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Al Capone’s Beer Wars: A Complete History of Organized Crime in Chicago during Prohibition
Prohibition in Chicago was the ultimate business opportunity for the violent men who made up the many gangs who fought to control alcohol as well as narcotics, gambling, labor and business racketeering and prostitution in the city. And while there were turf wars during Prohibition in many American cities, Chicago was the bloodiest of all.…
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Author shares Rosh Hashanah recipes: Cookbook offers sweet, savory recipes to celebrate the new year

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, celebrates heritage and a chance for rejuvenation. Emily Paster, author of the newly released “The Joys of Jewish Preserving: Modern Recipes with Traditional Roots, for Jams, Pickles, Fruit Butters, and More — for Holidays and Every Day” said the most common Rosh Hashanah tradition is to eat sweet foods…
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Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber
Kathleen Barber’s thriller Are You Sleeping? (Gallery Books 2017; $26) tells the story of Josie Buhrman who thought she had put the trauma of her early life behind her, when a hit investigative podcast about her father’s murder brings the past back, compelling her return to the small Illinois town of Elm Park where she…
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Hauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest
Before the Civil War, a network of secret routes and safe houses crisscrossed the Midwest to help African Americans travel north to escape slavery. Although many slaves were able to escape to the safety of Canada, others met untimely deaths on the treacherous journey—and some of these unfortunates still linger, unable to rest in peace.…
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Horseshoe Casino exec pens book about supportive women

Region resident Dawn Reynolds, drawing upon the early loss of her mother and the encouragement of others, has written “The Highmore Circle,” a novel chronicling six women who learn to navigate life together. Writing as Cricket (her nickname) Reynolds, she tells the story of Gracie Anderson, a single college professor in her 30s with a severely lacking…
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Searching for Ghosts Along the Underground Railroad

My latest book, Hauntings of the Underground Railroad. Ghosts of the Midwest (Indiana University Press), is due out August 1. Researching the book took me into the small towns of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan where ghost stories abound about UGRR. Though I never saw a ghost myself, The Courtyards housed in a building dating back…
