January 15, 2010
‘Tis the season for love, joy, peace, and religious rejoicing. ‘Tis also the season to express these most profound of human emotions through conspicuous consumption. As the months long pre-holiday shopping bonanza gives way to post-holiday and New Year’s sales, the message and the urge to buy, buy, buy remains unrelenting. (Was I the only one slightly horrified to overhear my […]
January 11, 2010
Check out this National Geographic list of the 100 greatest adventure books ever. The No. 1 book, The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, will make you appreciate our Chicago winters, even the one we’re slogging through now. It’s about Robert Scott’s ill-fated 1910 trip to the Antarctic on which Cherry-Garrard was a volunteer. The […]
December 20, 2009
The only thing scarier than holiday sweaters, family gatherings, yule logs, egg nogs, and bands of carolers bearing gay happy greetings is a nice, thick, nightmare inducing Stephen King novel. But when you combine Stephen King and the holidays, the result is spine-tinglingly . . . well, awesome. File this one at the Big Warm […]
December 19, 2009
Did you know that in addition to the pages and pages of book recommendations from our library staff members, we’ve also got a whole section of our website dedicated to books read and reviewed by library patrons like you? Well lower those eyebrows, reel that jaw up off the floor, and stop acting so surprised, because […]
December 18, 2009
There is never a bad time to think about and celebrate civil rights. So with that in mind, EPL is highlighting a pair of books as well as a film that all explore the world of the Civil Rights Era in America. Our very own reviewer extraordinaire Barb L. recently reviewed the brand new novel (and one […]
December 18, 2009
I don’t know if you are on Twitter, but this interview with Twitter author of @halfpintingalls may convince you to sign up. Half Pint Ingalls tweets about life from the Little House series as if she is Laura. Here are a few of her tweets to tease you into following: “Why can’t we have one […]
December 12, 2009
Good news for people who like good news: on November 21st, a brand new used book store with a conscience and a mission as large and weighty as your favorite Dickens novel opened for business in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. Open Books is an ongoing, wide-ranging literacy non-profit begun in Chicago in 2006. […]
December 11, 2009
As January 1st rolls around and the first decade of this new century draws to a close, only one thing is certain: best of the decade lists! What better way to bulk up copy in magazines and on websites, fill those awkward holiday dinner table silences with heated arguments, and give us all something to […]
December 11, 2009
Former Chicago librarian Lillian R. New passed away on Tuesday at the age of 98. She was best known to Chicagoans as “Miss Bunny, the Story Lady.” New’s WTTW show, Story Time with Miss Bunny, aired after school during the ‘50s and ‘60s and featured her reading stories to children. Read more about “Miss Bunny” in a […]
December 11, 2009
In 2nd grade, I played the title role in my school’s production of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, an experience that clearly warped me for life. Although I enjoy conspicuous consumption and fatty foods as much as the next person, the enforced jollity of the holidays has always grated on my embittered soul. For those […]
