Are you trying to save a few extra pennies these days? Or maybe you just want to dust off that old resolution to "use the library more." Well, using the Chicago Public Library just got even easier.
Ian Olsen-Clark, the man who brought us the original Chicago Public Library bookmarklet, has created a new and improved catalog search bookmarklet that works with CPL's revamped online catalog.
See an interesting book mentioned on someone's blog, a news website or while surfing your favorite online bookstore? Before you add that book to your virtual shopping cart, highlight the title, the author or the ISBN number and click on the "CPL Catalog Look-Up" bookmarklet button in your browser to see if the Chicago Public Library has it.
If the library has it, you can find out if a copy is available at your nearest branch. If not, use the library's new online holds function to place the book on hold and have it delivered to your favorite branch for pickup.
Near instant gratification, and it's FREE. The Chicago Public Library catalog search bookmarklet is an excellent tool that will help you take advantage of CPL's many resources, enriching your life at no cost to you. That's a money-saving tip I can get behind.
You know how Whole Foods rewards you for bringing your own shopping by giving you ten cents back on your total purchase? Now, instead of just helping the environment with your conscientiousness, you can also help improve literacy. When you go to Whole Foods now through October 31, you can request that your dime be given to Open Books, a local non-profit bookstore and literacy community. This applies to five of the Whole Foods locations in Chicago (excluding the Cicero location). It's an easy way to do two good things at one time.
Publishers Marketplace now has Bookstore Maps, an excellent new tool that allows you to find "independent, specialty, chain and college bookstores throughout the country, and survey the book retail landscape in any region." You can search by store name, state or zip code, but they also have a number of regional maps, including one for the Chicago area. The Chicago map currently lists 139 stores, from 57th Street Books in Hyde Park to Wonderland Books & Toys in Rockford, Ill. Stores are also color-coded, indicating whether it is a chain store, college bookstore, independent or specialty bookshop. Very nicely done. Check it out.
I wish I could say we planned this—wait, yes, we totally planned this—but Richard Wright was born 100 years ago today. The Writer's Almanac marks the occasion, and you can celebrate with us on Monday when we meet to discuss his best-known novel, Native Son.
Fantagraphics is publishing a new, deluxe-edition of Ghost World, which includes annotations by Clowes, a new introduction, the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Clowes and Terry Zwigoff, and lots of ephemera from the graphic novel and the film.
Michael Harvey, author of the crime novel The Chicago Way, has a new novel coming out titled The Fifth Floor, and this promotional trailer for the book is garnering attention for its "consistent visual aesthetic," as GalleyCat described it. Check it out:
• "In this one woman's book, I drew a plank. Then it looked like it would be a sign, like you'd have in a yard. So I wrote 'Abortions, $3'. She was upset, so I changed it to $13." David Sedaris talks about signing books.
In the Washington Post, a friend of Richard Wright's also looks back on the author's legacy, recalling that while he was living in Paris, Wright confided, "I'm a Negro. I'm a former communist. I'm married to a woman who's not only white but a Jewess. I'm trying to live in a country whose language I'll never really learn. Small wonder I have enemies!"
You can connect with us online here anytime, but remember you can also connect with us in-person this Monday, August 11, when we meet at The Book Cellar to talk about our current book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Hope to see you there.
Okay, the headline is cliché. But last week the Chicago Public Library announced The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe for the Fall 2008 selection of the "One Book, One Chicago" program. Check out the link above because there are lots of copies still available. Grab them while you can.
To celebrate, the city is screening the 1983 film version of The Right Stuff, starring Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid and Sam Shepard, at Grant Park on Thursday, August 14 at 8pm. Visit the library website for more information.
"What set Horan's life going in an entirely new direction was the moment she sat down with a yellow legal pad and a pen and began to tell a story. What truly mattered was the moment she decided that—long odds be damned—she would write about what intrigued her, in the way she wanted to, and try to get it published."
