Results tagged “readings”

We at Chicagoist are on top of zombies. This time, Scott Kenemore will be reading from his latest book Z.E.O. (Zombie Executive Officer): How to Get A (Head) in Business this coming Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Webster Place Barnes & Noble store in Chicago. A satire of financial and how-to-get-ahead-in-business books, “Z.E.O.” teaches the reader how to find great wealth and succeed in business by being like a zombie at the office, "biting" and "infecting" his or her co-workers, and "turning" the competition. Sounds like a typical day at Chicagoist.

Michael Pollan, one of our favorite advocates of healthy, ethical eating, will be appearing at the Harold Washington Library Monday, May 18th at 6:00. Pollan, the author of The Omnivores Dilemma and, more recently, In Defense of Food, will be engaging in a "dynamic conversation" with Chicago journalist Bill Kurtis. With his mantra of "Eat Food, Not too Much, Mostly Plants," Pollan is trying to start a nation-wide dialogue about the best ways to eat - and you can be a part of it. Admission is free, but we're sure this will be a popular event, so arrive a little early. The presentation is part of the "Chicago Matters/Beyond Burnham" series of events.

If you liked Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, (or even if you didn’t), check out Democracy, presented tonight as part of the “TimePieces” play reading series at TimeLine Theatre Company. Winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play, Democracy is the playwright’s follow-up to Copenhagen, which won the same award in 2000.

Readings

Marwen, 833 N Orleans St., 11/7, 6:30 – 10:00 p.m., $20 suggested donation at the door

220 S. Michigan Ave., Symphony Center, tonight, 8:00 p.m., pre-concert conversation from 7 – 7:30 in the Grainger Ballroom, Young Frankenstein screens at 10:00 p.m.

Lectures

Oh, how we love John Hodgman. It's been a hair over two years since we last saw him at Second City E.T.C. but fortunately for us, he has an excellent new book out (More Information Than You Require) which means he's due for another Chicago appearance. Indeed, Mr. Hodgman will be appearing for FREE tomorrow night on the E.T.C. stage to read from his new book. Also appearing will be cartoonist David Rees, creator of controversial strip Get Your War On. Be sure to get in line early, but it'll be worth it.

Wednesday, October 15, 6 p.m., Ferguson Auditorium, Columbia College, 600 S. Michigan Ave.

Hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash is in town tonight, but not to lay down beats. Rather, the artist formerly known as Joseph Saddler will be at the University of Chicago's International House to sign and promote his new autobiography, The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats. During the appearance, Flash will also discuss his life and the memoir with WGCI's DJ Timbuk2.

Lily Koppel, 22 and fresh out of Barnard, was already late for work when she rushed out of her New York apartment in 2003. She stopped when she saw several vintage steamer trunks piled on top of the building’s red dumpster. So, like any good reporter, she and her ballet flats dove in, literally, pulling out a beaded flapper dress, an old coat from Bergdorf's, saddle shoes that fit her like Cinderella's shoes, and at the bottom, a cracked red leather diary with gold edged pages and an open brass lock.

It's that time of year again, summer is officially starting, regardless of what the weather says. And one of our favorite early summer festivals, the Printers Row Book Fair, is this weekend! Touted as the Midwest's largest literary event, Printers Row features nearly 150 vendors from Women and Children First bookstore to Featherproof press to the Art Institute of Chicago's museum store.

Best-selling memoirist/essayist and frequent This American Life contributor David Sedaris has a new book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames (out today), and is visiting Chicago next week for a pair of appearances. First is an appearance at Border's in Evanston on Wednesday, June 11 where he'll be reading from and signing the new book. The store will begin passing out free wristbands for the signing portion of the event at 2 p.m. the day of the appearance. Then, on Thursday June 12, Sedaris will be doing a lecture and signing at Barbara's Bookstore's UIC location. Tickets are required for the lecture portion of the event but are free with the purchase of Engulfed. There's a limit of two tickets per person and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis as seating is limited. The signing portion of the event, however, will be open to anyone who purchases any Sedaris release from Barbara's (with proof of receipt).

Barbara Walters, half of the most boring celebrity feud of all time, is currently on tour promoting her new autobiography, Audition: A Memoir, and will make a few stops in the Chicago area.

In 1992, Aleksandar Hemon was offered a chance to fly from his home in Sarajevo to the United States and participate in a journalist cultural exchange program, spending a month visiting American writers and universities. Seeing the chance to escape the brewing war in Bosnia, Hemon took the offer. While visiting, war finally broke, stranding Hemon in Chicago. With only a basic grasp of the English language, Hemon settled in Chicago and set a goal to learn English within five years. Just three years later, in 1995, he had successfully written his first story in English. He would subsequently see his stories published in The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, and the Best American Short Stories Collection. Besides numerous awards, he's also a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2003) and a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant (2004).

If you've been longing to hear a writer talk about ghosts, cadavers, and sex, today is your lucky day. Author Mary Roach is blessing the Chicago area with her expertise in all three arenas.

