Illinois Books

This is a great christmas book and not only am I not from Chicago, I'm not even from the USA. Doesn't matter.

This book is filled with great pictures of christmas displays throughout Chicago and no matter where you live, if you like to look at christmas displays, you should like this book.

Each display gives you some information about that particular display, not just directions but sometimes history, personal feelings/descriptions, reasons why the person/people used what they used, etc........ A real nice christmas mood book.

It would have been nice to have larger pictures, though, so as to really capture the full beauty of the displays, but don't worry about that as it's only minor. The pictures are still big enough to enjoy and the writing/descriptions with each picture add a really nice 'christmas' touch to this most recommended book.

Oh, and on a plus side (despite the small, but not too small pictures), there are a ton of pictures so you will really get a visual, eye-candy, christmas treat with this book.

100% recommeded for those who like christmas displays/christmas images.

Some of my fondest memories are of driving around with my parents, and later with my children, to wonder at the displays of those few festive folks that help make Christmas more joyous for us all. My mother and father drove us to the two streets in our small town where people bothered to sparkle as a community in tribute to the birth of love. In Chicago, those communities are in abundance....but who would ever know...unless somebody told them. In her book Mary Edsey tells everybody . She shows them, too. She seems to know everything about Christmas lights in Chicago...the history, the story behind the families that make the displays, the whereabouts, the types of bulbs and figurines used. And she shows us everything in detailed photos. It's like looking at a family album. Plus...She has maps to every display! It's great table entertainment as well as a wonderful guide. I highly recommend this book to any lover of Christmas and the lights that come with it!

This book has it all! It has precise directions and maps that make it easy to find the most spectacular holiday displays; it has fascinating stories about the decorators; and it even has helpful hints on decorating your own home for Christmas. The photographs are beautiful--they really inspire the yuletide spirit! This book helped my family experience a delightful holiday adventure--my kids are still talking about it! I think we've created a new Christmastime tradition with the help of Ms. Edsey''s glorious book!

Perhaps one of the fondest memories of any Chicago childhood is the Christmas lights. We love our decorations, and in some parts of the city, we go all out, turning our homes into little "winter wonderlands" for our own pleasure and that of our friends, neighbors, and often carloads of strangers who cruise the more decorated neighborhoods. That's why I snarfed up this book as soon as I knew it existed, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed. Edsey covers a lot of the best areas for decorations, gives some historical background, and displays a real love for her subject, which strikes a responsive chord in me. However, I was disappointed in the photography which was a bit fuzzy and rather darker than I would have liked. Now, granted, all this has to be shot in the dark for maximum effect, but holiday magazines manage to make their photographs crisp and clear, with little loss of architectural detail. And I know it's not about the architecture, but that always will inform the way the decorations appear to onlookers. To lose those details is to lose some of what makes the lights and decorations so appealing.

However, nothing else like this exists, and I have to give high marks to this volume if only on that count. It's way better than nothing! So if you're a Christmas junkie and a Chicago lover, then by all means, buy this book, and enjoy.

This uplifting book provides numerous photographs of creatively-decorated properties. Of course, this was now 12 or more Christmases ago. The decorations are secular and religious, and traditional as well as non-traditional. For example, some have tropical motifs.

A very helpful feature of this book is the division of the Chicago area into areas, each of which has a map that locates every photographed property. The homes are indexed by name. One of the best-known decorated properties occurs in the Sauganash community on the north side of Chicago.

Members of Duke University's Sigma Nu fraternity are thugs. At least, one could get that impression from walking by their section and hearing such musical selections as "Baby I'm a Thug" and "Nothin' but a G Thang" that are frequently boom from within. Adopting parts of the gangsta persona for well-monied groups of future investment bankers and may be relatively consequence free but may not be the case for many youths in Chicago's South Side. This is one issue that Mary Pattillo-McCoy addresses in her ethnographic study of the middle class residents of the South Side's Groveland community, Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among The Black Middle Class.

Black Picket Fences is in part a response to what Pattillo-McCoy characterizes as the research pendulum of socio-economic studies of blacks having "swung to the extreme." That is, despite the large body of research focusing on the black population, the overwhelming majority further focuses on the less affluent portions of the population, having largely other segments the black population. However, research and knowledge of the black middle class is vitally important because, as Pattillo-McCoy points out, these are the people who are supposedly living the lives that our government and society has envisioned for all blacks following the Civil Rights era of the 1960s.

