Earth Works: Houses by Byoung Cho offers a unique glimpse into the residential buildings of one of Korea’s most influential architects. This visually stunning monograph combines photography, plans, drawings, paintings and models to provide an exclusive overview of this rarely published aspect of Byoung’s work. Focused entirely around fifteen private and rarely seen residences, the … [Read More]
Archives: Books
Here is a listing of all the books in the LKL Book DataBase, in the order we happen to have uploaded them (most recent first). For listings in order of publication, visit the DataBase home page which will take you to individual subject listings.
Mukja: Let’s Eat!: Fan-Favorite Recipes from K-Pop, K-Dramas & More [forthcoming]
Celebrate the flavors of hallyu with more than 65 mukbang-worthy recipes inspired by Korean dramas, movies, and music. The Korean Wave, or hallyu, has seen the K-food craze spread globally, spurred by the popularity of cultural exports like K-pop and K-dramas. From dalgona coffee to cheese-filled corndogs, Korean trends are taking over, both on-screen and … [Read More]
K-Drama School: A Pop Culture Inquiry Into Why We Love Korean Television
From the Emmy Award-winning Squid Game to streaming sensations like The Glory and Crash Landing on You, Korean television has emerged onto the global pop culture scene as compelling television—but what exactly makes these shows so irresistibly bingeable? And what can we learn about our societies and ourselves from watching them? From stand-up comedian and media studies PhD Grace Jung … [Read More]
I’ll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan
Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror meets Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings in a meditation that blends memoir and cultural criticism to explore how the author’s love affair with K-pop has shaped her sense of self, charting K-pop’s complex coming-of-age through some of its biggest idols. I’ll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan is a … [Read More]
Snapshots and Soundbites of Korean Culture
Snapshots and Soundbites of Korean Culture takes a novel approach to understanding Korea’s past and present by blending sounds, imagery, texts, and online and printed materials to provide a multisensory, multimodal experience of Korean culture. Each entry showcases vitally important people, objects, places, events, and institutions that help us conceptualise Korean history, society, and culture. The … [Read More]
Yuktang Ch’oe Nam-son and Korean Modernity
In Yuktang Ch’oe Nam-son and Korean Modernity, the author traces the steps Ch’oe Nam-son (1890–1957), famed Koreanologist and independence activist, took at the beginning of the twentieth century in order to establish Korean identity as a cultural entity. In Part One of his book, the author reveals the multi-generational involvement of the Ch’oe family in … [Read More]
Martyr of Blood, Martyr of Sweat: The Letters of Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon and Venerable Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop
Korea is remarkable as the only country on earth where the Catholic faith emerged even before the arrival of missionaries. Forming an improvised community of believers, the first Korean Catholics desperately desired priests to say the Mass and administer the sacraments. Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon (1821-1846) and Venerable Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop (1821-1861) were the … [Read More]
A Magical Girl Rehired [forthcoming]
In this charmingly chaotic follow-up to A Magical Girl Retires, our favorite millennial-turned-magical girl begrudgingly returns to the workforce to fight crime and the forces of evil. Our protagonist from A Magical Girl Retires is done with the magical girl life . . . but the magical girl life isn’t done with her. After her request to … [Read More]
Rogue Allies: The Strategic Partnership between Iran and North Korea
In Rogue Allies: The Strategic Partnership between Iran and North Korea, Bruce E. Bechtol Jr. and Anthony N. Celso examine the influence of two rogue states whose rebellion against the United States and US-backed countries has serious consequences for international relations. Iran and North Korea have profited from illegal activities, such as the arming of terrorist … [Read More]
Contemporary Korean Music in Context: Bridging Tradition, Modernity, and the Global Stage
This book encloses an interdisciplinary examination of Korean music’s evolution, contextual interactions, and global positioning from historical, sociocultural, and aesthetic perspectives. It brings together various scholarly contributions to analyse Korean music’s transformations, innovations, and cultural suggestions, with a focus on its historical roots and contemporary manifestations. This book captures the multifaceted dynamics in Korean music, … [Read More]
Korean Newtro: Where Youth Meets Tradition
Korea has become cool. While long seen as a bastion of traditions and customs that go back millennia, the country has now emerged as a playground of hip, trendsetting movements. At the heart of this coolness is, of course, Hallyu, the “Korean Wave” that seems to have penetrated every corner of the planet by now. … [Read More]
The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region
In The Narrowing Sea, Hannah Shepherd examines the shared histories of Pusan and Fukuoka over the eight decades from Japan’s forced opening of Korea’s ports in 1876 to the end of the Korean War in 1953. One city was Korean, the other Japanese; one was a burgeoning colonial port, the other a provincial city buoyed by imperial … [Read More]
Molka
Junyoung and Dahye are colleagues; he has a taste for voyeurism and she a hunger for revenge. Molka (n): the Korean term for spy cameras secretly and illegally installed, often to capture voyeuristic images and videos. Dahye has met the man of her dreams – Hyukjoon, who happens to be the heir to a multi-billion … [Read More]
Okchundang Candy
I still remember that house filled with summer… Growing up, Jung-soon spent every moment she could at her grandparents’ house. Dressing up and watching cartoons. Dyeing each other’s fingernails with crushed balsam petals. Getting the whole neighborhood together to sweep their streets. Falling asleep together…just the three of them, happy. Grandfather was Grandmother’s best and … [Read More]
Once You Cross a Street You’re on the Edge of a Cliff: Surviving the Sex Industry in Korea
Prostitution is the oldest “profession” in the world—that’s what they say. According to Havocsope, total prostitution revenue is $186 billion worldwide, with 40-42 million women prostituted. The number itself is staggering, but the reality is hard to grasp with the statistics only. Bomnal’s memoir Once You Cross a Street, You’re on the Edge of a … [Read More]
From Being to Being
Characterized by genius wordplay, Oh Eun’s poems play with homophones and homonyms while keeping the wit, criticalness, and beauty we associate with Korean poetry. In their sonic play, Oh Eun’s poems bounce dangerously on a tightrope of language. These are poems that in their content and form simultaneously expand the boundaries of language and delight, … [Read More]