Tariq Shah brings poetry to his debut novel.
Category: Book Review
Posted inArts & Culture
Jasmon Drain joins the ranks of Chicago’s greatest authors
His debut collection, Stateway’s Garden, captures the city’s unique, ugly beauty.
Posted inArts & Culture
Riane Konc wants to help you Build Your Own Christmas Movie Romance
The choose-your-own-adventure-style parody features all the best tropes and treats of made-for-TV holiday specials.
Posted inArts & Culture
Struggling on God’s rules
In Chicago author Goldie Goldbloom’s On Division, a devout 57-year-old Jewish mother works to reconcile her faith with her Hasidic community’s cruelty to her late son.
Posted inArts & Culture
Gentrification pains
Everything Must Go pays tribute to the displaced working-class of Wicker Park.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook elevates Chicago’s lesser-heard stories
From Austin to Hegewisch, this essay collection offers snapshots of life in Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Posted inArts & Culture
Indecent Advances tells the secret history of a time when propositioning another man was grounds for murder
And the press stoked antigay paranoia as a way to sell more papers.
Posted inArts & Culture
In An American Summer, Alex Kotlowitz creates a portrait of a city battling intractable ills
He doesn’t offer solutions, but he’s an empathetic witness to the damage done by violence.
Posted inArts & Culture
In High-Risers, Ben Austen delivers a long-overdue requiem for Cabrini-Green
A new history of the notorious project reminds us why public housing mattered to the people who lived there—and why it matters still.
Posted inArts & Culture
Could the selfie smash the patriarchy?
In her book The Selfie Generation, Alicia Eler explores the impact of a cultural phenomenon.
Posted inArts & Culture
Dave Kehr returns with another indispensable collection of film criticism
University of Chicago Press issues Movies That Mattered, a follow-up to the longtime Reader staffer’s 2011 book When Movies Mattered.
Posted inArts & Culture
Iliza Shlesinger’s Girl Logic lacks girls and logic
The comedian’s first book is a noxious “celebration” of women.
Posted inArts & Culture
Isabel Allende’s mystical new novel is a sly response to anti-immigrant fear
In the Midst of Winter might have dreamlike qualities, but it’s grounded in real-world problems.
Posted inArts & Culture
Story of a Curse—and the Cubs’ curse killer
Author Rich Cohen makes a persuasive—and entertaining—case that, for Cubs fans, the curse was one of the core beliefs that held the universe steady.
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Renaissance celebrates the people who built the city’s cultural scene
A new book examines the local art and literature milieu in the early 20th century.