珍的婚姻,由此而引发了金家大宅门里的家庭成员和亲戚朋友的故事。以小格格“我”的视角为轴线,冠以十一部京剧戏名而写成。 从辛亥革命开始到改革开放的今天,跳跃性地写了背景百年的人物众生相,北京百姓的价值观念,北京社会的风土人情。对于北京的过去和现在,这类话题人们似乎总是说也说不完……那些个细节,那些个欢乐,那些个拾掇不起来的零碎,如同一瓶陈放多年的佳酿,夜静时慢慢品来悠远绵长,回味无穷。作者动用了她最独特、最难忘、最熟悉的生活素材,构思精巧、精心创作而成。叶广芩对传统文化的直接体验与研习和对世事交变的经历与敏锐感知,促成自身修养所具有的学识与胸襟,加之现实主义浪漫的艺术风格,都赋予了这部作品非比寻常的文字魅力。这部作品可以说是作家家族系列小说的登顶之作。
2016年1月27日 已读
在听小说连续广播,老北京各种日常细节,好听
中文 北京 小说
冬牧场 豆瓣
8.8 (181 个评分) 作者: 李娟 新星出版社 2012 - 6
文坛清新之风,阿勒泰的精灵
李娟首部长篇纪实散文力作
四个月、零距离、全程记述哈萨克民族冬牧场的点点滴滴!
春天接羔,夏天催膘,秋天配种,冬天孕育。羊的一生是牧人的一年,牧人的一生呢?这绵延千里的家园,这些大地最隐秘微小的褶皱,这每一处最狭小脆弱的栖身之地……青春啊,财富啊,爱情啊,希望啊,全都默默无声。 ——李娟
2010年冬天,李娟跟随一家熟识的哈萨克牧民深入阿勒泰南部的冬季牧场、沙漠,度过了一段艰辛迥异的荒野生活。李娟是第一位描写哈萨克民族冬牧生活的汉族作家,她以饱含深情又不失节制的文字,呈现出阿尔泰最后一批“荒野主人”冬季转场时的独特生存景观。
2016年1月26日 已读
还好。很喜欢开头几篇,后来慢慢有点审美疲劳,内容也略显寡淡
中文 散文
太子妃升职记 豆瓣
6.8 (12 个评分) 作者: 鲜橙 万卷出版公司 2012 - 4
为了弥补工作失误,司命星君将现代男人陈然的灵魂偷偷从地府带出,附身到“落水身亡”的南夏太子妃张芃芃身上。这天上掉下来的是馅饼还是陷阱?丈夫不喜,婆婆不爱,男人心女人身的张芃芃如何才能从“太子妃”一路顺利地升职为“太后”?这是一个“女人”在后宫的奋斗史…… 同时,也是一个“男人”在后宫的苦难史…… 谁人不知这太子妃乃是天下最不好做的行当:第一:升职前景不好,这太子妃、皇后、太后一步步升上去,简直是难于上青天啊!你见过有几个太子妃能一直熬到太后的?第二:劳动没有保障,且不说没有三险一金,还随时可能被辞退,而且还不允许你再就业!第三:工作性质危险,随时都有死亡的可能,若是太子称不了帝吧,你得跟着一起倒霉,太子称了帝吧,你更得自己小心了!
The Big Short 豆瓣 Goodreads
7.7 (7 个评分) 作者: Michael Lewis W. W. Norton & Company 2010 - 3
The #1 New York Times bestseller: a brilliant account—character-rich and darkly humorous—of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff. When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine, and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.

The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 best-selling Liar’s Poker . Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely—really unlikely—heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times.
