Simplicity is Beauty! --Teacher Ruth's Ed Tech Space

我喜歡這樣想你 by 胡慧玲 My rating: 5 of 5 stars 在享受作者流 View all my reviews

臺灣人物群像 by 葉榮鐘 My rating: 4 of 5 stars 今年真的有比較認真看台灣史系列的東西了！ 這幾天花了點時間看完這本，除了全書中實在有不少錯字，令人讀起來有點障礙感之外，可以稱得上是很有意思的書，書中所述，都是作者親身體驗的人及事，光是這點，我想就有相當的保存價值，更何況，他在那個時代可說是躬逢其盛，又身為林獻堂先生的秘書，再加以身在報業，所見所聞，應該在台灣也是數一數二的了。雖說他在寫這些文章時，也可能受限於當時的政治氛圍，是否在下筆時有所保留，這就有待再討論了。 是說我在看他的文章時，不免和之前看的"百年追求"那一套書做了比較，深深感到要當個歷史學家真是不容易啊！像這一類的回憶，訪談，不知道有多少要閱讀。不同的人，對同樣的人和事，就會有不太一樣的詮釋，研究者要去爬梳出這個脈絡，找出一個比較清楚的輪廓，並不是一件容易的事。 光是作者整理了林獻堂先生的年譜，就讓我投降了，那一部分我自動跳過⋯⋯XD 還是當個快樂的業餘歷史閱讀人就好！ View all my reviews

梅氏日記：荷蘭土地測量師看鄭成功 by 荷蘭人梅氏 My rating: 5 of 5 stars 剛看完這本有趣的書！其實只要看一半，因為這本書是一半中文，一半原文（荷蘭文），荷蘭文咱看不懂，所以很開心的就只看一半就算是看完啦！ 這是一個在鄭氏攻台，與荷蘭對峙時期，在荷蘭VOC（東印度公司）工作的測量師（梅氏），在離台後以日誌方式書寫的報告，內容當然就是以他的角度，記錄從普羅岷西城（現在的赤崁樓一帶）被圍攻至投降，以至於到最後荷蘭人和鄭氏海戰失敗，不得不議和並退出台灣的那大約九個月的經過。因為作者和鄭氏本人多有接觸，所以很多人都會把看這本書的重點放在鄭成功（國姓爺）身上，這當然是很有趣且很生動的第一手記錄，好比說，像是鄭成功向作者炫耀自己的騎射技術那部分，以及鄭成功身為領導人，在己方如此緊繃的情況之下，還要不斷的對荷方既威嚇又利誘，都描述得相當生動，還有鄭成功也會利用機會了解西洋事務，雖然一時之間無法相信（荷蘭的港口每天出發至世界各地的船隻不下千艘！？國姓爺要努力跟上時代喔！），但也令我不禁好奇：如果鄭氏沒那麼早死，他會不會對西洋事務的興趣會因為這次和洋人接觸的戰役而大增，甚至有所行動呢？ 不過身為將近四世紀後的現代人，還可以看到當時兩軍交戰的詭譎狀況。是戰？是和？還是既不戰又不和？因為雙方都沒有很大勝算。那⋯⋯要談判議和嗎？要在什麼樣的條件下才能進行？每讀到有人得去敵營當談判的人質，去到的又是個文化，語言皆陌生的環境，還真令人難以想像當時的狀況呢！ 話說，小時候在讀這部分的歷史時，好像總是會用兩個截然不同的視點去讀，一個是以中國史的角度，去看"民族英雄鄭成功"如何"收復台灣"（啊其實是中國（明朝）的官吏叫荷蘭人不要在中國海岸邊玩，要玩去台灣玩，顯示當時中國官方並沒有把台灣當做是他們版圖的一部分吧⋯⋯）；另一個則是大航海時代，西方發現新航路，到東方來做生意，把帝國主義以及殖民地的經濟剝削帶來，可是可是！在看這本書時，這兩件事就這麼自然的"合而為一"了！實在是太有意思了！讀到鄭成功在問作者有關VOC的胡椒貿易，這⋯⋯感覺就是國姓爺也超有興趣成為全球貿易的一環啊！哈哈⋯⋯原來全球化就是這麼簡單嗎？（嗚⋯⋯經濟學家不要打我⋯⋯） 這也讓我不禁想到，...

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip G. Zimbardo My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a journey to go through! The book, with its small typeface and rich content, is quite a challenge for me to finish in a few days. However, I am really happy that I read it! The author starts with a short introduction of evil and then moves on to his landmark study--the Stanford Prison Experiment. It was really a grueling experience for me to read what they college kids have gone through in the basement. At some moments, I really felt so disgusted and kind of suffocated. I was just incredulous that normal, well-behaved college kids could have turned into either shameless torturers or depressed and almost hysterical inmates. Wasn't it just an experiment? Obviously it wasn't. Another focus of this book is the prisoner abuses that happened in the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. I know a little more about Guatanamo than Abu Ghraib, but I just coul...

Oxford by Terry Deary My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was in Oxford in 2009, and of course I didn't know much about the city. I wonder what I would have felt if I had read this book before that trip. Well, I might have roamed the streets looking for all these horrible bits of the past... Anyway, this is again a great book from the Horrible Histories series. After reading this, I can make more connections between Oxford and the British history. It is no longer just a city of dreaming spires that a lot of tourists visit day in and day out because of the university and its quaint college buildings and castles, but also a backdrop for important historical events as well as some bloody (but attractive) details of the lives of the town folks. Really wish I had another chance to visit Oxford, with this book in my backpack! View all my reviews

In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria My rating: 3 of 5 stars A book I imagined to be thicker, but ended up less than 200 pages. Well, a defense can be long or short, I think. The author tries to provide reasons for why we need a liberal education, which, I think, is itself something really hard to define and hard to persuade people of whose immediate effects on life. That's why I think the defense is really not so structured, with layers of arguments. However, I think this really has a lot to do with "liberal education" itself, so I won't blame the author too much, yet I still look forward to a better argument for a lover of liberal arts like me. View all my reviews

The Horrible History of Britain and Ireland by Terry Deary My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's always an enjoyment to read one of the Horrible Histories! This one brings something that is quite novel to me, besides its humorous language and funny comics, and that is the histories concerning not only Britain but also Ireland. And of course, Scotland and Wales are also included in this book. I would really love to read more about the British and Irish histories beyond this series. Anyways, as an English teacher, it seems that I have to know more about the place where the language originates. View all my reviews