Commune With the City’s Dead In New Book About Chicago Cemeteries, Chicago Eternal
Cemeteries remind us this is a city of change in multiple ways. Not just the impermanence and fragility of life, but in the ways the landscape of the city shifts […]
Bitch Planet Vol. 1 is Well Worth the Read
Given the current political climate and the completely welcome rebellion against male-dominated media, it’s no surprise that a comic like Bitch Planet hits all the right feminist notes. A quick-witted and […]
Title 13: Good Game Plan, Faulty Execution
Title 13, the debut novel of Michael A. Ferro, has all the trappings of an engaging conspiracy thriller. There are secret internal documents regarding the personal information of US citizens, […]
Kevin Coval Celebrates Chicago History in Poetry and Hip-Hop at Driehaus Museum
The evening opened with DJ Cash-Era playing some tunes as the audience gathered in the elegant ballroom of the Richard Driehaus Museum, that mansion of the Gilded Age. The ballroom’s […]
Up in Here Falls Flat in Form, But Starts a Necessary Conversation
Up in Here is the memoir of writer Mark Dostert. Having written for publications like Salon and the Houston Chronicle, Dostert has written Up in Here, his first full book, about his experience as a […]
Poem for January
(An homage to the St. Louis poet who became a Brit and also to Lou Rawls) January is the cruelest month. Where did T.S. Eliot get that April business? […]
Same Dream Another Time Captures Gambling Centers from Another Era
When we think of Las Vegas and Atlantic City, clichéd images come to mind such as Elvis impersonators, showgirls, tough-looking mobsters and lounge lizard entertainers. Many of these images have […]
The Best Books We’ve Read in 2017
Sometimes, you read something that makes you stop. It clings to you. A few of our writers spoke of the books that have stripped them of their expectations. Here are […]
Chicago Author’s 2013 Book About U.S. Nazis Makes Him a 2017 Media Expert
In 2013, Chicago author Arnie Bernstein published his fifth book. Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund is the 1930s history of a small […]
Paper Girls: Volume Three Is A Real Time Trip
Volume three of the Paper Girls graphic novel continues the story of four young newspaper delivery girls from Stony Stream, Cleveland, circa 1988, and their adventure across the past, future, […]
Sick of the Same Old Gifts?
Gift-giving season is upon us, and with it the existential dread that comes with finding the perfect present. In our modern age of two-day shipping, free returns, and constant stream […]
340 Days Spent 250 Miles Above Earth: Astronaut Scott Kelly Shares Lessons at Chicago Humanities Festival
When former astronaut Captain Scott Kelly took his first flying test for the U.S. Navy, he nearly crashed when he landed. His instructor asked, “are you sure this is a […]