Review: Goat Days Will Leave You in a Daze
Najeeb’s childhood dream was to become a goatherd. His dream comes true, but in the form a nightmare. Benyamin’s Goat Days follows the twisted turns of Najeeb’s life. First published in […]
Barry Gifford’s New York, 1960 Is a Tender Remembrance
“I was about to speak to her/ but hesitated when I realized/ she was browsing through/ the Self-Help section,” writes Barry Gifford in his poem “In a Used Bookstore.” Appearing […]
Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout Is a Heartbreaking Trans Memoir
Standing onstage, Laura Jane Grace is the embodiment of a punk rocker. Part Joan Jett, part Debbie Harry, Grace commands her pop-punk band Against Me! with ease and a crooked smile. […]
Review:Illusions of Magic: Love and intrigue in 1933 Chicago
Illusions of Magic: Love and Intrigue in 1933 Chicago resurrects three little-known aspects of history: the 1933 assassination attempt on Franklin D. Roosevelt that killed Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, the […]
Review: Ron Faiola’s Wisconsin Supper Clubs Another Round
Ron Faiola is no stranger to supper clubs, especially those scattered throughout our neighbor state to the north. Wisconsin Supper Clubs: Another Round is his second glossy coffee-table book focusing on […]
Book Review: Kevin Smokler’s Brat Pack America
Movies are a global business. This is something close to an axiom given how Hollywood iconography has swaddled the globe. Audiences from Berlin to (formerly) Bombay became acquainted with silver […]
Review: Embracing Regional Dialects in Ted McClelland’s How to Speak Midwestern
Ted McClelland will be doing a reading and signing for the launch of How to Speak Midwestern at the Book Cellar (4736 N. Lincoln) at 7pm tonight, Thursday, December 1. A […]
Nelson Algren Biography Explores the Writer’s Struggles with Life and Craft
Nelson Algren was a star in Chicago’s bright literary firmament, but his light dimmed in the years after he won the 1950 National Book Award for The Man With the […]
15 Years of Haymarket Books
The results of last week’s presidential election stirred different feelings in many people: confusion, despair, melancholy, detachment, anger. I’ve seen more people on my social media feeds posting politically related […]
Review: Street Art and Gentrification are the Focus of Streetopia
Erick Lyle’s Streetopia hits shelves this month. The book is a collection of works from 24 San Francisco artists and writers associated with the “New Mission School” street art movement. […]
Review: Brian Doyle’s Chicago— A 300 Page Love Letter
About the reviewer: Susannah Pratt is a Chicago-based consultant by day, reader/writer by night, who is currently preparing for the forthcoming winter by stocking up on books. You can find […]
Fresh Local Lit: An Excerpt from Iggy Aloysius’ Fishhead. Republic of Want
Fishhead. Republic of Want is an experimental novel by Ignatius Valentine Aloysius in the style of Cervantes and Borges, where Fate is the overarching narrator, addressing love and human behavior within […]