FICTION
1. THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER
by Kim Edwards
Penguin
A doctor’s decision to secretly send his newborn daughter, who has Down syndrome, to an institution haunts everyone involved.
2. MARY, MARY
by James Patterson
Warner Vision
Agent Alex Cross tracks a Holly-wood killer.
3. PREDATOR
by Patricia Cornwell
Berkley
Kay Scarpetta turns to a jailed psychopath for advice.
4. DREAM MAKERS
by Nora Roberts
Silhouette
Two previously published stories, Untamed and Less of a Stranger.
5. CAMEL CLUB
by David Baldacci
Warner Vision
A group of conspiracy theorists stumbles on a plot reaching to the highest levels of government.
6. MORRIGAN’S CROSS
by Nora Roberts
Jove
A sorcerer gathers five warriors to help him battle a vampire.
7. TOXIC BACHELORS
by Danielle Steel
Dell
On a Mediterranean vacation, three resolutely single friends meet three impressive women.
8. SWEET REVENGE
by Fern Michaels
Zebra
Members of the Sisterhood are on the trail of a woman who ruined the life of Isabelle, one of their own.
9. AT FIRST SIGHT
by Nicholas Sparks
Warner
The young couple from True Believer, who are now expecting a child, get a disturbing message.
10. EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE
by Judith McNaught
Ballantine
When the grandson of a Chicago philanthropist disappears, suspicion falls on the wrong man.
11. ORDINARY HEROES
by Scott Turow
Warner
A man reconstructs the story of his father’s service in World War II.
12. THE BLACK DAHLIA
by James Ellroy
Mysterious
A fictionalized account of a woman’s murder in Los Angeles in 1947.
13. 6 RAINIER DRIVE
by Debbie Macomber
Mira
A fire in Cedar Grove destroys Justine and Seth’s restaurant and threatens their marriage.
NONFICTION
1. RUNNING WITH SCISSORS
by Augusten Burroughs
Picador
In the 1970s, a young boy lives with a crazy psychiatrist in a squalid household.
2. THE GLASS CASTLE
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner
The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were constantly moved from one bleak place to another.
3. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
by James Bradley with Ron Powers
Bantam
The story of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima.
4. NIGHT
by Elie Wiesel
Hill & Wang
A new translation of an account of the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, first published in English in 1960.
5. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist’s study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
6. 1776
by David McCullough
Simon & Schuster
An account of America’s founding year, focusing on the inexperienced George Washington and the heroic citizen soldiers.
7. TEACHER MAN
by Frank McCourt
Scribner
The author of Angela’s Ashes remembers his years teaching high school English in New York City.
8. AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
by Al Gore
Rodale
The former US vice president sounds an alarm about global warming in this companion volume to the movie of the same title, which is on general release in Taiwan.
9. TEAM OF RIVALS
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Simon & Schuster
The political genius of Abraham Lincoln.
10. NEVER HAVE YOUR DOG STUFFED
by Alan Alda
Random House
A memoir by the television, movie and Broadway actor.
11. 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.
12. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
by Erik Larson
Vintage
The tale of an architect and a killer, linked by the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.
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
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