The Korea Herald

Iceland’s literary stature born over centuries

Oct 16, 2011

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― A literary tradition that was born about 900 years ago with the Sagas, which Icelandic children still read today, has evolved into a thriving modern-day appetite for crime fiction. Publishers and authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which ends Sunday and where Iceland has been guest of honor, say the strength of Icelandic literature belies its size of just 320,000 inhabitants. ...
A novel idea for learning English

Oct 14, 2011

Members of English-language book clubs enjoy foreign culture, friendship, while honing the language It’s a Tuesday morning in southern Seoul, and four middle-aged women are sitting in a cafe over their morning coffee. Filling the space with chats and giggles, the gathering seems nothing more than a simple get-together of close friends. But their table, which is covered with English books and ne...
New Books

Oct 14, 2011

Banks tackles sex offenders Lost Memory of Skin By Russell Banks (Ecco) One of America’s finest writers has written a novel about sex offenders, and he’s done so in such a powerful and insightful way that “Lost Memory of Skin” should be required reading for anyone interested in fixing the country’s broken criminal justice system. Banks, inspired by a real-life colony of offenders set up unde...
Christmas book brings the White House to life

Oct 14, 2011

“Christmas With the First Ladies” is an attractive addition to the plethora of books on the history of the White House. Drawing on the materials from presidential libraries, Coleen Christian Burke has delved into history to put a human face on presidential Christmases as presented by our presidents and their wives. It starts in 1961 with the administration of John F. Kennedy, when Jacqueline Ke...
Jane Lynch, a role model with laserlike focus

Oct 14, 2011

Ann Christophersen, co-owner of Women and Children First bookstore in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood, turned to Linda Bubon, her longtime business partner, and scowled at the table that had been set up on a riser at the back of their store. The actress Jane Lynch was due in a few minutes. She was there to sign copies of her new memoir, “Happy Accidents.” This was Sunday afternoon, and sever...
Book industry fights back against debt crisis

Oct 13, 2011

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― Publishers and booksellers from debt-laden countries gathered at the world’s biggest book fair Wednesday determined to fight the impact of Europe’s economic woes. But authors at least have drawn inspiration from the crisis, they reported. Greece, currently in the eye of the eurozone debt storm, has 15 publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair, its lowest number in recent years, bu...
World’s biggest fair of publishers eyes safe future for books

Oct 12, 2011

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― The world’s biggest book fair, which opened Tuesday, wants to put paid to fears for the survival of the book in its traditional, bound form in the face of its digital rival’s growing popularity. While electronic books and other gadgets have been all the talk of the Frankfurt Book Fair in recent years, industry movers and shakers say the future of ebooks and printed books is saf...
Little Free Libraries lets neighbors share books and a bit of themselves

Oct 12, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS ― They look like large birdhouses and act like water coolers. But the sustenance stored inside the wooden, windowed boxes is a blend of knowledge and recreation. Little Free Libraries, the brainchild of Stillwater, Minnesota, native Todd Bol, are popping up all over Minnesota, from tony Lowry Hill to St. Paul’s rough-and-tumble East Side to placid Detroit Lakes. Usually planted near...
Korea ruled ancient Japanese state: scholar

Oct 12, 2011

Professor presents new interpretation of ancient Chinese historical texts During ancient times in what is now Kyushu in southern Japan, people had tattoos, made a living by farming silkworms, and buried their dead in earthen jars and portal tombs. And they were described as being afraid of “Daesol.” The term has been widely perceived as an adverb or an administrative institution by many histori...
Dennis Lehane starting imprint at HarperCollins

Oct 11, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) -- Dennis Lehane is the latest brand-name publisher. The author of “Mystic River,” “Moonlight Mile” and other thrillers is overseeing a new imprint at HarperCollins. The publisher announced Monday that Dennis Lehane Books will issue “a select” number of literary fiction works each year that have “a dark urban edge.” The author himself said in a statement that he was hoping to help...
Public criticism needed for reform of capitalism: Kocka

Oct 10, 2011

German academic discusses crisis of capitalism, lessons from German reunification A good mixture between market dynamics, prudent forms of NGOs, and more government regulations of the finance system could bring ideal reforms to modern-day capitalism, and such reforms often come from crisis and mass criticism, German scholar Jurgen Kocka said prior to the opening of 2011 Civilization and Peace Fo...
Book fair to tackle challenges of digital age storytelling

Oct 9, 2011

BERLIN (AFP) ― Authors once just had to deal with a publisher but are now being forced to embrace the digital age and negotiate the rights to their works for TV, films and ebooks. Organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which opens on Wednesday, said the challenges thrown up by the upheaval in the book world would be a central theme at the world’s biggest gathering of industry movers and shakers....
Founder of Dead Poets Society visits bards’ graves

Oct 9, 2011

FREEPORT, Maine (AP) ― The founder of the Dead Poets Society of America is visiting graves and other sites associated with Jack Kerouac and five others in his effort to recognize fallen bards. Walter Skold of Freeport, Maine, says the Dead Poets 2011 Magic Bus Tour is in Massachusetts on Friday to pay homage to John Whittier, Anne Bradstreet, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, Louisa May Alcott a...
New Books

Oct 7, 2011

Dinner without a recipe The Kitchen Counter Cooking School By Kathleen Flinn (Viking) If you are going to read one book to change your diet and your life, “The Kitchen Counter Cooking School” is it. The second book by Le Cordon Bleu graduate Kathleen Flinn starts with her stalking a woman in the grocery store, but it ends better than you‘d expect. Flinn is struck by the number of boxes and c...
Author gives an insider’s guide to publishing

Oct 7, 2011

Jennifer Basye Sander has forgotten more about the publishing business than most of us will ever know. The New York Times best-selling author has written and co-written more than 50 books, including “The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Getting Published” (Alpha, $19.95, 400 pages; the fifth edition goes on sale Nov. 1). Sander, a Granite Bay, California, resident, is a former senior editor at Random ...