1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Ezkaban
(
By J. K. Rowling
Translated by Peng Chien-wen (
The action begins in this third episode of the Harry Potter series when the young wizard "accidentally" causes the dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing punishment, Harry lunges out into the darkness with his trunk and his owl Hedwig, beginning a journey that will have children and adults cheering.
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (
By J.K. Rowling
Translated by Peng Chien-wen (
The long summer vacation has finally ended and Harry Potter can't wait to go back to magic school. But a string of strange and terrifying things takes place and Harry must find the culprit behind them.
3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (
By J.K. Rowling
Translated by Peng Chien-wen (
Mysterious letters lead the 11-year-old Harry Potter into a kingdom of sorcerers, who send their mail by owl messengers and travel on brooms.
4. Eternal Light of Love (愛過流星)
By Wu Ruo-chuan (
Another book from one of Taiwan's best-selling essayists -- about love, life and comets.
5. Wisdom from Aesop's Fables
(
Translated and revised by Liu
Yi-chun (
A collection of 120 stories translated from Aesop's Fables. The English versions of the stories are also included.
6. This Is My Answer (
By Teng Ching Shu (
A male university student meets a girl with beautiful, long hair and a sweet voice in a bookstore. He wants to turn the precious, short encounter into an everlasting love story.
7. Red Oranges (
By Chi-chun (
A story about a young woman who falls in love with her uncle, and about women deserted by their husbands.
8. I'm Not Teaching You To Be Cunning Part IV (
By Liu Yung (
A book of essays about human deceit and crookery as manifested in various spheres of society, including politics and business.
9. Tuo Tuo's Notes: Flying Soul
(
By Tuo Tuo (
A third collection of girlie essays from a woman who runs her own popular Web magazine (at http://gpaper.gigigaga.com).
10. Wisdom For a Lifetime
(
By Tai Chen-chih (
A book of inspirational essays, written from a psychological angle.
11. Say It To Your Heart
(
By Liu Yung (
A meditation by the maestro of inspirational books -- this time about speech and the right ways to express oneself.
12. The Bible of Reincarnation Part I (
By Carmelita Chao (
A mystic novel from the Hong Kong-born meditation teacher, who spent much of her life in Taiwan and is now based in the San Francisco area.
13. The Blue Day Book
(
By Bradley Trevor Greive
Translated by Chuang
Ching-chun (
A collection of amusing animal photos as well as warm and inspirational texts designed to cheer up anyone who's got the blues.
14. Wisdom of Life from Aesop's Fables (
By Taizo Kato (
Translated by Lin Ya-hui (
The author borrows Aesop's Fables to share some viewpoints about life and encourage readers to make a comeback after failures.
15. 61 x 57
By Wang Wen-hua (
A novel about love in cosmopolitan Taipei.
16. The Bible of Reincarnation
Part II (
By Carmelita Chao (
The second installment from the Hong Kong-born meditation teacher.
17. The Moments (
By Jimmy (
Another new book in Jimmy's popular series of cartoon sketches and literary musings.
18. The End of the Affair (
By Graham Greene
Translated by Lu Yu (
In this novel of adultery and religious questing, Maurice Bendrix is a sardonic and cynical writer who reflects on his affair with Sarah, a married woman, during the bombing of London in 1940.
19. One-minute Reflection on Life (
By Wu Tan-ju (
More essays on love and other concerns by one of Taiwan's best-selling essayists.
20. The Mansion (
By Kuo Pao-chang (
A novel, dubbed "the modern version of Dream of the Red Chamber, about an aristocratic family in Beijing.
Common sense is not that common: a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania concludes the concept is “somewhat illusory.” Researchers collected statements from various sources that had been described as “common sense” and put them to test subjects. The mixed bag of results suggested there was “little evidence that more than a small fraction of beliefs is common to more than a small fraction of people.” It’s no surprise that there are few universally shared notions of what stands to reason. People took a horse worming drug to cure COVID! They think low-traffic neighborhoods are a communist plot and call
It is barely 10am and the queue outside Onigiri Bongo already stretches around the block. Some of the 30 or so early-bird diners sit on stools, sipping green tea and poring over laminated menus. Further back it is standing-room only. “It’s always like this,” says Yumiko Ukon, who has run this modest rice ball shop and restaurant in the Otsuka neighbourhood of Tokyo for almost half a century. “But we never run out of rice,” she adds, seated in her office near a wall clock in the shape of a rice ball with a bite taken out. Bongo, opened in 1960 by
Over the years, whole libraries of pro-People’s Republic of China (PRC) texts have been issued by commentators on “the Taiwan problem,” or the PRC’s desire to annex Taiwan. These documents have a number of features in common. They isolate Taiwan from other areas and issues of PRC expansion. They blame Taiwan’s rhetoric or behavior for PRC actions, particularly pro-Taiwan leadership and behavior. They present the brutal authoritarian state across the Taiwan Strait as conciliatory and rational. Even their historical frames are PRC propaganda. All of this, and more, colors the latest “analysis” and recommendations from the International Crisis Group, “The Widening
From a nadir following the 2020 national elections, two successive chairs of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) and Eric Chu (朱立倫), tried to reform and reinvigorate the old-fashioned Leninist-structured party to revive their fortunes electorally. As examined in “Donovan’s Deep Dives: How Eric Chu revived the KMT,” Chu in particular made some savvy moves that made the party viable electorally again, if not to their full powerhouse status prior to the 2014 Sunflower movement. However, while Chu has made some progress, there remain two truly enormous problems facing the KMT: the party is in financial ruin and
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