Book Club

Event Spotlight: The Right Stuff @ Steppenwolf

2008-10-06T12:03:06Z

For everyone that's been following along with this season's One Book, One Chicago pick, Steppenwolf Theatre offers a treat. Tonight, the actors from Steppenwolf will perform a dramatic reading of selections from Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff using archival footage NASA to show how the media covered the Project Mercury launches. The reading is free, but reservations are required and can be had by calling 312-335-1650. 7pm-8:30pm in the Upstairs Theatre at 1650 N. Halsted St.

An Interview with Stephanie Kuehnert

2008-10-01T12:10:11Z

by Jason Behrends

When setting out to write a novel, a writer must first research their subject matter. Many writers dig through archives or visit certain towns or countries or interview different people. Chicago's Stephanie Kuehnert may do those things, but a vital part of her research thus far has been playing those old tapes and CDs from high school. The reason people enjoy music so much is that it acts in one of two ways: it is either a trigger to bring up past memories or it is a way of collecting of new ones. When Stephanie plays Smashing Pumpkins or The Ramones or Nirvana, she is taken back to a specific time in her life where she can explore, with clarity, the thoughts and emotions of a young girl experiencing life through music.

Her debut novel, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone (MTV Books), is filled with music, but at the same time it is filled with raw emotion and a deep understanding of the relationship between a mother and a daughter. The main character, Emily Black, is abandoned by her mother who chooses a life of traveling with the current music scene. With visions of earning her mothers attention and affection, Emily forms a band herself in search of that magical tune that will make everything right again.

With her well-written and original novel in hand, Stephanie recently took the stage at the Metro and then told us all about it.

Gapers Block (GB): Your debut novel, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, is filled with music, and all of the positive and negative effects of a life filled with music. How big of a role does music play in your life?

Stephanie Kuehnert (SK): Music has played a huge role in my life since I was about 10 years old and I started discovering bands like REM, Depeche Mode, Faith No More and eventually bands like Nirvana and The Ramones. Music has been my escape since I was a kid. When I'm upset, listening to certain bands helps me work through my anger and pain. When I'm happy, music elevates my mood even more. And music is my primary muse for writing. I don't often listen to it while I write, but I do listen to it a lot while preparing to write and it sparks many of my ideas. And since I was 14 years old, my idea of the best night out is a concert. I love live shows and have seen hundreds.

GB: Speaking of music, you read at the Metro on September 14 with Irvine Welsh and Bill Hillman, which is primarily a music venue. Elizabeth Crane tells a story about feeling like a rock star while on stage at the Metro. What were you expecting, and how did you prepare?

SK: I read onstage at Metro once before during a Columbia [College] event that was a goodbye party for Irvine the first time he was in Chicago for a while. It wasn't a huge event, but it was still the most people I've ever read to and I was completely awestruck to be standing on the stage that so many of my heroes have graced. I've seen many of my favorite concerts at Metro. I was actually so overwhelmed and freaked out that after I read, I completely lost my voice...some sort of psychosomatic thing. Fortunately that didn't happen this time.

I honestly didn't know what to expect. I've seen Irvine fill the place to capacity before, but this was on a Sunday night and it was that weekend with the non-stop rain. Basically I just prepared by reading the section I planned to read about five times as opposed to just rehearsing it once like I usually do. I also asked my closest friends to be there so I could just pretend I was reading to them. I just focused on being confident, reminding myself that I'd been invited to do this and people thought I belonged on that stage.

When I got out there, I realized the stage lights make it so that you can only see the first row, so I felt like I was reading for 15 people instead of 150, which helped. And all the rehearsal paid off, too. I totally nailed the reading. I got the most applause I've ever gotten in my life and afterwards Joe Shanahan, owner of the Metro, told the crowd that he thought Irvine, Bill, and I performed with the same power and energy as Cobain, Corgan, and Vedder back in the day. Since Kurt Cobain is one of my biggest heroes, I gotta say that comparison made my night.

GB: How do you select what you are going to read from the novel? Do you skip around or just read a specific section?

SK: I usually chose one section from a chapter or skip through a couple sections of a chapter. I have a handful of scenes that I know work well out loud and don't require a ton of backstory, etc. It depends on the time I am allotted of course, but it also depends on the audience. I'll read a completely different section to a bar crowd than I would to a bookstore crowd or to a library crowd. The other night I read to a library crowd that included a much older gentleman and a ten year-old kid. I'd planned to read a scene that was "PG-13", i.e. it didn't have sex or really serious swearing, but it did involve smoking pot. I ended up nixing that at the last minute because of the audience and went with the first ten pages of the book, which are the safest, no sex, no drugs, no swearing at all. For Metro, I did one of the more fun, raunchier scenes. I like to mix it up, though; it keeps me interested in reading it.

