Shelf Life

Category: History

  • Windy City Blues

    In her fun very readable Windy City Blues (Berkley 2017; $16), Chicago author Renee Rosen again takes another slice of the city’s history and turns it into a compelling read.

    Rosen, who plumbs Chicago’s history to write such books as Dollface, her novel about flappers and gangers like Al Capone, and What the Lady Wants which recounts the affair between department store magnate Marshall Field and his socialite neighbor, says she and her publisher were racking their brains for her next book which encompassed Chicago history.

    “She suggested the blues,” says Rosen, who didn’t have much interest in the subject.

    But Rosen was game and started her typical uber-intensive research.

    “When I discovered the Chess brothers, who founded Chess Records, I fell in love,” she says, noting that when researching she was surprised about how much she didn’t know about the subject despite her immersion in Chicago history for her previous books. “I thought this is a story.”

    “As part of my research, I drove the Blues Highway from New Orleans to Chicago,” she says. “I also met with Willie Dixon’s grandson and with Chess family members.”

    Combining fact and fiction, Rosen’s story follows heroine Leeba Groski, who struggling to fit in, has always found consolation in music. When her neighbor Leonard Chess offers her a job at his new Chicago Blues label, she sees this as an opportunity to finally fit in. Leeba starts by answering phones and filing but it soon becomes much more than that as she discovers her own talents as a song writer and also begins not only to fall in love with the music industry but also with Red Dupree, a black blues guitarist.

    Windy City Blues was recently selected for Chicago’s One Book project, a program designed to engage diverse groups of Chicagoans around common themes. Rosen says she is very honored to be a recipient.

    “I put my heart and soul into this book,” she says. “I think it’s a story with an important message. In it are lessons of the Civil Rights movement, what it was like for Jews and people of color along with the history of the blues and the role of Jews in bringing the blues to the world. After all, as the saying goes: Blacks + Jews = Blues.”

  • Capote’s Women: The Story of the Writers’ Swans

    Capote’s Women: The Story of the Writers’ Swans

    “There are certain women who, though perhaps not born rich, are born to be rich,” author Truman Capote wrote about the beautiful, well-dressed, and style-setting women he called his “swans.”

    The ultimate arm candy for the wealthiest and most powerful of men, these women of the mid-20th century were trophy wives before the term existed. And they counted Capote, the author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and creator of the true crime genre with In Cold Blood, his chilling recounting of the brutal murders of a Kansas family, as their best friend.

    In Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era, New York Times best-selling author Laurence Leamer takes us back to a time and a world where jet-setting, making the best-dressed list, attending and giving A-plus list parties, and dining at the most wonderful places whether in New York, Paris, London, or wherever your yacht happened to be moored were what these exalted women excelled at.

    Obtaining their lifestyles depended upon a confluence of beauty, wit, moxie, and marrying and knowing when to discard husbands as they worked their way up and up. At times, divorce papers were barely signed before the next wedding was held.

    “You have to enter into their lives,” says Leamer, explaining how he so succinctly captured the personalities of the swans: Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Slim Hayward, Pamela Churchill, C.Z. Guest and Lee Radziwill who constantly seethed because of the attention her older sister, Jackie Kennedy, always received.

    “Even though,” Leamer points out, “unlike Jackie she didn’t want to do the hard work that it takes to achieve something.”

    These women knew how to climb to higher heights. Gloria Guinness had transitioned from a childhood of constant motion in Mexico and marriage at age 20 to a man 27 years older to marrying a German aristocrat and a romantic involvement with a top Nazi during World War II. Her third marriage was to the grandson of an Egyptian King and her last, the biggest prize, was to a scion of the Guinness beer family who was also a member of Parliament. Other wins were modeling for big time designers and the best of the fashion magazines as well as being on the International Best Dressed List for several years.

    But ultimately, she wasn’t happy says Leamer who believes she committed suicide.

    There was also Barbara “Babe” Paley whose mother raised her   three daughters to marry money. Paley, who had been badly injured in an automobile accident when young, spent her life in considerable pain. Her husband expected perfection in all things and so she never slept in the same bedroom, so she could the loss of her front teeth.

    But being the best wasn’t always the answer to happy life. The swans may have had uber-wealthy husbands, but they didn’t have good husbands. Frequently husbands and wives were flagrantly promiscuous, and the swans often led separate lives not only from their spouses but also their children.

    “For them, to be a mom was to be hands-off,” says Leamer. “And the children often paid a price. They didn’t necessary learn to do anything because they were going to inherit a lot of money.”

    Ornamental to the max, these were women who did nothing but did it extremely well. And Capote, despite his great literary successes, spent a lot of time doing nothing with them. He listened to their secrets and ultimately decided to write a book revealing what he had heard. When an article he penned revealed some of those stories, the swans all turned against him, and he was exiled from the society he craved.

    “I went to a family wedding recently,” says Leamer noting the warmth and connectiveness that everyone had. “These women and Capote never had this.”

    It’s such a cliché to say money doesn’t buy happiness. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. And it certainly is delicious to read about the lives of women who many thought had it all even though they didn’t.

