The Onion AV Club interviews Superfreakonomics author and University of Chicago professor Steven D. Levitt, questioning him on the book's controversial chapter on global warming and taking him to task on other claims, such as the effects of terrorism and the size of Indian men's, um, body parts. Says Levitt in answer to the first topic:
Our chapter does not deny the existence of global warming. What we do is, we say that the current solution people are proposing is one that involves reducing carbon emissions dramatically. The problem with that solution is, it's incredibly expensive. The economists who have looked at it think it will cost trillions of dollars in reduced economic output to accomplish it. Also, it requires everyone in the world to get together and suddenly become allies and friends to try and change their behavior, to moderate how much they produce. And even if we do it, because carbon dioxide stays in the air for so long, it will take 50 years to really feel the benefits, or even know if we are getting benefits. So we take a very different approach, which says, "Let's just say the earth got too hot and we wanted to make it cooler, would reducing carbon emissions be the right way to go?" And we think the answer is no.
— Veronica Bond /
News Tue Nov 17 2009
The Guardian has an interview with Dave Eggers on the San Francisco Panorama, the broadsheet that will work as the forthcoming issue of McSweeney's. Says Eggers on his optimism for the printed word:
I love papers. There's a downbeat atmosphere about the future of the form so we thought we could demonstrate some things newspapers do uniquely well: the main way they can continue to exist is to differentiate themselves as much as possible from the internet...Paper is a uniquely beautiful format, more so than the web, I think: you need to invest in the aesthetics. We're resurrecting practices from 100 years ago - like printing full-page comics. We want to give young people ways to engage with it, feel ownership of it.
— Veronica Bond /
Events Mon Nov 16 2009
On Saturday and Sunday, non-profit literacy organization Open Books will celebrate the grand opening of their used bookstore and literacy center. Come by from 10am-7pm on both days to get some new (to you) reads and learn more about the programs the organization is using to combat illiteracy in Chicago. There will also be a series of special programs throughout the weekend. Saturday will include a children's storytime and fairy tale puppet show, a discussion with Underground Railroad Historian Glenette Tilley Turney, bookmaking and crafts for children and two author panels. The first author panel will feature local young adult authors Daniel Kraus, Adam Selzer, FoGB Claire Zulkey and May 2010 Book Club selection author James Kennedy. The second author panel will feature local mystery/crime authors Marcus Sakey, Libby Fischer Hellmann and November 2006 Book Club selection author Kevin Guilfoile. (Full disclosure: yours truly will moderate both panels, so come say hi and bring along all the questions you've ever wanted to ask these authors about their work.)
On Sunday, you can take part in more bookmaking and crafts, a discussion with Ilene Fine and rescue dogs Brandy and Val, a WeWrite open mic performance, a reading and Q&A with inaugural Book Club selection author Joe Meno, and a poetry panel with local poets Kristy Bowen, Michael Kadela and Kathleeen Rooney. You can check out the full schedule of events here. The weekend promises to be a rousing celebration of all things literary and will provide a valiant introduction into all the work needed to make the city as literate as it can be. 213 W. Institute Pl.; email info[at]open-books[dot]org for questions and information.
— Veronica Bond /
News Thu Nov 12 2009
David Sedaris has a new audio book slated for release on November 24, but there will be no physical book accompanying it. Live for Your Listening Pleasure is a collection of recordings from Sedaris's most recent American tour and was conceived as an audio-only work. Head over to Entertainment Weekly to listen to an exclusive clip of the new work.
— Veronica Bond /
I could do this all day and not stop laughing--it's the Make Your Own Academic Sentence tool from the University of Chicago. Pick four hoity-toity sounding phrases and the tool will work them into a sentence for you. Here's mine: "The epistemology of consumption fuctions as the conceptual frame for the legitmation of agency." Hilarious, no? Why didn't this exist when I was writing papers there? This could have saved me a lot of work! [via]
— Veronica Bond /
Hardcover Fiction
1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
3. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
4. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
5. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Hardcover Nonfiction
1. What Would Susie Say by Susie Essman
2. Superfreakonomics by Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner
3. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
4. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
5. The Case for God by Karen Armstrong
Paperback Fiction
1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
and Annie Barrows
2. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4. Push by Sapphire
5. Olive Kitteredge by Elizabeth Strout
Paperback Nonfiction
1. My Life in France by Julia Child
2. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
3. Supercapitalism by Robert Reich
4. My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
5. More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman
Children's
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #4: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
2. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
3. January's Sparrow by Patricia Polacco
4. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #1 by Jeff Kinney
As gathered from Anderson's Bookshop; Read Between the Lynes; The Book Cellar; Lake Forest Books; The Bookstall at Chestnut Court; The Book Table; the Seminary Co-op Bookstores; and Women and Children First by Carl Lennertz.
— Alice Maggio /
Fans of James Kennedy's The Order of Odd-Fish have not been shy about sharing their ideas of what the intriguing world of Eldritch City looks like. Owing to the great fan art he's received, James is joining forces with Collaboraction to put on an Odd-Fish extravaganza in Spring 2010. The show will feature a gallery of Odd-Fish fan art and a Dome of Doom costumed dance party, which should be quite the sight. To gear up for the show, James is welcoming the work of all Odd-Fish loving artists out there and asking them to send their pieces to him for inclusion in the gallery. The deadline is March 1, so get out your favorite creative medium and show us what you think Eldritch and all of its eccentric inhabitants look like. In need of some inspiration? All of the pieces James has received so far can be seen here.
— Veronica Bond /
Here are some sample questions for our discussion of Travel Writing by Peter Ferry. Veronica has details about our November meeting below.
Why does Peter Ferry become obsessed with Lisa Kim's death?
What is true/ not true in this story? Does it matter?
Are we supposed to believe this story?
In the novel, Peter Ferry tells his class, "very often illusion is all we have." Do you believe that?
What do you think Travel Writing says about memoir and fiction? How are we constructing stories of our own lives?
We know memoirs can be fictionalized, but can fiction act as memoir?
Why is the book titled Travel Writing? Who is traveling? How?
The UK edition of the novel is titled None of This Ever Really Happened. Does that change your perception of the novel? Which title do you prefer?
Part of the book concerns Peter Ferry telling his story to his high school English class and instructing them in creative writing. What "lesson" do you think the author hopes we, as readers, will take away from the novel?
— Alice Maggio /
Tonight's Book Club meeting is a special one--author Peter Ferry will join us to discuss his meta-fictional book Travel Writing. Whether you loved the book, want to challenge the work or simply want to hear Ferry talk about the art of merging fiction and fact, the meeting promises to be an engaging and lively one. As always, 7:30pm at the Book Cellar, 4736-38 N. Lincoln Ave. We look forward to seeing many of you there.
— Veronica Bond /
Yeah, of course you do. The University of Chicago Press has just announced that they will begin offering one free e-book each month, starting today. This month's book of choice is the 2,000-some-year-old The Birthday Book by Roman scholar Censorinus. As described by the London Review of Books, The Birthday Book "distills the wisdom of several strains of philosophy, extracting whatever seems to have any bearing on births, days and birthdays: theories of the origin of the human species, the formation of the individual foetus, the principles of astrology, the ages of man, the nature of time, eons, centuries, years, months, days and hours." In other words, a nice, light read for your daily commute. (Oh, come on. This is the U of C. Did you really think it would be something you can buy at the airport?) Check back in December to see which gem of academia will be offered up gratis next.
— Veronica Bond /
The Gapers Block Book Club is ready for another year. For the 2010 book list, Veronica and I not only considered some of the most current reading suggestions from the group, but we also looked back at previous book suggestions that had not yet been selected. Once again, we thank everyone for their input.
And, the 11 finalists are:
January
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (Picador USA, 2002; 576 p.)
As she loses her husband to Parkinson's disease, Enid Lambert is determined to bring her adult children together for "one last Christmas." The Corrections is a winner of the National Book Award. (Born in Chicago.)
February
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Penguin, 1995; 361 p.)
This epic novel details the life of Daisy Goodwill from her birth in Manitoba in 1905 to her death nearly a century later. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. (Oak Park native.)
March
Red Azalea by Anchee Min (Anchor, 2006; 306 p.)
Red Azalea is Min's critically acclaimed memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao's China, ending with her emigration to the U.S. in 1984. (Earned MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago.)
April
Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh (Penguin, 2009; 302 p.)
Gang Leader for a Day is the powerful story of how a graduate sociology student at the University of Chicago befriended a leader of the Black Kings and gained unprecedented access to the inner working of Chicago's street gang and drug-dealing operations.
May
The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy (Laurel Leaf Library, 2010; 416 p.)
Thirteen-year-old Jo lives with her Aunt Lily in California, but Jo and her aunt are taken to the fantastic world of Eldritch City, where Jo must discover who she is and fulfill her destiny. (Chicago resident.)
June
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware (Pantheon, 2003; 380 p.)
At age 36, Jimmy Corrigan meets his father for the first time in this acclaimed first graphic novel by cartoonist Chris Ware. (Oak Park resident.)
July
The Wild Things by Dave Eggers (McSweeney's, 2009; 288 p.)
Novelization based on the children's book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Spike Jonze's screenplay for the film based on the same. (Former Lake Forest resident.)
August
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (Ballantine, 2008; 377 p.)
Fictional account of the true story of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and her love affair with architect Frank Lloyd Wright. (Oak Park native.)
September
Young Lonigan by James T. Farrell (Penguin, 2003; 224 p.)
Originally published in 1932, this is part one of the classic Studs Lonigan trilogy, which covers five months of Lonigan's life in 1916, when he is sixteen years old. (Chicago native.)
October
Chicago: A Novel by Alaa Al Aswany (Harper Perennial, 2009; 352 p.)
An ambitious story following a short period in the lives of several students and faculty at the University of Illinois in post-9/11 Chicago. (Former Chicago resident.)
November
The Cradle by Patrick Somerville (Little Brown, 2009; 203 p.)
Matthew Bishop leaves on an impossible quest to recover an antique cradle once belonging to his wife Marissa, who is pregnant with their first child, but his fool's errand becomes a journey of self-discovery as mysteries unfold and long-held secrets are revealed. (Chicago resident.)
— Alice Maggio /
Awards Thu Nov 05 2009
The Young Chicago Authors program will soon travel to Washington, D.C. to receive the 2009 Coming Up Taller Award, to be bestowed on them by Michelle Obama. The Coming Up Taller Award is a project of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities that recognizes and supports after-school and extra-curricular arts and humanities programs for children, honoring "programs that offer exceptional learning experiences in the arts and the humanities and that have a tangible effect on the lives of young people as evidenced through improved academic scores, enhanced life skills, and positive relationships with peers and adults." As written in their mission statement, YCA "encourages self-expression and literacy through creative writing, performance and publication," with programs geared toward ages 13-19 that feature, among other things, poetry slams, a female-oriented webzine called "GirlSpeak" and the opportunity to be published in their own print magazine "Say What." Says Dr. Robert Boone, founder of YCA, in a press release, "Young Chicago Authors is deeply honored to accept this award on behalf of all of the young people and teachers who have made creative writing a living part of Chicago." Congratulations to everyone who has put their time and hard work into the program--the award is undoubtedly well-deserved.
— Veronica Bond /
Adam Langer, author of our own July 2005 selection Crossing California, gets some love in Booklist's Book Group blog where Neil Hollands calls him an author "who more people should be reading." Hollands gives a brief description of each of Langer's novels and his recent father-focused memoir, saying that his work is "easy to access, full of laughter, but worthy of careful examination as well." Having included Langer's work in our own Book Club, I wholeheartedly agree.
— Veronica Bond /
Contest Tue Nov 03 2009
The Great Books Foundation, headquartered in Chicago, is holding its first annual Short Story Prize through The Common Review, their quarterly magazine of books and ideas. The first prize winner will take home $400 and have their story published; second prize will win $200 and third prize will be awarded $150. Judges include local author Achy Obejas, former Poetry magazine editor Joe Parisi and local journalist Danny Postel. Your story must be postmarked by January 31, 2010 to be considered for the contest and they are not accepting electronic submissions. Email tcr[at]greatbooks[dot]org or call 800-222-5870 for questions and information.
— Veronica Bond /
National Novel Writing Month is upon us again and ChiWriMo, the Chicago chapter of the month-long novel writing spree, has got you covered with write-ins scheduled throughout the city every day of the month. If you can't make it to the write-ins in person, fret not as the website's online forums provide plenty of support at your convenience and their resources give much needed direction for the gigantic task. At the end of the month, head over to the Open Books space at 213 W. Institute Pl. for a 14 hour writing frenzy, complete with baked goods. Good luck to all of our local aspiring novelists this month!
— Veronica Bond /
In this debut novel, high school English teacher Peter Ferry witnesses a fatal car accident and becomes obsessed with learning about the life of the victim, Lisa Kim.