In the book, the author emphasizes the prevalence and importance of spatial orientation of racial communities. Pattillo-McCoy utilizes census data to show that in Chicago and most other metropolitan areas, black communities are concentrated in "black belts" surrounded by tracts of predominantly white communities. On the periphery of these black belts are often middle-income black communities that serve as a buffer between white communities and low-income black communities.

This picture, though, is not static through time. Pattillo-McCoy reveals a game of racial cat-and-mouse in which middle class black families are chasing their white counterparts. The pattern starts when a black family moves into a predominantly white neighborhood. Whites begin leaving the area, and soon the area is predominantly middle class black. Then lower income blacks migrate into the area, creating a mixture of economic statuses within the community. Such is the case in Groveland.

One concern that arises from her heavy reliance on census data, though, is the possibility of generalization. This is especially troublesome in light of the high socio-economic diversity of many black communities that Pattillo-McCoy describes. This is not as much in relation to her Groveland study area, but the other South Side communities that the author details in chapters one and two.

The implications of living in such an economically diverse community are large, especially for adolescents. Pattillo-McCoy points out that the appeal of deviance to teenagers cuts across racial and class lines, the motivations and accessibility of deviant behavior are often very different. In Groveland, a teenager is constantly confronted with realities of gang life and drug use because gang members and drug users are a large part of the Groveland community. In fact, most teenagers have acquaintances who are in gangs or who know gang members. This means that a part of the teenager's social network probably participates in gang behavior and drug use, making him or her both easy access and social reinforcement for such activities. This is less often the case for middle class whites, who often reside in homogenous neighborhoods where gangs and drugs are less common.

McCoy also emphasizes that today's young Groveland residents are much downward social mobility than previous generations of Groveland residents and middle class whites outside of Groveland.

There are often family and community security mechanisms to help Groveland residents. It is relatively common for divorced or resource-limited mothers to move in with her own parents. The grandparents help in parenting by supervising children, changing diapers, and serving as role models for children. Also, many families in Groveland are third or fourth generation residents, so most people in the community have long-standing social connections to other residents. These connections often prevent wrong-doers from targeting others in the community, and the familiarity helps potential targets feel more comfortable around people they perceive as being criminals, because in all likelihood they know each other or other's parents or children.

McCoy shows how individual Groveland residents deftly navigate between "street" and "decent" parts of their social networks by code and persona switching. Chief among these is William "Spider" Waters, a marijuana-smoking gang member who works two jobs with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Groveland Park, respectively. At the exchange, he speaks proper English, goes by Will, and works on his days off. In Groveland, he speaks Black English, goes by Spider, and "kicks it" with his friends. Tyson Reed, former Groveland gang member, student at Grambling University, and aspiring lawyer, points out the even though he talks about school, grades, and academic things, he doesn't broach the subjects of grades or Albert Einstein with his friends from the ghetto.

This book has wide-ranging relevance. It is enriching academic reading for students in sociology, cultural anthropology, and ethnographic studies. More importantly, though, this book is very important to American citizens in general. This book is about their neighbors and illustrates injustices that take place within America's borders. If the American social ideal of racial integration is to ever become a reality, the American public needs to be more informed about why integration is taking so long, why middle class citizens are still socially constrained, and what unjust situations are being perpetuated within America's borders. Black Picket Fences gives a very personal, very compelling answers to these queries. It is certain that the situations that exist in Groveland exist elsewhere in America and quite probable that they exist outside of America, too. Therefore, this book comes highly recommended to everyone.

Through ethnographic research the author highlights the intersections between middle, working and lower class African Americans in Groveland, a primarily African Americans middle class community in Chicago. Despite arguments that the African American middle class is flourishing, Patillo McCoy documents how racial segregation and racism confines many middle class African Americans to neighborhoods that frequently have to battle issues such as crime, gangs and drug use, that white middle class neighborhoods do not. In addition she does an excellent job of tying in the consumer wants and desires of African American youth and adults with the capitalist nature of American society.

Through ethnographic research the author highlights the intersections between middle, working, and lower class African Americans in Groveland, a primarily African American middle class community in Chicago. Despite arguments that the African American middle class is flourishing, Patillo McCoy documents how racial segregation and racism confines many middle class African Americans to neighborhoods that frequently have to battle issues such as crime, gangs and drug use, that white middle class neighborhoods do not. In addition she does an excellent job of tying in the consumer wants and desires of African American youth and adults with the capitalist nature of American society.

Black Picket Fences is an insightful and informative survey of privilege and peril among middle class blacks providing an unusual, intriguing study of the pressures of black middle-class families. Sociologist Pattillo-McCoy lived in a black middle-class neighborhood in Chicago: her experiences serve as a foundation for analysis of social issues and change.

This is perhaps the most significant book on the black middle class since Wilson's Declining Significance of Race. The Author gives us a community study at par with Streetwise, Getting Paid, and Street Corner Society. Through this book, black neighborhood are transformed into multi-dimensional communities, rich with institutions and networks. Truely a balanced view, which goes beyond books like the Truely Disadvantaged (although both deal with the same community). Most importantly, the author reminds us of the link between structural factors and race. The content of the book should not be overlooked, and the conclusions regarding the need to maintain race-based affirmative action, even for middle class blacks, should influence every policymaker in the country.

I have read both of Timuel Black's books and recommend both highly. Black is the right person for this job, having a nearly perfect memory for a past that includes important work as an activist, educator and scholar. He knows what his subjects are getting at and knows how to tweek the most out of them. Timuel Black's memories intertwine with the memories of his subjects and create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is truly living history

This is a book that everyone should read but can particularly important to young people, black and white, who don't quite understand that they are standing on the shoulders of giants.

I loved Bridges of Memory Volume 1... and this book doesn't dissapoint either. I love his interviewing style and the variety of people he has choosen to interview about their personal Chicago experiences. This is a well written book and I am looking forward to reading the next volume when it is released.

Here's my bias. I like history. I like to hear people talk about their lives. I like intelligent, articulate, effective language. And I loved this book. The people interviewed are fascinating, and Timuel Black helps them tell their stories in an unpretentious but by no means diffident way. I learned a great deal and enjoyed myself for many evenings.

What a gift this collection is!

In 1988, Timuel Black began to record and preserve the recollections of people who had lived in Chicago a long time, particularly the first generation of the Great Migration. When he wrote the introduction to this book, he had recorded over 125 conversations and still had "many , many more people with whom I would like to speak." Thirty-six of those conversations are presented here, with two more volumes planned to follow.

The interviews are conducted using the "participant observer" technique, and since Dr. Black - a long time resident himself - is an "insider" these interviews are essentially honest, intimate conversations among old friends, many of whom have now passed. As Dr. Black makes clear, this book is not intended to be a history of Black Chicago and its institutions, but rather a collection of oral memories from people who participated in shaping those institutions. But his field work provides invaluable data for future researchers attempting to compile that history.

If this book contained nothing more than the biographical information about each of the 40 participants (some are joint interviews), it would make fascinating reading. But the interviews bring each vividly to life. We meet people from all walks, including civil servants, educators, politicians, jazz musicians, railroad workers, business people, even two generations of South Side Chicago represented by mother and daughter Mildred Bowden and Hermene Hartman. Some, like George Johnson, tell a story of "from rags to riches." Others fall into a category of "just keep on keepin' on."

But all are riveting. I look forward to the next two volumes!

The strength of this book is in its informality. Mr. Black is friends with nearly all of his interviewees (he has known several of them for over 40 years), and the sessions read as a conversation rather than an interview. This book is especially useful for one looking for supplimental material about the neighborhood of Bronzeville in Chicago, segregation (from an individual perspective rather than scholarly leaning), and smaller aspects of city history and social change that are often forgotten. Some of his interviewees include a man that owned a company that distributed hair straightener around the U.S., a man that started what would become the Illinois state lottery, well respected teachers, and military servicemen.

There is a great deal of repetition that could have been eliminated regarding DuSable High School, locations of buildings, boundaries of the neighborhood, and references to people that are not elaborated upon; it is possible that Black chose not to edit this out to keep the interviews intact. It would have been extremely helpful for maps of Bronzeville throughout the past 80 years were inserted among the small selection of pictures that are included, in order to help those unfamiliar with the neighborhood navigate through some of the interviewees' memories of businesses, theaters, and homes.

