FICTION
1. THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH
by Ken Follet
New American Library
Murder, arson and lust surround the building of a 12th-century cathedral.
2. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage International
A Colombian poet's love for a woman is tested.
3. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
by Sara Gruen
Algonquin
A young man and an elephant save a Depression-era circus.
4. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared.
5. I AM LEGEND
by Richard Matheson
Tor/Tom Doherty
In this reissued horror novel, plague survivors, turned into vampires, seek to destroy the one man who appears immune to the disease.
6. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
Mayhem ensues in this reissued novel after a West Texas man stumbles upon US$2 million in drug money - and decides to keep it.
7. 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.
8. THE ROAD
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
9. HALO: CONTACT HARVEST
by Joseph Staten
Tom Doherty Associates
A squad of Marines and militia trainees is called to save a farming colony threatened by an aggressive alien empire.
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 THIRTEENTH TALE
by Diane Setterfield
Washington Square
A biographer struggles to discover the truth about an aging writer who has mythologized her past.
12. SUITE FRANCAISE
by Irene Nemirovsky
Vintage
Two novellas, which came to light more than 50 years after the author's death at Auschwitz.
NONFICTION
1. THE INNOCENT MAN
by John Grisham
Delta
Grisham's first nonfiction book concerns a man wrongly sentenced to death.
2. EAT, PRAY, LOVE
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin Books
A writer's yearlong journey in search of self takes her to Italy, India and Indonesia.
3. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
4. INTO THE WILD
by Jon Krakauer
Anchor
A man's obsession with the wilderness ends in tragedy.
5. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil
Murphey
Revell
A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.
6. THE GLASS CASTLE
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner
The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were moved constantly.
7. THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA
by Michael Pollan
Penguin
Tracking dinner from the soil to the plate, a journalist juggles appetite and conscience.
8. TOO LATE TO SAY GOODBYE
by Ann Rule
A tale of jealous rage emerges in the inquiry into the apparent suicide of a dentist's wife.
9. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
by Mitch Albom
Broadway
The author tells of his visits to his old college mentor, who is on his deathbed.
10. THE END OF AMERICA
by Naomi Wolf
Chelsea Green
A call for the public to act as "rebels and patriots" to preserve democracy and civil liberties.
11. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID
by Bill Bryson
Broadway
A memoir of growing up in 1950s Des Moines.
12. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas L. Friedman
Picador
An updated edition of the columnist's analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy.
13. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
April 14 to April 20 In March 1947, Sising Katadrepan urged the government to drop the “high mountain people” (高山族) designation for Indigenous Taiwanese and refer to them as “Taiwan people” (台灣族). He considered the term derogatory, arguing that it made them sound like animals. The Taiwan Provincial Government agreed to stop using the term, stating that Indigenous Taiwanese suffered all sorts of discrimination and oppression under the Japanese and were forced to live in the mountains as outsiders to society. Now, under the new regime, they would be seen as equals, thus they should be henceforth
Last week, the the National Immigration Agency (NIA) told the legislature that more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) risked having their citizenship revoked if they failed to provide proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration within the next three months. Renunciation is required under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), as amended in 2004, though it was only a legal requirement after 2000. Prior to that, it had been only an administrative requirement since the Nationality Act (國籍法) was established in
Three big changes have transformed the landscape of Taiwan’s local patronage factions: Increasing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) involvement, rising new factions and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) significantly weakened control. GREEN FACTIONS It is said that “south of the Zhuoshui River (濁水溪), there is no blue-green divide,” meaning that from Yunlin County south there is no difference between KMT and DPP politicians. This is not always true, but there is more than a grain of truth to it. Traditionally, DPP factions are viewed as national entities, with their primary function to secure plum positions in the party and government. This is not unusual
US President Donald Trump’s bid to take back control of the Panama Canal has put his counterpart Jose Raul Mulino in a difficult position and revived fears in the Central American country that US military bases will return. After Trump vowed to reclaim the interoceanic waterway from Chinese influence, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an agreement with the Mulino administration last week for the US to deploy troops in areas adjacent to the canal. For more than two decades, after handing over control of the strategically vital waterway to Panama in 1999 and dismantling the bases that protected it, Washington has
RSS