2015年12月28日 已读
写的太逗了。虽然电影还没看,但是选Steve Carell演Eisman(电影里改了名字 Mike Baum)这角色太赞了。
non-fiction 英文
康熙大帝:夺宫 豆瓣
作者: 二月河 1999 - 4
《康熙大帝》是一部系列长篇小说。它的第一卷《夺宫》着重描写康熙八岁即位后,在极其险恶的政治环境里,与辅政大臣鳌拜集团的篡位阴谋作斗争的故事。经过多次较量,他终于在十五岁时,智擒了鳌拜,巩固了帝王权力,为清王朝的振兴打下了良好的政治基础。
清康熙皇帝爱新觉罗·玄烨,以他聪慧的才智和政治品格,一生为国家民族创建了从衰败到鼎盛的伟业,是中国历代帝王中文韬武略最突出的一位君王被誉为“千古一帝”。《康熙大帝》,共分“夺宫”、“惊风密雨”、“玉宇成祥”、“乱起萧墙”四册,讲述了康熙大帝的丰功伟绩。他一生中除鳌拜、平三蕃、视察黄河、北定疆界、与蒙古诸王结盟、西徵葛而丹,汲取汉文化,发展民族经济,推行富国强民的政策措施,完成统一中华、振兴中华的大业。
庆熹纪事 豆瓣
8.7 (14 个评分) 作者: 红猪侠 中信出版社 2006 - 6
名列当今中国网络小说十五强、网络武侠排名第二江南做序,诛砂插图。
属于依托于历史但是架空在历史之外,更纯粹、更彻底、更真实、更细腻,秋水一样的人物,在萧瑟的皇庭中演绎的江湖故事。逼真的历史感、浓郁的宫院气、辗转的倾思纷争、凄冷的落日京城,那个原先叫颜久,后来更名辟 邪的少年,只露一回青衫的背影,就使人终生难忘。
《今古传奇·武侠版》、《今古传奇·奇幻版》、《幻王》杂志联袂推荐,新浪读书频道、九界文学网站、龙的天空文学网站,推荐阅读。
身为深宫中一介贱役的辟邪,却似乎有着辅佐皇帝撤回藩地、驱逐匈奴、平定天下的志愿和才华。隐藏在他背后的家庭仇恨,更令分他的行为琢磨不定。宫廷内外,大江南北,与藩王、父亲旧部周旋,上下纵横令他声名鹊起,实权渐握,不久就有青袍总管之称。渐渐聚集在他周围的,更是各类青年才俊。一切繁华说不尽的得意之际,他却依旧寂寞清冷,只有寒州相识的明珠令他心头温暖,只有离水中杀出的雷奇峰令他势血沸腾。
终于匈奴来犯,各路藩王各怀鬼胎,企图从中原与匈奴的战果中分得一杯羹,中原前途叵测。就在执钺的亲王与大将军之后,皇帝也即将亲征北疆。
然而在大军即将开拔的那一刻,依旧有无数的谜团将交织在未来的刀光血影中。藩王们甚至皇帝的亲兄弟成亲王无不蠢蠢欲动,而抚养辟邪长大的七宝、乃至辟邪本人,他们的目的还远远深藏在冰峰之下……
三体Ⅲ 豆瓣 Goodreads
死神永生
8.9 (1018 个评分) 作者: 刘慈欣 重庆出版社 2010 - 11
与三体文明的战争使人类第一次看到了宇宙黑暗的真相,地球文明像一个恐惧的孩子,熄灭了寻友的篝火,在暗夜中发抖。自以为历经沧桑,其实刚刚蹒跚学步;自以为悟出了生存竞争的秘密,其实还远没有竞争的资格。
使两个文明命悬一线的黑暗森林打击,不过是宇宙战场上一个微不足道的插曲。真正的星际战争没人见过,也不可能见到,因为战争的方式和武器已经远远超出人类的想象,目睹战场之日,即是灭亡之时。
宇宙的田园时代已经远去,昙花一现的终极之美最终变成任何智慧体都无法做出的梦,变成游吟诗人缥缈的残歌;宇宙的物竞天择已到了最惨烈的时刻,在亿万光年暗无天日的战场上,深渊最底层的毁灭力量被唤醒,太空变成了死神广阔的披风。
太阳系中的人们永远不会知道这一切,最后直面真相的,只有两双眼睛。
2015年9月2日 已读
看完黑暗森林很诧异还有什么可写的,那么完美的结局。结果发现原来还有更宏大的space opera 在后面!比第二稍差,比第一好。完美而且完整地三部曲,明显是作者事先构思好的。毫不牵强。文笔和人物要是好些可以展开来写成更多本。内容太丰富了。绚丽。
中文 科幻
三体Ⅱ 豆瓣 Goodreads
黑暗森林
9.1 (1081 个评分) 作者: 刘慈欣 重庆出版社 2008 - 5
三体人在利用魔法般的科技锁死了地球人的科学之后,庞大的宇宙舰队杀气腾腾地直扑太阳系,意欲清除地球文明。
面对前所未有的危局,经历过无数磨难的地球人组建起同样庞大的太空舰队,同时,利用三体人思维透明的致命缺陷,制订了神秘莫测的“面壁计划”,精选出四位“面壁者”。秘密展开对三体人的反击。
三体人自身虽然无法识破人类的诡谲计谋,却依靠由地球人中的背叛者挑选出的“破壁人”,与“面壁者”展开智慧博弈……
“面壁计划”究竟能否成功?地球人究竟能否在这场你死我活的文明生存竞争中战而胜之?神秘的
“黑暗森林”究竟意味着什么?
