Author Bae Su-ah to attend PEN World Voices Festival

Korean author Bae Su-ah has been invited to the PEN World Voices Festival, an annual literary festival underway in New York, LTI Korea said.Bae is one of about 150 writers from 30 countries who have been invited to the weeklong event, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Two other Korean writers, Hwang Sok-yong and Kim Young-ha, participated in the festival in 2009 and 2011, respectively.During the festival, Bae will read excerpts from her short story “Highway with Green Apples.” It

April 30, 2014

American mothers publish book on traditional Korean handicrafts

After adopting children from Korea more than 20 years ago, two American mothers and longtime friends, Debbi Kent and Joan Suwalsky, were both determined to raise their children in an environment that would expose their families to their kids’ native culture as much as possible. Making regular visits to the country over the past two decades, the two mothers fell in love with all things Korean culture, and more specifically, were fascinated by the tradition and history of Korean arts and crafts. “

April 29, 2014

[Herald Interview] Author chronicles mother’s remarkable journey

In 1961, at age 25, Faye Pinchbeck crossed the Pacific Ocean to be with her beloved, a Korean man 15 years her senior. The American woman from Connecticut met Stephen Moon (Moon Tong-hwan), well-known pastor and social activist, while studying to be a social worker at Hartford Seminary in the U.S., where Moon was working on his doctorial thesis in Christian Education as an international student. After landing in the port of Busan, Faye married Moon in Seoul on a snowy day. So began a remarkable

April 28, 2014

Bok Geo-il’s novel, play published in English

Two books written by Korean author Bok Geo-il have been published in English, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea said.One is Bok’s sci-fi novel “The Jovian Sayings,” which the author first penned in Korean in 2002. Bok translated the novel into English himself. The story is set in the 29th century, where robots and human beings live on a satellite near Jupiter called Ganymede.The other book, “The Unforgotten War,” is a play depicting the Battle of Jangjin Lake, also known as the Battl

April 24, 2014

Real Elizabeth Seton revealed

American Saint: The Life of Elizabeth SetonBy Joan Barthel (Thomas Dunne)Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was an American original. Born into New York’s upper crust in 1774, she was the daughter of a prominent doctor, raised a devout Episcopalian, married a well-to-do businessman, William Seton, had five children and worked with others from her parish, Trinity Church, to assist needy widows and children. When the Napoleonic Wars took several of his ships, William Seton suffered bankruptcy, and Elizabe

April 24, 2014

‘Shakespeare’ novel rewards patience

The Secret Life of William ShakespeareBy Jude Morgan (St. Martin’s)We know so much about William Shakespeare, and yet we know so little.Through documents public and private, we know that indeed Shakespeare did exist; we know about his family (his father, for instance, was a once-prominent leather worker in Stratford); we know he married a woman, Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older and who gave birth six months after their marriage; we know they had three children and their only son died at

April 24, 2014

Prolific writer lived a life full of contradictions

When John Updike died in 2009 at the age of 76, followers of American literature could not quite comprehend it. Novels, criticism and poetry (60 books) had flowed like a river from Updike’s pen since his years as a Harvard undergraduate. It was as if the writer vanished midsentence.One of Updike’s last public appearances before his lung-cancer diagnosis was in 2008 at Seattle Arts & Lectures ― at the time Updike thought he had “walking pneumonia.”He appeared with Seattle novelist David Guterson,

April 24, 2014

Peter Matthiessen tackled experience of being human

Peter Matthiessen, who died on April 5 at age 86 of complications from leukemia, was complex, even contradictory, in the most compelling sense. Born into privilege, he attended Hotchkiss boarding school and Yale and founded the Paris Review in 1953 with George Plimpton and Harold L. Humes. Yet he later became a Zen monk and in his own fashion was something of an ascetic.He was perhaps best known as a writer of nonfiction, particularly “The Snow Leopard,” the 1978 account of his trip to the Himal

April 17, 2014

‘Everything to Lose’ for a good cause

Everything to LoseBy Andrew Gross (Morrow)Who hasn’t thought that a bag of money could solve a lot of problems? But it’s also prudent to remember that money can be the root of evil, as the adage goes.Hilary Blum knows that money can’t really buy happiness but it could buy her some peace of mind. She’s drowning in debt, taking care of her 7-year-old autistic son, Brandon, who is finally thriving at his progressive, but pricey, private school. She doesn’t receive any help from her ex-husband, who

April 17, 2014

‘Blood Always Tells’ oozes plot twists

Blood Always TellsBy Hilary Davidson (Forge)Hilary Davidson puts aside her award-winning series about travel writer Lily Moore for an engrossing standalone thriller that revels in strong characters and exciting surprises.“Blood Always Tells” works well as a heartfelt, energetic story about greed, entitlement and the unbreakable bonds between siblings who never stop believing in each other. Davidson also works in a subtle but effective subtext about racial politics that gives “Blood Always Tells”

