The Korea Herald

Charming stories of English village life in 'Notwithstanding'

Nov 16, 2016

“Notwithstanding” By Louis de Bernieres Vintage (372 pages, $16) “Notwithstanding,” the new collection of 22 short stories from Louis de Bernieres, is utterly charming. And, no, that’s not damning...
Short, masterful take on Hitchcock's life and works

Nov 16, 2016

“Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life” By Peter Ackroyd Doubleday (276 pages, $26.95) There are days when an 800-page biography of some fascinating person is just what we want to dive into. And then, th...
In ‘Mister Monkey,’ solo voices create harmony

Nov 9, 2016

“Mister Monkey” By Francine Prose Harper (285 pages, $26.99) Francine Prose’s “Mister Monkey,” a novel about a very bad musical, leaves you with the feeling you have after watching a really good m...
A journalist takes on China in ‘Boat Rocker’

Nov 9, 2016

“The Boat Rocker” By Ha Jin Pantheon (240 pages, $25.95) “You’re like a little turtle attempting to rock a boat shared by two huge countries.” Hence the title of Ha Jin’s “The Boat Rocker,” in wh...
James Buchanan resonates in current climate

Nov 9, 2016

“Enough Said” By Mark Thompson St. Martin’s (342 pages, $27.99) “Worst. President. Ever” By Robert Strauss Lyons (257 pages, $26.95) The United States of America is a place made of words. In t...
Belafonte, Mantel among this year’s ‘Library Lions’

Nov 8, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- Being named a “Library Lion” by the New York Public Library was one of Harry Belafonte’s easier awards. “I was pleasantly surprised when I learned about this,” the activist and ente...
In ‘Truevine,’ complex tale of racial exploitation, dogged reporting

Nov 3, 2016

"Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother’s Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South” By Beth Macy Little, Brown and Company (432 pages, $28) Beth Macy started hearing the stories back ...
Jean Kennedy Smith writes of childhood in famous political family

Nov 3, 2016

“The Nine of Us” By Jean Kennedy Smith Harper (272 pages, $29.99) Jean Kennedy Smith takes comfort in memory in her new book, “The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy.” Now 88, the last of her parents’...
Al Capone bio suffers from acceptance of relatives' stories as fact

Nov 3, 2016

“Capone” By Deirdre Bair Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (395 pages, $30) Go into any souvenir store on a touristy Chicago street and behold the man: Al Capone. His visage will adorn T-shirts, refrigerato...
Accepting award, Murakami warns against excluding outsiders

Nov 1, 2016

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami warned against excluding outsiders and rewriting history as he accepted the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award. Murakami spoke Sunday in Odense, ...
Dylan tells Swedish Academy he accepts Nobel Prize

Oct 30, 2016

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Bob Dylan has accepted the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature, the Swedish Academy said, adding that getting the prestigious award left him “speechless.‘’ The academy's perm...
What happened when Nadia got pregnant?

Oct 26, 2016

“The Mothers” By Brit Bennett Riverhead (278 pages, $26) The Mothers of Upper Room Chapel are worried about the future: “Anyone knows a church is only as good as its women, and when we all passed ...
Memoir of ‘Glamour and Dysfunction’

Oct 26, 2016

“Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction” By Tama Janowitz Dey Street Books (304 pages, $25.99) When author Tama Janowitz was 15 years old, her pothead father suggested she enter a wet T-shirt...
New biography explores real-life Victorian horror behind Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’

Oct 26, 2016

“Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man who Wrote ‘Dracula’” By David J. Skal Liveright (652 pages, $35) Several years ago, I read the book “Dracula” for the first time, ...
MacArthur and Truman face off in H.W. Brands’ new history

Oct 26, 2016

After nearly seven decades, it is easy to forget the fierce, frantic terrors of the early Cold War. Despite victory in World War II, America had lost its nuclear monopoly because of Soviet spies, wa...