【推荐3】Stay in style: Europe’s 4 best new design hotels

Casa Cook Samos, Greece

The laid-back island of Samos, birthplace of Pythagoras and, in legend, of the goddess Hera, is the heavenly location for the fourth hotel from Casa Cook. Its low-cost, high-style pads in Greece and Egypt are perfect for the Insta generation. It’s relaxed here, with a yoga salon, a wellness centre, six swimming pools and terraces dotted with earthy-toned daybeds — all set among wild olive trees, agave, pines and palms, echoing the verdant landscapes of this hilly Aegean island.

Doubles from €148 a night, casacook.com

MOB House, Paris, France

This hotel has come up with a new formula — “3-in-1” rooms, incorporating bed, office and meeting room. But even those not “workationing” will find this a fun stay, especially when the organic beerhouse, gym, large garden and 20-metre outdoor pool are taken into account. Trendsetting rooms, painted in sandy and mossy colours, are typical of the team behind the hotel, which includes designer Philippe Starck and Cyril Aouizerate.

Doubles from €200 B&B, mobhouse.com

Hôtel de Cambis, Avignon, France

With an extremely well-stocked wine bar and an “artistic concept based on wine and the French art of living”, the freshly uncorked Hôtel de Cambis is one for wine lovers. It may have the exterior of a grande dame, but inside, the rooms — categorized as millésime, premier cru or grand cru.

Doubles from €130 B&B, hoteldecambis.com

The Baro, southern Finland

Black timber cabins with picture windows are raised on stilts in a pine forest overlooking the sea at this pared-back retreat in the Inkoo region. Guests can explore several large islands, offering beaches, galleries and smart cafes, or just hang out in the black wooden sauna on the beach, go mushroom picking or borrow kayaks.

Doubles from €238 B&B, one under-four can share the room for free, extra beds €50, thebarofiland.com

【推荐1】Sherlock Holmes once asked Dr Watson about “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time”. When Watson pointed out that the dog did nothing in the night-time, Holmes responded, “That was the curious incident”. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon introduces another detective obsessed with discovering the truth. Christopher is a fifteen year old autistic savant who has trouble understanding other people but knows every prime number (质数) up to 7,057.

The story begins when Christopher discovers a crime scene across the street: a dog named Wellington lies dead. When the dog’s owner found him there, he was suspected and put to jail. After being got out by his father; he pledges to solve the mystery of its death.

As Christopher investigates the killing, he is directly confronted with a deeper mystery: other human beings. Like most people with autism, Christopher has trouble reading single facial expressions. People are confusing to him. By contrast, he likes dogs because he can always tell what they are thinking. They have only four moods, happy, sad, cross and concentrating. And they don’t lie since they can’t talk.

Haddon deepens the theme of mystery by exploring the complexities of human language, For example, Christopher never lies. A lie means saying something happened that didn’t happen and Christopher cannot see the point of it. For him, the only things worth speaking about are facts and mathematics. Christopher also doesn’t understand jokes and metaphors, such as “apple of my eye”. He writes, “When I try and make a picture of the phrase in my head, it just confuses me because imagining an apple in someone’s eye doesn’t have anything to do with liking someone a lot.

Christopher’s quest for truth leads him inevitably to discover even deeper mysteries. Two years before the beginning of the story, Christopher’s mother died of a sudden heart attack. At that time, Mrs. Shears, the neighbor woman who owned Wellington became a family friend who helped him deal with their grief. Her friendship with them ended on the night that Wellington was killed. But the question is whether the friendship ended because of the dog’s death or the dog died because the friendship ended. As Christopher investigates, he strips away years’ words of lies and discovers the truth.

At the beginning of the book, Christopher writes, “This is a murder mystery novel”, but it is much more than that Haddon uses the theme of mystery to show how deeply mysterious human expressions, language and relationships are to a person with autism. At first, the book seems to show the limits of being autistic, but in the end, it shows the limits of being normal. Christopher himself describes it best in the final sentence of the book: “And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? ...and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.”

【推荐3】Albert Einstein’s reading list

“Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes

“Don Quixote” is chosen as part of reading in high school Spanish classes worldwide. In this novel, a man named Don Quixote decides that being an old-timey knight (骑士) would be great. Everyone thinks he’s crazy since he’s a few hundred years too late for the old system.

He ends up going on various stupid explorations and finally mistakes a windmill (风车) for a strong man and fights it to death (his death, not the windmill’s).

“A System of Logic” by John Stuart Mill

This 17th-century English philosopher supported the idea that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. In his book, he argued for total female equality. In response, British journalist Ernest Belfort Bax wrote “The Legal Subjection of Men”, in which he argued that men were actually weaker than women.

“The Grammar of Science” by Karl Pearson

Karl Pearson, a 19th-century English mathematician, thought imagination was very important.

“All great scientists have, in a certain sense, been great artists; the man with no imagination may collect facts, but he cannot make great discoveries,” Pearson said.

Among other things, Pearson imagined that someone who time traveled faster than the speed of light would go backwards in time.

If any of this sounds familiar, it might be because these ideas showed up in Einstein’s world-changing theories.

“Ethics” by Baruch Spinoza

Spinoza thought that the universe (宇宙) was made of one material, so there was no mind-body separation. These ideas may have influenced Einstein a good deal. “Be not surprised at new ideas,” wrote Spinoza, “for it is well known to you that a thing is no longer true because it is not accepted by many.”

【推荐1】It’s common for people to have the idea, believing that happiness will come after reaching certain goals. This can include things like getting a promotion, finding a romantic partner, or reaching a certain level of life success. While these achievements can certainly bring some happiness, this way of thinking can lead to an endless cycle of waiting for the next thing to bring happiness.

The truth is that happiness should not be dependent on material achievements but rather a choice we make in each moment. By linking happiness with outside factors, we often lose sight of the present moment and miss the joy that can be found in everyday experiences. It’s important to realize that happiness is not something that can be achieved in the future, but rather a state of mind that we can keep at present. By being present, we can appreciate the simple pleasures in life, like the warmth of the sun on our skin, the laughter of loved ones, or the taste of a delicious meal.

Life is indeed filled with challenges, which are an important part of our journey towards personal growth. They often push us out of our comfort zones and force us to think creatively and find new solutions, providing us with opportunities to learn, get valuable experience and discover our inner strength. By embracing these opportunities to learn, we can grow and become better equipped to handle future challenges instead of always waiting for the perfect moment or for all our problems to be solved before allowing ourselves to be happy. When we understand that challenges are not difficulties to our happiness but rather opportunities for growth and learning, we can appreciate the present moment and find happiness regardless of the situations.

Rather than waiting for future events to bring happiness, it’s better to accept the present and find joy and contentment in the journey itself. Let’s grasp the opportunity and embrace the joy that is within our reach. Time waits for no one, so why wait to be happy?