2005-03-20新到書目

簡體與繁體字版權均售

類別:文學. 小說. 兒童文學

白楊樹之秋

作者: 湯本香樹實

讓孩童對「死亡」」及「永恆」初體認, 此課程一直是最難教導, 無論成人. 或小孩, 心靈創傷的復癒,更是微妙的過程

主角千秋為20多歲女孩,回憶自己孩童時, 一個不滿7歲的孩子, 不能夠明白父親為何突然不見, 而她的母親,也在努力克服失去丈夫去世的事實,因過度悲傷, 對周圍都用發怒和抗拒的情緒來對待, 如此生活態度, 卻讓敏感的小孩子,無可選擇地接收了大人的情緒

藉著一次一次凝視白楊樹,千秋體會到永恆的意義。還有白楊莊的老婆婆謅掰了一只盛著寄往陰間的靈異黑色抽屜,那看不得的抽屜像奇妙的容器,既預示著婆婆的陽壽,也是讓千秋與外界恢復溝通的藥方, 白楊樹對千秋來說,就是適時的人生隱喻,並治癒了母親的傷痛 ...


作者 About the Author
1959年東京生. 第一部小說 " 夏之庭"改編過電視劇. 及舞台劇. 並有十種外語出版此小說. 擅於探討「死亡」、「永恆」等關於人生無解而沉重的題的少年讀物. 尚著作夏之庭、春的管風琴手

* 第127屆芥川獎候補作品日本亞馬遜網站讀者★★★★★推薦

類別:生活休閒類

Yappari Inu ga suki
還是喜歡狗
作者(編者): 河原mari子


本書是讓想養狗的人、或者是已經養狗的人,更加更加的喜愛狗的一本書。 人類與狗兒無法以相同語言溝通,但是,努力地透過動作以及聲音來了解彼此的情緒。雖然沒有共通的語言,但是,如果彼此有想理解對方的心情,心靈就是相通的...


Summary
作者擁有家庭犬訓練員的資格,書中以可愛的插圖以及散文來介紹人與狗相處的溫暖故事。近年受到矚目的動物輔助治療法(animal assisted therapy),其中,也因為狗的忠心特質,一直很受歡迎。本書,告訴我們要跟狗兒更親近的五十個理由。以一位女孩為主角,展開一段與狗相逢到離別的故事。

作者 About the Author
本書作者為畫家及繪本作家。

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繁體版已售

類別:青少年小說

THE SEA OF TROLLS
精靈之海

Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Atheneum (October 2004)

- by Nancy Farmer

紐伯瑞 (Newbery Honor Winner)、國家書卷獎得主 (National Book Award Winner) Nancy Farmer的新作充滿冒險而又易讀,將讀者帶回第八世紀的英倫海岸,正值維京海盜初襲這片土地的年代。農夫之子傑克是村中學者巴德的學徒。他才開始體驗「生命的力量」不久,巴德就被性喜惡作劇的女妖芙瑞絲所製造的惡夢嚇成癡呆。狂暴又危險的芙瑞絲女王消滅了巴德,迫使年輕的傑克必須用一招半式來護衛村子。他和妹妹露西被獨眉怪
歐拉夫逮住,帶到無骨妖人艾法與芙瑞絲的殿堂。傑克用半弔子的法術對女王施法,又被派往妖怪國度學習解開法術的方法。幸好有十二歲的維京少女莎吉爾出手相助,否則傑克一路上遭遇的危機絕非巴德傳授的那點本事所能應付...

Summary
Jack was eleven when the berserkers loomed out of the fog and nabbed him. It seems that things are stirring across the water, the bard had warned "ships are being built, swords are being forged."...

作者 About the Author
Nancy Farmer has written three Newbery Honor Books: The Ear the Eye and the Arm; A Girl Named Disaster; and The House of the Scorpion, which, in 2002, also won the National Book Award. Other books include Do You Know Me, The Warm Place, and three picture books for young children. She lives in California with her family.

* "Nancy Farmer's novels are large-scale stories in which children battle inner demons and ferocious villains in a series of perilous adventures through hostile but richly conceived landscapes." - New York Times Book Review

"Readers will be hooked from the first page..." - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

*Language rights in THE SEA OF TROLLS have been sold in:

-France
-Germany
-Italy
-Maklada Ljevak
-Netherlands
-Presenca
-Poland
-Russia
-Spain
-Turkey
-UK


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類別:青少年小說

AN ANGEL FOR MAY
天使折翼

- by Melvin Burgess

昔日創傷使她的半邊臉變形扭曲,疤痕遍佈。她的臉垂向一側,彷彿早已死亡,譚恩相信若是被她正眼直視,肯定會給活活嚇死。

每當他不快樂時總會躲到廢棄的農場,而這次他遇上了這名可怕的神秘老婦,她引領他有了不可思議的發現,他突然墜入時光隧道,返回第二次世界大戰。

他遇見了寂寞的小梅,她想將他留在過去,一起相伴。他想回到現代,可是當他逐漸明瞭小梅不幸的生平,他知道一定得幫助她。他有可能扭轉過去,影響現在嗎?

Summary
Tam often escapes to the ruins of Thowt It Farm when he is unhappy at home. On one of his visits he follows a mysterious old woman with her dog, and finds himself taken back in time to the Second World War.

There he makes friends with May who has been rescued from a bombed-out house and now refuses to eat or sleep indoors. When Tam gets in trouble in the town, May comes to his rescue. She tries to persuade him to stay at Thowt It but Tam is afraid of being trapped in the past...

作者
About the Author
Melvin Burgess was born in London in 1954 and grew up in Sussex and Surrey. After leaving school at eighteen he began training as a journalist. Before starting to write, he worked in the building industry, and then started a small silk printing business. He now lives in Lancashire, and writes full time.

* Language rights in AN ANGEL FOR MAY have been sold in: France, Italy, Japan . Puffin UK paperback, Russia, USA
* Film was made and rights are being sold by Portman Films
* Won GRAND PRIX at Tokyo Kinder Film Festival in 2003


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類別:報導文學

LIVING JUSTICE:
Love, Freedom, and the Making of The Exonerated
遲來的正義: 冤獄平反者的 愛 自由 與 造成
- by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

精裝, 303頁, 2005年2月出版

一對來自紐約的演員 在2000年突發奇想 要橫跨美國 訪問各地的冤獄平反者 他們會願意向陌生人吐露他們人生痛苦的片斷嗎? 從正義的黑暗面到希望的奇績, 這對演員從中找到對彼此的愛戀...

Summary
A love story...
a political education...
an artistic journey...
and an encounter with the most powerful life-and-death ordeals out there. In 2000, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen embarked on a journey across America--one that would give them a glimpse of the darker side of the United States' justice system and, at the same time, reveal to them just how resilient the human spirit can be. They were a pair of young actors from New York who had the idea to travel cross-country and interview the exonerated--men and women who had been sentenced to die for crimes they didn't commit, who spent anywhere from two to twenty-two years on death row, and who were freed amidst overwhelming evidence of their innocence--and create a play from their words.

The prospect was daunting: How would these total strangers react when asked to share the most difficult and painful part of their lives? But, taking a chance, Jessica and Erik loaded up their rental car, complete with their dog, Zooey, in the backseat, and waved good-bye to Manhattan. What lay ahead of them was beyond anything they ever imagined. From an all-night diner on the gritty edge of Chicago to a ramshackle trailer tucked away in the hills of Georgia, from a Florida prison to an Illinois vegetable farm, they discovered the darkest corners and brightest lights of America. They were chased out of neighborhoods and welcomed in the most surprising places; they heard stories of injustice that made them shudder and stories of hope that left them speechless. And, along the way, they fell in love.

The result of Jessica and Erik's adventure was the award-winning show The Exonerated, which has been embraced by such acting luminaries as Ossie Davis, Richard Dreyfuss, Danny Glover, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams. The Exonerated ran to sold-out houses in New York City and toured the country to audiences that included bishops, governors, senators, Supreme Court justices, and a former attorney general.

Part social commentary, part love story, this powerful memoir is the story of the creation of The Exonerated and one couple's adventure as they learn, through the stories of those who had lost so much, what freedom truly means.

作者 About the Author
Jessica is an actor and writer who has worked in television and independent film as well as in theaters throughout New York City. Erik Jensen has costarred in more than a dozen feature films, inluding The Love Letter and Black Knight.

* Recommended by Marlo Thomas

"A compelling book at the intersection of art and real-life drama, and a sobering reminder of how tragically unjust our justice system can be."

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類別:小說

The Falls: A Novel
瀑布

- by Joyce Carol Oates

精裝, 496頁, 2004年9月出版

此書為Joyce Carol Oates令人歎絕的里程碑, "Oates 為成就當代文化藝術力量的中堅份子" (The Nation The Nation是美國老牌左翼雜誌). 發生在充滿魔力的尼加拉瀑布, 描寫家族兩代, 有關悲劇, 愛憎, 尤其是救贖, 令讀者難以忘懷的小說巨作...

Summary
A man climbs over the railings and plunges into Niagara Falls. A newlywed, he has left behind his wife, Ariah Erskine, in the honeymoon suite the morning after their wedding. "The Widow Bride of The Falls," as Ariah comes to be known, begins a relentless, seven-day vigil in the mist, waiting for his body to be found. At her side throughout, confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby is unexpectedly transfixed by the strange, otherworldly gaze of this plain, strange woman, falling in love with her though they barely exchange a word. What follows is their passionate love affair, marriage, and children -- a seemingly perfect existence.

