Gong shares journey of faith

Best-selling novelist Gong Ji-young, who has openly discussed themes including dictatorship, feminism and the labor movement in her works, recently published a new book on faith and her own spiritual journey, which also includes a section on her encounter with the Holy Spirit. “More of the Monastery Travelogue 2” chronicles her visits to 11 monasteries here and abroad, including Waegwan Abbey in North Gyeongsang Province and Monte Cassino Abbey in Italy, over a three-year period. It has been 13

Nov. 27, 2014

Rise, fall and sale of multiculturalism in U.S.

Jeff Chang remembers the first time he saw the comic strip “Wee Pals” and the jolt it gave his young mind. Right there, on the comics pages that were generally colorless even when they ran in full color, was an Asian-American face looking back at him.“I could relate to it,” he says by phone as he drives to a reading of his new book, “Who We Be: The Colorization of America” (St. Martin’s, $32.99). “I thought, hey, I’m on the funny pages.”“Wee Pals,” Morrie Turner’s strip about the adventures and

Nov. 27, 2014

‘Blue Avenue’ channels classic noir

Blue AvenueBy Michael Wiley (Severn House)Jacksonville, Florida, author Michael Wiley takes a measured walk on the dark side in his intriguing thriller “Blue Avenue” that channels classic noir author James M. Cain and the Coen Brothers’ debut film, “Blood Simple.”While Wiley’s fourth novel launches his new series about Jacksonville police detective Daniel Turner, “Blue Avenue” belongs to shady businessman William “BB” Byrd, whose obsessions drive the plot. Turner’s role as more of an observer al

Nov. 27, 2014

‘Family Furnishings’ deep, surprising

The most astonishing aspect of Alice Munro’s “Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014” may be its chronology. The two dozen efforts here come from late in her career, after she had established herself as (perhaps) the preeminent short-fiction writer of her time.Munro’s first book came out in 1968; she had already received pretty much every award possible before winning the Nobel Prize in literature in 2013. Yet rather than fall into any sort of expected pattern, she has, as Jane Smiley n

Nov. 27, 2014

‘See You in Paradise’ plays with genre

See You in ParadiseBy J. Robert Lennon (Graywolf Press)“Most contemporary literary fiction is terrible: mannered, conservative and obvious,” J. Robert Lennon stated on Salon, responding to another acclaimed writer urging students to read any new fiction they can in the major literary magazines and anthologies.This might be surprising or even hypocritical from Lennon, who is published in elite magazines like Granta and The New Yorker.But Lennon urges his students to read whatever they are natural

Nov. 27, 2014

‘Revival’ asks if there is life after death

RevivalBy Stephen King (Scribner)A page-turning tug-of-war between reformed rocker Jamie Morton and man of faith Charles Jacobs, “Revival” (King’s second novel this year after spring’s “Mr. Mercedes”) fuses human drama with supernatural horror. As has become King’s wont over the past decade, much of the tale wrestles with the idea of mortality.The 67-year-old author has found the sweetness in aging, although his reflections upon growing older are always tinged with a little sadness and fear.Mort

Nov. 27, 2014

Author recounts friendship with late President Roh

Not many people can say that they were close with the late former President Roh Moo-hyun, even though he was known for his folksy disposition and down-to-earth upbringing. Kim Soo-kyung, a 65-year-old woman of many titles including poet, businesswoman and book editor, however, confidently refers to Roh (1946-2009) as one of her friends. They first met at a Korean barbecue restaurant in Mapo-gu, western Seoul, in 1989. They ate together, went to a noraebang (karaoke) with other friends and talked

Nov. 20, 2014

Shields writes of life with mother

There was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and MeBy Brooke Shields (Dutton)Brooke Shields, the iconic model-actress-Princeton grad, entered the literary scene in 2005 with her memoir about postpartum depression. This time, she sheds light on the relationship she shared with her mother, and it’s a well-crafted and insightful read from beginning to end. It would be a shame to dismiss “There Was a Little Girl” as a celebrity tell-all. Instead, it’s a thoughtful, poignant and provoking sto

Nov. 20, 2014

‘Woman with a Gun’ feels like movie

Woman with a GunBy Phillip Margolin (Harper)Phillip Margolin takes a lighter approach with “Woman with a Gun,” an entertaining novel that, however, lacks the tight plotting and insight into the law of his legal thrillers.Instead, “Woman with a Gun” is more like a Lifetime movie with pedantic dialogue, a few improbable twists, romance and revenge. Still, some of us like Lifetime movies and, despite its flaws, “Woman with a Gun” makes one want to know what’s behind the photograph of a woman at the