    Online Book Event


    Join Laurence Leamer in an online event hosted by the American Writer’s Museum in Chicago when he reads from and discusses his new book.”

    When: October 13 at 6:30 p.m.

    How to Join In: This program will be hosted online via Zoom. To register, visit americanwritersmuseum.org/program-calendar/laurence-leamer-capotes-women/

  • Pullman: The Man, the Company, the Historic Park by Kenneth Schoon

    Pullman: The Man, the Company, the Historic Park by Kenneth Schoon

                   Kenneth Schoon, professor emeritus at Indiana University Northwest, has immersed himself in the history of the Greater Chicago/Northwest Indiana area for decades, writing books starting from the area’s earliest beginnings such as “Calumet Beginnings: Ancient Shorelines and Settlements at the South End of Lake Michigan” and “Swedish Settlements on the South Shore of Lake Michigan.”

                   In his latest book, “Pullman: The Man, the Company, the Historical Park” (History Press 2021; $21.99), he showcases what once was among  the ultimate company town and is now a Chicago neighborhood. George Pullman, whose last name became synonymous with plush railroad sleeper cars, believed that happy workers were productive workers and so developed his town along the western shore of Lake Calumet in the late 1800s.

                   I thought I knew company towns having grown up in East Chicago, Indiana my friends whose parents worked at Inland Steel lived in Sunnyside in Indiana  Harbor. On the East Chicago side there was Marktown built in 1917 by Clayton Mark, for those employed at the company he owned, Mark Manufacturing.

                   But they’re different Schoon tells me. Both Marktown and Sunnyside were residential neighborhoods. But Pullman was an actual town with its own schools, library, churches, Masonic Hall, businesses, and even a band. Garbage and maintenance was paid for by the company.

    In 2015, then President Barack Obama proclaimed Chicago’s Pullman District as a National Monument, encompassing many of its surviving buildings such as the former Pullman Palace Car Works, the Greenstone Church, formerly the Greenstone United Methodist Church, the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, workers’ homes, the Pullman Administration Clock Tower Building, Arcade Park, and the Florence Hotel, named after Pullman’s oldest daughter.

                   Though I vaguely knew about the town of Pullman, it had never been on my radar as a place to visit even though it was less than eleven miles from where I lived.

                   “The same with me,” says Schoon who remembered going to the Florence Hotel, one of the fanciest structures in town, to eat when young never to return until hired by the Historic Pullman Foundation to write about the history of the town for their brochure.

                   Today we talk about experiences, but that’s what Pullman was all about back then. His sleeper cars were luxurious, but the brand also meant great service. After the Civil War, he hired recently emancipated African American men, to work as porters becoming the largest employer of Blacks in the U.S. Their jobs were to attend to passengers needs by serving food and drink, shining shoes, tidying up the train, making sure the temperature was just right and that lighting fixtures worked.  Black women were hired as maids to take care of women guests on the most expensive cars—babysitting children, helping with their baths, giving manicures, and fixing their hair.

                   Pullman was no dinky little town. The Arcade Theatre could accommodate 1000 people and Schoon says it was, for a time, the finest theater west of the Hudson River.

                   With the advent of automobiles and highways, the need for sleeper cars lessened. But luckily many of Pullman’s historic buildings remain including the Florence Hotel which is currently closed for renovations but expected to open within a few years.

                   “The old stable is now a store,” says Schoon. “The old fire station is still there and of the 600 residential buildings all but three are still standing.”

                   In an interesting tidbit, Schoon notes that Pullman was originally dry because George Pullman was a Prohibitionist. Luckily for those who  wanted to imbibe, Kensington, the town next door had 23 taverns at the time.

                   Kenneth Schoon will be signing copies of his book during the Labor Day Weekend at the Grand Opening of Pullman National Monument Visitor Center and Pullman State Historic Site Factory. For more information about times and other events, visit www.pullmanil.org

  • George Diamond’s: A Northwest Indiana Classic

    George Diamond’s: A Northwest Indiana Classic

                In 1924, Peter Levant’s opened what was one of Whiting’s famous “perch palaces,” a place that served freshly caught perch right from Lake Michigan. They also advertised such menu items as steak, chicken, and, of course, this being The Region, frog legs—mostly likely from nearby Lake George.

                Indeed, frog legs were so in demand that Vogel’s—which was just down the street and totally classy—raised their own frogs for legs in the lake. But that’s a different story.

                Located at 1247 Calumet Avenue, Levent’s became the home of Juster’s Charcoal Broiled Steaks and then later George Diamond’s. Though my mom liked to cook, my parents were totally into eating out as well and though its been years and years, I remember going with them to George Diamond’s. It was the kind of place where everything was overlarge—the steaks, the salads, the charcoal flames, and even the menus.

                That Diamond (yes, there was a George Diamond) even opened a place in Whiting shows the town’s status as a food destination. Indeed, around that time, there were a lot of great restaurants–and I’m sure I’m leaving a lot of places out–Vogel’s, Phil Smidt’s, Margaret’s Geneva House, Al Knapp’s Restaurant and Lounge, and the Roby Café. But Diamond was international. Besides his flagship restaurant at 630 S. Wabash Avenue in Chicago that was said to have cost over $1 million to renovate in a style I call 1950s swank, all red velvet and red upholstery, he had places in Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Antioch, Illinois on a golf course, and Acapulco, Mexico.

                What I remember most was the house salad dressing which they bottled and sold on the premises. It was so unique that even now it has a cult-like online following with people  searching for the recipe.  It wasn’t Russian and it certainly wasn’t French or at least not the orangish French dressing we buy in bottles now. Diamond’s dressing was an almost translucent reddish pink. And if the recipe I found online is close to the original, it’s main ingredient was tomato soup.

      There’s nothing left of Diamond’s empire today. Diamond died in 1982 at age 80 and the building housing the Wabash Avenue restaurant went up in flames in 2006.  But people still remember that dressing.

    George Diamond’s salad dressing

    • 1 (10-ounce) can condensed tomato soup
    • 2/3 cup oil
    • 1/2 cup each: white vinegar, sugar
    • 1 small onion, peeled and grated
    • 1 clove garlic, peeled and halved
    • 1 tablespoon dry mustard
    • 1/4 teaspoon each: salt, ground black pepper

    Place undiluted soup, oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt, pepper, onion and garlic in a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade. Cover and blend or process on high speed until pureed, about 2 minutes. Serve chilled. Store covered leftovers in refrigerator.

                I’ll be signing copies of my book Classic Restaurants of The Region at Miles Books. 2819 Jewett Avenue in Highland on Saturday, August 21st from 11:30-3pm. For more information, 219-838-8700.

                   Hope to see you there.

  • Untitled post 2419

    Several decades ago, George Saunders and his wife were visiting Washington D.C. when their cousin mentioned that anecdotal evidence indicated President Abraham Lincoln had surreptitiously visited the tomb of his 11-year-old son, Willie.

    For years, the story of Lincoln, so overcome by grief, that he stole into the monument where his son was interred, nagged at the edges of Saunders’s mind. But Saunders, who teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University, had never written a novel and besides his writing was mostly satirical in nature.

    “But this material has been calling me all these years,” says Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House 2017; $28). “It’s like their story was a stalker, it kept showing up at my window and it needed to get out.”

    Justifying his foray into a new literary form by telling himself he’d had a nice run regarding his career—Saunders is an acclaimed short story writer who is included in Time’s list of the 100 most influential people the world, he decided why not try “this Lincoln thing.”

    Saunders still had doubts about his ability to tell the story in the way the way it needed to be told. But having grown up in Chicago as part of a devout Catholic family and now having adapted some of the tenets of Buddhism in the Tibetan tradition, he has written a book that though just recently released is already garnering great reviews.

    Bardo is a Tibetan concept–a kind of transitional zone says Saunders.

    “We’re all in the bardo right now that goes from birth to death,” he says, noting that Buddhists would call these transition stages reincarnation and noting that the book takes place just after that, in the bardo that goes from death to whatever comes next. “Now is the time to live–knowing that death is coming—if we can accept ourselves as a mess.”

    With all his research, Saunders has come to see how Lincoln persevered despite the immense weight of the Civil War, the deaths of so many Americans and that of his son as well.

    “We had a president back then who bent,” he says, “when others would have broken.”

  • Hour of the Witch

    Hour of the Witch

    Bewitchingly beautiful with delft blue eyes, porcelain skin and blonde hair, Mary Deerfield has a handsome, wealthy husband, a lovely house, and bruises on her face that she tries to hide under her linen cap. Thomas, her husband, is almost twice her age and given to drunken rages, particularly as time goes on and Mary does not become pregnant.

    Mary’s parents are respected and well-to-do but can’t protect their daughter. There are no organizations to help battered women, no social workers or psychologists to dispense advice, nor can Mary just leave her home, move to another city and get a job. After all, this is Boston in 1662, and women have few, if any, rights. Ironically, Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in the 21st century, was back then the kind of place where they burned women as witches.

    “Hour of the Witch,” Chris Bohjalian’s well-researched and chilling new novel, takes us into a past where, just by trying to exercise her independence and desire to lead her own life, a woman could be castigated as a witch.

    “When we think of New England’s history of hanging people for witchcraft, we beeline straight to Salem in 1692,” said Bohjalian, a New York Times bestselling author of 22 books whose works have been translated into 35 languages and three times made into movies. “But in 1656, the governor of Massachusetts had his own sister-in-law hanged as a witch. And the first real witch hunt was Hartford in 1662 — three full decades before Salem. One thing many of the women executed as witches had in common was that they were smart, opinionated, and viewed as outsiders; sometimes, they saw through the patriarchal hypocrisy that marked a lot of New England Puritanism.”

    Mary puts up with a lot; after all, she has little choice. But when Thomas drives a three-tined fork into her hand, she’s had it and files for divorce. Bohjalian said he was looking for a way into writing a suspense novel about the 17th century and found it when he came across the records of a woman named Nanny Naylor in the 1600s who successfully sued for divorce and won.

    “I was off and running,” he said.

    Bohjalian enjoyed studying Puritan theology at Amherst College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude.

    “Puritans lived with anxiety and dread — just like me,” he said. “Of course, for them, Satan was as real as your neighbor and they fretted constantly over whether they were saved or damned. My anxieties were more of the 1980s ‘Breakfast Club’ sort.

    “I think ‘Hour of the Witch’ is very timely for a novel set in 1662,” he said. “And that was by design. When a magistrate on Boston’s all-male Court of Assistants calls my heroine, Mary Deerfield, ‘a nasty woman,’ I knew the reference would not be lost on my readers. Now, I never want to write polemics, but yes, there is a political undercurrent to the novel that will resonate.”

    Bohjalian said it wasn’t difficult getting into the Puritan mindset.

    “If you’re the sort of person who always questions your motives and has a healthy dollop of self-loathing, it’s actually rather easy,” he said.

    What, of all the research he did, surprised him the most?

    “The fact the Puritans didn’t use forks and drank beer like they were at fraternity parties in 1978,” said Bohjalian. “Their table manners must have been atrocious.”

    This review previously ran in the Times of Northwest Indiana.

  • The Big 50: The Men and Moments That Made the Chicago Cubs

    The Big 50: The Men and Moments That Made the Chicago Cubs

             Carrie Muskat, who started covering the Chicago Cubs in 1987, has written The Big 50: The Men and Moments That Made the Chicago Cubs (Triumph Books 2021; $16.95).

             “Really there are more than 50 moments because it was hard to limit them so it’s 50 plus,” Muskat tells me in an early morning phone interview. “I always say I’m bad at math.”

    Totally immersed in baseball and the Cubs, Muskat’s latest book has an introduction by Anthony Rizzo, the first baseman for the Chicago Cubs and a three-time All-Star who in 2016 helped the Cubs win their first World Series title since 1908. Her other books include Banks to Sandberg to Grace: 5 Decades of Love & Frustration with Chicago Cubs.

    Carrie Muskat

    Described as “the perfect primer for new Cubs fans and an essential addition to a seasoned fan’s collection,” the book recounts the living history of the team and features such greats as Ryne Sandberg, Ron Santo, Anthony Rizzo, and Ernie Banks among others.

     Muskat, who has conducted numerous interviews with players, at times takes a different approach in her book by not only relying upon her own interactions but also by talking to people who worked behind the scenes about the moments included in  The Big 50. It was a way to gain a new perspective on some of the players such as Sammy Sosa that she knew so well.

    “I talked to broadcaster Craig Lynch about Pat Hughes, the radio play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Cubs and got his insights,” she says, as a way of giving an example.

    In some ways, the those decades covering the Cubs was like being part of a large family.  In her time writing about Major League Baseball—she started in 1981—Muskat says she’s watched players like Kerry Woods, the two-time All Star former Cubs pitcher who is now retired, grow. The same goes for Anthony Rizzo.

    “I’ve enjoyed talking to people’s families, like Anthony’s, just talking about things,” she says. “I covered Shawon Dunston and then his son.”

    In her book, Dunston shares his insight on Andre Dawson in Moment 16 of  titled “The Hawk.” Dunston recalls having a locker between Dawson and Ryne Sandberg, who he describes as the quietest guys in the world. “Combined, they didn’t say more than 20 words a day, and I’m not exaggerating.”

    At the time, Dunston says he was “talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.” But by being between them, he learned to be quiet and think about the game before the game. “I learned how to be a professional because of Andre Dawson and Ryne Sandberg.”

    These scenes from the book support Muskat’s contention that players are really just people.

    “That’s one of the biggest things,” she says. “Even if they’re superstars, they’re just people when you get to know them.”

    There have been changes. Reporters used to sit in the dugout but not anymore.

    “It’s not as relaxed,” she says. “My favorite time is spring training which is more relaxed.”

    Muskat is freelancing now but she still is on the sports beat.

    “There’s always a story, every player has one,” she says.

  • The Women of Chateau Lafayette

    The Women of Chateau Lafayette

                   “It’s amazing how women get lost in history,” says Stephanie Dray, the New York Times bestselling author of The Women of Chateau Lafayette.     “I want to tell their stories.”

    At first, the story she was going to tell was that of  Beatrice Chanler, a success London actress with a troubled marriage  who received the Legion of Honor for her philanthropic service during World War.  But then Dray discovered a packet of love letters that were not between Chanler and her husband and she knew she would have to start all over.

                   Ultimately, Dray would write the stories of two more women whose connection through the centuries was the French country chateau of the Marquis de La Fayette, one of the heroes of the American Revolution.  And each time, she would set that book aside as more details emerged.

                   “Chateau is set in three time periods–during the French Revolution, World War One, and World War Two,” says Dray whose previous books include “My Dear Hamilton,”

                   In each period, there was an extraordinary woman who rose to the occasion. The first was Adrienne Lafayette, the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette. More than a spouse, she was her husband’s political partner and, like him, faced the danger of the guillotine during the  French Revolution. The third woman is Marthe Simone, a teacher and writer, who at first wanted to avoid any activities that could put her at risk from the Nazis during World War II but then becomes an active participant in helping hide Jewish children at the chateau.