April 17, 2014

‘Doing Harm’ a medical page-turner

Doing HarmBy Kelly Parsons (St. Martin’s Press)Kelly Parsons’ highly entertaining debut delves deep into the ethics and competitiveness of the medical profession while exploring why doctors choose their careers. “Doing Harm” starts strong and never loses its momentum throughout the energetic plot infused with an intriguing look at modern medicine without being overwhelmed by the intricacies of the profession.“Doing Harm” also will scare anyone who has to go to the hospital.Steve Mitchell, the ch

April 17, 2014

Kathy Kulig and husband talk marriage and date night

Kathy Kulig was out of town for a business trip when she texted her husband, Joe.“Don’t be worried,” she wrote. “I learned to use a flogger tonight and I have a few bruises.”“Why should I be worried?” he replied.Attending a conference on bondage and sadomasochism is just business as usual for Kathy, whose latest erotic romance is “Summer Sins” (Ellora’s Cave).Her second career ― she has a day job in a medical laboratory ― has created a few relationship challenges, the Kuligs say, but not because

April 17, 2014

Why authors decide to self-publish

“I should write a book.” We’ve all heard that statement before from friends or family or co-workers. We might even have said it ourselves. We all have stories to tell, whether real or fictional.In the past, those who wrote a book faced a limited number of options: They shopped their manuscripts around to agents and editors at publishers, a process that could take years, if ever. Alternatively, they could contract with a vanity press for production that could cost them thousands of dollars. They

April 10, 2014

‘Dark Sacred Night’ rich in characters

And the Dark Sacred NightBy Julia Glass (Pantheon)Julia Glass can really do geezers. Her sure hand with the voices and idiosyncrasies of older men is the strongest thing about “And the Dark Sacred Night,” the third in a trio of novels featuring gay Scottish bookseller Fenno McLeod. He debuted in Glass’ National Book Award-winning “Three Junes” (2002), then returned in “The Whole World Over” (2006), where he got a boyfriend, a bantering, nurturing Greenwich Village restaurant owner named Walter.N

April 10, 2014

Book examines atomic era

The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic EraBy Craig Nelson (Scribner)There are few more mysterious and dangerous men in modern history than German nuclear scientist Werner Heisenberg, the man who could have given Adolf Hitler a nuclear bomb. That’s the joke behind the Heisenberg nickname for the mysterious science teacher/maniac meth cooker in “Breaking Bad.”The story that unfolds in Craig Nelson’s “The Age of Radiance” makes Walter White’s character seem laughably tam

April 10, 2014

Ehrenreich looks back on teenage encounter with reporter’s zeal

Barbara Ehrenreich never meant to write a memoir.“It seems very self-involved,” she says by phone from her home in Arlington, Virginia. “I have anxiety about it.”That anxiety is heightened at the moment because her new book, “Living With a Wild God: A Nonbeliever‘s Search for the Truth About Everything” (Twelve, $26), is as personal a piece of writing as she has ever done, built around a journal from her teenage years that traces both a spiritual quest and a youthful mystical experience, each ha

April 10, 2014

‘Border Patrol Nation’ describes immigration enforcement gone rogue

In his scathing and deeply reported examination of the U.S. Border Patrol, Todd Miller argues that the agency has gone rogue since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, trampling on the dignity and rights of the undocumented with military-style tactics.“The U.S. Border Patrol is not just the ‘men in green,’ it is a much larger complex and industrial world that spans from robotics, engineers, salespeople and detention centers to the incoming generation of children in its Explorer programs,” Miller writ

April 3, 2014

History and politics, not U.S. drive Putin in Ukraine: book

In the U.S. debate over the Ukraine crisis, with its inward focus on which U.S. administration has been the most naive about Vladimir Putin’s intentions, it’s easy to lose sight of the recent history that led him to judge he could get away with seizing the Crimean peninsula.Former President George W. Bush famously described looking into Putin’s soul, but he failed to block Putin’s dispatch of troops to Georgia, while Republicans now blame President Barack Obama’s attempt to “reset” tense relatio

April 3, 2014

Love, failed ambition and revenge

This Dark Road to MercyBy Wiley Cash (Morrow)Wiley Cash’s lyrical, poignant approach to storytelling ― an outstanding asset of his 2012 debut ― takes another leap forward in “This Dark Road to Mercy.”As he did in his first novel “A Land More Kind Than Home,” Wiley mixes crime fiction with bits of Southern Gothic for a graceful second novel that is steeped in strong characters driven by a longing to connect with each other. Using the caper ― a mystery category that often is underutilized ― Cash d

April 3, 2014

Why we all feel ‘Overwhelmed’

Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the TimeBy Brigid Schulte (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)Remember boredom? Fifty years ago, big thinkers were wringing their hands over an oncoming age of mass boredom prompted by ever-increasing worker productivity. The Harvard Business Review fretted in 1959 that “boredom, which used to bother only aristocrats, has become a common curse.”Needless to say, the curse has lifted. These days, most of us experience boredom only in th

April 3, 2014