Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Self-publishing or vanity press? The answer may surprise you
If author Tina Folsom let big publishing stand in her way, she never would have become a millionaire.In 2010, after more than 30 literary agents and publishers rejected “Samson’s Lovely Mortal,” the first in her series about lusty vampires, the San Francisco romance writer decided to self-publish her book on Amazon.com.Today, Folsom, 46, has made it e-big. She has generated at least $33,000 a month since December 2010 selling her full-length books, novellas and short stories online. In November
Aug. 23, 2012
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Jogye Order publishes bilingual series on Korean Buddhism
Late Ven. Jigwan’s ambitious project comes together seven months after his deathJogye Order, the nation’s largest Buddhist sect, has published an English and ancient Chinese bilingual book series on the teachings of Korean Buddhism, it announced this week.The 13-volume series, titled “Collected Works of Korean Buddhism,” contains teachings of celebrated monks throughout Korean history, including Wonhyo (617-686), Jinul (1158-1210) and Hyujeong (1520-1604). The series’ Korean edition, translated
Aug. 23, 2012
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Nobel laureates to celebrate literature in Gyeongju
The 78th PEN International Congress to feature North Korean writers, human rights issuesThree Nobel Prize winners in literature will be in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, next month to discuss human rights, literature and media at the upcoming 78th PEN International Congress. Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio will give lectures about their literary works along with renowned local poet Ko Un, PEN International Korean Center announced on Wednesday. No previous editio
Aug. 22, 2012
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Book offers deliciously ironic moments
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia ChildBy Bob Spitz(Alfred A. Knopf)In a characteristically chatty letter from Paris to her sister-in-law, Freddie, Julia Child expresses curiosity about a “newfangled sensation” called television. “How much do you really use it? . . . How do you like the programs? . . . My heavens, I am beginning to feel very out-of-date indeed.” It was 1952. Television was a novelty, and Child was debating the wisdom of collaborating with her new friend Simone Beck on the coo
Aug. 16, 2012
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Tricks play in new Burke novel
Creole BelleBy James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)If all crime novelists were as thoughtful and nuanced as James Lee Burke, we could finally put to rest those groundless prejudices against genre fiction. The marks of the thriller ― violence, greed, unspeakable secrets ― are always present in Burke’s stellar Dave Robicheaux series (as well as his fine Hackberry Holland series). But the books are works of dark art. At their unflinching best, they examine the cost of violence, even when it’s perform
Aug. 16, 2012
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Author Tayari Jones on her favorites
Just as William Faulkner tilled a fictional patch called Yoknapatawpha County for his many tales, Tayari Jones works the more urban setting of Atlanta for her novels.Her debut, “Leaving Atlanta” (2002), was a story of three children coming of age during the Atlanta child murders of 1979-’81, when Jones herself was a child. “The Untelling” (2005), with its family sorrows, secrets and a mythological touch, is a novel Faulkner himself might have enjoyed reading.“The Silver Sparrow” (Algonquin 2011,
Aug. 16, 2012
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Science fiction satirist Harry Harrison dies
LONDON (AP) ― American author Harry Harrison, whose space-age spoofs delighted generations of science fiction fans, has died, a friend said Wednesday. He was 87.Irish sci-fi writer Michael Carroll said in a telephone interview that he learned of Harrison’s passing from the author’s daughter, Moira, earlier in the day. He said Harrison died in southern England, but didn’t have much further detail.Harrison was a prolific writer whose works ranged from tongue-in-cheek inter-galactic action romps to
Aug. 16, 2012
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Choosing story over medium
Sandi Tan’s past is teeming with ghosts. The Pasadena, California-based filmmaker-turned-novelist isn’t a seer herself ― she’s a self-described scaredy-cat and doesn’t particularly enjoy supernatural books and movies ― but her childhood in Singapore in the 1980s was populated with ghost stories and family members who saw spirits. Even her elementary school, a dank World War II-era military hospital, was said to be haunted.“It’s such a big part of people’s lives in that part of the world,” says T
Aug. 16, 2012
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Tough desert life wins Bedouin teen fairy tale award
WADI ABU HINDI, Palestinian Territories (AFP) ― It was the trauma of seeing Israeli troops raze homes in the Bedouin community where she lives that inspired 14-year-old Salha Hamadin to write an award-winning fairy tale.Earlier this year, Salha, who comes from an impoverished Palestinian Bedouin community near Jerusalem, was crowned winner of the teenage category of the Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale Bay competition, which saw 1,200 entries from around the world by youngsters aged 11 to 16.T
Aug. 16, 2012
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‘50 Shades of Grey’ marketing fad goes mainstream
NEW YORK (AP) ― You’ve bought rope for that special someone, picked up a few sex toys and read those “Fifty Shades of Grey’’ books a time or three. You know who you are.Well, no need to skulk about at naughty shops or the hardware store as Fifty Shades of Consumption makes it further into the mainstream.Stuart Weitzman and Marc New York have Grey-struck campaigns in the fat September issues of fashion magazines, the former touting black stilettos and high, Anastasia Steele-worthy boots called “F
Aug. 16, 2012