My nephew loved it. He grew up in Milwaukee, went to school and lives in California. He comes to Chicago about every other year.

This book has beautifull photographs. The book is much deeper than other Chicago architecture books because it has a well thought out historical review of the progression of Chicago architecture. Interesting even for the lay person like me.

I thought this book was very interesting it has great pictures of the buildings in Chicago. It has alot of information about the beginning of when Architects wanted to build something modern but unqiue at the same time. Get inspired by the great exterior and interior of these amazing buildings.

This book provides an excellent introduction to Chicago's numerous schools of architecture over the years. It also provides a photographic tour of the city's important buildings, from the late 1800s to the present day. The photography is great! Highly recommended for fans of Chicago or architecture buffs in general.

This book described many of the significant architects in Chicago history. I found it to be informative and very readable. It is the best book I have found which summarizes Chicago Architecture. The color photograghs are excellent

while in France recently at Chalon-sur-Soane I visited their photography museum. They were doing a special exhibit of this work. I was so totally impressed on how Miller could capture these photos while seeming to be invisable to his subjects that I investigated when I returned and discovered that this book was available. I bought TWO; one for myself and one for my daughter who is a serious photographer.

These striking images of Bronzeville -- "Chicago's Harlem" -- will blow you away. The humanity they portray, in all its beaten-down, lifted-up, heartbreaking reality, makes me wish I knew personally every man and woman depicted herein.

Wayne Miller, a white photographer now well into his 80s, went into the Bronzeville ghetto over a two-year period and made these touching pictures; then they "went into a drawer" for 40 years, until finally the Univ of Calif Press published this book. (The book itself is as well-produced a book of photographs as you are likely to find anywhere.)

My grandfather Nathan Joseph ran the States Theatre at 3507 S. State St., in the heart of Bronzeville, for some 50 years (unfortunately the States is not depicted herein). I myself have written a novel of Bronzeville called "To Love Mercy" (Mid-Atlantic Highlands, ISBN 0-9744785-3-9). A historical Afterword appears at the end of "To Love Mercy;" it is an oral history of Bronzeville, in the voices of a dozen people who lived there in the '40s and '50s. This Afterword is illustrated with seven of Wayne Miller's photos from "Chicago South Side, 1946-1948."

I have given close to a dozen copies of "Chicago South Side" as gifts. I was coming to Amazon to buy two more copies when I saw this opportunity to write a review.

These photos have moved me to tears. Buy this book.

This is a marvelous collection of images from everyday Balck Chicago life in the late 1940s. There are scenes of street life, back alleys, patrons at a pool hall and tavern, and night life ranging from a female personator dressing to Duke Ellington hunched at a piano at rehearsal and an ebullient Louis Jordan on stage.

This book is a treasure. I wish I could find more by this photographer (my searches have come up empty). The photographs take you right inside each scene, and often pack a powerful punch of sadness, joy, intimacy, life. The printing quality is excellent. If the publisher can collect more of his work, I will be the first customer.

This is one of the best photographic books I've seen -- ever. Wayne Miller manages to make personal contact with the human beings who lived on Chicago's South Side in a way that few photographers have ever matched. The warmth and complexity of these photographs, the compassion and human understanding involved, are most remarkable -- especially since the photographer stood on the other side of America's terrible racial divide from his subjects. Anyone who loves classic documentary photography, or who simply loves human beings in their complexity, should order this book.

i love, love, love this book and re-read it often. first of all, i'm a huge "chicago" fan - the movie, not the musical play (perhaps the original musical was awesome, but that was before my time and i've only seen the current day touring version of "chicago" and i was not very impressed). anyway, i am also a huge fan of anything 1920s, so this book was absolutely perfect for me.

it was great to hear about the stories behind the play and how two horrible murders were turned into entertainment and how the murderesses were turned into glamorous stars. it was also fascinating to see the pictures of the murderesses - the one of beulah annan is super creepy!

maurine dallas watkins' articles were incredibly entertaining and it was great to read them and then go onto the play. i love that when rob marshall made the movie "chicago", he used a bit more of the play than the muscial version did.

it's sad that watkins didn't go on to even greater things after these articles (although i do love the movie "libeled lady" - with jean harlow, myrna loy, william powell, and spencer tracy - that she collaborated on the screenplay for). but it's awesome that her legacy turned into such a popular musical and movie!

i would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in "chicago", the 1920s, crime writing, and media sensationalism.

