Maybe we're reading too much into this, but we couldn't help but notice that James Frey has left Chicago off his upcoming book tour. Frey will be touring and reading in support of his new novel, Bright Shiny Morning. (Wait. Can it really be considered his "first" novel if...screw it, we're not going to reopen that can of worms.) Maybe he just couldn't fit us in. Maybe Ann Arbor is a bigger literature magnet than......

It's busy being Oprah. Today she hosted international attention addict David Blaine as he held his breath for over 17 minutes, earning himself his first Guinness World Record. We thought for sure he already had one for his truly staggering ability to generate useless ideas, but apparently not. Blaine held his breath for 17 minutes and 4 seconds, besting the previous record, 16 minutes and 32 seconds, set in February. Tomorrow, brace your ovaries:......

Move over James Frey – McDonald’s says it's planning to fight back against fictional information about the company being sold as fact. Books such as “Fast Food Nation” and “Chew On This” have gone so far as to claim that the fast food giant’s products are unhealthy (gasp!) and poor quality (shock!), and the company has had enough. At a meeting with stockholders in Oak Brook today, CEO Jim Skinner said, "Fictitious information irresponsibly published......

Biographies adapted for the stage are rarely subject to the same scrutiny as literary bios or memoirs. It’s hard to imagine any playwright getting the James Frey treatment, discredited on national television and the blogosphere for bending the truth. And why should they? We go to the theater to understand the world but also to enjoy ourselves and find some degree of escape. To visit (or revisit) a fascinating life set to song can be......

We’re sure everyone is tired of hearing about James Frey, but it looks like there’s one more seat open on the truthiness bandwagon and we’re going back eighty years to fill it. Upton Sinclair, the original muckraker, is best known for his novel, The Jungle. The novel describes the horrific conditions of the Chicago Stockyards and raised public awareness enough for the government to pass the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Now Sinclair is......

With all the hullaballoo over James Frey’s memoirs, Chicagoist senses a mighty duel brewing between fiction and non-fiction, and wants to get in on it. We’re choosing our allegiance by deciding between two literary events this week, one a fiction reading by Julian Barnes, the other a non-fiction reading and discussion by Christina Page that both take place at 6 pm this Monday. English writer Julian Barnes will read from his novel, Arthur and George,......

James Frey discovered the glare of the Oprah’s Book Club spotlight isn’t always wine and roses. But Elie Wiesel and his haunting memoir Night, which Oprah selected for the next Book Club reading, isn’t likely to see the same fate. Wiesel's chilling account of life in a Nazi concentration camp and subsequent aftermath has stood up to 50 years of scrutiny. And anyone who suggests the Nobel Peace Prize winner embellished his story risks becoming......

This week on Chicagoist, it was all about vice: preventing it, wallowing in it, or legislating it. The week started with Chicagoans being told they couldn’t rock out (or maybe experimental-rock-with-acid-jazz-overtones out is more appropriate here) at Millennium Park since the Grant Park Symphony has a rehearsal scheduled on the same day that Radiohead wants to play there. We’re still wondering why a compromise couldn’t be worked out before Thom Yorke and Co. took their......

When Chicagoist had our first real job as assistant manager of a Crown Books, we quickly learned the power of suggestion…by Oprah. This was before she actually had a book club or anything. All an author had to do was to was go on her show and whatever book they were talking about was sold out by the end of the program. Soon, the women got wise and would call within the first five minutes.......

Oprah's decided to throw a bone to authors who are like.. uh.. alive. For the past 2 years her popular book club has only featured classic books, but now she's returning to the present, announcing yesterday that her book club will now feature all books, including contemporary works. She made this announcement as she told the world her latest book club pick - James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces," which is a memoir of his......