Listen to HouseSmarts Radio on WGN each Saturday morning at 6 am.

Listen to HouseSmarts Radio on WGN each Saturday morning at 6 am.

Listen to HouseSmarts Radio on WGN each Saturday morning at 6 am.

Live coverage featuring John Williams in the WGN Radio studios on the 18th floor of our building at the corner of Wacker and Columbus and intern Kaleigh Ibarra along the Chicago River:

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John Williams (weekdays 10am-2pm, including The Noon Business Lunch, plus the Mincing Rascals podcast)

Little Blue Dot – How GPS Shaped The Modern World, Katherine Dunn (Bloomsbury). Is it okay to recommend a book based on the first 50 pages?  I just started this book and am so enjoying the first 100 pages.  As the title suggests, Dunn explores the evolution and spread of this technology.  She starts tales of James Bond films and takes you through gripping accounts of radio beams used in WWII, the Streisand Effect, iPhones, drones and more.  Breezy, smart, eye-opening, and accessible.

Regime Change,  Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump – Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (Simon and Schuster). On our Mincing Rascals podcast I gave this book a Yellow Light.  It’s gripping, fly-on-the-wall reporting of how the Trump administration functions and does not function.  You’ve heard some these stories before, but not in this details.  And while there are plenty of revelations to us casual news consumers, it can be depressing as you’re reminded of the daily follies of Trump 2.0.

Healing the Gun Violence Epidemic, University of Chicago Medicine Trauma Center Director Dr. Selwyn Rogers Jr. (Penguin Random House). That’s a depressing title but you cannot help but appreciate – be encouraged by – the brains and bravado and compassion of this Chicago physician. His book details the lives and gunshot wounds of Chicagoans who come into his hospital. The challenges of patching these victims up is one thing; his ideas to curb the violence are another. The requirements include more violence interruption, personal connections and the money and will to do them. (Budgets, he says, are moral documents.)  He doesn’t have a magic wand but one can be glad that, shy of that, we have people like him.

Bob Kessler (news)

The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh (2026) by James Lasdun
A thorough and thoughtful document of these horrible crimes. He doesn’t ponder ‘if’ Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son, as much as ‘why’ and ‘how.’ The latter is a matter of speculation because the precise details of the murders is mired in lies and a lack of certain conclusive evidence. The former will forever remain incomprehensible, even though the book goes to great lengths to detail the tragedy. 

Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump (2026) by Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan
This provides an in-depth account of the many consequential actions of the Trump administration’s first year of its second term. If you follow political news, you might be familiar with much of it. This, however, puts it all in a single chronicle that provides a deeper context and perspective.

The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest (2026) by Aubrey Hartman
It’s an allegorical fable, about anthropomoriphic animals in the afterlife on the theme of grief and loss. Full of wisdom, intelligence, heart, and, most importantly, soul. The intended audience might be grade schoolers, but for this adult reader, it spoke to me like few other novels ever have.  I wanted to re-read it as soon as I put it down.

By the Bootstraps (2026) by Alexa Martin
I’m not normally a romance reader but I picked this one up because of the strong reviews. It’s an elevated Hallmark-style romance about a young woman who leaves her old life behind and moves to a new, unfamiliar place with hopes of resetting her life. She learns that even if you change where you are, it doesn’t totally erase your past. She learns that one needs to reconcile with their traumas, even if they’re not of their own doing. Issues around race, privilege, addiction, family strife all play into the story with likable characters and charm. Of course there’s a happy ending. But she skillfully portrays it equally as a ‘happy beginning.’

Steve Alexander (agribusiness reporter and host of The Business of Food)

Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
If you’re going to commit your life to being a radical revolutionary, do your kids a favor and don’t have them. This is a brilliant memoir by the son of Weather Underground founders Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. 
It’s a well-told, painful at times, story of a childhood on the run as his mother was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for her efforts to overthrow the U.S. government. He tells how he and his brothers were often awakened in the middle of the night to move to a new home, and how they were trained at an early age to recognize undercover police officers who might have been looking for his parents.
It’s a fascinating book, especially to people with faint memories of the Weathermen’s bombing campaigns of the ’60s and ’70s, the Black Liberation Army, the Black Panthers, Yippies, Chicago Seven, and other resistance groups. It’s thoroughly researched, and Chicago plays a big role, partly because his dad, Bill Ayers, grew up in Glen Ellyn, and became a distinguished professor at U.I.C., and partly because of the anti-government protests that were centered here.

Several books by D. D. Black
While waiting for my library holds to come through, I stumbled across “free” crime fiction (free with my Audible subscription) by D.D. Black.  There are about a dozen in the “Thomas Austin” series, and another one or two books that are standalones.  All are well crafted, just as good as anything from the likes of Michael Connelly and David Baldacci.

Steve Bertrand (host of Steve Bertrand on Books podcast, retired after over 40 years as a WGN Radio news anchor and reporter)

Hope House by Joe Bond
Hope House is described as “a beautiful portrait of masculinity that is as tender as it is profane”. That comes from the Southern Review of Books. But it might also be considered a love letter from father to son. The son in this case is author Joe Bond. His dad ran group homes for young men and boys in Kentucky in the 80s and 90s and, much of the time, Joe was there with him.
In the book we meet people like Karvel, who walks in an aura of leadership; Damico, who makes up a story about being a father in an effort to impress; and Smoove, a young man shot in the feet after a drug deal who turns to God for comfort, if not a steady gait.
This is a beautiful story about the community of young men and efforts of strangers to save them.

