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BELGIUM

A Worldly Art

Mariet Westermann

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PROVENCE & THE COTE D'AZUR

A Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France

Georgeanne Brennan

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OUR FAVORITES

Arctic Dreams

Barry Lopez

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PENGUIN CLASSICS

The Log from the Sea of Cortez

John Steinbeck

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KOREA

North Korea

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Essential Reading

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Bradt North Korea

Bradt North Korea

by Robert Willoughby

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

A practical, detailed overview of North Korea with information on tours, red tape and security issues, national parks, restaurants and cultural concerns. (KOR28, $24.99)

North Korea, Another Country

North Korea, Another Country

by Bruce Cumings

  • HISTORY
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

A provocative examination of North Korea that contradicts many commonly held assumptions. Bruce Cumings is a professor of history at Chicago University and an expert on North Korea. (KOR21, $15.95)

The Aquariums of Pyongyang, Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

The Aquariums of Pyongyang, Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

by Kang Chol-Hwan | Pierre Rigoulot

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

At the age of nine Kang Chol-Hwan was sent with his family to a remote concentration camp by the North Korean government, where he remained for the next ten years. Now a journalist in South Korea, Chol-Hwan describes his brutalized childhood in a stark, direct style. (KOR22, $16.95)

Under The Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, North Korea and the Kim Dynasty

Under The Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, North Korea and the Kim Dynasty

by Bradley K. Martin

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • HARD COVER
  • 896 PAGES

A detailed portrait of Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il, their monstrous egos, appetites and monuments, and of the relationship of North Korea to the rest of the world, by a Newsweek bureau chief. (KOR18, $22.99)

Korea Map

by Nelles

  • MAP

A detailed, full-color travel map covering both North and South Korea at a scale of 1:1,500,000. (KOR31, $13.95)

 
Pimsleur Quick & Simple Korean

Pimsleur Quick & Simple Korean


by Pimsleur Language Method

  • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
  • 2005
  • AUDIO CD

Four audio CDs with eight 30-minute lessons in basic Korean, covering elementary vocabulary and phrases used in travel and everyday situations. (KOR17, $19.95)

A State Of Mind


by Daniel Gordon

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2006
  • DVD

This British documentary focuses on two young North Korean gymnasts and their preparations for the Mass Games, a highly complex, choreographed performance that involves thousands of audience members. (KOR24, $29.95)

Hungry For Peace, International Security, Humanitarian Assistance, And Social Change In North Korea


by Hazel Smith

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 339 PAGES

A study of the famine that devastated North Korea during the 1990's and it's consequences. Author Hazel Smith argues that the famine caused North Korea to adjust in more ways than the West realizes. (KOR26, $19.95)

Korea's Twentieth-century Odyssey


by Michael E. Robinson

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 220 PAGES

Robinson deftly traces the modern history of Korea with admirable brevity. (KOR50, $28.95)

Meltdown, The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis


by Mike Chinoy

  • HISTORY
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 432 PAGES

Meticulously reported and riveting, Meltdown chronicles the failure of Washington's dealings with North Korea during the Bush administration. (KOR48, $17.99)

Nothing to Envy, Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Nothing to Envy, Ordinary Lives in North Korea


by Barbara Demick

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Demick follows the lives of six North Koreans over 15 years -- a chaotic period that saw the rise to power of Kim Jong Il and the devastation of a famine that killed one-fifth of the population. (KOR44, $16.00)

Politics and Culture in South and North Korea


by Dennis Hart

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

This introduction to the social and political development of North and South Korea places their rival regimes and ideologies side by side. (KOR53, $44.95)

Rogue Regime, Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea


by Jasper Becker

  • HISTORY
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 300 PAGES

A seasoned Asia corespondent, Becker warns of the dangers posed by the North Korean regime in this unflinching overview of the horrors inflicted upon the Korean people by father and son Kim. (KOR19, $17.95)

The Cleanest Race, How North Koreans See Themselves- and Why It Matters

The Cleanest Race, How North Koreans See Themselves- and Why It Matters


by B. R. Myers

  • HISTORY
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 200 PAGES

Myers turns North Korea's slogans, myths and propaganda upside-down in this engaging overview of a very strange place. This revised paperback edition includes a consideration of Kim Jong-On. (KOR54, $20.00)

The Coldest Winter, America and the Korean War

The Coldest Winter, America and the Korean War


by David Halberstam

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • HARD COVER
  • 719 PAGES

In a powerful new history of the Korean War, Pulitzer-winning Halberstam combines research, detail and reportorial skill miscalculations of General Douglas MacArthur. (KOR34, $35.00)

The Imperial Cruise, A Secret History of Empire and War

The Imperial Cruise, A Secret History of Empire and War


by James Bradley

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES

Bradley follows in the wake of the epic 1905 voyage aboard the Manchuria, headlined by first daughter, Alice Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft, Roosevelt's secretary of war, in this bold account of Teddy Roosevelt and the far-reaching legacy of his foreign policy in Korea, Hawaii, China and the Philippines. (PAC226, $16.99)

The Korean War, A History

The Korean War, A History


by Bruce Cumings

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 176 PAGES

Leading Korean War scholar Cumings covers the war from both the Korean and American perspectives, including its impact on Americans at home, in this succinct and authoritative text. An excellent resource for students, scholars and anyone wanting to understand the U.S.'s relationship with North and South Korea. (KOR51, $16.00)

The Man from Pakistan, The True Story of the World's Most Dangerous Nuclear Smuggler


by Douglas Frantz

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 413 PAGES

The gripping tale of Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistani father of the Islamic bomb and mastermind behind an enterprise that sold nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. (WAR138, $14.99)

The Two Koreas, A Contemporary History


by Don Oberdorfer

  • HISTORY
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 521 PAGES

A history of North and South Korea covering the last 25 years, including information on North Korea's nuclear capabilities. (KOR07, $22.95)

Comrades and Strangers, Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea

Comrades and Strangers, Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea


by Michael Harrold

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 414 PAGES

As the first Briton to live and work in North Korea under President Kim Il Sung's regime, author Michael Harrold gained unprecedented insight into the lives of elite and everyday North Koreans before he was asked to leave in 1994. (KOR27, $24.95)

Kim Il Sung, The North Korean Leader


by Dae-Sook Suh

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 443 PAGES

A historical study of the first North Korean president Il Sum King. Dae-Sook Suh is the Director of the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Hawaii. (KOR25, $32.50)

Pyongyang, A Journey in North Korea


by Guy Delisle

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 184 PAGES

DeLisle captures the absurd, nightmarish and bizarre of life in North Korea under Kim Jong Il in this graphic novel of his two-month-long stint overseeing animation for a French kid's show. (KOR30, $14.95)

The World Is Bigger Now, An American Journalist's Rescue from Captivity in North Korea

The World Is Bigger Now, An American Journalist's Rescue from Captivity in North Korea


by Euna Lee

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2010
  • HARD COVER
  • 304 PAGES

One of the television journalists famously detained in North Korea for four months in 2009 tells her story of imprisonment and release in this memoir interwoven with commentary on the state of world politics. (KOR52, $25.00)

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Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.