At the very end of the 2019 Carnegie Medals celebration in Washington D.C. this past June, I met Dr. Erin Corbett. After an already memorable evening of rousing, emotional speeches from medal winners Kiese Laymon (Heavy) and Rebecca Makkai (The Great Believers) and keynote speaker Laura Lippman, Corbett added a whole new layer to my […]
“The Garcia boy is gunned down on a dark street.” “He is me and I am him.” Rafael Torch was a young high school teacher and dean in Chicago when one of his sharpest students fell to deadly gang violence in 2003. As Torch mourns for his student and rages over the insidious influence and […]
Lynn: Sy Montgomery is a familiar name to nature-loving readers of all ages. The author of more than 20 books, she is a National Book Award finalist and the recipient of many awards including the Sibert Award, the Henry Bergh Award for Nonfiction, and others. Her most recent book, How to Be a Good Creature: A […]
In 1993, Sadie and Bessie Delany published Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years, which went on to top bestseller lists. (It was also featured as one of ALA’s “Best Books of 1994.”) The Delany sisters, both more than 100 years old when journalist Amy Hill Hearth recorded their oral history, experienced the […]
Marking the triumphs of Midwestern authors published in 2017, the Society of Midland Authors announced the winners of its annual award today. The ceremony will be held in downtown Chicago on Tuesday, May 8th, to commemorate the winners and their works from the last year. The winning and honored titles, linked to their Booklist reviews when possible, are […]
While cities and states across the nation celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, why not pick up one of these outstanding books by an outstanding Native American author? The following ten titles are linked to their excerpted Booklist reviews. An American Café, by Sara Sue Hoklotubbe Ready for a change from the banking career that proved […]
I did this last year, but it feels like the day to do it again: 1 Like = 1 biography of a woman’s life written by a woman for u to read — #rachelsyme (@rachsyme) March 8, 2017 International Women’s Day was on Tuesday. To celebrate, the writer Rachel Syme did something amazing: in the […]
Between the feel-good, viral sensation of “Little Kids and Their Big Dogs” and the film adaptation of the bestselling novel A Dog’s Purpose, be prepared for a run on your books about furry friends and the feels. Here are 25! The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein A Big Little Life: A Memoir of […]
Over the last week I have discovered PBS’s new documentary series Soundbreaking. I have not caught up on all eight episodes yet, but what I have seen was immediately addicting. The show starts with the producer’s role in the creation of pop music and expands to include histories of punk, hip-hop, and MTV—all the while mindful of […]
J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy has been on the NYT bestseller list for fifteen weeks. In talking about his Appalachian and Rust Belt youth, Vance—a former Marine and Yale Law School graduate—explores how the bottom rung of middle class always seemed out of reach for so many of his friends and family, how manufacturing jobs disappeared, marriages […]