The seating is arranged, a stack of books has been strategically displayed and the reading’s start time comes and goes without a single person having arrived. It’s a sad sight indeed, but Prioleau Alexander (pronounced Prey-Loo with his wispy southern twang), the self-proclaimed “conservative-libertarian gun-nut religious wacko with anarchist leanings” and proud author of “You Want Fries with That?” is too busy to notice. Because he is the only one talking in an otherwise quiet UIC Barbara’s Bookstore, a small crowd has gathered around him, and he announces, void of sarcasm, “Alright, I sold one copy of my book! Not a bad night after all.”
“Fries” documents Alexander’s experience leaving a cushy job as an advertising executive and spending a year bouncing from one minimum-wage job to another. “At about year fourteen [of my advertising job], my wife was concerned. She said ‘Prioleau, you’re at the point where you either need to quit, or you’re going to take a hostage’… At age 41, I think it was sort of a classic mid-life burnout, and I was cooked.”
As Alexander launches into a description of the book and how it came about, his small, but curious group widens. How did his lifestyle shift? “Let me put it this way,” he says. “If we simplified any more we’d have been down to ramen and water.” (Reilly Nelson)
The Mother of Good Luck: A Review of Dream Books and Gamblers Elizabeth Schroeder Schlabach takes us to Great Migration-era Chicago. When southern Blacks transplanted to Chicago, fleeing Jim Crow, they first landed and were crowded into the Bronzeville neighborhood. Soon after an informal market of illegal lotteries referred to as “policy” sprung up. Schlabach’s particular focus is Black womanhood in this policy industry.
Independent Thinking: A Review of "Invention: A Life" A two-fold tension runs throughout the book: Dyson’s persistence and creativity in solving engineering and design challenges, and his run-ins with British institutions and cultural prejudices about manufacturing
