FICTION
1. THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH
by Ken Follet
New American Library
Murder, arson and lust surround the building of a 12th-century cathedral.
2. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage International
A Colombian poet's love for a woman is tested.
3. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
by Sara Gruen
Algonquin
A young man and an elephant save a Depression-era circus.
4. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared.
5. I AM LEGEND
by Richard Matheson
Tor/Tom Doherty
In this reissued horror novel, plague survivors, turned into vampires, seek to destroy the one man who appears immune to the disease.
6. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
Mayhem ensues in this reissued novel after a West Texas man stumbles upon US$2 million in drug money - and decides to keep it.
7. 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.
8. THE ROAD
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
9. HALO: CONTACT HARVEST
by Joseph Staten
Tom Doherty Associates
A squad of Marines and militia trainees is called to save a farming colony threatened by an aggressive alien empire.
10. 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.
11. THE THIRTEENTH TALE
by Diane Setterfield
Washington Square
A biographer struggles to discover the truth about an aging writer who has mythologized her past.
12. SUITE FRANCAISE
by Irene Nemirovsky
Vintage
Two novellas, which came to light more than 50 years after the author's death at Auschwitz.
NONFICTION
1. THE INNOCENT MAN
by John Grisham
Delta
Grisham's first nonfiction book concerns a man wrongly sentenced to death.
2. EAT, PRAY, LOVE
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin Books
A writer's yearlong journey in search of self takes her to Italy, India and Indonesia.
3. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
4. INTO THE WILD
by Jon Krakauer
Anchor
A man's obsession with the wilderness ends in tragedy.
5. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil
Murphey
Revell
A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.
6. THE GLASS CASTLE
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner
The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were moved constantly.
7. THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA
by Michael Pollan
Penguin
Tracking dinner from the soil to the plate, a journalist juggles appetite and conscience.
8. TOO LATE TO SAY GOODBYE
by Ann Rule
A tale of jealous rage emerges in the inquiry into the apparent suicide of a dentist's wife.
9. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
by Mitch Albom
Broadway
The author tells of his visits to his old college mentor, who is on his deathbed.
10. THE END OF AMERICA
by Naomi Wolf
Chelsea Green
A call for the public to act as "rebels and patriots" to preserve democracy and civil liberties.
11. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID
by Bill Bryson
Broadway
A memoir of growing up in 1950s Des Moines.
12. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas L. Friedman
Picador
An updated edition of the columnist's analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy.
13. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
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