1. Rose of the Night
By Tsai Jih-heng (
A romance between an engineer from southern Taiwan who came to work in Taipei, and his young landlady. Tsai has had at least two books on China's bestseller lists in the past three years.
2. Drops of the Soul
By Wu Tan-ju (
Forty-eight inspirational essays about love, workplace relations and success.
3. Pourquoi
By Jimmy (
"Pourquoi" is French for "why." Popular author Jimmy focuses on the question "Why?" to create a book rich in illustrations, asking extremely simple questions which are nevertheless hard to answer.
4. Be Humorous to the Core
By Liu Yung (
The latest installment from the master of the inspirational essay, who now has more than 50 books to his credit.
5. My Genius Dreams
By Hou Wen-yung (
A doctor turned writer shares his struggles with his vocation, revealing how he dropped the stethoscope and picked up the pen.
6. Listen to the Goldfish Singing
By Hiyawu (
A new novel about "square love" (as opposed to "triangular love") relationships from the man who has been on the bestselling list as long as anyone can remember.
7. Love Poison
By Hiyawu et al (
A collection of love stories written by Internet writers.
8. Tippi of Africa
By Tippi Degre, photos by Sylvia Robert and Alain Degre
Translated by Huang Tien-yuan (
A French girl who lived in Namibia until she was 10 tells of her childhood friendship with animals. The book contains more than 100 extraordinary photos of Tippi with animals and local people.
9. Better to Have Loved Than Never
By Wu Ruo-chuan (
A reprint of Wu's collection of 24 short stories about love, first published in 1996.
10. The Vampire's Assistant
By Darren Shan
Translated by He Hsi (
In the second installment of the series that started with Cirque du Freak, the hero returns to the old-fashioned freak show where, thanks to Mr. Crespley, he became a "half-vampire." Darren once again struggles against the urge to feed upon the human blood his health requires.
11. New Education of Love II
By Tai Cheng-chih (
A collection of heart-warming stories about teacher-student interaction on campus. Tai, who has a PhD in speech communication from the University of Oregon, gives his comments on each story.
12. The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events 1)
By Lemony Snicket
Translated by Chou Szu-yun (
Misery and misadventure are in store when the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny, learn that their parents have perished in a fire at the family mansion. The author/narrator relates the sad saga with sympathy and enlightenment flecked with dashes of humor. Rated for ages nine and above on Amazon.com.
13. Sangdo Part I
By Choi Wan-kyu (
This is a TV soap adaptation of a popular Korean historical novel of the same title by writer Choi In-ho (崔仁浩). The novel, which sold more than three million copies in South Korea, depicts the rags-to-riches story of 19th Century businessman Im Sang-ok (林商沃).
14. Magician: Apprentice I
By Raymond Feist
Translated by Hsu Wen-ta (許文達)
The orphan Pug comes to the forest on the shore of the Kingdom of the Isles to study with the master magician Kulgan. Pug's strange sort of magic will one day change forever the fates of two worlds -- the forces of Order and Chaos.
15. Sangdo Part II
By Choi Wan-kyu (
This is a TV soap adaptation of a popular Korean historical novel of the same title by writer Choi In-ho
16. MVP Lover
By Chuan Neng Productions (
This is a literary rendering of a popular TV soap opera about love stories in a group of basketball-toting students.
17. Emperor Qianlong: Magnificence Revealed Part I
By Erh Yueh He (
This is the first of a 12-volume historical novel about the Qing-dynasty emperor.
18. Testament of Life and Death
By Annie Yi (
A collection of love letters by singer and movie star Annie Yi written to her husband, rocker Harlem Yu
19. Against the Wind, Through the Clouds
By Tienhsin Yungle (
Another collection of inspirational essays in mixed prose-poetry form.
20. Cirque du Freak
By Darren Shan
Translated by He Hsi (
The blood-curdling horror story by British author Darren Shan, which recounts a man's experience in a travelling freak show. Rated for ages 10 and above on Amazon.com.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s