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William Brangham: And, finally, a project we are very excited about here at the NewsHour. It's a collaboration with The New York Times- a new book club for the new year. Jeffrey Brown tells us more.

Jeffrey Brown: It's my pleasure to announce a new book club we're calling Now Read This. Every month, we will feature a new book, fiction, history, memoir, and much more, and we will invite you to read along to join us throughout the month for features about the book and its author, and to send in questions you have for the author for an interview I will conduct at the end of the month. We're very excited about it. And this is also special and unusual for us, because Now Read This is a partnership between the NewsHour and The New York Times. And with me now is Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review. And joining us is my colleague at the NewsHour Elizabeth Flock to tell you more about the book club's many features. Pamela, first of all, it's a pleasure to do this with you. Share with the audience how we thought about picking books and all.

Pamela Paul: Well, I think what's unique about this book club is that it is two news organizations working together, and that the books that we're choosing are not only chosen on the merit of the book themselves, but also really selected because these are books that matter now. These are books that touch upon our times, the issues that are important right now, and books we think will really engage readers and viewers in a discussion.

Jeffrey Brown: Question I'm always asked by people is, how do you pick your art stories, how do you pick your books? And there is always a little bit of, I know it when I see it, and serendipity of the moment. But the kind of — the urgency that has to be on a news program, that's something important, and that's what we talked about when we thought about this.

Pamela Paul: Yes. I mean, at The New York Times Book Review, our criteria is a little bit different, in that it really does come down to the book itself. But I think what's interesting here is that this is a book club selection. And there are certain kinds of books that work especially well for book clubs and that make — in this case make sense for a book club that is driven by the news.

Jeffrey Brown: So, Liz, tell people how — what they will find, and where they will find it, and what kind of features we will have.

Elizabeth Flock: Sure. So, the best way to join the book club is through our Facebook group Now Read This. We want everyone to sort of be able to join together there as they read and discuss the book in real time with members of our staff and fellow readers and send in their questions even for the author. And, also, we will be posting so much there from discussion questions to help guide them as they read the book, to writer's advice from the author, to sort of an inside look at how the book was written.

Jeffrey Brown: All the tools you need, whether you're already in a book club or if you want to start your own and follow us.

Elizabeth Flock: We really hope that book clubs around the country sort of read along as we do.

Jeffrey Brown: OK. So that cues our first choice, right, which is Jesmyn Ward, her novel "Sing, Unburied, Sing," one of the most acclaimed novels of recent years. Pamela, why did we pick this one? What interested you?

Pamela Paul: Well, it's the book itself, which is a book that deals with race. It deals with violence. It deals with the legacy of Hurricane Katrina. And then it's also about the author, about Jesmyn Ward, who has really become a kind of literary force. She was the National Book Award for this book. It was her second National Book Award. Her second novel, "Salvage the Bones," won the award in 2011. She is the first woman to win twice for fiction of the National Book Award. And in addition to that, she edited an anthology that came out last year, writers writing essays on race, called "The Fire This Time." And she wrote a memoir called "Men We Reaped," which was about the death of her brother and four other black men from Mississippi. So much of her work is really grounded in her community in Mississippi. Jesmyn is the first person in her family to attend college. She went on to go to Stanford. And she writes about the community that she came from. One of the things I found most moving was at the National Book Award ceremony this year, when she accepted her award, she said that she had been very discouraged at first by publishers who said that they didn't think that readers would be interested in reading about the kinds of people she wanted to write about. And, obviously, it turns out that she was wrong, happily, on that point, because readers have, in fact, been taking…

Jeffrey Brown: Yes, and for this particular book, I'm cheating in this case, because I got to read it months ago for a visit to that small town in Mississippi. In fact, I want to show a little clip from the interview that we aired. NewsHour viewers will have seen it a few months ago. This is Jesmyn Ward talking a little bit about, in this book, turning to writing about the supernatural, which was new for her, and how it made her think about writing a little differently. Let's take a look at that.

Jesmyn Ward: Most of my fiction is pretty realistic, right? And so here I was, you know, introducing the supernatural, introducing, like, the magical into my fiction, and it's a different kind of writing, right? It's the kind of writing where you have to invent an entire world. It has to be believable.

