Book Reviews

[ad_1] “The Artist’s Bookshelf” is a column about books that inspire the CHIRB staff’s favorite artists. Theo Germaine has range. If you’ve seen them in Abby McEnany’s Work In Progress on Showtime, you’ll know them as Chris, the compassionate, joyful love interest of the protagonist, Abby. Together, they run around Chicago backdrops I know and … Read more

[ad_1] Sherlock Holmes is one of the most adapted stories of all time—per Guinness, Dracula is the only character portrayed more frequently in film, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sherlock has the lead for prose adaptations. The detective is no stranger to genre science fiction and fantasy either, with award-winning stories like Neil Gaiman’s … Read more

[ad_1] Deciding what book to read next can be an arduous task. I’ve been known to comb through recommendations from friends, bestseller lists, and review publications like this one, sometimes for hours on end. But sometimes it’s simpler. Just an appealing cover and a catchy premise. “A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all … Read more

[ad_1] When you pick up a book from the late nineteenth century, you might prepare yourself to read a musty language that has aged so much it feels otherworldly. Machado de Assis’s books, however, are not like that. His books not only feel evergreen, but they also seem to anticipate the taste of a reader … Read more

[ad_1] “The Artist’s Bookshelf” is a column about books that inspire the CHIRB staff’s favorite artists. A visual artist and tenured professor at Glendale College in Los Angeles County, California, April Bey grew up in the Bahamas–which we can see all through her artwork. Her pieces explore the intersections of American and Bahamian culture, and … Read more

[ad_1] The title of Joyce Carol Oates’ fifty-ninth novel is extracted from Walt Whitman’s “A Clear Midnight,” which ends with: “pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and the stars.” These themes, indeed, subsist throughout Oates’s narrative, and one might even say that Oates loves them best, too. They are the pilot light … Read more

[ad_1] Ray Bradbury has written some of the most recognizable and deeply loved stories in literature, from The Martian Chronicles to Fahrenheit 451 and even lesser known (but just as beloved) tales like The Halloween Tree. Bradbury’s influence on both genre writing and literary writing is undeniable. To work beside him, to be mentored by … Read more

[ad_1] Sirens’ voices have power—not only because of their magical properties, but also because of how they use their voices and for whom. Tavia and Effie know this better than anyone: Tavia herself is a siren, and Effie is Tavia’s best friend in the world. Yet in Bethany C. Morrow’s debut young adult title, A … Read more

[ad_1] Zoë Hitzig’s first book of poems, Mezzanine, is a collection of facts, retold with empathy and stunning lyricism. Her poems span politics, the economy, the law, and other institutions that are often false sources of hope, just as imperfect as the humans who created them. Many of the poems tie in the technologies we … Read more

[ad_1] Laurence Ralph is the author of The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence, out now on the University of Chicago Press. Growing up as an African American boy in the suburbs of Baltimore and Atlanta, I got a first-hand introduction to the politics of race and quickly learned that I should be afraid of … Read more