Book review: The Gift of Stones by Jim Crace
It took me a long time to finish Jim Crace's "The Gift of Stone" because, although short, it is a very, very good novel. At 179 pages, "The Gift of [...]
Book review: Miracle Ball: My Hunt for the Shot Heard ‘Round the World by Brian Biegel, with Peter Thomas Fornatale
"Miracle Ball" is a thin book, just 231 pages. And it could have been thinner. Even so, it's a sweet story, a sort of Pilgrim's Progress through the worlds of [...]
Book review: Ball Four: The Final Pitch by Jim Bouton
More than 40 years after it was first published, Jim Bouton's "Ball Four," his diary of his 1969 season with two major league teams, remains eminently readable and entertaining. And [...]
Book review: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
In 2005, the British publishing house of Canongate began producing a series of short novels based on myths from Western and non-Western civilizations. "The Penelopiad" by Margaret Atwood was among [...]
Book Review: The Odyssey by Homer, translated by T. E. Lawrence
When my daughter saw me reading "The Odyssey," she made a face. Back in high school, I think it was, she had to read it, and hated it. Truth be [...]
Hallowed ground
Which is this nation's most hallowed ground? The phrase has been used to describe the Gettysburg battlefield, Arlington National Cemetery and Ground Zero. I write about this question in an [...]
Book review: The Return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
Thomas Berger was born in 1924. He was 40 in 1964 when he published his best-known novel, "Little Big Man," chronicling the early life of Jack Crabb, a white who, [...]
The man who envisioned Chicago: Daniel Burnham’s “plan” for the Windy City celebrates a century
Published in Illinois Heritage magazine in September, 2009 Daniel Burnham was depressed. The man known as “Uncle Dan” to his fellow architects and urban planners was someone who, through force [...]
The Demons in “The Devil in the White City”
An address at the Chicago History Museum, December 14, 2006 When Erik Larson introduces Sol Bloom in his best-selling book “The Devil in the White City,” Bloom is a young [...]
Book review: Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
A half century after its publication, Thomas Berger's novel "Little Big Man" is still a fine read, interesting and entertaining. But it doesn't pack the wallop it did back in [...]