New Books

Grafton has another choice letterV Is for VengeanceBy Sue Grafton(Marian Wood Book/G.P. Putnam’s Sons)“V Is for Vengeance,” and it’s also for very, very good.With just a few letters remaining in Sue Grafton’s alphabet series of mysteries, the author has hit a high mark with her latest offering, a complex tale of love, betrayal, ambition and, of course, murder.“V Is for Vengeance” begins with Kinsey Millhone nursing a broken nose (and two black eyes) that she got from poking it into other people’

Nov. 18, 2011

The development of music in 20th century Korea

Harmonia Koreana ― A short History of 20th-ceuntry Korean music By Kim Choon-mee(Hollym)For anyone interested in the history behind present-day K-pop and Hallyu, Kim Choon-mee’s English-language book “Harmonia Koreana” offers an interesting overview of how different forms of music took form in Korea throughout the 20th century. Kim begins the book by examining how Western classical music, largely introduced by Christian missionaries, influenced Korea’s leading musicians from the late 19th to the

Nov. 18, 2011

Lewis’ storytelling skills put more economic tales on the bestseller list

Growing up in New Orleans, writer Michael Lewis learned three lessons that stuck with him for life:―Success and happiness are very different things.―Never become a lawyer.―You don’t need to come from a bookish environment to know how to spin a helluva story.Maybe the storytelling part, Lewis speculates, stems from another thing New Orleans taught him. With its Creole-Cajun culture and hedonistic ethos, the Crescent City schooled him to view his native country like a skeptical foreigner trying to

Nov. 18, 2011

English-language guide to K-pop published

The Korean Culture and Information Service published “K-Pop: A New Force in Pop Music” this week amid growing K-pop fever overseas. The 93-page pocket book, the second volume in the K-Culture series, explains in detail the history of K-pop, how K-pop began to make a splash overseas, where the phenomenon might be headed and also introduces some of the most popular K-pop artists. Korean pop was strongly influenced by Western pop music, diversifying through many stages of copying, translation and i

Nov. 16, 2011

Fantasy fuels hope: Vikas Swarup

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ author and Indian diplomat shares thoughts on writing, his country“Slumdog Millionaire,” the 2008 mega-hit adaptation of Vikas Swarup’s debut novel, is the ultimate feel-good movie. The film depicts how an orphan from an Indian slum with a painful past wins a fortune on a TV game show. High-flying Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup, whose 2005 debut novel “Q & A” later became the basis of the multiple Oscar-winning movie, admitted that the story may only be a fantasy. But althoug

Nov. 16, 2011

New book offers glimpse of Jackson’s personal life

NEW YORK (AP) ― A personal assistant turned personal manager to Michael Jackson said the King of Pop had been taking propofol as early as 1999, and that the singer was drugged up ahead of his 2001 30th anniversary concerts.Frank Cascio, who became a family friend to Jackson at age 5 and eventually one of the singer’s closest friends and employees, writes in a new book that he first noticed Jackson taking the drug Demerol while accompanying the singer on his “Dangerous” tour in 1993.He writes in

Nov. 13, 2011

New Books

Laurie writes absorbing memoirLearning to Live Out Loud: A MemoirBy Piper Laurie (Crown Archetype)Rosetta Jacobs was a bright and thoughtful child but struggled to express herself. Only after she was a teenager and theater marquees began carrying her new name — Piper Laurie — did the quiet girl from Detroit begin to find the strength to speak up.It would take time and heartache for her to reach a full-throated freedom.“Learning to Live Out Loud” is Laurie‘s absorbing memoir about that personal t

Nov. 11, 2011

Thompson’s novel ‘Rum Diary’ displays his forming thoughts before fame arrived

Toward the end of “The Rum Diary,” the film based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel, there’s a scene that appears to come straight from the author’s vintage work.Two journalists are sitting around a derelict San Juan, Puerto Rico, apartment, having just ingested an unknown hallucinogen. Nothing happens until one of them ― a Thompson stand-in named Paul Kemp, played by Johnny Depp ― sees the other’s tongue start to grow out of his mouth like some tubular pink snake.Depp humps and haws, his manneris

Nov. 11, 2011

New Books

Brokaw urges people to make a differenceThe Time of Our Lives: A Conversation About AmericaBy Tom Brokaw(Random House)Just in time for the 2012 general election, Tom Brokaw has written a book that begins with the sentence: “What happened to the America I thought I knew?” It’s easy to imagine Republicans and Democrats flipping through it for ideas on how to avoid another debt ceiling debate, improve educational opportunities for all, or pursue green energy initiatives.But Brokaw didn’t write the

Nov. 4, 2011

Eye Read

Diaspora – Korean NomadismBy Kim Jung-rak(Hollym)What was it like for late artist Paik Nam-june (1932-2006) to leave his home country and study art overseas?Scholar Kim Jung-rak’s book, “Diaspora- Korean Nomadism” features the lives of Korea’s nomadic artists who have broken into the international art scene over the past 50 years.Kim begins the book by introducing the terms “nomadism” and “diaspora,” using them as the main concepts to engage the nomadic experience of the Korean artists in moder

Nov. 4, 2011

Didion talks about the fears that harried the writing of ‘Blue Nights’

“Writers,” Joan Didion observed in 1968, “are always selling somebody out.” It’s one of those classic Didion statements, epigrammatic yet personal, a line that unpacks itself the more we consider what it implies. Didion may have been referring to journalism when she wrote that in the preface to “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” but she was also, as directly as can be imagined, addressing herself.“My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and s

Nov. 4, 2011

‘Song of the Sword’ German translation honored

Heidi Kang, Ahn So-hyun win Daesan Literary Award for TranslationHeidi Kang, a German-born translator and former professor, is the co-winner of the 19th Daesan Literary Award, Daesan Foundation announced Tuesday. The award was given for her German translation of author Kim Hoon’s highly acclaimed novel, “Schwertgesang” (The Song of the Sword).Kang jointly translated the novel, which chronicles the life of Joseon’s most celebrated naval commander Admiral Yi Sun-sin (1545-1598), with translator Ah

Nov. 1, 2011

New Books

Tantalizing images set in a new lightThe Chronicles of Harris Burdick: 14 Amazing Authors Tell the Tales By Chris Van Allsburg and contributing writers(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)For 26 years, it‘s been one of kid lit’s greatest mysteries: Who was Harris Burdick, and why did he leave 14 of his cryptically captioned illustrations with one Peter Wenders back in 1984?If author Lemony Snicket’s introduction is to be believed, Burdick is by now “either very old, quite dead, or both.” The 14 chronicles

Oct. 28, 2011

Kim In-suk writes on Korean expatriate experience

The Long Road By Kim In-suk(MerwinAsia Publishing) In Korea’s literary scene, most recognized works deal with the shared experience of life in Korea. However, award-winning author Kim In-suk and her literary interests are an exception: She is one of the few writers to write extensively on the Korean expatriate experience. And her 1995 work “The Long Road” is the only work of Korean expat fiction that has been translated into English. Though the 48-year-old was born in Seoul and lived here till h

Oct. 28, 2011

‘Steve Jobs’ delves deep into complex man’s life

“Steve Jobs” (Simon & Schuster), by Walter Isaacson: “Steve Jobs” takes off the rose-colored glasses that often follow an icon’s untimely death and instead offers something far more valuable: The chronicle of a complex, brash genius who was crazy enough to think he could change the world -- and did.

Oct. 25, 2011