FICTION
1. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.
2. THE QUICKIE
by James Patterson and
Michael Ledwidge
Little, Brown
A police officer's attempt to get back at her husband, whom she suspects of cheating on her, goes dangerously awry.
3. HIGH NOON
by Nora Roberts
Putnam
A hostage negotiator must face down her unknown stalker.
4. THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN
by James Lee Burke
Simon & Schuster
The Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux copes with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
5. LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN
by Janet Evanovich
St. Martin's
The New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum becomes a suspect when her ex-husband disappears.
6. UP CLOSE AND DANGEROUS
by Linda Howard
Ballantine
After a suspicious plane crash, a woman struggles to find a way out of the Idaho wilderness.
7. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
by Brad Thor
Atria
Scot Harvath, a Homeland Security superagent, is stalked by a terrorist mysteriously released from Guantanamo.
8. SOMEONE TO LOVE
by Jude Deveraux
Atria
A haunted house in England holds the key to a young woman's mysterious death.
9. THE JUDAS STRAIN
by James Rollins
Morrow
Sigma Force operatives trained in science search for the secret behind the re-emergence of an ancient, deadly plague.
10. BUNGALOW 2
by Danielle Steel
Delacorte
A writer must deal with the effects of Hollywood success on her family life.
11. THE BOURNE BETRAYAL
by Eric Van Lustbader
Warner
Continuing the story of Robert Ludlum's character Jason Bourne, who tangles with a group of diabolical Islamic terrorists.
12. PEONY IN LOVE
by Lisa See
Random House
Love, death, and ghosts in 17th-century China.
NONFICTION
1. QUIET STRENGTH
by Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker
Tyndale
A memoir by the first black coach to win a Super Bowl (he did it this year, with the Indianapolis Colts).
2. LONE SURVIVOR
by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson
Little, Brown
The only survivor of a Navy SEAL operation in northern Afghanistan describes the battle, his comrades and his courageous escape.
3. GOD IS NOT GREAT
by Christopher Hitchens
Twelve
Religion as a malignant force in the world.
4. THE DIANA CHRONICLES
by Tina Brown
Doubleday
The Princess of Wales' romance with the media.
5. A LONG WAY GONE
by Ishmael Beah
Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
A former child soldier from Sierra Leone describes his drug-crazed killing spree and his return to humanity.
6. THE ASSAULT ON REASON
by Al Gore
Penguin Press
How the Bush administration has degraded the political environment through secrecy, fear and the rejection of fact-based reasoning.
7. THE WORLD WITHOUT US
by Alan Weisman
Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's
Drawing on science, art, religion and other academic disciplines, Weisman imagines what Earth would be like if humans disappeared.
8. THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS
by Robert D. Novak
Crown Forum
Reflections on 50 years as a Washington journalist.
9. LEGACY OF ASHES
by Tim Weiner
Doubleday
A history of the CIA by a New York Times reporter, focusing on the agency's failures and delusions of grandeur.
10. EINSTEIN
by Walter Isaacson
Simon & Schuster
A biography based on newly released personal letters.
11. HAPPY ENDINGS
by Jim Norton
Simon Spotlight
Raunchy personal essays from the radio personality and stand-up comic.
12. OUTRAGE
by Dick Morris with Eileen McGann
HC/HarperCollins
An attack on illegal immigration, UN profiteers, lazy congressmen and high drug prices.
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
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