Four Best Books of 2023

The Berry Pickers

by Amanda Peters

After their youngest daughter, Ruthie, disappears during a summer of berry-picking in Maine, a Micmac family from Nova Scotia struggles to move forward. Indigenous Voices Award winner Amanda Peters delivers an un-put-down-able novel of identity, forgiveness, and insistent hope.

The House of Doors

by Tan Twan Eng

This atmospheric novel, set in 1920s Malaysia, tells of a famous author bent on uncovering secrets for storytelling materials. Tan Twan Eng weaves love, duty, betrayal and colonialism into the narrative.

The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789

by Robert Darnton

This interesting history of the decades leading up to the French Revolution offers a populist account of a crazy political moment. Darnton goes beyond what everyday people thought and said to attract readers to what anxious Parisians read, wore, ate and sang on the way to toppling (推翻) the rule of Louis XVI.

The Soul of Civility

by Alexandra Hudson

What can the world’s oldest book teach us about civility (礼貌) today? Alexandra Hudson’s thoughtful and fluent book on how to live well together draws on literature from The Teachings of Ptahhotep, written 4,500 years ago in Egypt, to Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter From Birmingham Jail.

【小题1】What is the main theme of The Berry Pickers?

A．The life of a carefree girl.

B．The history of berry-picking in Maine.

C．The situation before the French Revolution.

D．The stories of identity, forgiveness and hope.

【小题2】What is the book The House of Doors set in?

A．A family in Maine.	B．Malaysia in the 1920s.
C．The French Revolution.	D．Egypt 4,500 years ago.

【小题3】Who wrote the book about how to live well together?

A．Alexandra Hudson.

B．Robert Darnton.

C．Tan Twan Eng.

D．Amanda Peters.