Most of my conversations and meetings these days are about COVID-19 and how we can stem the tide. But I’m also often asked about what I am reading—either because people want to learn more about pandemics, or because they are looking for a distraction.

　　我這些日子參與的會議和討論，大多與新冠肺炎及我們如何能遏制疫情有關。但我也經常被問到正在讀什么書——原因要么是人們想了解更多關于大流行病的知識，要么是他們想要轉移注意力。

　　So, in addition to the five new book reviews I always write for my summer book list, I included a number of other recommendations. I hope you find something that catches your interest.

　　所以，除了按慣例為夏季書單新寫的五篇書評之外，我還附上了一些其他推薦。希望你能從中找到自己感興趣的內容。

　　01 The Choice《擁抱可能》

　　By Dr. Edith Eva Eger | 伊迪絲·埃格爾 著

　　This book is partly a memoir and partly a guide to processing trauma. Eger was only sixteen years old when she and her family got sent to Auschwitz. After surviving unbelievable horrors, she moved to the United States and became a therapist. Her unique background gives her amazing insight, and I think many people will find comfort right now from her suggestions on how to handle difficult situations.

　　這本書一部分是作者回憶錄，另一部分是如何處理創傷的指南。埃格爾在只有16歲時和家人一起被送到奧斯維辛集中營。在經歷了難以想象的恐怖之后，她來到美國成為一名心理治療師。她獨特的背景給了她驚人的洞察力，我想現在很多人都會從她如何應對困境的建議中找到安慰。

　　02 Cloud Atlas《云圖》

　　By David Mitchell | 大衛·米切爾 著

　　This is the kind of novel you’ll think and talk about for a long time after you finish it. The plot is a bit hard to explain, because it involves six inter-related stories that take place centuries apart (including one I particularly loved about a young American doctor on a sailing ship in the South Pacific in the mid-1800s). But if you’re in the mood for a really compelling tale about the best and worst of humanity, I think you’ll find yourself as engrossed in it as I was.

　　這是那種你看完之后會長久思考和談論的小說。小說的情節有點難以解釋，因為它涉及六個相互關聯的故事，時間相隔幾個世紀(其中一個我特別喜歡，講的是19世紀中葉，一個年輕美國醫生在南太平洋一艘帆船上的故事)。但是，如果你有心情聽一個關于人性至善與至惡的故事，我想你會和我一樣沉浸其中。

　　03 The Ride of a Lifetime《一生的旅程》

　　By Bob Iger | 羅伯特·艾格 著

　　This is one of the best business books I’ve read in several years. Iger does a terrific job explaining what it’s really like to be the CEO of a large company. Whether you’re looking for business insights or just an entertaining read, I think anyone would enjoy his stories about overseeing Disney during one of the most transformative times in its history.

　　這是我這些年讀過的最佳商業書籍之一。艾格極為出色地解釋了在一家大公司做CEO到底意味著什么。無論你是想閱讀商業見解，還是只想找本書消遣，我覺得你都會喜歡他執掌迪士尼的故事——當時這間公司正在經歷自成立以來最激烈的轉型期。

　　04 The Great Influenza《大流感》

　　By John M. Barry | 約翰·巴里 著

　　We’re living through an unprecedented time right now. But if you’re looking for a historical comparison, the 1918 influenza pandemic is as close as you’re going to get. Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history. Even though 1918 was a very different time from today, The Great Influenza is a good reminder that we’re still dealing with many of the same challenges.

　　我們正在經歷一個前所未有的時刻。但如果你想找一段歷史來對比，1918年的流感大流行是最接近的。關于這場人類歷史上最致命的疫情，你需要知道的一切，巴里都會教給你。盡管1918年與今天截然不同，但《大流感》依舊是一個很好的提醒：我們仍在應對許多相同的挑戰。

　　05 Good Economics for Hard Times《好的經濟學》

　　By Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

　　阿比吉特·班納吉、埃斯特·迪弗洛 著

　　Banerjee and Duflo won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences last year, and they’re two of the smartest economists working today. Fortunately for us, they’re also very good at making economics accessible to the average person. Their newest book takes on inequality and political divisions by focusing on policy debates that are at the forefront in wealthy countries like the United States.

　　班納吉和迪弗洛獲得了去年的諾貝爾經濟學獎，他們二位是當今最聰明的經濟學家。對我們而言幸運的是，他們也非常善于讓普通人了解經濟學。他們的最新著作聚焦富裕國家(例如美國)處于風口浪尖的政策辯論，探討不平等和政治分歧問題。

　　Other books worth reading

　　其他值得一讀的書

　　The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, by Andy Puddicombe. For years, I was a skeptic about meditation. Now I do it as often as I can—three times a week, if time allows. Andy’s book and the app he created, Headspace, are what made me a convert. Andy, a former Buddhist monk, offers lots of helpful metaphors to explain potentially tricky concepts in meditation. At a time when we all could use a few minutes to de-stress and re-focus each day, this is a great place to start.