                “She, like the other two women, deserved to have her own book,” says Dray. “But then I saw the importance of telling all their stories in one novel. I was a government major in college and then I went to law school, but I was really only a lawyer for ten minutes.  But I’ve always been interested in government as people, this story is about the rise of the republic and the continued survival of the public.”

                Writing about the Chateau Lafayette became so much a part of Dray’s every day living that when she saw the castle for the first time she was so nervous she had to have her husband hold the camera.

                “All the video I took is very shaky,” she says.

                Indeed, she becomes so immersed in her stories that when she was writing “America’s First Daughter,” she found herself speaking with a southern accent. That passion is evident in one of the take-aways she hopes readers get from reading The Women of Chateau Lafayette.

                “The Franco-American alliance saved this country three times over,” says Dray. “This book is relevant to those in powdered wigs and those today.”

    Virtual event with Stephanie Dray.

    When: April 3 at noon

    What: Barbara’s Bookstore with Stephanie Dray in virtual conversation with Lauren Margolin “The Good Book Fairy” blogger.

    To Register: https://barbarasbookstores.com/event/stephanie-dray/

    <p value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">FYI: The event is free. All registrants receive 10% off book purchase with code ‘EVENT’FYI: The event is free. All registrants receive 10% off book purchase with code ‘EVENT’

  • THE 17TH ANNUAL BEST BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCE 2020 AWARD RECIPIENTS

    THE 17TH ANNUAL BEST BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCE 2020 AWARD RECIPIENTS

    American Book Fest has announced the winners and finalists of The 2020 Best Book Awards.
    Awards were presented for titles published in 2018-2020.

    Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of American Book Fest said this year’s contest yielded over 2,000 entries from mainstream and independent publishers. These were then narrowed down to over 400 winners and finalists in 90 categories.

    “The 2020 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States,” says Keen about the awards, now in their 18th year.
    Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: HarperCollins, Penguin/Random House, John Wiley and Sons, Routledge/Taylor and Francis, Forge, Hay House, Sounds True, Llewellyn Worldwide, NYU Press, Oxford University Press, John Hopkins University Press, The White House Historical Association and hundreds of Independent Houses contribute to this year’s outstanding competition.

    “Our success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise,” says Keen.

    American Book Fest is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community.

    American Book Fest has an active social media presence with over 135,000 current Facebook fans.


    Highlights Include the Following Winning Titles:
    (Full Results are Available Here.)

    Click on category headings to be taken directly to full book descriptions! Winners and Finalists are featured at the top of each page.

    Animals/Pets: General

    The Balanced Pet Sitter: What You Wish you Knew Before Starting Your Pet Care Business by Renée Stilson
    Equilibre Press, LLC

    Animals/Pets: Narrative Non-Fiction
    The Chimpanzee Chronicles: Stories of Heartbreak and Hope from Behind the Bars by Debra Rosenman
    Wild Soul Press

    Anthologies: Non-Fiction
    This Moment Bold Voices from WriteGirl by Keren Taylor
    WriteGirl PublicationsArt

    C. Curry Bohm: Brown County and Beyond edited by Daniel Kraft & Jim Ross
    Indiana University Press

    Autobiography/Memoir
    Through My Eyes: CSI Memoirs That Haunt the Soul by Tamara Mickelson
    Self-Published

    Best Cover Design: Fiction
    The Last Lumenian by S.G. Blaise
    The Last Lumenian

    Best Cover Design: Non-Fiction
    When God Says NO – Revealing the YES When Adversity and Pain Are Present by Judith Briles
    Mile High Press

    Best Interior Design
    Beautiful Living: Cooking the Cal-a-Vie Health Spa Way by Terri Havens
    Cal-a-Vie Health Spa

    Best New Fiction
    In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn
    Lake Union

    Best New Non-Fiction
    The Book of Help: A Memoir of Remedies by Megan Griswold
    Rodale Books/Penguin Random House

    Biography
    T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer by David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito
    Independent Institute

    Business: Careers
    TIP: A Simple Strategy to Inspire High Performance and Lasting Success by Dave Gordon
    John Wiley and Sons

    Business: Communications/Public Relations
    The Apology Impulse: How the Business World Ruined Sorry and Why We Can’t Stop Saying It by Cary Cooper & Sean O’Meara
    Kogan Page

    Business: Entrepreneurship & Small Business
    Burdens of a Dream: 33 Actionable Nuggets of Wisdom for the Creative Entrepreneur by Craig M. Chavis Jr.
    Author Academy Elite

    Business: General
    The Simplicity Principle: Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World by Julia Hobsbawm
    Kogan Page

    Business: Management & Leadership
    The Future Leader: 9 Skills and Mindsets to Succeed in the Next Decade by Jacob Morgan
    Wiley

    Business: Marketing & Advertising
    The End of Marketing: Humanizing Your Brand in the Age of Social Media and AI by Carlos Gil
    Kogan Page

    Business: Motivational
    Unlock!: 7 Steps to Transform Your Career and Realize Your Leadership Potential by Abhijeet Khadikar
    Vicara Books

    Business: Personal Finance/Investing
    Enhancing Retirement Success Rates in the United States: Leveraging Reverse Mortgages, Delaying Social Security, and Exploring Continuous Work by Chia-Li Chien, PhD, CFP®, PMP®
    Palgrave Pivot

