FICTION
1. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
by Sara Gruen
Algonquin
A young man and an elephant save a Depression-era circus.
2. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared under the Taliban.
3. 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.
4. THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN
by Claire Messud.
Vintage
Privileged 30-somethings try to make their way in literary New York just before Sept. 11.
5. ECHO PARK
by Michael Connelly
Grand Central
The Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch returns to an old unsolved case, with unexpected results.
6. DEAR JOHN
by Nicholas Sparks
Warner
An unlikely romance between a soldier and an idealistic young woman is tested in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
7. ALMOST DEAD
by Lisa Jackson
Zebra
A San Francisco woman must outmaneuver a killer who is taking revenge on her family.
8. MIDDLESEX
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Picador
An epic story about three generations of Greek-Americans told by a hermaphrodite.
9. RICOCHET
by Sandra Brown
A detective is attracted to a judge's wife who he suspects is not telling the truth about a fatal shooting.
10. THE ALCHEMIST
by Paulo Coelho
HarperSanFrancisco
A tale about the lessons a Spanish shepherd boy learns during his travels to Egypt in search of treasure.
11. THE ROAD
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
12. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
by Robert Ludlum
Bantam
A reissue of the action-packed thriller.
13. THE RUINS
by Scott Smith
Vintage
Two young American couples on vacation in the Yucatan confront a horrible menace.
NONFICTION
1. EAT, PRAY, LOVE
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin Books
A writer's yearlong journey in search of self takes her to Italy, India and Indonesia.
2. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper With
Cecil Murphey
Revell
A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.
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.
4. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas L. Friedman
Picador
An updated edition of the New York Times columnist's analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy.
5. NIGHT
by Elie Wiesel
Hill & Wang
The horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
6. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin
A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
7. BLINK
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little Brown
The author of The Tipping Point explores the importance of instinct to the workings of the mind.
8. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
9. INTO THE WILD
by Jon Krakauer
Anchor
How a young man's obsession with the wilderness had a tragic end.
10. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE
CITY
by Erik Larson
Vintage
The tale of an architect and a serial killer, linked by the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.
11. GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL
by Jared Diamond
Norton
An argument that Western dominance is due to geographical advantages.
12. CHOSEN BY A HORSE
by Susan Richards
Harcourt
The author recounts rescuing a broken-down horse, which in turn helped rescue her.
13. MAYFLOWER
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin
How America began, from
the author of In the Heart
of the Sea.
There is no politician today more colorful than Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯). The recall vote against her on July 26 will test the limits of her unique style, making it one of the most fascinating to watch. Taiwan has a long history of larger-than-life, controversial and theatrical politicians. As far back as 1988, lawmaker Chu Kao-cheng (朱高正) was the first to brawl and — legend has it — was the first to use the most foul Taiwanese Hokkien curse on the floor of the legislature. Current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) has become famous
Crop damage from Typhoon Danas “had covered 9,822 hectares of farmland, more than 1.5 percent of Taiwan’s arable land, with an average loss rate of 30 percent, equivalent to 2,977 hectares of total crop failure,” this paper reported on Thursday last week. Costs were expected to exceed NT$1 billion. The disaster triggered clashes in the legislature last week between members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and China-aligned lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) argued that opposition lawmakers should take responsibility for slashing the Ministry of Agriculture’s (MOA)
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Asked to define sex, most people will say it means penetration and anything else is just “foreplay,” says Kate Moyle, a psychosexual and relationship therapist, and author of The Science of Sex. “This pedestals intercourse as ‘real sex’ and other sexual acts as something done before penetration rather than as deserving credit in their own right,” she says. Lesbian, bisexual and gay people tend to have a broader definition. Sex education historically revolved around reproduction (therefore penetration), which is just one of hundreds of reasons people have sex. If you think of penetration as the sex you “should” be having, you might
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