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Rare John Steinbeck column probes strength of US democracy
The question he kept hearing: “What about McCarthyism?”
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Prince Harry’s memoir, titled ‘Spare,’ to come out in 2023
The book will be called “Spare” and is being billed by Penguin Random House, as an account told with “raw, unflinching honesty” and filled with “insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”
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History comes alive in the West Loop — a neighborhood that has given us businesses, beauty and one bad guy
"Chicago’s West Loop, Then and Now: People, Businesses, Buildings" by Connie Fairbanks captures the neighborhood's colorful history.
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It Came From Stephen King! How horror lit crawled out of the swamp and into a golden age.
New horror writers find their demons in racism, suppression and even Siri, and the genre is selling like crazy. But you know, Stephen King still casts a long shadow.
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Jon Meacham’s new biography of Abraham Lincoln explores the ‘Big Lie’ of his day
Jon Meacham’s excellent new biography, “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,” illuminates how Lincoln’s personal growth and travails enabled him to lead a nation along a fitful evolution toward freedom despite a catastrophic rebellion that denied it.
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Big things are happening for author George Saunders. You could say that he tries not to notice.
He'll be at Chicago Humanities Festival this weekend talking to Peter Sagal, he won the Booker Prize, and his new book is “Liberation Day." But he says accolades "speak to the part of me that has impostor syndrome."
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Biblioracle: ‘The Last Chairlift’ is said to be John Irving’s last big novel. His books have always felt personal.
When I received an email from a publicist offering me an advance copy of John Irving’s “last novel,” I jumped at the chance.
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A grassroots project at DePaul publishes Chicago stories — the books are free for the asking and you might even be in one
"How Long Will I Cry?" was the first book by Big Shoulders Books. Its latest is “Virus City," about the pandemic and told through the eyes of ordinary Chicagoans. Studs Terkel would have been pleased.
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Biblioracle: Data on book sales is murky. But more numbers may not be the best solution.
Focusing on the number of books sold means replicating what is already popular will become the safe bet.
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Demand soars for kids’ books addressing violence, trauma
As the new school year swings into gear, some students carry heavier worries than keeping up with homework: Demand has been growing steadily for children’s books that address traumatic events such as school shootings.
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Biblioracle: Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Lucy Barton’ series shows how sometimes just one sequel isn’t enough
Having devoured “Lucy by the Sea” in a day, I started to think that I may just need to check in on Lucy every year, because how else will I know what my good friend is up to?
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Jada Pinkett Smith writing memoir about life and ‘complicated’ marriage to Will Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith will release a memoir next fall about her rise to fame and “complicated marriage to Will Smith,” publisher Dey Street Books announced on Thursday.
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David Letterman joining Michelle Obama for first Chicago stop on book tour
Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman and Ellen DeGeneres are among the celebrity moderators joining former first lady Michelle Obama on tour for her upcoming book, “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times.”
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Biblioracle: These things happened during Banned Books Week, reason enough to sound the alarm again
South Carolina Republicans have tried to ban LGBTQ books from certain sections of libraries, while a PEN America report shows an explosion in attempts to ban books in school.
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Photographer Peter Vagt celebrates Morton Arboretum’s centennial with book tribute, ‘Light Through the Trees’
"Light through the Trees: Photographs at the Morton Arboretum" by Peter Vagt honors the 100th anniversary of the Morton Arboretum.
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As attempts to ban books across the country increase, Chicago establishes ‘Book Sanctuaries’: ‘Encouraging and alarming’
Attempts to ban books across the country — including suburban Illinois — are escalating at a rate never seen since the American Library Association began tracking the data more than 20 years ago, according its most recent report.
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Biblioracle: Adam Langer’s ‘Cyclorama’ shows how books can reveal hidden things about the places we know best
You think you know the place you grew up in but then a novel comes along that makes you see it with new eyes.
Michelle Obama plans stop in Chicago for ‘The Light We Carry’ book tour
Michelle Obama plans a six-city tour this fall in support of her new book, “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times,” beginning mid-November in Washington. D.C. and ending a month later in Los Angeles.
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Chicago author Erika Sánchez talks new memoir, motherhood and ‘I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter’: ‘I didn’t want to write a sequel’
Local author Erika Sanchez, the author of "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" has a new book out, the memoir "Crying in the Bathroom."
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Biblioracle: Mourning the death of Barbara Ehrenreich, who told truths before we were ready to hear them
The author of "Nickel and Dimed" directly engaged with the world as it is, not how we might wish it to be.