As I was putting together my list of suggested reading for the summer, I realized that the topics they cover sound pretty heavy for vacation reading. There are books here about gender equality, political polarization, climate change, and the hard truth that life never goes the way young people think it will. It does not exactly sound like the stuff of beach reads.
当我列出今年夏季的推荐书单时，我意识到对于假期阅读来说，这些书的主题听起来相当沉重。它们关于性别平等、政治两极分化、气候变化以及残酷的事实——生活从来不会像年轻人想象的那样一帆风顺。这听起来不太像适合在海滩上阅读的东西。

But none of the five books below feel heavy (even though, at nearly 600 pages, The Lincoln Highway is literally weighty). Each of the writers—three novelists, a journalist, and a scientist—was able to take a meaty subject and make it compelling without sacrificing any complexity.
但是下面的五本书都没有让人感觉沉重（尽管《林肯公路》有近600页，确实不轻）。每位作者——三名小说家、一名记者和一名科学家——都能够挑选一个内涵丰富的主题，并且在不牺牲复杂性的条件下使其引人入胜。

I loved all five of these books and hope you find something here you’ll enjoy too. And feel free to share some of your favorite recent reads in the comments section below.
我喜欢这五本书，希望你也能从中找到一些自己喜欢的内容。欢迎在下方的评论区里分享你近期读过的好书。

01《The Power》By Naomi Alderman

中文暂译：《力量》作者：娜奥米·阿尔德曼 著

 

简介：
The Power, by Naomi Alderman. I’m glad that I followed my older daughter’s recommendation and read this novel. It cleverly uses a single idea—what if all the women in the world suddenly gained the power to produce deadly electric shocks from their bodies?—to explore gender roles and gender equality. Reading The Power, I gained a stronger and more visceral sense of the abuse and injustice many women experience today. And I expanded my appreciation for the people who work on these issues in the U.S. and around the world.
我很高兴自己听从了大女儿的推荐而读了这本小说。它巧妙地利用了一个想法——如果世界上所有的女性突然有了能产生致命电击的能力会怎么样？——来探索性别角色和性别平等。读《力量》时，我对今天许多女性所经历的虐待和不公正有了更强烈、更深刻的感受。我也向在美国和世界各地致力于解决这些问题的人们表示感谢。

02《Why We’re Polarized》By Ezra Klein

中文暂译：《为什么我们会两极分化》埃兹拉·克莱因 著

 

简介
Why We’re Polarized, by Ezra Klein. I’m generally optimistic about the future, but one thing that dampens my outlook a bit is the increasing polarization in America, especially when it comes to politics. In this insightful book, Klein argues persuasively that the cause of this split is identity—the human instinct to let our group identities guide our decision making. The book is fundamentally about American politics, but it’s also a fascinating look at human psychology.
我总体上对未来持乐观态度，但令我有些担忧的一件事是美国不断加剧的两极分化，尤其是在政治方面。在这本富有洞察力的书中，克莱因令人信服地论证了这种分裂的产生原因是身份——让我们的群体身份指导我们决策的人类本能。这本书从根本上讲的是美国政治，但它对人类心理学的观察也很吸引人。

03《The Lincoln Highway》By Amor Towles

中文暂译文：《林肯公路》作者：埃默·托尔斯 著

 

简介

The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles. I put Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow on my summer books list back in 2019, but I liked this follow-up novel even more. Set in 1954, it’s about two brothers who are trying to drive from Nebraska to California to find their mother; their trip is thrown way off-course by a volatile teenager from the older brother’s past. Towles takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys and seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.
早在2019年，我就将托尔斯的《莫斯科绅士》列入了我的夏季书单，但我更喜欢这本后续发布的小说。故事发生在1954年，讲的是两兄弟试图从内布拉斯加开车到加利福尼亚寻找母亲。他们的旅行被哥哥认识的一个脾气暴躁的少年打乱了。托尔斯从著名的英雄旅程中汲取灵感，似乎在说我们的个人旅程从来不像我们可能希望的那样平顺或可以预测。

04《The Ministry for the Future》By Kim Stanley Robinson

中文暂译：《未来部》作者： 金·斯坦利·罗宾逊 著

 

简介

The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson. When I was promoting my book on climate change last year, a number of people told me I should read this novel, because it dramatized many of the issues I had written about. I’m glad I picked it up, because it’s terrific. It’s so complex that it’s hard to summarize, but Robinson presents a stimulating and engaging story, spanning decades and continents, packed with fascinating ideas and people.
去年我在宣传我的气候变化新书时，不少人告诉我应该读读这本小说，因为它生动地表达了我写过的许多问题。我很高兴自己读了这本书，因为它太棒了。它是如此复杂以至于难以对其进行总结，但罗宾逊呈现了一个激动人心且引人入胜的故事，跨越数十年和各大洲，充满了迷人的想法和人物。

05《How the World Really Works》By Vaclav Smil

中文暂译：《世界怎样运转》作者：瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔著

 

简介

How the World Really Works, by Vaclav Smil. Another masterpiece from one of my favorite authors. Unlike most of Vaclav’s books, which read like textbooks and go super-deep on one topic, this one is written for a general audience and gives an overview of the main areas of his expertise. If you want a brief but thorough education in numeric thinking about many of the fundamental forces that shape human life, this is the book to read. It’s a tour de force.
这是我喜欢作家的另一部杰作。瓦茨拉夫的大多数书都读起来像教科书，并就一个话题进行很深入的探讨。但这本书不一样，它是为普通读者写的，是对他主要专业领域的一个概述。如果你想从数字思维的角度，对各种塑造人类生活的根本性力量做一个简短但全面的学习，那这就是你要读的书。这本书堪称力作。