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For the last twenty years, record executive and producer Rick Rubin has significantly shaped the course of hip hop, rock, and popular music, among other music genres. Thanks to his impact on the industry, he was named as one of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World."

In 1938, Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter were the first botanists to run the river rapids of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead. At the time women in science were a rarity. While botany was considered acceptable for women, it was news-making and controversial for women to go on the actual expeditions to collect plant samples. 

If you enjoy dual narratives, flawed characters, and twisty plots, try The Lost Apothecary (2021) by Sarah Penner. Alternating between the late 18th century and contemporary London, the story is told from the perspectives of three women. In the 1790s, a secret apothecary shop caters to women seeking poisons to rid themselves of men who have wronged them.

We Could Be So Good (2023) by Cat Sebastian is a romance set at a large New York newspaper in the late 1950s. Veteran reporter Nick Russo is a closeted gay man whose fear of being outed keeps him from developing any close friendships… until he meets Andy Fleming.

What happened to Violet Volk? Ten years ago, the celebrity magician disappeared during a show. Acts of Violet (2022) is a compelling, suspenseful story that alternates between the perspective of Violet’s younger sister Sasha and a mix of podcast episodes, interview transcripts, emails, and newspaper articles.

Local Chicagoan, Mike Evans, founder of the startup 'GrubHub', brings us his inspiring story in Hangry (2022). He details the grit and determination it takes to be an entrepreneur and build up your business, but along with success comes burnout and disillusionment.

You Died: an anthology of the afterlife is a 2020 graphic novel comprised of 24 short pieces by different authors and illustrators, all relating to death, dying, grief and various depictions of an afterlife. This is a beautiful rollercoaster, as optimistic, inspiring and grounding as it is haunting.

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles’s radio program Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast a radio play based on the H.G. Wells novel War of the Worlds. The original novel, set in 1890s England, told the story of a Martian invasion of Earth.

All book lovers out there should add this book about magical books to their TBR list. 

In Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (2021), first in Alexis Hall’s Winner Bakes All series, single mother Rosaline is working minimum wage jobs and struggling to pay her bills.

Jim Gaffigan, in the book, Dad is Fat (2013) expounds on the challenges of having his hands full with 5 children.  His fertile wife gets pregnant just looking at babies, while Jim wonders if he will be a good father.  To his astonishment he rises to the challenge and finds that having children can be a rewarding experience.  He muses on people who sit around all day and just eat and sleep an