John Everard has already held a US launch of his entertaining book containing his reflections on life in North Korea – Only Beautiful Please. And LKL reviews the book here. We enjoyed it. He is now holding a UK launch at Asia House on 24 January. Only Beautiful, Please: A British Diplomat in North Korea … [Read More]
Category: Non-fiction (page 6)
Book Review: John Everard – Only Beautiful Please
Only Beautiful Please – a British Diplomat in North Korea John Everard Asia/Pacific Research Center, Div of The Institute for International Studies, 2012, 250pp It is always with a sense of duty rather than eager anticipation that I pick up a book on the DPRK, regardless of who the author is. To the extent that … [Read More]
Kyung Hyun Kim’s Virtual Hallyu: more approachable than Remasculinization, but still tough going
Kyung Hyun Kim: Virtual Hallyu — Korean Cinema of the Global Era Duke University Press Books, 2011. 280pp On Planet Deleuze, a world in a parallel universe inhabited by hyper-intelligent philosophers, psychoanalysts and cultural studies scholars, Kyung Hyun Kim’s second book on Korean film will be voraciously devoured, as no doubt his previous book was. … [Read More]
Royal Ancestors – an unsolicited review
I recently received an email from a friend who was given a copy of Royal Ancestors and Ancient Remedies for Christmas last year: Just finished reading your Korean book, which I enjoyed a lot. I confess I was struck by a similarity between the book and the Jongmyo ancestral rituals, in that I thought it … [Read More]
Book review: Michael Gibb — A Slow Walk through Jeong-dong
Michael Gibb: A Slow Walk through Jeong-dong Illustrations by Ah-young Jung Hollym, 2011, 144pp How can one write a whole book about a stroll down a street tucked in behind the Deoksu Palace? How can one spend a whole day there? Well, in part, the clue is in the title – the walk is slow. … [Read More]
Another book on the DPRK hits the bookshops
I always get depressed when I see a new book on the DPRK, because the DPRK is a depressing subject. Plus, it’s the thought that people are spending their lives trying to figure out this unfathomable regime. It’s the thought that there’s another 500 pages which I feel I ought to read, but which if … [Read More]
Damn! I’ve run out of shelf space
I’ve run out of shelf space, so I have no room for the recently issued Volume 17 (enlarged edition) of Kim Jong-il’s selected works. Now I’ll never get the full set, or find out how to “More Firmly Strengthen Socialist Revolutionary Position by Doing Party Work Well”. [Read More]
John Everard launches “Only Beautiful Please”
Former UK ambassador to Pyongyang John Everard has just launched his book “Only Beautiful Please” at a talk to the Korea Society. He caused a stir by saying North Koreans don’t like the Chinese, which links in with something the defector Kim Joo-il said in a letter to the FT in September 2010: North Koreans … [Read More]
The Orphan Master’s Son: best left in the orphanage
Adam Johnson: The Orphan Master’s Son Doubleday, 2012 The publication of The Orphan Master’s Son, the second novel by Adam Johnson, had lucky timing, surfing the wave of interest in the North caused by the death of Kim Jong-il. The newspapers duly lined up to review it to general acclaim, but an early battleground formed: … [Read More]
New book on Kim Ki-duk coming to stores this week
Last year saw the comeback of Kim Ki-duk, winning the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes with Arirang. The release of a new book on one of Korea’s most controversial directors is therefore timely. Coming to Amazon UK this week then, and to Amazon US last month, is a new book on Kim Ki-duk from … [Read More]
James Church reviews The Orphan Master’s Son
James Church reviews a new novel set in North Korea – The Orphan Master’s Son (http://t.co/pmm4ujv4) and raises many caveats at 38North.org http://t.co/7jByBVCN [Read More]
Directory of World Cinema: South Korea launched
I see that @ColetteBalmain‘s Directory of World Cinema: South Korea is up for preorder on Amazon.co.uk (http://t.co/0LpRIp2s) No pressure then, Colette. [Read More]
A new Kyung Hyun Kim book hits the stores soon
I confess that I didn’t much enjoy Kyung Hyun Kim’s first book – The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema – but I’ll still be getting his new one, Virtual Hallyu – Korean Cinema of the Global Era, which is available from Amazon later this month. [Read More]
Book review: Land of Scholars (Kang Jae-eun)
The Land of Scholars: Two Thousand Years of Korean Confucianism by Kang Jae-eun (translated from Japanese to Korean by Ha Woo-bong, then from Korean into English by Suzanne Lee) Homa & Sekey Books 2006; original Japanese version published in 2003. 515 pp Students of Korean history, and particularly of the Joseon dynasty, will inevitably at … [Read More]
Chinese hordes and human waves: Korean War talk at the KCC
News of an upcoming book launch event at the KCC: Chinese Hordes and Human Waves: A Personal Perspective of the Korean War 1950-1953 By Brigadier (Retd.) Brian Parritt CBE Thursday 10 November 2011 6.30pm – 9.30pm (Pre-talk Drinks at 6pm) Venue: Korean Cultural Centre UK, 1-3 Strand, Grand Buildings, London WC2N 5BW (Location) Admission is … [Read More]
Tim Beal’s Crisis in Korea launched
Tim Beal’s new book “Crisis in Korea – America, China and the Risk of War” (Pluto Press) will be launched at Arthur Probsthain Bookshop, 41 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PE on 25 October, 6.30-8.30 pm. RSVP: [email protected] Tel: 0207 636 1096. Available on Amazon.co.uk now. [Read More]