Top Pick: Al Pacino Turns 80
There are few actors as celebrated as Al Pacino. He's been acting for over 50 years, and turns 80 on April 25th. He's won pretty much every acting award they have including the Oscar, the Emmy, and the...
View ArticleTo Plot Against Her Majesty: 6 Books of Elizabethan Intrigue
England's Elizabeth I was virtually deified during her reign, known as Britain's Golden Age. Behind the mask of Gloriana, however, Good Queen Bess ran a police state that quickly stamped out the...
View ArticleThe Good, The Odd, and the Elemental
Victorian fantasy has had a bit of a renaissance recently, whether steampunk or the more traditional variety. I've got five titles for you, generally dealing with a bit of mystery and featuring strong...
View ArticleMom & God
Chelsea Bieker's Godshot is the story of Lacey May, a girl in a drought-stricken town under the sway of an unhinged religious leader named Vern. After her mother is cast out and leaves town, Lacey May...
View ArticleDebt, Drugs, and Dystopia
K.M. Szpara has created an all-too-plausible dystopia with Docile. Under a federal law, debt transfers to the next of kin, meaning one generation becomes responsible for the previous generation's...
View ArticleBeyond Beauty: Women In South Korea
Frances Cha's riveting debut, If I Had your Face, reveals modern-day South Korea to be influenced mostly by patriarchy and class stratification. The young, mostly working-class women in this novel are...
View ArticleA Novel Virus: Tales of the Great Influenza
As this pandemic marches on, it becomes clear that that the Spanish Flu pandemic (which actually originated in Kansas) of over 100 years ago has much to teach us. The education is not just scientific,...
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Resistance: Young Women in WW II Europe
German Girls' Union (Bund Deutscher Mädel), members of the housework help campaign, walking with children on Lippstadt Street. 1943-1944, opens a new window by tormentor4555, opens a new window /...
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400 Years of the First Folio: Shakespeare in Chicago
In 1623, The First Folio of Shakespeare was published by Isaac Jaggard under the supervision of two of Shakespeare's friends and company members, John Heminges and Henry Condell. The First Folio is...
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50th Anniversary of the St. Nicholas Theater Company
2851 N. Halsted [1978] by unknown, opens a new window / Chicago Theater Collection-St. Nicholas Theater Company, opens a new window / cropped from originalFifty years ago, David Mamet, Steven Schacter,...
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