Chicago Sun-Times

Sci-fi writer penned more than 40 novels

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 02:24:46 -0500

Frederik Pohl, a science fiction writer who wrote more than 40 novels, including “The Space Merchants” and “Gateway,” has died at age 93 at his home in Palatine.

Marcus Sakey sheds the constraints of a crime novel

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 19:52:00 -0500

The Chicago author’s new book, “Brilliance,” has elements of social satire and science fiction in the story of an alternate America where savants possess special powers but also face persecution. “I fell in love with the idea,” Sakey says, “and I just wanted to go great guns on it and not worry about what it would be called, what category it would fit into.”

Best-selling author Elmore Leonard dies at 87

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 06:19:31 -0500

DETROIT — Elmore Leonard, the beloved crime novelist whose acclaimed best-sellers and the movies made from them chronicled the violent deaths of many a thug and con man, has died. He was 87.

Palatine author creates a world in the vein of ‘Hunger Games,’ ‘Divergent’

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 06:02:07 -0500

Joelle Charbonneau’s “The Testing” is the first book in a trilogy that will roll out over the next year. She’s already busy with two niche mystery series about roller-skating detective Rebecca Robbins and glee club director Paige Marshall.

Door County mourns author, Chicago transplant Norbert Blei

Fri, 09 Aug 2013 06:09:32 -0500

DOOR COUNTY, Wis. — They said goodbye to Norbert Blei the other day. On a crisp day, friends and family gathered at the open-air Peninsula Players Theater for a memorial service that featured readings, tributes, songs, laughter and tears. It was a touching and fitting tribute to Blei, a Chicago-born author who packed his Windy City roots when he moved to this vacation land in 1969. “He wrote about the characters in this place, and then he became one,’’ said Michael Brecke, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Juddville. “And where the hell is Juddville?’’ Blei once remarked wryly …

Best sellers 07.07.13

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 16:34:00 -0500

Publisher’s Weekly’s top 10s for the week of July 7.

Literary listings

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 16:34:00 -0500

Local book signings and literary events, July 9-26.

Review: ‘Sisterland’ by Curtis Sittenfeld

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 16:34:00 -0500

The high-concept premise of “Sisterland,” the wise and often wickedly entertaining new novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, might lead some readers to expect a sci-fi or fantasy yarn. If so, they will be largely disappointed — although they might find plenty of other things to admire.

Best sellers 06.30.13

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 18:04:01 -0500

Publisher’s Weekly’s top 10s for the week of June 30.

Pancho Rabbit’s hair-raising trek tells a bigger tale

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:28:00 -0500

A new children’s book tells the story of a cartoon character named Pancho Rabbit, who illegally crosses the U.S. border from Mexico in search of his father. Along the way, Pancho sneaks a ride on top of a train, swims across a raging river, crawls through a tunnel under the border and is cheated by Senor Coyote, a red-eyed, red-scarved character he meets along the way.

Review: ‘The Astronaut Wives Club’ by Lily Koppel

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:30:00 -0500

Lily Koppel looks at America’s space program from the view of the women behind the scenes in “The Astronaut Wives Club, offering stories that have never been told, and she deserves credit for recognizing the richness of the subject matter. More than 50 years after its inception, many of us now take the space program for granted, but Koppel reminds readers just how bold and innovative it felt in the Sputnik era, and how mysterious the wilderness of space remains.

Author interview: Alice Walker wants you to wake up!

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:34:00 -0500

With the release of her two latest books, “The Cushion in the Road,” a collection of essays on politics and spirituality, and “The World Will Follow Joy,” a book of poetry, Walker wants her readers to do one thing: “Wake up” to what’s going on around them.

Literary listings

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:26:00 -0500

Local book signings and literary events, July 1-26.

Review: ‘Children of the Jacaranda Tree’ by Sahar Delijani

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:27:21 -0500

Sahar Delijani takes on post-revolutionary Iran as the subject of her debut novel, “Children of the Jacaranda Tree.” It is a tough topic to tackle, especially for a novelist trying, as Delijani does, to explore the emotions involved in what is not a black-and-white subject.

Review: ‘Revenge Wears Prada’ by Lauren Weisberger

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 19:14:00 -0500

Author Lauren Weisberger revisits her over-the-top characters from “The Devil Wears Prada,” including top magazine editor and ice queen Miranda Priestly, 10 years later in her latest novel, “Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns.” It turns out, other than a few fleeting trends that clearly define the setting as 2013, things haven’t changed all that much.

Review: ‘The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls’ by Anton Disclafani

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:06:48 -0500

Thea Atwell has been banished from her home amid the orange groves of Florida to a riding camp for girls in North Carolina. Her crime is the tragic result of 15-year-old Thea’s emerging sexuality. Debut novelist Anton Disclafani’s “The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls” unfolds with the same confidence Thea shows in the riding ring. “Yonahlossee” achingly captures the yearning and heightened self-awareness of a teenage girl discovering love and passion in the South of the 1930s.