But the tragedy by which their life together began shadows them, damaging their idyll with distrust, greed, and even murder. What unfurls is a drama of parents and their children; of secrets and sins; of lawsuits, murder, and, eventually, redemption. As Ariah's children learn that their past is enmeshed with a hushed-up scandal involving radioactive waste, they must confront not only their personal history but America's murky past: the despoiling of the landscape, and the corruption and greed of the massive industrial expansion of the 1950s and 1960s.

Set against the mythic-historic backdrop of Niagara Falls, Joyce Carol Oates explores the American family in crisis, but also America itself in the mid-twentieth century. As in We Were the Mulvaneys, a "darkly engrossing novel" (Washington Post Book World), she examines what happens when the richly interwoven relationships of parents and their children are challenged by circumstances outside the family.

The Falls is a love story gone wrong and righted, and it alone places Joyce Carol Oates definitively in the company of the great American novelists.

作者 About the Author
Joyce Carol Oates 為美國書卷獎小說部(the National Book Award)得主, 並獲PEN/Malamud Award 最佳短篇小說獎. Oates的作品可列入當代經典, 其中包括暢銷之作 We Were the Mulvaneys 和 Blonde(此書並獲美國書卷獎提名). She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. In 2003 she received the Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature and the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement.  more...

作家郭強生先生筆下的Joyce Carol Oates

* Recommended by John Waters in the Night Table Reading Column
"This novel, a family saga like no other, is as strong as Them. Maybe Ms. Oates should become even more prolific."
* Vanity Fair: March, 2005
* FOREIGN SALES TO DATE:
-
UK rights sold: Fourth Estate
- Finnish rights sold: Otava
- French rights sold: Editions Philipp Rey
- German rights sold: Fisher
- Greek rights sold: Metaihmio
- Hebrew rights sold: Hakkibutz
- Italian rights sold: Mondadori
- Latvian rights sold: Zvaigzne ABC
-
Norwegian rights sold: Pax
-
Polish rights sold: Rebis
-
Spanish rights sold: Lumen
-
Swedish rights sold: Bonniers
-
Turkish rights sold: Alfa Basim Yayin

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簡繁體版權
皆售

類別:非小說 基因科學

THE GENIUS FACTORY
(藍燈書屋預定今年六月出版)
天才工廠:諾貝爾獎得主精子銀行大搜密
(暫譯)

- by David Plotz

精裝 288頁 一般開本

曾經是美國史上最激進的人工受精計劃在八零年代後的二十年中吸引了多少不孕美國婦女期求能得到諾貝爾獎得主捐贈的精子一舉得子如人中龍鳳
二十年後 這座這個精子銀行在創辦人於1999 年過世之後悄然關閉所有的機密資料和當初受精生下的嬰兒為數有兩百多人 以及他們的捐贈人從此不為人知

塵封多年後專欄作家 David Plotz於2001年初開始接觸到這個神秘的計劃並一步一步的解開這個精子銀行之謎...

Summary
It was the most radical human-breeding experiment in American history, and no one knew how it turned out. The Repository for Germinal Choice–nicknamed the Nobel Prize sperm bank–opened to notorious fanfare in 1980, and for two decades, women flocked to it from all over the country to choose a sperm donor from its roster of Nobel-laureate scientists, mathematical prodigies, successful businessmen, and star athletes. But the bank quietly closed its doors in 1999–its founder dead, its confidential records sealed, and the fate of its children and donors unknown. In early 2001, award-winning columnist David Plotz set out to solve the mystery of the Nobel Prize sperm bank.

Plotz wrote an article for Slate inviting readers to contact him–confidentially–if they knew anything about the bank. The next morning, he received an email response, then another, and another–each person desperate to talk about something they had kept hidden for years. Now, in The Genius Factory, Plotz unfolds the full and astonishing story of the Nobel Prize sperm bank and its founder’s radical scheme to change our world.

Believing America was facing genetic catastrophe, Robert Graham, an eccentric millionaire, decided he could reverse the decline by artificially inseminating women with the sperm of geniuses. In February 1980, Graham opened the Repository for Germinal Choice and stocked it with the seed of gifted scientists, inventors, and thinkers. Over the next nineteen years, Graham’s “genius factory” produced more than two hundred children.

What happened to them? Were they the brilliant offspring that Graham expected? Did any of the “superman” fathers care about the unknown sons and daughters who bore their genes? What were the mothers like?

Crisscrossing the country and logging countless hours online, Plotz succeeded in tracking down previously unknown family members–teenage half-brothers who ended up following vastly different paths, mothers who had wondered for years about the identities of the donors they had selected on the basis of code names and brief character profiles, fathers who were proud or ashamed or simply curious about the children who had been created from their sperm samples.

