Review: Byronic Heroines, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, by Samira Ahmed
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed Penguin Random House Reviewed by C.E. Archer-Helke I don’t often find a book that simultaneously transports me to the best parts […]
Review: The Joy and Bother of City Streets, The Streets of Europe: The Sights, Sounds, and Smells That Shaped Its Great Cities, by Brian Ladd
The Streets of Europe: The Sights, Sounds, and Smells That Shaped Its Great Cities By Brian Ladd University of Chicago Press, 320 pages, $30 I’m having a difficult time deciding […]
Review: Murder Most Female—He Had It Coming, by Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather
He Had It Coming Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather Midway: An Agate Imprint A crime only gains sex appeal after it’s been committed, and it’s usually an ingredient added by […]
Review: The Very Near Future—Midwest Futures, by Phil Christman
Midwest Futures By Phil Christman Belt Publishing The Midwest is a deeply mysterious place to the coastal essayists, pundits, and politicians. Rarely visiting, save to write clunky closed factory and […]
Book Review: Relentless, Raw Outrage, Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore Harper, 306 pages, $26.99 Elizabeth Wetmore’s Valentine, set in 1976 rural West Texas, is a novel of relentless and brutally raw outrage. A fury-filled howl of […]
Rubbernecking Rich Living, Chicago Apartments: A Century and Beyond of Lakefront Luxury
Chicago Apartments: A Century and Beyond of Lakefront Luxury By Neil Harris with Teri J. Edelstein University of Chicago Press, 364 pages, $85 Reading Neil Harris’s Chicago Apartments: A Century […]
Book Review: Peace Talks, the Latest Installment of Dresden Files Holds Up, Even for Latecomers
Peace Talks By Jim Butcher Ace In the 16th installment of Chicago-based urban fantasy series The Dresden Files, wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden is tapped to work security for a treaty negotiation […]
Book Review: A Vibrant Novel about Random Life, Right after the Weather, by Carol Anshaw
Right after the Weather by Carol Anshaw Atria Books, 269 pages, $27 It’s one of those random moments in life. Cate, running late, drives into Neale’s alley, puts on her […]
Book Review: From Black Boy Lane to Anson Place, The Address Book, by Deirdre Mask
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth and Power by Deirdre Mask St. Martin’s Press In her introduction to The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal […]
Book Review: Keep It Clean—Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
Gospodine they call our narrator. “Master” or “sir” in Bulgarian, it’s a designation of authority from the students he teaches literature to at a high school in Sofia. What it […]
Book Review: South Side Chick Lit, Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West
Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West Park Row Books, 312 pages, $27.99 In the closing pages of Catherine Adel West’s Saving Ruby King, two men and two women can […]
Essay/Book Review: Founding American Towns on Paper, Cities of the American West, Part 2
Cities of the American West: A History of Frontier Urban Planning By John W. Reps Princeton University Press, 827 pages, out of print, available on the internet starting at $40 […]