JF Best Sellers of October 季風十月書榜
《我們為何質疑受害者：論可信度》
德博拉・陶克海默／北京聯合出版公司
從「完美受害者」迷思到權力如何塑造可信度，作者以檢察官視角梳理媒體與法庭中的質疑機制，解析為何不信任常先於同理。藉重案與日常案例，提出「可信度複合體」框架，指出制度與文化如何造成二次傷害，並思考更公正的回應路徑。
《許淵沖譯唐詩三百首》
（唐）李白等／許淵沖 譯／中譯出版社
翻譯大師許淵沖以「三美」原則，將唐詩的意象、聲律與格調化為可感的英語詩篇。經典篇章穿越語言邊界，保存節奏與神韻，既可作中英對讀，也為對外介紹中國詩歌之佳本，帶領讀者在雙語之間體會古典之美。
《康生年譜 另編（1898–1975）：一份極權下的人性標本》
王曉林 編／讀道社
以嚴密年譜體例重檢康生一生：不評述、不修飾，只據檔案、回憶與報刊逐日記錄。透過細節還原政治機器的運作與個人選擇的陰影，作為認識極權邏輯與人性變形的冷峻標本，亦為口徑分歧史料提供對讀參照。
《巫蠱：中國文化的歷史暗流》
鄧啟耀／廣西師範大學出版社
以人類學長程田野與跨學科材料，追索巫蠱從考古到當代的存續形態：信仰、恐懼、控制與集體迷亂如何交纏？書中並及近年的社會個案，呈現身體、情感與權力的互動，折射中國文化底層想像與秩序維繫的方式。
《大躍進大饑荒（上下）》
宋永毅、丁抒 主編／田園書屋
匯集首屆以大躍進／大饑荒為主題的國際研討會論文，從史料、人口、制度與地方治理多維度檢視這場和平年代的人禍。兼具史證與比較視野，為研究政策失誤與信息封鎖如何導致巨災的關鍵參考。
《現代中國的形成（1600–1949）（繁體增訂版）》
李懷印／三聯書店（香港）
以全球史與政經結構視角，重構明清以降至民國的國家形成進程。從疆域、財政軍事到政治認同，說明「既大且強」格局的歷史邏輯與路徑依賴，對理解今日中國的制度性持續與張力，提出深具說服力的解讀。
《中國在梁莊》
梁鴻／台海出版社
返鄉田野書寫四十年鄉村變遷：留守童年、養老與醫療缺口、資源流失與情感破碎。以素樸筆觸記錄普通人的日常困局與韌性，呈現轉型中國的疼痛地圖，也是對故鄉、他鄉與身分流離的深刻凝視。
《殘骸書》
陳列／印刻
穿行景美、綠島記憶地景，在遺址、氣味與光影之間撿拾被壓抑的個人與集體記憶。在凝視殘骸的過程中，書寫自由、尊嚴與寬恕的可能，為白色恐怖的再認識提供一條身體化、可感的敘述路徑。
《16至20世紀知識史中的流亡者與客居者》
（英）彼得・伯克／商務印書館
追索學者與藝文人士在流亡中如何生成新知：跨語言、跨制度的遷徙，催生知識網絡與學派變革。以宏闊史觀與生動案例，連結移民史與知識史，展現「離散」作為現代思想創新的動力。
《娼婦的書架：那些帶我走出黑暗的文字》
鈴木涼美／遠流
以自身閱讀生命對話性別與社會：在迷惘、創傷與自我追尋之際，書籍如何成為拯救之繩。從少女視角到成人反思，坦率而溫柔地呈現閱讀的力量與界線，邀請年輕讀者以文字強化自我、辨識世界。
Love Without Borders
Ni Wencai; ed. Vivian Ling / Earnshaw Books
Drawing on Chinese and Western vantage points, this book explores the international adoption wave that followed China’s one-child policy. A rare insider—civil servant and orphanage overseer—traces how abandoned infants (mostly girls) found homes abroad while media controversies mounted. Beyond policy and headlines, Ni highlights the enduring ties between adoptees, their American families, and birthplaces in China, and the friendships forged with local officials who tried to help. In a tense U.S.–China era, it restores a human-scale story: love, kinship, and belonging that cross borders.
