China's Road (Huangshan Publishing House)

Pooling the efforts of a dozen experts on the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), this photo album aims to explain why the Chinese people have chosen and followed the path of socialism, with Chinese characteristics. It shows how the CPC led the Chinese people to overcome various obstacles, and triumph over natural disasters and social turbulence. The publication contains 313 photos from the Xinhua News Agency and the National Museum of China, complete with a 100,000-word description of modern and contemporary Chinese history since the Opium War in 1840.

Hanging Devils (Penguin)

Inspired by real events, Hanging Devils is a thriller about the struggle lawyer Hong Jun underwent in the first case he took after returning from the United States and opening a law office in Beijing in the early 1990s.

The case is about Li Hongmei, a beautiful woman, who was raped and killed on a State-owned farm in northeast China. The police caught a suspect, who has a rich brother and the latter was prepared to pay whatever it took to save his sibling. He engaged Hong as the defense lawyer. To uncover the truth, Hong challenged those who put personal ambition above the rule of law and those who try desperately to hide the sins of the past.

The writer, He Jiahong, is an expert on criminal justice and teaches at Renmin University of China.

I'm Lu Xingyu, not Lu Meimei (China Society Press)

Lu Xingyu, 24, publishes her autobiography I'm Lu Xingyu, Not Lu Meimei in response to misunderstandings and criticisms that pushed her to the center of a charity-related storm in August 2011.

Lu is executive chairman and secretary-general of China-Africa Project Hope, a charity run by World Eminent Chinese Business Association (of which her billionaire father Lu Junqing is chairman) and the China Youth Development Fund.

The project aims to build 1,000 primary schools in Africa over the next 10 years. The money involved will amount to at least 1.5 billion yuan ($2.36 million) and the charity organization will charge 10 percent as its management fee.

Netizens gave Lu the nickname Lu Meimei, after Guo Meimei, a young woman whose extravagant lifestyle triggered an alleged corruption scandal concerning the China Red Cross Society in June 2011.

This cross-Straits joint-publishing project features nine volumes of novels or short story and novella collections by nine writers from both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. This literature series highlight writers of "this generation", born in and after the late 1960s, as opposed to the reality where the literary scenes of both sides of the Straits are dominated by writers born in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Writers from the mainland include Mao Dun Literature Prize winner Bi Feiyu, acclaimed author Li Er, representative of the post-1970 writer Xu Zechen and female writers Sheng Keyi and Wei Wei. Their counterparts from Taiwan include Hakka writer Gan Yaoming, queer fiction writer Ji Dawei and female writers Hao Yuxiang and Zhong Wenyin.

My 30 Years with Lang Lang (Modern Press)

Young and world-renowned pianist Lang Lang has won hearts globally with his skills. But little is known of his father, Lang Guoren, who played a big role in making what Lang Lang is today.

Lang Guoren quit his job as a policeman in Liaoning province to accompany his son to pursue a professional music career in Beijing.

To mark Lang Lang's 30th birthday, Lang Guoren has written a book, titled My 30 Years with Lang Lang, as a gift and a record of their years together in producing a music legend.

"I'm lucky to have a great father like him," said Lang Lang, in tears, at the Beijing International Book Fair where the book was launched. "To me, his book is a grand and complicated melody," he added.

The book, with 100 family photos, is not only a vivid story of love and success, but also covers the pianist's interaction with world personalities, such as Prince Charles and US President Barack Obama.

The publisher hopes the book will inspire and provide insights to parents who face challenges raising and educating their children.

British literary agent Toby Eady, touched by Lang Lang's performances and story, intends to represent the book to more readers outside China.

China Daily

(China Daily 09/04/2012 page20)