FICTION
1. THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER
by Kim Edwards
Penguin
A doctor's decision to secretly send his newborn daughter, who has Down syndrome, to an institution haunts everyone involved.
2. CELL
by Stephen King
Pocket Star
What remains of humanity fights to survive after a mysterious force scrambles cell-phone user's brains.
3. THE TENTH CIRCLE
by Jodi Picoult
Washington Square
When his teenage daughter is date-raped, a comic-book artist is overwhelmed by rage.
4. VALLEY OF SILENCE
by Nora Roberts
Jove
The circle of six goes into battle to save humans from the vampire Lilith in the final Circle Trilogy book.
5. FOREVER ODD
by Dean Koontz
Bantam
Odd Thomas, a character from Koontz's 2003 novel of the same name, searches for a missing friend.
6. THE AMBLER WARNING
by Robert Ludlum
St. Martin's
A former clandestine operative escapes from a government psychiatric prison and tries to re-establish his identity.
7. THE CHRISTMAS THIEF
by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark
Pocket
Hidden treasure lies within the branches of a giant blue spruce destined for Rockefeller Center.
8. THANKSGIVING
by Janet Evanovich
HarperTorch
A re-released holiday romance.
9. DANCE OF THE GODS
by Nora Roberts
Jove
Six otherworldly fighters prepare to battle the vampire Lilith in this second installment in the Circle Trilogy.
10. MARY, MARY
by James Patterson
Warner Vision
Agent Alex Cross tracks a Hollywood killer who announces the crimes via e-mail.
11. TURNING ANGEL
by Greg Iles
Pocket
To defend a friend wrongly accused of murder, a Mississippi lawyer must investigate local students.
12. MORRIGAN'S CROSS
by Nora Roberts
Jove
A sorcerer gathers five warriors to help him battle a vampire who lured his twin to the dark side.
NONFICTION
1. RUNNING WITH SCISSORS
by Augusten Burroughs
Picador
In the 1970s, a young boy lives with a crazy psychiatrist.
2. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
by James Bradley with Ron Powers
Bantam
The story of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima.
3. THE GLASS CASTLE
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner
The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were constantly moved from one bleak place to another.
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4. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe and Mim Eichler Rivas
Amistad/HarperCollins
Gardner's life story, from a grim childhood to homelessness to, finally, the success he had long sought; the basis for a movie of the same title.
5. NIGHT
by Elie Wiesel
Hill & Wang
A new translation of an account of the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, first published in English in 1960.
6. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
Revell
A Baptist minister describes the otherworldly experience he had after a car accident.
7. DREAMS FROM MY FATHER
by Barack Obama
Three Rivers
The Democratic senator from Illinois reflects on life as the son of a black African father and white American mother.
8. TEACHER MAN
by Frank McCourt
Scribner
The author of Angela's Ashes remembers his years teaching high school English in New York City.
9. TEAM OF RIVALS
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Simon & Schuster
The political genius of former US president Abraham Lincoln.
10. AMERICA (THE BOOK)
by Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin, David Javerbaum et al
Warner
The Daily Show offers an illustrated parody of a civics text.
11. 1776
by David McCullough
Simon & Schuster
An account of America's founding year focusing on the inexperienced George Washington and the heroic citizen soldiers.
12. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
When 17-year-old Lin Shih (林石) crossed the Taiwan Strait in 1746 with a group of settlers, he could hardly have known the magnitude of wealth and influence his family would later amass on the island, or that one day tourists would be walking through the home of his descendants in central Taiwan. He might also have been surprised to see the family home located in Wufeng District (霧峰) of Taichung, as Lin initially settled further north in what is now Dali District (大里). However, after the Qing executed him for his alleged participation in the Lin Shuang-Wen Rebellion (林爽文事件), his grandsons were
I am kneeling quite awkwardly on a cushion in a yoga studio in London’s Shoreditch on an unseasonably chilly Wednesday and wondering when exactly will be the optimum time to rearrange my legs. I have an ice-cold mango and passion fruit kombucha beside me and an agonising case of pins and needles. The solution to pins and needles, I learned a few years ago, is to directly confront the agony: pull your legs out from underneath you, bend your toes up as high as they can reach, and yes, it will hurt far more initially, but then the pain subsides.
A jumbo operation is moving 20 elephants across the breadth of India to the mammoth private zoo set up by the son of Asia’s richest man, adjoining a sprawling oil refinery. The elephants have been “freed from the exploitative logging industry,” according to the Vantara Animal Rescue Centre, run by Anant Ambani, son of the billionaire head of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sheer scale of the self-declared “world’s biggest wild animal rescue center” has raised eyebrows — including more than 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, according to
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