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KOREA

Korea

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Item EXKOR02. Buy these 4 items as a set for $66 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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Moon Handbook South Korea

Moon Handbook South Korea

by Robert Nilsen

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 800 PAGES

A great resource for the independent traveler, this massively researched, 770-page guidebook features a thorough introduction to the land, history and culture of South Korea, as well as astonishing practical detail on getting around, where to go, and where to stay. (KOR02, $23.95)

Korea's Place in the Sun, A Modern History

Korea's Place in the Sun, A Modern History

by Bruce Cumings

  • HISTORY
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 527 PAGES

A provocative, spirited history of the two Koreas since World War II for the general reader, highly recommended. It includes a chapter on Korean-Americans, and ends with a lively discussion of Korea's place in the world at the end of the 20th century. New edition. (KOR03, $18.95)

Korea, A Walk Through the Land of Miracles

Korea, A Walk Through the Land of Miracles

by Simon Winchester

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Winchester, in his familiar and engaging style, blends travel, history and reporting in this insightful account of a walk across Korea in 1988. With a map and black-and-white photographs. (KOR16, $13.99)

South Korea Map

by ITMB

  • MAP

A convenient folded map of South Korea at the very good scale of 1:550,000. (KOR09, $12.95)

 

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)

Culture Smart! Korea

Culture Smart! Korea


by James Hoare

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 168 PAGES

A concise, well-illustrated and practical guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (KOR20, $9.95)

Frommer's Seoul Day by Day


by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 192 PAGES

A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food, hotels and neighborhoods to shopping, along with dozens of colorful maps. (KOR57, $13.99)

Insight Guide South Korea

Insight Guide South Korea


by Insight Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 374 PAGES

With stunning, color photography on every page, hundreds of maps and indepth essays on history, culture and attractions. (KOR37, $23.99)

Lonely Planet Korea

Lonely Planet Korea


by Andrew Bender

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 440 PAGES

In its hallmark style, this practical guide to Korea by Lonely Planet features maps, a good overview of culture, history and nature, and much nuts-and-bolts information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. With 50 pages on North Korea. (KOR04, $26.99)

Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook

Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook


by Lonely Planet

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

This handy pocket phrasebook includes pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary. (KOR43, $8.99)

Lonely Planet Seoul

Lonely Planet Seoul


by Robert Storey

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 200 PAGES

A comprehensive, informative city guide. Storey has written many of the Asia guides for Lonely Planet. (KOR13, $20.99)

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)

Rough Guide Korea

Rough Guide Korea


by Rough Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES

A comprehensive guide to Korea in the hip, literate and very infomative Rough Guide style. (KOR35, $25.99)

Eastern Sentiments


by Yi T'aejun

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2009
  • HARD COVER
  • 189 PAGES

An insightful, wide-ranging collection of essays by one of Korea's most influential 20th-century writers. (KOR46, $45.00)

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 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 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 Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies


by Michael Breen

  • HISTORY
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

An account of modern Korean culture, politics, religion, history and economics by a British journalist. (KOR08, $16.95)

The Making of Modern Korea


by Adrian Buzo

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 213 PAGES

A thorough, balanced and engaging history of Korea from 1910 to the present day. (SEA68, $44.95)

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)

Korea, As Seen by Magnum Photographers


by Bruce Cumings | Magnum

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 304 PAGES

More than 230 full-color images by some of the world's most-renowned photographers capture the natural history, ancient temples, traditions and modern marvels of this dynamic, rapidly developing country. (KOR36, $75.00)

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 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)

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)

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)

The Calligrapher's Daughter, A Novel

The Calligrapher's Daughter, A Novel


by Eugenia Kim

  • LITERATURE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

Kim sets the story of Najin, a young woman searching for freedom, against the tumultuous backdrop of early 20th-century Korea and the Japanese occupation of an ancient land. (KOR47, $16.00)

Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia

Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia


by Mark Brazil

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 520 PAGES

Brazil's comprehensive guide, featuring 234 color plates, includes Japan, Taiwan and the islands along with the adjacent areas of Asia from Kamchatka to Korea. (JPN332, $39.95)

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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.