Most Popular
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[Exclusive] Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns
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Korean, Romanian leaders discuss defense tech, nuclear energy
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S. Korea calls on Japan to confront history amid Yasukuni Shrine visit
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Yoon’s jailed mother-in-law excluded from latest parole list
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Hybe and Min Hee-jin, CEO of Hybe sublabel Ador, lock horns
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[Pressure points] Leggings in public: Fashion statement or social faux pas?
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Korea’s homegrown nanosatellite successfully launches into space
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Aging population to drive down Korea's housing prices from 2040: experts
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Over-50s, men, single-person households take up majority of those filing for bankruptcy
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[Herald Interview] 'Amid aging population, Korea to invite more young professionals from overseas'
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Han Kang wins Booker award
Korean author Han Kang became the first Korean to win the prestigious Man Booker International Prize for her novel “The Vegetarian” on Monday. British translator Deborah Smith, who translated the novel from Korean to English, was jointly awarded the prize. “I wanted to depict a woman who refuses to exercise violence,” Han, 45, said in her acceptance speech at the award ceremony held at London‘s Victoria and Albert Museum on Monday night. 2016 Man Booker International prize for fiction winner Ha
May 17, 2016
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Children’s book on Korean history published in English
“Letters from Korean History” is an English-language series of books written for primary to high school students who are interested in learning about Korean history, according to its publisher Cum Libro. The books, published last week, are “for young readers overseas who are curious about Korea and its people, and for young Korean readers keen to learn more about their own history while improving their language skills as global citizens,” said author Park Eun-bong, who has a master’s degree in
May 11, 2016
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Matt Haig offers people with depression ‘Reasons to Stay Alive’
“Reasons to Stay Alive” By Matt Haig Penguin (272 pages, $15) Matt Haig suffered months of depression and anxiety so crippling that he stood on the edge of a cliff, trying to summon the wherewithal to throw himself off. “The weird thing about depression,” Haig writes in “Reasons to Stay Alive,” is “the fear of death remains the same. The only difference is that the pain of life has rapidly increased.” Somehow, Haig inched his way back from that cliff. Over time, with love and support from his w
May 11, 2016
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‘The Girl from Home’ is a solid economic thriller
“The Girl from Home” By Adam Mitzner Gallery (336 pages, $26) The recent economic downturn -- and financial scandals -- have also ushered in a new wave of economic thrillers in which hedge funds and stock trading provide a background for more dastardly deeds. Adam Mitzner wisely uses this background as a start to explore the maturation of a selfish, vain man who eventually understands what matters more than money or a flashy car in “The Girl from Home.” Hedge fund manager Jonathan Caine is one
May 11, 2016
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Africa's contradictions encountered in a 9-month walk along the Nile
“Walking the Nile” By Levison Wood Atlantic Monthly Press (338 pages, $26) In becoming the first person to walk the Nile River’s length of more than 6,500 kilometers, explorer and ex-British soldier Levison Wood does more than cross footsteps with noted Victorian predecessors such as David Livingstone and Richard Burton. He also traces a nine-month journey through the contradictions of African life -- cacophonous cities and expanses of barely trod landscapes offset by the greed and corruption o
May 11, 2016
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‘Paul McCartney: The Life’ offers thorough account of ex-Beatle
“Paul McCartney: The Life” By Philip Norman Little, Brown (853 pages, $32) Behind the double thumbs-up, impish smile and round, half-moon eyes lies a Paul McCartney more complex than public perception lends itself to. As biographer Philip Norman writes in “Paul McCartney: The Life,” McCartney is more than just the “cute Beatle” thumping away on a left-handed violin-shaped bass or the elder statesman of rock who continues to sell out stadium concerts lasting more than three hours. McCartney is,
May 11, 2016
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New digital imprint features works by Heller, Bradbury
NEW YORK (AP) -- Little known short stories by Tennessee Williams, Joseph Heller and Ray Bradbury are among the works being offered through a new digital imprint. Mulholland Books announced Tuesday that it is partnering with Strand Magazine on the Strand Originals program. Over the next several months, the imprint will release e-book and digital audio versions of 20 stories that have been featured in the magazine, which specializes in unearthing obscure fiction by prominent writers. The selectio
May 11, 2016
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Indie bookstores rise for seventh straight year
NEW YORK (AP) -- Independent bookselling remains on a roll. The American Booksellers Association has grown for the seventh consecutive year, the trade group’s CEO, Oren Teicher, told the Associated Press during a recent interview. Core membership increased to 1,775, up by 63 over the previous year and by more than 300 since 2009. And with many stores opening additional outlets, the number of individual locations rose to 2,311, compared with 2,227 at this time in 2015 and just 1,651 in 2009. With
May 10, 2016
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Korean novelists to visit London
Korean novelists Cheon Myeong-gwan and Han Yu-joo will be discussing Korean society and literature in London from May 10-13. The two writers will be participating in an event celebrating the spring issue of Asia Literary Review, a Hong Kong-based quarterly literary journal which aims to spread Asian literature in English-speaking countries. The entire spring issue, published in April, is dedicated to introducing Korean literature, carrying translated excerpts from works by Korean novelists such
May 9, 2016
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Spanish novel, Portuguese poems win translation awards
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Spanish-language novel and a collection of Portuguese poetry have won prizes for best translated literature. Yuri Herrera’s “Signs Preceding the End of the World,” translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman, won the best translated book Award for fiction on Wednesday. The poetry prize has been given to Angeurolica Freitas’ “Rilke Shake,” translated from the Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan. Winning authors and translators each receive $5,000. The prize money is provided by Amazon.
