New Books For Well-Rounded Readers
By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 25, 2010 5:40PM
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will be released March 2 by Grand Central Publishing.
Memoir: Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption by Jerald Walker
Walker was born in a Chicago housing project. In his recently released memoir, he recounts his decent into crime, gangs and drugs and his effort to pull himself back up. The book is told in alternating time frames as Walker grapples with both sides of racism and attempts to define his own identity.
Out now
Mystery: The Bad Kitty Lounge by Michael Wiley
This is Wiley's second mystery novel to feature Chicago Private Investigator Joe Kozmarski, who is hired by a client who decided to take matters into his own hands. One torched car, murder and suicide later, Kozmarski is even more muddled up before. Throw in some gang payoff money and corrupt police officers, and we're surprised this is fiction and not a history book about Chicago's past.
To be released March 2
Fiction: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Get this. The most famous president to be born on Illinois soil was also the greatest vampire hunter to walk the earth. Grahame-Smith, who also wrote "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" brings us several juicy details about Lincoln's past. We learn the motivation behind his vampire vengeance and we even get to read some hand-to-hand vampire combat scenes. This book is supposed to be fiction, but who knows? We weren't around back then, so we're convinced it could very well all be true.
To be released March 2
Sports: 365 Oddball Days in Chicago Cubs History by John Snyder
If you don't already have enough Cubs factoids crammed into your brain, this new book can make it so. Sports writer John Snyder unveils an interesting Cubs anecdote for every day of the year.
To be released March 1
Nonfiction: Family Affair: Greed, Treachery, and Betrayal in the Chicago Mafia by Sam Giancana and Scott M. Burnstein
The godson and nephew of a Chicago Mafia mob boss and an investigative crime journalist recount how the government came to bring charges against 14 defendants in 18 unsolved gangland homicides. The case involved an informant who turned his back to the Mob to escape death and subsequently brought down some of the gang's highest seated members.
To be released March 2