Dorothy the New Woman? In a timely article, the Guardian UK writes about The Wizard of Oz, our current book club selection:
"Dorothy in the book is definitely a modern heroine, if not a New Woman; she is the predecessor of many a plucky, stoic, staunch girl lead — neither a milksop nor a tomboy, but a little girl who embarks on her adventures in a spirit of curiosity, wonder and self-reliance."
"Hemon’s fiction has always been daring: Nowhere Man uses three or maybe four different narrators to rub in the silhouette of Jozef Pronek’s complicated life. The Lazarus Project is in some ways bolder still. It alternates chapters describing Brik’s travels with chapters imagining Lazarus Averbuch’s existence in the early twentieth century. It is both a historical fiction and an inquiry into the limits of historical fictionalizing."
It's official: the oft-talked about Brad-Pitt-and-Jennifer-Aniston-owned movie version of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife is slated for release on Christmas of this year. Playing the lead rolls of Henry and Clare are Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, neither of which I'd ever have imagined for the roles although both are sure to make this interesting and moving story sufficiently saccharine for the general movie-going public. I suppose I should just be happy that Brad and Jen were never in the runnings themselves.
The Telegraph lists its "50 Best Ever Summer Holiday Books." Picks include The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.
The Lovable Losers Literary Revue is hosting an essay contest for fans of Chicago's lovable losers (a.k.a. the Cubs). Tune in this Sunday to "Memories of the Game" on WRMN, 1410-AM, scheduled to air from Noon to 5pm, to hear some of the best entries received so far. The contest continues through the summer and will conclude with at the Revue's September event with Rick Kogan. If you want to share your favorite story about life as a Cub's fan, visit the website to find out how to enter.
Chicago is losing another indie bookshop. Kate the Great's is closing July 25. Right now they are having a going out of business sale. All used books are 50 percent off. Visit Kate the Great's while you still can at 5550 N. Broadway.
Did you know 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of author Richard Wright? Through a happy coincidence we are reading his acclaimed novel Native Son for our September book club meeting. The Times Literary Supplement recently featured a biographical article about Wright, where you can learn about his exile to France and the possible reasons why he's been neglected by critics since his death in 1960. [via]
How often does the Book Club have a reason to link to a video on YouTube? Not very. In fact, this is a first. But you have every reason to watch this neat video using photos and snippets from The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon. [via]
Books and writers with a Chicago connection in the news:
• Eliot Asinof, author of the book Eight Men Out about the Chicago Black Sox scandal of 1919, has passed away. [via]
• Chicago-born rapper Common has started The Corner Book Club for teens through his Common Ground Foundation. Currently the online book group is reading Long Way Gone, Memoirs of A Boy Soldier by Ishmaell Beah.
• Nancy Horan, the author of Loving Frank, a fictionalized account of Frank Lloyd Wright's love affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, talks about how she was "concerned that those who revere Wright's work might be angry that her novel would tarnish his legacy." [via]
1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
3. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
5. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
7. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
9. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Quarterly Conversation has a review of Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut in its latest issue, and notes, "Armageddon in Retrospect stands as a vantage point from which to survey Vonnegut's life's work, and his work has always been about war. Against war, to be precise; this book can be considered the devoted pacifist's final diatribe on his favorite subject."
• Aleksandar Hemon resists labels, according to the Los Angeles Times. The writer talks to the Times about his new book, The Lazarus Project and says, "What I like about literature are the transformative possibilities."
• Powells.com also has an excellent, lengthy interview with Hemon talking about The Lazarus Project. He tells the interviewer, "Memory is always incomplete. We always add things to it. It's impossible to perfectly remember things that happen to us."
• Last week the Tribune reviewed Elizabeth Berg's new story collection, The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted, and declared, "You love these stories. You ride their waves. You think you're in for an afternoon of sweet distraction, but soon a certain gravity sets in. Soon you're admiring not just Berg's quick-fire prose, but her compassion and her clarity, her capacity for twining pathos into comedy, for making her readers care."