Nov. 20, 2014

‘Rain Reign’ shows love for ‘special’ kids

Rain ReignBy Ann M. Martin (Feiwel & Friends)If Rose Howard’s family was well off, she’d be a “special” girl who was considered smart and quirky by the teachers at her private school for children who have Asperger’s syndrome.But Rose, the main character and the narrator of “Rain Reign” by Ann Martin, has a dad with a sometimes job in a garage and a career drinking in the nearby bar, so instead Rose is a bit of trouble. She disrupts her fifth-grade class, gets kicked off the school bus and bugs m

Nov. 20, 2014

Baldacci’s novel tugs at heart strings

The EscapeBy David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing)One of the most compelling characters in David Baldacci’s thrillers is John Puller, a crackerjack investigator of military crimes. In “The Forgotten” and “Zero Day,” readers learned that Puller has an older brother, Robert, who is serving a life sentence for treason. In “The Escape,” Baldacci reveals the reason for Robert’s imprisonment. The story begins on a stormy night in Kansas. There’s a major power failure at Robert’s maximum security p

Nov. 20, 2014

‘Gutenberg’s Apprentice’ tells story of how printed Bible came to be

The world is about to change.Europe in 1450 is a godly place, and books are sacred and scarce. Each is hand-lettered by a scribe, directed by the hand of the Almighty.In Alix Christie’s telling of how Johann Gutenberg’s revolutionary printed Bible took form, overcoming the idea of a mechanically produced holy book is a serious concern. Peter Schoeffer, a young scribe who is the apprentice of the book’s title, views the idea as the work of the devil.Schoeffer, an actual historical figure who was

Nov. 20, 2014

Herbie Hancock’s memoir recalls a creative life and all that jazz

Herbie Hancock has had the kind of career that’s unlikely to ever be duplicated. Appearing on landmark recordings with Miles Davis as well as his own band in the 1960s, Hancock memorably scaled to even greater fame while fusing jazz and funk with the Headhunters in the ’70s and becoming the first crossover hip-hop artist in the early ’80s with the Grammy-winning “Rockit.”It’s a life marked by sonic evolution and a restless, even relentless drive toward creative expression that remains undiminish

Nov. 20, 2014

Yi Yook-sa’s poems published in English

During his short life, Yi Yook-sa (1904-44), a Korean poet and independence activist, composed only about 40 poems. Yet his compelling poems, written during the darkest period of modern Korean history, captured the heroic spirit of the Korean people’s resistance and the nationalist movement against Japanese colonial rule. “The Vertex” is an anthology of 36 of Yi’s poems, in both Korean and English, compiled and translated by Lee Sung-il, a professor emeritus of English literature at Yonsei Unive

Nov. 19, 2014

Translation award honors Suh Ji-moon

When emeritus professor Suh Ji-moon first began translating Korean literature into English in the 1970s, she used to write by hand or use a typewriter, which required writing and retyping over and over again before submission. Though times have changed, the prominent Korean scholar with a 40-year career in teaching, research and literary translation still admits that translating is difficult, often accompanied by frustration and distress. Yet, it is a fulfilling experience, just like a time-cons

Nov. 18, 2014

Final volume of Hockney biography

David Hockney: The Biography, 1975-2012By Christopher Simon Sykes (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) More than halfway through the second volume of his vivid, intimate biography of British artist David Hockney, Christopher Simon Sykes describes the moment in the 1980s when Hockney discovers the creative possibilities of the photocopy machine. A natural talent who drew from the moment he could pick up a pencil, Hockney falls deeply in love with the density of copier inks ― “the most beautiful black I had

Nov. 13, 2014

New thriller from Preston & Child

Blue LabyrinthBy Douglas Preston and/Lincoln Child (Grand Central Pulishing)A family secret over 100 years old comes back to haunt FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s latest thriller, “Blue Labyrinth.” A knock on Pendergast’s door propels the story when it’s opened to reveal a tied-up corpse. The deceased is his estranged son. What’s found on the body leads Pendergast to an abandoned mine, and as he discovers deception and treachery, he also learns uncomf

Nov. 13, 2014

Denis Johnson explores dark side of Africa

The Laughing MonstersBy Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)Denis Johnson, winner of the National Book Award for his Vietnam-era opus “Tree of Smoke,” has jumped genres again in “The Laughing Monsters,” a new thriller set in Africa. Johnson has done chameleon-like genre switches before, producing the noirish “Nobody Move” that evokes Elmore Leonard’s style and a Western of sorts, “Train Dreams,” that has a dash of Cormac McCarthy. Both books are solid works in their own right. “The Laughing M

Nov. 13, 2014