【推荐1】Born in 1916, Ms. Cleary grew up and became a librarian. One day in the library, a boy leaned across the counter and asked her, “Where are the books about kids like us?” She realized there weren’t many books about ordinary kids. So she set out to write them.

Ms. Cleary’s first book, Henry Huggins, came out in 1950. It told the story of a boy and the dog that he takes in. Henry Huggins was an ordinary third-grader whose hair looked “like a scrubbing brush”. But the book, with its funny, lovable characters, was a hit. Soon Ms. Cleary wrote more books about Henry Huggins and the other children in his neighborhood. One of those children became an even bigger star than Henry Huggins. Ramona Quimby, also known as “Ramona the Pest”, became Ms. Cleary’s best known character. Ramona is curious and stubborn, and is always getting into trouble.

Ms. Cleary worked hard to get kids addicted to reading. When her son didn’t show much interest in books, she wrote The Mouse and the Motorcycle. The book tells the exciting story of a motorcycle-riding mouse and his friendship with a young boy. The book was a hit, and led to two more books starring Ralph S. Mouse.

But that sort of fantasy was unusual for Ms. Cleary, who usually focused on real life, even when it involved serious problems. In several of the Ramona books, the parents have money trouble or are unhappy with their jobs. Dear Mr. Henshaw tells the story of a boy dealing with his parents’ divorce. Ms. Cleary deals with these situations with a gentle humor and a deep understanding.

Ms. Cleary kept writing until she was 83, creating over 40 books in all. She won almost every award for children’s books, including the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award.

More than 91 million copies of her books have been sold, and her stories have been translated into nearly 30 different languages.

【推荐2】Since its birth, the dollar has undergone many updates and changes, but nothing compares to the change being debated today: to adopt a digital dollar, which is one of the central bank digital currencies(CBDC)that can be stored in apps or “digital wallet” on our smartphones.

It’s a cashless future that other countries are already embracing. China, for example, has already adopted its digital cash, E-CNY, in many cities on a trial basis. India this week said it would do the same soon. Now the US is weighing whether it should accept a digital dollar with such enthusiasm.

Why do we need a digital dollar when we have such cashless payments such as Alipay and Apple Pay?

Reducing fees is one clear benefit. When we make a payment on our smartphones today, it may seem immediate, but a lot happens behind the scenes. The cashless payment systems, such as Alipay and Apple Pay, have to inform a whole series of banks, to confirm who we are and how much money is in our bank accounts, before any payment is actually made. At each step of the way, there are fees. In 2021, they added up to more than $110 billion, which was generally shouldered by businesses. With a digital dollar, we can avoid those middlemen in theory. If we want to buy a sandwich, for example, we can pay from a “digital wallet” directly to a cashier.

Another argument for creating a digital dollar is to help Americans who don’t have bank accounts. According to a survey, more than 5% of US families are “unbanked”. Providing them with a digital wallet would allow people to participate in our increasingly cashless financial system.

What are the challenges?

Without question, the biggest concern is privacy, because the central bank could collect a vast amount of data. That could be useful to regulators who want to fight against money laundering(洗钱), for example, but it would also raise serious privacy concerns.

Security is another important problem. To adopt a digital dollar, the US government would need to modernize the country’s financial systems to avoid online attacks.

“So I think it’s more important to do this right than to do it fast,” the central bank leader Powell told reporters. “It might take five to ten years to introduce a digital dollar in the US.”

【推荐1】Many people are taking to the skies this summer, planning fantastic vacations after two-plus years of being largely grounded (停飞) by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if you’re not yet ready to brave crowded airports and long lines, you can still visit some of the world’s great cities from your armchair, with Mark Vanhoenacker as your tour guide.

Vanhoenacker, an airline pilot, wrote in his book, Skyfaring, about the joys of rising above the earth at the controls of a plane. His new book, Imagine a City, moves from the journey to the destination—the far-distant places Vanhoenacker once dreamed about and now gets to see up close when the plane lands. The book also records the author’s own journey from a lonely kid in western Massachusetts to a confident global traveler based in London.

Along the way, he takes us bicycling through Brasilia and birdwatching in Kuwait. Like traveling by air itself, the tour is sometimes confusing. You go to bed reading about Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and wake up to find yourself in Delhi, India. But Vanhoenacker is a sure-handed navigator (领航员), filling in the gaps with history, poems and lots of local color.

While he might be short of the kind of a local’s knowledge that comes from spending a lifetime in a city, Vanhoenacker has the benefit of making short but frequent visits to lots of places, with a pocketful of foreign money and a backpack filled with curiosity.

“When I was young and struggling with my speech disorder, and with whatever else seemed large then, it felt almost lifesaving to be able to travel to my imaginary city, or to imagine myself in a real one that was far enough to feel safe,” he writes.

The new book was written in part during the pandemic, when so much air travel was grounded for the moment.