I read this book for my history fair project that I was doing on the true story behind the musical "Chicago." This book was so helpful to me because it gives every bit of information about the crimes and it even has all of Watkins' Tribune articles from the time. The script for the original play is an added bonus, and it is fun for me, as a "Chicago" and Fosse fan, to compare the original play to the musical and movie. This is well worth the price and a must-have for any "Chicago" fan.

This publication of the play that inspired the hit musical is amazing. Not only is it the original script, it gives wonderful newspaper articles of the time period and gives a real sense of time and place. As an artist, it was amazing to perform this piece. While the musical is a hit, it owes everything to this beautiful and strikingly funny but touching play. I highly recommend it and enjoy!

This book is amazing if you are looking to find some history on the play. I have seen the non-musical produced in Ashland and will be directing it myself in the next couple of years. This book includes the full original script, which is amazing in itself, but also includes a fantastic introduction my Thomas H. Pauly. The articles are a joy to read because you really get a sense of Watkins' style of writing.

Watkins' days a court reporter inspired her to write the script for what was to become, itself, the inspiration for one of the best musicals of our time. The daily reports from the court trials of the real life muderessess in Chicago were certainly very telling. The fact that the women who escaped death row or life sentences were white women, society women, beautiful women, and most poignantly, women who killed their lovers - not their husbands.This reminded me of how people get caught up in the soap opera of life and love to glamorise all events. If you are a lover of the musical, this is an interesting book to read.

Huasipungo(the villagers) truly is one of the best novels to read if you want to understand the transformation South American society was going through at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, as a result of the invasion of the Spanish. The native indians became slaves of their own lands now controlled by the powerful criollos or peninsulares of Spain and their descendants. It is sad to think that if you travel to Ecuador today you will still see the unfair distribution of goods and land relevant to what is going on in the novel. Although definitely there have been strong changes in society, in general those of prominent white background are way better off than the indigenous or the mestizos. This novel is one of those novels that stand the test of time and feel as fresh as when it was written in the middle 1930s. Very entertaining reading, and at the same time, compelling and sad. Very highly recommended especially for students of latin american studies and history and worldly people in general.

I read this book many years ago and it is the only book that has told of that brutality that is endemic and daily in this beautiful, yet sad country of Ecuador. Ycasa is the real heroe in our historical voyage. He has stuck his neck out and has told a story-amongs many- that reveal the destructive, oppresive, and racist nature of his society. His sense of justice and solidarity with the poor and the indians are as powerful as his indignation of the established oligarchy and it's system.

"The Villagers," a novel by Jorge Icaza of Ecuador, was first published in 1934. It has been translated into English by Bernard Dulsey. I think of "The Villagers" as a sort of Ecuadoran counterpart to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (the classic anti-slavery novel by United States author Harriet Beecher Stowe). Like that earlier novel, Icaza's book is an impassioned expose of racially-charged violence and oppression.

"The Villagers" tells the story of the exploitation of Ecuadoran Indians by whites who are intent on taking economic advantage of the Indians' homeland. Icaza paints a fascinating portrait of the conflicts and twisted connections among three major groups: Indians, whites, and "cholos" (those of mixed blood). The "gringos," or white North Americans, form a sinister fourth group that lurks menacingly behind the scenes of the unfolding drama.

The novel is full of vivid, graphic details--lice infestation, a worm-infected wound, rape, suffering, and death. Icaza mercilessly satirizes the lust and greed of the white landowner, Don Alfonso. Icaza also savagely critiques the complicity of the church (in the form of the hypocritical village priest) in the abuse of the Indians. And the author also exposes the insidious debt bondage that turns nominally "free" people into virtual slaves.

Some of the more villainous characters seem a bit one-dimensional, but in my opinion the many strengths of the book outweigh this flaw. "The Villagers" is a powerful work of social protest that deserves a wide readership.

