季風讀者最喜歡的月度榜單 · 2026年4月
四月的季風榜單，像是一份從歷史現場延伸到當代政治的閱讀地圖。這個月，書店的活動與選書不斷回到幾個核心問題：戰爭如何留下記憶，威權如何塑造社會，個人又如何在巨大的制度陰影中保存聲音。
中文書單中，龍應台的《大江大海一九四九》中文簡體版首次面世，重新打開1949年的集體創傷；伊藤詩織的《裸泳》延續《黑箱日記》之後的生命書寫；Jeffrey Wasserstrom 的《奶茶聯盟》則把香港、泰國、緬甸等地的民主運動放在一條跨國連帶的線索中。從情報小說、女性處境、科舉帝制到數位威權，這份書單呈現的是一種對歷史、權力與個體命運的持續追問。
英文書單則與四月的多場活動形成呼應：Jonathan Cheng 的 Korean Messiah 帶我們理解北韓金氏王朝與宗教式個人崇拜的根源；Shiori Ito 的 Black Box 回到日本 #MeToo 運動的起點；Everyday Movement 與 Clear My Name 則把香港、台灣、烏克蘭等地的抗爭、身份與記憶交織在一起。四月的閱讀，不只是關於書，也是關於我們如何在世界劇烈變動時，重新理解自由、尊嚴與抵抗。
The April list reads like a map of memory, power, and resistance. Across our events and selections this month, one question returns again and again: how do individuals preserve voice and dignity under the pressure of history, war, and authoritarian systems?
From Lung Ying-tai’s account of 1949 to Shiori Ito’s writing after Black Box, from the Milk Tea Alliance to North Korea’s personality cult, from Taiwan and Hong Kong to Ukraine, this month’s books ask us to look closely at the structures that shape our lives — and at the fragile but persistent forms of courage that survive within them.
【中文書單 Top 10】
《大江大海一九四九》（簡體未刪節版）
龍應台／讀道社
《大江大海一九四九》並不是一本單純講述國共內戰的歷史書。龍應台真正試圖書寫的，是戰爭如何進入普通人的生命，並在幾十年後仍然留下一種無法癒合的沉默。她透過大量訪談、書信與家族記憶，把原本宏大的歷史重新拆解成一個個具體的人：撤退中的士兵、失散的戀人、被迫遷徙的知識分子、永遠等不到親人回家的母親。
這本書最令人震動之處，在於它拒絕用勝利或失敗去概括1949，而是讓讀者重新看見「人」如何被歷史洪流吞沒。那些在教科書中被簡化的年份，在龍應台筆下重新變成疼痛、流離與長久失語的生命經驗。2026年推出的簡體版，也讓這部作品在新的時代背景下再次成為關於記憶、和解與歷史責任的重要閱讀。
《裸泳》
伊藤詩織／中信出版社
在《黑箱日記》之後，伊藤詩織並沒有停留在「受害者敘事」之中。《裸泳》更像是一部關於重新活下去的書。她寫創傷之後的疲憊、網路世界的惡意、與家人的距離感，也寫旅行、友情、孤獨與身體重新感受到自由的瞬間。
這本散文集最動人的地方，在於它並不試圖把傷痛浪漫化。伊藤詩織反而非常坦率地承認：創傷不會真正結束，它只是慢慢變成生活的一部分。但也正因如此，《裸泳》最終呈現出的，不只是控訴與憤怒，而是一種極其脆弱卻真實的生命力。從《黑箱日記》的司法現場，到《裸泳》的日常片段，我們看到的是一位女性如何重新奪回對自己人生的敘述權。
《奶茶聯盟：亞洲民主運動如何互相幫助與組織抗中網路》
Jeffrey Wasserstrom／衛城出版
這本小書記錄的，不只是香港、泰國、緬甸等地青年運動彼此之間的聲援，更是一種跨越語言、國界與制度壓力的新世代政治想像。Jeffrey Wasserstrom 試圖追問：在亞洲各地截然不同的政治現實中，為什麼年輕抗爭者仍然能夠彼此辨認、彼此理解？
書中訪談了多位流亡者、學生運動參與者與民主倡議者，也重新梳理「奶茶聯盟」如何從一個網路迷因逐漸發展成跨國民主連帶的象徵。它既關於社群媒體，也關於恐懼、孤立與希望；既是對近年亞洲政治變化的現場記錄，也是一份屬於當代年輕世代的歷史檔案。
《天鵝旅館》
張悅然／上海三聯書店
《天鵝旅館》是張悅然全新的長篇小說。故事從一次看似普通、甚至帶有童話色彩的春遊展開，卻逐漸揭開其背後蓄謀已久的陰謀。小說將現實的殘忍與童話般的純真放在同一空間之中，使階層差異、女性處境、人心慾望與道德選擇在不動聲色中慢慢浮現。
張悅然以優雅而凌厲的筆觸，寫出私家保姆于玲與女主人秦文之間複雜的關係：依賴、羨慕、傷害、友誼與彼此救贖交織在一起。當生活原有的秩序突然崩塌，人物不得不在誘惑、信任與自我保存之間做出選擇。這不只是關於一場陰謀的小說，也是一部關於當代女性如何在幻象破裂後重新面對自身命運的作品。
《叛國者》
李志德／鏡文學
《叛國者》以九○年代兩岸重啟交流、香港回歸倒數、國共情報戰升溫的歷史背景為舞台。小說圍繞臺灣情報單位策反解放軍高階軍官的「玄武專案」展開，將國家安全、軍事情資、個人信念與政治背叛交織成一場高度緊張的情報棋局。
作品最吸引人的地方，在於它並不把「愛國」與「叛國」寫成簡單的道德二分。每個人物都被置於時代巨輪之中：有人相信中國終將民主化，有人追逐權力與利益，有人則在忠誠與求生之間逐漸失去選擇。李志德寫出的不只是間諜故事，更是一代人在兩岸歷史夾縫中無法脫身的命運感。
《中國模式的終點》
黃亞生／今周刊出版社
黃亞生在這本書裡提出一個極具穿透力的問題：為什麼中國式威權治理能夠持續如此之久？他的答案並不只是「共產黨」，而是一條更長的制度脈絡——從科舉帝制到當代數位監控，中國歷史上形成了一套高度依賴官僚體系與中央控制的治理邏輯。
