SALINA ISLAND, Italy (AP) ― As I watch the sun set from my terrace on the west coast of Salina, one of Italy’s Aeolian Islands, I marvel again that the stone headrest I am lying against is so inexplicably comfortable.Its effect is like so much else on this harsh volcanic island, located in the clearest Mediterranean waters: Salina’s very starkness soothingly lulls you into contemplating its simple

Review: Under the spell of ‘The Sandalwood Tree’“The Sandalwood Tree”  (Atria Books),  by Elle NewmarkIf you like your love stories sweeping and wrapped in history, “The Sandalwood Tree” by Elle Newmark has it all.The narrative switches between India in two generations, the mid-19th century and post-World War II. The 1947 narrator is Evie, an American whose marriage is on the rocks after her husba

I’ve outgrown J.D. Salinger, and I don’t know where that leaves me.I was 10 when my father handed me “The Catcher in the Rye,” and I found not just a voice for all the wild despair and sudden inexplicable elation of adolescence but an acknowledgement that these feelings did not occur in a vacuum. Salinger reached into the “vale of tears” catechism of my Irish Catholic upbringing and lifted me out

LOS ANGELES ― Shortly before Daniel Hernandez moved from Los Angeles to Mexico to write a book about its roiling capital, a friend gave him an order. “I don’t want to see you back from Mexico City until it’s physically altered you, until you are different,” Hernandez was told.The Western Hemisphere’s largest metropolitan area, with about 22 million people, has its existential challenges: toxic air

HONG KONG (AP) ― May is the month of Aaron Kwok in Chinese movies.The dancer-turned-singer-turned-actor stars in two of the month’s major releases ― Gu Changwei’s romance “Love for Life,” and Oxide Pang’s crime thriller “The Detective 2” ― and has earned rave reviews from both directors.The 45-year-old Hong Kong entertainer’s versatile performances in two closely timed releases are testimony to hi

Cho Jung-goo interprets hanok in contemporary ways, while respecting traditionThe following is the final story in a series of articles on the contemporizing of Korean culture ― Ed.The area nestled between Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung to the west and Changdeokgung to the east, known as Bukchon, is a little gem of a place where time seems to stand still.The neighborhood where myriad alleys and “hanok,” or

As U.S. tries to curb obesity, some fear increasing discrimination against the overweightThe images are striking: Overweight boys and girls staring somberly from billboards and online videos, real-life embodiments of the blunt messages alongside.“Chubby kids may not outlive their parents,” for example. Or: “Big bones didn’t make me this way. Big meals did.”The ads ― part of a new “Stop Child Obesi

I was studying Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstractions, seduced by her simple charcoal curves, pink-and-blue flowers and cloud fields, when my cellphone rang.That afternoon in Santa Fe, I had slipped out of my parents’ hotel. As they napped, I strolled around the Plaza and found myself at the museum devoted to one of my favorite artists.Still, my thoughts of Mom and Dad were never far. When I answered my