Illinois Books

Glaser's latest book is full of wit and wisdom. He's a king of craft, and his subtle language play is sure to please poets (who can learn from him) and non-poets alike.

Glaser's latest book is full of wit and wisdom. He's a king of craft, and his subtle language play is sure to please poets (who can learn from him) and non-poets alike.

Glaser's new book is full of excellent work that shows his mature skills as a poet and observer. Whether read for his mastery over technical prosody or for penetrating insights into his own life and life in general, the poet's "Winter Amnesties" will appeal to every reader who appreciates expert craftsmanship and intelligent views of the human condition.

As an editor who has been assocaited with newspapers and magazines for a number of years, I am interested in all aspects of writing, but Ms. Schultz's book, The Young Composers, is the first time I've had a clear picture of how writing instruction evolved along with our educational system in the last century. Although I am sure Ms. Schultz's primary audience are her colleagues who teach English throughout the country, The Young Composers presents a fascinating story in an engaging way that will interest anyone who loves putting words together. It is, in short, a fine piece of writing itself and well worth a read.

Although meticulously researched, this book is delightful to read, accessible, clear, and often amusing. It provides a new view of the development of contemporary ideas in the teaching of writing, helping us to understand the background of many debates still raging, for example, the role of personal experience in the development of student writers. Most interesting for the contemporary elementary or high school teacher is the revelation that so much that we consider innovative in writing instruction began in the schools not in the colleges. The book serves, then, as a useful corrective to the often elitist view of knowledge always being constructed in the university and sifting down to the lower division schools. The examples of 19th century writings and texts are fun to read, and the effect of the whole work is to help us understand what was originally at stake in the move to situate authority and meaning in the lives and experiences of student writers.

The author serves us well by clarifying the idea of democratization of writing instruction, which began in the nineteenth century schools. It is the method of asking students to write about their own experiences, rather than following the works of great writers. As a result of her work the question can now be raised about which method makes for a better education. The author includes some interesting student essays, for example one from 1846 about the moral dangers of reading novels.

this is the most factual book of chicago i have ever read. it has all you need about chicago from year 1900 to 2000. Adrienne drell did a fabulous job with the book and i think everyone should own a copy.

Compiled from the archives of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper and edited by Adrienne Drell, 20th Century Chicago: 100 Years, 100 Voices is a year-by-year chronological history of Chicago which offers information and insights through the means of different "historical voice" for each year of the last century. Black-and-white photographs enhance this engaging 216 page summary of the march of time and progress in a truly grand Midwest American city. Showcasing events and personalities, 20th Century Chicago is a unique and welcome contribution to American History collections and reading lists.

Best known for his 1915 bestseller "Spoon River Anthology", Masters writes in a style simple and intimate; something that almost anyone can read.

This personal portrait paints a picture of the attorney/author's life, loves, pinnacles, and misfortunes, and gives us a clear view of life as it was at the turn of the century.

Born in Garnett, Kansas, and raised in the Petersburg, Illinois region, Masters tells the story of the famous and not-so-famous people who touched his life and left their marks on this celebrated author.

This frank verbal self-portrait reveals the forming of the epitaphal poet. His early years are seen against the backdrop of his midwestern roots, his law training, and emergent writing. Particularly of interest are his anecdotes of life in the Chicago of Clarence Darrow, the White City, and his romantic ventures. The text gives insight into what formed the voices of Spoon River Anthology. It's haunting, wistful and funny. Tender nostalgia, particularly for Illinoisans.

I first learned of the Sears houses in Carlinville from John Weiss' book, New, Historic Route 66 in Illinois, in which he devotes two pages to Carlinville, with a paragraph about the Sears houses. I called the Carlinville City Clerk's office looking for a city map that would show where the houses were. She led me to Laurie Flori, and I got her book. The book is full of excellent info on the houses, as well as extensive background on how they came to be built by Standard Oil. The writing style is conversational and entertaing as well. Highly recommended.

I've finally had the good fortune to get a copy of Laurie Flori's book through library interloan (since I don't seem able to purchase it anywhere.) Unlike other books I've read about Sears Homes, it is dedicated to Standard Addition, and includes a detailed map - a walking tour, if you will - with a legend indicating each house in Standard Addition and it's style, catalog images for all the styles (including an "unknown model") plus current exterior photos demonstrating each model and even some interior photos. The timeline of Carlinville history, and excerpts from the local newspaper, are a bonus.

I graduated from Kinzie Elementary school (Chicago, IL) in 1990 and for one year/one class, I had Jeri Banks for a teacher. Sometime after graduating in 1990, Banks became the principal.

She created an environment where deaf students and hearing students interacted with each other even to the point of having hearing students take sign language classes.

Though I haven't read this book yet I was a part of the experience. I was intrigued to find this book!

Hi I love thsi book. I was in a clas like thsi. I like it it but it can be hard. It is a neat book. I am 12 years old. Email Kellego05@aol.com

Also i have been a class like thsi. It has not work out with me too much. read and enjoy. Bye

This was a very informative book and gave lots of insight into the hugh effort that must have gone into this age-old quest. The focus at the personal level gives a nice picture of what the individuals must have gone through. Makes you think "Hey, I could have been there..." Very enjoyable.

