2025 Summer Reading List
Amidst the summer cicadas' song, do you long for a refreshing journey of the mind? Step beyond the fortress of formulas, escape the thicket of research papers, and embrace Wenzhou-Kean University Library’s carefully curated Summer Reading List—a literary invitation to "migrate your thoughts. "Structured along the themes of "Self – Family – History – Future," this collection guides you through four dimensions: from inner exploration to intimate relationships, from the depths of history to visions of tomorrow. This summer, slow down. Read deeply. Reflect. Encounter a wider world—and a fuller version of yourself.
Key to the Self
This collection guides you inward, deciphering the intricate code where reason and emotion intertwine—revealing the essence of self-motivation. More than insight, it’s a blueprint for action, breaking grand visions into tangible steps to bridge thought and practice. With this key, unlock boundless potential for growth, and embark on a life journey brimming with clarity and purpose.
《The Happiness Hypothesis》
BJ1481 H35 2023 CN
Do you often find yourself torn between rational plans and emotional impulses? Psychologist Jonathan Haitt reveals the essence of this inner conflict through the metaphor of the Elephant (instinct) and the Rider (reason). Blending Eastern and Western wisdom with empirical research, this book teaches you to tame anxiety, reconcile contradictions, and ultimately find happiness through self-acceptance.
《How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between》
HD69.P75 F59 2023
Based on a global database of 16,000 projects, this book unveils the "Think Slow, Act Fast" principle: By modularizing tasks, adapting cross-disciplinary models, and calibrating with external perspectives, it systematically prevents 99.5% of budget overruns—helping you transform academic visions into concrete results and finally bridge the gap between planning and execution.
Mirror of Bonds
Family forms the bedrock of our emotions and life's deepest connections. This collection reflects the light and shadows of kinship, narrating the love and growing pains woven into our personal evolution. It invites you to listen closely to the whispers of home, to feel the resonance of everyday yet extraordinary stories—helping you better understand and cherish the true meaning of family.
《딸에 대하여》
PL994.415.H89 K56 2022 CN
Through the monologue of an ordinary mother, Kim Hye-jin dissects the deep-seated fissures between generations amid seismic societal shifts. When her daughter embraces an unconventional life and love, the mother grapples with confusion, fear, and entrenched values. The novel sharply exposes how societal prejudice, workplace pressures, and elder care crises simultaneously marginalize two generations—while piercingly asking: Is love rooted in understanding or possessiveness? Traced through the mother’s awkward yet authentic emotional journey, this story mirrors the silent anguish of countless families: heartbreaking yet profoundly illuminating. More than a tale of maternal reconciliation, it’s a brave challenge to society’s narrow definition of "normal"—an unflinching ode to all who yearn to be truly seen.
《엄마를 부탁해》
PL992.73 K94 S56 2021 CN
In this poignant masterpiece by Korean author Shin Kyung-sook, a mother’s disappearance at Seoul Station sparks a frantic search—and a shocking realization among her children: They barely know the woman who raised them. Told through multiple perspectives, the narrative tenderly unveils the mother’s overlooked inner world and quiet resilience. Like a mirror held up to the family, it exposes neglected emotional corners while probing a piercing question: How well do we truly understand those who love us most? Heartbreaking yet redemptive, this novel reawakens gratitude for ordinary maternal love—and compels us to honor the silent sacrifices hidden in plain sight.
Book of Time
History unfolds like pages in a book, each chapter guarding secrets of the ages. Here, ruins transcend mere relics—becoming profound symbols of civilization and spirit; exiles and steadfastness reveal humanity’s unyielding courage. Through meticulous interpretation of historical sites and cultural codes, this collection immerses you in the weight of epochs and resilience of life, igniting deeper understanding of our past while illuminating paths forward.
《To the Finest School I Know》
DS712 Y36 2021 CN
Walk in Yang Xiao’s footsteps along the 1938 exodus—1,600 kilometers traversed by wartime scholars. Witness Wen Yiduo measuring war-torn landscapes barefoot; hear Shen Congwen debunking "utopian lies" by the Yuan River—where the spines of intellectuals never bent beneath chaos. When reality’s fog descends, these Sisyphus-like torchbearers declare: True perseverance is solitary valor—marching forward knowing the absurdity.
《A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in Chinese Art and Visual Culture》
N8237.8.R8 W84 2017 CN
Wu Hong's The Story of Ruins deciphers the spatiotemporal folding within China's visual culture of decay. Tracing the evolution from traditional avoidance of remnants to modern fixation on trauma, it reveals the Yuanmingyuan pillars' phoenix-like transformation: Colonial wounds from 1860 resurrected as symbols of revival in the 2022 Olympic cauldron—where stone veins collapse three historical epochs into one. Further evidenced by Longmen Grottoes rubbings, each impression acts as "temporal plaster cast," fusing Northern Wei chisel marks, Qing dynasty inscriptions, and digital scans on a battlefield of paper. When fissures become civilizational coordinates, ruins transcend absent scars to roar as the most deafening presence.
Path to the Future
The future is an uncharted odyssey—a journey without a script. This collection ignites your deepest curiosity and passion, revealing humanity's boundless potential and creativity. It emboldens you to embrace the unknown and courageously chart your own course into tomorrow.
《Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind》
CB113.H4 H37 2014 CN
This collection decodes civilization's evolution through three pivotal revolutions—Cognitive (fictional cognition, 70,000 BCE), Agricultural (societal restructuring via botanical domestication), and Scientific (technology explosion through epistemic humility)—revealing how monetary, imperial, and religious constructs became societal cornerstones while sounding critical alarms about anthropic agency in the algorithmic age, ultimately providing transdisciplinary frameworks for understanding civilization's conceptual architecture.
《HOW TO INVENT EVERYTHING：A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler》
QC173.59.S65 N67 2019 CN
This collection navigates technological history through hypothetical time-space scenarios, empirically dissecting pivotal innovations—from primitive antibiotic production (mold fermentation protocols) to mechanical computation (Babbage's Difference Engine principles)—revealing fundamental physical laws as civilizational pivots. Merging scholarly rigor with applied frameworks, it delivers a unique methodology for comprehending technological evolution's trajectory.
As you close this book, the scent of ink lingers on your fingertips. Through this journey, we’ve traced crystalline springs of self, gazed into mirrors of kinship, wandered corridors of history, and charted boundless horizons of tomorrow. When insights settle into quiet strength, this summer’s reading ceases to be an endpoint—Instead, it becomes a prelude: every heart turned toward light now steps forward carrying warmth and depth.
May these reading list hold you gently in self-understanding, and lend you courage to stride into the world with conviction.
Content & Layout | LIN Yujia & YE Yingtong
Review | GU Mengmeng & HU Linxiao & REN Yuanyuan