Author L. Frank Baum was born today, May 15, in 1856. We will be reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz this summer for our August meeting. For fun, check out the fabulous digitized collection of "Oziana" from the University of Minnesota Libraries.
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."
• Armageddon in Retrospect, a collection of previously unpublished work by Kurt Vonnegut, gets the review treatment in The New York Times Sunday Book Review.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Benjamin Kunkel is rereading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut and writes about it for the Guardian, calling the book "a funny and despairing vision of the last judgment done in comic-book style."
American Book Review compiled a list of the 100 best first lines from novels. The opening lines from Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Herzog by Saul Bellow, recent book club selection Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, plus many more writers with a local connection made the list.
• "Mr. Wonderful" by Daniel Clowes, which was serialized in the New York Times, has been nominated for an Eisner Award in the "Best Short Story" category. Chris Ware is also nominated for no less than three awards for Acme Novelty Library #18, Best American Comics 2007 and Sundays with Walt and Skeezix.
The Telegraph claims to have designed the perfect library, consisting of just 110 books. Titles are broken down by genre, from classics to literary fiction to sci-fi and children's books. A few writers with local connections made the list, including Ernest Hemingway, Philip Roth and past book club selection Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Check out the full list here.
Perfectly coinciding with our reading Middlesex this month, Jeffrey Eugenides has a new story in a recent issue of the New Yorker. And, the story is set in Chicago. I expect everyone to be prepared to discuss it on Monday, in addition to Middlesex.
The Poetry Center of Chicago is accepting applications for its summer residency program. According to the Center's guidelines, one poet will be awarded a month-long poetry residency with housing. This residency is open to poets who have published no more than one book of poetry, not including self-published work. In addition to housing, the poet will receive a $1,000 stipend. The poet is responsible for his/her own travel and meal expenses. The submission deadline is Friday, May 9, 2008. You can download the application from the Poetry Center website here.
• The Denver Post reviews Windy City, the new political novel by Scott Simon, and calls it "nothing less than a passionate love letter to Chicago and its political machine."
• Tony D'Souza writes a long essay about Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee for the NBCC blog, in which he argues that the novel is "the definitive work on South Africa’s present state."
I've been MIA the last few weeks, mostly laid up in bed with a nasty flu and feeling very sorry for myself. But that's in the past, and we're overdue for a new question in Ink.
Thanks to everyone who responded to the last question about donating books. I was not aware of the community boxes someone mentioned, and I wholeheartedly endorse donating to the Newberry Library Book Fair, although in my personal experience, the book fair has a tendency to expand my book inventory more than it lessens it.
But this time I want to hear about e-books and e-book readers. Amazon.com claims it cannot keep up with demand for its Kindle e-book device, yet I don't know anyone who owns one. Do you? Do you read e-books or own an e-book reader? Why or why not? Leave your comments above in Ink.
• Scott Simon has written a new novel titled Windy City: A Novel of Politics. You earn no points for correctly guessing the story takes place in Chicago. The Washington Post has a review and says the book, "for all its emphasis on the sausage-factory venality of big-city politics, seems intended mainly as a big, sloppy valentine to the cultural jambalaya that is 21st-century Chicago." Awww. NPR also recently talked to Simon about the novel, and not only can you listen to the interview online, but you can also read the first chapter of Windy City.
Don't like the Gapers Block Book Club? Just want to try something new? Centerstage has a round-up of a few other local book clubs. For even more options, try Reader's Circle, an online database of book groups around the world, all contributed by users. Hey, we're listed there, although, ahem, I might need to update our entry.
• The Boston Globe has a review of Bleeding Kansas, the latest novel by Sara Paretsky, saying it "may not be a conventional mystery, but it is a suspenseful page-turner nonetheless."
• Bookslut reviews Ellington Boulevard by Adam Langer in its March issue, and explains that the novel is "a very different sort of book from Langer's earlier efforts: less personal, more full of spectacle, but ultimately one of the most enjoyable stories in recent memory."
