Trees remember everything|A new book recommendation for the week

Interface News Reporter | Xu Luqing

Interface News Editor | Yellow Moon

"Yandong Garden's Left Neighborhood"

Written by Xu Hong

Single Reading: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2024-01 

Yandongyuan is the family area of the current faculty and staff of Peking University, and it belonged to Yenching University in earlier times. There are more than 30 two-story gray brick houses in the park, and there are courtyards in front of each house, planted with roses, lilacs, vines, hostas, etc. During the Yan University period, foreign scholars mostly lived in Yannan Garden, and Chinese scholars mostly lived in Yandong Garden, such as Wu Leichuan, Xu Dishan, Deng Zhicheng, Guo Shaoyu, Lu Kanru, Feng Yuanjun, Gu Jiegang, etc.

Xu Hong, a professor at Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication, was born at No. 59 Yannan Garden, Yenching University, and moved to No. 40 Yandong Garden when she was 100 days old. Through historical data collection and interviews with dozens of second-generation Yandongyuan, Xu Hong tried to get the 22 small buildings of Yandongyuan hanging the "historical building" sign to speak, telling the residents and past events of the small buildings in the 40 years of ups and downs from 1926 to 1966.

"Unabridged"

Written by Diana Asir and translated by Zeng Rong

Houlang Sichuan People's Publishing House 2024-01

Discover Naipaul, revise for Atwood, and complain about Nobel laureate Elias Canetti...... Anna Asir was one of the most prominent literary publishing editors in Britain in the 20th century, and one of the few female editors of her time. At that time, women faced very few career choices, teaching and nursing were the two most common, but for Asir, facing these two jobs was as boring as facing a "bucket of porridge that has been cold". After World War II, she founded Andrea Deutsch Publishing, one of the leading independent British publishing companies in the 20th century. She has a keen literary judgment and eye, and has unearthed authors who have brought in a series of outstanding authors such as Beauvoir, Atwood, Philip Roth, Updike, and so on.

At the age of 89, Asir wrote "Twilight Will End" about her celibate old age, and "Unabridged" is a "record of migrant workers in the literary circle" written by her after she retired and looked back at her work. In the book, she tells the story of how she came to work for the BBC News after graduating from Oxford University, and then met the publisher Andre Deutsch, who co-founded the independent publishing house. In the second part, Asir recalls his interactions with six authors, including Naipaul and Jane Reese, and presents readers with the personalities and life anecdotes of these great writers.

"Summer Story"

Translated by Miiko Kawakami, translated by Gao Yijun

Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2023-11

"I can't decide whether I'm born or not, but I can decide whether or not to become a mother. ”

Mieko Kawakami is a Japanese female novelist. In 2008, her novel "Milk and Egg" won the 138th Akutagawa Prize. "Xia Monogatari" is a sequel to "Milk and Egg", which is divided into two parts. The first half is based on the original "Milk and Egg", and the second half tells the story of 38-year-old Natsuko, who has no dating partner, but suddenly and strongly "wants to see her child", so she begins to look for a way to have a child out of wedlock. In the process, she met a variety of people, including single mothers and those born through artificial insemination, and her expectations of fertility and the meaning of life were shaken.

In 2019, Haruki Murakami's interview "The Owl Takes Off at Dusk" was published, and the interviewer who spoke to Murakami was the novelist Mieiko Kawakami.

Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess and Slut

Written by Bethanie Hughes Translated by Zeng Xiaochu 

Ideal Country: Kyushu Publishing House 2023-11

For thousands of years, Western cultural interpretations of Helen have reflected the projection of male collective desires. Helen is the archetypal image of a woman who is in love with her and puts all the blame on her when something terrible happens.

Historian Betany Hughes has spent years traveling across Greece, North Africa, and Asia Minor in an attempt to reconstruct Helen's life. She found that if we traced Helen across the ages, we would find three completely different but intertwined images – a goddess, a princess, and a slut. In fact, more than 3,000 years ago, Helen was neither a beautiful puppet, nor a "red face", nor a pitiful trophy, but a real woman with power, wealth and respect. "Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess and Slut" tries to get rid of the false construction of Helen from the male perspective and observe Helen's vivid life through her own eyes.

