Book Reviews, News & Best-Sellers - Chicago Tribune

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Biblioracle: For Cormac McCarthy, author of ‘The Road’ and ‘No Country for Old Men,’ it was the books themselves that mattered

He is perhaps among the last of the generation of writers who did not have to become brands.

Biblioracle: I’ll take that bet — ChatGPT won’t change the way we value books and writing

I get being amazed by what this technology seems to be able to do, but I think we are being dazzled by a bit of a conjuring trick.

Chicago Public Library making Museum Passport program more digital

The new Digital Museum Passes allow users to make reservations online rather than having to visit a local library in-person to obtain them.

Biblioracle: From a coming-of-age adventure to a techno-thriller, my 7 ‘hammock reads’ for summer

Instead of picking the hottest new release “beach reads," here are seven tried and true books for summer, including Kiese Laymon’s “Long Division."

Update your beach read: 52 books for summer 2023, with some themes in mind

Let’s try something new this summer. Instead of the typical beach read, here are 13 choose-your-own-adventure themes for summer reading.

Authors Richard and Leah Rothstein discuss new book on racial segregation in housing

The father-daughter pair talk about 'Just Action: How To Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law,' a look at U.S. segregation.

Biblioracle: 3 best new books to mix up your reading diet

J. Ryan Stradal, Megan Abbott and Dennis Lehane are authors who can offer a general sense of familiarity mixed with surprise.

Biblioracle: Long before podcasting, Chicagoans had a chance to listen to the greatest interviewer ever — Studs Terkel

Thanks to WFMT’s online archive of the “Studs Terkel Program,” we can now travel back in time and visit many of those past days.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s ‘Chain-Gang All-Stars’ is one of the year’s goriest novels. It’s also one of the best.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, who belongs on anyone’s shortlist of great new American writers, specializes in tales of acceptable violence: How much do we endure?

As Centuries & Sleuths owner prepares to retire after 30 years, a look at the joys of running an independent bookstore

After more than 30 years running the Forest Park bookstore named Centuries & Sleuths, Augie Aleksy is preparing to retire.

Independent bookselling expanded again in 2022, with new and diverse stores opening nationwide

Once overwhelmingly white, the booksellers association added 46 stores last year that reported diverse ownership, among them Rooted MKE in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Black Garnet Books, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Biblioracle: New book sheds light on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

In high school, if you asked me what the best book I’d ever read was, I probably would have said “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Alex Haley.

Vickroy: No need to seek out distant places when there’s so much to see in Illinois, author of new travel book says

Wine trails, a national forest, a treehouse resort and — not one, but two — state fairs are just a few of the highlights in “100 Things To Do in Illinois Before You Die,” a newly released by Reedy Press travel books.

Salman Rushdie makes rare public address after attack, warns free expression under threat

Writer Salman Rushdie has made a public speech, nine months after being stabbed and seriously injured onstage, warning that freedom of expression in the West is under its most severe threat in his lifetime.

New book ‘Last On His Feet’ captures brilliantly boxer Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century

“Last On His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century” shows the ferocity, style, audacity and courage of the first Black boxing champion.

130 years later, was H.H. Holmes’ Englewood ‘Murder Castle’ the house of horror legends claim? It wasn’t even a hotel, experts say.

Experts dispel a number of Holmes myths, including the notion that he silently murdered dozens of people in the bustling community of Englewood.

Biblioracle: Judy Blume is having a moment, and so are those of us who were raised on her books

Judy Blume’s books grasp that while childhood is in theory a time of innocence, it is also a time of great unknowing and confusion.

New book captures 100 years of folk and country music history here in Chicago

About Bob Dylan? From an interview, "he seems like a nice guy but he’s never going to make it. Listen to that voice."

Biblioracle: Esquire’s writing about books is smart without being only for the literati

Lately, Esquire has been publishing more original fiction and book-related content. Here's how and why that is happening.

Biblioracle: In Florida, Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’ is back on high school shelves

“The Bluest Eye” was removed from shelves in Pinellas County following a single informal complaint by a parent.

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