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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[Herald Interview] 'Amid aging population, Korea to invite more young professionals from overseas'
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Nicaragua shuts down Seoul embassy
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Rocket engine expert, ex-NASA exec to lead Korea's new space agency
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When kids kill: 3 novels explore a parent’s worst nightmare
There is a hierarchy of personal catastrophe, an informal but definitive ranking of all the terrible things that can happen, moving through categories that might be labeled “Worst Thing” to “Next-Worst Thing” to “Next-to-Next Worst Thing” and on down the line.At the upper end of that list, most people would probably agree, is losing a child. The world’s normal order ― parents predeceasing children ― is upended.But what happens if the child is indeed lost, but not gone? When the child, that is, t
April 6, 2012
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Scholars’ foray to discover ‘non-killing’ culture in Korea
Nonkilling Korea: Six Culture ExplorationEdited by Glenn D. Paige and Ahn Chung-siSeoul National University PressTo those used to studying the turbulent modern Korean history, which consists of war, division and an ongoing ideological dispute, the term “non-killing Korea” may not ring a bell at first.But the latest book published by the Seoul National University, “Nonkilling Korea: Six Culture Exploration” is what the unfamiliar term is all about: It seeks to discover “nonkilling” or non-violent
April 6, 2012
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From happiness to unimaginable despair
Burn Down the GroundBy Kambri Crews (Villard)Kambri Crews’ debut memoir, “Burn Down the Ground,” places her firmly in the company of family-dysfunction specialists such as Augusten Burroughs, Jeannette Walls and, especially, Mary Karr, whose 1995 best-seller “The Liars’ Club” set the bar for tales of dirt-poor Southeast Texas upbringings.The biting humor of “Burn Down the Ground,” along with the author’s smooth, natural storytelling, reflect her adult years ― she’s been an actress, owns her own
April 6, 2012
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Exploring the luxury of living
Carry the OneBy Carol Anshaw (Simon & Schuster)A car, carrying revelers from a Wisconsin wedding reception who are stoned, drunk, sleepy and distracted by lust, strikes a 10-year-old girl on a country road and kills her. Carol Anshaw’s masterful novel, “Carry the One,” recounts both the horror of the accident and the way it reverberates in a cluster of lives, particularly sisters Carmen (the bride) and Alice and their brother Nick (both in the death car).Alice goes on to success as a painter, gr
March 30, 2012
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Adventures of a plucky girl
The Stranger Within Sarah SteinBy Thane Rosenbaum (Texas Tech University Press)Young adult novelists are increasingly tackling darker subjects: kidnappings, drugs, rape. But few have delved into so many dark subjects as novelist Thane Rosenbaum, who ventures into YA territory with his latest, “The Stranger Within Sarah Stein,” a novel revolving around divorce, Sept. 11, homelessness and the Holocaust.What might be most odd about this combination of subjects is that the book isn’t glum at all. To
March 30, 2012
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‘The False Prince’: A medieval con man seeks impostor for missing royal
Most children want to be recognized as someone special. In “The False Prince,” Jennifer A. Nielsen takes that desire to an extreme with a romp of a medieval-themed, middle-grade novel. This kickoff to her new “Ascendance Trilogy” is a swashbuckling origin story about orphans forced to compete with one another for a chance to take the crown.The book opens with a boy running through the streets being chased by a cleaver-wielding butcher hoping to retrieve a stolen roast. The thief is Sage, a misch
March 30, 2012
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Chicago physicist takes people back to vanished life of postwar Europe
“Lately I have been overcome by an urge to put my affairs in order,” Peter Freund read, and within moments another world began to materialize in Sandmeyer’s Bookstore.It was postwar Europe, a place of deception and danger for a Romanian Jewish couple masquerading as Catholics in the German town of Dachau.In this and in Freund’s other stories, people try to glue together the shards of shattered worlds and lives. They fight for lost fortunes, outwit Swiss bankers, encounter spies and betrayers, ar
March 30, 2012
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At 98, once-illiterate US lobsterman is an author
James Arruda Henry had plenty to be proud of as a lobster boat captain who managed to build his own house and raise a family. But he kept a secret into his 90s, one that forced him to bluff his way through life by day and brought tears at night.Henry was illiterate. He couldn't even read restaurant
March 30, 2012
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Adrienne Rich, feminist poet and essayist, dies
SANTA CRUZ, California (AP) ― Poet Adrienne Rich, whose socially conscious verse influenced a generation of feminist, gay rights and anti-war activists, has died. She was 82.Rich died Tuesday at home from complications from rheumatoid arthritis, said her son, Pablo Conrad. She had lived in Santa Cruz since the 1980s.Through her writing, Rich explored topics such as women’s rights, racism, sexuality, economic justice and love between women.Rich published more than a dozen volumes of poetry and fi
March 29, 2012
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Lebanese author wins prize for Arabic fiction
ABU DHABI (AP) ― Organizers say a Lebanese author has won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his novel depicting life of a Christian egg seller after war, in exile and during imprisonment.The prize is a prestigious Arabic literary award, affiliated with the Booker Prize Foundation in LondonRabee Jaber’s “The Druse of Belgrade’’ is set in Beirut in the 1860s. The protagonist, Hanna Yacoub, has assumed a false identity of a Druse fighter after civil war and is sent into exile. The book
