The Abacus and the Sword, The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910  •  Peter Duus HISTORY •  1998 •  PAPER  • 498 PAGES In this scholarly analysis, Duus argues that Japanese aggression at the dawn of the 20th century was driven by both military and political gains (the sword), and economic gain (the abacus). (JPN254, $28.95)
The Aquariums of Pyongyang, Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag  •  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. His co-author Rigoulot was an editor of The Black Book of Communism. (KOR22, $16.95)
Bradt North Korea  •  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)
Communism, A History  •  Richard Pipes HISTORY •  2003 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES A short, fiercely critical history of communism from the ideas of Karl Marx to the end of the 20th century by the Harvard historian and critic of the Soviet Union (which is the focus of much of the book). A volume in the excellent Modern Library chronicles series. (GEN367, $13.95)
Comrades and Strangers, Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea  •  Michael Harrold BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2004 •  PAPER  • 432 PAGES Seeking adventure after graduation, author Michael Harrold became an English language advisor on translations of the speeches of President Kim Il Sung in 1987. As the first Briton to live and work in North Korea under that regime, he gained unprecedented insight into the lives of elite and everyday North Koreans before he was asked to leave in 1994. (KOR27, $19.95)
God Lives in St. Petersburg, and Other Stories  •  Tom Bissell LITERATURE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 212 PAGES Bissell (Chasing the Sea) returns to his years in Central Asia as a Peace Corps volunteer in these sharp, witty fictionalized accounts. His six fast-paced tales are set in Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and the Aral Sea. (CAS117, $13.95)
Hungry For Peace, International Security, Humanitarian Assistance, And Social Change In North Korea  •  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, an international-aid worker and professor of international relations at University of Warwick in England, argues that the famine caused North Korea to adjust in more ways than the West realizes. (KOR26, $19.95)
Insight Guide East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan  •  Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2001 •  PAPER  • 412 PAGES An illustrated guide to the history, culture and traditions of China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan featuring 250 color photographs and 16 maps. (ASA27, $24.95)
Khubilai Khan, His Life and Times  •  Morris Rossabi BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1990 •  PAPER  • 322 PAGES A serious study of Kublai Khan (the best available biography of the legendary figure) and a fascinating, scholarly portrait of the culture and politics of 13th-century Asia. Rossabi examines Khan's rise to power, the submission of Korea and the attempted invasion of Japan. An invader conquered by his own conquest, Khubilai Khan remains of interest to the casual reader because of his influence on his times and his legendary status as the subject of both Marco Polo's writings and Coleridge's famous poem. (CAS10, $22.95)
Kim Il Sung, The North Korean Leader  •  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)
Kim Il-Song's North Korea  •  Helen-Louise Hunter HISTORY •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 296 PAGES In this declassified C.I.A. report, Hunter gives insight into North Korean society and Kim Il-Song, the leader that ruled it for 45 years. (KOR29, $91.95)
Korean, Start Speaking Today  •  Language/30 LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS •  1993 •  AUDIO CD A 90-minute crash course in Korean, featured on compact disc with a phrasebook. (KOR32, $21.95)
Nation Building in South Korea, Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy  •  Gregg Brazinsky HISTORY •  2007 •  HARD COVER  • 384 PAGES Brazinsky posits that modern South Korea, one of the few postcolonial nations that achieved rapid economic development and democratization by the end of the twentieth century, can be attributed to a distinctive combination of American initiatives and Korean agency. (KOR38, $45.00)
North Korea, Another Country  •  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)
Pyongyang, A Journey in North Korea  •  Guy Delisle TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 184 PAGES The irony of supervising kid's cartoons in North Korea (an even cheaper source of labor than South Korea) is not lost on French-Canadian cartoonist DeLisle. In this graphic novel, he captures the absurd, nightmarish and bizarre of life in North Korea under Kim Jong Il with wit and jazzy shaded-pencil. (KOR30, $19.95)
Pyongyang, The Hidden History of the North Korean Capital  •  Chris Springer GUIDEBOOK •  2003 •  PAPER  • 159 PAGES A historical guide with photos and site-by-site descriptions of buildings and monuments of North Korea's showcase capital. (KOR23, $25.00)
Soul of the Tiger, Searching for Nature's Answers in Southeast Asia  •  Jeffrey A. McNeely  •  Paul Spencer Sochaczewski NATURAL HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 432 PAGES A wide-ranging meditation on the role of animals and nature in the complex human societies of Southeast Asia, originally published in 1988. The authors wax philosophical -- and sometimes blackly humorous -- about conservation issues throughout the region. They argue for effective community-based conservation building on traditional relationships between people and the environment (SEA02, $18.95)
A State Of Mind  •  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)
Under The Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, North Korea and the Kim Dynasty  •  Bradley K. Martin BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2006 •  HARD COVER  • 896 PAGES • NEW 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, $19.95)
War Letters, Stories of Courage, Longing and Sacrifice  •  Robert Kenner HISTORY •  2002 •  DVD Produced for PBS, this hour-long documentary dramatizes letters home from the American Revolution to Persian Gulf, Directed by Robert Kenner and narrated by Joan Allen, Edward Norton, Bill Paxton, Giovanni Ribisi, David Hyde Pierce among others. (WAR77, $19.98)
A Woman's Asia  •  Marybeth Bond ANTHOLOGY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 310 PAGES These thirty-five personal, often hilarious accounts of women's adventures from China to Sri Lanka to Turkey to Bhutan, not only illuminating the everyday, oft-overlooked cultural practices of Asia, but also giving a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of the female traveller. Featuring selections from Jan Morris, Pamela Logan and Alison Wright. (ASA49, $17.95)