Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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US 'incredibly concerned' about suspected NK-Iran military ties
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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[Kim Seong-kon] Democracy and the future of South Korea
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Seoul says Fu Bao loan 'not going to happen'
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Expressing sorrow of black Americans
“The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race” By Jesmyn WardScribner (240 pages, $25)The murder last year of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, epitomizes the subject of “The Fire This Time.” These African-American churchgoers, including an 87-year-old woman, were murdered by a white racist simply because they were black.Novelist Jesmyn Ward edited this collection of essays and a few poems, which describes the sorrow and unease of being black in Ameri
Aug. 31, 2016
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Jessica Winter's debut looks at the 1 percent
“Break in Case of Emergency” By Jessica WinterKnopf (288 pages, $25.95)Jessica Winter’s debut novel, “Break in Case of Emergency,” is an interesting study of the 1 percent and those striving to join their ranks.A senior features editor at Slate and former culture editor at Time, Winter shines a harsh light on the world of beautiful people and the people who want to be a part of that world.She’s well acquainted with her subject matter as she populates her book with a double dose of beautiful yet
Aug. 31, 2016
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Old Hollywood glamour in 'Platinum Doll'
“Platinum Doll” By Anne GirardMIRA Books (352 pages, $15.99)“Madame Picasso” author Anne Girard takes on another bewitching figure from the past in “Platinum Doll,” a charming fictionalized account of how Jean Harlow became a movie star.Stunning blonde Harlean Carpenter McGrew, only 17, moves to California in 1928 with her handsome young husband, Chuck, who’s rich but troubled after the death of his parents. She’s discovered by studio executives while waiting for a starlet girlfriend. She uses t
Aug. 31, 2016
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Tom Wolfe talks Darwin, Chomsky and human speech
NEW YORK (AP) -- After satirizing everything from “radical chic” to 20th century architecture, Tom Wolfe is now mining the mystery of language and the reputation of the most influential linguist of our time, Noam Chomsky.Chomsky, in turn, has some thoughts about Wolfe, the celebrated New Journalist and author of such classics as “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “The Right Stuff.”In his new book, “The Kingdom of Speech,” Wolfe examines how scholars have attempted to discern the roots of verbal c
Aug. 31, 2016
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Alex Marwood delivers gripping cautionary tale
“The Darkest Secret”(Penguin Books)By Alex Marwood The disappearance of a child whose body is never found eventually implodes a family as well as a circle of friends. Yet perhaps even more chilling is how this horrid crime appears to have such little effect on the self-centered patriarch in Alex Marwood’s compelling novel. As “The Darkest Secret” poignantly delves into the aftermath of 3-year-old Coco Jackson’s disappearance, Marwood delivers an unexpected story. This isn’t a family forever sty
Aug. 31, 2016
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In North Korea, a hard-boiled (and fictional) cop keeps watch
NEW YORK (AP) -- The hero, a police inspector, prowls a city known more for its political malevolence than its street crime. If you read the local newspapers, you could think it’s a city with almost no crime at all. There have been no murders reported there for years, no bank robberies, no muggings, no rapes. The city is Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, which has long hidden so many realities beneath layers of propaganda and isolation. The hero is Inspector O, a policeman who knows those rea
Aug. 29, 2016
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Han Kang's award-winning novel hits German market
Han Kang’s novel “The Vegetarian” has received enthusiastic responses from German news media upon being released in the European country, a state-run literary agency said Wednesday.The novel has gotten wide attention from readers in English-speaking countries and Europe since its English translation earned the author the prestigious Man Booker International Award in May. The German-language edition of the Korean novel was released by the Berlin-based publisher Aufbau in the middle of this month
Aug. 25, 2016
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Tiny Spanish publisher clones world's most mysterious book
BURGOS, Spain (AFP) - It's one of the world’s most mysterious books, a centuries-old manuscript written in an unknown or coded language that no one -- not even the best cryptographers -- has cracked.Scholars have spent their lives puzzling over the Voynich Manuscript, whose intriguing mix of elegant writing and drawings of strange plants and naked women has some believing it holds magical powers.The weathered book is locked away in a vault at Yale University's Beinecke Library, emerging only occ
Aug. 24, 2016
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Korean literature magazine becomes more inclusive
Launched by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea in 2008, List: Books from Korea originally examined the Korean publishing industry through the eyes of Korean authors, critics, translators and publishers. The magazine has now been revamped and relaunched as Korean Literature Now to better represent its identity as a literary magazine, with the aim of offering a global perspective on Korean literature.The summer issue released on Aug. 19 features international voices, including an interv
Aug. 24, 2016
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Making of a ‘liberal icon’ charted
“Bobby Kennedy” By Larry TyeRandom House (608 pages, $32)Unless you were old enough to remember the mid-1960s it might be hard to grasp the considerable impact the Kennedy family, particularly Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the widowed first lady, Jacqueline, had on both the popular imagination and political discourse in the United States -- and, arguably, the world. Everything they did seemed to be news, even if it was just Jackie sporting a miniskirt in public (Fall 1966 and “cautious housewives o