GB: Your novel, despite the language and sex, is classified as a Young Adult novel. What are your thoughts on that classification and YA fiction in general?

SK: My novel is really more of a crossover than a YA, I think. MTV Books is considered a YA publisher, but some of the books it puts out, including mine, are mostly sold in the adult section. So much like I've never felt like I fit in with one particular group or was easily labeled, neither is my book, and I like it that way. I am honored that it is considered by many to be YA, though, because I think right now YA is totally at its best. Some of the most honest, raw, real books out there are YA books. It's a real renaissance era for YA fiction right now.

GB: For people of our generation the MTV logo really means something significant. What has your experience been like with them thus far? What was your first thought when you found out it was MTV Books that was picking up the book?

SK: I begged my parents for cable when I was a kid so I could have MTV and I spent so much of late grade school through early high school glued to it. Before they stopped actually showing music videos, I adored MTV and thought it was on the cutting edge of so much. Since I hold on to that early love, I thought it was pretty cool when I heard that MTV Books wanted IWBYJR. Other than the name, the logo, and the same parent company (and the occasional book about The Hills that they put out), MTV Books is pretty much separate from MTV the channel. But to me, MTV Books has that cutting-edge, in-your-face thing going for it that MTV the channel had in the 80s and early 90s, so my experience with them thus far has been great. I couldn't have found a better match editor-wise than Jen Heddle, my editor at MTV Books and everyone else that I've worked with there has been totally amazing, too.

GB: What is the latest on your next novel Ballads of Suburbia?

SK: The latest is that I'm waiting on my revisions letter. I should be getting that later this month and then I will spend six weeks completely immersed in making Ballads the best book possible. Right now it is slated for a July 2009 release, but those dates tend to shift about until you get closer, but it will be out there sometime next summer for sure.

Event Spotlight: Richard Russo @ Harold Washington Library

2008-09-29T14:16:48Z

On Thursday, the Harold Washington Library welcomes a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls, will read from and sign his latest book Bridge of Sighs. The reading is free at 6pm in the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, 400 S. State St. Call 312-747-4300 for more information.

Special Offer: Chicago Shakespeare Theater Edward II Discount

2008-09-26T16:11:47Z

The good people over at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater is offering GB Book Club readers a discount on tickets to their latest work, a production of Christopher Marlowe's The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward II, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer. Here's what the CST has to say:

Now's your chance to come face-to-face with the action at CST! Director Sean Graney brings Christopher Marlowe's vicious exploration of power and persuasion to the stage in this innovative promenade production where audiences are able and encouraged to move freely about the playing area. This is theater like you've never seen it before! Gapers Block readers can become part of the action for only $15. Visit www.chicagoshakes.com/edward and enter promo code: GAPERS to access your exclusive discount.

The show starts October 1 and runs through November 9 at Navy Pier. Contact the box office at 312-595-5600 for questions on purchasing tickets. Thank you to the CST offering us this great discount!

Event Spotlight: Banned Books Week Read-Out

2008-09-22T17:18:50Z

Saturday marks the start the annual celebration of all books that have been banned or challenged and you can take part in the celebration by joining the American Library Assocation, Chicago Tribune, and the Freedom Museum for a Read-Out. Authors will read from popular banned books as well as from some of their own that have been challenged - well-known authors Judy Blume and Stephen Chbosky will be there as well as a number of local literary celebrities. For an interesting twist, City Lit Theatre will perform theatrical readings of some challenged works. The Read-Out is free at Pioneer Plaza from 12pm-4:30pm. You can contact the ALA at 800-545-2433 for more information and learn more about their efforts to preserve Intellectual Freedom on their website.

Event Spotlight: Achy Obejas, Kevin Guilfoile, Ana Castillo

2008-09-15T12:46:28Z

There are several events this week that will be of particular interest to Book Club members. First, Achy Obejas, whose Memory Mambo we read in April 2006 will be at Radio Arte on Monday as part of their Proyecto Latina open mic. The reading is free at 7pm at 1401 W. 18th St. (773-492-8350 for more info.)

Next, on Wednesday, Kevin Guilfoile, author of November 2006's Cast of Shadows, will take the spotlight at the Downers Grove Public Library to read from and discuss his work. This reading is also free at 7pm at 1050 Curtiss. (630-960-1200 for more info.)

Finally, Friday brings us to Ana Castillo, author of our September 2007 selection Peel My Love Like an Onion, who will discuss and sign her new novel The Guardians at Tianguis. You can also read Alice's review of the book here. Free at 7pm at 2003 S. Damen. (312-492-8350 for more info.)

October 2008 Selection: Dirty Sugar Cookies by Ayun Halliday

2008-09-10T13:16:38Z

If you're tired of reading foodie books where the author's roast lemon-thyme chicken, creamy mashed Yukon gold potatoes and crisp steamed asparagus come out perfectly just as his or her family or date or group of witty friends sits down to an elegant, yet bohemian, perfectly set table, then Ayun Halliday's Dirty Sugar Cookies is the perfect anti-foodie book for you. Filled with culinary mishaps, battles with picky eaters and reminiscences of morning meal with past romances, Dirty Sugar Cookies is a memoir of a woman's life with a truly universal love: food.

While much food-based literature may incite jealously over perfectly planned and enjoyed meals as well as a piqued interest in whatever succulent dish is being written about, Halliday's take on food is a far more honest and relatable one. She starts by admitting that she was not always adventurous with food and, indeed, her refusal to eat the canned pears and cottage cheese she prepared for her family - "Bunny Salad" from a Betty Crocker cookbook - is met jarringly by later confessions of her love affair with mangosteens in Bangkok. However, this admission is not delivered without an acknowledgment of irony - the now adventurous, food-loving traveler has become the mother of a girl whose finicky eating habits is a match for those of her own childhood.

Perhaps one of the most powerful elements of this memoir is the fact that food has the power to stir up great memories in us all. Halliday's recounts of eating dinner out with her grandparents at the cafeteria by their house will surely mesh with readers' memories of meals with their own grandparents. The brownies she baked with her school friends served as a ritual that kept them together and, when other girls were discovering alcohol, their hand-packed picnics were a failed attempt to catch the boys of their own desires. Halliday's foray into vegetarianism is filled with laughingly reported failures, from the lentil burgers that were never solid enough to form into patties to the suspicious pots of unidentifiable leftover brown stews and soups that filled her refrigerator for weeks. Her relationships are remembered by the shared breakfasts at greasy local diners where a true shot to the heart is seeing your ex bring a new fling to the site of your "postcoital breakfasts." For Halliday, food is not just what keeps you living - it's what's worth living for.

No foodie book would be complete without a few recipes sprinkled in for authenticity and Halliday does not disappoint. From veggie burgers (thankfully not the lentil ones that failed her so miserably) to watermelon with basil and feta to the eponymous dirty sugar cookies, Halliday's recipes are easy to follow and offer the same wit with which she peppers all of her writing: "Better taste some to make sure nobody poisoned it," she says of her friend's famous brownie batter; and "Stir the wet into the dry. Get your mind out of the gutter," she directs in her recipe for Postcoital Pancakes. A fun, touching and wholly absorbing read, Dirty Sugar Cookies is a perfectly mixed combination of food and memoir writing, leaving the reader wishing for just one more morsel to savor.

* * *

Ayun Halliday was born in Indiana, attended Northwestern University and was a member of the Neo-Futurists. She is the author of her own zine, The East Village Inky, a columnist for Bust magazine, and is the author of three additional books: The Big Rumpus, No Touch Monkey! and Job Hopper. She and her family currently live in New York. You can visit her food blog here.

Does CPL Have It? Search the Catalog from Anywhere

2008-09-09T21:08:05Z

Are you trying to save a few extra pennies these days? Or maybe you just want to dust off that old resolution to "use the library more." Well, using the Chicago Public Library just got even easier.

Ian Olsen-Clark, the man who brought us the original Chicago Public Library bookmarklet, has created a new and improved catalog search bookmarklet that works with CPL's revamped online catalog.

See an interesting book mentioned on someone's blog, a news website or while surfing your favorite online bookstore? Before you add that book to your virtual shopping cart, highlight the title, the author or the ISBN number and click on the "CPL Catalog Look-Up" bookmarklet button in your browser to see if the Chicago Public Library has it.

If the library has it, you can find out if a copy is available at your nearest branch. If not, use the library's new online holds function to place the book on hold and have it delivered to your favorite branch for pickup.

Near instant gratification, and it's FREE. The Chicago Public Library catalog search bookmarklet is an excellent tool that will help you take advantage of CPL's many resources, enriching your life at no cost to you. That's a money-saving tip I can get behind.

Find out how to download the Chicago Public Library Look-Up bookmarklet, and spread the word.

Help the Environment, Help Literacy

2008-09-08T17:27:11Z

You know how Whole Foods rewards you for bringing your own shopping by giving you ten cents back on your total purchase? Now, instead of just helping the environment with your conscientiousness, you can also help improve literacy. When you go to Whole Foods now through October 31, you can request that your dime be given to Open Books, a local non-profit bookstore and literacy community. This applies to five of the Whole Foods locations in Chicago (excluding the Cicero location). It's an easy way to do two good things at one time.

Event Spotlight: Junot Diaz & Open Book Swap

2008-09-08T12:04:55Z

This week there are two great events for you to attend. The first is Writers on the Record, which is hosted by Victoria Lautman and this month features Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The talk is free and takes place on Friday at 6pm at the Harold Washington Library.

The second event is a Book Swap put on by the great people at Open Books. It's a great way to get rid of some of the books that are cluttering up your shelves and to pick up some new reads to take their places. The Swap takes place on Saturday from 10am-2pm at the North Lakeside Cultural Center, 6219 N. Sheridan Rd. Email info[at]open-books[dot]org for more information.

Weekend Event Alert: Orange Alert Press Book Release Party

2008-09-05T01:32:17Z

New kid on the block Orange Alert Press, founded by Gapers Block staffer Jason Behrends, is celebrating the release of its first novel, Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine by Ben Tanzer, this Saturday, Sept. 6, at DvA Gallery. The event begins at 6pm and is scheduled to include music by various artists and readings by writers Jill Summers, Tim Hall, Jason Fisk, Nick Ostdick and, of course, Ben Tanzer. DvA Gallery is located at 2568 N. Lincoln Ave. For more information, visit the Orange Alert Press website.

Book Site of the Week: Publishers Marketplace Bookstore Maps

2008-09-04T19:38:59Z

Publishers Marketplace now has Bookstore Maps, an excellent new tool that allows you to find "independent, specialty, chain and college bookstores throughout the country, and survey the book retail landscape in any region." You can search by store name, state or zip code, but they also have a number of regional maps, including one for the Chicago area. The Chicago map currently lists 139 stores, from 57th Street Books in Hyde Park to Wonderland Books & Toys in Rockford, Ill. Stores are also color-coded, indicating whether it is a chain store, college bookstore, independent or specialty bookshop. Very nicely done. Check it out.

Happy 100th Birthday, Richard Wright

2008-09-04T15:26:49Z

I wish I could say we planned this—wait, yes, we totally planned this—but Richard Wright was born 100 years ago today. The Writer's Almanac marks the occasion, and you can celebrate with us on Monday when we meet to discuss his best-known novel, Native Son.

Native Son Discussion Questions

2008-09-03T12:33:00Z

Below are the questions we'll use to discuss Richard Wright's Native Son. Feel free to post answers in the comments (spoilers are allowed) or join us on Monday, September 8, when we'll discuss it in person at the Book Cellar.

Is Bigger Thomas a character we are supposed to pity or sympathize with? How does the brutality of his acts affect your feelings toward him?
What effect does the author create with the opening scene? How does this enhance your knowledge of Bigger's life? What effect, if any, does the black rat add?
Was Mary's death an accident or murder? Does Bigger act "smart" in how he attempts to conceal it? Does he have any other real way he could have gotten out of the situation?
Is what Bigger does to Bessie worse than what he does to Mary? Do you think he will be tried for his crimes against Bessie?
Is Bigger's trial a fair one? How does racism affect the judicial process in the book? What role does the media play in determining "justice"?
What role does blindness play in the story? Is there anyone other than Mrs. Dalton that you would say is blind?
Much of the story is very monochromatic - Wright describes characters and objects as black or white in many scenes. How does affect your reading of the story?
Why does Max choose the line of defense that he does? What are his goals? How does he try to implicate Mr. Dalton as a contributor to the crime?
Why does the preacher attempt to bring Bigger closer to God and why does he fail?
Has Bigger changed at all by the end of the book? Is there anything to admire about him? Does the author intend for us to relate to Bigger as a human or has he made him an embodiemnt of social and political forces?
Does the book seem dated in its depiction of racism? Have we moved beyond the rage and hostility that exists between whites and blacks in the book? Could our culture still produce a figure like Bigger Thomas?

Briefly Noted

2008-08-30T17:05:11Z

• Marcus Sakey and Michael Harvey both get high-fives for their latest crime novels in the Tribune.

• The Night Bookmobile makes a mysterious appearance at Wrigley Field in the latest installment of Audrey Niffenegger's illustrated story in the Guardian.

• Also, Aleksandar Hemon reads from The Lazarus Project and talks about the book in the Guardian podcast.