The Korea Herald

Auctioneer to sell Hitler's personal copy of 'Mein Kampf'

Mar 9, 2016

CHESAPEAKE CITY, Md. (AP) -- A Maryland auction house says it is selling a copy of "Mein Kampf" that once belonged to Adolf Hitler and was taken from his Munich apartment at the end of World War II.　News outlets report that Chesapeake City-based Alexander Historical Auctions LLC will offer Hitler's Nazi manifesto during its March 17 and 18 auction of more than 1,000 other WWII historical items.　The red leather-bound book bears an inscription signed by 11 officers from an American field artillery
Korea to be guest of honor at 2016 Paris Book Fair

Mar 9, 2016

South Korea will take part in the Paris Book Fair next week as the guest of honor, as the country celebrates the 130th anniversary of diplomatic ties with France, the Seoul government said Wednesday.The fair is expected to help promote exchanges among publishers in South Korea and France, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said in a release. The 36th edition of the annual trade fair is scheduled to be held at the "Paris Expo Porte de Versailles" exhibition center on March 17-20.Led by t
J.K. Rowling launching 4-part series on wizarding school

Mar 9, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- J.K. Rowling has more magic on the way.　The "Harry Potter" author is launching a series called "Magic in North America," a four-part backstory for this fall's film adaptation of the Potter prequel "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." 　Announced on Rowling’s Web site, www.pottermore.com, "Magic in North America" will run in installments Tuesday-Friday on Pottermore.　According to the Web site, the new series will tell of the North American wizardry school Ilvermorny and "bri
Stories of race and immigration among PEN/Faulkner nominees

Mar 9, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- This year’s list of finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award features stories of war, race and immigration.　Nominees announced Tuesday for the $15,000 fiction prize include Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel about a former spy for North Vietnam, “The Sympathizer”; Julie Iromuanya’s novel about a Nigerian in the U.S. who lies about his profession to his family back home, “Mr. and Mrs. Doctor”; and James Hannaham’s book on race and class, “Delicious Foods.”　Two story collections also are final
Amy Schumer book release announced

Mar 9, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- Amy Schumer's upcoming book has an indelible title.Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Tuesday that Schumer is calling the book "The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo." It’s scheduled to be released on Aug. 16. As the title might suggest, the essay collection will "feature personal and observational stories from Schumer that range from the raunchy to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing," according to Gallery.　 Schumer's deal with Gallery was announced
Why six political apostates left the Left

Mar 3, 2016

“Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century” 　By Daniel Oppenheimer　Simon & Schuster (416 pages, $28)　When Ronald Reagan joined the Hollywood Democratic Committee, it was riven with communists. Four decades later, of course, the Republican president stood in West Berlin and demanded of the communist bloc, “Tear down this wall!”　His is the least intimately told of the six stories of political transformation in Daniel Oppenheimer’s sweeping, beautifully written but
'Opening Belle' tells story of women of Wall Street

Mar 3, 2016

“Opening Belle” 　By Maureen Sherry　Simon & Schuster (352 pages, $25)　If you’ve seen the film “The Big Short” and noticed that it was all about the men who profited from the financial crisis of 2007-10, you may have wondered where all the Wall Street women were. Sure, there was that Goldman Sachs saleswoman and a couple of others, but most female roles fell into the category of exotic dancer or somebody's wife.　You’ll find the women of Wall Street here, in the diverting “Opening Belle,” which is
Charlotte Bronte cast as a fighter

Mar 3, 2016

　"Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart"　 By Claire Harman　Alfred A. Knopf (480 pages, $30)　Two hundred years after her birth, Charlotte Bronte's rage over social expectations for women and thwarted ambitions are as relevant as ever, and a new biography by Claire Harman makes the "Jane Eyre" author fresh and relatable to readers who might only think of the Brontes as figures long buried in tragic myth.　Bronte and her sisters Emily and Anne published their poems and novels -- including "Wuthering Heig
Toni Morrison receives $25,000 honorary award from PEN

Mar 2, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- Nobel laureate Toni Morrison has received an honorary prize named for another Nobel winner, the late Saul Bellow.　PEN America, the literary and human rights organization, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Morrison has been given the $25,000 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American fiction. Morrison, 85, is known for such novels as "Beloved," "Song of Solomon" and "Jazz."　"Revelatory, intelligent, bold, her fiction is invested in the black experience, in black li
Multigenerational family saga of redemption

Feb 25, 2016

“A Doubter’s Almanac” 　 By Ethan Canin　 Random House (576 pages, $28)　Ethan Canin’s new multigenerational family saga is about the agony of the select few wired to master what seems indecipherable to mere mortals. Here math represents, among other things, a state of existential torment worthy of Sisyphus, who watched helplessly as his boulder kept falling back down the hill.　“There’s no proof in mathematics that can’t be broken down into steps basic enough for a child of reasoning age to follow.
Brisk thriller set in exotic locales

Feb 25, 2016

“The Travelers” 　By Chris Pavone　Crown (448 pages, $26)　Edgar winner Chris Pavone has built a career on involving stories about people with deep secrets. Not so much the family secrets that are de rigueur in many thrillers -- though that often enters into his novels -- but more on secrets masked by a job requiring travel or relocating to another country.　Will Rhodes roams the world writing articles for Travelers magazine, a glossy publication based in New York where Will lives with his wife, Chl
Debut novel depicts an unforgettable ‘Mind’

Feb 25, 2016

“Piece of Mind: A Novel” 　By Michelle Adelman　Norton (304 pages, $25.95)　“I was brain injured before it was trendy.”　That’s the arresting first sentence of “Piece of Mind,” the title of Michelle Adelman’s debut novel and an apt description of the way Lucy -- its 27-year-old narrator -- sees herself.　After being hit by a truck when she was 3, Lucy lost what she describes as her “executive functions,” including those that “relate to organizing, prioritizing, reasoning, disciplining, goal setting,
Solano receives renowned Colombian literature award

Feb 23, 2016

Colombian writer Andres Felipe Solano, currently teaching at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, received a prestigious Colombian literary award, the LTIK announced Tuesday. 　Solano won the “Premio Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana,” or Library Award of Colombian Narrative, which carries a cash prize of 40 million Colombian peso ($12 million), for his 2015 work based on his experience living in Korea. Cover of “Corea: Apuntes Desde la Cuerda Floja” by Andres Feilpe Solano (Literatur
Harper Lee leaves behind questions about her life and work

Feb 21, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- Harper Lee has died, but the conversation about the author’s life and work has only begun.　“I think the retrospective will be more useful than what was said during her lifetime, because there are a lot of things we can get down to that were impossible before,” Lee’s friend Wayne Flynt, an Alabama-based historian, told the Associated Press.　Lee’s death Friday at age 89 comes almost exactly a year after her publisher, HarperCollins, stunned the world by announcing that a second no
'Coloring the Universe' illuminates stunning images of space

Feb 18, 2016

Few things in life are more vibrant, more beautiful and more majestic than images of space. Thankfully, “Coloring the Universe: An Insider’s Look at Making Spectacular Images of Space” by Travis A. Rector, Kimberly Arcand and Megan Watzke presents everything from nebulae, supernovas, distant galaxies and beyond in one jaw-dropping book.　“Vision is the richest of the senses, and we are used to interpreting the endless colors and varied textures of the world around us through our eyes,” writes Dr.