Should the Waters Take Us Stephanie Soileau
The Mississippi Delta and the Cajuns who live off it are disappearing. In Should the Waters Take Us, author Stephanie Soileau traces the Acadian people from France to Quebec to Louisiana, the so-called Cajun Trail of Tears. Set mostly in the days of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and after Katrina, we follow Boy Broussard, whose family started its journey from France in the 1600s. Today, he’s living off the land of his ancestors but finding it increasingly difficult, given the storms, the oil, and the growing call of the outside world. This is a heartfelt story told with the sentiment of impending loss.

Kaitlin Gajewicz (WGN Radio Summer Producer / Reporter)

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Erik Larson’s incredible ability to blend in-depth historical writing with a thriller storyline is unmatched. The Devil in the White City parallels the story of the men who built Chicago World’s Fair, while also following the true story of serial killer H. H. Holmes. If Chicago is your home, the story details many of the city’s famous architectural buildings that you may walk past every day. I really enjoyed gaining a deeper understanding of the city, while also staying engaged through its multiple captivating storylines. 

The Compound by Aisling Rawle

This dystopian novel quickly enveloped me through its “Hunger-Games” spin to a dating show. Rawle follows the relationships and personality types between twenty contestants who are put in an isolated compound and must work together to survive, while also competing to be the last couple standing. This is Rawle’s first novel and I will undoubtedly be waiting for her next release after I was unable to put The Compound down. 

Sara Tieman (promotions & public relations manager emeritus and station book club international correspondent)

Life: A Love Story (2026) – Elizabeth Berg

At just over 200 pages, this is a slim novel that packs an emotional, weighty punch. The book centers around the lively 92-year-old Flo who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. However, she doesn’t let that stop her from helping neighbors, making new friends, doing things for the first time (getting a pedicure!), and reminiscing about belongings in her home that might look like ordinary things at first glance, but have extraordinary meaning in Flo’s life. Widowed and childless, Flo shares her stories and instructions in letters written to Ruthie who grew up next door and, as a surrogate daughter, will inherit Flo’s house and belongings. As the title suggests, this is a love story about a life lived. You’ll fall in love with Flo and share in her heartbreaks and joie de vivre. Fun side note – author Elizabeth Berg currently resides in Chicago so she’s a “hometown” author! 

The Names (2025) – Florence Knapp

I was a bit late to the party on this one as this bestseller was released last year. It’s an interesting concept, exploring the weightiness in names, their meanings, and the responsibility of naming children. Cora is heading to register the name of her new son. Her controlling, abusive husband wants the baby named “Gordon” after him. Her daughter Maia suggests the name “Bear.” And Cora chooses “Julian.” Ducking into the boy’s life every seven years, the narrative follows three versions of a life he could have lived under each of those three names and the consequences those names had both on the boy and his family. The story is well-paced and the writing style is conversational and casual, but I will caution that reading about domestic abuse suffered by Cora is harrowing and uncomfortable and may be a trigger for some readers.  

Mad Mabel (2025) – Sally Hepworth

This book features another character to fall in love with – the grumpy 81-year-old Elsie Fitzpatrick who lives a quiet life on a suburban street until she finds her elderly next door neighbor dead and herself the new owner of his chihuahua Nugget. When the police learn Elsie called him her nemesis and was the one to find the body, someone uncovers Elsie’s true identity – “Mad Mabel” as she was known and the youngest person in Australia convicted of murder. When Elsie is given the opportunity to share her true story for a documentary by YouTubers, it’s her chance for justice and redemption. The narrative is divided into “then” and “now” chapters with Elsie’s past told through flashbacks. The supporting cast is memorable, especially the 7-year-old persistent Persephone who names “Elsa” her best friend and Daphne, Elsie’s childhood best friend. Elsie is the type of character you root for and the story offered a few surprising twists that I didn’t predict. 

Night People: How to Be a DJ in ’90s New York City (2025) – Mark Ronson

I always thought being a DJ would be the coolest thing in the world and I secretly wanted to be one. A handful of years ago, I got my wish when a friend of mine asked me to play the music at her wedding reception. All the songs came through my iPod and I’d cue up selections based on the dance floor and take requests. That digital experience and even my extensive music library pales in comparison to standing behind “two turntables and a microphone” (thanks Beck) and the dizzying technical and music knowledge Mark Ronson writes about in his memoir. Yes, he’ll name drop many famous names, but likely not the ones you (or I) might be expecting. This is Ronson’s origin story, growing up and forever being a night person, from his parents’ late night parties in London to partying in New York City’s clubs. Privilege got him far (connected parents, stepdad is Mick Jones of Foreigner), but he had the drive and hustle. Night dwelling is gritty and Ronson doesn’t shy away from the details of drugs, race, class, brawls, digging through vinyl crates, and ferrying heavy equipment.  As the book’s title suggests, this is a moment in time captured in an era without the surveillance and documentation we live with today. Bonus – Ronson’s book includes a QR code that takes you to the book’s playlist and it’s an immersive and impressive scroll. 

David hosts “Home Sweet Home Chicago” on Saturdays from 10am to 1pm on WGN Radio. You can call him at 855-56-David, or check out the Team Hochberg website.

Listen to HouseSmarts Radio on WGN each Saturday morning at 6 am.

Liz Shulman is the author of the forthcoming ‘By the Book: Inside Today’s Tech-Driven Classroom and How Literature Can Save Our Students‘ from Prometheus Books