Vile language, adultery, human suffering, courage, fear, love, guile--Icaza portrays TRUE HUMANITY in his first book The Villagers (Huasipungo),one of this century's greatest novels. As a professor of French and Spanish literature I have had many students ask me who Jorge Icaza was and why there are no other novels by Icaza available for them to read. The answer is that Jorge Icaza is one of the most complex writers in the Spanish language. Translating him is a task that no one wishes to take on because it may take them their whole lives to complete. It is sad because Icaza wrote some of the greatest novels of this century, ie., El Chulla Romero y Flores. As a translator of 4 novels, I myself am terrified of Icaza's prose. Jorge Icaza is the author of 7 novels (he left behind the draft for an 8th novel), 4 collections of short stories, and 7 plays. Bernard M. Dulsey did a great job in the translation. Of course he had help from Icaza himself, something which no translator can now have since Icaza died in 1972. Readers are fortunate to have this novel available in the English. Perhaps the greatest pre-Magic novel of Latin-America.

Jorge Icaza had a dream just like Martin Luther King, except his dream was not meant toward the United States, his dream was meant toward his people of Ecuador who, like people in the United States, are prejudiced against people who are of different races, and different economic statuses, etc. Jorge Icaza wrote his first novel The Villagers as the first step (in a series of steps) to make the dream come true. In it he portrays the Indian people of Ecuador as they truly are, as well as the landowners and government leaders, and the ways in which these ruthlessly treat the Indians. Religion plays a big role in this novel. Icaza leaves no prisoners, everyone in Ecuadorean society is criticized, including the mestizoes, persons of both European and American Indian descent. Icaza's 1934 novel is studied in many of the top universities of the United States in classes of Spanish, Comparative Literature, and Anthropology. I suggest this book to those who are interested in learning about Latin America and its peoples. I think people will be shocked and appalled. Icaza is by far the most important Indianist novelist Latin America ever brought forth, as well as one of Ecuador's most finest and important writers.

Dorothy is a charming and engaging woman whose exploits are a joy to read. If you are looking for explicit relationships in a book or graphic violence..this is not the book for you. This is a simple story about a kind woman and her endearing circle of friends.

This is the fourth book in this wonderful series. I just love these books

This is another great chapter in the continuing saga of the citizens of Partonville,Illinois.

Once you get into any one of these Dearest Dorothy books you become engrossed in the lives of the quirky, charming characters you meet in Partonville and can't wait to read the next book

Dorothy, the main character of this series turned 88 yrs. old at the end of this book and celebrates with Lemon Chiffon Cake with her good friends, Jessica, Jessie,Nelie Ruth, May Belle and Gladys. Gladys is a very special character as the Acting Mayor of the town. Gladys canbe quite annoying, but she means well and is an interesting addition to this saga.

You gain insight into your own heart through empathizing with all the charming citizens of this friendly town.

Each of the Dearest Dorothy books have some laugh-out-loud moments which is very good for the soul.

Each book can be read as a stand alone story, however, if you want to get a complete look at this wonderful town, you willwant to get all six of them.

You will meet all the quaint characters from Harry's Grill to the Happy Hookers and they all welcome you.

What a FANTASTIC series. I am so glad I purchased them all at once. I fell in love with Partonville!! I have passed them on to my mother and then they are going to my mother-in-law. The characters are so well developed! Can't wait for the newest one later this year. =)

A great series to read over and over.

This is Book 4 in the Welcome to Partonville series, which started early in 2004 with DEAREST DOROTHY, ARE WE THERE YET?

I'm new to this series. I jumped in at this late juncture, yet I was quickly hooked. Though the book would be more intriguing to readers who have previously come to know the characters of the fictitious town of Partonville, Illinois, WHO WOULD HAVE EVER THOUGHT?! stands on its own as engaging, low-action entertainment and inspiration.

Judging by the books' titles (including DEAREST DOROTHY, HELP! I'VE LOST MYSELF!) Dorothy Westra --- who turns 88 at the end of this installment --- is meant to be the series's leading lady. But in this particular book, Charlene Ann Baumbich gives a large cast of characters nearly equal billing. Eight key women, spanning three generations, are members of the Happy Hookers, a group originally formed to meet once a month to hook rugs but now to play bunco, "a raucous, mindless dice game that offered a great opportunity for gab, prizes and dessert."

The book recounts the Partonville goings on for most of a month, after the October Pumpkin Festival, leading up to three events: the November Hookers meeting, a first-ever Thanksgiving Day community dinner --- organized by the Social Concerns Committee of the United Methodist Church in conjunction with St. Augustine's Catholic Church --- and Dorothy's birthday celebration.