本書最重要的地方，在於它不是單純討論「中國崛起」，而是試圖理解中國制度深層的延續性與宿命感。黃亞生認為，中國近代的經濟成長其實來自短暫的自由化與民間活力，而非威權本身；但每當政治重新收緊，制度便再次回到控制與穩定優先的循環。這不只是一本關於中國的書，也是一部關於權力如何塑造社會與思想的長時段歷史。
《別處的月光》
林雪虹／51人
《別處的月光》是馬來西亞作家林雪虹的第一部散文集，收錄她旅居中國多年期間寫下的五十一篇作品。這些文章既不是宏大敘事，也不急於給出結論，而是從日常生活的細部出發：城市的氣味、異鄉的天氣、語言之間的距離、人與人相遇時微妙的陌生與親近。
這本書的動人之處，在於它以溫柔的筆觸書寫「在別處生活」的經驗。異鄉並不只是地理上的移動，也是一種觀看自身與世界的方式。林雪虹在生活碎片中捕捉文化差異、身份感與時間流動，使讀者看見那些平常不被注意的微光。它是一部安靜的散文集，也是一份關於移動、觀察與內心安放的私人紀錄。
《斯大林：權力的悖論（1878-1928）》
斯蒂芬・科特金 Stephen Kotkin／香港中文大學出版社
斯蒂芬・科特金的《斯大林：權力的悖論》是一部氣魄宏大的歷史傳記。它並不只是描述斯大林如何從邊緣人物走向權力中心，更把他的生命放回二十世紀初俄國革命、帝國崩解、戰爭與意識形態激變的巨大背景之中。科特金運用大量解密檔案與史料，重建斯大林前半生及其所處的歷史世界。
這本書的重點，不只是「斯大林是什麼樣的人」，而是權力如何在革命、組織、信仰與暴力之間逐步成形。斯大林既是時代的產物，也是改變時代的人。他的崛起讓我們看見，極權政治並非憑空出現，而是在制度、人格、偶然與歷史機遇交錯中被塑造出來。對於理解二十世紀、蘇聯史與現代政治暴力，這是一部難以繞過的作品。
《台灣使用指南》
施益堅 Stephan Thome／玉山社
《台灣使用指南》表面上是一本文明而親切的導覽書，但它真正關心的，遠不只是景點、美食與風土人情。德國作家施益堅長期居住台灣，他以外來者也是參與者的視角，書寫台灣的歷史、民主轉型、政治處境與身份認同，讓「指南」成為理解台灣社會的入門之書。
這本書特別有意思的地方，在於它回應了許多台灣讀者常有的疑問：外國人如何看台灣？世界是否真正理解台灣？施益堅沒有把台灣浪漫化，而是在日常觀察與歷史梳理之間，呈現這座島嶼如何在威權記憶、民主實踐與中國壓力之間形成今日的樣貌。它既適合外國讀者認識台灣，也讓台灣讀者重新觀看自己的家鄉。
《豈不懷歸：三和青年調查》
田丰、林凯玄／海豚出版社
《豈不懷歸》是一部關於深圳三和青年群體的田野調查。書中記錄那些被稱為「三和大神」的年輕農民工：他們在城市邊緣打零工、睡街頭、沉迷網吧，以「做一天、玩三天」的方式維持最低限度的生活。這個群體曾被媒體獵奇化、標籤化，但作者試圖回到現場，理解他們如何一步步從正常勞動秩序中滑落。
本書最重要的價值，在於它把「喪文化」背後的社會結構重新揭示出來。三和青年不是簡單的懶惰或失敗者，而是城市化、教育差距、勞動市場與家庭背景共同作用下的結果。他們「留城無望，回村無意」，處在現代化進程的裂縫之中。這是一部具有社會學深度與人道關懷的作品，也提醒我們，時代高速前進時，那些被拋下的人如何被看見。
【English Top 10】
Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult
Jonathan Cheng / Knopf
Jonathan Cheng offers a striking history of North Korea through the rise of the Kim dynasty and its unexpected ties to Christianity. Rather than treating North Korea’s personality cult as merely a product of communist propaganda, Cheng traces its deeper religious vocabulary and emotional structure, beginning with Pyongyang’s history as a major center of Protestant missionary activity.
The book moves from nineteenth-century American missionaries to the formation of Kimilsungism, showing how political power can absorb religious forms and transform them into a system of devotion, sacrifice, myth, and fear. By revisiting archival materials, family histories, and official North Korean narratives, Cheng reveals a country built on layers of fiction and belief. It is a landmark account not only of North Korea, but of how modern authoritarian regimes create sacred politics around leaders.
Black Box: The Memoir That Sparked Japan’s #MeToo Movement
Shiori Ito / The Feminist Press at CUNY
Shiori Ito’s Black Box is both a memoir and a document of social change. In recounting her struggle for justice after sexual assault, Ito exposes the institutional barriers, legal silences, and cultural humiliations faced by victims in Japan. The phrase “black box” becomes more than a description of one case; it names an entire system designed to make violence invisible and accountability nearly impossible.
Written with restraint, clarity, and quiet fury, the book follows Ito’s decision to speak publicly under her own name and to challenge a legal and media environment that often turns against survivors. It became a foundational text for Japan’s #MeToo movement and helped spark broader debate about sexual violence, gender inequality, and institutional reform. More than a personal testimony, Black Box is a record of how one woman’s refusal to disappear became part of a larger struggle for justice.
Chinese Folktales for Language Learners
Vivian Ling and Peng Wang / Tuttle Publishing
This bilingual collection introduces fifteen classic Chinese folk stories in both Chinese and English, making it especially useful for language learners, teachers, and readers interested in Chinese culture. The stories move across myth, morality, love, justice, family, and social order, offering a broad window into the values and imagination that have shaped Chinese storytelling across generations.
Each tale is presented with parallel texts, vocabulary support, cultural notes, discussion questions, and audio resources, allowing readers to approach the material both as literature and as language practice. From the origin of the Lunar New Year to legendary figures such as Judge Bao, the book shows how folktales preserve collective memory while still speaking to universal human concerns. It is accessible, educational, and especially suited for bilingual reading communities like JF Books.
Notes of a Crocodile
Qiu Miaojin / NYRB Classics
Qiu Miaojin’s Notes of a Crocodile is a cult classic of contemporary Chinese-language literature and queer writing. Set in late-1980s Taipei, shortly after the lifting of martial law, the novel follows a group of young queer misfits as they navigate desire, friendship, alienation, and the search for language in a society still constrained by convention.
The book’s form is as radical as its subject: diaries, fragments, satire, confessions, aphorisms, and surreal episodes are woven together into a narrative that feels intimate and unstable, both wounded and sharp. Through the narrator Lazi and her circle of friends, Qiu captures the emotional intensity of youth and the pain of living outside prescribed identities. Notes of a Crocodile is not only a coming-of-age novel, but a work of social defiance, self-invention, and literary brilliance.
Statism with Chinese Characteristics
Yasheng Huang / Cambridge University Press
In Statism with Chinese Characteristics, Yasheng Huang challenges one of the most common explanations of China’s rise: that strong state control and authoritarian governance were the primary engines of growth. Instead, Huang argues that the most dynamic periods of China’s development depended on rural entrepreneurship, private initiative, political openness, and gradual liberalization, especially in the early reform era.
The book is valuable because it revisits China’s economic history through detailed data and institutional analysis, while also connecting past reforms to present reversals. Huang shows how political tightening reshaped economic outcomes and how the return of statist thinking has constrained innovation and private enterprise. This is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the deeper relationship between politics and economics in China, and why the country’s earlier momentum has become increasingly difficult to sustain.
Hooked: A Novel of Obsession
Asako Yuzuki / Ecco
From the author of Butter, Hooked is a sharp psychological novel about loneliness, female friendship, and the hunger to be seen. The story follows Eriko, whose life appears orderly and successful from the outside, but whose inner world is marked by deep isolation and emotional hunger. Her fascination with Shoko, a lifestyle blogger who seems to embody warmth and domestic ease, gradually turns into fixation.
Asako Yuzuki writes with precision about the quiet pressures placed on modern women: to be competent, pleasing, self-contained, desirable, and emotionally regulated. The novel is not simply about obsession as pathology, but about the ordinary loneliness that makes obsession possible. Through Eriko and Shoko’s unstable connection, Hooked explores how admiration, envy, intimacy, and resentment can blur into one another, and how the desire to be understood may become destructive when it has nowhere else to go.
Everyday Movement
Gigi L. Leung / Riverhead Books
Set during Hong Kong’s protest movement, Everyday Movement follows young people trying to continue ordinary life while history presses in from every direction. The novel captures a city where tear gas, police violence, family dinners, office routines, friendships, romance, and exhaustion coexist. Political crisis is not presented as something separate from daily life; it enters the body, the home, the workplace, and the smallest gestures of care.
Gigi L. Leung’s novel is especially powerful because it resists turning protest into abstraction. Instead, it shows how democracy’s collapse is experienced through mood, memory, routine, and fractured relationships. The characters are not only activists or symbols; they are people trying to live, love, argue, rest, and keep going under conditions of fear. It is a deeply human novel about resistance, intimacy, and the everyday burden of political uncertainty.
The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith / PublicAffairs
The Dictator’s Handbook offers a blunt and influential framework for understanding political power: leaders do what keeps them in office. Rather than dividing governments into simple categories of good democracies and bad dictatorships, the authors focus on coalitions — the group of essential supporters a leader must satisfy in order to survive. The size and nature of that coalition, they argue, explains much of political behavior.
The book is provocative because it treats politics less as a contest of ideals than as a system of incentives. It explains why autocrats distribute wealth to small groups of loyalists, why corruption can be politically rational, and why democratic leaders must provide broader public goods. Clear, accessible, and often unsettling, it gives readers a useful lens for understanding authoritarian survival, institutional weakness, and the practical mechanics of power.
Red Star Over the Pacific, Third Edition
Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes / Naval Institute Press
This updated edition of Red Star Over the Pacific examines China’s growing maritime power and its challenge to U.S. strategy in Asia. The authors analyze how Chinese naval thinking draws from both Western sea-power theory and Chinese strategic traditions, and how these ideas have shaped Beijing’s ambitions, doctrine, and operational capabilities.
The third edition pays close attention to the missile threat, maritime strategy, emerging technologies, and the changing balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. It is not only a book about naval modernization, but about how China understands the sea as a field of political and strategic competition. For readers interested in U.S.-China relations, Taiwan, regional security, or military strategy, this is a concise but substantial guide to one of the central geopolitical questions of our time.
Clear My Name: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ukraine
C. J. Anderson-Wu / Serenity International
Clear My Name is a poetry collection that moves across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Ukraine, linking questions of identity, memory, war, and resistance. Through lyrical and sometimes experimental forms, C. J. Anderson-Wu writes about places marked by conflict and political pressure, but also by the insistence of ordinary people to speak, remember, and claim their names.
The title itself suggests a struggle against erasure. To “clear” one’s name is to reclaim truth from distortion, and to insist that personal and collective histories cannot simply be rewritten by power. These poems move between the intimate and the political, showing how belonging becomes fragile under the pressure of violence, occupation, and historical forgetting. It is a compact but resonant collection about voice, dignity, and the right to be remembered.