FICTION
1. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
by Sara Gruen
Algonquin,
A young man - and an elephant save a Depression-era circus.
2. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared under the Taliban.
3. AT FIRST SIGHT
by Nicholas Sparks
Warner
In this reprint, the young couple from True Believer, who are now expecting a child, receive a mysterious and disturbing message.
4. 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.
5. THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN
by Claire Messud
Vintage
Privileged 30-somethings try to make their way in literary New York just before Sept. 11.
6. THE ALCHEMIST
by Paulo Coelho
HarperSanFrancisco
A tale about the lessons a Spanish shepherd boy learns during his travels to Egypt in search of treasure.
7. DEAR JOHN
by Nicholas Sparks
Warner
An unlikely romance between a soldier and an idealistic young woman is tested in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
8. MIDDLESEX
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Picador
An epic story about three generations of Greek-Americans told by a hermaphrodite.
9. THE ROAD
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
10. SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN
by Lisa See
Random House
The lives of two women in 19th-century China.
11. SUITE FRANCAISE
by Irene Nemirovsky
Vintage
Two novellas, which came to light more than 50 years after the author's death at Auschwitz, about life in France under the Nazis.
12. DIGGING TO AMERICA
by Anne Tyler
Ballantine
Two families become involved with each other when both adopt baby girls from Korea.
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. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil
Murphey
Revell
A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.
3. 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.
4. THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA
by Michael Pollan
Penguin
Tracking dinner from the soil to the plate, a journalist juggles appetite and conscience.
5. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
6. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas L. Friedman
Picador
An updated edition of the New York Times columnist's analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy.
7. INTO THE WILD
by Jon Krakauer
Anchor
How a young man's obsession with the wilderness had a tragic end.
8. BLINK
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little Brown
The author of The Tipping Point explores the importance of instinct to the workings of the mind.
9. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
10. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
by Erik Larson
Vintage
The tale of an architect and a serial killer, linked by the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.
11. CHOSEN BY A HORSE
by Susan Richards
Harcourt
The author recounts rescuing a broken-down horse, which in turn helped rescue her.
12. THE LOOMING TOWER
by Lawrence Wright
Vintage
The road to Sept. 11 as seen through the lives of terrorist planners and the FBI counter-terrorism chief who died in the attacks.
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
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless