Minumsa releases first two volumes of ‘Minum History of Korea’

Two English books have been published by Harvard University as part of its project to look at early Korean history and archeology, often viewed and told from Japanese and Chinese perspectives. Titled “New Perspectives on Early Korean Art: From Silla to Koryo” and “The Han Commanderies in Early Korean History,” the books are the fifth and sixth volumes of the Early Korea Project Occasional Series by the Korea Institute at the prestigious U.S. school. The project and its publications are sponsored

Baghdad: The City in VerseBy Reuven Snir(Harvard University Press)Baghdad is a city that looms large in the American imagination. In 2003, at the start of the last Iraq war, it was occupied by U.S. troops. In the years that followed, thousands of U.S. citizens (soldiers, contractors, officials and journalists) passed through Baghdad.My own memories of the city are of its heat and light and the brokenness of its buildings and the kindness of its people. I lived there in 2003, briefly, as a report

Bridget Jones: Mad About the BoyBy Helen Fielding(Knopf)When a character like Bridget Jones is so beloved that she becomes something of a virtual best friend, it’s devastating to loyal, emotional readers when she just up and disappears for 13 years. (It was only two years between “Bridget Jones’ Diary” in 1998 and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” in 2000.)After such a long wait, it’s a grand delight to find that author Helen Fielding’s third Bridget romp is every bit as engaging, hilarious an

From the first pages of his debut book, “The Faithful Scribe,” journalist Shahan Mufti gets personal.He imagines a dinner party in which you, the reader, ask where he’s from, and after hearing him reply, “Pakistan,” you ask him why the country is such a mess.Mufti, who grew up in the United States and Pakistan, attempts to answer that question and many more by probing his own family history to better understand the roots of the world’s first Islamic democracy.He artfully weaves stories of his an

Feeling overwhelmed by all the, you know, cheer in the air this time of year? Wishing for a little doom, a little gloom to balance things out? Have I got the book for you, and I mean that in a most complimentary way to the author.Koren Zailckas’ fiercely disturbing “Mother, Mother” is, under no circumstances, a book that you should read when you’re feeling depressed, or you’re kind of hating your mom, or you feel the need for some light chick-lit. It is, however, one of the most profound and ins

Mosley’s conceptual book puts empathy as the key factor, blindness as the most stirring stuff to tell the real story of the inner life.

DrawingsBy Sylvia Plath(Harper)The most striking thing about the 44 images reproduced in Sylvia Plath’s “Drawings” may be how unpopulated they are.Produced during the two years the poet spent on a Fulbright fellowship at Cambridge ― the same period in which she met and married (secretly, at first) Ted Hughes ― this material evokes a world bound almost entirely by objects: boats, shoes, rooftops, all of it detailed, shadowed, but at the same time more than a little bit removed.That’s not entirely

Roth UnboundBy Claudia Roth Pierpont(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)If you’ve been tempted to dismiss Philip Roth as a misogynist, a self-hating Jew or simply an old white male dinosaur, Claudia Roth Pierpont’s “Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books” makes a strong argument for giving the novelist another chance.At a minimum, Pierpont’s lucid book, intelligent but not academic, makes the case that “The Ghost Writer,” “Sabbath’s Theater” and “American Pastoral” are compelling works of fiction worth rea

“A poem is not so much read as navigated,” Nikki Giovanni writes in “Chasing Utopia.” “We go from point to point discovering a new horizon, a shift of light or laughter, an exhilaration of newness that we had missed before. Even familiar, or perhaps especially familiar, poems bring the excitement of first nighters, first encounters, first love ... when viewed and reviewed.”That’s a pretty good description of what Giovanni is up to in this book, marked by her signature blend of toughness and acce

The literary remains of the late novelist Choe In-ho (1945-2013) were published on Tuesday, three months after his death. Choe’s eight-year battle against salivary gland cancer, involving pain, tears, meditation and epiphany, is reflected in “Nunmul (Tears),” based on a batch of manuscripts found by Choe’s wife and others. The novelist, who was once called an “enfant terrible” for entering the literature scene at the tender age of 17, while he was still in high school, released some of the most

The English translation of Korean author Bae Su-ah’s short story “Highway with Green Apples” has been published in “Day One,” Amazon’s digital literary journal dedicated to short fiction and poetry from emerging writers, as well as translations of non-English literature.It is the first time that a Korean work of fiction has been published in the journal, according to the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.Born in Seoul in 1965, Bae is considered one of the most unconventional writers in K

Conjure the image of John Brown in your head and you see the fearsome emancipator, a righteous prophet who gave his life to fight slavery with the Harpers Ferry raid of 1859. The Union turned his death into a rallying cry with the anthem “John Brown’s Body.” His soul is marching on.Brown’s story might have moved from history to legend, but it still contains some truth. It’s also ripe for mischievous revision, which is exactly what James McBride provides in his National Book Award-winning novel “

Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern TimesBy Lucy Lethbridge(W.W. Norton & Company)Fictional Downton Abbey is supposed to be one of the grandest houses in England, inhabited by the distinguished Crawley family; but on this smash television hit, it’s the servants who steal the show. From Mr. Carson, the butler with the bushy eyebrows that practically dare you to defy him, to the earthy Mrs. Patmore, who rules over the kitchen with a stern hand, the staff