    Business: Real Estate
    Market Forces: Strategic Trends Impacting Senior Living Providers by Jill J. Johnson
    Johnson Consulting Services

    Business: Reference
    The Non-Obvious Guide to Virtual Meetings and Remote Work (Non-Obvious Guides) by Rohit Bhargava
    IdeaPress Publishing

    Business: Sales
    The Visual Sale: How to Use Video to Explode Sales, Drive Marketing, and Grow Your Business in a Virtual World by Marcus Sheridan
    IdeaPress Publishing

    Business: Technology
    Amazon Management System: The Ultimate Digital Business Engine That Creates Extraordinary Value for Both Customers and Shareholders by Ram Charan and Julia Yang
    IdeaPress Publishing

    Business: Writing/Publishing
    Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves: Criteria-Driven Strategies for More Effective Fiction by Larry Brooks
    Writer’s Digest Books (a division of Penguin Random House)

    Children’s Educational
    Galileo! Galileo! by Holly Trechter and Jane Donovan
    Sky Candle Press

    Children’s Fiction
    Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets by Sherrill Joseph
    Acorn Publishing

    Children’s Mind/Body/Spirit
    The Tooth Fairy’s Tummy Ache by Lori Orlinsky
    Mascot Books

    Children’s Non-Fiction
    President’s Play! illustrated by John Hutton, text by Jonathan Pliska
    The White House Historical Association

    Children’s Novelty & Gift Book
    Bubble Kisses by Vanessa Williams, illustrated by Tara Nicole Whitaker
    Sterling Publishing

    Children’s Picture Book: Hardcover Fiction
    Bubble Kisses by Vanessa Williams, illustrated by Tara Nicole Whitaker
    Sterling Publishing

    Children’s Picture Book: Hardcover Non-Fiction
    A-B-Skis: An Alphabet Book About the Magical World of Skiing by Libby Ludlow, illustrated by Nathan Y. Jarvis
    Libby Ludlow

    LLCChildren’s Picture Book: Softcover Fiction
    Frankie the Ferret by Kimberley Paterson
    FriesenPress

    Children’s Picture Book: Softcover Non-Fiction
    Fridays With Ms. Mélange: Haiti by Jenny Delacruz
    Cobbs Creek Publishing

    Children’s Religious
    That Grand Christmas Day! by Jill Roman Lord, illustrated by Alessia Trunfio
    Worthy Kids

    College Guides
    Diversity At College: Real Stories of Students Conquering Bias and Making Higher Education More Inclusive by James Stellar, Chrisel Martinez, Branden Eggan, Chloe Skye Weiser, Benny Poy, Rachel Eagar, Marc Cohen, and Agata Buras
    IdeaPress Publishing

    Cookbooks: General
    Recipes from the President’s Ranch: Food People Like to Eat by Matthew Wendel
    The White House Historical Association

    Cookbooks: International
    Cooking with Marika: Clean Cuisine from an Estonian Farm by Marika Blossfeldt
    Delicious Nutrition

    Cookbooks: Regional
    The Perfect Persimmon: History, Recipes, and More by Michelle Medlock Adams
    Red Lightning

    BooksCurrent Events
    In All Fairness: Equality, Liberty, and the Quest for Human Dignity, edited by Robert M. Whaples, Michael C. Munger and Christopher J. Coyne
    Independent Institute

    Education/Academic
    The EQ Intervention: Shaping a Self-Aware Generation Through Social and Emotional Learning by Adam L. Saenz, PhD
    Greenleaf Book Group

    Fiction: African-American
    Once in a Blood Moon by Dorothea Hubble Bonneau
    Acorn Publishing

    Fiction: Anthologies
    Terror at 5280′ edited by Josh Schlossberg
    Denver Horror Collective

    Fiction: Cross-Genre
    Mourning Dove by Claire Fullerton
    Firefly Southern Fiction

    Fiction: Fantasy
    The Hollow Gods (The Chaos Cycle Series, ) by A.J. Vrana
    The Parliament House Press

    Fiction: General
    Bread Bags & Bullies: Surviving the ’80’s by Steven Manchester
    Luna Bella Press

    Fiction: Historical
    The Takeaway Men by Meryl Ain
    SparkPress

    Fiction: Horror
    The Vanishing by Arjay Lewis
    Mindbender Press

    Fiction: Inspirational
    The Menu by Steven Manchester
    Luna Bella Press

    Fiction: LGBTQ
    Even Weirder Than Before by Susie Taylor
    Breakwater Books

    Fiction: Literary
    How Fires End by Marco Rafalà
    Little A

    Fiction: Multicultural
    Subduction by Kristen Millares Young
    Red Hen Press

    Fiction: Mystery/Suspense
    Strong From The Heart by Jon Land
    Forge

    Fiction: New Age
    Catalyst by Tracy Richardson
    Brown Books Publishing

    Fiction: Novelette
    When Angels Paint: A Milford-Haven Holiday Novelette by Mara Purl
    Bellekeep Books

