Here in Seattle, summer is a gift you earn by gutting¹ out nine months of rain and gloom. The skies are clear, there's hardly any humidity, and the nights are cool. Best of all, you sometimes get the chance to sit outside reading a great book.

在西雅图，夏季是自然馈赠的礼物。摆脱了9个月的阴雨连绵，天空一片晴朗，空气干燥而清爽，而夜间则很凉快。最棒的是，你常常可以坐在户外去读一本好书。

This summer, my recommended reading list has a good dose of books with science and math at their core. But there's no science or math to my selection process. The following five books are simply ones that I loved, made me think in new ways, and kept me up reading long past when I should have gone to sleep.

今年夏天，我的推荐书单中有很多是以科学和数学为核心的。不过，在选择过程中，我并没有用到任何科学或数学。推荐以下5本书只是因为我喜欢这些书，这些书给我带来了新的思维方式，让我在夜间捧卷时欲罢不能。

As a result, this is an eclectic list—from an 800-page science fiction novel by a local legend to a 200-page nonfiction book on how Japan can get its economic mojo back. I hope you find at least one book here that inspires you to go off the beaten path when you get some time to yourself this summer.

因此，这是个主题很宽泛的书单，其中既有来自西雅图知名作家的800页科幻小说，也有200页的非小说类图书——介绍日本经济如何奇迹般复苏。我希望，这个夏天在你有时间读书的时候，这里至少有一本书能带给你新的灵感。

1.Seveneves---by Neil Stephenson

1.《七大家族》--尼尔·斯蒂芬森著

I hadn't read any science fiction for a decade when a friend recommended this novel. I'm glad she did.

一位朋友向我推荐这本书的时候，我已有10年没有读过任何科幻小说。我很庆幸自己没有错过这本书。

The plot gets going in the first sentence, when the moon blows up. People figure out that in two years a cataclysmic meteor shower will wipe out all life on Earth, so the world unites on a plan to keep humanity going by launching as many spacecraft² as possible into orbit. You might lose patience with all the information you'll get about space flight—Stephenson, who lives in Seattle, has clearly done his research—but I loved the technical details. Seveneves inspired me to rekindle³ my sci-fi habit.

小说从第一句开始，就直奔故事情节，月球爆炸了。人们发现，一场灾难性的流星雨将在两年后横扫地球，摧毁一切生命。因此，全世界一起制定计划，将尽可能多的飞船发射至太空，确保人类的延续。关于航天飞行的细节信息，你可能会感到无趣。但生活在西雅图的史蒂芬森明显进行了研究，而我很喜欢其中的技术细节。《七大家族》重新唤起了我对科幻小说的兴趣。

2.How Not to be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking---by Jordan Ellenberg

2.《魔鬼数学：数学思维的力量》--乔丹·艾伦伯格著

Ellenberg, a mathematician⁴ and writer, explains how math plays into our daily lives without our even knowing it.

爱伦伯格是一名数学家和作家。他在本书中解释了数学如何在我们不知情的情况下影响日常生活。

Each chapter starts with a subject that seems fairly straightforward—electoral politics, say, or the Massachusetts lottery—and then uses it as a jumping-off point to talk about the math involved. In some places the math gets quite complicated, but he always wraps things up by making sure you're still with him. The book's larger point is that, as Ellenberg writes, "to do mathematics is to be, at once, touched by fire and bound by reason"—and that there are ways in which we're all doing math, all the time.

这本书的每一章都有非常直观的主题，例如选举策略，或是马萨诸塞州大乐透等，然后作者以此为出发点解释了其中的数学道理。在某些地方，数学原理变得很复杂，不过他的讲解方式能确保你跟上他的思路。正如爱伦伯格在书中写道，本书更主要是告诉大家，"数学就是让你被激情点燃的同时，又被理性包围"，而通过各种方式，我们实际上每时每刻都在接触数学。

3.The Vital Question---by Nick Lane

3.《至关重要的问题》--尼克·莱恩著

Nick is one of those original thinkers who makes you say: More people should know about this guy's work.

作为一名原创思想家，莱恩给人的感觉就是：应当让更多人知道这家伙的著作。

He is trying to right a scientific wrong by getting people to fully appreciate the role that energy plays in all living things. He argues that we can only understand how life began, and how living things got so complex, by understanding how energy works. It's not just theoretical; mitochondria (the power plants in our cells) could play a role in fighting cancer and malnutrition⁵. Even if the details of Nick's work turn out to be wrong, I suspect his focus on energy will be seen as an important contribution to our understanding of where we come from.

他试图让人们充分理解能量在所有生物中扮演的重要作用，以此来纠正科学上的误解。他认为，只有理解了能量的作用，我们才能理解生命的起源，以及生物为何如此复杂。这不仅仅只是理论，正如线粒体（人体细胞中的能量源）在对抗癌症和营养不良方面发挥着重要作用。即使莱恩作品的细节最终是错误的，我也认为，他对能量的关注将对了解我们来自何处做出重要贡献。

4.The Power to Compete--by Ryoichi Mikitani and Hiroshi Mikitani

4.《竞争的力量》--三木谷良一和三木谷浩史合著

I have a soft spot for Japan that dates back three decades or so, when I first traveled there for Microsoft.

30年前左右，我由于微软的工作而首次前往日本时，当时的日本令我感触良多。

Today, of course, Japan is intensely interesting to anyone who follows global economics. Why were its companies—the juggernauts of the 1980s—eclipsed by competitors in South Korea and China? And can they come back? Those questions are at the heart of this series of dialogues between Ryoichi, an economist⁶ who died in 2013, and his son Hiroshi, founder⁷ of the Internet company Rakuten. Although I don't agree with everything in Hiroshi's program, I think he has a number of good ideas. The Power to Compete is a smart look at the future of a fascinating country.

今天，对任何关注全球经济的人来说，日本都非常有趣。为何日本企业，那些80年代的巨头们，在与韩国和中国的竞争中逐渐落败？它们能否重振雄风？这些问题就是书中三木谷良一和他的儿子三木谷浩史一系列对话的核心。三木谷良一是一名经济学家，于2013年去世，而三木谷浩史则是互联网公司乐天的创始人。尽管我并不完全赞同三木谷浩史，但我认为他提出了许多好的想法。通过《竞争的力量》这个巧妙的窗口，你可以一窥日本这个奇妙国度的未来。

5.Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind---by Noah Yuval Harari

5.《智人：人类简史》--诺亚·尤瓦尔·哈拉里著

Both Melinda and I read this one, and it has sparked lots of great conversations at our dinner table.

梅琳达和我都读了这本书，它也引发了我们在餐桌上的许多很好的交流。

Harari takes on a daunting⁸ challenge: to tell the entire history of the human race in just 400 pages. He also writes about our species today and how artificial intelligence, genetic⁹ engineering, and other technologies will change us in the future. Although I found things to disagree with—especially Harari's claim that humans were better off before we started farming—I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who's interested in the history and future of our species.

哈拉里完成的是一项很有难度的挑战：用短短400页讲完人类的整个历史。他也讲到了人类的现状，以及人工智能、基因工程和其他将给我们的未来带来改变的技术。尽管有些东西我并不赞同--尤其是哈拉里认为人类在开始农耕之前情况更好，但我仍要向所有对人类历史和未来感兴趣的人推荐《人类简史》一书。