What a difference a day makes. The Chicago Public Library has unveiled a radical web makeover. The shiny new website also includes a new online catalog that is faster, prettier and more user-friendly than the old, clunky search. And, finally, library users can place holds on materials through the online catalog. See something you want? Just click "Place on Hold" and enter your library account information, and the item can be sent to your nearest branch library for pickup. Awesome—and long overdue. Congratulations, CPL!
Local author and playwright Dwight Okita is one of ten finalists for Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award with his novel The Prospect of My Arrival. Set in Chicago in 2025, the novel follows the consciousness of a fetus that has been inserted into the body of a 30-year-old man who must now decide whether or not to be born. You can read excerpts of this book and the work of the other nine finalists on the Amazon page and then vote for your favorite. The winner gets a publishing contract with Penguin to market and publish their work. That's a pretty sweet prize and it's kind of nice that the authors don't have to move into one house together and have their petty squabbles videotaped only to be voted out one at a time week by week. Don't get any ideas, Bravo. (Thanks for sending us the info, Mark!)
Need a quick read? Featherproof has two new mini-books for you to choose from: Women/Girls by Amelia Gray and In the Dream, by Jay Ponteri. Print, fold, staple and you're on your way.
...Tom Wolfe. Also going to Tom Wolfe is this year's Chicago Public Library Carl Sandburg Award, although the award won't actually be given until October, during the Chicago Book Festival. I wonder what Wolfe will wear to the ceremony.
The Morning News starts its fourth annual Tournament of Books on March 7, and Coudal Partners has opened the betting window. Lay $10 on the line for whichever book you think has what it takes to win it all, and you could be one of ten bettors to win a "huge prize package" (contents to be named later, but judging from past Coudal contests, it'll be worth it).
All the proceeds will go to First Book, "a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books." So you're not only having a little fun, but you're also helping teach kids to read. Everybody wins!
I understand the temptation to steal books from the library (not that I would do it or am advocating it, but I do understand a book’s inherent appeal), but a sculpture outside the library? The Sun-Times reports that the Umanita sculpture adorning the Newberry Library went missing over the weekend. The stainless steel piece, created by Chicago artist Virginio Ferrari, is six feet tall, weighs over 150 pounds and was attached to its marble base with a steel bolt - whoever wanted it clearly went through a lot of trouble to take it. With the sculpture valued at $65,000-$70,000, it’s unlikely the library would have the funds for a replacement, so don’t make it worse by forcing them to replace your stolen books, too.
• Mark Lawson compares the Oscar-nominated movie There Will Be Blood with Oil!, the Upton Sinclair novel on which it is based (Sinclair is also the author of The Jungle).
• Romance, suspense, young adult and children's book author Phyllis Whitney passed away last week. She was the children's book editor for the Chicago Sun, a predecessor of the Sun-Times and penned 76 books. Her obituary can be found in the Sun-Times and the Guardian has a nice profile of the author and her work as well.
The Guardian profiles the University of Chicago's Sudhir Venkatesh, whose memoir Gang Leader for a Day details his experience as a graduate student researching gangs in the Robert Taylor Homes. Venkatesh reveals why he's the "black sheep of [his] discipline," describes his research method of "hanging out," and talks about why he feels guilt but not regret.
In the Guardian, Jeffrey Eugenides traces the origin of the love story, all the way from ancient poetry of Catullus to the stories of Alice Munro, James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov. After a year of reading and researching love stories for his collection My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead, which takes its title from one of Catullus's poems, Eugenides discovered that love itself is not necessarily the subject of a good love story:
"The happy marriage, the requited love, the desire that never dims - these are lucky eventualities, but they aren't love stories. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name."
Our August 2005 Selection Heat Wave is coming to the stage, thanks to local playwright Steven Simoncic, Live Bait Theater and Pegasus Players. Chicago Magazine talks to both Simoncic and author Eric Klinenberg about the book's adaptation and whether a social disaster in 1995 is still relevant today. (Check out Slowdown for info on catching one of the preview shows.)
