Illinois Books

Chicago's Fourth Presbyterian Church bucks several trends: it is a successful church in an urban setting; its affluent members are involved in hands-on help with people in a nearby ghetto; it espouses a decidedly liberal theology. Wellman seeks to explain how Fourth Presbyterian has both accommodated to and transformed culture.

Wellman studies the ministries of Fourth Church's four 20th century pastors. Each pastor ministered to an affluent congregation and addressed the social issues that kept near neighbors of the church in poverty. Each pastor was able to rally the members of the congregation to take action on behalf of the less-privileged.

Wellman combines historical investigation and sociological analysis to explain Fourth Presbyterian's success. The book is a revised Ph.D. dissertation but doesn't read like one. Wellman writes in a fluid, engaging style and keeps the academic excursions into sociological theory to a minimum.

This book will be a welcome read for a) folks who love Chicago; b) people who worship in urban churches; c) liberal Christians who wonder if they are any others left on the planet; d) cultural historians; e) folks who wonder if the church still cares for others.

This is not a book with lots of pictures; it is not a book with the stories of great golf matches. This book is an excellent study of American country clubs and golf in this country--about how they began and how they have evolved. It is perfect for serious golfers, for those who really want to understand what country clubs are and have been about and how they relate to the game they love.

The impressively accomplished author of seventeen books of poems and ten novels, David Wagoner is also the recipient of six prizes from "Poetry" and winner of the 1981 Ruth Lilly Prize for poetry. Good Morning And Good Night is the latest anthology showcasing a master poetry at the height of his craft and is a strongly recommended compendium of verse for personal reading as well as academic library literary collections. The Getaway: They had to act natural. They had to look like/They were still parts of an ordinary day/Together on the sidewalk across the street/To the unfamiliar car, yet they had to be/Quick about it without running. They had to think/Taking those steps, remembering, knowing/Every foot they could put between their bodies/And the scene behind them, where the noise/Of buzzers and bells and yowling/And terribly shocked voices was growing/Louder and louder. They pulled away/As calmly as possible, staring straight ahead/Straight-faced, not glancing once/To either side or backward, let alone/At each other, and took a turn in the most unlikely/Direction they could think of. Under the limit,/They drove steadily, legally toward home.

"Grace Before Meals ~~ Food Ritual and Body Discipline in Convent Culture" was written in 1989 by Sister Patricia Curran, SNDdeN and offers a very rare and important piece of research into an area of Convent life that had not yet been explored nor published outside those convent walls. The food rituals of two congregations of nuns are the subjects of this study ~~ the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. "Grace Before Meals" describes the waning days of the centuries-old convent meal rituals as performed by these two communities of nuns. The participating nuns from these congregations were divided into two groups ~~ those nuns who had entered before 1925 and those who had taken their vows in the 1960s. Drawing upon interviews, questionnaires, and other research, Sister Curran describes ~~ in GREAT detail ~~ the typical convent meal of the early 1960s and contrasts and compares the customs and rituals of these two orders of nuns. She treats the refectory (convent dining room) as a sort of stage on which the nuns are the actors. Gestures, postures, movement, speech and silence were all carefully blended to embody the ideal nun. There are so many mysterious customs revealed in this book ~~ customs and rituals which were, at one time, kept extremely secret from the outside world. Now, for the first time, these customs are not only revealed to the reader, but the nuns speak out and describe exactly how they felt when they were living this life. Twenty nuns from each congregation responded to Sister Curran's questions. These questions were specifically designed to stir old memories from Novitiate days in the convent refectory ~~ Food (quality, quantity, availability and familiarity of diet) Environment (textures and colors, seating and setting) Formal Behaviors (reading, speaking,penances, table manners) Next, the nuns were asked to describe how they had been initiated into these strange practices; how the unfamiliar had been explained to them as young novices; what each nun believed was the purpose of all of this strange behavior. "Grace Before Meals" is a fascinating read for anyone who was ever curious about life inside the convent. The details provided are amazing and most could, probably, be applied to any congregation of nuns.

This is a fairly good survey of the political landscape in the City of Chicago by a veteran journalist. It tries to address the perennial question, to paraphrase Alderman Mathias "Paddy" Bauler, of "Why ain't Chicago ready for reform?"

The book is concerned with political movements and the efforts of progressives and reformers to do battle with boodlers and spoilsmen. In the political language of Chicago, good government types are derided as "goo goos" for their infantile naivete. As Merriner points out, several successful politicins had to make it clear to the precinct workers that they were not reformers in order to secure votes from party regulars.

Given the number of candidates and elections to be treated, there are more than a few errors as to dates. For example, Big Bill Thompson was not elected alderman in 1902. He was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners that year. Similarly, Thompson was the sponsor of a reception for expelled US Senator Billy Lorimer, but not while serving as mayor. The welcome home rally occurred earlier. State's Attorney John Wayman did not resign his office in 1912. He chose to run for governor rather than to seek reelection as prosecutor and he lost the Republican nomination to the incumbent governor, Charles S. Deneen in 1912. Wayman left office upon the expiration of his term.

To quote Tip O'Neill, "All politics is local." Merriner does a respectably good job of trying to explain the political culture that is Chicago. The reform elements and progressives fought the good fight, but were outflanked by the grafters at almost every turn. The author is to be complimented for analyzing reams of archival materials, including meeting minutes, reports and correspondence from numerous civic organizations.

This book is an entertaining primer on practical politics in the City of Big Shoulders. It is more fun than stuffing a ballot box and less dangerous than serving as an election judge in one of the river wards.

A co-production of the Art Institute of Chicago and Hudson Hills Press, Graphic Modernism displays artworks drawn from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. Showcasing color illustrations of bold 19th Century, Twentieth-Century European, and Twentieth-Century American works that range from realism to more abstract constructions of shape and image. Graphic Modernism is enhanced with accompanying and extensively informative commentary, history, and critique by Suzanne Folds McCullagh (The Gecht Collection and the Chicago Tradition) and Mark Krisco (Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht: An Appreciation) to make Graphic Modernism a thoroughly impressive survey of modernism, displaying works by Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Pollock, and so many others. Graphic Modernism is a visual treasure that will superbly complement any personal, academic, or community library Art Appreciation and/or Art History collection.

This is one of the best Father Dowling books ever. It is very good. The only one better than this one is Judas Priest.

Thoughfully written, interesting from cover to cover and painstakingly comprehensive - there isn't much more you could ask from a reference book, particularly if you're not an expert on the subject. I really enjoyed reading The Graying of America, and found it much more interesting (and less dry) than I expected. As a gerentology novice who works as a volunteer with hospice patients, I wanted something that would show me many facets of living with aging, rather than my usual reading on coming to terms with dying. This book fit the bill to a "T", and I would imagine it would have a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in aging well and understanding the life of the elderly.

This short book has one powerful poem after another. Zimmer's images pull you into each poem, as the persona of "The Zimmer" comes of age and learns about life. It's a cohesive collection that reads like a story, filled with the joys and sorrows of life. Celebrating things such as beer and love, and lamenting the aging of a father and the selling of a childhood home, this book will have you smiling on one page and then bring you close to tears a few pages later.

The Great Chicago Fire is brought to life in this graphic book for kids. I found it interesting too. I use the Graphic Library series for my ESOL students who are learning English and learning American History at the same time. It is very tough to do and these books help a lot.