FICTION
1. THE HUSBAND
by Dean Koontz
Bantam
A man whose wife is kidnapped has 60 hours to find a ransom.
2. BEACH ROAD
by James Patterson and
Peter de Jonge
Little, Brown
An East Hampton lawyer becomes involved in a highly publicized trial that pits locals against the rich.
3. AT RISK
by Patricia Cornwell
Putnam
A Massachusetts state investigator applies DNA and other forensic techniques to a cold murder case; written as a serial for the New York Times Magazine.
4. THE RAPTURE
by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins
Tyndale
The third prequel to the Left Behind series.
5. THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Warner
The final volume of a trilogy
involving Secret Agent Aloysius Pendergast of the FBI and his criminal brother.
6. THE SABOTEURS
by W.E.B. Griffin and William Butterworth IV
Putnam
Another volume of the Men at War series about OSS agents during World War II.
7. DEAD WATCH
by John Sandford
Putnam
A political operative investigates the murder of a former senator.
8. TERRORIST
by John Updike
Knopf
A New Jersey high school boy falls under the sway of an imam.
9. THE COLD MOON
by Jeffrey Deaver
Simon & Schuster
The forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme tracks a serial killer who calls himself the Watchmaker.
10. THE HARD WAY
by Lee Child
Delacorte
When his wife is kidnapped, a man who deals in illegal soldiers turns to the former military cop Jack Reacher.
11. KILLER DREAMS
by Iris Johansen
Bantam
A researcher battles the head of a pharmaceutical company who has perverted a technology she invented in order to turn people into zombies.
12. DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
St. Martin's
A reporter tries to expose a ring of vampires out to take over Seattle; a Dark-Hunter novel.
13. THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
by Alan Furst
Random House
In wartime Paris, Italian emigres plot against Mussolini.
NONFICTION
1. GODLESS
by Ann Coulter
Crown Forum
The columnist argues that liberalism is a religion with sacraments, a creation myth and clergy.
2. DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE
by Anderson Cooper
HarperCollins
The CNN correspondent describes a year of covering the tsunami in Sri Lanka, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina.
3. WISDOM OF OUR FATHERS
by Tim Russert
Random House
The host of Meet the Press presents readers' letters about their fathers in response to his book Big Russ and Me.
4. MARLEY & ME
by John Grogan
Morrow
A newspaper columnist and his wife learn some life lessons from their neurotic dog.
5. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas Friedman
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
A columnist for the New York Times analyzes 21st-century
economics and foreign policy.
6. MAYFLOWER
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Viking
How America began, from the author of In the Heart of the Sea.
7. MYTHS, LIES AND DOWNRIGHT STUPIDITY
by John Stossel
Hyperion
The 20/20 anchor questions
conventional wisdom.
8. FREAKONOMICS
by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
Morrow
A maverick scholar and a journalist apply economic theory to everything from cheating sumo wrestlers to the falling crime rate.
9. MY LIFE IN & OUT OF THE ROUGH
by John Daly with Glen Waggoner
HarperCollins
A memoir by the bad-boy golf champion.
10. ARMED MADHOUSE
by Greg Palast
Dutton
A collection of articles about the war on terror and the 2008 election by an investigative reporter.
11. DON'T MAKE A BLACK WOMAN TAKE OFF HER EARRINGS
by Tyler Perry
Riverhead
The man behind Diary of a Mad Black Woman muses on life.
12. BLINK
by Malcolm Gladwell
Little, Brown
The author of The Tipping Point explores the importance of hunch and instinct to the workings of the mind.
13. AMERICA: THE LAST BEST HOPE, VOL.I
by William Bennett
Nelson Current
A history from 1492 to 1914, by the former US secretary of education.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50