Morton Grosser came to Shafter and to our homes while we were trying to build the first man-powered plane. He wrote a book that centered on the people that were working, thinking and arguing towards the goal. If you want a feel of what it was like to do something for the first time ever, read this book.

Finds the roots of O'Connor's grotesque fiction "located in medieval folk art." Describes the purposes of grotesque art, and focuses on its "comic shock treatment." Contends that the climactic scene of "The Artificial Nigger" serves as a key to understanding O'Connor's grotesque style.

Describes O'Connor's art as mocking and challenging "a restricted point of view," that of idealized beauty or propriety, only to be labeled "ugly and evil." Suggets that her use of "deranged fundamentalists" serve as freakish, crippled gargoyles who "measure `a grotesque distance' between their Christian subculture and that of `the liberal secular' world."

Outlines her use of Christ as the ideal behind her satire, an ideal "that must be degraded as well as exalted if it is ever to be a living presence in the physical world." Then, offers evidence to support Stanley Edgar Hyman's claim that "Christ is the real hero" of O'Connor's fiction.

Discusses, in this context, her novel Wise Blood, "The Displaced Person" ("an ironic passion play"), and "Parker's Back" (a sacrilegious, "Punch-and-Judy show about the difference between religion and faith").

Finds her regard for the body reflective of a medieval outlook and unique in American fiction "distinguished by its candor and unflinching realism." Sees her characters as "both beautiful and ugly, impressive and ludicrous." Discusses, in this context, Mrs. Shortley of "The Displaced Person," Ruby of "A Stroke of Good Fortune," Hulga of "Good Country People," the twelve-year-old girl of "A Temple of the Holy Ghost," Tarwater of The Violent Bear It Away, and Nelson of "The Artificial Nigger."

Examines The Violent Bear It Away, focusing on Francis Marion Tarwater, "one of O'Connor's grimmest protagonists, so serious that he is unintentionally funny." Finds the work to be a mixture of "prophecy and satire, holy seriousness and unholy flippancy." Reads "A Circle in the Fire" as "a disturbing religious story" in which "the meek inherit the land by burning it," and reflective of O'Connor's "complicated humor" derived from demonic elements. Considers "The River," an illustration of how blasphemy and grotesqueness can serve the same satirical purpose. Offers a twenty-eight page explication of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," seen as O'Connor's "little masterpiece" and "a crash course in the grotesque."

Sees O'Connor as a chronicler of the collapse of the subculture of the white American South, who leaves Southern literature "`demythified.'" Discusses, in the context of this contention, O'Connor's narrator, her use of the role of carnival, and offers readings of The Violent Bear It Away, "A Late Encounter with the Enemy," "The Partridge Festival," "The Enduring Chill," "Judgement Day," "Revelation," and "The River."

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

There is a temptation to say that O'Conner is just out there. DiRenzo does a great job putting O'conner in context.

Ms. Allerdyce, knows her stuff! If you are an Anais Nin fan, and you want a comparitive study, this is the book for you!

Anais Nin lived a life of conflicting allegiances. She attempted to decide whether to be "a woman helping men" or "a creative artist competing with men." Torn between obligations and freedom she shifted her focus back and forth from male to female and from self to other. Acknowledging Nin as an important Modernist and Feminist writer who created an authentic feminine approach to art, author Richard-Allerdyce focuses on how Nin healed herself with writing and psychoanalysis. This in-depth study of Nin's work using the four unexpurgated diaries, has a title by title approach making the book more accessible to readers. Nin's sensitivity changed the nature of life and art and the media-conditioned response to both. Nin wanted to live an active life with no one telling hr what to do. ` The later volumes of the diary showed Nin moving away from polarization of others and self, of fiction and diary, of live and death. Richard-Allerdyce shows how Nin came to understand that opposites are merely fuctions of each other, how the personal deeply lived becomes the univeral Modernism and Feminism helped Anais Nin remake herslf. She showed that women can get over society's programing, education and taboos. She focused on the bond between all women. Her writing was therapy not only for herself but for her readers. She helped them create themselves and their world. This book should become a classic in its field. Maryanne Raphael l

James Henry Breasted, is the founder of American Egyptology. Any Questions you may have regarding the translation of ancient Egyptian text on reliefs will be answered in this five volume set.If by any chance your question is not answered refer to the university of Chicagos Oriental institutes epigraphic survey volumes.

These volumes, written by a distinguished American Egyptologist, were first published in 1906 and 1907. In his introduction to this re-edition, Egyptologist Peter Piccione provides a short biography of the author as well as a historical account of the 5 tomes. Volume 1 discusses the First through the Seventeenth Dynasties; Volume 2, the Eighteenth Dynasty; Volume 3, the Nineteenth Dynasty; and Volume 4, the Twentieth through Twenty-Sixth Dynasties. Volume 5 contains supplementary bibliographies and indices for the previous volumes; Piccione has added a more recent bibliography that proves to be quite useful. Each book offers a description of texts along with comments on historicity and significance, before continuing onto easy-to-understand translations. Many of the texts included are never-before-seen passages, while others are quite popular: the Palermo Stone, Letter of Pepi II, Tale of Sinuhe, Tomb of Rekhmire, Capture of Kadesh, Papyrus Harris, Adoption Stela of Nitocris, and so on. This is the most complete, easy-to-consult translation of Egyptian historical texts ever available in the field of Egyptology. A highly recommended resource for students and scholars.