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美国国家公共电台 NPR Librarian Nancy Pearl Picks 7 Books For Summer Reading

时间:2018-06-25 06:49:28

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Nancy Pearl is with us once again. It's the first day of summer, and Nancy, who regularly brings us book recommendations, has some for summer reading. Hope you get a chance to check them out. Hi there, Nancy.

NANCY PEARL: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: I'm just going to go through this stack that you've sent me and start at the beginning. "Mozart's Starling" is on your stack here. Lyanda Lynn Haupt. Am I saying that name correctly?

PEARL: You are, indeed.

INSKEEP: OK. What's going on here?

PEARL: So Lyanda is a naturalist1. She's an eco-philosopher. All of her books deal with getting to know nature in your neighborhood.

INSKEEP: Can I just interrupt to mention...

PEARL: Yes.

INSKEEP: ...the author photo on the back shows her with a bird perching on her head.

PEARL: Yes. And this bird is the starling that is the subject of "Mozart's Starling." So it turned out that she became interested in Mozart because the story is that he was walking in Vienna down the street and he heard a bird singing a section of a concerto2 that he had just finished composing.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) That he had just finished composing? Wow.

PEARL: Correct. Correct. And that just captivated Lyanda. So she and her husband procured3 a baby starling that she proceeded to raise. And so this is a book both about what it's like to have a bird in your house flying around, but also interspersed4 with this biography of Mozart and Mozart's relationship with his starling.

INSKEEP: OK. So we've got starlings. We also have a book here called "The Trouble With Goats And Sheep." What on earth is the trouble with goats and sheep?

PEARL: Well, I can't tell you that exactly 'cause that might give away too much. But what I can tell you is this is a fabulous5 first novel by Joanna Cannon6, set in 1976 in a small village in England. It's one of the hottest summers on record there, and one of the women in this neighborhood has disappeared. Mrs. Creasy is nowhere to be found, and no one knows where she's gone. And two little girls, Tilly and Grace, decide they are going to find out what happened to Mrs. Creasy. So this is a little bit of a mystery, but more, it's an examination of a group of people all with secrets of their own and the fear that some of those secrets are going to come out because of the girls' inquisitiveness7. But it's laced with the absolute just wonderful, wonderful touches of humor, including an absolutely priceless scene when Tilly and Grace make one of their regular trips to the library and are looking for something good to read. I loved this book.

INSKEEP: So we've got a book here called "1947: Where Now Begins."

PEARL: This is exactly the kind of history that I love to read. What Elisabeth Asbrink has done is take one particular year, 1947, two years after the end of World War II, and go through month by month talking about everything that happened during those months. And the book is interwoven with her father's story, who spent 1947 in an orphanage8 in Germany, and his experiences. So there's so much in here. I mean, it's one of those books that I kept marking it up with bookmarks that the book kind of grew to twice its normal size because there was all these notes that I took, and I mean, it's just one of those books that makes you want to major in history. You know? It just is the best nonfiction book that I've read recently.

INSKEEP: Wow.

PEARL: Yes.

INSKEEP: So so Louisa Luna is the author of a novel that you've got on this stack that you sent me, "Two Girls Down."

PEARL: I picked this one up because I'm always looking for a good thriller9. The two main characters, one of them is a bounty10 hunter named Alice Vega, lives in California, but she's called to come to a small town in Pennsylvania where two sisters have been kidnapped. And she has had great success in finding missing children before. And she goes to work with a disgraced policeman from the town's police force. And the two of them together make this very interesting team, bringing their separate talents together to try to locate these two girls.

INSKEEP: My favorite part of your description is you say a bounty hunter named - and the mind naturally is expecting a male name. That's a stereotypically11 male character. But then you say a bounty hunter named Alice Vega. So she went a different direction here. And that's really interesting.

PEARL: Correct.

INSKEEP: Does "Seven-Day Magic" have a strong dragon character in it?

PEARL: (Laughter).

INSKEEP: I guess we should explain. There's a book here, "Seven-Day Magic," by Edward Eager.

PEARL: So there are two kinds of fantasy for children, and the one that has taken precedence is the type of fantasy where there's a magic world, where magic occurs in the world. Everybody knows that. So, you know, the "Harry12 Potter" books are the best example of that.

INSKEEP: Sure.

PEARL: But in the 20th century, the big kind of fantasy were books in which ordinary boys and girls find something that's magic and they have to, as you learn when you read this book, you find the magic, you tame the magic and then you use the magic. But I especially wanted to talk about this one because it's about a magic book, and these five children go to the library. They see this book just lying on the shelf. It doesn't have a nice cover. It looks very worn. When they check it out, the librarian gives them a very interested look. It's only a seven-day book. And what we do is follow seven days of what happens to them as they gradually use the magic in the book. Fabulous.

INSKEEP: So a magic book. This is pretty much a metaphor13 for your whole life as a librarian?

PEARL: (Laughter). It is. It absolutely is because there's a great line in this book. Every time somebody different holds the book, it becomes exactly the kind of book that they want to read. Isn't that wonderful?

INSKEEP: Nancy, thanks for sending these book recommendations to us. Really appreciate it.

PEARL: My pleasure, Steve.

INSKEEP: Summer reading from Nancy Pearl, who's a librarian and also a novelist, the author of "George And Lizzie: A Novel." And you can find all of her recommendations at npr.org.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 naturalist QFKxZ     
n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)
参考例句:
  • He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业,同时是个博物学爱好者。
  • The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。
2 concerto JpEzs     
n.协奏曲
参考例句:
  • The piano concerto was well rendered.钢琴协奏曲演奏得很好。
  • The concert ended with a Mozart violin concerto.音乐会在莫扎特的小提琴协奏曲中结束。
3 procured 493ee52a2e975a52c94933bb12ecc52b     
v.(努力)取得, (设法)获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 );拉皮条
参考例句:
  • These cars are to be procured through open tender. 这些汽车要用公开招标的办法购买。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • A friend procured a position in the bank for my big brother. 一位朋友为我哥哥谋得了一个银行的职位。 来自《用法词典》
4 interspersed c7b23dadfc0bbd920c645320dfc91f93     
adj.[医]散开的;点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
  • The grass was interspersed with beds of flowers. 草地上点缀着许多花坛。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
5 fabulous ch6zI     
adj.极好的;极为巨大的;寓言中的,传说中的
参考例句:
  • We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
  • This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。
6 cannon 3T8yc     
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮
参考例句:
  • The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
  • The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。
7 inquisitiveness 34ae93063e88de703cccb82a73714b77     
好奇,求知欲
参考例句:
  • It especially excited their inquisitiveness. 这尤其引起了他们的好奇心。
  • This attitude combines a lack of class consciousness, a somewhat jaunty optimism and an inquisitiveness. 这种态度包括等级观念不强,得意洋洋的乐观劲儿和刨根问底的好奇心。
8 orphanage jJwxf     
n.孤儿院
参考例句:
  • They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
  • They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。
9 thriller RIhzU     
n.惊险片,恐怖片
参考例句:
  • He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
  • I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时,总带一本惊险小说看。
10 bounty EtQzZ     
n.慷慨的赠予物,奖金;慷慨,大方;施与
参考例句:
  • He is famous for his bounty to the poor.他因对穷人慷慨相助而出名。
  • We received a bounty from the government.我们收到政府给予的一笔补助金。
11 stereotypically 968cf54bab68dfebb9570aab4e6ec999     
adv.带有成见地(stereotype的副词形式)
参考例句:
12 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
13 metaphor o78zD     
n.隐喻,暗喻
参考例句:
  • Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方,我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
  • In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

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