Of all the classic noir writers, perhaps none has been as tarnished by the brush of genre as James M. Cain. That’s because Cain was not just a great hard-boiled novelist but a great novelist, period, whose vision of 1930s Southern California is as acute and resonant as anything ever written about that time and place. His first novel, “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” published when he was 42, is...

Ko Un, one of the most acclaimed living poets in Korea, shared his attachment for Prague and Czech culture at a Prague-themed book launch event held at Ceske Info Centrum (Czech Information Center) in Seoul, Thursday. The newly-released Korean language book, “Praha,” contains a total of 16 stories and essays about Prague by 14 established Czech writers, including Franz Kafka (1883-1924) and Jan ...

Murder and affection Photo Shop Murder By Kim Young-ha (Jimoondang, 5,000 won) Kim Young-ha, one of the leading contemporary literary voices of Korea, has been capturing both the absurd and the mundane in our society. One of his short stories, “Photo Shop Murder,” portrays modern individuals who are desperate for affection while completely losing their morals and values. The nameless protag...

Literature Still Matters The Use and Abuse of Literature By Marjorie Garber (Pantheon Books, $28.95) In an age that prizes short bursts of electronic information, Harvard English professor Marjorie Garber asks whether literature still matters. As might be expected of someone who has spent her career teaching Shakespeare to undergraduates, she answers with a resounding “yes.” Garber sets the ...

26-year-old author Amanda Hocking signs a book contract worth more than $2 million Amanda Hocking, a 26-year-old author in Austin, Minnesota who’s considered the biggest e-book seller in the world, has signed with an ink-and-paper publisher for a book contract reportedly worth more than $2 million. The four-book deal was confirmed Thursday by Hector DeJean, a spokesman for St. Martin’s Press. “...

Men may be overrepresented in the halls of power and executive suites, but a look around the bookshelves shows that boys are a great source of anxiety to teachers, parents and experts these days. One can’t escape titles like “The Trouble With Boys” and “Boys Adrift.” For a fascinating look into the world of boys and how they evolve into men, my money is on Hannah Pittard and her debut novel, “Th...

Career tips for working women Turn Your Passion into Your Career By Kim Joo-yeon (Business Books, 13,000 won) Being a working woman in Korea isn’t necessarily easy, especially when you are in your 20s and 30s. There are tough decisions to make between your career and family, and promotions and salaries to worry about. Being on good terms with everyone at work can be a challenge. For any wor...

Growing up in a port city Chinatown By Oh Jung-hee (Jimoondang, 5,000 won) Set in the port city of Incheon in the 1950s, author Oh Jung-hee’s novella “Chinatown” explores the theme of growing up in post-war Korea. The narrator is a 12-year-old elementary school girl who has recently moved to Incheon with her family after the Korean War. Her family settles in Incheon’s Chinatown, where the s...

The further they get from Jane Austen, the better the zombie mash-up books become. Enter “Dreadfully Ever After” by Steve Hockensmith, book three in a zombie trilogy that started with “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” which was a combination of Jane Austen’s classic novel of manners set in the early 1800s and contemporary zombie movie mania. The first in the series was “Dawn of the Dreadfuls” ...

Singer-songwriter’s new book tells story of fictional English composer John Wesley Harding is Wesley Stace. That is, Wesley Stace is John Wesley Harding. That is, they’re the same person. Folk-rocker Harding ― intelligent, bardic songwright ― is the nom de rock of Wesley Stace, novelist, whose splendid new book “Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer” is out now. As usual, all sorts of thi...

400-year-old translation still commands a loyal following CHICAGO ― On its 400th anniversary, the King James Version of the Bible is universally recognized as a literary masterpiece that profoundly shaped both modern Christianity and the English language. But at the Bible Baptist Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois, it’s accorded a much higher level of reverence. “Using anything but the King Ja...

A man torn by history Land of Banished By Jo Jung-rae (Jimoondang, 5,000 won) A heart-rending tale of a man warped by the hardships of the Korean War, Jo Jung-rae’s “Land of Banished” vividly portrays a victim of Korea’s checkered history. Mahn-seok, the protagonist, is born into a family of landless peasants in the late 1920s Korea. All the members of his family are servants of a nobleman c...

Journalist takes readers back to future Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything By David Sirota (Ballantine Books, $25) Ah, the 1980s. Those carefree years spent spinning the gears of Rubik’s Cubes, popping Pac-Man cartridges into Atari consoles, slipping on legwarmers or parachute pants, and checking out the latest episode...

A restlessness in her soul would not let Gloria House be. She was a graduate student in 1963 studying French at the University of California at Berkeley. But how could she study when four little black girls were blown to bits by dynamite that tore through their Birmingham, Ala., church? And when the bodies of three boys ― two white, one black ― who’d gone south to help black people, were found ...