FICTION
1. T IS FOR TRESPASS
by Sue Grafton
Putnam
Kinsey Millhone must contend with a woman who has stolen a nurse’s identity in order to take advantage of Kinsy’s elderly neighbor.
2. THE DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR
by Dean Koontz
Bantam
A woman who rescues golden retrievers and one special dog she takes in are shadowed by an evil stranger.
3. FOR ONE MORE DAY
by Mitch Albom
Hyperion
A troubled man gets a last chance to reconnect and restore his relationship with his dead mother.
4. DOUBLE CROSS
by James Patterson
Little, Brown
Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, a police detective, confront a Washington killer who boasts of his killings on his own Web site, as well as an old adversary who has escaped from prison.
5. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.
6. 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.
7. STONE COLD
by David Baldacci
Grand Central
Members of Washington’s Camel Club are being murdered to prevent them from uncovering government secrets.
8. THE CHOICE
by Nicholas Sparks
Grand Central
How a North Carolina man’s choices play out in his life; from the author of At First Sight.
9. PLAYING FOR PIZZA
by John Grisham
Doubleday
An American third-string quarterback joins the Italian National Football League’s Parma Panthers.
10. HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS
by Jan Karon
Viking
The Mitford character Father Tim returns to his native town to reconnect with family and friends.
11. THE CHASE
by Clive Cussler
Putnam
In the early 20th century, a detective tracks a killer all over the West.
12. BOOK OF THE DEAD
by Patricia Cornwell
Putnam
The forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta opens a private practice in Charleston, South Carolina.
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. BORN STANDING UP
by Steve Martin
Scribner
Martin, now a writer and actor, recalls his years as a stand-up comedian, from the early 1960s to 1981.
4. AN INCONVENIENT BOOK
by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe
Threshold Editions
The conservative TV and talk-radio host offers his solutions to problems including global warming, and poverty.
5. CLAPTON
by Eric Clapton
Broadway Books
The great guitarist looks back on his life and his music.
6. RESCUING SPRITE
by Mark R. Levin
Pocket Books
A family's love for an older dog they adopted.
7. GOOD DOG. STAY
by Anna Quindlen
Random House
Life lessons from a black Lab.
8. 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.)
9. A FAMILY CHRISTMAS
edited by Caroline Kennedy
Hyperion
Poetry, prose and lyrics from a diverse group of authors.
10. THE AGE OF TURBULENCE
by Alan Greenspan
Penguin Press
A memoir by the longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
11. THE NINE
by Jeffrey Toobin
Doubleday
A portrait of the Supreme Court since the Reagan administration focuses on the influence of its moderates.
12. 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.
13. MUSICOPHILIA
by Oliver Sachs
Knopf
The neurologist and author of Awakenings examines the interaction between music and the brain.
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