Five Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships in the amount of $15,000 will be awarded to young poets through a national competition sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry. Established in 1989 by the Indianapolis philanthropist Ruth Lilly, the fellowships are intended to encourage the further study and writing of poetry. Applicants must be us citizens between the age of twenty-one and thirty-one as of March 31, 2008.
The University of Illinois's Rare Book & Manuscript library is dealing with a problem far worse than book worms -- mold infestation has forced it to close for several months. The Sun-Times reports that approximately 15,000 books may be affected in this collection, which includes papers from Carl Sandburg and pages from the Gutenberg Bible. The collection is valued at more than $1 billion. Thankfully, officials say the damage does not appear to be irreparable nor does the problem pose a health risk. The library is expected to close on February 25 and reopen on May 5.
• The Chicago Tribune reviews Adam Langer's new book, Ellington Boulevard, and declares the novel "proves that this gifted satirist and storyteller can move with ease from city to city and character to character."
• The Sun-Times books blog looks at My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead, the collection of love stories edited by upcoming book club author Jeffrey Eugenides.
• The 10th Annual Love is Murder Conference, dedicated to writers, publishers and readers of mystery and crime fiction, is going on this weekend at the Rosemont Wyndham O'Hare in Rosemont. Visit the website for all the details.
• Sara Paretsky has been nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award for her memoir Writing in an Age of Silence. The NBCC blog profiles the book and has an interview with Paretsky.
• The Guardian talks to Studs Terkel about his life and his memoir Touch and Go. When Gary Younge arrives at Terkel's home in Chicago, Terkel asks the British journalist, "Why was [Tony Blair] such a house boy for Bush?"
• Publisher's Weekly alerts us to a new book by Richard Roeper titled Debunked! Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Evil Plots of the 21st Century. Oh, please let it be true. It is scheduled to be published by Chicago Review Press in June.
Another round-up of recent Chicago-lit related stories from around the web:
• Jeffrey Eugenides talks to the London Telegraph about the anthology of short stories he edited, My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead. Proceeds from the book are being donated to 826Chicago. The book club will be reading his book Middlesex for our April meeting.
• Daniel Clowes, Aleksandar Hemon, George Saunders and Chris Ware have all contributed stories to The Book of Other People, an anthology edited by Zadie Smith.
• After finishing Diary of a Bad Year by Coetzee, reviewers moved on to Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky. Read reviews of Kansas at the Chicago Tribune, New York Times and Washington Post.
• NPR has a story about Richard Wright's daughter, who is publishing her father's unfinished novel, Father's Law. The book club will be reading his book Native Son this year for our September meeting.
• Last, but certainly not least, registration is now open for winter and spring seminars at the Newberry Library. Seminars of interest to book club members include "From Oz to Wicked: The Wonderful World of L. Frank Baum," "At Home with Hemingway," "Richard J. Daley: Life and Times, Myths and Realities" and "The White City: Art and Culture at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893."
This week in Ink I'm asking a very typical end-of-the-year question: What is your pick for best book of 2007? This could be a book published in 2007, or maybe just the best book you read this past year. Let us know above in Ink.
Have you been leaving your Christmas shopping until the last minute? Books make great gifts and local area booksellers and publishers have got you covered.
The Book Cellar staff loves The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and the store will be open until 1pm on December 24 for you real last-minute types.
Graham Cracker Comics has several locations around Chicago, but the Naperville store earns a special mention for its "No Sleep 'Til Xmas" event. The store will be open for 32 hours straight, from 11am Dec. 23 to 7pm Dec. 24, and will include food, Nintendo Wii and other gaming events. As the website says, "Tired of spending the holidays with your family? God knows we are. So why not squeeze in a few hours hanging out at your favorite comic shop?" Brilliant.
Quimby's is promoting its limited-edition tote bags, perfect, as the staff claims, for the "nerd that's impossible to shop for during the holidays."