"The Psychology of the Abuser"

Translated by Yar Apt by Yu Li

Guangxi Normal University Press 2024-01

When Israeli Prime Minister Bhaikin Rabin was assassinated in November 1995, Yar Apt was in his 20s and a young social worker. Like most Israelis, he was pained and shocked. Later, he became a therapist for the prevention of domestic violence and the treatment of men who have experienced violent behavior, one-on-one contact with the perpetrator of violence in intimate relationships.

In this book, Apt chronicles his years of experience, traces the reasons why perpetrators use violence, and shows the complex reasons and social implications behind male perpetrators. He found that some men who had openly and actively expressed their feelings in intimate settings were insulted by other boys, such as being called "homosexual" or "sissy", causing these boys to grow up increasingly ashamed to express themselves and choose to suppress their feelings so as not to appear less resilient. When they grow up, they are also not aware of their own feelings, or even physical sensations. When they exhibit violence towards their partner, they often have difficulty recognizing their hostile emotions, including anger, doubt, insecurity, anxiety, and depression.

For the past 50 years, the issue of domestic violence has been at the heart of public discussion. Behaviour that was once considered "personal behaviour" is now a matter of discussion in the media, society, psychology and the legal community. It is not enough to hold the perpetrator accountable for the violence, in order to address the sources of violence, we should also turn our attention to the inner world of the perpetrator and understand the emotional mechanisms that drive the violence.

Giacometti: Alone

[Morocco] by Tahar Ben Jalen Translated by Yu Guangji

Guardian Nanjing University Press 2024-01 

Green spots, potholes, slender limbs, phantoms in the presence...... Giacometti was a famous 20th-century Swiss sculptor, sketcher and poet. Born in 1901 and deceased in 1966, he is considered one of the exponents of surrealist and existential sculpture. He is known for his emaciated, lonely humanoid sculptures that touch on the fear, alienation, and anxiety of the post-World War II human experience.

"Loneliness has a face made of human hands. This face was not a mask, but a head at the top of a stalk, on which the gaze grew, and his legs were so long that he was meant to walk eternally, until he met another face that showed a stunned expression. Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jalen described Giacometti's work as such, and turned his work into existential reflections. He contemplates life and philosophy through his slender bronze works, and identifies the truth revealed in his works on the faces of living people. In addition, he infiltrated Giacometti's messy studio in Paris to try to imagine his old days.

A History of the World in the Rings

[Belgium] by Valerie True, translated by Xu Chenxi and An Wenling

The Commercial Press 2023-09

Dendrochronology is a discipline that uses tree rings for geological dating, through which scientists can analyze past climate change, geological events, and environmental conditions, thereby providing important information for geology, archaeology, and climate change research. In dendrochronology, scientists try to find a way to communicate with trees and examine people's expectations and disappointments. The answer lies in the rings of trees, and trees don't lie.

Part memoir, part field diary, part science. The tree rings witnessed the decline of the once-mighty Roman Empire, backed by a 300-year unstable climate, Genghis Khan's warm, humid "golden years" at the beginning of the Mongol Empire, the Uighurs were dragged into the abyss by a 70-year drought, and the Khmer Empire could build the majestic Angkor Wat without the capriciousness of the monsoon...... All this is witnessed by the trees and silently recorded in the growth rings. On the other hand, while the climate affects humans, humans are also influencing the climate and further affecting the planet we live on.

"Stay Away from That Dentist"

Stefan Ficker Translated by Chen Jingsi 

Unread: Tianjin Science and Technology Press, 2023-11

When you see the word "dentist", do you already feel a vague toothache?

With the exception of teeth, almost everything inside and outside the human body undergoes a renewal every year or so: cells are replaced, hair continues to grow, but the teeth in our mouths are still the same ones that grew out of the gums as childhood. Still, we don't know much about our teeth, or even how to keep them healthy.

How to choose toothbrush and dental floss?As long as you eat less sugar, can you avoid tooth decay?How much toothpaste is appropriate for your child?Can I not clean my teeth?The author of this book, Stefan Ficker, is an expert in implantology and periodontology, in this book, he popularizes the structure of the oral cavity, explains common oral problems and common treatment methods, and provides suggestions for us to prevent oral diseases and take care of oral health.