Posts

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.

Many people associate the Ku Klux Klan with the South. But in Timothy Egan’s compelling and infuriating history, you’ll learn about the rise of the Klan in the 1920s Midwest, particularly Indiana.

Ruth Ozeki's latest novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness (2021), is a big book in terms of length. It's a big book, too, in terms of the ideas and issues with which it deals, including Zen Buddhism, mental illness and the systems that surround its treatment, the nature of reality, and the pressures of the marketplace and capitalism.

A Sign of Affection is a really cute romance manga in where Yuki, a soft-spoken girl who is deaf, falls for Itsuomi. Itsuomi is a friend of a friend who loves traveling and learning about new cultures and languages. This is a really sweet manga about love and communication.

Burns and Allen, a radio program from the golden age of radio, were vaudeville acts performed by George Burns and Gracie Allen, his wife.  Gracie is the not-so-smart but charming wife who gets George into trouble, i.e.

Nikhil is a voice actor for a popular space cartoon, Raj Reddy in Outer Space. His mom and him must relocate to Ohio to help look out for his grandparents. Nikhil for the first time must be a regular kid, away from the recording studio and the rush of Hollywood.

I really enjoyed listening to the newest book by Sally Hepworth, The Soulmate (2023), because it had many elements of a great audiobook.