1. Harry Potter II (哈利波特 II)
By J.K. Rowling (Translated by Peng Chien-wen)
The long summer vacation has finally ended and Harry Potter can't wait to go back to magic school. But a string of strange and terrifying things begins to occur and Harry must find the culprit behind them.
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (哈利波特 -- 神秘的魔法)
By J.K. Rowling (Translated by Peng Chien-wen)
A series of mysterious letters lead 11-year-old Harry Potter into a kingdom of sorcerers, who send their mail by owl messengers and travel on brooms.
3. Platonic Sex (柏拉圖式性愛)
By Iijima Ai (飯島愛)
An autobiography by former Japanese "adult video" star Iijima Ai, who recounts the story of Ai's introduction to the porn industry.
4. La Rive Gauche d'Amour
(愛情左岸)
By Wu Ruo-chuan (吳若權)
As the title suggests, this book talks about history's most popular subject -- love. But despite its French title, the book is a Chinese original.
5. Say It To Your Heart
(把話說到心窩裡)
By Liu Yung (劉墉)
A meditation by the maestro of inspirational books -- this time about speech and the right ways to express oneself.
6. The Human Nature You Have To Know II (你不可不知道的人性)
By Liu Yung (劉墉)
The author reveals the dark side of human nature through stories of events that happened to people around him. The book also looks at human weakness from a constructive perspective.
7. Love Returns to the Beginning (愛回到最初)
By Kuang Yu (光禹)
A collection of 42 essays about love.
8. Soul Mountain (靈山)
By Gao Xingjian (高行健)
The best-known novel by Gao Xingjian, winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature, is a patchwork of travel notes, magical tales, philosophical musings, and eroticism.
9. Stray Bird (pocket edition)
(漂鳥)
By Rabindranath Tagore
Another Chinese rendering of Tagore's classic poetry collection.
10. Subway (地下鐵)
By Jimmy (幾米)
Another collection of cartoon sketches and romantic musings from Jimmy -- about pet cats, subway trips, and lost innocence.
11. Endless Love (藍色生死戀)
By Oh Soo-yeon (吳水娟)
(Translated by Tung Yao)
A Chinese translation of a Korean soap opera series which has taken Taiwan's airwaves by storm.
12. Yesterday's Memories, A Clear Day's Leisure
(昨日歷歷,晴天悠悠)
By Wu Tan-ju (吳淡如)
An autobiographical piece about how Wu came out of her labyrinth of suicidal desires -- described in the light of her younger brother's suicide at the age of 24. The book also explores the social problems reflected in Taiwan's rising suicide rates.
13. Ruse of the Empty City
(空城計)
By Cheng Wen-chin (鄭文金)
A history of China's legendary minister Chu Keliang (諸葛亮) and his famous strategies against his enemies.
14. The Works of Shakespeare
(莎士比亞全集)
By William Shakespeare
A selection of the works of the bard in Chinese translation.
15. The Very First Love
(給最初的愛)
By Guang Yu (光禹)
The joys and travails of love, told through two diaries.
16. Aesop's Fables (pocket edition) (伊索寓言)
Another Chinese rendering of the eternal Aesop.
17. Little Prince (pocket edition) (小王子)
By Antoine De Saint-Exupery
A pocket-sized book with both Chinese and English translations of the simple, yet philosophically rich story of a little prince.
18. Interpreter of Maladies
(醫生的翻譯員)
By Jhumpa Lahiri
(Translated by Wu Mei-chen)
This is a Chinese rendering of Lahiri's Pulitzer-Prize-winning collection of nine short stories, which capture the nuances of being Asian in America without an overload of sentimentality.
19. A Garden In My Heart
(我的心中每天開出一朵花)
By Jimmy (幾米)
Another addition to Jimmy's popular series of cartoon sketches and literary musings.
20. Irish Coffee (愛爾蘭咖啡)
By Tsai Chi-heng (蔡智恆)
Short- and medium-length works initially published on-line by 10 young authors from China and Taiwan.
Source: Kingstone Books (金石堂書店)
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
A sultry sea mist blankets New Taipei City as I pedal from Tamsui District (淡水) up the coast. This might not be ideal beach weather but it’s fine weather for riding –– the cloud cover sheltering arms and legs from the scourge of the subtropical sun. The dedicated bikeway that connects downtown Taipei with the west coast of New Taipei City ends just past Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) so I’m not the only cyclist jostling for space among the SUVs and scooters on National Highway No. 2. Many Lycra-clad enthusiasts are racing north on stealthy Giants and Meridas, rounding “the crown coast”
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern