John Warner – Page 15

Inside Vroman's Bookstore, founded in 1894, in Pasadena, California, on Feb. 6, 2024. (Daniel Dorsa/The New York Times)

Biblioracle: The venerable Vroman’s Bookstore in California is for sale

February 17, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Joel Sheldon III intends to sell Vroman’s to whomever is most committed to maintaining the legacy of the store, rather than necessarily to the highest bidder.

"Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" by Matthew Desmond (Crown), "Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America's Suburbs" by Benjamin Herold (Penguin Press) and "The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town" by Brian Alexander (St. Martin's Press).

Biblioracle: ‘Disillusioned’ explores the unraveling of America’s suburbs and features an Evanston family

February 10, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

The world has a lot of problems. Some books take them on in ways that illuminate the problems at a combined historical, systemic and personal level.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of "Chain-Gang All-Stars," photographed on May 10, 2023, in the West Loop.

Biblioracle: You can’t read all the books. But thanks goodness I didn’t miss ‘Chain-Gang All-Stars’

January 31, 2024 at 11:57 a.m.

"Chain-Gang All-Stars" is a tour de force at the conceptual, character, plot and action level. What a shame it would be if I hadn't read this book.

"In Praise of Good Bookstores" by Jeff Deutsch, "The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century" by Josh Cook and "Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop" by Alba Donati.

Biblioracle: My 5 favorite books about bookstores

January 27, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Amazon has conquered a lot of aspects of our cultural and consumer world, but when it came to bricks-and-mortar bookstores, they biffed, big time. Every single physical location closed back...

"My Search for Warren Harding" by Robert Plunket, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith and "My Sister, the Serial Killer" by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

Biblioracle: My 5 favorite books with the weirdest narrators

January 20, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Writing recently in his newsletter, Lincoln Michel (author of "The Body Scout"), championed books narrated by the "weird little freaks of the world." I am here today to second that...

"Icebreaker" by Hannah Grace, part of the Maple Hills Series.

Biblioracle: ‘Icebreaker’ went viral on BookTok. But is it a hockey romance I would recommend?

January 13, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Normally, I don't do romance. Just ask Mrs. Biblioracle. Ba-dum-da! But seriously folks, romance is not a genre in which I do much reading at all, which in fact makes...

Paul Murray's "The Bee Sting" and "Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain" by Maryanne Wolf.

Biblioracle: My 2024 resolution is to read fewer books

January 6, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

As a new year begins, possibilities seem endless, and we set goals hopefully tied to our future fulfillment. My resolution for 2024 may sound strange coming from someone who spends...

Ron Rash's "The Caretaker," Paul Murray's "The Bee Sting" and Lydia Kiesling's "Mobility" were among my favorite fiction books of 2023.

Biblioracle: My favorite fiction of 2023 includes an unforgettable reading experience and a book that had me giggling

December 30, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.

It's fiction week for the Biblioracle Book Awards. As always, I read far more books worthy of recognition than I could possibly fit in 600 words, so consider these the...

Hannah Pittard's "We Are Too Many: A Memoir (Kind Of)," "World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music" by Jeff Tweedy and "The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight" by Andrew Leland were among my favorite nonfiction books of 2023.

Biblioracle: My favorite nonfiction of 2023 includes some old friends and my pick for best book of the year

December 23, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.

Somehow, we have reached (almost) the end of another year, which means it's time for my annual Biblioracle Book Awards, an entirely idiosyncratic exercise meant to highlight some of the...

Biblioracle: Need a gift idea? Try my suggestion for a book-shopping day out

December 16, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.

Each year during holiday times I try to conjure some book-related gift-giving advice. This year, having no fresh inspiration, I've been procrastinating, but in my procrastination, I have stumbled on...

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