The children of the “genius factory” are messengers from the future–a future that is bearing down on us fast. What will families be like when parents routinely “shop” for their kids’ genes? What will children be like when they’re programmed for greatness? In this stunning, eye-opening book, one of our finest young journalists previews America’s coming age of genetic expectations.

作者 About the Author
David Plotz 是網路雜誌 Slate 的副主編 在新聞界得獎無數 目前闔家定居美國首府華盛頓。

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國外書評...

簡繁體版權皆售

類別:科普

Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Bird Song
鳥為什麼會唱歌:一段探索鳥鳴的旅程

- by David Rothenberg

鳥鳴聲的豐富及其多樣性向來是一種美學與科學界的神秘。直到今天,生物學家仍然無法解釋鳥鳴聲為何如此悅耳而充滿張力,為什麼這麼多的鳥類花這麼多小時致力於唱歌。一般標準答案往往是和區域和性向有關,但是可不可能鳥鳴只是鳥兒想唱歌,以這個看似平常的答案出發點,本書作者將引領讀者進入世界各地的鳥鳴聲世界裡,展開一場美麗又充滿驚喜的自然巡禮,追溯音樂的起源...

Summary
本書承接了 Bernd Heinrich, Edward Abbey 以及 Terry Tempest Williams等人的學術研究傳統,探討鳥鳴聲的韻律和近代音樂之美及其形式的關係。本書作者透過與神經科學家,生態學家和作曲家的對話,來探討鳥兒為什麼可以唱出唱歌,以及鳥鳴聲對大自然的許多物種,特別是人類如何又產生了什麼樣的影響。無論是將鳥鳴聲和美國匹茲堡地區的單簧管音樂作比較,或純粹探討澳洲隆冬裡的鳥鳴聲,讀者將一路追溯到人類音樂的起源。

作者 About the Author
David Rothenberg 為紐澤西科技研究所的哲學教授。 His work has been profiled on NPR and the BBC, and he has written for The Nation, Sierra, and BBC Wildlife. A composer and jazz clarinetist, he lives in Cold Spring, New York.


* 本書義大利文版已授權
* Kirkus Reviews ; Loes Angeles Times, Publisher Weekly; WBS Library Journal Reviews: Please see the attached files.


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類別:生活趣味

THE NEW COMPLETE BOOK OF BRIDGE

新橋牌全書(448頁)
- by Albert Dormer with Ron Klinger

這是1996年初版的橋牌全書的全新改版內容包括所有叫牌及計法的完整說明,是最詳盡的橋牌參考書...

Summary
'Here in 448 pages are all the facts required to play bridge well in the English style. The print font is large and the paper of high quality. A total of 214 pages are devoted to bidding and 224 to play and defence. There is also a very useful index.' - Derek Rimington 'For anyone with aspirations to become a good player this book is a must. Indeed anyone who doesn't learn from it is either a champion or a liar. Do yourself a favour and buy a copy, but guard it well. Too many of your friends will want to borrow it and you will never get it back - tell them to buy their own copy.' - English Bridge

作者 About the Author
Albert Dormer 及 Ron Klinger 都是英國著名的橋牌老師及作者

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類別:漫畫

In the Shadow of No Towers
雙子星消失後的陰影

- by Art Spiegelman


作者與家人居住在紐約曼哈頓的下城區,親身經歷9/11攻擊事件時搜尋家人的恐慌,本書集結作者反布希政府的漫畫言論,部分內容曾連載於紐約客...


Summary
For Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were both highly personal and intensely political. In the Shadow of No Towers, his first new book of comics since the groundbreaking Maus, is a masterful and moving account of the events and aftermath of that tragic day.

Spiegelman and his family bore witness to the attacks in their lower Manhattan neighborhood: his teenage daughter had started school directly below the towers days earlier, and they had lived in the area for years. But the horrors they survived that morning were only the beginning for Spiegelman, as his anguish was quickly displaced by fury at the U.S. government, which shamelessly co-opted the events for its own preconceived agenda.

He responded in the way he knows best. In an oversized, two-page-spread format that echoes the scale of the earliest newspaper comics (which Spiegelman says brought him solace after the attacks), he relates his experience of the national tragedy in drawings and text that convey— with his singular artistry and his characteristic provocation, outrage, and wit—the unfathomable enormity of the event itself, the obvious and insidious effects it had on his life, and the extraordinary, often hidden changes that have been enacted in the name of post-9/11 national security and that have begun to undermine the very foundation of American democracy.

作者 About the Author
Art Spiegelman為獲頒普立茲獎的漫畫家,以Maus一書得獎。


* 本書已經陸續出版法國、義大利、荷蘭、西班牙、巴西、英國及美國等國版本。

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