FICTION
1. CHANGE OF HEART
by Jodi Picoult
Atria
Questions about redemption and faith arise when a prisoner on death row begins performing miracles.
2. THE APPEAL
by John Grisham
Doubleday
In Grisham's first legal thriller since the Broker, intrigue ensues when a Mississippi court rules against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste.
3. REMEMBER ME?
by Sophie Kinsella
Dial
A woman wakes up in a London hospital after an auto accident with no memory of the previous life-changing three years.
4. 7TH HEAVEN
by James Patterson
and Maxine Paetro
Little, Brown
In San Francisco, Detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women's Murder Club hunt for an arsonist and a missing teenager.
5. HONOR THYSELF
by Danielle Steel
Delacorte
A 50-year-old actress injured in a terrorist attack in Paris must rebuild her life.
6. LUSH LIFE
by Richard Price
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
An aspiring writer becomes a suspect in a friend's murder on the Lower East Side.
7. A PRISONER OF BIRTH
by Jeffrey Archer
St Martin's
A poor Londoner, framed for murder by four Cambridge friends, escapes from prison and exacts revenge.
8. STRANGERS IN DEATH
by J.D. Robb
Putnam
Lieutenant Eve Dallas probes a businessman's scandalous death; by Nora Roberts, writing pseudonymously.
9. CHRIST THE LORD: THE ROAD TO CANA
by Anne Rice
Knopf
In the second book of Rice's life of Christ, Jesus embraces his prophetic destiny.
10. THE OUTLAW DEMON WAILS
by Kim Harrison
Eos
A witch who is also a bounty hunter must enter the demonic realm; the sixth book in the Hollows series.
11. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.
NONFICTION
1. LOSING IT
by Valerie Bertinelli
Free Press
A memoir by the actress and former wife of Eddie van Halen focuses on depression and her effort to lose weight.
2. BEAUTIFUL BOY
by David Sheff
Hoghton Miffli
A father struggles with his son's meth addiction.
3. LIBERAL FASCISM
by Jonah Goldberg
Doubleday
This "alternative history of American liberalism reveals its roots in, and commonalities with, classical fascism."
4. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD
by Michael Pollan
Penguin Press
A manifesto urges us to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
5. PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL
by Dan Ariely
Harper
An MIT behavioral economist shows how emotions and social norms systematically shape our behavior.
6. 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.
7. THE REASON FOR GOD
by Timothy Keller
Dutton
A minister addresses common doubts and defends faith in a Christian God.
8. REAL CHANGE
by Newt Gingrich with Vince Haley and Rick Tyler
Regnery
How to build a better America, from the former speaker of the House.
9. THE AGE OF AMERICAN
UNREASON
by Susan Jacoby
Pantheon
Are Americans hostile to
knowledge?
10. AN INCONVENIENT BOOK
by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe
Threshold Editions
Beck's solutions to problems including global warming and political correctness.
11. RECONCILIATION
by Benazir Bhutto
Harper/HarperCollins
A posthumous look at Islam, democracy and the West, by Pakistan's former prime minister and assassinated opposition leader.
12. MANIC
by Terri Cheney
Morrow
A memoir of life with bipolar disorder.
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