2015年9月2日 已读
三部曲中最好的一本。非常可惜文笔差了点。否则该是多么经典的一套书!不过原料实在太精妙新鲜有活力,所以可以忽略文字的不足。光看它的设定和构架就够惊艳了。
中国 科幻
三体 豆瓣 Goodreads Bangumi
三体
8.6 (1464 个评分) 作者: 刘慈欣 重庆出版社 2008 - 01 其它标题: 地球往事:三体 / The Three-Body Problem
文化大革命如火如荼进行的同时。军方探寻外星文明的绝秘计划“红岸工程”取得了突破性进展。但在按下发射键的那一刻,历经劫难的叶文洁没有意识到,她彻底改变了人类的命运。地球文明向宇宙发出的第一声啼鸣,以太阳为中心,以光速向宇宙深处飞驰……
  四光年外,“三体文明”正苦苦挣扎——三颗无规则运行的太阳主导下的百余次毁灭与重生逼迫他们逃离母星。而恰在此时。他们接收到了地球发来的信息。在运用超技术锁死地球人的基础科学之后。三体人庞大的宇宙舰队开始向地球进发……
  人类的末日悄然来临。
2015年9月2日 已读
构思巧妙,设定磅礴,好看!
中文 科幻
采桑子 豆瓣
8.3 (23 个评分) 作者: 叶广芩 北京出版社 2009 - 1
《采桑子》是一部讲述民国以来满族贵胄后裔生活的长篇小说,是一幅描摹人物命运、充满文化意蕴的斑斓画卷,是一曲直面沧桑、感喟人生的无尽挽歌。清已降,大宅门儿里的满人四散,金家十四个兄妹及亲友各奔西东:长子反叛皇族当了军统,长女为票戏而痴迷;次子因萧墙之祸自尽,次女追求自由婚姻被逐家门……  一个世家的衰落,一群子弟的遭际,形象地展现了近百年间中国历史的风云、社会生活的变造与传统文化的嬗变,令人思绪绵绵。
“采桑子”本为词牌,此书名借用之。满族著名词人纳兰性德所著《采桑子.谁翻乐府凄凉曲》,曾被梁启超先生赞为“时代哀音”,称其“眼界大而感慨深”,此书亦然。写没落而不颓放,叹沧桑终能释怀,娓娓道来,不瘟不躁,实有大家遗风。其“京味”,较之一般“京味小说”更为浓郁、醇厚,是从生活深层涌流出来的上层老北京的情趣与意蕴,具有独特的艺术魅力。
2015年5月9日 已读
好看!选的故事比状元媒更富有戏剧性,跌宕起伏。但是个人更喜欢状元媒,因为里面的小人物和老北京的生活日常的细节描写更细腻丰富。
中文 北京 历史 小说 文化
Wolf Hall 豆瓣
8.4 (9 个评分) 作者: Hilary Mantel Henry Holt & Company 2009 - 10
Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009 'Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.' England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. From one of our finest living writers, 'Wolf Hall' is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion, suffering and courage.