May 5, 2016
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Don DeLillo’s new novel considers life after death
“Zero K” By Don DeLillo Scribner (288 pages, $26) Don DeLillo’s latest novel toggles between a remote compound in central Asia and the workaday world of New York City. In the bunker an apocalyptic cult is engaged in the cryogenic preservation of humans, whose brains and bodies are being frozen until the time when diseases have been cured and human consciousness perfected. Meanwhile, in Manhattan, an introspective young man named Jeffrey Lockhart, whose father, billionaire Ross Lockhart, is an
May 4, 2016
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Fiction by ex-prosecutor tackles campus rape head on
“The Last Good Girl” By Allison Leotta Touchstone (288 pages, $25) Former federal sex-crimes prosecutor Allison Leotta continues her series featuring her fictional counterpart Anna Curtis in a too frighteningly real scenario in “The Last Good Girl.” College student Emily Shapiro has gone missing. She was last seen leaving a bar with a young man named Dylan, but he was chasing her down the street. The investigation reveals a video diary that Emily kept that detailed how Dylan had raped her, and
May 4, 2016
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New Spenser novel is a 5-alarm thriller
“Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn” By Ace Atkins G.P. Putnam’s Sons (320 pages, $270) A troubling series of fires in mostly abandoned Boston buildings turns deadly in “Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn,” the latest crime thriller in the long-running but still potent Spenser series. Spenser, a private detective, is called upon when the arson unit of the fire department hits dead ends investigating a fire at an old, shut down Catholic church. Three firefighters entering the church died when flames erupted
May 4, 2016
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Judy Blume talks Tumblr, possible new book
NEW YORK (AP) -- Judy Blume has many projects on her mind. She recently helped open a bookstore in Key West, Florida, where she lives much of the year. She’s starting to promote the paperback edition of her novel “In the Unlikely Event,” set in her native New Jersey in the early 1950s. She has just launched a Tumblr account (judyblumeofficial.tumblr.com), on top of her popular Twitter feed and Facebook page. And, she hasn’t ruled out a new book, despite indicating last year that “In the Unlikely
May 4, 2016
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Undeterred by rescues, novelist ready to set sail again
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- A novelist who was twice rescued from storm-battered sailboats hopes his next adventure lacks in such drama. South Carolina author Michael Hurley plans to sail around the world after using the experience of scuttling his sailboat on a failed trans-Atlantic crossing for his new book, “The Passage.” “The Passage” by Michael Hurley (Ragbagger Press) “I love the freedom of sailing on the ocean. There’s no limit. The horizon extends. There’s nothing to stop you from going w
May 4, 2016
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Proust’s personal archives headed to auction in Paris
PARIS (AFP) -- Intimate letters, personal photographs and rare manuscripts that once belonged to French writer Marcel Proust will go under the hammer in Paris, Sotheby’s auction house said Monday. The collection of some 120 items from the “Remembrance of Things Past” author’s personal archives even includes a hand-corrected proof of one of his well-known works. The trove of artefacts, being sold by the writer’s 41-year-old great-grand-niece Patricia Mante-Proust, is to be auctioned on May 31.
May 3, 2016
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Cosmo editor Joanna Coles writing guide to modern love
NEW YORK (AP) -- Cosmopolitan editor in chief Joanna Coles is working on a “no-nonsense” guide to some very old subjects in a very new world: sex and intimacy. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, told the Associated Press on Monday that it plans to release a book by Coles in 2018. The book currently is untitled. According to Harper, Coles will take on what she considers a “new sexual revolution” and offer advice for how to find “sustaining love” when all the rules have changed. “As t
May 3, 2016
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Study of body-mind mysteries wins Wellcome Book Prize
LONDON (AP) -- Neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan won the medically themed Wellcome Book Prize on Monday with “It’s All in Your Head,” an exploration of the mysteries of psychosomatic illness. O’Sullivan beat five other finalists to take the 30,000 pound ($43,000) prize, which aims to bridge the gap between literature and science. The author drew on her experiences working at a London neurology hospital to probe the puzzling cases of patients whose serious symptoms have no obvious physical cause. Jo
April 27, 2016
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Irish writer O’Connor and the strange music of unhappy families
TOULOUSE, France (AFP) - When the Irish novelist Joseph O’Connor reads his books aloud he almost sings them. Like his sister, the singer Sinead O’Connor, he is forever searching for “musicality.” In the famously tumultuous O’Connor household, art was a family affair. Joseph, the eldest, began writing at 14 and published his first book at 27. His youngest sister Sinead was a pop sensation at 21, while his other sister Eimear is a well-known painter and art historian. But there was price to pay.
April 27, 2016
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‘A seder goes hilariously wrong in author Brenda Janowitz’s novel
“The Dinner Party” By Brenda Janowitz St. Martin’s Griffin (288 pages, $15.99 paper) Sylvia Gold, an upwardly mobile doctor’s wife in Greenwich, Conn., is in a tizzy. Her overachiever med student daughter Becca finally has a boyfriend -- and he’s a Rothschild. Of the Rothschilds, the richest and most powerful Jewish family on earth. And he and his parents are coming for dinner. Not just any dinner, but Passover seder. Quick, she has to redecorate the entire house, hire a chef, buy new table lin
April 27, 2016