美国国家公共电台 NPR Fulfill Your Reading Resolutions With 6 Books From Librarian Nancy Pearl

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

I've got a stack of books here.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOOK PAGES FLIPPING¹)

INSKEEP: Stack of books sent to me by librarian Nancy Pearl, who's in Seattle, Wash., joins the program from time to time to suggest books that are under the radar², she says, books that we ought to know about and that we may well want to read in this new year. Hi, Nancy.

NANCY PEARL: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: So the one that I'm flipping here is called "Slow Horses" by Mick Herron.

PEARL: Yes, this is the start of a series. And unlike some series of thrillers⁴ or mysteries, it gets better, each book is better than the one before. So slow horses are disgraced MI5 agents.

INSKEEP: Oh, British intelligence agents, OK.

PEARL: British intelligence agents...

INSKEEP: All right.

PEARL: ...People who did something a little stupid but have too many connections to be fired, so they're all housed in the same house away from where the rest of the agency is.

INSKEEP: It begins with a sentence, (reading) this is how River Cartwright slipped off the fast track and joined the slow horses.

PEARL: Yes, yes. And what River Cartwright did is badly screw up a surveillance assignment. And he's convinced he was set up by his rival in the service in MI5, but now the slow horses have a new task. A kidnapping and a potential beheading has been announced in London, and it's up to the slow horses to try to figure out what's going on.

INSKEEP: Wow.

PEARL: I love the characters in this. And the guy who is the head of the slow horses is this man who is probably the most thoroughly⁵ disagreeable, not particularly nice person that many people will ever read about. And I did read an interview with Mick Herron where somebody asked him how he could put words like that in this guy's mouth...

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

PEARL: ...And he said he just thought of the worst thing that anybody could say in every situation and that's what River's boss says.

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

PEARL: And I - and it's just great fun.

INSKEEP: Let's talk about another author here who's got a connection to London, Kamila Shamsie, based in London, often writes about Pakistan. The book is called "Broken Verses."

PEARL: Yes, this is one of my all-time favorite novels. And it was published originally in 2005, but it's a truly under the radar book. I think more people need to read this remarkable⁶ Pakistani author. And this is a novel that really brings to life that phrase the political is personal and the personal is political. And it's the story of a 30-year-old Pakistani woman whose mother was a leader in the women's movement in Pakistan, the kind of burgeoning⁷ women's movement in the '70s and '80s. And her kind of stepfather, her mother's lover, was the great poet of Pakistan who angered the government with his poetry.

INSKEEP: An interesting period in Pakistan where they were heading toward military dictatorship.

PEARL: Yes, they were. And the government tortured and killed The Poet, as he was known. And two years after the Poet's death when Aasmaani - who was the young woman - when she was 16, her mother disappeared. And then Aasmaani receives a letter written in the code that only the Poet and her mother knew. And so that raises all of these questions, is the Poet alive? And it's a love story, it's about mothers and daughters. It's a tribute to Pakistan that might have been had things gone differently.

INSKEEP: And it's close to the headlines, even though it's fiction because this is one of many countries where people who write, who speak out are constantly in danger, are often in danger of being arrested or killed.

PEARL: Yes. And perhaps one of the saddest things about the book is that it could have been written this year.

INSKEEP: Let's move on to another book here. The author is Becky Masterman, and the title is "A Twist Of The Knife."

PEARL: Yeah. Becky Masterman is an author that I recently discovered. And what I love about these books, they're page turners, they're really thrilling novels. And the main character is a woman named Brigid Quinn, who is a former FBI agent, now retired⁸. Brigid is 60, I love that. When have we last seen the hero of a thriller³ age 60? But when Brigid was in the FBI, she was mostly assigned to cases where she had to go undercover, and all of her working life she has had to be somebody other than herself. And now she's retired and trying to figure out what it's like to be her, Brigid Quinn, and not somebody else. And then a case very similar to some of the cases that she worked on when she was in the FBI kind of falls into her lap, so the present and the past are coming together in this page-turning thriller.

INSKEEP: We're developing a theme here, I think, of violence and secrecy⁹ and fear.

PEARL: (Laughter).

INSKEEP: And now we have a novel by Duane Swierczynski called "Revolver," what's it about?

PEARL: Yes, this is the first novel I've read by this man. And as soon as I finished "Revolver," I went back and read three more of them by him. This is the story of three generations of a Philadelphia family, the Walczaks. And the book moves between three time periods - 1965, around 1995 and then 2015. In 1965, the grandfather in the family, Stan, is a Philadelphia policeman. His partner is one of the few black officers in Philadelphia, and both of them are gunned down as they're sitting in a bar talking. And Stan's son, Jimmy, becomes a policeman, and he's investigating the rape¹⁰ and murder of a young woman. And then Jimmy's daughter is studying forensics, and she's doing a class project on her grandfather's death. So we're moving between these three time periods. But really this illuminates¹² race relations in the '60s, particularly Philadelphia because that's where the book is set, but in the country at large.

INSKEEP: OK, so how does it illuminate¹¹ them in more recent times?

PEARL: Well, what you see in this book is the racism¹³ both overt¹⁴ and unspoken, even from Stan who grew up in a Polish family and is trying to come to terms with the fact that he doesn't have a white partner, he has an African-American partner. And when we're talking about racism, which we are doing a lot these days, I hope more has changed than it appears to me to have changed since the 1960s.

INSKEEP: Nancy, thanks very much as always.

PEARL: You're welcome, Steve.

INSKEEP: That's librarian Nancy Pearl.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS' "I CAME RUNNING")

INSKEEP: All Nancy's recommendations plus 300 other titles picked by NPR staff and critics are at npr.org

1 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

2 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

3 thriller   

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。

4 thrillers   

n.紧张刺激的故事( thriller的名词复数 )；戏剧；令人感到兴奋的事；（电影）惊悚片

参考例句：

• He has written seven thrillers, and clearly enjoys intellectual pursuits. 他已经写了7本惊悚小说，显然很喜欢这样的智力活动。 来自辞典例句
• Most Americans prefer to read fast-moving adventure stories that we call "thrillers". 大部分美国人喜欢看我们称之为"惊险小说"的情节多变的冒险故事。 来自辞典例句

5 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

6 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

7 burgeoning   

adj.迅速成长的，迅速发展的v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的现在分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝）

参考例句：

• Our company's business is burgeoning now. 我们公司的业务现在发展很迅速。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These efforts were insufficient to contain the burgeoning crisis. 这些努力不足以抑制迅速扩散的危机。 来自辞典例句

8 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

9 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

10 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

11 illuminate   

vt.照亮，照明；用灯光装饰；说明，阐释

参考例句：

• Dreams kindle a flame to illuminate our dark roads.梦想点燃火炬照亮我们黑暗的道路。
• They use games and drawings to illuminate their subject.他们用游戏和图画来阐明他们的主题。

12 illuminates   

v.使明亮( illuminate的第三人称单数 )；照亮；装饰；说明

参考例句：

• The light shines on from over there and illuminates the stage. 灯光从那边照进来，照亮了舞台。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sun illuminates the sky. 太阳照亮了天空。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

14 overt   

adj.公开的，明显的，公然的

参考例句：

• His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。