2015年4月30日 已读
文笔真好!
2015年4月13日 评论 On Hilary Mantel - After watching the BBC TV adaptation of Mantel's novels, I went back and re-read the New Yorker profile of Mantel ( http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/15/the-dead-are-real ) and was mesmerized once again. She is such a fascinating author! So the main character Cromwell had always been depicted as an evil man in most of historian’s record. Mantel thought otherwise. &quot;Before she began to write, she spent a long time learning about Cromwell and reading deeply in the period. She had always been intrigued by Cromwell’s villainous reputation. Among both his contemporaries and historians, he was widely thought of as practically a sixteenth-century Himmler, and previous literary depictions—Robert Bolt’s 1960 play “A Man for All Seasons,” Ford Madox Ford’s “The Fifth Queen”—had taken this view. Even his own biographer hated him. But, beginning in the nineteen-fifties, Geoffrey Elton, a historian at Cambridge, had argued that Cromwell was a farseeing modern statesman who had transformed the English government from a personal fiefdom of the king to a bureaucratic parliamentary structure that could survive royal incompetence and enact reforms through legislation rather than through fiat. In so doing, he helped to bring about the English Reformation without the kind of bloodshed or descent into absolutism that took place in much of the rest of Europe. By the time she began to read about Cromwell, academic fashion had moved on and a new generation hated him again, but she found Elton’s arguments persuasive.&quot; Despite all the hatred, very little information was known about Cromwell. Historian had still not determined his birth year. So Mantel had to do lots of research and to fill in lots of blanks. Even though Cromwell Trilogy(“Wolf Hall”, “Bring up the Bodies” and the upcoming “The Mirror and the Light”) had been labeled as historic fiction, Mantel said all characters (hundreds of them) but one servant of Wolsey were real, she didn’t like to make things up. &quot;She couldn’t always be sure that a character was in the place she said he was in at the time she put him there, but she spent endless hours making sure that he wasn’t definitely somewhere else.&quot; Some other interesting quotes from the New Yorker article: =====Quote Begin===== One of Cromwell’s advantages at court was that he did not underestimate women—neither their usefulness as informants nor their cunning as enemies. Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning, and when you come back that night he’ll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks’ tongues, and all the jailers will owe him money. She believes that there are no great characters without a great time; ordinary times breed ordinary people (of the sort—dull, trapped, despairing—who inhabit modern novels). Some say the Tudors transcend this history, bloody and demonic as it is: that they descend from Brutus through the line of Constantine, son of St. Helena, who was a Briton. Arthur, High King of Britain, was Constantine’s grandson. He married up to three women, all called Guinevere, and his tomb is at Glastonbury, but you must understand that he is not really dead, only waiting his time to come again. It is necessary to understand that the dead are real, and have power over the living. It is helpful to have encountered the dead firsthand, in the form of ghosts. =====Quote End====== The most recent issue of The Paris Review (Spring 2015) had an interview with Mantel. But one would have to pay $20 to read more than just the excerpt. I couldn’t find The Paris Review from SF on-line Library catalog last night. So i dropped by a bookstore this morning to read it. Since her teenager years, she liked not only to read, but also to analyze the structure of a piece of writing and to figure out how the author “did it”. Mantel had some interesting thing to say about which authors she liked. Her favorite writing was “Kidnapped” by Robert Louis Stevenson, she thought it was the absolute perfect piece of work. She liked “Jane Eyre” when she first read it as a teenager because Mantel believed herself was also “an very unchildlike child.” But later she couldn’t re-read “Jane Eyre” since she constantly tried to edit it. “Kidnapped”, on the other hand, could be re-read and re-read and still remained perfect in Mantel’s eyes. &quot;Interviewer: Did you read Middlemarch? Mantel: Not until I was grown up. I’m not fond of Eliot. And I’ve never made my way through a virginia Woolf book. I can’t. I can read her essays, and I can read about her, and I can read all around her. I can’t read her novels. You know, it sounds terribly disrespectful to Virginia, but I like books in which things happen.&quot; That made me smile. I’ve started reading “Wolf Hall” the book, finally. I’ve picked up a copy of “Bring Up the Bodies” at the bookstore. Looking forward to the publishing of “The Mirror and the Light”.