The Seminary Co-op Bookstores announce they have "lots of new titles for those hard-to-shop-for readers in your life." Maybe you know someone who would love to receive The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial by James Q. Whitman or History in a Glass: Sixty Years of Wine Writing from Gourmet by Ruth Reichl, both stocked at the Co-op right now.
Staff favorites at Unabridged Bookstore in Lakeview include Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford and The Laments by George Hagen.
Used Books
If anyone on your list might appreciate a special used, rare or out-of-print title, Bookworks, Myopic Books, Selected Works and Powell's are just a few of my favorite places.
The University of Chicago Press has dozens of titles listed in its special holiday gift guide. From The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art by Greg Bottoms to Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell, there is something for everyone from the U of C Press.
• In the New York Times Sunday Book Review Rachel Donadio wonders why J.M. Coetzee left South Africa and asks, "Were his 2002 move and his taking of Australian citizenship last year a betrayal of his homeland, or a rejoinder to a country whose new government had denounced one of his most important novels as racist?"
• Check out Fifth Wednesday Journal, a new biannual print literary journal based in Lisle, IL.
• E.L. Doctorow reviews Studs Terkel's memoir, Touch and Go, and says, "The memoir is a literary genre given to narcissistic indulgence, but you will find nothing of the sort here."
Nominations for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards have been announced, and Barack Obama tops the list in the spoken word category for his recording of The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream. In 2006 Obama won the Grammy for spoken word for the recording of his memoir Dreams from My Father, which we recently read for the GB Book Club. Obama's fellow nominees this year include Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Alan Alda.
Or, "Reason Number 182 Why Newspapers Are Hemorrhaging Readers"
Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle, reports that the Chicago Sun-Times is cutting its Books section in half. This comes just a few months after the Trib moved its own Books section from Sundays to Saturdays, thus ensuring that it will never be read. After the move, Sun-Times began to crow about having "the only books section on Sunday." Maybe the new tagline should read, "now 50 percent less literate!" Way to go, Chicago papers.
I've been dealing with a wicked cold and nursing a sick cat, so I'm behind on my links once again. But here a just a few Chicago-lit related stories you may have missed recently:
The NPR show "On The Media" usually focuses on how the news is reported (or not reported, if appropriate). This past week's episode switched to a different medium: books. In addition to explaining the Kindle, it talked about how much of a difference Oprah and Amazon can make, and whether or not people are reading less as the recent NEA study discussed. Worth a listen.
Audrey Niffenegger writes a fairy tale for The Guardian. And, speaking of Niffenegger, the Renaissance woman has an exhibition of new work at Printworks Gallery going on now through December 29.
This has been one of those weeks, but I would like to close some tabs and catch up with some recent Chicago-related lit news from around the web:
The Christian Science Monitor has a short Q&A with Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City.
UofC grad student Meredith McGuire recently won the First Chapters Romance Writing Competition sponsored by publisher Simon & Schuster. She will receive a $5,000 advance for her novel The Shadow's Kiss and see it published by S&S next year. Way to go.
Roth realizes that as he ages, he is one of the relative few who have this kind of time for reading. "The revolution that began with the movie screen, and the TV screen, which led to the decline of the literary culture, has just been accelerated by the new technological revolution," he says. "People are just not interested in reading a book two or three hours a night."
Fantagraphics, the publisher of the Eightball series by Daniel Clowes, has a few thoughts about the Connecticut English teacher who resigned after parents objected to his giving a copy of Eightball #22 to a freshman student. The commentary includes:
"Some are arguing that Eightball was a far too mature choice for a teacher to give a 13-year-old girl and clearly grounds for dismissal. Perhaps in some parts of the country, yes, but consider this school's approved summer reading list, which includes authors like Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Augustyn Burroughs, Sylvia Plath, Graham Greene, and many more. In light of this rather progressive list, it's hard to believe that Eightball crosses any lines that any number of other titles from the approved list absolutely obliterate."
Cultural Chicago has a nice little piece detailing a short history of chicago crime fiction, starting from the genre's birth in England to the current crop of local writers who carry on the tradition.
