FICTION
1. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage International
A Colombian poet's love for a woman is tested.
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 under the Taliban.
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 THIRTEENTH TALE
by Diane Setterfield
Washington Square
A biographer struggles to discover the truth about an aging writer who has mythologized her past.
6. MIDDLESEX
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Picador
An epic story about three generations of Greek-Americans, told by a hermaphrodite.
7. WHAT IS THE WHAT
by Dave Eggers
Vintage
The fictionalized autobiography of one of Sudan's "Lost Boys," refugees from its civil war.
8. THE PARTING
by Beverly Lewis
Bethany House
A rift in an Amish community threatens to keep a courting couple apart.
9. SUITE FRANCAISE
by Irene Nemirovsky
Vintage
Two novellas, which came to light more than 50 years after the author died at Auschwitz, about life in France under the Nazis.
10. WORLD WAR Z
by Max Brooks
Three Rivers
An "oral history" of an imagined Zombie War that nearly destroys civilization.
11. THE ALCHEMIST
by Paulo Coelho
HarperSanFrancisco
A tale about the lessons a shepherd boy learns during his travels to Egypt in search of treasure.
12. 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.
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. INTO THE WILD
by Jon Krakauer
Anchor
How a young man's obsession with the wilderness had a tragic end.
3. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
Revell
A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.
4. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
5. THE GLASS CASTLE
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner
The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were constantly moved from one place to another.
6. CULTURE WARRIOR
by Bill O'Reilly
Broadway
The host of The O'Reilly Factor describes a culture war between traditionalists and secular progressives.
7. THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA
by Michael Pollan
Penguin
Tracking dinner from the soil to the plate, a journalist juggles appetite and conscience.
8. BLINK
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little Brown
The author of The Tipping Point explores the importance of instinct to the mind.
9. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas Friedman
Picador
An updated edition of the columnist's analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy.
10. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID
by Bill Bryson
Broadway
The author, who as a child in Iowa dreamed he was a superhero, uses this persona to bring to life 1950s Des Moines.
11. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
12. THUNDERSTRUCK
by Erik Larson
Three Rivers
Intertwined stories of early-20th-century murder and scientific intrigue.
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
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s