Column: Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy convinced me to write one song
I've always wanted to write a song. Or rather, I've always wanted to be the kind of person who could write a song, a songwriter, because I thought that being...
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‘Bullets for Dead Hoods’ salvages encyclopedia of 1930s mobsters
When I first received word of the project that would prove a balm to my worried spirit, I thought it was a put-on. The email from Julia Klein of Chicago's...
Need an election night distraction? Read these books. And these trilogies, if the counting stretches on.
What's your plan for election night? Have you traditionally been a team-gathering type, treating the election like the Super Bowl, summoning the clan, putting on the jersey and face paint,...
On City Lit’s closure: When we’re finally allowed to gather again, will there be anywhere left to go?
City Lit Books in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood announced that it would be closing Dec. 1. This one hurts. Though I'm not a Chicago resident in body, I remain so...
Opinion: Why can’t we all be the Barefoot Bookseller?
Have you ever encountered a job description that sounds like it was literally written just for you? The description for the job of "Barefoot Bookseller" at the 5-star luxurious Soneva...
‘Can’t Even’: Anne Helen Petersen persuasively argues that millennial burnout is a symptom of how work is failing us
I remember the first time I felt concern over the millennial generation. It was 2005 when I was teaching a first-year writing and communication course at Virginia Tech. My student,...
Opinion: U.S. Supreme Court news got you down? Read these books.
Call me crazy, but I have a hunch that the U.S. Supreme Court is going to be in the news for the next several weeks, as the Senate takes up...
Pandemic reading: It seemed impossible at first; now it’s a necessity, an escape.
How is everyone doing? I ask because by now, it seems as though we're supposed to have adjusted to our "new normal" of life in a pandemic. Are you adjusting?...
Opinion: We used to be able to talk across party lines. What’s changed?
I used the long Labor Day weekend to devour Carl Hiaasen's latest offering, "Squeeze Me." It is classic Hiaasen, funny and well-observed, which stretches reality just to the point of...
Column: William Melvin Kelley’s books are back in print, and you should be reading them now.
Somehow, up until a month or so ago, I was not acquainted with a "lost giant of American literature": William Melvin Kelley. He was dubbed the "lost giant" by Kathryn...