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Hope Edelman, author of New York Times bestseller “Motherless Daughters,” has written a new memoir, called “The Possibility of Everything,” and it’s strange. Edelman’s daughter Maya, 3, grows increasingly under the control of her imaginary friend Dodo, who is something of a bad influence that goes so far as to not allow Maya to eat. Of course, Edelman and her husband grow incredibly worried and question the stability of their little girl, exhausting most options to get her head right. Then it’s Belize or bust—the parents take Maya to seek the healing powers of certain Central Americans, hoping that the unorthodox (to say the least) decision will offer cleansing. How does a parent make such an odd decision? I suppose you’d be surprised at what you’ll do for a sick child. Edelman’s book succeeds, in part, despite the writer—you don’t like her very much, her over-anxiety can grow irritating, not to mention her interactions with Maya being often cringe-worthy. The bizarre chronicle though, and Edelman’s grand, Central American epiphanies, make it a trip worth taking, for the family and for us. (Tom Lynch)

Hope Edelman discusses “The Possibility of Everything” October 28 at Women and Children First, 5233 N. Clark, (773)769-9299, at 7:30pm. Free.

By Katie Fanuko

Photo: Kat Fitzgerald

The third floor of The Breakers at Edgewater Beach is bustling with energy during Women and Children First’s 30th Anniversary Celebration & Benefit. Store owners Linda Bubon and Ann Christophersen chat with the many women (and men) who have supported the bookstore over the past three decades as they dine and await speeches from keynote speakers Alison Bechdel and Dorothy Allison. Yet even though the party goes off without a hitch, their work isn’t even close to being finished. “I’m more sure than ever that we are in the middle of things, thirty years is nothing. It’s just a start on all of the work that needs to be done… there are a lot of the same issues that we’ve been working on for thirty, forty, fifty years and they are still with us,” says Bubon.

When walking into the feminist bookstore located in Andersonville, it’s understandable how a place like this could last thirty years, because there isn’t anything else quite like it in Chicago, with an inviting atmosphere that’s both welcoming to first-timers and keeps regulars coming back. This is exactly the kind of place that Bubon and Christophersen were hoping to create back in November 1979. Read the rest of this entry »

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Nami Mun’s bio informs us she was born in South Korea, raised in the Bronx, has been employed since junior high and has worked over time as an Avon Lady, a street vendor, a photographer, a bartender and even a criminal investigator. Add one more profession to that list—successful author. Now living in Chicago, Mun’s debut novel, “Miles from Nowhere,” tells the story of a 13-year-old Korean-American girl in 1980s New York, on the run for five years, rampaging through drugs, homelessness, AIDS, abuse and more. Mun’s prose zips unsentimentally through the years of this teenager’s growth—it’s a runaway tale, a gritty coming-of-age story, and as common as those themes are, “Miles from Nowhere” brims with confidence and intelligence. (Tom Lynch)

Nami Mun reads from “Miles from Nowhere” September 9 at Women and Children First, 5233 N. Clark, (773)769-9299, at 7:30pm. Free.

Is it wrong to feel optimistic? You couldn’t be blamed if you didn’t. Yet while the country’s economy crumbles around us and less and less funds are available for the producers of the printed word, those in the literary world are finding new and inventive ways to stay afloat. We will not go down without a fight, and progress, of course, is key. So is awareness—in order to get the word out more efficiently (and, likely, to untether itself from the uncertain future of the paper form), Printers Row Book Fair changed its name from “Book Fair” to “Lit Fest” to have a title that better fully represents the weekend’s events, in time for its twenty-fifth anniversary edition. As is our custom, we time our annual Lit 50 list to the weekend’s events; this year’s list of local behind-the-scenes literati—no straight-up authors or poets this time—covers a large spectrum of Chicago’s world of words. As with past years we sought out those behind the smaller presses as well as the monumental figures. Some new names have emerged and many staples appear again, but all tirelessly labor to bring this ancient art to the community at large. Read the rest of this entry »

Handwritten recommendations are taped to shelves and stuffed between pages, Dixie Chicks’ newest release plays in the background and neon hot-pink signs hang throughout the store, “lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, queer books this-a-way,” pointing customers to a section that takes up nearly half the space. Opening in 1979, in Lincoln Park on West Armitage Avenue, Women and Children First had maybe a shelf of lesbian literature, says Linda Bubon, co-owner of the store. Business grew every year for the first fourteen years, allowing them to expand and move twice since 1990, until it reached its present location in Andersonville. Read the rest of this entry »