Jeffrey Brown: Tell us, Liz, about, so will happen? What will people find with Jesmyn?

Elizabeth Flock: So, Jesmyn is going to give us some of the writer's advice that she has received over time. But, also, our staff is reading "Sing, Unburied, Sing" as you all do. And one of the settings of "Sing, Unburied, Sing" is Parchman prison. It's the oldest prison in Mississippi. It long operated like a plantation. It was really institutionalized racism for many years. And someone on our staff is doing a deep dive into Parchman Prison, past and present.

Jeffrey Brown: And then, at the end of the month I will interview Jesmyn with the questions that all you people out there will send into us and readers from The New York Times. And at that point, we will also announce the next book, which we three have been talking about and have an idea about. And we're going to invite people to send suggestions in for what we should turn to over the coming months. We hope this will build and build, we will have readers galore. And for now, Liz Flock, Pamela Paul, and all of you, please, join us for our new book club. Thanks.

重点解析

1.feature a new book 带来/刻画/介绍一本新书

This film featured Cary Grant as a professor.

这部电影由卡尔·布兰特饰演一位教授。

2.read along 通读

Listento the text and read along.

听这篇课文，读一读。

3.be grounded in 基于

This plan, however, needsto be grounded in reality.

然而，这项规划需要以现实为基础。

4.over time 日积月累

Over time,theprotein in the eggshell breaks down into its constituentamino acids.

时间久了，蛋壳中的蛋白质就会分解为其构成成分氨基酸。

5.build and build 不断打造

Developersare now proposingto build a hotel on the site.

开发商现在建议在这个地方盖一座宾馆。

参考译文

威廉·布拉纳姆：最后，我向大家介绍一个很有意思的NewsHour新栏目。值此新年之际，NewsHour与纽约时报强强联合，一个新的读书俱乐部就此诞生。请听杰弗里·布朗为我们带来更多详细内容。

杰弗里·布朗：在此我荣幸宣布，NewsHour栏目组新增读书俱乐部栏目，名叫Now Read This。在这个栏目中，每月我们都将为您带来一本新书，或小说，或历史，或回忆录等等。我们将邀请您和我们一起，细细品读，探寻书和作者，
我们还将收集您对此书及作者的相关问题，并在月底邀约作者进行访谈。我们对此饱含热情。Now Read This是NewsHour与纽约时报的联办栏目，因此于我们而言也有着特殊含义，非比寻常。坐在我身边的是《纽约时报书评》栏目的编辑帕梅拉·保罗，还有我的同事伊丽莎白·弗洛克，现在让她们为您讲述，更多关于读书俱乐部Now Read This的故事。首先，帕梅拉，今天很高兴邀请你来参与节目。请你和观众们谈谈，在挑选图书等方面我们都有哪些考虑。

帕梅拉·保罗：嗯，我认为这个读书俱乐部的独特之处在于，它由两个新闻机构共同组建，我们所选择的书也不仅仅取决于其图书本身的价值。之所以选这些书是因为此时此刻它们的确很重要。这些书触及我们的时代，书中讨论的问题也在当下至关重要，阅读这些书后，读者们真正愿意参与到讨论中来。

杰弗里·布朗：人们总是问我，你是怎么挑选艺术方面图书的，如果是你自己阅读，你又是怎么选书的？这就要看彼时彼刻的缘分了，看到了就懂了。但是，在新闻节目中，重要的是那种紧迫感，想到什么说什么。

帕梅拉·保罗：对。我的意思是说，在《纽约时报书评》栏目中，我们的选书标准稍有不同，因为它的的确确就取决于书本身。但我认为咱们这里是一个读书甄选俱乐部，这也正是它有意思的地方。对于读书俱乐部而言，有些书类尤为合适，而且在这种情况下，对于一个新闻线上读书俱乐部来说，颇有意义。