Aug. 24, 2016
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Extraordinary characters brought to life
“The Muse” By Jessie BurtonHarper Collins (352 pages, $27.99)“The Muse” asks a lot of its readers, in the best of ways. It asks us to pay close attention, given the unexpected paths that wander variously through time, race, global politics and art history. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean immigrant in 1967 London, and a typist at an art gallery for the enigmatic Marjorie Quick, who insists on being called only Quick. Why? It’s one of many mysteries that deepen when “Rufina and the Lion,” perhaps a
Aug. 24, 2016
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Imagining surrealist battle against Nazis
“The Last Days of New Paris” By China MievilleDel Rey (205 pages, $25)Page for page, there is no one generating more utterly unfamiliar ideas than author China Mieville (“Perdido Street Station,” “The City and the City”) -- and the glossary of monsters in his latest novel, “The Last Days of New Paris,” could support a full book for every entry. There’s so much absurd beauty among the fauna in this story of surrealist art come to life in Nazi-occupied France, in fact, that the author’s subtler po
Aug. 24, 2016
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Bochco’s book: He rewrote TV’s rules and lived to tell it
NEW YORK (AP) -- For viewers who rejoice in TV’s artistic upsurge, one virtuoso perhaps more than anyone can be credited for elevating the medium from its bygone “boob tube” status.Steven Bochco flinches at the mention of his half-century writing and producing TV. Could it really be that long? But his list of credits documents his legacy. Consider: the breakthrough hits “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue,” the pioneering half-hour dramedy “Doogie Howser, MD” and the groundbreaking legal drama “Murder One
Aug. 24, 2016
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‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author offers insight on Trump's appeal
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP) - For pundits and politicos baffled by the appeal of a wealthy New York businessman to the struggling white working class in Appalachia and Rust Belt mill towns, J.D. Vance's book “Hillbilly Elegy” is offering some insights.It’s a vivid, deeply personal tour of the stark world he grew up in, set mainly in this southwestern Ohio city hit hard by the decline of its dominant steelmaking company, but also in his familial eastern Kentucky hills region. They are places where, for
Aug. 24, 2016
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Your life is comfy compared to the hell of the North Korean border
“How I Became a North Korean”By Krys LeeViking (244 pages, $27)Forgetting the complexities of other lives is so easy these days, immersed as we are in our daily grinds, our political battles, our iPhones and our Netflix. With her devastating yet ultimately hopeful first novel, Krys Lee provides the reminder that sometimes we need a wakeup call. “How I Became a North Korean” demands that we look outside ourselves, pay attention and bear witness to the world and how it can break so many of us.In t
Aug. 17, 2016
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Essays illuminate fears of disaster
“This Is Only a Test”By B.J. HollarsBreak Away Books (180 pages, $17)In his essay collection “This Is Only a Test,” B.J. Hollars is buffeted on one side by terrifying cataclysms and on the other by typical new-parent anxiety.These forces converge spectacularly in the opener, “Goodbye, Tuscaloosa,” where Hollars describes huddling in a bathtub with his wife and their dog as a violent EF4 tornado begins tearing apart their neighborhood. She has just learned that she is pregnant with their first ch
Aug. 17, 2016
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The pleasures and perils of an affair in ‘Blue Bath’
“The Blue Bath”By Mary Waters-SayerSt. Martin’s Press (307 pages, $25.99)At first, “The Blue Bath” seems to be just a particularly well-written take on an old story, one often encountered in more sophisticated “chick lit” -- the pleasures and perils of an extramarital affair. Kat Lind, an American married to a very busy English businessman, is conveniently left alone at their posh London home while her husband goes on a long business trip and their little boy stays with her in-laws so she can mo
Aug. 17, 2016
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Amber Tozer pens one of the funniest books on alcoholism you’ll ever read
"Sober Stick Figure: A Memoir”By Amber Tozer(Running Press, $24)Comedian Amber Tozer is 39 years old. She is funny, profane and drop-dead honest. A recovering alcoholic, Tozer walked away from drinking eight years ago, and now she has written a book about it.I picked up “Sober Stick Figure: A Memoir” (Running Press, $24) because alcoholism has run in my family, and because of recent news about the prevalence of binge drinking among young people.“Sober Stick Figure” might be the funniest book abo
Aug. 17, 2016
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Schumer keeps it real in ‘Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo’
“The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo” By Amy Schumer(Gallery Books)Amy Schumer is a powerhouse in the entertainment industry, thanks to her Emmy-winning TV series, “Inside Amy Schumer,” and feature film box-office smash “Trainwreck.” A comedian, actress, writer, producer and director, Schumer is on her way to adding “best-selling author” to her list of achievements with her new book, “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo.”Schumer is a talented storyteller. She’s known for standing in a spotlight
Aug. 17, 2016
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Daesan announces winners of translation grants
The Daesan Foundation, dedicated to supporting and promoting Korean literature, has announced the recipients of this year’s Grants for the Translation, Research and Publication of Korean Literary Works, providing funds for 13 works of Korean literature to be translated into 10 languages.The works selected include those by emerging authors such as Hwang Jung-eun’s novel “Let Me Continue” (unofficial translation), the winner of last year’s Daesan Literary Award. Hwang’s novel about the relationshi
Aug. 10, 2016