Though the November Hookers hostess, Jessie Landers, isn't a churchgoer, many of the others are Methodists who comfortably break forth into silent or audible prayer, for the sick among them, including young Jessica whose severe nausea portends an unplanned pregnancy, and the much older May Belle, who is in bed with a bad back.

Baumbich deftly threads several story lines together. For fellow Hooker, middle-aged grocery-store employee Nellie Ruth McGregor, romance blossoms with a local handyman. The Landers welcome houseguests who stay several weeks. That Thanksgiving dinner gradually gets organized, with or without the help of Acting Mayor Gladys McKern. The new-to-town city slicker and commercial real-estate developer --- Katie Durbin --- mellows and grows to appreciate the small-town (with a population fewer than 1,500): its people, its values, its property.

The narrator's voice is important to this book: a touch of humor; a gentle revealer of heart-secrets (Nellie Ruth has never been kissed); a friendly, unidentified overseer, rallying in support of small towns everywhere that are in danger of being lost to encroaching suburban sprawl.

Like Miss Read, Barbara Pym and Jan Karon, Charlene Ann Baumbich transports you to a place that lingers in your mind, nudging your desire to return.

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

The "Dearest Dorothy" series is wonderful! You will fall in love with all of the characters and you'll really care what is happening to and with them.

There's nothing else Eddie Gresham has to do to be a famous writer except write more books.

Footfalls had me from the first chapter and would not let me go. The characters were so detailed that I felt like I was in their day-to-day lives. And just like horror fiction should be, it played on the simple fears we all have without resorting to gore.

I know some day I'll be in a book discussion and someone in the group will mention Eddie Gresham's name. I'll tell them I have a signed copy of his first book and no one will believe me.

I love when a book is able to put you in a certain mood. I think that is a sign of great story telling. With this novel, I had a sense of dread almost from the start of the book. I liked the character immediately and wanted good things to happen for him but at the same time, I wanted to warn him about the terror that waits for him.

A very good thriller that captures real life very well. In fact my favorite part of the book was the romantic subplot. The story was fast paced but never rushed. It's a great book to enjoy on vacation. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next from this promising writer.

Footfalls is everything that you want in a horror story, pitting an honest and likable cast of characters against a mysterious (and seriously creepy) nemesis. Gresham's brilliant attention to detail in the portrayal of everyday life -- such as how a dog acts as his owner returns home, the way someone kicks off their boots, or a co-workers love for odd-tasting pizza -- adds considerable depth to the story, and I was pleased to see that the book maintained this quality through to the end. The author paints a vivid and highly immersive setting that drew me in from the beginning, putting me in the middle of a picture-perfect midwest town.

Footfalls is eerie, chilling, and haunting, but not overly graphic or terrifying; replacing gore with clever hints of danger and the type of steadily-growing tension that puts you on the edge of your seat. It is easy to read, and the short chapters make it easy to put down and pick up -- although I rarely put it down, devouring the entire story over a weekend. Footsteps is well written, well crafted, completely enjoyable, and highly recommended.

The authors fisrt at bat is out of the park. I could not put the book down as each chapter would draw me farther into the mystery. The boogie man truly exists in this chilling tale. Looking forward to his next effort.

Horror is not my normal genre to read, but this book gave the fun of a horror book (suspense) without unwanted gore. The writing style is engaging and short chapters keep you wanting to read just a few more pages....until you realize you've read many more pages. The characters are well-developed, so you easily develop a relationship with them. The 1970's flashback sections brought back to mind many childhood memories. This book is a fun, quick read.

Anyone with even just a passing interest in true crime in general or organized crime in particular will find this a worthy investment. It's the detailed and well-sourced account of Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, who was Al Capone's consigliere and underboss and who took control of the Chicago "Outfit" in 1931, when Capone was convicted and imprisoned for ten years for income-tax evasion.

Just a couple of years before that, Nitti masterminded the St. Valentine's Day Massacre when members of the "Outfit" disguised as Chicago police and detectives mowed down seven members of George Moran's North Side Gang. When the killers emerged from the scene, two of them had their hands in the air and the other two followed with machine guns at their backs; they escaped in what looked like a police squad car. You might say it was a pretty well planned operation.

