Lit Top 5: August 2021
Recommendations for in-person and virtual readings and conversations.
Sitcom Mode: A Review of Cody Lee’s The Everys
Lee, a recent Columbia College Chicago graduate, introduces the reader to the Every family, a clay-headed clan who undergo a series of bizarre and dreamlike humiliations.
The Cost of Beauty: A Review of All Made Up—The Power and Pitfalls of Beauty Culture, From Cleopatra to Kim Kardashian
Underneath the pretty pink cover is an incredibly well researched examination of the checkered history of beauty culture around the world.
Mythical Ethnography: A Review of Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
This is a book about the loneliness of domesticity and the internal cost of upward comparisons.
Extreme Adventure: Bill Hillmann on His Memoir, The Pueblos, and His Fight to Defend Bull Running
“The Pueblos: My Quest to Run 101 Bull Runs in the Small Towns of Spain” is a wild adventure into the culture of bull running.
A Greater Humanity: A Review of Chicago Quarterly Review’s Anthology of Black American Literature
Chicago Quarterly Review has again produced a book that is as important as it is overdue; as thrilling as it is edifying.
Criminal Lasagna: A Review of Tracy Clark’s Runner
The perfect mystery for the beach
Excess Saudade: A Review of Late Summer by Luiz Ruffato
There’s a word in Portuguese, saudade, that is roughly translated to mean a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia.
Lit Top 5: July 2021
Virtual book events you’ll want to check out this month.
Joy as an Act of Resistance: The Essential Wisdom of Brenda Myers-Powell
Brenda’s new memoir is a beautiful, brutal account of her years in the sex trade and her second act as a nationally recognized anti-trafficking activist. It’s a book that balances hard truths with the hope that is inherent in her extraordinary story.
