As a Jane Austen fan, I was happy to interview Stephanie Barron, author of 13 Jane Austen mysteries including her most recent Jane and the Waterloo Map and Jane Austen and the 12 Days of Christmas, who was in Chicago last Saturday for a book event. “Jane and the Waterloo Map is set in November, 1815,…
Month: July 2016
The Devil Wears Prada Author Lauren Weisberger Writes Novel About Women’s Championship Tennis
In her latest novel, The Singles Game (Simon & Schuster 2016; $26.00), Lauren Weisberger, the author of The Devil Loves Prada, tells the story of another heartless boss as we follow the attempts of Charlotte “Charlie” Silver to regain her tennis star status. Ten minutes away from playing her first match on the Centre Court…
My Journey from Shame to Strength: A Memoir by Liz Pryor
Bundled into a car during a winter storm, 17-year-old Liz Pryor left her home in Winnetka with her mother to what she thought was a Catholic home for pregnant teenagers. Instead, Pryor found herself in a locked government-run facility filled with impoverished delinquent girls whose experiences and backgrounds were totally different than hers. Over the…
Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the US Film Industry
When California was still all about oranges, Chicago ruled when it came to movies—a brief but glorious decade where local girl Gloria Swanson earned money as an extra to pay for pickles (of all things) before moving on to stardom, becoming Joe Kennedy’s mistress and then later the fading actress in the classic Sunset Boulevard….