Non-profit publishing house Olje released the 17th set in its “Olje Classics” series Thursday, focusing on the art of writing.The four-book series includes “Classic of Poetry,” the oldest collection of Chinese poetry in existence, “The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons,” a treatise on Chinese literary aesthetics, Aristotle’s “Poetics,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.”According to Olje, these classic texts have been reinterpreted for the series. “Classic of Poetry” has been

British author Val McDermid‘s thrilling novels about detective chief constable Carol Jordan and clinical psychologist Tony Hill continue to richly delve into the vagaries of modern crime and the psychological motives that propel people to do the unthinkable.　McDermid continues her high standards in her compelling ninth outing with Carol and Tony, whose personal and professional relationship take myriad detours. While “Splinter the Silence” excels as a gripping crime fiction, the novel also works

Late in ”A Hard and Heavy Thing,“ University of Wisconsin-Madison law student Matthew J. Hefti’s debut novel, Levi Hartwig is drinking with his dad in a bar, more than a year after returning from stints as a soldier in both Iraq and Afghanistan.　”We‘re all trying to boil down our meaningless experiences to fit this tiny little conventional, three-act, linear narrative,“ the disconsolate Levi says."A Hard and Heavy Thing" By Matthew J. Hefti (Tyrus Books)　Hefti -- who was raised in Wisconsin, ser

Aneurin Wright’s debut graphic novel, “Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park ... When You‘re 29 and Unemployed,” is a shape-shifting chimera stuffed between book covers; a comic that explains the nuances of emphysema and elder care, a meta-meditation on death, loss and coping mechanisms, a tale of father-and-son reconciliation in which the father is a curmudgeonly rhino and the son a headstrong -- and totally ripped -- spectacle-wearing Minotaur. It’s all at once heartbreakingly sad, vi

LONDON (AP) -- Bill Bryson loves Britain. Really.　The Iowan-born writer, who takes an affectionate if sometimes exasperated look at his adopted country in “The Road to Little Dribbling,” cherishes Britain's landscape, its history, its architectural heritage, its people. He’s not so keen on its reality: TV shows, its litter and -- this is a shock -- its beer.　With a touch of embarrassment, Bryson admits that he is no fan of real ale, the cask-conditioned beer that for many is iconically English.　

"The Guest Room" by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday)

Reading natural history is fraught with a particular kind of peril. The typical progression from “here are amazing facts” to “there used to be [X] million of these majestic creatures, until humans wiped them out” is a disappointing road. "Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver" by Frances Backhouse(ECW Press)　Frances Backhouse’s “Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver” starts down that path, but the story ends in a slightly more upbeat place. The once ubiquitous beaver

Noted illustrator and author Maira Kalman‘s thesis statement couldn’t be clearer: “You, reading this book, most likely have, or had, a dog, You certainly know that your dog is, or was, the dearest, funniest, lovingest, loyalest friend you ever had.” "Beloved Dog" by Maira Kalman (Penguin)　Oddly enough, Kalman grew up in a family without dogs, in part because her family feared the way the animals were used against Jewish people in their ancestral Belarus, and in part because her mother, and her g

Confronting growing problems in the Korean literary landscape, such as a continuing decline in book reading, plagiarism and the unpopularity of novels, Hangilsa Publishing, a Korean publisher based in Paju, Gyeonngi Province, seeks to turn the tide with a new book from Norway.In celebration of its 40th anniversary this year, the company has published the first volume of the Korean translation of autobiographical novel “My Struggle,” by Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgard. Hangilsa is known for h

　My Korea: Musings with a Camera and Pen　by Baek Seung-woo　(Canopus)Baek Seung-woo may have worked more than 30 years as finance director for Hyatt Hotels Corp., but his real passion is photography. His new book, “My Korea: Musings with a Camera and Pen,” an English photo essay book, features a variety of photographs introducing Korean sites foreign tourists would be interested in knowing more about.Baek’s photographs of the Deoksugung Palace, Sareung or the Royal Tomb of Queen Jeongsun and a jj

Why We Should Be Angryby Jang Ha-sung(Heybooks)　Jang Ha-sung, who is widely known in the fields of corporate governance and shareholder activism, tackles one of the most urgent problems rising in Korea – inequality.The Korean economy, which rose from rags to riches at a remarkable pace, now faces the fallout from the quick rise where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer as the country’s fully adopts capitalism.The root of the problem is the widening income gap between empl

The Spirit of Korean Development by Sang-young Rhyu(Yonsei University Press)　There has been much debate surrounding the analysis of the economic success and political transformation of South Korea. However, the interest of this book does not lie in the tangible factors behind its development. What is puzzling to non-Koreans is the intangible factors that enabled tangible factors to work together and thereby enable development. In other words, this book offers an explanation for Korea’s miraculou