Author Ronald Humble provides an alternative interpretation of the events underpinning the murder of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in Miami, Florida, which is usually viewed as a failed attempt on the life of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Humble lays out persuasive evidence that the mayor, not the future president, was the intended target, as payback for an unsuccessful attempt on Nitti's life--instigated by Cermak--just two months prior.

Particularly interesting to this reviewer are the parallels drawn between Giuseppe Zangara, who was executed for the Cermak assassination, and Lee Oswald the accused assassin of President John Kennedy.

Nitti eventually killed himself (or so it seems) in 1943, because he couldn't face returning to prison, along with other senior members of the Outfit, on racketeering and mail-fraud charges related to extortion in Hollywood. Whether suicide or homicide, Nitti met his maker as a direct or indirect result of over-reaching himself, despite his cunning and high intelligence, an interesting reflection of the human condition.

Although "Frank Nitti" is a name well known in popular culture, chiefly as a result of inclusion of the character in "The Untouchables" television series and Hollywood movies, Humble provides the real scoop: little of what we've seen on the small or big screen accurately reflects the man, his motives or his deeds. If you think you already know Frank Nitti, probably you still need to read this book.

Appendices provide a useful chronology of the main events in Nitti's life and a detailed organizational structure of the Outfit during the years it was controlled by the Enforcer. There's also a comprehensive index.

Highly recommended.

Far too little research has previously been available about Frank Nitti, Capone's "Enforcer" and the public face of the Chicago Outfit after Capone was sent to prison, but anyone with an interest needs look no further than this book. Ron Humble, in what can only be described as an amazing researched book, has brought Frank Nitti back to life within these pages and has revealed the complex and contradictory gangster in a way that no other writer has ever been able to do. This is a highly readable (although filled with great detail) book that no one with a serious interest in the Chicago gangland era should be without. Don't miss this one!

Everyone knows of mob boss Al Capone. But what of his successor in the mob, Frank Nitti, who should be just as infamous, if not more so? "Frank Nitti: The True Story Chicago's Notorious 'Enforcer'" is his tale, bringing the tale of the countless murders and conspiracies for more, the vice and corruption that came with Nitti's leadership. With examinations of how Nitti has been portrayed in myth, legend, television, and movies, it tries to find out the truth about the man through scholarly research, covering everything from his time as Capone's enforcer, his plots to extort Hollywood, and his mysterious death, ruled as a suicide, but could it have been a complex assassination? "Frank Nitti: The True Story Chicago's Notorious 'Enforcer'" is highly recommended for anyone with a strong interest in the golden age of the mob and for community library true crime shelves.

I thouroughly enjoyed Ron Humble's book on Frank Nitti. The incredible detail of Nitti's grim circumstances in his youth and the insights the author provides of how his personality fit the needs of the mob and allowed him to rise to mythic status was fascinating. The depictions of Frank Nitti by Hollywood that Humble includes are further indications of how ruthless a person can become in the right circumstances while still retaining a human quality. I highly recommend the book.

Author Ronald Humble mentions a number of things I wasn't aware of prior to reading this book on Frank Nitti. Humble mentions that Nitti was likely responsible for the hit on Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in retaliation for Cermak's sending two men to eliminate Nitti. Giuseppe Zangara was chosen by the mob to assassinate Cermak because Zangara was in debt to the mob, and if he didn't carry out the hit he and his family would suffer torture and death. If Zangara did as the mob ordered, the mob would see that Zangara's family was taken care of in a positive way. Author Humble draws comparisons between the assassinations of Mayor Cermak and President John Kennedy. Zangara and Lee Oswald were both expendable. Zangara was quickly eliminated through execution, and didn't dare express what he knew due to concern for his family. Oswald was quickly eliminated by Jack Ruby. Author Humble also states Nitti was likely in on the rub out of despised enemy Machine Gun Jack McGurn, and north sider Hymie Weiss. The author wonders whether Nitti's death was a suicide or was he a victim of foul play. I would stick with a suicide due to his reluctance to return to prison. Finally the author spends quite a bit of time on Nitti as he was portrayed on television and in the movies showing how much coverage he was given in this area. When the author isn't sure about events in Nitti's life he makes sure to point that out. I found the book very worth while and one that should interest those who enjoy mob-related books.