    Fiction: Novella
    When the Heart Listens: A Milford-Haven Novella by Mara Purl
    Bellekeep Books

    Fiction: Religious
    The Longest Day by Terry Toler
    BeHoldings Publishing

    Fiction: Romance
    What the Heart Wants by Audrey Carlan
    HQN

    Fiction: Science Fiction
    Killing Adam by Earik Beann
    Profoundly One Publishing

    Fiction: Short Story
    Oranges by Gary Eldon Peter
    New Rivers Press

    Fiction: Thriller/Adventure
    The President’s Dossier by James A. Scott
    Oceanview Publishing

    Fiction: Visionary
    Journey of a JuBu by Blaine Langberg
    Critical Eye

    Fiction: Western
    Moccasin Track by Reid Lance Rosenthal
    Rockin’ SR Publishing

    Fiction: Women’s Fiction
    Appearances by Sondra Helene
    She Writes Press

    Fiction: Young Adult
    The Return of the Dragon Queen by Farah Oomerbhoy
    Wise Ink Creative Publishing

    Health: Addiction & Recovery
    Stepping Stones: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss, and Transformation by Marilea C. Rabasa
    She Writes Press

    Health: Aging/50+
    EIGHTSOMETHINGS: A Practical Guide to Letting Go, Aging Well, and Finding Unexpected Happiness by Katharine Esty, PhD
    Skyhorse Publishing

    Health: Alternative Medicine
    Have a Peak at This: Synergize Your Body’s Clock Towards a Highly Productive You by Said Hasyim
    Self-Published

    Health: Cancer
    All Of Us Warriors: Cancer Stories of Survival and Loss by Rebecca Whitehead Munn
    She Writes
    Press

    Health: Death & Dying
    Aftermath: Picking Up the Pieces After a Suicide by Gary Roe
    Healing Resources Publishing

    Health: Diet & Exercise
    Whole Person Integrative Eating: A Breakthrough Dietary Lifestyle to Treat Root Causes of Overeating, Overweight and Obesity by Deborah Kesten, MPH and Larry Scherwitz, PhD
    White River Press

    Health: General
    True Wellness for Your Gut: Combine the best of Western and Eastern medicine for optimal digestive and metabolic health by Catherine Kurosu, MD, L.Ac. and Aihan Kuhn, CMD, OBT
    YMAA Publication Center

    Health: Medical Reference
    The Ultimate College Student Health Handbook: Your Guide for Everything from Hangovers to Homesickness by Jill Grimes, MD
    Skyhorse Publishing

    Health: Psychology/Mental Health
    The Big Bliss Blueprint: 100 Little Thoughts to Build Positive Life Changes by Shell Phelps
    Positive Streak Publishing,

    LLCHealth: Women’s Health
    The Book of Help: A Memoir of Remedies by Megan Griswold
    Rodale Books/Penguin Random House

    History: General
    Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance by Stephen P. Halbrook
    Independent Institute

    History: Military
    40 Thieves on Saipan The Elite Marine Scout-Snipers in One of WWII’s Bloodiest Battles by Joseph Tachovsky with Cynthia Kraack
    Regnery History

    History: United States
    Liberty in Peril: Democracy and Power in American History by Randall G. Holcombe
    Independent Institute

    Home & Garden
    My Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation by Donald M. Rattner
    Skyhorse Publishing

    Humor
    Struggle Bus: The Van. The Myth. The Legend. by Josh Wood
    Lucid Books

    Law
    Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump by Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia
    NYU Press

    LGBTQ: Non-Fiction
    Our Gay History in 50 States by Zaylore Stout
    Wise Ink Creative Publishing

    Multicultural Non-Fiction
    Overcoming Ordinary Obstacles: Boldly Claiming the Facets of an Extraordinary Life by Nesha Pai
    SPARK

    PublicationsNarrative: Non-Fiction
    Sola: One Woman’s Journey Alone Across South America by Amy Field
    WanderWomyn Publishing

    New Age: Non-Fiction
    Embodying Soul: A Return to Wholeness by Keri Mangis
    Curiosa Publishing, LLC

    Novelty & Gift Book
    The Official White House Christmas Ornament: Collected Stories of a Holiday Tradition by Marcia Anderson and Kristen Hunter Mason
    The White House Historical Association

    Parenting & Family
    Why Will No One Play with Me? The Play Better Plan to Help Children of All Ages Make Friends and Thrive by Caroline Maguire, PCC, M.Ed. with Teresa Barker
    Grand Central

    PublishingPerforming Arts: Film, Theater, Dance, Music
    THAT GUY: a stage play by Peter Anthony Fields
    Amazon

    Photography
    Beautiful Living: Cooking the Cal-a-Vie Health Spa Way by Terri Havens
    Cal-a-Vie Health Spa

    Poetry
    Five Oceans in a Teaspoon, poems by Dennis J. Bernstein, visuals by Warren Lehrer
    Paper Crown Press

    Religion: Christian Inspirational
    Extraordinary Hospitality for Ordinary Christians: A Radical Approach to Preparing Your Heart & Home for Gospel-Centered Community by Victoria Duerstock
    Good Books

