Review: ‘Swimmy’ by Leo Lionni
Long before Nemo, there was Swimmy. And Swimmy, the little black fish who was orphaned when a swift and fierce tuna gobbled up all the little red fish who lived...
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Garry Winogrand and William Klein provide snapshots of 20th century culture
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art earlier this year mounted a major retrospective of Garry Winogrand's work, a sweeping photographic chronicle that offers a glimpse of American character from...
‘Tiny Pie’ hits the spot
'Tiny Pie" by Mark Bailey and Michael Oatman first caught our eye when my colleague Pam Becker pointed out Edward Hemingway's witty illustration of the grown-up party on Elephant Lane...
Five books: Graphic novelists at Lit Fest
Art Spiegelman, author of "Maus," a Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir that essentially legitimized cartooning as a literary form, will kick off this year's Printers Row Lit Fest on Saturday, June 8,...
Five books: local crime authors appearing at Lit Fest
In "The Devil's Dictionary," Ambrose Bierce wrote, "There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy, but it makes no great difference to the person slain whether he...
Review: “The Civil War in 50 Objects” by Harold Holzer and the New-York Historical Society
"Slave Shackles Intended for a Child, ca. 1800" The caption for the first image in "The Civil War in 50 Objects" will stop a reader cold, but the photo of...
Kevin Powers talks war, writing and ‘The Yellow Birds’
Kevin Powers was 17 when he joined the U.S. Army. It was 1998: Sept. 11 was still three years away, and war didn't seem a likely possibility. He was following...
Five books by Chicago authors appearing at Lit Fest
In Thomas Dyja's cultural history of Chicago, "The Third Coast," he writes that in Nelson Algren's day, "being Chicago's Famous Writer was like winning the heavyweight title — there was...
Five books by Lit Fest presenters
About 150,000 people attend Printers Row Lit Fest each year to wander the book fair lining Dearborn Street and to listen to authors speak about their work. For a handful...
Five books: Warming up with a festive high-five
Printers Row Lit Fest announced its lineup earlier this week, and it's led by Judy Blume, the beloved children's book author who has helped several generations endure the agony of...