Illinois Books

This is the second Avant Guide book that I have purchased and I plan to purchase more. In both instances I have found the content to be very useful in helping me plan and guide my visits to new cities. The choice of listings in this book is excellent, varied between well-known and not-as-well-known shops, restaurants, hotels and more. The short writeups of the neighborhoods contain all the useful bits, and the specific location information is well written and generally provides a enough insight that you come away with the impression of knowing just enough to be dangerous (or make conversation, or ask questions.) This is a good thing. The featured restaurants, stores, and hotels were all style-centric and wonderful to visit. Included are great photographs. It's hard to go wrong with this choice.

I travel a lot, for both business and pleasure. I also think that I know Chicgo very well. I, of all people, don't need a guidebook for this city. I happened to come upon Avant Guide, and I was first attracted by the graphics. This is not a 'normal' guidebook. It's very stylish. Then I was taken by the terrific recommendations of places I had never heard of. Whenever I show this book to my friends in Chicago, they want to thumb through it forever. It's hard to get it back. The book is incredibly well organized and has lots of very handy maps. I recommend this very, very highly.

Outstanding pipe reference book - plus great reading. This book finally answers many of the questions I have long had about my Falcon collection. And it gives an insider's view of pipe manufacturing back in the pipe heyday of the 50's - 70's. A GREAT addition to my pipe reference library!

I bought the book based on Bill Unger's recommendation - and Bill's word, as usual, is good as gold. I learned a lot here about Falcons specifically (their manufacture, nomenclatures, product lines, etc.) and about the pipe industry in general (difficulties in obtaining briar, etc.)- and I was very surprised to learn that both B. Barling & Sons and Kapp-Petersen made briar bowls for Falcon for a time. I found 'Back From The Ashes' not only a very interesting and well-written book on pipes...but also a wonderful tribute to an obviously great man - George L. Hunt of Diversey Machine Works of Chicago, one of those great American entrepreneurs who pulled himself up from his small-town (Southern Illinois) bootstraps to become a successful and prolific manufacturer. I enjoyed learning about the man behind the pipes - his great sense of humor and fun-loving ways - and his love of hunting and fishing, etc. I give it 5-stars and heartily suggest that all smoking pipe enthusiasts add this great book to their collections.

This book is great for those who like to go "outside the box", and get off the freeway as they head up north, to take in Michigan's unique beauty.

Beautifully illustrated with a wealth of color and black-and-white photographs, Backroads Of Michigan: Your Guide To Michigan's Most Scenic Backroad Adventures is a guide to touring the most breathtaking and scenic natural venues to be found in the Great Lake State. Backroads Of Michigan is a fairly large trade paperback, not meant to be carried in a pocket, purse or small backpack; yet its size also allows the fine detail in its illustrations to shine through, and its typeface is easy to read without a magnifying glass. The chapters are arranged by Michigan subsection, and cover everything from historical sites to river valleys to prime spots for beachcombing to state parks ideal for viewing wildflowers and much more, with maps and general directions. The text is written in a leisurely style that is as engaging to browse for pleasure as it is filled with practical information. Enthusiastically recommended for Michigan tourists and residents interested in the state's most wondrous sights, and also for armchair travelers.

If Goya had a camera (this goes for Caravaggio also) his photographs would look like Paul D'Amato's. Within the pages of this compelling book live the supreme photographs of their genre. Fine Art? Documentary? D'Amato's vision is not simply positioned and categorized. These photographs are of people's lives. "Barrio" hugs Mexican life in Chicago. This book reveals a culture and people that are truly beautiful, unvarnished splendor in the direction of labor, guts, water and light. The most respect a photographer can give their subject is to make the strongest (possible and out of the question) photographs. Paul D'Amato repeatedly shows his respect with these photographs.

I really liked the combination of the pictures and the journal entries. It feels as if the book is the complete story, you get to see the images of the neighborhood and read the story of the photographer. Both the pictures and the words are beautiful. Although the photographer is an outsider in the neighborhood he is able to capture images of the inside.

Battles And Lullabies is an eclectic anthology of intuitive poetry from the children's book author Richard Michelson. Readers will be delighted by Michelson's vivid descriptions and situational indications. Where I Sat What I Ate: I sat between/Bubbeh/and Aunt Bet/I Never had a prayer//Bubbeh fingered/her forearm/the five numbers/burnt there/and//that's how I learned/to count/Aunt Bet//told lies about boys/who had loved her/when she was/a young coquette/I sat//like the silence/between train whistles/and dreamt//of the first woman/who taught me to dance/She was so beautiful/I never had a chance//Her skin was/ as smooth as/her silence/I sat//like a boy mid-bath/between curiosity and/my own nakedness/I sat//between Bubbeh/and Aunt Bet/Between spoonfuls of regret/I ate//from this you shouldn't know/and/may you never forget.

Richard Michelson is a very talented, ambitious writer who covers a range of complex topics in his poetry including the impact of the Holocaust on the second generation, the way love can mediate between cruelty and apathy, the role of memory and art. His poems about paintings delve into the artist and the pain that often motivates the act of creation. Some of his lines, such as these from "Interrogation," have the power to resonate for days: "My art is inseparable from my grief. The earth, like a davening Jew, starts to sway."

