Chicago history, Chicago history, Lit, Nonfiction, Suburbs and exurbs

Review: Maps and Martyrs, Encounters in the New World: Jesuit Cartography of the Americas, by Mirela Altic

A strikingly drawn and boldly colored map, attributed to the Jesuit priest and explorer Jean de Brebeuf, is the image used on the cover of Mirela Altic’s Encounters in the […]

Patrick T. Reardon /
Design, Lit, Nonfiction

Review: Celebrating Well-Made Books—The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World’s Greatest Invention, edited by P.J.M. Marks and Stephen Parkin

For more than 18 centuries, paper was made with rags—old clothes, sails, and ropes—the same way it had first been fashioned in China. But, by the 19th century, the process of […]

Patrick T. Reardon /
Chicago history, Comics and Graphic Novels, Lit, Nonfiction, Reviews

Review: “A Repugnant Purity”: Al Capone, by Pierre-Francois Radice and Swann Meralli

Chicago is best known for its transplants. Our biggest celebrities come to a pocketful of names—most from elsewhere, but now synonymous with the Windy City. Much like Oprah, Michael, Ditka, […]

Dan Kelly /
Chicago history, Lit, Nonfiction, Reviews

Review: The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been, by Jake Berman

From Atlanta to Washington, DC, Boston to Vancouver, Los Angeles to Miami, Montreal to Toronto, cartographer and writer Jake Berman explores the failures and successes of North American transport through […]

June Sawyers /
Chicago history, Chicago history, Lit, Nonfiction

Review: Washington, Daley, and Three Other Mayors, Chicago’s Modern Mayors, edited by Dick Simpson and Betty O’Shaughnessy

Chicago’s Modern Mayors, edited by Dick Simpson and Betty O’Shaughnessy, covers a 40-year period during which Chicago, its people, and its region went through great changes under a succession of […]

Patrick T. Reardon /
Events, Interviews, Lit, Nonfiction

Interview: Columnist Georgia Garvey on Her Greek Heritage and New Book, Everything Is Going to Be Okay (Until It’s Not)

Cover of Everything Is Going to Be Okay (Until It's Not) by Georgia Garvey

The phrase “it’s all Greek to me” is often used to refer to complicated things people cannot understand. Yet for award-winning columnist and former Chicago Tribune editor Georgia Garvey, her […]

Elizabeth Niarchos Neukirch /
Lit, Nonfiction, Suburbs and exurbs

Review: An Artist/Photographer Analyzes the Wanderlust of Stray Shopping Carts

The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification By Julian Montague Second edition, 2023, University of Chicago Press Julian Montague published his first edition of The […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Chicago history, Chicago history, Lit, Nonfiction

Review: A Second Breezier History of Chicago’s Great Fire, The Burning of the World: The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City’s Soul, by Scott W. Berg

As someone who writes books, I felt a pang of empathy for Scott W. Berg when I heard that he’d published in September a new book about the Great Chicago […]

Patrick T. Reardon /
Dialogs, Events, Interviews, Lit, Live lit events, Nonfiction, Stages, Talk show

Dialogs: Considering Contagion with Maddow and Schama at Chicago Humanities Festival Events

This autumn’s Chicago Humanities Festival is chock-a-block with notable writers. That focus is normal for one of the Windy City’s most diverse and comprehensive cultural institutions, but especially true this […]

Karin McKie /
Comics and Graphic Novels, Events, Interviews, Lit, Live lit events, Music, Nonfiction

Review: Something Out of Nothing—New Book Shares the History and Images of Garage Rock Label Estrus Records

Chris Coyle and designer Scott Sugiuchi will attend a book release party at Quimby’s Bookstore (1854 W North Ave) on Saturday, October 21, beginning at 1 p.m. Another party takes […]

Dan Kelly /
Essays, Events, Fiction, Lit, Nonfiction, Poetry

Shortlist Announced for 2023 Chicago Review of Books Awards

The 2023 Chicago Review of Books Awards shortlist includes literary works ranging in subject matter from queer motherhood to belonging and migration, Chicago’s Black cowboy culture, and women’s overlooked heroism during World War II.

Elizabeth Niarchos Neukirch /
Chicago history, Events, Food, Lit, Live lit events, Nonfiction, Recipes

Review: Consuming My Religion: Holy Food, by Christina Ward

No matter how busy they were creating the universe, some gods always found time to lay down the law on what their worshippers should eat. Diets and deities have a […]

Dan Kelly /