Seoul – one of the most densely populated urban areas on the planet. The tremendous pressure this megacity exacts on architecture in terms of spatial intensification, verticalization and amplification, challenges architectural stereotypes and promotes innovation. Megacity Network presents 32 projects by 16 representative Korean architects from the last ten years. Being more like mixtures and hybrids of … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 42)
Quiet People: Korean Stories
Quiet People: the title story (and lengthiest) in this collection, gives a Korean perspective with a projected liaison between Christianity and Buddhism: from the outset Maguire is depicting a global rather than a parochial vision. He is grappling with ‘the reality of the Orient’ as in Nights in the Moon Village not merely trading in … [Read More]
Inside North Korea’s Theocracy: The Rise and Sudden Fall of Jang Song-thaek
First published in Korean in 2016, Inside North Korea’s Theocracy offers a fascinating and rare look at the lives of several of the regime’s key leaders. Its primary focus is Jang Song-thaek, a talented and reform-minded member of the political ruling class who was executed in 2013. Jang was the son-in-law of North Korean founder, … [Read More]
The Having: The Secret Art of Feeling and Growing Rich
In this groundbreaking book, a #1 bestseller in South Korea, a financial guru shares the secret to building your fortune using your emotion and opens the door to a new world full of hope and prosperity. When Wharton MBA Jooyun Hong went searching for the key to increasing wealth in a time of growing inequality, she … [Read More]
Looking Back Life Was Beautiful: Drawings for My Grandchildren
Based on the Webby award-winning Instagram account Drawings for My Grandchildren, this beautifully-illustrated book celebrates the special love shared between grandparents and their grandchildren. Like many grandparents wishing to stay close to their grandchildren in a world in which so many families are spread across the globe, Korean grandparents Grandpa Chan and Grandma Marina, decided … [Read More]
I Went to See My Father
An instant bestseller in Korea and the follow up to the international bestseller, Please Look After Mom; centering on a woman’s efforts to reconnect with her aging father, uncovering long-held family secrets. Two years after losing her daughter in a tragic accident, Hon finally returns to her home in the countryside to take care of … [Read More]
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki
THE PHENOMENAL KOREAN BESTSELLER PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you? ME: I don’t know, I’m – what’s the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail? Baek Se-Hee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? … [Read More]
Beyond Birth: Social Status in the Emergence of Modern Korea
The social structure of contemporary Korea contains strong echoes of the hierarchical principles and patterns governing stratification in the Choson dynasty (1392-1910): namely, birth and one’s position in the bureaucracy. At the beginning of Korea’s modern era, the bureaucracy continued to exert great influence, but developments undermined, instead of reinforced, aristocratic dominance. Furthermore, these changes … [Read More]
It’s OK, Slow Lizard
In a lush, sun-dappled forest, animal friends discover the advantages of living slowly, in this soothing picture book from beloved South Korean author and illustrator Yeorim Yoon and Jian Kim. Little Bird is all aflutter―too many things to do. Elephant cries with frustration when a shoelace breaks. Rabbit tries so hard and loses the race … [Read More]
The Three Water Drop Brothers
Graphically gorgeous, with sweetness and flair, this is a book to get any kid hooked on the wonders of the water cycle! A long, long time ago, when the earth was extremely hot, a huge amount of vapor was released, creating clouds. As the clouds got bigger and heavier, it started to rain. Three of … [Read More]
The Hermit King: The Dangerous Game of Kim Jong Un
North Korea is poised at the crossroads of history. Which direction will its leader take? Throughout the world, oppressive regimes are being uprooted and replaced by budding democracies, but one exception remains: The People’s Republic of North Korea. The Kim family has clung to power for three generations by silencing dissidents, ruling with an iron … [Read More]
Modern Korea: All That Matters
In no nation on earth has history accelerated with such speed as in Korea. A medieval dynasty at the end of the 19th century, it underwent a traumatic colonization, then, in its hour of liberation was divided by the great powers at the end of World War II. Devastated by a fratricidal war, the peninsula … [Read More]
North Korea’s Juche Myth
For decades the North Korean regime has preached a virulent race-nationalism to its own people. At the same time, however, it has succeeded in making outsiders believe that it is guided by a solipsistic, inward-directed ideology of self-reliant communism. This in turn has nurtured the wishful assumption that the regime no longer has serious designs … [Read More]
One Day
A gentle, delicately illustrated story about loss that has a cosmic dimension. A boy’s grandfather goes away suddenly, never to return. How could he leave so suddenly? His smell remains in his sweater, and his shoes are there to be worn. Plus, his friends at the fountain just saw him! The boy lingers in the … [Read More]
I am the Subway
A cinematic journey through the Seoul subway that masterfully portrays the many unique lives we travel alongside whenever we take the train. A poetic translation of the bestselling Korean picture book. Accompanied by the constant, rumbling ba-dum ba-dum of its passage through the city, the subway has stories to tell. Between sunrise and sunset, it welcomes and … [Read More]
Concerning My Daughter
When a mother allows her thirty-something daughter to move into her apartment, she wants for her what many mothers might say they want for their child: a steady income, and, even better, a good husband with a good job with whom to start a family. But when Green turns up with her girlfriend, Lane, in … [Read More]