To celebrate the release of their 4th Annual Story Week Reader, the Columbia College Publishing Lab of the Fiction Writing Department (phew!) is hosting "Little Stories in a Big Journal: An Afternoon of Student Storytelling." The reading will consist of students reading works form the Story Week Reader journal, which can also be read (in PDF format) at the website. We're suckers for student writers, being products of a few creative writing and journalism programs ourselves. Go get 'em, kids! The reading is free and open to the public.

No, not that Iron Man. Proving the Cubs aren't the only day baseball game in town, baseball great and first ballot Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. will be in town next Wednesday to promote the paperback release of his book, Get in the Game: Eight Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference. Just a warning, though: this is not a baseball memoir, but rather more of a self-help book. No matter, as he is one of the greatest shortstops of all time, so we're already busy scheduling our lunch break for his appearance. We're lucky enough to count Cal as one of the greats we got to see in person and we also remember his most memorable brush with a White Sox player at the 1996 All-Star Game photo shoot. Cal also made minor waves this week by obliquely shooting down an urban legend about him, his wife, and Kevin Costner during an NPR interview (story starts at 23:47). Our mom always liked him better than his rapscallion brother, Billy. Good times.

We were going to list a bunch of great bars you could hit up tonight to try to get laid, but we decided to leave that to Chicago's Most Popular High School Paper and, instead, focus on another worthwhile reading. We picked up a copy of Joshua Ferris' debut novel Then We Came to the End the Thursday before a weekend trip last year. By the time we touched down at O'Hare that Sunday night, we had devoured the book. We weren't the only ones who took a liking to it: it was a 2007 National Book Award Finalist and topped several year-end "best book" lists, including the New York Times and Time Magazine. Even the Tribune gushed about it, saying:

Fabulous....The emotional oscillation as employees strive to stay alive (read: employed) is played out by Ferris with the sort of exuberance and energy that marked Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights, Big City," to which THEN WE CAME TO THE END might seem a Midwestern cousin.

Back over Christmas, stuck at our parents' house, we plowed through Sin In The Second City, Karen Abbott's tome about Chicago's legendary brothel owners, the Everleigh sisters, and the religious battle against the houses of ill-repute. It came highly recommended as a great source to fill us in on Chicago's colorful and adventurous past. Abbott's writing breathes life into both the turn-of-the-20th-century Chicago and its inhabitants: Minna and Ada Everleigh, Vic Shaw, Bathhouse John, Ike Bloom, Ernest Bell, and Clifford Roe. It's one of the best books on our city's wonderful history that we've read (yes, including that book) and we highly recommend you get to a local library or bookstore and pick it up.

We're ready for spring too, but with yet more cold weather on the horizon, perhaps it's time to hunker down with a cozy reading.

We've already covered quite a bit going on this weekend in Chicago, but if you're looking for something a little more literary-minded, we highly recommend the release party for Susannah Felt's new bookThis Will Go Down On Your Permanent Record, happening this Sunday at The Hideout. If Felt's name sounds familiar, that's because she spent several years writing for such publications as the Chicago Reader (pre-takeover) and Time Out Chicago. She now resides in sunny Birmingham, Alabama, but is back in town to promote the release of the book. We haven't gotten a chance to check the book out yet, but judging from the excerpt, it's one we'll definitely be picking up soon.

It's that time of year once again. Spring is on the upswing, and the city is ready to brush the sleep from its eyes and starting to shake off the winter hibernation. This means lots of readings and festivals. And next week our alma mater Columbia College Chicago hosts its annual Story Week, a series of panels, discussions and of course, readings by authors from all over the country. All events are free, so call in sick to work and attend some events to awaken your inner great American novelist.

Several years ago, we read Philip Gourevitch's powerful book on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, We Wish To Inform You.... This led us to eventually pick up Samantha Power's brilliant A Problem From Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Power's book is a riveting look at the United States' policies, approaches -- and more than occasional avoidance -- to genocide during the 20th Century, beginning with the Armenian Genocide during World War I and running through the Kosovo War of the late 1990's. With it, Power established herself as one of the leading experts and writers on U.S. Foreign Policy.

We're 10 days into Small Press Month, and we absolutely suggest you take a look at their recomended titles. But if you're looking for something a little more home grown, we've whipped up a sampling of our very own local indie presses and their offerings:

The art of the postcard is a delicate thing. How does one evoke the entirety of a place, a mood, and the very essence of travel into a tiny block of text with a picture on the front? From the "thinking of you" sentimental to the "wish you were here" silliness, most often they miss the point. We come away happy for sharing, but ultimately lost on the breadth of travel in the brevity of a postcard.

Some say that all great works of art are inspired by something or someone: the ever elusive muse. For many, the muse is a real person, be it someone to impress or just someone to one up. Many times these people are the stories behind the story, which is why "For Whom" is the theme for tonight's reconstruction room reading.

We know, you're a little disappointed that your short-lived run for the presidency never included any debates. If you've been waiting for the right time to speak up in public on your views, tonight Glenn Hurowitz discusses his new book, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party.