September
23rd, 2021
The fall season is upon
us, and with it comes a rush of new releases.
This year, because so many books were delayed due to the pandemic, it is
a particularly intense season.
One I want to highlight
is by local author and friend of the store James Kennedy. It is called Dare to
Know. This dark, mind-bending novel posits a company
that can predict the exact moment of your death – if you accept the challenge
and can pay the price, of course. Three
of us have read this one, and we all loved it.
The author was kind enough to stop by and sign our first editions.
Two others that I
really enjoyed were released this summer.
Both historical fiction.
In the first, Naomi
Hirahara’s noir thriller Clark and
Division, a Japanese-American family is resettled in Chicago after
being released from Manzanar, the internment camp that so many Californians
were forced into during WWII. The
eldest daughter dies the night before the family is to be re-united, a supposed
suicide. But her family doesn’t buy
it. The atmosphere is beautifully
rendered, and it gives a unique look into a community I was simply not aware of
here in my hometown – Japanese-Americans who were forcibly relocated to our
city in the 1940’s.
The second was written
by Francine Prose. Her writing style is
bold and beautiful, so I could probably read her grocery list and be fascinated. Her latest is called Vixen,
and it is the story of a young Jewish man who gets hired at a major New York
publishing house in the 1950’s and is tasked with editing a bodice-ripper based
on the lives of the recently executed Julius and Esther Rosenberg. This assignment plunges our hero into a world
he never imagined – one filled with deviousness, deceit, and passion.
There are lots more
coming:
This is just a small
sampling of the books we will be seeing in the next couple of weeks. Like a said, a crowded fall. For me, it is just fun to be thinking about
and talking about books again. So much
of the past 18 months has been consumed by pandemic-related issues.
The other exciting bit
of news is that we are cautiously re-launching our event programming next week.
Chicago
Fringe Opera Tuesday, September 28th 8pm
Chicago Fringe Opera presents a FREE Spotlight Series concert as part of the
Ear Taxi Festival.
The program is inspired by the letter scene in opera, a dramatic device
typically employed to express heightened inner emotion or key plot twists.
Chicago Fringe Opera is dedicated to presenting innovative vocal works with
an emphasis on new and contemporary styles, engaging with the Chicago community
through intimate and immersive performance experiences, and fostering and
empowering local artists.
Chicago Fringe Opera is at the forefront of producing dynamic contemporary
vocal works in the city of Chicago.
Censorship
Divides Us, Books Unite Us
Banned
Books Week 2021, September 26th- October 2nd
Our front display table
this month is devoted to books that have been challenged or banned. We do this annually to celebrate our freedom
to read. And to remind us that we must
remain ever vigilant.
If you want to read
about the books that were challenged and/or banned in libraries, schools, and
by government groups around the country in 2020, visit this page on the ALA
website. There, you can download the
report of the instances reported to them in the past year.
Access to whatever
books we wish to read is not a guarantee.
It is a right we should never take for granted.
In order to celebrate
our access to these challenged books, we are running a special for our
customers over the course of Banned Books Week:
Spend $30 or more, get
a free ‘Stand Up For Your Right to Read’ t-shirt and a bookstore pin.
Spend $40 or more, we
will give you all three in a gift bag.
City on
Fire Exhibit Opening October 8, 2021
A rapidly growing city built of wood. A summer-long heat
wave. An exhausted and misdirected team of firefighters. Racial, social, and
economic tensions bubbling just below the surface. All Chicago needed was a
spark.
If you want to read more in depth, about the Great Chicago
Fire of 1871 may we suggest the following titles: