FICTION
1. SAFE HARBOR
by Christine Feehan
Jove
A supermodel is attacked, and a sheriff who desires her vows to capture the assailant. Part five of the Drake Sisters series.
2. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
by Sara Gruen
Algonquin
A young man - and an elephant - save a Depression-era circus.
3. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared.
4. TWELVE SHARP
by Janet Evanovich
St Martin's
The bounty hunter Stephanie Plum must find a killer and a rescue a kidnapped child.
5. THE SECRET DIARIES OF MISS MIRANDA CHEEVER
by Julia Quinn
Avon
A woman who, as a young girl, fell for a count now hopes to claim him as her own.
6. THE ROAD
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
7. COUNTRY BRIDGES
by Debbie Macomber
Mira
Two novels in one book about women engaged to the wrong men.
8. MIDDLESEX
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Picador
The narrator - who, at 14, discovered she was a hermaphrodite - tells a story about three generations of Greek-Americans.
9. 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.
10. LISEY'S STORY
by Stephen King
A widow struggles with grief after the death of her husband, a famous novelist.
11. THE HUSBAND
by Dean Koontz
Bantam
A man whose wife has been kidnapped has 60 hours to come up with a huge ransom.
12. BEACH ROAD
by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge
Warner Vision
A lawyer defends a high school basketball star suspected of murder.
13. THE ALCHEMIST
by Paulo Coelho
HarperSanFrancisco
A Spanish shepherd boy travels to Egypt in search of treasure.
NONFICTION
1. EAT, PRAY, LOVE
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin Books
A writer's yearlong journey in search of self takes her to Italy, India and Indonesia.
2. THE GLASS CASTLE
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner
The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were constantly moved.
3. BLINK
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay
The author of The Tipping Point explores the importance of hunch and instinct to the workings of the mind.
4. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former mountain climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
5. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
Revell
A minister describes the otherworldly experience he had after a car accident.
6. 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.
7. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, also known as fads.
8. MAYFLOWER
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin Books
How America began, from the author of In the Heart of the Sea.
9. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
Vintage The author's attempt to come to terms with the death of her husband and the grave illness of their only daughter. 10. THE MEASURE OF A MAN by Sidney Poitier HarperSanFrancisco The movie actor's spiritual autobiography. 11. STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS by Daniel Gilbert Vintage A Harvard professor explores why people can't predict what will make them happy. 12. POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS by Augusten Burroughs Picador Autobiographical essays from the author of Running With Scissors. 13. MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS by Tracy Kidder Random House A portrait of Paul Farmer, an expert on infectious diseases who works with the Haitian poor.
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
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located