FICTION
1. THE APPEAL
by John Grisham
Doubleday
Political and legal intrigue ensue when a Mississippi court decides against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste.
2. 7TH HEAVEN
by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Little, Brown
In San Francisco, Detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women's Murder Club hunt for an arsonist and a missing teenager.
3. DUMA KEY
by Stephen King
Scribner
A Minnesota contractor moves to Florida to recover from an injury and begins to create paintings with mysterious power.
4. STRANGER IN PARADISE
by Robert B. Parker
Putnam
Jesse Stone, the police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, must protect a hit man's intended victim.
5. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.
6. PLUM LUCKY
by Janet Evanovich
St Martin's
Stephanie's grandmother finds a bag of cash and goes gambling in Atlantic City, pursued by the money's owner.
7. WORLD WITHOUT END
by Ken Follett
Dutton
Love and intrigue in Kingsbridge, the medieval English cathedral town at the center of Follett's Pillars of the Earth.
8. THE SENATOR'S WIFE
by Sue Miller
Knopf
A woman lives with her husband's persistent infidelity.
9. PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
by Geraldine Brooks
Viking
A rare-book expert unlocks the secrets of a medieval manuscript.
10. SIZZLE AND BURN
by Jayne Ann Krentz
Putnam
A member of the Arcane Society, dedicated to paranormal research, helps a woman with psychic powers.
11. WHERE THE HEART LEADS
by Stephanie Laurens
Morrow
With the help of a well-born amateur detective, a society woman in London investigates the disappearance of several orphans in the 15th Cynster novel.
NONFICTION
1. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD
by Michael Pollan
Penguin Press
A manifesto urges us to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
2. AN INCONVENIENT BOOK
by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe
Threshold Editions
Beck's solutions to problems including global warming and political correctness.
3. REAL CHANGE
by Newt Gingrich with Vince Haley and Rick Tyler
Regnery
How to build a better America, from the former speaker of the House.
4. I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!)
by Stephen Colbert et al
Grand Central
The wit and wisdom of the mock pundit of Comedy Central's Colbert Report.
5. TOM CRUISE
by Andrew Morton
St Martin's
An unauthorized biography of the movie star.
6. HOPE'S BOY
by Andrew Bridge
Hyperion
A memoir of a childhood in foster care by an advocate for poor children.
7. LIBERAL FASCISM
by Jonah Goldberg
Doubleday
This "alternative history of American liberalism reveals its roots in, and commonalities with, classical fascism."
8. QUIET STRENGTH
by Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker
Tyndale
A memoir by the first black coach to win a Super Bowl (He did it with the Indianapolis Colts last year.)
9. ICEMAN
by Chuck Liddell with Chad Millman
Dutton
A mixed martial artist who competes for the Ultimate Fighting Championship describes his life and his fights.
10. GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS
by Eric Weiner
Twelve
A writer explores to what degree an individual's happiness is intertwined with a shared geography and culture.
11. THE COMMISSION
by Philip Shenon
Twelve
The story behind the Sept. 11 report.
12. BOOM!
by Tom Brokaw
Random House
The retired news anchor assesses the 1960s.
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,
A white horse stark against a black beach. A family pushes a car through floodwaters in Chiayi County. People play on a beach in Pingtung County, as a nuclear power plant looms in the background. These are just some of the powerful images on display as part of Shen Chao-liang’s (沈昭良) Drifting (Overture) exhibition, currently on display at AKI Gallery in Taipei. For the first time in Shen’s decorated career, his photography seeks to speak to broader, multi-layered issues within the fabric of Taiwanese society. The photographs look towards history, national identity, ecological changes and more to create a collection of images
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
March 16 to March 22 In just a year, Liu Ching-hsiang (劉清香) went from Taiwanese opera performer to arguably Taiwan’s first pop superstar, pumping out hits that captivated the Japanese colony under the moniker Chun-chun (純純). Last week’s Taiwan in Time explored how the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) theme song for the Chinese silent movie The Peach Girl (桃花泣血記) unexpectedly became the first smash hit after the film’s Taipei premiere in March 1932, in part due to aggressive promotion on the streets. Seeing an opportunity, Columbia Records’ (affiliated with the US entity) Taiwan director Shojiro Kashino asked Liu, who had
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