Robbie Pfeufer Kahn is definitely a clear voice in a world of constructed chaos. The book is academic and personally based, which reveals the misconceptions about reproduction as a whole. I highly recommend this book to any woman young or old to uncover the hidden meaning of birth and the strength that resides

The Language of Birth is a book of epic proportions and is sure to become the keystone of reading for anyone interested in birth. Professor Kahn has succeeded in the complex while graceful weaving of personal narrative, academic research, and poetry. Through Kahn's thorough research, she has created a platform for those with concern and interest in the fields of feminist studies/women's studies, modern obstetrics, traditional birthing practices, and parenthood to turn to. The Language of Birth must be read by academics and the lay reader alike. I give The Language of Birth five stars out of five!!!

I found this book to be an excellent read. It was very informative and provided excellent insight into the "Beatrice way". Sad story, Corporate greed destroying a model corporate citizen.

Worth its weight in gold.

This is an amazingly insightful recounting of the building of one of the finest companies in the US, and it's ultimate demise through greed. Gazel mixes depth and eaxcting factual information in a style that is incomparable. A must for any business student or historian.

Ms. Naff's book is truly marvelous. As the granson of a Lebanese/Syrian immigrant, I read about the history of Lebanon. I knew some of the stories about my grandfather's coming to this country. There were even some vague stories about silk worms. But little did I know that my grandfather's story was the story of thousands of other men, women, and children. I knew some of Gido's contemporaries and am sad that I did not pay more attention to their stories. One of my most treasured possessions is a picture of Gido with a rifle and bandolier standing next to his wagon while peddling dry goods along the Mexico-Texas border. Thank you Ms. Naff.

This book is chock full of details that would have been forever lost had not the author begun her work nearly 40 years ago, of recording oral histories and preserving documents, artifacts and photographs. Excellent presentation style. A must for both public and personal libraries that want to have available, not only the stories, but an insight into the ethos of a people who came from a small country with modest aspirations and ended up having a large impact on America.

Nine years ago Peter Keegan stopped off at a topless bar for a drink, a fight broke out, he was arrested. An inconvenience, but not a big deal for most single guys, but Peter was a priest, is now a bishop and somebody is threatening to expose the incident. It would damage his career with the Church were it to come out, but why would anybody do such a thing? What could they possibly gain? Peter suspects his estranged half-brother, the acting chief of detectives of the Organized Crime Division in the Chicago Police Department.

He turns to Kirsten and Dugan for help. They are a husband-and-wife team-he's a lawyer, she's a PI-and together they run Wild Onion, Ltd., located in Chicago's Loop. Ex cop Kirsten is supposedly in charge of the agency, but she gets plenty of help, a lot of it unwanted, from Dugan, who can't stop worrying about her.

Right from the get go Kirsten has reservations about the case as she blames Peter's brother, Walter, the acting chief, for ending her father's career in the department, but they take the case and try their level best to unmask the bishop's tormentor, tracing Peter's problems back to a dark night in his past. Plus there are other forces at work here, like an anti government group, the enmity between the brothers and then, of course, there is a super twisty ending you'd never expect.

In more ways than one I was reminded of the old Thin Man series as I read though this delightful mystery. I don't know why, but I thought I'd be able to read for a bit, do my early morning chores, go downtown, make a bank deposit, have lunch with friends, then maybe read a little before I went to bed. But it didn't work out that way. The chores got put off till another day, the bank deposit got postponed till tomorrow and I missed lunch (didn't really want to go anyway), but fortunately I finished before dinner, because I was famished.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Dealing with the devil means you must dance to his tune. However, when the individuals involved in the malevolent tango consists of a Chicago Bishop and his brother, the police department Organized Crime Division acting chief of detectives, one hardly suspects evil. Bishop Peter Keegan believes his half-brother Walter is nothing less than Satan personified. When Peter begins to receive blackmail threats involving an incident in his past as well as getting the sensation that someone is stalking him, the bishop feels Walter is involved.

Due to his sensitive position, Peter knows he cannot turn to the police. He has no idea what Walter wants, but figures his sibling will tell him when he is ready to do so. Instead of waiting and fretting, Peter hires Wild Onions, a private detective security firm to help him. The owners Kirsten and Dugan agree to take the Bishop on as a client even as they quickly understand that any dealing involving Walter is a struggle to survive.

A BEER AT A BAWDY HOUSE rotates the narration among three different players (Dugan, Kirsten, and Peter). The technique works very well as David J. Walker makes the three characters feel so genuine. Dugan and Kirsten will remind readers of "Hart to Hart." The flawed Bishop has insecurities that turn him into a human being. The mystery is well-designed and special.

Harriet Klausner

If you live in the Midwest or try to photograph it, this may be the best $20.97 you can spend. It is a book of inspiring, panoramic, color photos of rural Illinois. Gary pulls the beauty out of a landscape that most people, including photographers, usually ignore. This book has opened my eyes to the state I live it and given me photographic ideas that I was blind to before.

I grew up in Illinois, but only after I moved away did I learn that the vast midwestern sky is unique. Irving's panoramic photos capture the beauty of the open sky as no others I've seen. Whenever I'm homesick, if I need to see a midwestern thunderstorm, I open Irving's book and I'm there.