美国国家公共电台 NPR NPR's Book Concierge To The Rescue With Last-Minute Gift Ideas

NPR's Book Concierge¹ To The Rescue With Last-Minute Gift Ideas

ALLISON AUBREY, HOST: 

If you're looking for the last-minute gift for that book lover in your life, we have got a handy tool that can help. NPR's Book Concierge on npr.org has more than 300 recommendations from NPR staffers and freelancers². Books editor Petra Mayer joins us now in the studio to walk us through it.

Hi there, Petra.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE³: Hi, Allison. Thanks for having me.

AUBREY: Yeah, sure. So tell us - how does the Book Concierge work?

MAYER: It's very simple. Well, you can make it as complicated as you like, actually.

(LAUGHTER)

AUBREY: OK.

MAYER: It's a giant matrix of more than 300 books. And down the left side of the screen is a list of filters, and there are things like book club ideas, ladies first, science fiction and fantasy, funny stuff, short, long - you name it, we've thought of a filter for it. And those filters are stackable, so you can pick more than one. You know, you can click - I want a nonfiction book, and I want it to be kind of long because I need to while away the long winter nights. I picked those...

AUBREY: Got it.

MAYER: ...Tags at random⁴. But you can - that's how you can sort things.

AUBREY: I get it. So you can pick your filters. So let's say I want a book for a friend of mine who loves to cook. She also likes mystery novels, and she loves to travel. What do you got for me?

MAYER: So we have just the thing for you. It is called, "Yashim Cooks Istanbul." And it's...

AUBREY: "Yashim Cooks Istanbul"?

MAYER: Yeah. It's based on a series of mysteries set in 19th-century Istanbul about an inspector⁵, Yashim. And as he solves mysteries, he cooks. And so the guy who writes the series, you know, I guess he got lots of requests for the recipes because they sound so delicious. And so he ended up doing a cookbook of all the things. So you can cook right along with Yashim as he solves crimes. And they're, like, incredibly, delightfully⁶ evocative names like assassin's steak tartare, ladies thighs⁷ - which I had to look up because I was like, what's that? - it's a kind of lamb meatball, apparently⁸, that you deep-fry.

AUBREY: OK. I love it. So it's mystery stacked with food...

MAYER: Yeah.

AUBREY: ...Lots of intrigue⁹ there. I want to challenge you here for a moment.

MAYER: Yeah.

AUBREY: I'm looking for a nonfiction book. It's got to be short. And I want it to appeal to the other people in my book group. So if I toggle through and I check - you know, book group, nonfiction, short side - do you have anything?

MAYER: You will get a real treat. You will get "Alive, Alive Oh!" by Diana Athill. And she is a legendary¹⁰ British author and book editor. She was an editor for something like 50 years, and she worked with pretty much every big name of the 20th century, like everyone from Jack¹¹ Kerouac to Margaret Atwood. And she also has written a series of really interesting memoirs¹². I mean, she's had this crazy life and worked with all these famous people. It's a wonderful book club idea, actually, because Diana Athill connects to, sort of, six degrees of separation-style to so many other authors.

AUBREY: Sounds wonderful. Petra, what are you finding about how people are using this site? What do they search for the most?

MAYER: The most popular thing people tend to search for every year is staff picks, which is great for us this year because we have way more staff picks than ever. It's lots of fun because you get books that way that kind of aren't the big buzz books. You get the things that tweaked people's individual interests. And in a place like this, people's individual interests are really interesting.

(LAUGHTER)

AUBREY: I see that there's a category for books on the dark side. Wondering if there's anything that skews the opposite - a little more affirmative, uplifting.

MAYER: Huh...

(LAUGHTER)

MAYER: You know...

AUBREY: Please, tell me there's something.

MAYER: Well, there's plenty of affirmative and uplifting books in the Concierge. But we don't have a specific tag for it unfortunately.

AUBREY: People just don't search that way.

MAYER: No, no. But there's a lot of dark books, so we had to kind - we felt like we had to kind of set that aside on its own special tag.

AUBREY: OK. We'll leave it at that.

MAYER: Yep.

AUBREY: NPR's Petra Mayer and the NPR Books team put together our Book Concierge. You can check it out at npr.org/bestbooks.

Thanks, Petra.

MAYER: Thank you.

1 concierge   

n.管理员；门房

参考例句：

• This time the concierge was surprised to the point of bewilderment.这时候看门人惊奇到了困惑不解的地步。
• As I went into the dining-room the concierge brought me a police bulletin to fill out.我走进餐厅的时候，看门人拿来一张警察局发的表格要我填。

2 freelancers   

n.自由作家，自由记者( freelancer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A lot of proof-reading is put out to freelancers. 校对工作有很多是请外人做的。 来自辞典例句
• Its benefits plan for freelancers is highly competitive in the industry. 在本行业内它的福利方案是很有竞争力的。 来自互联网

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

5 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

6 delightfully   

大喜，欣然

参考例句：

• The room is delightfully appointed. 这房子的设备令人舒适愉快。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The evening is delightfully cool. 晚间凉爽宜人。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 thighs   

n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿

参考例句：

• He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

9 intrigue   

vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋

参考例句：

• Court officials will intrigue against the royal family.法院官员将密谋反对皇室。
• The royal palace was filled with intrigue.皇宫中充满了勾心斗角。

10 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

11 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

12 memoirs   

n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数)

参考例句：

• Her memoirs were ghostwritten. 她的回忆录是由别人代写的。
• I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs. 我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。 来自《简明英汉词典》