Thursday, August 17, 2006

New book by Limon

I made a resolution for 2006 to read a book a month about or somehow tied to Korea. I read about 80 pages of one thousand chestnut trees and the same of The Imjin War.
Chestnut trees was a library book and I had to return it before I left that district but it is one I really should have finished because parts of it were set in Yangyang Gun (the Kwandong in my name means the eight beautiful sights of Yangyang). I still have The Imjin War and will finish it...sometime.
Despite this failing, I want to recommend a book I haven't even read, yet.
Martin Limon has a series of books (Limon books at Amazon / What the Book) out about two CID detectives in '70s Itaewon. The first, Jade Lady Burning, was great. So great that I overlooked the weaknesses in the following two books, Buddha's Money and Slicky Boys. Anyway, his latest book, The Door into Bitterness, is out in hardcover now and Amazon will have it in softcover Sept 1. Without knowing anything about military life nor Korea of the seventies, these books feel right and I will be getting my copy soon.

Whatthebook has Limon's books but not the other two I mentioned. I figured their strongpoint would be books about Korea.

Oh, I am still working on figuring out how to post video - the video in the post below will be operational sometime (man, are you going to be disappointed after all the anticipation the wait is creating).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the recommendations. I have also been looking for books about Korea, fiction and nonfiction.

gordsellar said...

Never heard of Limon, but I will definitely check out Jade Lady and see what I think. Thanks for the recommendation!

Unknown said...

UNDER CONSTRUCTION the gendering of modernity, class, and consumption in the Republic of Korea

(edited byLaurel Kendall)

Good book that looks back as well as ahead. It is a collection of short essays/studies by various people; well worth a read to help understand gender issues in Korea.

Unknown said...

Oy yeah,

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll have to check out Limon. Sounds interesting.