Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung, Riverhead Books '12, $26.95, 293 pages, ASIN
#1594488088.
It's one thing for a long-established author to score a literary trifecta -- starred reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews -- but it's quite another for an author to accomplish the same feat with her first novel. Catherine Chung's debut portrays two sisters in crisis and examines the complexities of family dynamics in Korea. In a brief Q&A, Chung discusses the writing of her book:
Q. Your book starts with two Korean-American sisters -- Janie, your narrator, and her younger sister, Hannah, a college student who suddenly disappears. Where does the story go from there?
A. The story is about what happens to the family in the aftermath of Hannah's disappearance: how they search for her, and how they try to come back together, but to get that story, we have to follow them into the past, and also through some folktales and into Korea as well.
Q. Math is a leitmotif in the novel and before you were a writer, you were on a path to a career in mathematics. Can you explain the switch? How does your background in math inform your writing?
A. In my writing, I try to say things as clearly and cleanly as possible, and that might have something to do with learning to write math proofs in college, or it might just be that I'm attracted to that kind of beauty and elegance in both disciplines. It seems to me that both writing and math are ultimately about learning how to make sense of the world, trying to organize the chaos and describe it, and hoping it turns out to be something very lovely.
Catherine Chung was born in Evanston, IL, studied math at the University of Chicago, and received an MFA in creative writing from Cornell University. Born to Korean immigrant parents and raised in New York, New Jersey and Michigan, she has also lived in Korea, Germany, and France.
Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die -- The Assassination of a British Prime Minister, Walker & Co., $26, 286 pages, ASIN #0802779980. Index, bibliography, notes, grouping of b&w glossy images.
Bookshelves are full of books on the War of 1812 between America and Britain but relatively little has been written about a key element in the run-up to that war: the assassination at close range of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of Parliament.
Perceval self-confessed assassin was Liverpool businessman John Bellingham, who thought that his act was "a matter of justice" and that it would win public acclaim. Instead, within a week, even before his motives could be explored, Bellingham was tried, convicted, and hanged. While history has concluded he must have been insane, he insisted until the end that he was of sound mind.
Author Andro Linklater, drawing on Bellingham's personal records, reports of London's first detective agency and hitherto undiscovered correspondence, reveals his conclusion that Bellingham's action has "the outlines of a conspiracy." He sets forth in detail what, he believes, really happened.
Andro Linklater, who lives in England, has written three previous works, including two about American history.
Ships from the Depths -- Deepwater Archaeology by Fredrik Soreide, Texas A&M University '11, $45, 200 pages, in oversized format on glossy stock, ASIN #1603442189. Index,
references, dozens of b&w and color glossy images.
From the back cover:
"Ships from the Depths: Deepwater Archaeology surveys the dramatic advances in technology over the last few years that have made it possible for scientists to locate, study, and catalogue archaeological sites in waters previously inaccessible to humans. Researcher and explorer Fredrik Soreide presents the development of deepwater archaeology since 1971, when Willard Bascom designed his Alcoa Seaprobe to locate and raise deepwater wrecks in the Mediterranean. Accompanied by descriptions and color photographs of deepwater projects and equipment, this book considers not only techniques that have been developed for location and observation of sites, but also removal and excavation methods distinctive to these unique locations, far beyond the reach of scuba gear.
"Thousands of shipwrecks and archaeological sites lie undiscovered in deep water. These sites contain important archaeological contributions to the knowledge of our maritime past. This makes deepwater archaeology an important and developing area of study and research. Fredrik Soreide's Ships from the Depths provides an introduction to and survey of the history, development, and potential of this exciting branch of nautical archaeology. Scholars and field archaeologists will appreciate this handy compendium of the current state of the discipline and technology, and general readers will relish this comprehensive look at the challenges and opportunities associated with locating and studying historical and ancient shipwrecks in some of the world's deepest waters.
Fredrik Soreide teaches archaeology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway from which he has a Ph.D. in marine engineering.
Democracy, Islam, & Secularism in Turkey, Edited by Ahmet T. Kuru & Alfred Stepan, Columbia UP '12 paperback. 216 pages, ASIN #0231159331. Index, bibliography, contributors, notes follow each essay.
From the back cover:
"While Turkey has grown as a world power, promoting the image of a progressive and stable nation, several choices in policy have strained its relationship with the East and the West. Providing historical, social, and religious context for this behavior, the essays in Democracy, Islam, and Securalism in Turkey examine issues relevant to Turkish debates and global concerns, from the state's position on religion to its involvement with the European Union.
Titles of the essays gathered by the editors are: Rethinking Ottoman Management of Diversity, The Historical Roots of Kemalism, Turkey -- Plural Society and Monolithic State, Laicite' as an 'Ideal Type" and a Continuum, A New Politics of Engagement, The Turkish Constitutional Court and Political Crisis, Turkey's Accession to the European Union and the Role of the Justice and Development Party, and The "Turkish Model" in the Matrix of Political Catholicism.
Editor Ahmet T. Kuru is associate professor of political science at San Diego State University. Alfred Stepan is the Wallace Sayre professor of government at Columbia University.
































