Author struggles to accept daughter’s death

Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats By Roger Rosenblatt(Ecco)A year after his only daughter died at age 38 of an asymptomatic heart condition, Roger Rosenblatt wrote an essay in The New Yorker titled, “Making Toast.” He describes how he and his wife moved into Amy’s house in Bethesda, Md., to help their son-in-law care for the couple’s three small children, and how the myriad, mundane activities of child-rearing provided a measure of solace for his inconsolable grief.His l

Jan. 6, 2012

‘Karaoke Culture’: An original essay on unoriginality

Dubravka Ugresic does not like karaoke. That doesn’t stop her from trying it, just as her resistance to celebrity doesn’t stop her from putting her head through a cutout on a Hollywood studio tour so that she can be photographed with Clark Gable. Ugresic, a game and inquisitive critic, looks at culture from all angles, which sometimes means picking up the mic.Karaoke recycles rather than creates, she argues in “Karaoke Culture,” the 100-page essay that lends its name to the title of her new coll

Jan. 6, 2012

Easy guide to Korean Buddhist practices and Templestay

The Essence of the Korean Buddhist Practices: 6 Ways to the HeartBy Seong Jae-hyeonTranslated by Hong Hee-yon(Bulkwang Publishing)Ever wondered why Korean Buddhists bow the way they do, or recite the name of the Buddha?Though Korea’s Templestay ― in which participants can lead the life of a Buddhist monk for a few days at a local temple ― have attracted many foreign visitors, there haven’t been a lot of English-language resources on Korean Buddhist practices and their meanings. For anyone who wa

Jan. 6, 2012

Late author’s lost work published after 47 years

‘Green Zone’ by Park Kyung-ni explores ‘Korean Beat Generation’ in the ’60sLate prominent writer Park Kyung-ni is largely remembered for her famous historical sagas, including her 16-volume novel “Toji (The Land)” and “The Daughters of Pharmacist Kim.” She created her masterpieces mostly by exploring the turbulent history of Korea during the 20th century, from the Japanese colonial period to the Korean War.Yet readers will discover the late author’s relatively unknown flair for contemporary fict

Jan. 4, 2012

New Books

A poignant reliving of a teen’s first romanceWhy We Broke UpBy Daniel Handler(Brown) Most of us have been there, experiencing the unprecedented high of a first love followed by the debilitating low when it crumbles. But few of these tragic trajectories have been written about as poignantly as in “Why We Broke Up.” The young-adult debut from Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket, is an illustrated novel that is its own series of unfortunate events, chronicling a brief but intense teen re

Dec. 30, 2011

Rocker-poet-artist-mother’s many facets seen in slim volume

One thing I’ve always admired about Patti Smith is her refusal to be characterized. Rocker, poet, artist, mother: She seems to inhabit each of these roles almost effortlessly, moving among them as if the only difference was in our heads. And why not? For Smith, they all come out of the same impulse, a kind of ecstatic self-engagement, in which the line separating life and creativity, the mundane and the mystical, is an illusion, a border we create to bound ourselves. “Oh, God, I fell for you,” s

Dec. 30, 2011

Crushingly beautiful, achingly sad slice of a Chinese nightmare

The Rape of Nanjing is foreground and backdrop of Ha Jin’s novel “Nanjing Requiem.” A fictionalized yet faithful portrayal of events during that nightmare time, “Nanjing Requiem” is two tragedies in one, a vast tragedy for the human race and a terrible misfortune for a good person, repaid for selflessness with disregard and mental breakdown.Despite the screams of pain and chatter of machine guns, despite the clash and conflict, “Nanjing Requiem” remains muted in memory. What you most remember, o

Dec. 30, 2011

In digital age, coffee-table books still catch eye

When architect and design firm owner Steve Kadlec was asked recently whether bookshelves were becoming obsolete in the iPad age, he wisecracked: “Who reads books? We buy them for pretty!”He was only half-joking. With digital competition, hardcover books are being judged by their covers more than ever before, some earning their keep in the home and heart by doubling as objets d’art.“It’s sort of a trite phrase, but when you have people over, you don’t show off your iPad library,” said Josh Baker,

Dec. 23, 2011

New Books

A quest to make new friendsMWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best FriendBy Rachel Bertsche(Ballantine Books)Making friends shouldn‘t be complicated. We’ve been doing it since we were kids, right?But for many of us, as a new book points out, “friend-making is not the natural process it used to be.” Chicago transplant and journalist Rachel Bertsche discovers this the hard way when she finds herself without close friends to speak of, two years after moving. She comes up with a game plan

Dec. 23, 2011

Chamber publishes book on French eateries

The French Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry launched the First Guidebook on French Restaurants in Korea this week, the first publication of its kind. “The 72 restaurants and bistros in this Guidebook will surprise you by their succulent dishes, their decoration mixing French and Korean styles, and their variety; you will find the right place to go out with friends, for a business lunch or dinner, or with your family,” said FKCCI President David-Pierre Jalicon.To reach a wider base, 24 res

Dec. 22, 2011

Hwang Sok-yong’s novel published in Sweden

Author Hwang Sok-yong’s novel “The Ancient Garden” was published in Sweden last month, according to the Korea Literature Translation Institute.The novel, which Hwang published in Korea in 2000 after many years in political exile and five years in prison, was translated into Swedish by translators Anders Karlsson and Park Ok-Kyoung. The duo previously translated Hwang’s 1998 novel, “The Chronicle of a Man Named Han,” in 2007 and the edition was published in Sweden that same year. Both of the nove

Dec. 20, 2011

NEW BOOKS

A young Vietnamese girl’s migration to Alabama in the 1970sInside Out & Back Again By Thanhha Lai(HarperCollins)The United States prides itself on being a melting pot, but the many immigrant stories that make up our uniquely American stew aren‘t always known or published by the mainstream press. Take Thanhha Lai, who, in her recent National Book Award winner, “Inside Out & Back Again,” chronicles her family’s move to the U.S. from her native Vietnam in 1975.This novel in verse, based on Lai‘s ex

Dec. 16, 2011

Book introduces Korean art galleries, museums

Museums & Galleries: Displaying Korea’s Past and Future(Seoul Selection)Art galleries and museums in Korea are relatively little known to the outside world ― at least when compared to the explosive popularity of K-pop. Yet many would be surprised to discover that the history of Korean museums dates back more than 100 years, and Korea now has 11 national museums nationwide ― unified by Seoul’s iconic National Museum of Korea completed in 2005.Korea Foundation and Seoul Selection’s newly released

Dec. 16, 2011

A dark ‘Noel’: Batman meets Charles Dickens

Somewhere out there, there’s a version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” where clerk Bob Cratchit takes an axe to his employer, Scrooge, steals his cashbox and escapes to the Bahamas without his family. The story has been reinterpreted time and time again in stage, screen, animation, book and probably ancient Greek.Now Batman (aka the Dark Knight) meets Charles Dickens in “Batman: Noel” a graphic novel by artist Lee Bermejo. (For those who read comics only irregularly, a graphic novel is a

Dec. 16, 2011

An American abroad and on a mission

Few writers are known for combining dark humor and environmentalism in their fiction; in fact, Lydia Millet may be the only member of that club. For her efforts, in the short story collection “Love in Infant Monkeys,” she was named a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize. “Ghost Lights,” her first book since then, is the middle novel of a trilogy that began with 2008’s “How the Dead Dream.”Literary trilogies may be hard to enter midstream, but Millet has made it easy for those not familiar with t

Dec. 16, 2011