AltWeeklies Wire
A Vienna Beef Veep Publishes a Tribute to the People Who Sell the Productnew
Bob Schwartz's soon-to-be-released book, Never Put Ketchup on a Hot Dog, is a nostalgic tribute to Chicago's hot dog stands.
Chicago Reader |
Mike Sula |
09-02-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Police Vets of the 1968 DNC Get Their Say in 'Battleground Chicago'new
First published in 2004 but reissued in paperback last May, in time for this summer’s round-number anniversary, Frank Kusch's Battleground Chicago tells the story of the infamous "police riot" at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. But here's a first: it's told from the cops' point of view.
Chicago Reader |
Barry Wightman |
08-26-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Potential' Serves Teen Angst, Straight Upnew
Ariel Schrag didn't survive the Holocaust or flee the Ayatollah, but her comics find meaning all the same.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
06-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
Libby Fischer Hellmann Explores the Secrets of the Suburbsnew
She sets her whodunits in the land of never-ending lawns.
Chicago Reader |
Patrick Daily |
06-02-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
After the Kids Go to Bed, Steven Sidor Lets the Darkness Innew
His first two books -- Bone Factory and Skin River -- oozed with evil. His latest, The Mirror's Edge, tops them both. It's about two kidnapped boys, likely -- or perhaps not? -- the victims of a spooky children's book illustrator, the son of a practitioner of the black arts.
Chicago Reader |
Jonathan Black |
06-02-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Steven Sidor, The Mirror's Edge
Achy Obejas Uses the Noir Form to Explore Her Cuban Rootsnew
The 18 stories collected in the anthology Havana Noir are nothing if not messy. The Havana reflected in its pages is coldly violent and explosively loving. It's vibrant, brutal, amoral, sordid, romantic, idealistic, pragmatic, and gleefully ambiguous.
Chicago Reader |
Martha Bayne |
06-02-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'The Lazarus Project' Takes a Trip Through Time with a True-Crime Twistnew
Reading Aleksandar Hemon's latest novel is kind of like staring at one of those paintings where inside that painting is another painting of the painting you're staring at. And like those surreal paintings, it not only challenges your perception of the subject but brings the creation of the work itself into focus.
Chicago Reader |
Greg Boose |
05-19-2008 |
Fiction
What Mary Roach Doesn't Want to Talk About in 'Bonk'new
Sadism recognizes taboo and guilt and shame; the transgression is the point. But for science, and for Roach, taboo is simply superstition, a roadblock the repressed throw up between sex and pleasure, and between research and its funding.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
04-28-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Power Stronger Than Itself': Great Black Music in Printnew
After ten years, George Lewis' monumental history of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a black collective that formed on the south side of Chicago in 1965, is finally finished.
Chicago Reader |
Peter Margasak |
04-14-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
As Del Lay Dyingnew
On his deathbed, comedy genius Del Close held court at one last party.
Chicago Reader |
Kim "Howard" Johnson |
04-07-2008 |
Excerpts
Liberal Fascism?new
It's more than an oxymoron and less than Jonah Goldberg's new book makes it out to be.
Chicago Reader |
Michael Solot |
03-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Shyness' Shows How Shy Became Sicknew
A Northwestern Victorian lit prof investigates the psychiatric-industrial complex.
Chicago Reader |
Deanna Isaacs |
02-19-2008 |
Nonfiction
Rick Perlstein's Conservative Americanew
The progressive scribe made his reputation finding the good in conservatives. Then they really started screwing up the country.
Chicago Reader |
Harold Henderson |
01-28-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Pulp Pornnew
Patrick Conlon and Michael Manning's long-awaited sequel to the sexy sci-fi comic Tranceptor.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
01-15-2008 |
Fiction
Examining Bush and the Neoconsnew
At times Unger focuses so closely on neocon tactics that he misses other forces driving Bush-Cheney policies. Even so, the book offers a vivid account of the use of disinformation to promote extremism.
Chicago Reader |
Chris Pepus |
12-26-2007 |
Nonfiction
