Recent Books
Moonlit Tales
Shin Kyung-sook; Munhakdongne: 212 pp., 12,000 won
In her much-anticipated follow-up to “Please Look After Mom,’’ an imaginative and subtly tragic tale of familial loss, Shin Kyun-sook unveils her lighter side in this collection of short stories she wrote between the breaks of working on her longer novels in recent years.
All the stories on “Moonlit Tales’’ are short, easy to read and avoid the heavy themes that dominated Shin’s previous works, including Mom. While Shin’s biting insight on family life and society is displayed here and there, it fuels humor instead of commentary. Shin’s imagination and brilliant wordplay are clearly the strength of the book as she weaves warm and witty tales of love, nature and the frustrations of getting old from the mundane details of daily life.
―Kwon Mee-yoo
A Leader Leaves No One Behind
Kim Sung-keun; Lee and Woo; 240 pp., 15,000 won
During his days as a baseball skipper, Kim Sung-keun was old-school in every sense of the term, ruthlessly demanding intensity from his players and yanking them off the field if he didn’t feel they were playing the right way.
Now, away from the daily rigors of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Kim, 70, who led the SK Wyverns to three championship titles before retiring from professional baseball in 2011, expresses a mellower side in his memoir.
During his days as KBO manager, the short-fused Kim rarely seemed happy about any players. But in the book, Kim now says "there are not bad players. There are only bad managers who cannot put them in the right place to succeed.’’
After a nondescript career as a pitcher, Kim went on to have a more illustrious career in managing and coaching players for more than four decades in the amateur and pro levels. Despite posting high winning percentages for every team he coached, Kim battled a reputation as being a manager who couldn’t win when it mattered most. This was because he didn’t win a KBO championship title until 2007, but that was the first of his three with the Wyverns.
Kim clearly had his highs and lows, and in the book, he shares some of his experiences and explains how they shaped his ideas of leadership. He is currently managing the independent league team Goyang Wonders, where he says he is very much enjoying the experience of developing players without the pressure to produce winners overnight.
―Baek Byung-yeul
Echoes of Ancient Rome in American society
Choi Yong-sik; Dream of Rome: 368 pp., 17,500 won
American culture has a huge effect on different societies around the world, but few know that aspects of the United States were in turn influenced by Ancient Rome.
Author Choi Yong-sik highlights some interesting similarities between the two republics such as some of the institutions and practices in the legal and political systems.
According to Choi, Christopher Columbus laid the foundation of American identity whether he meant to or not. During the first half of the book, the author attempts to explain how American society has developed.
In the last two chapters of five, Choi focuses more on emphasizing an apparent paradox in the United States. He highlights that many Americans believe in Christian values, but that the U.S. has the highest divorce rate in the world and frequently pursues military action.
Instead of giving detailed information about American history, Choi highlights interesting facts, adding his personal opinions to them. So the book is appealing despite the fact that the subject matter is extremely broad for a publication that is less than 400 pages long.
Choi’s genuine curiosity and passion for learning about the country are well-demonstrated in the book.