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. ATONEMENT
by Ian McEwan
Anchor
A chronicle of the disintegration of an English family's idyllic life.
3. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared.
4. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
by Sara Gruen
Algonquin
A young man - and an elephant - save a Depression-era circus.
5. THE 6TH TARGET
by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Grand Central
Detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women's Murder Club probe the disappearance of several children in San Francisco.
6. THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB
by Kate Jacobs
Berkley
A group of women meet weekly at a New York City yarn shop.
7. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage International
A Colombian poet's love for a woman is tested.
8. THE ROAD
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
9. BODY SURFING
by Anita Shreve
Back Bay
A woman takes a job as a tutor and becomes involved in a family's tensions and rivalries.
10. 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.
11. THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL
by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone
A tale of courtly intrigue starring King Henry VIII and Mary and Anne Boleyn.
12. THE ALCHEMIST
by Paulo Coelho
HarperSanFrancisco
A tale about the lessons a shepherd boy learns during his travels to Egypt.
13. 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.
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. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
3. THE GIFT OF FEAR
by Gavin de Becker
Delta
Intuitive signals that can protect us from becoming the victims of violence.
4. THE INNOCENT MAN
by John Grisham
Delta
Grisham's first nonfiction book concerns a man wrongly sentenced to death.
5. THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
by Barack Obama
Three Rivers
The Illinois senator proposes that Americans move beyond their political divisions.
6. INTO THE WILD
by Jon Krakauer
Anchor
A man's obsession with the wilderness ends in tragedy.
7. DREAMS FROM MY FATHER
by Barack Obama
Three Rivers
The senator on life as the son of a black African father and a white American mother.
8. THE GLASS CASTLE
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner
The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings moved constantly.
9. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
Revell
A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.
10. THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA
by Michael Pollan
Penguin
Tracking dinner from the soil to the plate, a journalist juggles appetite and conscience.
11. CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
by George Crile
Grove
A chronicle, by a veteran producer for 60 Minutes, of a congressman's efforts in the 1980s to steer billions of US dollars to the anti-Soviet side in Afghanistan.
12. THE GOD DELUSION
by Richard Dawkins
Mariner
An Oxford scientist asserts that belief in God is irrational.
13. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
Jan 13 to Jan 19 Yang Jen-huang (楊仁煌) recalls being slapped by his father when he asked about their Sakizaya heritage, telling him to never mention it otherwise they’ll be killed. “Only then did I start learning about the Karewan Incident,” he tells Mayaw Kilang in “The social culture and ethnic identification of the Sakizaya” (撒奇萊雅族的社會文化與民族認定). “Many of our elders are reluctant to call themselves Sakizaya, and are accustomed to living in Amis (Pangcah) society. Therefore, it’s up to the younger generation to push for official recognition, because there’s still a taboo with the older people.” Although the Sakizaya became Taiwan’s 13th
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong ship, Shunxin-39, was identified as the ship that had cut telecom cables on the seabed north of Keelung. The ship, owned out of Hong Kong and variously described as registered in Cameroon (as Shunxin-39) and Tanzania (as Xinshun-39), was originally People’s Republic of China (PRC)-flagged, but changed registries in 2024, according to Maritime Executive magazine. The Financial Times published tracking data for the ship showing it crossing a number of undersea cables off northern Taiwan over the course of several days. The intent was clear. Shunxin-39, which according to the Taiwan Coast Guard was crewed
China’s military launched a record number of warplane incursions around Taiwan last year as it builds its ability to launch full-scale invasion, something a former chief of Taiwan’s armed forces said Beijing could be capable of within a decade. Analysts said China’s relentless harassment had taken a toll on Taiwan’s resources, but had failed to convince them to capitulate, largely because the threat of invasion was still an empty one, for now. Xi Jinping’s (習近平) determination to annex Taiwan under what the president terms “reunification” is no secret. He has publicly and stridently promised to bring it under Communist party (CCP) control,
One way people in Taiwan can control how they are represented is through their choice of name. Culturally, it is not uncommon for people to choose their own names and change their identification cards and passports to reflect the change, though only recently was the right to use Indigenous names written using letters allowed. Reasons for changing a person’s name can vary widely, from wanting to sound more literary, to changing a poor choice made by their parents or, as 331 people did in March of 2021, to get free sushi by legally changing their name to include the two characters
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