Adult

In the late 1980s, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester set out on foot to discover the Republic of Korea --- from its southern tip to the North Korean border --- in order to set the record straight about this enigmatic and elusive land. Fascinating for its vivid presentation of historical and geographic detail, KOREA is that rare book that actually defines a nation and its people.

During the Korean War, Hwanghae Province in North Korea was the setting of a gruesome 52-day massacre that resulted from malicious battling between Christian and Communist Koreans. Forty years later, Ryu Yosop, a minister living in America, returns to his home village, where his older brother once played a notorious role in the bloodshed. Yosop now must face the survivors of the tragedy and lay his brother's soul to rest.

When her boyfriend of seven years leaves her for another woman, the celebrated young chef Jung Ji-won shuts down the cooking school she ran from their home and sinks into deep depression. Returning to the kitchen of the Italian restaurant where her career first began, she slowly rebuilds her life, rediscovering her appreciation of food, both as nourishment and as sensual pleasure. She also starts to devise a plan for a final, vengeful act of culinary seduction.

Fukuoka Prison, 1944. Beyond the prison walls the war rages; inside a man is found brutally murdered. Watanabe, a young guard with a passion for reading, is tasked with finding the killer. The victim, Sugiyama --- also a guard --- was feared and despised throughout the prison, and investigations have barely begun when a powerful inmate confesses. But Watanabe is unconvinced; and as he interrogates both the suspect and Yun Dong-ju, a talented Korean poet, he begins to realize that the fearsome guard was not all he appeared to be.

Yu-Jung is in the hospital recovering from her third suicide attempt when she receives a life-changing visit. Her no-nonsense aunt appears by her side and suggests Yu-Jung accompany her on a charitable visit to death row. There she meets Yun-Soo, a convicted murderer who will soon be put to death. Through weekly, hour-long meetings, Yu-Jung and Yun-Soo slowly reveal to each other the dark secrets of their pasts and the hidden traumas that have shaped their lives.

Amid the tremors of political revolution, Jung Yoon, a highly literate, twenty-something woman, recounts her tragic personal history. When Yoon receives a distressing phone call from her ex-boyfriend after eight years of separation, memories of a tumultuous youth begin to resurface. She revisits the death of her beloved mother, the strong bond with her now-dying former college professor, the excitement of her first love, and the friendships forged out of a shared sense of isolation and grief.

There are so few established facts about how the son of a glove maker from Warwickshire became one of the greatest writers of all time that some people doubt he could really have written so many astonishing plays. THE SECRET LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE pulls back the curtain to imagine what it might have really been like to be Shakespeare before a seemingly ordinary man became a legend.

While it might be a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a title and no money must be in want of a fortune, what does a sexually awakened young woman want? In her wickedly alluring romp through the late-Georgian London, Italian piano making, and tightly-fitted Polonaise gowns, Katharine Grant has written a startling and provocative debut.

Ruth Lennox is found dead in a pool of her own blood. Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson can’t piece together a motive and calls in psychotherapist Frieda Klein, hoping her talents will offer a new angle on the case. When it emerges that Ruth was hiding a scandalous secret, her family closes ranks. Then a patient’s chance remark sends Frieda down a dangerous path that seems to lead to a serial killer who has long escaped detection.