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Former Culture Minister Kim returns to TV screen
Former Culture Minister and actor Kim Myeong-gon will return to the small screen for the first time in four years with KBS’ TV drama “Gaksital,” according to reports.Kim, who served in the government post from 2006-2007, will play Yang Baek, an independence activist and spiritual leader of the Joseon people.“I accepted the offer because the role was based on the story of Kim Koo. There has been no drama like ‘Gaksital’ so far that seriously tells the story of the anti-Japanese movement,” Kim was
Aug. 16, 2012
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‘Coldest War’ heats up alternative history
The Coldest WarBy Ian Tregillis (Tor)With “The Coldest War,” Ian Tregillis continues an impressive fantasy/alternative-history trilogy he began with “Bitter Seeds.” The first novel, set in Britain’s darkest hours of World War II, pitted British warlocks, calling on dark otherworldly forces, against young Nazi Ubermenschen, whose X-men-like superpowers (invisibility, flamethrowing) are fueled by battery power fed directly into their brains.Now it’s 1963. The Russians rule everything east of Paris
Aug. 10, 2012
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Passion for theater shaped Dickens
Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the WorldBy Simon Callow (Vintage)In 1831, the 19-year-old Charles Dickens ― having long dreamed of a career on stage ― secured an audition at Covent Garden. But he came down with a cold on the appointed day, forcing him to request a postponement until the following season. By then, Dickens was a cub reporter, taking his first steps toward becoming the greatest English novelist.As actor Simon Callow points out in his splendid “Charles Dickens and the Grea
Aug. 10, 2012
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How AIDS epidemic affected Elton John
For 45 years pop star Elton John has left the writing to such lyricists as Bernie Taupin, Gary Osborne and Tim Rice. A cursory examination of the few songs with his own lyrics, such as 1978’s simplistic B-side “Flintstone Boy,” strongly suggests he made the right decision.Similarly, John, 65, might have been better served had he employed a ghostwriter to draft his good-intentioned memoir. “Love Is the Cure” isn’t a tell-all or about his music career. He only mentions 1974’s Caribou because durin
Aug. 10, 2012
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Is there anything left to say about Marilyn Monroe? Well ...
In the decades since her death on Aug. 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe has been the subject of so many books that the actress practically deserves her own Dewey Decimal classification.And although it seems unlikely that there’s any aspect of her 36 years that hasn’t been adequately dissected, analyzed and scrutinized half a century on, the books keep coming, like the following ― two weighty tomes and two glossy coffee table books ― that have been published in the last few months.“Marilyn: The Passion an
Aug. 10, 2012
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‘Fifty Shades’: S&M romance becomes a global hit
LONDON (AFP) ― It’s a literary phenomenon: with nearly 40 million copies sold, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” an erotic romance spiced up with sado-masochism is well on its way to breaking all the records.What sets the book apart is that it is written for women by a woman ― British author EL James, a previously unknown TV executive.“Never before has a book aimed at an adult audience sold so many copies so quickly,” the book’s British publisher Random House says.Only the seven-volume Harry Potter series
Aug. 7, 2012
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Box Office
We Need to Talk about Kevin (U.S.)Opened July 28Drama. Directed by Lynne Ramsay. Eva (Tilda Swinton), who used to be a prominent travel writer, now works for a small travel agency. Her son, Kevin (Ezra Miller) is in prison after committing an ineffable crime at his high school. She looks back at her memories of the difficult relationship she had with her son, who never bonded with her throughout his life. The Thieves (Korea)Opened July 25Crime. Action. Directed by Choi Dong-hun. Anycall (Gianna
Aug. 3, 2012
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‘All We Know’ about three women
“All We Know: Three Lives” By Lisa Cohen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)Three women who blazed with the passions of their generation but who are now forgotten. Three women who carved out what it means to be contemporary, independent, free. Three women who reached for success ― but didn’t always know, as the daughters of Victorians, what their ambitions even were or could be. In her triptych biography of Esther Murphy, Mercedes de Acosta and Madge Garland ― all born in the 1890s ― Lisa Cohen brings u
Aug. 3, 2012
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Novel exposes human emotions
“A Cupboard Full of Coats” By Yvvette Edwards (Amistad)“A Cupboard Full of Coats,” Yvvette Edwards’ first novel, was good enough to crack the long list last summer for the Man Booker Prize. So why is it only now crashing ashore here? Beats me, but I’ll predict it makes waves now that it has.Maybe the subject matter explains the delay. Set among London’s Caribbean immigrants, “Coats” is the backward-looking story of a battered woman and three people who played a role in her death: the two men who
Aug. 3, 2012
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Knicks captain Amar’e Stoudemire encourages youths to pick up books
NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire is so passionate about promoting literacy that he has a tattoo on his forearm that says “Read.” This week, the 29-year-old captain of the New York Knicks is translating that ink to the page with a new book series he’s written for middle-graders called “STAT: Standing Tall and Talented.”Titled after his nickname, “STAT” is based on Stoudemire’s life as a middle schooler. Published by Scholastic, the kickoff title, “Home Court,” is written from his perspective as a 6-f
Aug. 3, 2012