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Josephina Eun-hwa Lee; Artbooks: 495 pp., 22,000 won
Contemporary art is generally considered abtract and esoteric, but art critic Josephina Eun-hwa Lee says getting familiar with modern art is similar to making friends, in her book “Contemporary Art Museums in Europe.”
She suggests encountering contemporary art as often as possible to appreciate it better and introduces European modern art museums, which mostly deal with artistic trends after the 1960s.
The book features 16 museums from Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain — from well-known Musee du Louvre and Tate Britain to hidden gems like Museum Insel Hombroich in Neuss, Germany and De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
This is a revised edition of a 2005 book “Travelling Contemporary Art Museums in Europe in the 21st Century.” Lee revisited the museums to update the book and added information on art fairs and biennales, reflecting the recent art boom.
— Kwon Mee-yoo
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James Woods; Changbi Publishers; translated by Seol Jun-gyu and Seol Yeon-ji, .from English to Korean, 276 pp., 15,000 won
“How Fiction Works” is by James Woods, a renowned literary critic for big shot titles such as the Guardian, the New Republic, and the New Yorker. Woods has been teaching at Harvard for eight years; currently he is teaching a course titled “The Practice of Literary Criticism.”
This book is tailored to an audience much like his students — aspiring novelists, literary critics as well as fervent readers. Broken down by the main components of a novel such as narration, details and characters among others, the book offers digestible analyses of various literary works.
The vast scope of literary works referenced in this book is simply impressive both in terms of eras and genres. Using texts spanning from the Old Testament to Dostoyevsky, Wood keenly describes the mechanism of a novel.
Given the nature of the book which includes many texts of various styles, as well as Wood’s w
ell-known tendency to write with irony, the book is no easy translation job. Yet the two translators Seol Jun-gyu and Seol Yeon-ji, did noteworthy work, conveying the author’s lessons as well as the nuances in the various texts.
— Noh Hyun-gi
Don’t Be Fooled by Erroneous Popular Beliefs About Health Kenji Inoue; Translated from Japanese to Korean by Park Sang-gon. Haseo: 207 pp., 12,000 won
Does consuming collagen really make the skin suppler? Must one wait 20 minutes for fat to start burning during workouts? Is eight hours of sleep ideal?
Contrary to popular belief, this book says not necessarily. The author, a medical doctor, examines 50 such ideas that have become widespread through mass media.
By comparing and contrasting related information, it provides smart, useful healthy facts that can be applied to everyday life.
The book looks into specific subjects interesting many such as widely practiced yet misleading diet tricks that in fact invite adverse effects.
Dr. Park Yong-woo, a local expert on obesity, also presents useful information in this Korean translation.
Readers require no medical expertise to learn about the correlation between aging and metabolism or whether or not alcoholic drinks are non-fattening.
— Lee Hyo-won
Starlight That Shines Upon My Soul Yu Han-shin; Book Manager; 192 pp., 8,000 won
Poet Yu Han-shin published a collection of 95 poems that portrays self-reflection, religious enlightenment, and devotion in a composed and determined voice. There are five series within the book — “Calling,” “Sacrificing one’s spirit,” “Days of longing,” “Starlight that shines upon my soul,” and a set of 10-verse poems.
Yu’s poems also explore the religious experiences and sentiments of a devout Catholic in various settings; in everyday life, in mass, in the celebration of Eucharist and so on.
Yu writes in the poem “In celebration of Eucharist” the peity of consuming the Host as “the history of humanity, the red colored aroma filters.”
She also touches upon social issues such as abortion from a Catholic’s perspective.
— Noh Hyun-gi
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