Review: Decent People Facing Strangeness, Dark Black, by Sam Weller
Dark Black by Sam Weller Hat & Beard Press One of the opening paragraphs of Sam Weller’s short story “All the Summer Before Us” is this: “We were eighteen, me […]
Patrick T. Reardon is a Chicago historian, essayist, poet and writer who was a Chicago Tribune reporter for 32 years. He is the author of nine books including The Loop: The ‘L’ Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago (SIU Press).
Viewpoint: The Joy of Protest—Chicago Protests: A Joyful Revolution by Vashon Jordan Jr.
Chicago Protests: A Joyful Revolution by Vashon Jordan Jr. Self-published Joy is being free to say: “Look at me! Listen to me!” Joy is being free to join with others […]
Q&A: COVID-19 and the Blaze—Carl Smith and the Great Chicago Fire, Part 2
Part 2 of Two Parts. Read Part 1 here. Like the rest of the world, Atlantic Monthly Press and Northwestern University historian Carl Smith weren’t planning on COVID-19. But that’s […]
Q&A: Letting Events Talk — Carl Smith and the Great Chicago Fire, Part 1
Part 1 of Two Parts. Carl Smith’s Chicago’s Great Fire, published in August by Atlantic Monthly Press, is an important book of Chicago history, and a rousing crackerjack work that’s […]
Review: A Long-Ago Blaze That Echoes the Pandemic, Chicago’s Great Fire, by Carl Smith
Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City by Carl Smith Atlantic Monthly Press Devastation is devastation, whether brought about by fire or pandemic. The Great […]
Review: “They Saved My Life”—Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected, by Haki R. Madhubuti
Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected by Haki R. Madhubuti Third World Press One of my favorite poems in Haki R. Madhubuti’s new, career-spanning collection Taught […]
Review: The Joy and Bother of City Streets, The Streets of Europe: The Sights, Sounds, and Smells That Shaped Its Great Cities, by Brian Ladd
The Streets of Europe: The Sights, Sounds, and Smells That Shaped Its Great Cities By Brian Ladd University of Chicago Press, 320 pages, $30 I’m having a difficult time deciding […]
Essay: The Power of Black Chicago’s “Wall”
More than half a century ago, on August 27, 1967, local residents, poets, painters, photographers and gang members gathered to dedicate the “Wall of Respect”—a mural painted on the side […]
Book Review: Relentless, Raw Outrage, Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore Harper, 306 pages, $26.99 Elizabeth Wetmore’s Valentine, set in 1976 rural West Texas, is a novel of relentless and brutally raw outrage. A fury-filled howl of […]
Rubbernecking Rich Living, Chicago Apartments: A Century and Beyond of Lakefront Luxury
Chicago Apartments: A Century and Beyond of Lakefront Luxury By Neil Harris with Teri J. Edelstein University of Chicago Press, 364 pages, $85 Reading Neil Harris’s Chicago Apartments: A Century […]
Book Review: A Vibrant Novel about Random Life, Right after the Weather, by Carol Anshaw
Right after the Weather by Carol Anshaw Atria Books, 269 pages, $27 It’s one of those random moments in life. Cate, running late, drives into Neale’s alley, puts on her […]
Book Review: From Black Boy Lane to Anson Place, The Address Book, by Deirdre Mask
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth and Power by Deirdre Mask St. Martin’s Press In her introduction to The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal […]