Rosetta Stone Does Good

February 6, 2010

Rosetta Stone, the language instruction company, has been featured on NPR for its endangered-language program. RS is working with American Indians to preserve their languages and to offer language instruction to younger members of their tribes. Have a listen. Mary B. ( Reader’s Services)


Importance of Children’s Literature

February 4, 2010

Okay, okay, I know, I’m a longtime children’s librarian, so I know that children’s books are a larger portion of my thinking and reading than for the average person. Even so, I really appreciate when I find that children’s literature is important to other adults, too. I was checking into some online library literature and found […]


Scandinavian Mystery Novels

January 29, 2010

Chicago Tribune cultural critic Julia Keller writes about  Scandinavian mystery novels and authors in this article. (Laura H.)


Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

January 27, 2010

A departure from his usual subject matter, Krakauer’s latest chronicles the events that led to Pat Tillman’s tragic death in remote Afghanistan.  While Tillman’s death was initially blamed on an enemy ambush, weeks later the Army released information that suggested he was instead the victim of fratricide – killed by his own men.  Where Men […]


An Interview with Lydia Peelle

January 25, 2010

Lydia Peelle was born in Boston, received her MFA from the University of Virgina, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Her stories have earned her the O. Henry Prize as well as two Pushcart Prizes. She has twice been featured in the Best New American Voices anthologies. Her first collection of short stories Reasons for […]


What in the El are You Reading?

January 22, 2010

Call it a guilty pleasure, call it weird, call it nerdy, but so help me, I love seeing what books people are reading on their commutes to and from work. Despite the periodic breathless articles and studies bemoaning the death of books and even the demise of reading itself, there are still people out there […]


King for a Day, Forever

January 18, 2010

“I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood […]


Shop Till We Drop

January 15, 2010

‘Tis the season for love, joy, peace, and religious rejoicing. ‘Tis also the season to express these most profound of human emotions through conspicuous consumption. As the months long pre-holiday shopping bonanza gives way to post-holiday and New Year’s sales, the message and the urge to buy, buy, buy remains unrelenting. (Was I the only one slightly horrified to overhear my […]


Rev up the La-Z-Boy for Some Armchair Adventure

January 11, 2010

Check out this National Geographic list of the 100 greatest adventure books ever. The No. 1 book, The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, will make you appreciate our Chicago winters, even the one we’re slogging through now. It’s about Robert Scott’s ill-fated 1910 trip to the Antarctic on which Cherry-Garrard was a volunteer. The […]


King to be Good

December 20, 2009

The only thing scarier than holiday sweaters, family gatherings, yule logs, egg nogs, and bands of carolers bearing gay happy greetings is a nice, thick, nightmare inducing Stephen King novel. But when you combine Stephen King and the holidays, the result is spine-tinglingly . . . well, awesome. File this one at the Big Warm […]


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