AltWeeklies Wire
Secret History of Chicago Music: Shel Silversteinnew
Everybody knows Shel Silverstein as a cartoonist and author. But how many remember him as a musician? Born Sheldon Alan Silverstein in Chicago in 1930, as a young man he hawked hot dogs at both Chicago ballparks and began his music career with the 1959 album Hairy Jazz.
Chicago Reader |
Plastic Crimewave |
02-08-2010 |
Books
Barbara Ehrenreich's Latest Book Tackles Our Oppressive Optimismnew
Rather than focus on some particular tool of oppression that's misled the masses into believing they're happy, in Bright-Sided Ehrenreich trains her ire on happiness itself.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
10-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
Rod Blagojevich's Book: Think Socrates, Not Icarusnew
The Governor isn't mythological material, though it contains plenty of myth. But it's a fine warning on the pitfalls of democracy.
Chicago Reader |
Mick Dumke |
09-21-2009 |
Nonfiction
With 'The Waxman Report' Henry Waxman Shows 'How Congress Really Works'new
Assisted by Joshua Green, a senior editor at the Atlantic, Waxman has written an informative, fast-moving manifesto against the gut-the-government politics that have been in vogue since the Reagan administration.
Chicago Reader |
Mick Dumke |
08-24-2009 |
Nonfiction
The New Art Book 'The Art of Touring' Moves Past the Mythology of the Roadnew
A multimedia tribute to the road life, the book includes photographs, essays, journal entries, comics, paintings, collages -- and, on the accompanying DVD, plenty of footage by and of touring bands, onstage and off.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
08-10-2009 |
Nonfiction
Audrey Niffenegger Gets Ready to Plug Her Second Booknew
Niffenegger was an unfamous visual artist and maker of art books when she wrote The Time Traveler's Wife, which has sold about 2.5 million copies since 2003. Her new book, Her Fearful Symmetry, is due out September 29 from Scribner.
Chicago Reader |
Ed M. Koziarski |
08-10-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'Tales Designed to Thrizzle' Turns Boob-Tube Tropes Into Artnew
Tales Designed to Thrizzle is a monument not only to silliness, but to craft -- which is perhaps the way in which it most clearly departs from its TV inspirations. With few exceptions such as Terry Gilliam's Flying Circus animations, TV doesn't pay attention to visual aesthetics the way Kupperman does here.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
07-20-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Farewell to Dejla' Follows Iraq's Jews Across Borders and Oceansnew
In Farewell to Dejla, Tova Murad Sadka uses the short story to explore the travails of Iraqi Jews, both in their homeland and in dispersion. Though marred by crude ethnic and religious stereotypes, her book offers a sensitive treatment of a community's existential fears and an exquisite probing of the painful and comic aspects of culture clash.
Chicago Reader |
Rayyan Al-Shawaf |
07-07-2009 |
Fiction
Elijah Wald Explains How the Uncool Music of Yesteryear Shapes Today's Tunesnew
No one makes music in a vacuum, completely detached from the pop mainstream and his or her potential audience. Wald argues that nobody should be trying to, since how many people music appeals to in its own time is at least as important as how many rock writers it appeals to in 30 years.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
06-15-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Entrapment': A Never-Before-Published Story by Nelson Algrennew
About 300 pages of an unfinished novel wound up in the Algren archives at Ohio State University, and in edited form they make their first public appearance as "Entrapment," from a new collection of previously unpublished work by Algren edited by Brooke Horvath and Dan Simon for Seven Stories Press.
Chicago Reader |
Nelson Algren |
04-13-2009 |
Original Work
What's So Funny About Cancer?new
Breast cancer memoirists all seem to agree that laughter is pretty good medicine.
Chicago Reader |
S.L. Wisenberg |
01-12-2009 |
Books
Lennard Davis Argues that Obsession is Largely in the Eye of the Beholdernew
Obsession: A History is the UIC professor's study of the rise and bifurcated path of obsessive behavior as both an illness and an ideal in the modern world.
Chicago Reader |
Deanna Isaacs |
11-24-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
The Terkel Rules: Translating from Speech to Prosenew
Terkel's books consist of tape-recorded conversations with mostly common people; after a brief introduction from Terkel, each text unspools almost seamlessly, with only an occasional nudge from the questioner. But here's the thing: most people don't talk that way.
Chicago Reader |
Michael Lenehan |
11-03-2008 |
Books
'Dr. Vino' Talks 'Wine Politics'new
Wine Politics compares the byzantine, quasi-self-governing appellation system of Bordeaux's wine growers with that of the more government-regulated Napa Valley producers and shows how those individual systems, along with other factors, determine which wines end up in stores, how much they cost, and what they taste like.
Chicago Reader |
Mike Sula |
09-22-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Count Dante Recounts His Seven Years in an Incredibly Strange Fight Clubnew
In his new memoir Beer, Blood, and Cornmeal, Bob Calhoun describes a moment where wrestling grappled with surrealism, and surrealism won out with a suplex powerslam.
Chicago Reader |
Dan Kelly |
09-08-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
