Battling for humanity and herself

PartialsBy Dan WellsBalzer & Bray Blame Suzanne Collins if you will. But the dystopian trend in young adult fiction isn’t going away. If anything, it’s growing even stronger in the run-up to the movie based on her book “The Hunger Games” as publishers rush in with their Next Big Things.Readers who enjoy headstrong feminist leads making their way through post-apocalyptic incarnations of major U.S. cities set in the not-too-distant future will find plenty to like in “Partials,” the kickoff to a ne

March 2, 2012

[New Book] Crafty, fun spin on the werewolf genre

The Wolf GiftBy Anne Rice(Knopf)When Glen Duncan’s fabulously sinister and moving “The Last Werewolf” came out in July, it set an almost unreachably high bar for the lycanthrope subgenre, in much the same way Anne Rice’s 1976 classic “Interview With the Vampire” did for fang lit.Now here comes Rice with her own take on the wolf-man legend, “The Wolf Gift,” a fast-paced, heady romp that ranks with her best. I still give “The Last Werewolf” the edge, by the teensiest smidgen, because of its operat

March 2, 2012

Introduction to Won Buddhism

The Moon of the Mind Rises in Empty SpaceBy Prime Dharma Master Kyongsan(Seoul Selection) Many foreigners will find Won Buddhism unfamiliar compared to other forms of Korean Buddhism. It was in fact founded in the 20th century, and is claimed to be a “reformed and modernized Buddhism” which combines Buddhism with Confucianism and Daoism.By picking up this English-language book written by the Ven. Kyongsan, who is the fifth Prime Darma Master of Won Buddhism, one can learn about the key ideas of

March 2, 2012

Legacy for sale: Hemingway boyhood home on the block ― and under Wright’s shadow

In the world of legacies, Oak Park, Illinois, has a couple of biggies.The brilliant, scandalous architect Frank Lloyd Wright spent the first 20 years of his career there, leaving the western suburb with the world’s largest collection of buildings he designed.Then there’s the brilliant, scandalous writer Ernest Hemingway, who was born in Oak Park and spent nearly his first 20 years there, writing his earliest pieces, gaining an appreciation for nature and dreaming of worldly adventures.Frank Lloy

March 2, 2012

[NewBook] Feldman casts a tale of abandonment, self-reinvention

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic RootsBy Deborah Feldman(Simon & Schuster) From the materials of a life resembling one of the darker Grimm’s fairy tales, young memoirist Deborah Feldman gives us “Unorthodox,” a true story of abandonment, twisted caretakers, arranged marriage and sexual misery. Denied every kind of nourishment except the doughy, shimmering plates of food obsessively produced by her Holocaust-survivor grandmother, this proud, stubborn girl, nonetheless, heard and

Feb. 24, 2012

[New Book] LaCour’s new work plays the soundtrack of young lives

The DisenchantmentsBy Nina LaCour (Dutton)The summer after high school is a time when senioritis gives way to the anticipation of life’s next chapter. For most middle-class high school graduates, that next chapter means packing up and heading to college. In Nina LaCour’s young-adult novel “The Disenchantments,” it involves a weeklong tour of an all-girl band (which gives its name to the book’s title), during which two best friends reconcile their disparate aspirations and affections for each oth

Feb. 24, 2012

[Eye Read] North Korean refugee shares his life story

This is Paradise! My North Korean ChildhoodBy Kang Hyok with Philippe GrangereauTranslated by Shaun WhitesideFrench journalist Philippe Grangereau first met North Korean refugee Kang Hyok back in 2003 in Prague. Kang, who was 17 at the time, had been invited by the People in Need Foundation to the fourth conference of the South Korean NGO “North Korean Human Rights.” The young boy was asked to share his life story in North Korea with two other refugees in their forties.The journalist recalls Kan

Feb. 24, 2012

Revolving trust: ‘Watergate’ dives inside inner circles of Nixon White House

Even the biggest secrets have secrets lurking behind them.And, Thomas Mallon suggests in his absorbing new novel “Watergate,” America’s biggest and dirtiest revealed secret was no exception.The 30th anniversary of the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel is this June, and for many Americans, the cover-up and scandal that followed has become both a time marker and trivia.But the drama that led to the first and only resignation of a sitting U.S. president w

Feb. 24, 2012

From Guitar Hero ace to guitar god?

Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of LearningBy Gary Marcus (Penguin Press)Spending countless hours playing the video game Guitar Hero has fostered an illusion among many middle-age guys. It’s not too late to be a guitar god.Then they discover something: There’s a big difference between the colored plastic buttons on the guitar-shaped game control and the six strings of an actual guitar. But is the difference insurmountable?Gary Marcus set out to answer that question in “Guitar Zero:

Feb. 17, 2012

Exploring bonds, boundaries of friendship

Friends Like Us By Lauren Fox(Knopf) As I read Lauren Fox’s new novel, I dog-eared the pages with witty lines, or impressively bitter ones, or ones that made me laugh.Please forgive me, Alfred A. Knopf, for what I’ve done to your book. I hadn’t intended to make origami out of it.Willa, her narrator, describes her parents’ marriage as “another planet, a harsh, extraterrestrial climate ― scalding mornings followed by blue-black evenings so frigid no life could possible be sustained there.”She take

Feb. 17, 2012

Scholar looks into architecture in Seoul

City as Art ― 100 Notable Works of Architecture in SeoulBy Yim Seok-jae(Hollym)From Gyeongbokgung to the old Seoul Station, it’s easy to spot historically significant buildings in Seoul. The city boasts a long history dating back to the Three Kingdoms period (B.C. 57-A.D. 688) and served as the national capital of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897) for some 600 years. And as a result of rapid modernization and economic development in the last 60 years, Seoul also houses skyscrapers as well as other

Feb. 17, 2012

‘Real Housewives’ star’s troubled life played out on TV ― now comes her book

After “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Taylor Armstrong’s husband, Russell, killed himself in August 2011, Armstrong could have pulled back from the spotlight. Instead, she sought comfort in it.Five weeks after her husband’s death, Armstrong appeared on “Dr. Phil,” speaking about allegations that later would be unleashed on the Bravo reality TV series: that Russell physically and emotionally abused her. Six months after Russell’s death, she has released a tell-all book about their marriag

Feb. 17, 2012

Solo living book challenges family life

Going SoloBy Eric Klinenberg(The Penguin Press)Living in families, though traditional and almost universal on this evolving planet, is experiencing an unplanned but effective attack, according to a new book.Author Eric Klinenberg, professor of sociology at New York University, sees lessons to be learned. He sums them up in his subtitle: “The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone.”What good is living alone? Isolate yourself from all your friends? No wife? No husband? No mother?

Feb. 10, 2012