The weather has been nothing short of erratic in Seoul, swinging from torrential rain to searing heat. Amid such atmospheric unpredictability, there’s no better moment to retreat indoors with a stack of books. Here are some summer reading recommendations from The Korea Herald.
Lee Joo-hee Managing editor, The Korea Herald "American Diplomacy" by George F. Kennan "American Diplomacy" by the late diplomat and historian George F. Kennan is a compilation of his lectures and his famous Foreign Affairs articles published under the pseudonym “X.
” Often dubbed the seminal work on American foreign policy in the first half of the 20th century, the book offers a chance to perpend Kennan’s realism and his unforgiving version of the way the minds of the world's most influential country toiled. The book narrates the limits of idealized power against reality, and the consequences of political assumptions and military interpretations. A century later, in the year of the unbridled US presidential election and the rumbustious chaos that surrounds the world, whether you agree with Kennan or not, the book serves as a great testimony to how history is always pertinent.
Kim Hoo-ran Culture desk editor, The Korea Herald "Fourteen Days: A Collaborative Novel" by The Authors Guild, Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston Set in a Lower East Side apartment in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown, the novel by 36 leading writers is composed of stories told by the tenants who gather on the rooftop e.