Join a community of readers interested in the Asia Pacific this winter!
We’ll provide the online link, moderator and the community of fellow readers interested in learning more about the Asia Pacific region–all you need to bring is the book. Join us for either or both book club meetings; be sure to reserve your spot today (registration links below). This event is free and open to the USF community and wider public.
The Sister: North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World by Sung-Yoon Lee
- Tuesday, January 9th, 5-6 pm, Online via Zoom
- This book is available in e-book and print formats.
- Lee, Sung-Yoon. The Sister: North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World. PublicAffairs, 2023.
- ISBN-13: 978-1541704121
- Moderator: Melissa Dale, PhD, Executive Director and Associate Professor, Center for Asia Pacific Studies
Register here »
About the Book:
“The first woman ever to issue the threat of a nuclear weapons strike is not even officially a head of state. Kim Yo Jong is the sister of North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and, as their murderous regime’s chief propagandist, internal administrator, and foreign policymaker, she is the most powerful woman in North Korean history. Cruel but charming, she threatens and insults foreign leaders with sardonic wit, issuing proclamations and denunciations in her own name, a first for any woman in the Korean royal family. She memorably called the South Korean Defense Minister “a senseless and scum-like guy” before going on to promise South Korea “a miserable fate little short of total destruction and ruin”. A princess by birth with great expectations for her macabre kingdom, she was brought up to believe it is her mission to reunite North Korea with the South or die trying. She’s ruthless and incredibly dangerous.
The Sister, written by Sung-Yoon Lee, a scholar of Korean and East Asian studies and a specialist on North Korea, is a fascinating, authoritative account of the mysterious world of North Korea and its ruling dynasty—a family whose lust for power entails the brutal repression of civilians, a missile program that can reach the continental US, and the constant threat of global havoc.”
What reviewers have to say about The Sister: North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World:
- “With great literary flair, Sung-Yoon Lee delivers not only an incisive portrayal of North Korea’s ‘princess’ Kim Yo Jong, but also a chilling portrait of a family dynasty that has oppressed and exploited North Korea for generation after generation. The Sister is essential reading to understand the nature of the world’s most tyrannical and reclusive regime.” ―Max Boot, Washington Post columnist and senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
- “A riveting read… North Korea is a closed society, where reliable information is next to impossible to obtain. In researching Ms. Kim and her leading role in her brother’s inner circle, Mr. Lee has performed a remarkable feat.” ―Wall Street Journal
- “Riveting, unique, policy-relevant narrative of the first order. A must-read for all policymakers. Lee sees through the North Korean regime’s antics, maskirovka, and propaganda—much of it the work of Kim Yo Jong—as does no other. A work of penetrating analysis, caustic wit, and elegant prose.” ―James Stavridis, PhD; admiral, US Navy (ret); former supreme allied commander, NATO; vice chair of global affairs, the Carlyle Group; and chair of the Board of Trustees, the Rockefeller Foundation
Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley
- Tuesday, January 16th, 5-6 pm, Online via Zoom
- This book is available in e-book and print formats. Gleeson Library has the book available as an e-book. For more information on access privileges to the Gleeson Library, please review this page.
- Stanley, Amy. Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World. Scribner, 2020.
- ISBN-13: 978-1501188527
- Moderator: James Stone Lunde, PhD, Kiriyama Fellow, Center for Asia Pacific Studies
Register here »
About the Book:
*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography*
*Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award*
*Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography*
“The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces—and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval—she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak.
With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno’s life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture—and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions.
Immersive and fascinating, Stranger in the Shogun’s City is a revelatory work of history, layered with rich detail and delivered with beautiful prose, about the life of a woman, a city, and a culture.”
What reviewers have to say about Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World:
- “Stanley … renders the world of that rebellious woman, Tsuneno, so vividly that I had trouble pulling myself back into the present whenever I put the book down. Stranger in the Shogun’s City is as close to a novel as responsible history can be … What makes the book so captivating are not merely Tsuneno’s stubborn attempts at self-determination, but also Stanley’s enviable ability to make us feel as if we lived in 19th-century Edo with her.”
—Washington Post - “Absorbing … A compelling story, traced with meticulous detail and told with exquisite sympathy.”
—Wall Street Journal - “Through Tsuneno, Stanley conjures a teeming world… This sped-up reversal of the city’s demise is like a magic trick, the same one Stanley has accomplished over the previous two hundred pages, where a lost place appears to the reader as if alive and intact.”
—Harper’s Magazine
We hope to see you at one or both of our book club meetings. We look forward to discussing these fascinating new books with you!