Lee stresses efforts to recover Korean artifacts kept by foreign countries Korea celebrated the return of nearly 300 copies of its ancient royal documents that were looted by French troops 145 years ago with welcome ceremonies and performances in Seoul and Ganghwa Island on Saturday. The ceremonies came after the final batch of 297 volumes of Uigwe arrived in Seoul from Paris late last month. T...

Dreaming of ideal unification The 21st Century’s Dream of Korea: Great Advancement and Peaceful Unification By Park Se-il (Hansun Foundation) Park Se-il, professor of law and economics in the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University, has published a collection of newspaper columns that he wrote over the last 10 years. Park, who is the founder and chairman of the ...

Kyujanggak By Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies (AcaNet, 30,000 won) Founded in 1776 during the reign of King Jeongjo, the Kyujanggak served as the Joseon Dynasty’s royal library. It housed countless royal books and documents that are now considered priceless Korean historical records. The Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies of Seoul National University ― where the library is now lo...

The last scene of Oscar Hijuelos’ new memoir, “Thoughts Without Cigarettes” (Gotham Books, $27.50), is a moment of contact with a ghost -- that of his father, Pascual. “I remember when that moment came to me,” says Hijuelos. “It was a mystical reaching of a different dimension. I don’t know what happens when you die, but there is a mystical presence in our lives that extends to people who are no...

Kim In-sook’s new novel talks of hope in extreme despair Author Kim In-sook started her writing career early. She made her literary debut when she was barely a university student, at the age of 20. Now 48, she has won Korea’s three major literary awards ― Yi Sang, Dong-in, and Daesan ― with more than 30 books published. But Kim says she still longs to write something different, something new. ...

Koreana, a quarterly on Korean culture and arts published by the Korea Foundation, has gone through a major editorial and design revamp this year, with a more visual and story-focused concept. Its 2011 summer edition, its first issue with the newly-designed layout and stories, was published in late May. The revamped edition is bigger in size so the all-color magazine can effectively mix photogr...

Giant book event to feature exhibitions, seminars and meetings with authors The 17th Seoul International Book Fair, one of the biggest book events in Korea, opens June 15 at COEX in southern Seoul with a total of 572 publishers from 23 countries participating. The five-day event is filled with diverse special exhibitions, seminars, and events on a variety of themes in today’s international publ...

PARIS (AFP) - Just in time for Global Smurfs Day and a Smurfs movie in 3-D comes a little blue book from a French academic that has some fans of the sock-topped comic book characters seeing red. Antoine Bueno, who lectures at the high-brow Paris Institute of Political Studies, thought he was just having fun when he penned his 177-page analysis of the politics of Smurfland that's just been publis...

Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias By Don Van Natta Jr. (Little, Brown) Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky ― they were all great athletes, some of the best the 20th century had to offer. But none excelled in as many sports as Mildred “Babe” Didrikson, the two-sport Hall of Famer who helped found the Ladies Professional Golf Association and...

Indignation By Philip Roth Translated by Jeong Young-mok (Munhakdongne Publishing Corp, 11,000 won) Nobody really “gets” adolescence. Not the kids themselves, not the parents and teachers who have left it behind. Not even us as we look back years later. It implies mystique. An alluring mix of whimsy and danger, when everything seemed more important than it was, but also more possible. How do ...

Years ago when Megan McDonald, the now-52-year-old author of the popular children’s series “Judy Moody,” was writing picture books for the 2- to 4-year-old set, a grandmother came through her signing line at an event in Florida. Clutched to the elderly woman’s chest was a waterlogged, tattered copy of McDonald’s debut, “Is This a House for Hermit Crab?” The woman proceeded to tell McDonald that ...

Roy Blount Jr. is a man who loves to talk. And one of his favorite places to talk about ― and in ― is New Orleans. “People there are loose and unpretentious and tend to enjoy talking,” says Blount of the Big Easy, which he calculates he has visited 42 times in his 63 years. “I love to be around people who like to talk picturesquely, without getting too forced about it.” Blount (pronounced “Blun...