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Reading to illuminate an enigmatic culture and its conflicts old and new.
Nothing to Envy:
Ordinary Lives in North Korea
By Barbara Demick
Demick, the Beijing-based correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, gets an illuminating perspective on everyday life in North Korea—from salaries that go unpaid to stacks of corpses—by talking with six escapees from its closed society. She's taken home the Overseas Press Club's award for human rights reporting for her efforts.
The Coldest Winter:
America and the Korean War
By David Halberstam
Mao, MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Truman are just a few of the figures whose personalities come to life in David Halberstam's soaring account of the Korean War—in many ways a devastating local consequence of a global struggle. From his analysis of the strategic and tactical maneuvers to his portraiture of the men who fought and died in a conflict whose nature few understood, the author of The Best and the Brightest creates a mournful epic, grippingly readable and highly informative.
The Two Koreas:
A Contemporary History
By Don Oberdorfer
Oberdorfer, who wrote for the Washington Post for a quarter century and served on its Asia beat, first went to Korea in 1958 as an Army lieutenant. Here, he writes the definitive history of contemporary Korea with analysis of policy, critiques of leaders, and in-depth studies of the region's culture.
Great Leader, Dear Leader:
Demystifying North Korea Under The Kim Clan
By Bertil Lintner
Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il have been the men behind the curtain of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (otherwise known as North Korea) since its founding in 1948. Lintner's goal in this eye-opening book is to make the family's poorly-understood personalities fully alive for readers, the better to show how this family has literally molded the country they have ruled for half a century.
The Last Parallel:
A Marine's War Journal
By Martin Russ
Called one of the best accounts of combat ever, The Last Parallel derives its great power from combat veteran Russ's vivid descriptions of the many bloody battles he and his fellow Marines took part in during the waning days of the ill-starred conflict, as well as the author's sensitive response to the everyday devastation around him.
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With dates announced for his upcoming Old Ideas concert tour, we celebrate the inimitable Leonard Cohen: bard, survivor, legend. His most recent album is a return to form for the balladeer, exploring signature themes of lust and longing, spirituality and struggle, all overlaid with a droll sense of humor as familiar as Cohen's prophetic voice.
When Jack Luxton hears that his estranged brother has been killed in combat, long-buried memories begin to well up like groundwater, and difficult choices Jack thought he reconciled himself to years ago turn out to be close at hand. Man Booker Prize-winner Graham Swift's novel plumbs timeless themes of regret, renewal, and the bonds of love.
The opening story in Matthew Battles's electric collection, "The Dogs in the Trees", documents the inexplicable appearance of arboreal canines. Further gorgeous fantastika follows, producing a volume sure to draw comparisons to Borges and George Saunders.
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