December 19, 2016
My name is Michelle Cohen. I live in Evanston with my husband and two children. When I’m not designing lush gardens and landscapes for my clients, I can usually be found reading a book, or at the very least, talking about them.
1) Notes From No Man’s Land by Eula Biss (2009)
Intimate and nuanced essays about living in a racist society. Essential reading.
December 17, 2014
My name is John Bayldon, and I have lived in Evanston for 10 years. I am part of a start-up company developing a 3D printer for carbon fiber reinforced materials. I sail and hang out with my kids (at the library….. not the sailing bit….)
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1) Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013)
I always love Kate Atkinson’s clean style, and the intuiting things she does with her books. This one was fascinating from the very start; I just wanted to know what she changed in each life to move the story forward.
March 18, 2011
Many think of 1776 as the defining year of American history, when we became a nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness through self- government. In Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell argues that 1898 might be a year just as defining, when, in an orgy of imperialism, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and invaded first Cuba, then the Philippines, becoming an international superpower practically overnight. With her trademark smart-alecky insights and reporting, Vowell lights out to discover the off, emblematic, and exceptional history of the fiftieth state, and in so doing finds America, warts and all.
Continue reading “Author, Sarah Vowell, in Oak Park on April 6, 2011”