Cheng Lei: The Extraordinary Memoir of Surviving China’s Secret Prisons
Cheng Lei / HarperCollins
TV anchor and veteran business journalist Cheng Lei was detained in 2020 and vanished from public view. Her memoir chronicles three brutal years in a Beijing prison: interrogations, isolation, and the small salvations of books, music, letters, and stubborn humor. With clear-eyed precision, she reveals how an ordinary workday turned into a blindfolded transfer, a show trial, and a coerced sentence—while loved ones and diplomats fought for her release. It’s a testament to maternal love, friendship, and the human spirit’s refusal to break.
Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines
Kenneth Roth / Knopf
Human Rights Watch’s longtime director reflects on thirty years confronting abusive governments—from Rwanda and the Balkans to Myanmar, Xinjiang, Ukraine, and beyond. Roth explains how meticulous investigations, public reporting, and strategic “naming and shaming” can pressure even the powerful, and why defending rights demands persistence, alliances, and moral clarity. Part memoir, part playbook, the book maps victories, failures, and unfinished fights—offering a candid anatomy of how advocacy gets results without losing sight of the people it serves.
City of Fiction
Yu Hua; trans. Todd Foley / Europa Editions
Set as an empire collapses and modern China emerges, Yu Hua’s epic follows a northern drifter carrying a newborn into a snowbound southern city—searching for the child’s mother and for a place that may not exist. Bandits, prophets, courtesans, and petty tyrants crowd the roads as fates cross and recross. A meditation on love, violence, and reinvention, the novel doubles as a tale about storytelling itself—its lies, consolations, and power to reshape a life.
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing
Hu Anyan; trans. Jack Hargreaves / Astra House
From warehouse graveyard shifts to the rush of last-mile delivery, Hu Anyan narrates China’s gig economy from the handlebars. Viral essays became this breakout memoir: sweltering nights, cheap rooms, numbing shifts—and the stubborn humor, reading, and writing that kept him going. With deadpan wit and documentary detail, Hu captures a generation’s precarity and pride, sketching a world where time is money, dignity is fought for, and each job is both trap and escape hatch.
How Democracies Die
Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt / Crown
Democracies rarely collapse by coup; they erode from within. Drawing on global cases, two Harvard scholars show how elected leaders chip away at guardrails—norms, courts, media—while partisans excuse each step. The book identifies warning signs, the enabling role of political parties, and the “exit ramps” societies can still take. Clear, accessible, and comparative, it’s a field guide to recognizing democratic backsliding—and to rebuilding the habits that keep pluralism alive.
Everyday Democracy
Anthony J. Spires / Columbia University Press
Can voluntary associations seed democratic culture inside an authoritarian system? Spires follows youth-led groups in China that practice equality, mutual respect, and dignity against the grain of hierarchical norms. Based on long-term fieldwork, he shows how habits of listening, deliberation, and shared responsibility can emerge “from below,” even when formal politics is closed. A fresh contribution to civil society studies and a hopeful map of how civic skills take root.
Norwegian Wood
Haruki Murakami; trans. Jay Rubin / Vintage
Murakami’s elegiac coming-of-age novel pairs 1960s Tokyo’s music and mood with a tender, haunted love story. Toru Watanabe loves Naoko, whose grief pulls her away, while the candid Midori draws him toward the living. Memory, desire, and loss braid through scenes of dorm rooms, sanatoria, and record shops—an intimate portrait of how youth ends and adulthood begins, scored to timeless songs.
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro / Vintage
At an idyllic English boarding school, children are told they are special. Years later, Kathy looks back on her bond with Ruth and Tommy and the secret that shaped their futures. Ishiguro’s modern classic unfolds like a quiet revelation—part love story, part dystopian fable—asking what makes a life “fully human” and how we remember those we love when the system defines their worth.
Why Fascists Fear Teachers
Randi Weingarten / Thesis
A defense of public education as democracy’s backbone. Weingarten traces how authoritarian movements target teachers, libraries, and curricula—because critical thinking undermines propaganda. Blending history with accounts from classrooms, she argues for safe, welcoming schools that teach debate, problem-solving, and civic courage, and warns against censorship posing as “reform.” A manifesto for families, educators, and citizens who see schools as the common good.