March 28, 2012
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Harry Potter novels available as eBooks
British author J.K. Rowling's seven Harry Potter books are for the first time available for all types of electronic readers.The eBook versions of the blockbuster fantasy novels can be purchased exclusively at Rowling's Pottermore.com Web site as of Tuesday.More than 450 million hard copies of the se
March 28, 2012
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Leading Italian novelist Antonio Tabucchi dies
ROME (AFP) ― Antonio Tabucchi, one of Italy’s leading contemporary writers and a ferocious critic of billionaire former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, died in Lisbon on Sunday at the age of 68.Tabucchi died of cancer in the country that had become his second home, according to Italy’s left-leaning newspaper La Repubblica, which worked closely with the author.His funeral will take place on Thursday in the Portuguese capital. “A friend, a fellow traveller, a man who lived with passion and rage,
March 26, 2012
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Hollywood trade magazine Variety up for sale
LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Variety, a trade magazine that has covered Hollywood for more than 100 years, is up for sale.Its owner, Reed Business Information, announced the decision Friday in a story on Variety’s website.Reed Chief Executive Mark Kelsey says it makes sense to sell the business just as Reed has sold its other U.S. print magazines. He said Reed is increasingly focused on data services.Variety has encountered stiff competition in covering the business of Hollywood from websites such as Dead
March 25, 2012
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Taking a bite out of reality TV
Chomp: A NovelBy Carl Hiaasen, Alfred A. (Knopf)South Florida is known for many things: Alligators, orange groves and the writer who spins the area’s most sensational attributes into even more sensational story lines, Carl Hiaasen. In his many best-sellers for adults and kids, Hiaasen has demonstrated a unique gift for wrapping real environmental issues into apocryphal, bust-a-gut books that parody pop culture ― a talent he furthers in his most recent middle-school novel, “Chomp.”In a crossover
March 23, 2012
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From quiet domesticity to sheer terror
Stay CloseBy Harlan Coben (Dutton) A hallmark of Harlan Coben’s best-sellers has been his precise look at ordinary people caught up in extraordinary situations, forced to deal with violence and the seamy side of life. These “family thrillers” are hauntingly realistic, showing how characters who could be our neighbors ― or ourselves ― discover an inner resolve.Coben’s 22nd novel spins a new approach to his family thrillers. In the excellent “Stay Close,” Coben shows us three people who know too w
March 23, 2012
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Magazine dedicates an issue to late POSCO founder
The Quarterly Asia: Park Tae-joon: A Memorial Issue(ASIA Publishers) ASIA, a bilingual quarterly which mainly features works of Asian literature, has dedicated its latest issue to the late POSCO founder Park Tae-joon. Park, who died of complications of lung disease last year, is considered one of the pioneers behind Korea’s post-war economic growth. The former general who participated in the Korean War (1950-1953) founded POSCO in 1968, which was then called Pohang Iron and Steel Company, and tu
March 23, 2012
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Jesmyn Ward writes on Hurricane Katrina
Another hot, drippy August envelopes the Batiste family and their tumbledown property in coastal Mississippi, but there’s an excited air surrounding what’s about to happen in the shed.Their crystal-white pit bull, China, tenderly cared for by 16-year-old Skeetah, is ready to give birth to her first litter. In the novel “Salvage the Bones,” author Jesmyn Ward explores that day and the next 11 in the lives of this Southern black family of five. All are struggling to find and fill their roles in th
March 23, 2012
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Dutch author wins Astrid Lindgren award
STOCKHOLM (AP) ― Dutch writer Guus Kuijer has been named this year’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children’s literature, honored for his ability to portray life’s big problems with humor and warmth, the prize jury said Tuesday.Kuijer, 69, has written more than 30 books since making his debut in 1975, releasing works such as “The Book of Everything’’ and “Florian Knol’’ ― mainly directed at adolescents entering their teen years.“Respect for children is as self-evident in his works as his re
March 21, 2012
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Leading economist to publish new book on welfare state
Universal welfare, as well as more regulations on the free market and chaebol reform are crucial in contemporary Korean economy, according to Chang Ha-joon, one of the leading heterodox economists in Korea. He spoke at a news conference held Monday to promote his upcoming book.The new book, “What to Choose: Cutting the Gordian Knot -- An Analysis of the Korean Economy,” co-authored by Chang, Lee Jong-tae and Jeong Seung-il, is an extension of the trio’s 2005 book “Cutting the Gordian Knot -- An
March 19, 2012
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Satisfying update on “Jane Eyre”
The Flight of Gemma HardyBy Margot Livesey(Harper)Scottish-born author Margot Livesey brings the country of her birth to blazing life in the thoroughly winning “The Flight of Gemma Hardy.”A delicious updating of “Jane Eyre” to the mid-20th century, the book shares many elements with Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 classic: an intelligent, plain-featured heroine who’s emotionally and physically abused by her aunts and cousins after being orphaned; privation and hardship as a “working student” at a boardi
March 16, 2012