FICTION
1. S IS FOR SILENCE
by Sue Grafton
Marlan Wood/Putnam
Kinsey Millhone searches for a woman who disappeared 34 years ago.
2. MARY, MARY
by James Patterson
Little, Brown
The FBI agent Alex Cross tracks a Hollywood killer who announces his crimes via e-mail.
3. AT FIRST SIGHT
by Nicholas Sparks
Warner
The young couple from True Believer, who are now expecting a child, receive a disturbing message.
4. PREDATOR
by Patricia Cornwell
Putnam
On the trail of a possible serial killer, Dr. Kay Scarpetta turns to a jailed psychopath for advice.
5. LIGHT FROM HEAVEN
by Jan Karon
Viking
Father Tim's bishop asks him to revive a long-closed mountain church; the final novel in the Mitford series.
6. AMAZING PEACE
by Maya Angelou
Random House
A poem read at the lighting of the White House Christmas tree this month.
7. THE DA VINCI CODE
by Dan Brown
Doubleday
A murder at the Louvre leads to a trail of clues found in the work of Leonardo and to the discovery of a secret society.
8. FOREVER ODD
by Dean Koontz
Bantam
Odd Thomas, a character from Koontz's 2003 novel of the same name, searches for a missing friend.
9. THE LIGHTHOUSE
by P.D. James
Knopf
Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve a murder (or two) on a remote Cornish island.
10. CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT
by Anne Rice
Knopf
What happened in Bethlehem; a story narrated by a child who discovers that he is the Prince of Peace.
11. THE CAMEL CLUB
by David Baldacci
Warner
A group of eccentric conspiracy theorists stumbles across an actual plot reaching to the highest levels of government.
12. SON OF A WITCH
by Gregory Maguire
ReganBooks/HarperCollins
Liir makes his way through the dangerous land of Oz.
NONFICTION
1. TEACHER MAN
by Frank McCourt
Scribner
The author of Angela's Ashes remembers his years teaching high school English in New York City.
2. OUR ENDANGERED VALUES
by Jimmy Carter
Simon and Schuster
The former president warns against blurring politics and fundamentalist religion.
3. TEAM OF RIVALS
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Simon and Schuster
The political genius of Abraham Lincoln, revealed in his relationship with his Cabinet, from the author of No Ordinary Time.
4. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas Friedman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
A columnist for The New York Times analyzes 21st-century economics and foreign policy and presents an overview of globalization trends.
5. MARLEY AND ME
by John Grogan
Morrow
A newspaper columnist and his wife learn some life lessons from their neurotic dog.
6. 1776
by David McCullough
Simon and Schuster
An account of America's
founding year by the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of John Adams.
7. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
by Joan Didion
Knopf
The author's attempts to come to terms with the death of her husband and the grave illness of their only daughter.
8. FREAKONOMICS
by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
Morrow
A maverick scholar applies economic thinking to everything from sumo wrestlers who cheat to legalized abortion and the falling crime rate.
9. THE TRUTH (WITH JOKES)
by Al Franken
Dutton
A comic attack on the Bush
administration from the author of Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them).
10. MY FRIEND LEONARD
by James Frey
Riverhead
The author of the addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces remembers a helpful mobster friend.
11. 700 SUNDAYS
by Billy Crystal
Warner
A childhood memoir from the actor and entertainer, based on his Tony-winning play.
In 2020, a labor attache from the Philippines in Taipei sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding that a Filipina worker accused of “cyber-libel” against then-president Rodrigo Duterte be deported. A press release from the Philippines office from the attache accused the woman of “using several social media accounts” to “discredit and malign the President and destabilize the government.” The attache also claimed that the woman had broken Taiwan’s laws. The government responded that she had broken no laws, and that all foreign workers were treated the same as Taiwan citizens and that “their rights are protected,
The recent decline in average room rates is undoubtedly bad news for Taiwan’s hoteliers and homestay operators, but this downturn shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. According to statistics published by the Tourism Administration (TA) on March 3, the average cost of a one-night stay in a hotel last year was NT$2,960, down 1.17 percent compared to 2023. (At more than three quarters of Taiwan’s hotels, the average room rate is even lower, because high-end properties charging NT$10,000-plus skew the data.) Homestay guests paid an average of NT$2,405, a 4.15-percent drop year on year. The countrywide hotel occupancy rate fell from
In late December 1959, Taiwan dispatched a technical mission to the Republic of Vietnam. Comprising agriculturalists and fisheries experts, the team represented Taiwan’s foray into official development assistance (ODA), marking its transition from recipient to donor nation. For more than a decade prior — and indeed, far longer during Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule on the “mainland” — the Republic of China (ROC) had received ODA from the US, through agencies such as the International Cooperation Administration, a predecessor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). More than a third of domestic investment came via such sources between 1951
For the past century, Changhua has existed in Taichung’s shadow. These days, Changhua City has a population of 223,000, compared to well over two million for the urban core of Taichung. For most of the 1684-1895 period, when Taiwan belonged to the Qing Empire, the position was reversed. Changhua County covered much of what’s now Taichung and even part of modern-day Miaoli County. This prominence is why the county seat has one of Taiwan’s most impressive Confucius temples (founded in 1726) and appeals strongly to history enthusiasts. This article looks at a trio of shrines in Changhua City that few sightseers visit.
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