BOOKS

China in 40 years

The book, Transforming China: 40 Years, published by Beijing United Publishing Company, centers around the country's top economists' thoughts about China's reform and opening-up. Gao Shangquan, the author of Two Decades of Reform in China, The Second Revolution, and China's Economic Reform, together with 40 economists, summarize the past, explain the present and talk about the future.

The contents cover the economy, agriculture, the political system and reform. It talks about how reform and opening-up created wealth, promoted new ideas and concepts and changed China's social structure. The book also focuses on the country's problems and difficulties.

We see, we paint

It's said that the reason that impressionists were able to go outside and capture the shifting light and shadow was down to the introduction of new portable paints. In the book, Bright Earth: The Invention of Color, published by Yilin Press, British science writer Philip Ball offers another way of exploring Western art history, from the angle of paints and color. And indeed, the process of creating new paints has occasionally pushed the boundaries of science even further.

Ball holds a degree in chemistry from Oxford and a doctorate in physics from Bristol University, and he is a regular contributor to Nature magazine. In the Chinese version of his book, he talks of the similar endeavors in China. For instance, there were the colors of Chinese blue and Chinese purple, with the latter only becoming available in the West in the 19th century.

In hot pursuit

A Life for a Life, published by the People's Literature Publishing House, tells the story of how a young policeman's life changed after two suspects broke out of detention 30 years ago. He continues to pursue the two suspects and everyone involved finds their lives changing. The Shawshank Redemptionlike story is intertwined with scenes from China's transforming society over the past few decades. For its unexpected twists and turns, the novel won its author Shi Yifeng, who was born in 1979, many awards.

Easy tips

Anne Rooney is a British author living in Cambridge, who earned a doctorate degree from Cambridge University. In her book, The 15-Minute Psychologist, published by Renmin University Press, she introduces concepts of social and general psychology to readers in plain, simple and fun language, offering easy-to-follow tips about making choices, waking up early in the morning and finding happiness in even the smallest of decisions, like buying lottery tickets.