Well, pantagrapher, since you were the only person to suggest a Convince Us this month, you win in finally getting us to read a David Foster Wallace suggestion. more ›

We got some fantastic suggestions for August's "travel" Convince Us. Close choices were the Collected Traveler Anthologies, which look absolutely delectable, and Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine's Last Chance to See. We find reading about travel and places you haven't experienced enriching but terribly heartbreaking at the same time. They kill you to read about and not visit. It gives us awful wanderlust. Having spent half a year in South Africa and the surrounding countries,... more ›

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. We were so busy between scouring the Printer’s Row Book Fair and lounging at the Chicago Blues Fest that we almost forgot to pick just one book for this month, in fact, we couldn’t and had to let fate, otherwise known as the Post Office, decide. You guys had some pretty awesome suggestions and we almost thought there would be a throw down over whose author was more prestigious... more ›

Today's letter is F. And today's word is Forward. It's been a week and a day since we announced Animal Farm as this month's take for Convince Us, which means that everybody should be a fourth of the way through the book. It also means if you haven't gotten into it yet but want to, you still can. We're a little behind because we got caught up reading the preface by Russell Baker and forward... more ›

We were thrilled with the number and caliber of responses to this month's Convince Us about junior high. It was a hard choice, part of us wanted to revisit the sorrowful Where the Red Fern Grows. We also wanted to go back to the banned-at-our-high-school-so-we-actually-read-it The Outsiders, but in the end, we turned to Mr. Orwell. We were supposed to read Animal Farm in seventh grade, but we had a soccer game that weekend and... more ›

After a personnel shift and lots of soul searching, the Chicagoist Department for the Advancement of Literature has decided to revamp and reinstate Convince Us, a little more like a book club, or thanks to our handy office thesaurus, a tome society, because then it sounds mysterious (and yes, ridiculous). more ›

Normally, we usually plan our "Beer of the Week" reviews at least a month or two in advance. May is no exception; we already have them picked out and ready to publish for your reading pleasure. For June, we want to do something different. In the spirit of the "Convince Us" book posts, we want your input. We want to know about your favorite beers: why you like them, why you keep coming back to them, and why your favorite should be considered for "Beer of the Week." We're going to pick four of your recommendations as "Beer of the Week" for the month of June. It's long overdue that we hear back from you. more ›

For this month’s Convince Us, we asked you to recommend a love story. We picked The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. We picked it because of the Chicago connection, but also because we can’t stand to keep hearing about a book we haven’t read. The story is about Henry, a man with Chrono-Displacement disorder, or in other words, a time traveler. Henry meets and falls in love with Clare: “I met Clare for the... more ›

We got some great suggestions for Convince Us this month. If we hadn't already read Lolita, we probably would have picked it. We love that it came up so many times under "love story." We were also fascinated by a couple of other suggestions, but we're going to pick The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffennegger. We've heard so much about this book, and it has the Chicago connection. We'll read the book and post... more ›

We've been kicking it on Convince Us the past few months. We loved The Quiet American from our classics challenge and we loved, loved, LOVED Ender's Game from the sci-fi challenge. more ›

For this month’s Convince Us we asked you to recommend a sci-fi book. We got a lot of great suggestions, and the book we ended picking was Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. more ›

You guys gave us some seriously awesome recommendations for this month’s sci-fi Convince Us. We love that there’s so much to read, and it just makes our little biblio-hearts so happy to know there’s so many good books we didn't know about. more ›

Thank you to everyone who recommended a book for last month’s Convince Us. We loved The Quiet American, and the rest of your suggestions helped us fill out our future reading list. more ›

For this month’s Convince Us we asked you to recommend a classic. We decided on The Quiet American by Graham Greene and — oh my — are we happy we did. more ›

Wow, what a great response we had to yesterday’s request for classic novels for this month’s Convince Us. more ›

We here at Chicagoist have been focusing a little too much on the “new”; new Christmas toys, new TV shows and new books. We’ve been burned lately by the newness, and we decided we want to go back to the standard, something we can count on. more ›

For last month’s Convince Us, we asked you for the worst book you have ever read. We chose Paris Trout by Pete Dexter. more ›

Well, we can say with absolute joy that your recommendations for this month's Convince Us had us laughing out loud. Many of you suggested On the Road by Jack Kerouac, but alas, we've already read it, and it's been thrown across the room a couple of times already. more ›

In honor of the holiday spirit, and in honor of all things good and true, let's turn the holiday on its head and be as negative as possible. Fun! more ›

For this month’s Convince Us, we asked you — our darling readers — to provide us with a great biography. We chose Lords of the Levee by Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan. The book describes the rise and fall of “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Hinky Dink” Kenna, the kings of the 1st Ward — the vice district — at the turn of the century. more ›

Thanks to everyone for all the great recommendations for Convince Us this month. We’re going to go with Mister C’s suggestion of “Lords of the Levee” by Lloyd Wendt, Herman Kogan and Rick Kogan. We like that you all offered up some Chicago books, and since we already read “American Pharoah”, we’ll see whatup with the Hinky Dinks. more ›

Sometimes we here at Chicagoist find ourselves neglecting things -- the litter box, our family, other people’s children; so for this month’s Convince Us we need suggestions for reading biographies. We haven’t read many biographies, either auto or otherwise, and we feel the need to see what real life is like instead of the make-'em-ups. So give us your suggestion of a biography we should read; we’ll pick one, read it, review it and post... more ›

Dammit. Our heads are reeling, and we’re feeling, don’t know, slightly under the weather … like the room is shaking, and our heads are shaking and shit … shouldn’t have snorted all that coke, feel like strangling someone, need piano wire. Where is that letter? The letter, where is it, where did we put it? That letter about this month’s Convince Us. We were reading "House of Leaves," and Scott Smith of Chicagoist wrote this... more ›

Hey! Remember how we're reading Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves" for our Convince Us this month? more ›

First off, you guys are awesome. We got so many great recommendations for scary books for this month's Convince Us. more ›

We can't believe it's already October. Red and yellow leaves fall to the ground, neighbors put webbing and jack o’ lanterns on their porches, and it’s the only time of year that Chicagoist feels okay about dogs wearing costumes. more ›

Last month’s Convince Us asked for the book that made you cry. We picked Curmudgeon’s recommendation, “Oh My Stars” by Lorna Landvik. more ›

We’ve had some great suggestions for this month’s Convince Us. This time we asked for books that made you cry on the el. We had a lot of great suggestions (we second “A Prayer for Owen Meany”), and we're glad to see we’re not the only ones weeping over the written word. more ›

We have a distinct memory of sitting on the el, quietly reading "Great Expectations" and being completely lost in it. We had given ourselves over to the story of orphaned Pip, the beautiful Estella, and crazy Miss Havisham. We loved Pip's belief in his great expectations.We revelled in the beauty of his unrequited love for Estella. We marvelled at the complexity of plot, but the ease in which it was told. more ›