Category: Author event
-
Author Catherine O’Connell in Chicago to Discuss Her Latest Books

Northbrook native, mystery writer Catherine O’Connell who divides her time between Chicago and Aspen will be home this week and back to her old haunts including a book signing for her newest mystery, First Tracks, at Pippin’s Tavern when she managed the bar there in the 1980s. First Tracks, described by Booklist as…
-
Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter’s Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

While other boys his age were reading Hardy Boy mysteries and articles about baseball, Scott Pelley was riding his bike down to the public library in Lubbock, Texas and checking out books on faraway places. “I kept a stack by my bed and when I finished those, I’d return them and get more,”…
Jane Simon Ammeson
-
No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us

“Domestic violence is not a large part of our conversation,” says Rachel Louise Snyder, author of the recently released “Domestic violence is not a large part of our conversation,” says Rachel Louise Snyder, author of the recently released No Visible Bruises, her exploration of this country’s domestic violence epidemic and what it means…
Jane Simon Ammeson
-
Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors

In the 300-room Sagar Mahal, or the Ocean Palace built by her great times four grandfather on the Arabian Sea, 13-year-old Trisha Raje is coached by her father not to be overwhelmed by the sorrow she saw at a school of the blind that day but instead find a solution so she doesn’t feel…
-
Park Avenue Summer

Chicago-based author Renee Rosen typically writes novels about historic periods and people in Chicago such as the age of jazz (Windy City Blues); mid-20th century journalism (White Collar Girl) and the Roaring Twenties (Dollface). But in Park Avenue Summer, her latest novel which she describes as “Mad Men the Devil Wears Prada,” she takes…
Jane Simon Ammeson
-
Save Me the Plums: Ruth Reichl’s Memoir

A decade ago, out of all the food magazines published, the most famous was Gourmet, which offered a sophisticated look at culinary trends and cookery. And Ruth Reichl, who formerly had been the food critic for the New York Times, a job that entailed wearing disguises because her photo was plastered on a large…
Jane Simon Ammeson
-
An American Agent: A Maisie Dobbs Novel

Jacqueline Winspear, author of The American Agent, the 15th book in her Maisie Dobbs’ series, transports us to early September 1940, as Adolf Hitler unleashed his Blitzkrieg or lighting attack on London and other United Kingdom cities, an intensive attack already used successfully in Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium and France to enable an invasion…
Jane Simon Ammeson
-
Let’s Play Two: The Life and Times of Ernie Banks

“People couldn’t see beyond his optimistic outlook and took him to be naïve and have a simplistic outlook on life,” says Wilson. “But Banks was a very deep thinker, he’s someone who overcame a lot of obstacles but never said anything bad about people.
Jane Simon Ammeson
-
The page-turning book about how Rocky Wirtz turned the Blackhawks into winners

I’ve only been to a few hockey games — always under duress — but that didn’t keep me from reading “The Breakaway: The Inside Story of the Wirtz Family Business and the Chicago Blackhawks,” well into the night. Typically I don’t expect sports books to be page-turners, but Bryan Smith, a two-time winner and six-time…
Jane Simon Ammeson
-
Book review, signing: New book offers fresh take on Gary/Chicago resident, Nelson Algren

Mary Wisniewski was a college student when she first discovered the writings of Chicago writer Nelson Algren. “Many of his books were set in Wicker Park where my family was from which intrigued me,” says Wisniewski, noting that though Algren’s novels are about shady characters, drug addicts, grifters, drifters and those on the margins of…
Jane Simon Ammeson