杰弗里·布朗：那么，丽兹，请你告诉大家，他们将在这里获得怎样的发现，又在哪里发现，我们的栏目有什么样的特点。

伊丽莎白·弗洛克：好的。参与本书友会的最佳方式是在Facebook group 里的跟踪Now Read This栏目动态。我们希望人人都能参与其中，在那里广大读者与我们栏目组一起，对书进行实时的阅读与讨论，还能向作者提问。而且，我们也会在上面大量发帖，从问题讨论到阅读指南，从作者提出的阅读建议，到对本书写作的内在诠释，一应俱全。

杰弗里·布朗：无论你是已经加入哪个读书俱乐部，还是你想跟随我们，开启自己的读书之旅，在这里所有你需要的（助力）工具，（我们应有尽有。）

伊丽莎白·弗洛克：我们真心希望，全国各地的读书俱乐部都能像我们一样进行阅读。

杰弗里·布朗：好的，来看看我们的开栏之选，对，它就是杰思名·沃尔德近年来广受欢迎的一本小说《歌唱吧,未葬者,歌唱吧》。帕梅拉，你挑选此书的初衷在哪？书中哪块吸引你？

帕梅拉·保罗：嗯，是书本身吸引了我，书中探讨了种族与暴力，以及飓风卡特里娜给人类留下的创伤。吸引我的还有作者杰思名·沃尔德本人，他真的已经成为了一种文学的力量。她凭借此书斩获了"美国国家图书奖"。这是她第二次获此奖项。她的第二部小说《拾骨》荣获2011年度"美国国家图书奖"。她也是首位两次获得该奖项的女作家。除此之外，她还编辑一册选集，已于去年出版，作者还撰有一篇关于种族的文章，名叫《The Fire This Time》。她聆写有一本回忆录，名为《Men We Reaped》，书中记述了她哥哥及四名密西西比黑人的死亡。作品中大部分内容以密西西比州她所居住的社区为依托进行创作。杰思名·沃尔德是家里第一个大学生，后又去了斯坦福大学继续学业。创作蓝本均出自她的当时居住的社区。有一件事，最为打动我，那就是在今年"美国国家图书奖"的颁奖典礼上，杰思名·沃尔德受奖时说，起初她感到非常沮丧，因为出版商们都说，读者们对她作品中描绘的人物根本毫无兴趣。值得高兴的是，很显然，在这一点上，她错了，因为事实上，读者（对她的作品）始终表示认同…

杰弗里·布朗：是的，这本特别的书，实际上几个月前我去密西西比州那个小镇时，就已经拜读过了，这点上我小小地作弊了一下。但事实上，我想向大家展示一些采访中的片段。这些在之前NewsHour的节目中已有播过。这是杰思名·沃尔德谈到本书中描写超自然力的一点内容，她认为这些内容与之前作品稍有不同。这对她来说是全新的（挑战）。让我们来看一看。

杰思名·沃尔德：我的大部分小说都很写实，对吧？所以我在这里，你知道，引入超自然力，引入魔法进入我的小说，写作风格完全不同了，对吧？在这样的作品里，整个世界都由你来创造。但你创造的还必须得可信。

杰弗里·布朗：来，丽兹，告诉我们，这会怎样？跟随杰思名的笔尖，读者会有怎样的发现？

伊丽莎白·弗洛克：杰思名将向我们讲述一些她曾收到过的写作建议。但是，同时，我们栏目组工作人员也在阅读《歌唱吧,未葬者,歌唱吧》。书中有一个场景发生在密西西比州最古老的监狱Parchman。它的运作方式就像是种植园，多年来这里形成了真正意义上制度化的种族主义。我们栏目组的工作人员深入Parchman监狱，为您探访Parchman监狱的前世今生。

杰弗里·布朗：随后本月底，我将带着你们所有人和纽约时报读者们提出的问题，约访杰思名。届时，我们也将宣布经我们三人讨论并决定的次月书目。欢迎您对我们的栏目提出宝贵建议，我们将在未来几个月加以改进。我们希望以此不断打造，迎来更多读者。现在，伊丽莎白·弗洛克，帕梅拉·保罗，还有电视机前的所有观众，请大家加入我们的新书俱乐部吧。谢谢。

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