Nicholson Baker never meant to write a sequel to “The Anthologist.” And yet, he explains by phone from his home in Maine, the narrator of that 2010 novel, a poet named Paul Chowder, kept demanding to be heard.“It was more a refusal,” Baker notes, “a refusal on Paul’s part to be overlooked. I was writing a different book, in my own voice, and I kept slipping into his voice. At a certain point, I just gave in.”Baker’s new novel, “Traveling Sprinkler” (Blue Rider), picks up Paul’s story a few years

Help for the HauntedBy John Searles (William Morrow)The title of John Searles’ captivating third thriller, “Help for the Haunted,” refers to the headline of a personal ad run by the late Sylvester Mason when he and his wife set up shop as Christian ghostbusters. In the years preceding their shooting in a church ― a scene that opens the book ― the couple became well-known due to a muckraking book by a local reporter.The events surrounding her parents’ murder are narrated by Sylvie, 14, now in the

 Sister Mother Husband Dog: EtcBy Delia Ephron(Blue Rider)When filmmaker and writer Nora Ephron was in the hospital last year undergoing treatment for leukemia, she sent her younger sister, Delia Ephron, a bouquet of flowers ― not just any flowers, but “two-dozen gorgeous plump peach roses in full bloom,” as Delia recalls in her new essay collection, “Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc.”The gesture was thoughtful, but it was also, according to Ephron, “a heartbreaking way to have a bit of control” ―

Popular South Korean novelist Choi In-ho died of cancer on Wednesday at the age of 68. He started his career by winning a competition sponsored by the local daily Hanguk Ilbo in 1963 with his short novel "Through a Wall Hole."   He wrote a number of bestsellers since the 1970s, including "Whale Hunting," "Winter Wanderer" and "Deep Blue Night," with many of them used as originals for movies and TV dramas. (Yonhap News)

Unveilings mark celebration of the opening of Tripitaka Koreana Festival on Friday

CHICAGO (AP) ― The old man couldn’t control his diabetes, no matter how closely he followed his doctor’s instructions. A nurse visited him to find out why the insulin wasn’t working, only to watch the nearly blind man inadvertently inject himself with a syringe filled with nothing but air.It sounds simple to track a patient outside of office visits. But the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation found the idea genius.Jeffrey Brenner, a doctor and founder of the organization

Pilot trainees of the 213th Flying Training Squadron of the 3rd Training Wing have set a record of 200,000 hours of accident-free flying, the Air Force said. The record was set Tuesday when squadron leader Lt. Col. Kim Joong-soo, 39, and student pilot 1st Lt. Lee Jin-seon, 24, safely landed a KT-1 Korean training aircraft during a practice mission.No member of the squadron has had an accident in flying since Aug. 30, 1983, during which time they clocked up 200,000 hours of flight time.  No other

A handful of Mexican lawmakers formed a parliamentary friendship group on Tuesday to promote bilateral exchanges with Korean legislators. Thirteen deputies of the lower house of the Mexican legislature held a ceremony in Mexico City, Tuesday, to launch the group, Yonhap News reported. “Korea is an important country we can benchmark,” Gabriel de Jesus Cardenas Guizar, a deputy of the National Action Party (PAN), who will head the group, said in the ceremony. “The group will strive to make contrib

Hwang Ji-hae’s 2012 garden devoted to Suncheon Bay mudflats goes on exhibit in Lons le Saunier

BANGKOK (AFP) ― Thai authorities on Monday said two men had been arrested on suspicion of possessing a protected primate after pop star Rihanna posted a picture of herself online holding the creature.The singer posed with the tiny, large-eyed slow loris on a night out in the tourist resort of Phuket on Friday, posting a picture on Twitter and Instagram, without apparently realizing that the use of the animal as a prop for tourist snaps is illegal.The image ― captioned “Look who was talkin dirty