    Religion: Christianity
    Come Fill This Place: A Journey of Prayer by Stacy Dietz
    KP Publishing Company

    Religion: Eastern
    Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam by A. Helwa
    Naulit Publishing House

    Religion: General
    Esoterism as Principle and as Way: A New Translation with Selected Letters by Frithjof Schuon
    World Wisdom

    Science
    Bliss Brain: The Neuroscience of Rewiring Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity and Joy by Dawson Church
    Hay House

    Self-Help: General
    Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done by Charlie Gilkey
    Sounds True

    Self-Help: Motivational
    Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage by Laura Huang
    Portfolio

    Self-Help: Relationships
    The Remarriage Manual: How to Make Everything Work Better the Second Time Around by Terry Gaspard
    Sounds True

    Social Change
    I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided World by Michael T. McRay
    Herald Press

    Spirituality: General
    The Universe Is Talking to You: Tap Into Signs and Synchronicity to Reveal Magical Moments Every Day by Tammy Mastroberte
    Llewellyn Worldwide

    Spirituality: Inspirational
    Spark Change: 108 Provocative Questions for Spiritual Evolution by Jennie Lee
    Sounds

    TrueSports
    The Martial Arts of Vietnam: An Overview of History and Styles by Augustus John Roe
    YMAA Publication Center

    Travel: Guides & Essays
    Exploring Wine Regions — Bordeaux France: Discover Wine, Food, Castles, and The French Way of Life by Michael C. Higgins, PhD
    International Exploration Society

    True Crime: Non-Fiction
    Beast of New Castle by Larry Sells & Margie Porter
    WildBlue Press

    Women’s Issues
    Muslim Women Are Everything: Stereotype-Shattering Stories of Courage, Inspiration, and Adventure by Seema Yasmin, illustrated by Fahmida Azim
    Harper Design, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

    Young Adult: Non-Fiction
    My Life, My Way: How To Make Exceptional Decisions About College, Career, and Life by Elyse Hudacsko
    Self-Published
  • Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism during Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair

    Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism during Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair

                When Rebecca Graff, a PhD student at the University of Chicago in need of a dissertation, was told by a professor that the view before them from the school’s Ida Noyes Hall was “a hundred years ago the center of the world,” she didn’t see the bucolic splendor of Jackson Park hugging the Lake Michigan shoreline. Instead her sights went to what lay beneath and that was the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, an unexcavated but huge part of Chicago’s history. Held in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus arrival in the New World, the exposition attracted 27 million people who paid 21.5 million for admission in a six-month period. Designed by noted landscape architect Frederick Olmsted, the 630-acre park had more than 65,000 exhibits from 46 countries and introduced to the public such new inventions as a 250-foot Ferris Wheel, Aunt Jemima’s Pancake syrup and Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Gum. Electricity, still rare back then, was used to light up the expo at night.

    Rebecca Graff

                Graff managed to turn that casual remark into her dissertation, “The Vanishing City: Time, Tourism, and the Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition” and then into a book,  “Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism during Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair” (University Press of Florida co-published with The Society for Historical Archaeology).  Both were about the archaeological dig she undertook of a site in Jackson Park near the Museum of Science and Industry that seemed most promising for archaeological fair finds.

    Surprisingly what seemed an almost guaranteed bureaucratic nightmare in terms of permits and permissions all fell into place but then Graff was told she couldn’t start without a million dollars in liability insurance. Not likely for a graduate student.

                “I needed to turn the excavation into a job,” she says. And so she did, teaching a field class at the University of Chicago where she and her students excavated the site.


    View from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition’s South Canal looking northeast. The Machinery Building, the Columbian Fountain, and the Electricity Building are on the left, with the Agriculture and the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Buildings on the right. The Illinois State Building’s dome is in the center, and the flatter dome of the California State Building is to its left. Image is by an anonymous photographer, 1893. From the Smithsonian Institution Archives

                Expecting to find those things that archaeologists love—pottery shards, a coin here and a twisted spoon there—Graff and her team were stunned to unearth a section of the Ohio Building, a stately Beaux Arts-style edifice with an elaborate portico entranceway that served as a meeting place for Ohioans. It was among the best of all the other findings they uncovered such as a collar stud, religious medal, cruet tops indicating that food was made on site, and lots of pipes. Though to hear Graff describe them, they’re all treasures and keys to the past.

                As for the building, contemporary sources said it no longer existed.

                “Even the New York Times wrote it had been thrown into the lake,” says Graff, who instead found segments in a ditch where it might have been used as landfill.

                Coincidentally, Graff later discovered she wasn’t the only family member to dig at the site, so had her great grandfather, Morris Graff, a Russia immigrant who dug ditches at the fair.

                Graff would like to return to Jackson Park for further exploration but was denied a permit the second time around. She says it’s surprising that Chicago doesn’t have a city archaeologist as other big cities do. But she’s certainly doing her fair share of uncovering urban remains. She is currently excavating the Charnley-Persky House Museum, a National Historic Landmark located on Astor Street in the Gold Coast  designed Chicago  architect, Louis Sullivan and his young draftsman Frank Lloyd Wright.

    Cover image from Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism during Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair by Rebecca S. Graff. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2020.