FICTION
1. PREDATOR
by Patricia Cornwell
Putnam
On the trail of a possible serial killer. Dr. Kay Scarpetta turns to a jailed psychopath for
advice.
2. AT FIRST SIGHT
by Nicholas Sparks
Warner
The young couple from True Believer, who are now expecting a child, receive a disturbing message.
3. THE CAMEL CLUB
by David Baldacci
Warner
A group of eccentric conspiracy theorists stumbles across an actual plot reaching to the highest levels of government.
4. TOXIC BACHELORS
by Danielle Steel
Delacorte
On a Mediterranean vacation, three resolutely single friends meet three impressive women.
5. KNIFE OF DREAMS
by Robert Jordan
Tor/Tom Doherty
Book 11 of the "Wheel of Time" fantasy series.
6. THE LINCOLN LAWYER
by Michael Connelly
Little, Brown
A Los Angeles criminal defense attorney takes a case that proves more complicated and dangerous than he expected.
7. CONSENT TO KILL
by Vince Flynn
Atria
A spy is the target of an international conspiracy spawned by the father of a terrorist he killed.
8. SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
by Amy Tan
Putnam
The misadventures and misunderstandings of 12 American tourists in China and Burma.
9. SON OF A WITCH
by Gregory Maguire
ReganBooks/HarperCollins
Liir makes his way through the dangerous land of Oz; a sequel to Wicked.
10. A WEDDING IN DECEMBER
by Anita Shreve
Little, Brown
Seven former schoolmates
reunite for a wedding and
remember the tragedy that drove them apart.
11. GABRIEL'S ANGEL
by Nora Roberts
Silhouette
On a snowy night in Colorado, a man saves a stranded pregnant woman and joins her custody battle after falling in love.
12. BLUE SMOKE
by Nora Roberts
Putnam
An arson investigator whose family suffered a fire when she was a child is menaced by a
sociopath.
NONFICTION
1. THE TRUTH (WITH JOKES)
by Al Franken
Dutton
A comic attack on the Bush administration from the author of Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them).
2. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
by Joan Didion
Knopf
The author's attempts to come to terms with the death of her husband and the grave illness of their only daughter.
3. TEAM OF RIVALS
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Simon and Schuster
The political genius of Abraham Lincoln, revealed in his
relationship with his Cabinet, from the author of No Ordinary Time.
4. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas L. Friedman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
A columnist for the New York Times analyzes 21st-century economics and foreign policy and presents an overview of globalization trends.
5. DRIVEN FROM WITHIN
by Michael Jordan, edited by Mark Vancil
Atria
The basketball legend and businessman reflects on his career and the values that helped him succeed, through stories, drawings and
photographs.
6. THE CITY OF FALLING ANGELS
by John Berendt
Penguin
The author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
investigates a fire in Venice.
7. FREAKONOMICS
by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
Morrow
A maverick scholar applies
economic thinking to everything from sumo wrestlers who cheat to legalized abortion and the falling crime rate.
8. DEAN AND ME (A LOVE STORY)
by Jerry Lewis and James Kaplan
Doubleday
The funnier half of Martin and Lewis remembers his time with the man he calls "my partner."
9. MY FBI
by Louis Freeh with Howard Means
St. Martin's
The director of the FBI from 1993 to 2001 describes his career.
10. 1776
by David McCullough
Simon and Schuster
An account of America's founding year by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, focusing on the inexperienced George Washington and heroic citizen soldiers.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby