Events Mon May 12 2008

Event Spotlight: Chip Kidd @ Quimby's

Chip Kidd, who has created some of the greatest book covers you've seen, among other graphic design projects, comes to Quimby's on Wednesday to talk about his new book The Learners. The novel is about a college graduate who lands his first job as a graphic designer at an ad agency that leads him to participate in an experiment in the Yale psychology department, forcing him to reexamine "his past, his soul, and the nature of human cruelty." Free at 7pm at 1854 W. North Ave. Call 773-342-0910 for more information.

- Veronica Bond | Comments (0)

Quotable Fri May 09 2008

Quotable Friday

Every Friday is Quotable Friday on the book club blog, where we highlight a notable passage from a book with a Chicago connection. This week's quotable is from The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History by Libby Hill:

Humans ventured into the Chicagoland area approximately 12,000 years ago as the glacier receded and the climate became more inviting to plants and animals. Their successive cultures adapted to the changes in the landscape as the lakes ancestral to Lake Michigan varied in size.

If man or animal lived here before the Wisconsin glacial episode, all evidence was removed by the action of the ice. Huge animals came in as soon after the glaciers as the area was habitable for them. It is hard to imagine the immense woolly mammoth, a beast with long shaggy hair and huge curved tusks, grazing here in the meadow, while its smaller but still enormous reddish cousin, the mastodon, browsed on trees and in the grasslands, perhaps in the neighborhood of your own backyard. Both animals, relatives of the elephant, were probably common, and both were ideally suited to the cold climates that followed in the wake of the glaciers.

- Alice Maggio

News Tue May 06 2008

Weekend Reviews

Round-up of recent reviews of books with a local angle:

• Both The Seattle Times and the Chicago Tribune review The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon. Seattle writes that Hemon "delivers a startling finish with a poignant twist," while the Trib calls him "a majestic talent."

• The Trib also reviews some recent mystery novels by local authors.

• Armageddon in Retrospect, a collection of previously unpublished work by Kurt Vonnegut, gets the review treatment in The New York Times Sunday Book Review.

- Alice Maggio | Comments (0)

News Mon May 05 2008

New Short Fiction Online

Local author Keir Graff, who is also a senior editor at Booklist Online, has a new short story in the May issue of Booklist. The publication, which has been around for more than 100 years, reviews new books, but this is the first time it has published a story. "Reading is My Business" is described by the author as "a hard-boiled metafiction about book reviewing—with a very local angle," and you can read the complete text online.

Find out more about the "story behind the story" at Graff's Booklist blog.

- Alice Maggio | Comments (0)

Events Mon May 05 2008

Event Spotlight: "Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?"

We've all the theories that it was Bacon or Marlowe that penned the great works we attribute to William Shakespeare, but what if it was really a woman? On Wednesday, Robin P. Williams will be at the Newberry Library to discuss her book, Sweet Swan of Avon, that addresses that very question. Through eight years of research, the book speculates on the possibility that it was Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, that wrote the sonnets and plays, thus developing the English language and publishing the first play in English written by a woman. Admission to the lecture is $9 and can be had by calling 312-255-3556. Doors open at 5:30pm and the lecture starts at 6:15pm at 60 W. Walton.

- Veronica Bond | Comments (0)

Quotable Fri May 02 2008

Quotable Friday

Every Friday is Quotable Friday on the book club blog, where we highlight a notable passage from a book with a Chicago connection. This week's quotable is from our current book club pick, The Grass Dancer by Susan Power:

Frank Pipe would never forget the sound of glass exploding in the dark room. Something had burst through the window behind him, and he was lucky for a hanging quilt, which stopped most of the spinning glass that flew through the air like shrapnel. In the sudden moonlight, Frank identified the creature as the largest coyote he had ever seen, tall as a pony. It lunged for one of the participants, and though hands stretched to hold him, the man was carried off like a bone, his head cracking against the window frame as the coyote leapt into the night with its victim. Leo Mitchell's body was found the next day at the foot of Angry Butte, punctured by incisors thick as pencils.

Herod said: "The spirits weren't satisfied with just identifying the person who did those terrible things. They wanted justice."

- Alice Maggio

News Thu May 01 2008

Free Comics

Yes, Free Comic Book Day is here again. Stop by participating stores this Saturday, May 3, to get your fee comic book. Use the official store locater to find a retailer near you.

But, there are two great reasons to make Chicago Comics your stop for Free Comic Book Day on Saturday: local comics artist Jeffrey Brown and former Disney animator Christian Slade will be in-store signing books and comics from noon to 4pm.

Chicago Comics is located at 3244 N. Clark St. Call them at 773-528-1983 or visit the website for more info.

- Alice Maggio | Comments (0)

News Wed Apr 30 2008

Society of Midland Authors Award Winners

The Society of Midland Authors recently announced the winners of its annual awards. SMA is open "to authors who live in, were born in, or have strong ties to" states throughout the Midwest, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. This year's award winners and runners-up include several writers from the Chicagoland area, including Judith Testa, who won in the biography category for her book Sal Maglie: Baseball's Demon Barber, and Tony Romano, a finalist in the adult fiction category for his novel When the World Was Young.

The awards banquet will be held on Tuesday, May 13, at the Hotel InterContinental. It is open to the public. Tickets are $60. You can find out more on the website.

- Alice Maggio | Comments (0)

News Wed Apr 30 2008

Making Dandelion Wine

Ray Bradbury's classic novel Dandelion Wine was our September 2005 book club selection. Now you can make your own dandelion wine thanks to WikiHow. According to the tutorial's author, April and May are the best months for harvesting dandelions. This depends, however, on whether you are able to find a lawn or field in the Chicagoland area that still supports dandelions. Most spots have been thoroughly poisoned with pesticides and weedkiller.

- Alice Maggio | Comments (0)

News Tue Apr 29 2008

A New Look at the 1968 Democratic Convention

Battleground Chicago by Frank Kusch has been republished by the University of Chicago Press to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic Convention. Find out more about the book at the UofC Press website, and even read an excerpt.

- Alice Maggio | Comments (0)