HOMEROOM
Summer on your own turf
— Grilling
Weber Grill Restaurant’s classes can show you the basics. On June 16, Grilling 101 teaches you about burgers, steaks and gas vs. charcoal. On July 21, Grilling 102 is on the finer points of fish and vegetables. On Aug. 25, learn about smoking meats and the use of rubs and brines. Registration required, $75. 1010 N. Meacham Road, Schaumburg, 847-413-1277. webergrillrestaurant.com
The Backyard Barbecue Store offers up to three different classes a month, and some are taught by pros. On June 28, get seafood grilling tips from the Davis Street Fish Market chef. The class is limited to 12 people to allow more detailed instruction. Registration required, $50. 1147 Greenleaf Ave., Wilmette, 847-251-2272. [email protected]
— Gardening
The Natural Garden’s Easy Fountain class on June 24 shows you how to add a small water feature to your deck or patio. 1 – 2 p.m., registration required; $10 plus a fee for materials. 38W443 Highway 64, St. Charles, 630-584-0150.
At the Garden Sculpture Workshop at the Chicago Botanic Garden, you can create a sculpture that uses the human face as a template. DJ Garrity, an award-winning sculptor and sculptor-in-residence at the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, leads the four-day course, designed to establish a basic understanding of stone carving. Open to novice and experienced sculptors. The $720 fee includes all materials, including a 35-45 lb. piece of stone, and free parking. Aug. 20-23, Joseph Regenstein Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, 847-835-8261. chicagobotanic.org/school
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— Cooking
Throughout the summer at the Green City Market, star chefs will provide cooking demos and shopping tips each Wednesday and Saturday at 10:30 a.m. This Wednesday it’s Rick Bayless of Topolobampo, Tru’s Gale Gand on July 14 and Blackbird’s Paul Kahan on Aug. 22. The produce will cost you but the knowledge is free. 1750 N. Clark St. chicagogreencitymarket.org
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LANGUAGE ARTS
Great works on stage and printed page
— Theater on the move
If regular theater events have you squirming in your seat before intermission, a Theatre Hike might be just what you need. During performances, the audience walks–sometimes up to two miles in all–to different outdoor locations for each scene.
You can watch the action while leaning on a tree or in a portable chair if you bring one along. Summer and early fall performances include “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Treasure Island,” “Little Women” and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Performances are at The Morton Arboretum, 4100 Lincoln Ave., Lisle, 630-968-0074; Millennium Park, 55 N. Michigan Ave., 312-742-1168; and North Park Village Nature Center, 5801 N. Pulaski Rd., 312-744-5472. theatre-hikes.org
— Theater on the Lake
Highlights of the Chicago Park District’s 55th annual Theater on the Lake include the American Theater Company performing Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic, “Oklahoma!”; The Neo-Futurists’ “Roustabout: The Great Circus Train Wreck”; Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s “Side Show”; and Eclipse Theatre Company’s “Spinning Into Butter.” June 13-Aug. 12, Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 6:30 p.m. $17.50, Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton Avenue, 312-742-7994.
— Page-turners on the beach
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
By Barbara Kingsolver
The popular author describes her family’s adventures eating organic foods on a farm in Virginia. This smart memoir is steeped in elegant prose and peppered with delicious tidbits about the food industry.
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
By Michael Chabon
A hardboiled detective tale that takes place in an imagined world where Jews settle in Alaska, not Israel, after World War II. This noir masterpiece about the “frozen Chosen” brims with imagination, witty banter and quirky characters.
Falling Man
By Don DeLillo
Don’t let the heavy subject matter of this novel get you down; this will be one of the hits of the summer thanks to DeLillo’s masterful treatment of 9/11 and the day’s effect on one family.
A Thousand Splendid Suns
By Khaled Hosseini
In Hosseini’s follow-up to his remarkable debut, “The Kite Runner,” the author again mines war-torn Afghanistan for his rich, layered characters: two dissimilar women thrown together by their marriages to the same brutal man.
On Chesil Beach
By Ian McEwan
A naive young couple in the early ’60s struggle to make sense of their marriage after a disastrous attempt at consummation. This slight novel is a lovely study of how difficult it is to navigate the uncharted landscape of a relationship at a time when social norms dictate what is discussed–or, rather, stifled–between lovers.
Peony in Love
By Lisa See
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Seventeenth-century China is the setting for this fanciful ghost story. A haunting and unforgettable tale.
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BRACING READS
CULTURAL CRITIC JULIA KELLER
THERE IS AN OBNOXIOUS falsehood afoot in this great land of ours, a monstrous mendacity, and the summer of 2007 will mark a milestone: I intend to fix this, once and for all.
Everybody knows what the phrase “a good beach read” means. It means a big, lazy, mindless novel chockablock with stock characters and outrageous plot twists. Because the word “beach” conjures images of long barefoot days, of hours of aimless cloud-gazing, the idea of “beach reading” has always meant self-indulgence. This is the time, we are told, to kick back, chill out and leave the compound sentences behind. In a word: Wallow.
Well, I protest. I say, a “good beach read” can just as well be a short, sharp upbraiding of your leisure time. It needn’t be a sprawling family saga that merely entertains. It can be a brief, tight, complex and unforgettable story, such as “The Hours” (1998) by Michael Cunningham, or a poetry collection, such as “White Pine” (1994) by Mary Oliver.
You can read these books in a sitting–even if you’re sitting by the pool, dangling your toes in the water.
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COMPILED BY CHRIS MCNAMARA, CHRISTINE BADOWSKI, KELLY AIGLON AND KRISTIN KLOBERDANZ.