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  • Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

    Deirdre Bair wasn’t that familiar with Al Capone. Beyond the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, she’d been more focused on literary biographies, racking up numerous awards including the National Book Award. But when she was contacted by a friend who had a friend who knew someone (yes, it went like that) who wanted help in solving…

  • Lost Recipes of Prohibition: Notes from A Bootlegger’s Manual

    When I was writing my book, A Jazz Age Murder in Northwest Indiana (History Press), about Nettie Diamond, a wealthy widow and pharmacist who was murdered by her fifth husband, a much younger bootlegger named Harry in Indiana Harbor on Valentine’s Day 1923, one of the things I learned was that it was relatively easy…

  • The Death of Mrs. Westaway: A New Psychological Thriller by Ruth Ware

    Tarot cards, a threatening stranger and a mysterious will propel Hal, a young vulnerable orphan to spend her remaining cash for a railway ticket to the funeral of a woman who solicitors believe is her grandmother. Hal, who makes her precarious living reading Tarot cards, a skill she learned from her mother who was killed…

  • Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America

    For those who are worried that we have entered dark days as country and are uncertain what the future might hold, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and presidential historian Jon Meacham explores other eras in America’s history, pointing out that in the end, by following “our better angels” we became a stronger and better America. “Lincoln got…

  • Michael Koryta in Chicago to Talk About His New Book

    Michael Koryta, the New York Times-bestselling author of 12 suspense novels of including Those Who Wish Me Dead and Rise the Dark talks with writer Jane Simon Ammeson about his just released “How It Happened” (Little Brown 2018; $27). “How It Happened” starts off with the so chilling confession and then suddenly we’re wondering okay,…

  • Chasing Helicity by Ginger Zee

    In the time it takes to create a waterspout, Ginger Zee was hooked on weather. “My mom kept shouting at me to get out of the way,” says Zee, who was eight years old at the time. “I thought it was the coolest thing, I was mesmerized. That’s when I decided that when I grew…

  • Cecile Richards: “Make Trouble”

    “How much time do you have?” Cecile Richards laughs when I ask how her mother, the late Ann Richards and the first woman governor of Texas, influenced her. “She taught me so much,” continues Richards, the outgoing president of Planned Parenthood who will be in Chicago next week to talk about her new book, Make…

  • Paris in Stride: An Insider’s Walking Guide

      Imagine strolling through Paris with a friend, one who knows the greatest little patisseries, cafes, outdoor markets and shops tucked along winding cobbled streets. Together the two of us try on amazingly chic designer dresses at La boutique Didier Ludot and amble through the courtyard gardens and gaze at the Swedish art work at…

  • F. MURRAY ABRAHAM NARRATES NEW RECORDING OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN’S FAIRY TALES

    ACADEMY AWARD®-WINNING F. MURRAY ABRAHAM NARRATES NEW RECORDING OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN’S FAIRY TALES ALONG WITH ENSEMBLE CAST HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN’S FAIRY TALES is the newest installment in Listening Library’s Classics series that will be available as an audiobook download on March 27, 2018, in time to celebrate International Children’s Book Day, which has been celebrated on…

  • Leslie Odom Jr.’s Inspiring New Book: Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning

    Leslie Odom, Jr. originated the role of Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical phenomenon Hamilton. Since then, he has performed for sold-out audiences, sung for the Obamas at the White House, and won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. But before he landed the role of a lifetime in one of…