历史小说 英文
Ghostwritten 豆瓣
作者: David Mitchell Random House 2000 - 5
2015年4月9日 已读
原来从第一本书就是云图的路子,但是技巧和结构明显不如云图,骨钟成熟。可以看到后来运用娴熟的设定人物的最初雏形。云图里的Tim Cavendish 和Luisa Rey在这里也露了面。有趣。
小说 英文
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories 豆瓣
作者: Susanna Clarke Bloomsbury USA 2006 - 10
Following the enormous success of 2004 bestseller and critics’ favorite Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke delivers a delicious collection of ten stories set in the same fairy-crossed world of 19th-century England. With Clarke’s characteristic historical detail and diction, these dark, enchanting tales unfold in a slightly distorted version of our own world, where people are bedeviled by mischievous interventions from the fairies. With appearances from beloved characters from her novel, including Jonathan Strange and Childermass, and an entirely new spin on certain historical figures, including Mary, Queen of Scots, this is a must-have for fans of Susanna Clarke’s and an enticing introduction to her work for new readers. Some of these stories have never before been published; others have appeared in the New York Times or in highly regarded anthologies. In this collection, they come together to expand the reach of Clarke’s land of enchantment—and anticipate her next novel (Fall 2008).
2015年4月8日 已读
看完了,好看。尤其喜欢第一个故事 “The Ladies of Grace Adieu”。//舍不得十九世纪的魔幻英国,接着过过瘾。。。
奇幻 英文
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell 豆瓣 Goodreads
9.4 (7 个评分) 作者: Susanna Clarke Tor Books 2006 - 8 其它标题: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England--until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight.
Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear.
literary awards
Hugo Award for Best Novel (2005),
Man Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2004),
Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (2006),
Locus Award for Best First Novel (2005),
Guardian First Book Award Nominee (2004)
World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2005),
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature (2005),
Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction (2005),
Cena Akademie SFFH for Kniha roku (Book of the Year) (2007)
2015年3月31日 已读
看完了,前面三分之一很闷,后面三分之二越来越好看。结尾很好,喜欢! | 26% 这个作者好啰嗦啊!偶尔写到魔法时倒是很美丽。。。不知道后面会不会好看一点?
2015年4月1日 评论 细腻美丽幽默的十九世纪英国魔法 - 我算不上是奥斯丁的书迷。虽然她的书改编的电影电视剧看过都很喜欢,但是她的书阴差阳错我一本都没有读过。 开始看Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell之前稍微在网上看了几眼书评。说是用奥斯丁的笔法来写魔法,因为没有参照物,心里惴惴。又有很多评论家说是成人版的哈利波特,加上zeze的推荐,所以我又满怀希望。 这本八百页的大书分成三部分。开头缓慢繁琐。第二部分就变得很好看,到了第三部分我开始手不释卷,在两种舍不得里挣扎:舍不得放下,舍不得看完。结尾非常让我惊讶,很喜欢。 第一部分主要介绍Mr. Norrell这个英国绅士魔法师。我看两眼就放下来,想起来再看两眼,然后又随手丢开。Mr. Norrell这个小心翼翼,自私,冷酷的书呆子实在是让我没有共鸣。唯一出现的精灵的残忍和他四处扩散的绝望又让我心有余悸。最近看的这些魔幻小说,从Ursula到Gaiman都太黑暗了,黑得我这个一向神经很大条的人都有点怕怕。但是难得出现的魔法描写却又美丽非凡,让我有继续看下去的动力。 “She wore a gown the color of storms, shadows, and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets.” “Woods were ringed with a colour so soft, so subtle that it could scarcely be said to be a colour at all. It was more the idea of a colour – as if the trees were dreaming green dreams or thinking green thoughts.” “With his long hair as ragged as rain and as black as thunder, he would have looked quite at home upon a windswept moor, or lurking in some pitch-black alleyway, or perhaps in a novel by Mrs. Radcliffe.” “The very shapes of the trees were like frozen screams.” 当第一部分里最有意思的人物,疯子似的冒牌魔法师Vinculus,跑到Mr. Norrell家给他背诵了渡鸦王的预言之后,我就跟第一次看红楼梦时看到太虚幻境里那些姑娘们的薄命册一样,说什么也要看下去了。接下来一节Vinculus和Norrell的仆人Childermass(另一个有趣人物)玩纸牌那段也很好看。 渡鸦王的预言很美。 I reached out my hand; England’s rivers turned and flowed the other way I reached out my hand; my enemies’s blood stopt in their veins I reached out my hand; thought and memory flew out of my enemies’ heads like a flock of starlings; My enemies crumpled like empty sacks. I came to them out of mists and rain; I came to them in dreams at midnight; I came to them in a flock of ravens that filled a northern sky at dawn; When they thought themselves safe I came to them in a cry that broke the silence of a winter wood The rain made a door for me and I went through it; The stones made a throne for me and I sat upon it; Three kingdoms were given to me to be mine forever; England was given to me to be mine forever. The nameless slave wore a silver crown; the nameless slave was a king in a strange country… The weapons that my enemies raised against me are venerated in Hell as holy relics; Plans that my enemies made against me are preserved as holy texts; Blood that I shed upon ancient battlefields is scraped from the stained earth by Hell’s sacristans and placed in a vessel of silver and ivory. I gave magic to England, a valuable inheritance But Englishmen have despised my gift Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it; Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it; In winter the barren trees shall be a black writing but they shall not understand it… Two magicians shall appear in England The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me; The first shall be governed by thieves and murderers; the second shall conspire at his own destruction; The first shall bury his heart in a dark wood beneath the snow, yet still feel its ache; The second shall see his dearest possession in his enemy’s hand The first shall pass his life alone; he shall be his own gaoler; The second shall tread lonely roads, the storm above his head, seeking a dark tower upon a high hillside. I sit upon a black throne in the shadows but they shall not see me. The rain shall make a door for me and I shall pass through it; The stones shall make a throne for me and I shall sit upon it. The nameless slave shall wear a silver crown, The nameless slave shall be a king in a strange country 与Urlsula和Gaiman不同的是,Clarke的魔法让我感觉非常开阔大气,总是和天空,风雨,雪原,英国的树林,河流,飞鸟联系在一起。很空灵,没有其它魔法书里的魔法那么黑暗。好像呼啸山庄里的风景一样。但是更有生命力,稍微多一点阳光。可能因为书中遍布各处的英国式冷幽默的缘故? 从一开始就不喜欢的Mr. Norrell, 当第二个魔法师Strange出现后,居然有三个时刻让我对Norrell充满了同情和喜爱。他相见恨晚地主动提出收Strange为徒的那一刻;Strange要和他断绝师生关系时,他恳求Strange “Don’t do this.”那绝望痛苦的一刻;最后他发现自己和Strange一同被精灵的诅咒关在无边黑夜自己深爱的图书馆里,心中窃喜的时刻。 第二个魔法师Strange从第一部分末尾出现就让人喜欢。故事也从此好看起来。 这个讲Strange成为魔法师前当悠闲公子时的段落也很可爱。那时Arabella (Mr. Woodhope)还不是他的妻子。热恋中的Strange. Arabella常常会质问他一些他无法回答的问题,但是他就是喜欢听她训斥。 But he [Strange] soon discovered that comfort and tranquillity were poor substitutes for Miss Woodhope’s company and so he cancelled the dinner and went immediately to the house of Mr and Mrs Redmond in order to beging being unhappy as soon as possible. 再引一些英国冷幽默句子 “For, though the room was silent, the silence of half a hundred cats is a peculiar thing, like fifty individual silences all piled one on top of another.” “Such nonsense!” declared Dr Greysteel. “Whoever heard of cats doing anything useful!” “Except for staring at one in a supercilious manner,” said Strange. “That has a sort of moral usefulness, I suppose, in making one feel uncomfortable and encouraging sober reflection upon one’s imperfections.” “It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry. Imagine then the interest that surrounded Miss Wintertowne! No young lady ever had such advantages before: for she died upon the Tuesday, was raised to life in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and was married upon the Thursday; which some people thought too much excitement for one week.” “When he awoke it was dawn. Or something like dawn. The light was watery, dim and incomparably sad. Vast, grey, gloomy hills rose up all around them and in between the hills there was a wide expanse of black bog. Stephen had never seen a landscape so calculated to reduce the onlooker to utter despair in an instant. “This is one of your kingdoms, I suppose, sir?” he said. “My kingdoms?” exclaimed the gentleman in surprize. “Oh, no! This is Scotland!” “Mr Norrell determined to establish himself in London with all possible haste. “You must get a house, Childermass,” he said. “Get me a house that says to those that visit it that magic is a respectable profession – no less than Law and a great deal more so than Medicine.” Childermass inquired drily if Mr Norrell wished him to seek out architecture expressive of the proposition that magic was as respectable as the Church? Mr Norrell (who knew there were such things as jokes in the world or people would not write about them in books, but who had never actually been introduced to a joke or shaken its hand) considered a while before replying at last that no, he did not think they could quite claim that.” Clarke访谈里一段话我也很喜欢。也许英国盛产优秀作家的原因是那下不完的雨? “I can write most places. I particularly like writing on trains. Being between places is quite liberating, and looking out of the window, watching a procession of landscapes and random-ish objects, is very good for stories. I like darkened rooms too, and lamplight, and the sound of rain. On sunny afternoons I’ve been known to draw the curtains, switch on the light and play a CD of rain falling. It creates a sort of quiet, private world which helps writing sometimes.” ”我几乎在哪里都可以写作。最喜欢在火车上写。处于两地之间的感觉很自由,窗外流过的风景和随机出现的物件都很有益于写故事。我还喜欢暗暗的屋子,台灯灯光,和雨声。我经常在周日下午拉上窗帘,打开灯,放一盘下雨的CD. 这种氛围里安静私密的世界有助于我写东西。“ BBC根据这个小说拍了一个七集的电视剧,2015年播出!期待!
奇幻 英文
Good Omens 豆瓣
8.9 (26 个评分) 作者: Neil Gaiman / Terry Pratchett William Morrow 2006 - 3
There is a distinct hint of Armageddon in the air. According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded, thankfully, in 1655, before she blew up her entire village and all its inhabitants, who had gathered to watch her burn), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witch-finders are getting ready to fight the good fight, armed with awkwardly antiquated instructions and stick pins. Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. . . . Right. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. </p>
Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon -- each of whom has lived among Earth's mortals for many millennia and has grown rather fond of the lifestyle -- are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. If Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they've got to find and kill the Antichrist (which is a shame, as he's a really nice kid). There's just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him. . . . </p>
First published in 1990, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's brilliantly dark and screamingly funny take on humankind's final judgment is back -- and just in time -- in a new hardcover edition (which includes an introduction by the authors, comments by each about the other, and answers to some still-burning questions about their wildly popular collaborative effort) that the devout and the damned alike will surely cherish until the end of all things. </p>
2015年3月25日 已读
真是爱死Aziraphale和Crowley这一对活宝了!自从鹿鼎记的韦小宝之后,这两个大概是我最爱的小说角色了!/only at 22%, absolutely love the bickering of the angel(Aziraphale) and the fallen angel (Crowley). Hilarious! :)
奇幻 英文
The Dispossessed Goodreads 豆瓣
The Dispossessed
8.1 (11 个评分) 作者: Ursula K. Le Guin Harper Voyager 2020 - 9
Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life—Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Urras, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.
2015年3月22日 已读
跟Left Hand of Darkness比,这本差了很多。
科幻 英文