Below are four books of the 10 Best Books of 2019. Which one will you add to your booklist?
Exhalation(呼吸)
By Ted Chiang
Many of the nine deeply beautiful stories in this collection explore the material consequences of time travel. Reading them feels, like sitting at dinner with a friend who explains scientific theory to you without an ounce of condescension(傲慢).Each thoughtful, elegantly crafted story poses a philosophical question; Chiang organizes all nine into a conversation that comes full circle, after having travelled remarkab1e val1eys, deserts and plains.
Lost Children Archivef(档案)
By Valeria Luiselli
The Mexican author's third novel—her first to be written in English — unfolds against a backdrop of crisis: of children crossing borders, facing death, being confined, being deported unaccompanied by their guardians.
The novel centers on a couple and their two children, who are taking a road trip from New York City to the Mexican border; the couple's marriage is on the edge of collapse and the woman tries to help a Mexican immigrant find her daughters, who've gone missing in their attempt to cross the border behind her. The brilliance of Luiselli's writing stirs anger and pity. Acutely sensitive, Luiselli has delivered an experimental book, one that is as much about storytellers and storytelling as it is about lost children.
The Yellow House
By Sarah Broom
In her first extraordinary, fascinating appearance, Broom pushes past the baseline expectations of memoir to create an entertaining and inventive combination of literary forms. Part oral history, part urban history, part celebration of a bygone way of life, "The Yellow House" is a full accusation of the greed, discrimination, indifference and poor city planning that led her family's home to be wiped off the map. Tracing the history of a single home in New Orleans East, from the ‘ 60s to Hurricane Katrina, this is an instantly essential text, examining the past, present and possible future of the city of New Orleans, and a true reflection of America.
No Visible Bruises
By Rachel Louise Snyder
Snyder's thoroughly reported book covers what the World Health Organization has called "a global health problem of epidemic proportions." In America alone, more than half of all murdered women are killed by a current or former partner; domestic violence cuts across lines of class, religion and race. Snyder exposes myths (restraining orders are the answer, abusers never change)and writes movingly about the lives of people on both sides of the equation. She doesn't give easy answers but presents a wealth of information that is its own form of hope.
