FICTION
1. STONE COLD
by David Baldacci
Grand Central
Members of Washington's Camel Club are being murdered to prevent them from uncovering government secrets.
2. CREATION IN DEATH
by J.D. Robb
Putnam
Lieutenant Eve Dallas pursues the Groom, a killer who disappeared nine years earlier but has now returned; by Nora Roberts, writing under a pseudonym.
3. THE CHASE
by Clive Cussler
Putnam
In the early 20th century, a detective tracks a killer all over the West.
4. PROTECT AND DEFEND
by Vince Flynn
Atria
An American counterterrorism operative has to avert catastrophe in nuclear Iran.
5. RHETT BUTLER'S PEOPLE
by Donald McCaig
St Martin's
An authorized sequel to Gone With the Wind updates the character of Rhett Butler for the modern reader.
6. BOOK OF THE DEAD
by Patricia Cornwell
Putnam
The forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta opens a private practice in Charleston, South Carolina.
7. HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS
by Jan Karon
Viking
The Mitford character Father Tim returns to his native town to reconnect with family and friends.
8. PLAYING FOR PIZZA
by John Grisham
Doubleday
An American third-string quarterback joins the Italian National Football League's Parma Panthers.
9. WORLD WITHOUT END
by Ken Follett
Dutton
Love and intrigue in Kingsbridge, the medieval English cathedral town at the center of Follett's Pillars of the Earth.
10. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.
11. THE CHOICE
by Nicholas Sparks
Grand Central
How the choices made by a North Carolina man play out in life.
12. AMAZING GRACE
by Danielle Steel
Delacorte
A San Francisco earthquake brings four strangers together.
NONFICTION
1. I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!)
by Stephen Colbert et al
Grand Central
The wit and wisdom of the mock pundit of Comedy Central's Colbert Report.
2. BOOM!
by Tom Brokaw
Random House
The retired news anchor recalls and assesses the 1960s.
3. RESCUING SPRITE
by Mark Levin
Pocket Books
A family's love for an older dog they adopted.
4. CLAPTON
by Eric Clapton
Broadway Books
The great guitarist looks back on his life and his music.
5. THE AGE OF TURBULENCE
by Alan Greenspan
Penguin Press
A memoir by the longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
6. SLASH
by Slash with Anthony Bozza
HarperEntertainment
The autobiography of the Guns 'N' Roses guitarist.
7. MY GRANDFATHER'S SON
by Clarence Thomas
Harper
A memoir from an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
8. AMERICAN CREATION
by Joseph Ellis
Knopf
Triumphs and tragedies of the slow-building American Revolution.
9. QUIET STRENGTH
by Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker
Tyndale
A memoir by the first black coach to win a Super Bowl. (He did it with the Indianapolis Colts in February 2007.)
10. LONE SURVIVOR
by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson
Little, Brown
The only survivor of a Navy SEAL operation in northern Afghanistan describes the battle.
11. MUSICOPHILIA
by Oliver Sachs
Knopf
The neurologist and author of Awakenings examines the interaction between music and the brain.
12. STEVE & ME
by Terri Irwin
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
The widow of Steve Irwin, host of Animal Planet's Crocodile Hunter, recalls their life together.
13. FAIR GAME
by Valerie Plame Wilson
Simon & Schuster
A former undercover CIA officer who was exposed by the Bush administration describes
her experience.
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