　　《十分鐘冥想》 | 安迪·普迪科姆 著

　　多年來，我一直對冥想抱持懷疑態度，如今我卻盡可能地經常操練——如果時間允許，我會一周做三次。是安迪的書和手機應用 Headspace改變了我。安迪之前是一名佛教僧侶，他使用許多有幫助的比喻來解釋冥想中不太好理解的概念。當我們都可以在每天花幾分鐘來減壓和重新集中精力時，冥想是一個很好的開始。

　　Moonwalking with Einstein, by Joshua Foer. If you’re looking to work on a new skill, you could do worse than learning to memorize things. Foer is a science writer who got interested in how memory works, and why some people seem to have an amazing ability to recall facts. He takes you inside the U.S. Memory Championship—yes, that’s a real thing—and introduces you to the techniques that, amazingly, allowed him to win the contest one year.

　　《與愛因斯坦月球漫步》 | 喬舒亞·福爾 著

　　如果你想掌握一項新技能，那就應該學習如何記憶事情。福爾是一名科普作家，著迷于記憶如何工作，以及為什么一些人在回憶事情方面似乎擁有驚人的能力。他帶你走進美國記憶錦標賽(沒錯，這比賽真實存在)，并且向你介紹一些技巧——這些技巧使他神奇般在某一年的比賽中獲勝。

　　The Martian, by Andy Weir. You may remember the movie from a few years ago, when Matt Damon—playing a botanist who’s been stranded on Mars—sets aside his fear and says, “I’m going to science the s*** out of this.” We’re doing the same thing with the novel coronavirus.

　　《火星救援》 | 安迪·威爾 著

　　你可能還記得幾年前的這部電影，其中一個場景是馬特·達蒙(片中飾演一個被困在火星上的植物學家)克服恐懼后說道：“我要用科學干出一條生路!”我們正在對新冠病毒做同樣的事情。

　　A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. The main character in this novel is living through a situation that now feels very relatable: He can’t leave the building he’s living in. But he’s not stuck there because of a disease; it’s 1922, and he’s a Russian count who’s serving a life sentence under house arrest in a hotel. I thought it was a fun, clever, and surprisingly upbeat story about making the best of your surroundings.

　　《莫斯科紳士》 | 埃默·托爾斯 著

　　小說主人公經歷的處境令現在的人感同身受：他無法離開自己所居住的大樓。但他并不是因為疾病才被困在那里——故事發生在1922年，他是一位俄國伯爵，被判在一間酒店里服無期徒刑。我認為這是一個關于充分利用周圍環境的有趣、聰明且非常樂觀的故事。

　　The Rosie Trilogy, by Graeme Simsion. All three of the Rosie novels made me laugh out loud. They’re about a genetics professor with Asperger’s Syndrome who (in the first book) goes looking for a wife and then (in the second and third books) starts a family. Ultimately the story is about getting inside the mind and heart of someone a lot of people see as odd, and discovering that he isn’t really that different from anybody else. Melinda got me started on these books, and I’m glad she did.

　　羅茜三部曲 | 格雷姆·辛浦生 著

　　羅茜系列的三本小說都讓人捧腹大笑。三部曲講的是一名患有阿斯伯格綜合癥的遺傳學教授尋求妻子(第一部)和組建家庭(第二和第三部)。歸根結底，這個故事講的是進入一個人的頭腦和內心深處，然后發現這個被許多人視為怪胎的人，其實與其他人并沒有什么不同。是梅琳達讓我開始閱讀這個系列，我很高興她這么做了。

　　I don’t read a lot of comics or graphic novels, but I’ve really enjoyed the few that I have picked up. The best ones combine amazing storytelling with striking visuals. In her memoir The Best We Could Do, for example, Thi Bui gains a new appreciation for what her parents—who survived the Vietnam War—went through. It’s a deeply personal book that explores what it means to be a parent and a refugee.

　　我并不經常看漫畫或連環畫小說，但我真的很喜歡我讀過的那幾本。那些最好的作品將出色的故事和奪目的視覺結合在一起。例如在《盡力而為》這本回憶錄中，作者裴氏對于她父母(越戰幸存者)所經歷的一切有了新的認識。這是一本非常具有個人色彩的書，探討了同時作為父母和難民意味著什么。

　　On the lighter side is Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things that Happened, by Allie Brosh. You will rip through it in three hours, tops. But you’ll wish it went on longer, because it’s funny and smart as hell. I must have read Melinda a dozen hilarious passages out loud.

　　艾麗·布羅什(Allie Brosh)的《我幼稚的時候好有范》讀起來會輕松一些。你最多用三個小時就可以讀完它。但你會希望讀得更久一些，因為它非常有趣，又十分機智。我一定曾將其中許多搞笑的段落讀給梅琳達聽。

　　Finally, I love the way that former NASA engineer Randall Munroe turns offbeat science lessons into super-engaging comics. The two books of his that I’ve read and highly recommend are What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, and XKCD Volume 0. I also have Randall’s latest book, How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems,on my bookshelf and hope to read it soon. If you’ve read it, let me know what you think in the comments.

　　最后，我喜歡前美國國家航空航天局工程師蘭德爾·門羅的做法，他將離奇的科學課程變成了引人入勝的漫畫。我讀過他的兩本書并強烈向你推薦：《What If?那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》和《XKCD：第0卷》。我的書架上還有蘭德爾的最新著作《How To：如何不切實際地解決實際問題》，我希望能盡快閱讀這本書。如果你已經讀過這本書，請留言告訴我你的讀后感。