FICTION
1. THE THIRTEENTH TALE
by Diane Setterfield
Atria
A biographer struggles to discover the truth about an aging writer who has mythologized her past.
2. THE BOOK OF FATE
by Brad Meltzer
Warner
The apparent murder of a presidential aide reveals Masonic secrets in Washington and a 200-year-old code invented by Thomas Jefferson.
3. THE MISSION SONG
by John le Carre
Little, Brown
An English translator, born in Congo, is sent by British intelligence to work for a corporate syndicate that wants to subvert Congolese elections.
4. RISE AND SHINE
by Anna Quindlen
Random House
The lives of two sisters, one the host of a television show and the other a social worker.
5. JUDGE & JURY
by James Patterson and Andrew Gross
Little, Brown
An aspiring actress and an FBI agent join forces against a powerful mobster.
6. THE GUY NOT TAKEN
by Jennifer Weiner
Atria
Stories about women and relationships from the author of In Her Shoes.
7. IMPERIUM
by Robert Harris
Simon & Schuster
A fictional life of Marcus Cicero, the Roman statesman and orator, as told by a household slave.
8. THE MEPHISTO CLUB
by Tess Gerritsen
Ballantine
A Boston medical examiner and a detective must solve a series of murders involving apocalyptic messages and a sinister cabal.
9. DARK CELEBRATION
by Christine Feehan
Berkley
Carpathians from around the world join together to oppose their enemies’ plot to kill all Carpathian women.
10. WORLD WAR Z
by Max Brooks
Crown
An “oral history” of an imagined Zombie War that nearly destroys civilization.
11. THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO RAIN
by Alexander McCall Smith
Pantheon
The third novel featuring the philosopher Isabel Dalhousie is a mystery about the meaning of happiness.
12. THE EMPEROR’S CHILDREN
Claire Messud
Knopf
A group of privileged 30-somethings make their way in literary New York just before Sept. 11.
NONFICTION
1. I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK
by Nora Ephron.
Knopf
A witty look at aging from a novelist and screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally.
2. THE GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD
by Frank Rich
Penguin
A New York Times columnist attacks the Bush administration’s approach to message management.
3. THE CONFESSION
by James McGreevey
Regan
The former New Jersey governor comes out.
4. MARLEY & ME
by John Grogan
Morrow
A newspaper columnist and his wife learn some life lessons from their neurotic dog.
5. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas L. Friedman
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
A columnist for the New York Times analyzes 21st-century economics and foreign policy.
6. STATE OF EMERGENCY
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s
The conservative commentator argues against unchecked immigration.
7. LETTER TO A CHRISTIAN NATION
by Sam Harris
Knopf
The author of The End of Faith responds to Christians’ arguments in defense of their beliefs.
8. I SHOULDN’T EVEN BE DOING THIS!
by Bob Newhart
Hyperion
A memoir by the comedian.
9. FREAKONOMICS
by Steven D. Levitt
and Stephen J. Dubner
Morrow
A maverick scholar and a journalist apply economic theory to almost everything.
10. THE LOOMING TOWER
by Lawrence Wright
Knopf
The road to Sept. 11 as seen through the lives of terrorist planners and the FBI counterterrorism chief who died in the attacks.
11. THE GOD DELUSION
by Richard Dawkins
Houghton Mifflin
An Oxford scientist asserts that belief in God is irrational and that religion has done great harm in the world.
12. HUBRIS
by Michael Isikoff
and David Corn
Crown
The planning and marketing of the US-led invasion of Iraq, featuring the president, administration officials, neoconservatives, Iraq exiles and credulous journalists.
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Legislative Caucus First Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
It starts out as a heartwarming clip. A young girl, clearly delighted to be in Tokyo, beams as she makes a peace sign to the camera. Seconds later, she is shoved to the ground from behind by a woman wearing a surgical mask. The assailant doesn’t skip a beat, striding out of shot of the clip filmed by the girl’s mother. This was no accidental clash of shoulders in a crowded place, but one of the most visible examples of a spate of butsukari otoko — “bumping man” — shoving incidents in Japan that experts attribute to a combination of gender
Last month, media outlets including the BBC World Service and Bloomberg reported that China’s greenhouse gas emissions are currently flat or falling, and that the economic giant appears to be on course to comfortably meet Beijing’s stated goal that total emissions will peak no later than 2030. China is by far and away the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, generating more carbon dioxide than the US and the EU combined. As the BBC pointed out in their Feb. 12 report, “what happens in China literally could change the world’s weather.” Any drop in total emissions is good news, of course. By
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