Chicago, Chicago that toddlin' town, there's no place like Chicago

It seems the stars are lining up just right for the city of Chicago these days. First, there is the meteoric rise of Barack Obama. The story is made of the stuff of legends.

And the White Sox are winning. And the Cubs are winning (although we all know that can't possibly last). And the 2016 Summer Olympic bid is well on its way. And then there is this.

From the entertainment page comes news that "August: Osage County," the hit drama for Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company and a 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner, is the odds-on favorite to win the Tony Award for best play.

On the food page is the news that Grant Achatz of Chicago's Alinea restaurant has been named the country's top chef by the James Beard Foundation.

It just goes on. Politics, sports, entertainment and food. Yep, it is all lining up for Chicago. Let us hope it lasts. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

Jim Lehrer casts satirical eye at America's heartland

Mack to the Rescue is Jim Lehrer's new book, available now at Reading on Walden Bookstore.

When he’s not anchoring the NewsHour on PBS, Jim Lehrer may be found casting a satirical eye at America’s heartland in such books as Crown Oklahoma and The Sooner Spy. Mack to the Rescue is the latest of his successful One-Eyed Mack novels. Set in Oklahoma and tracing the exploits of a fictional lieutenant governor, the series allows Lehrer to address contemporary national issues with a unique blend of humor and insight. Rife with Oklahoma-isms and brimming with memorable characters, Mack to the Rescue employs ironic twists and sharp dialogue to poke fun at government foibles. Inventive and hilarious, it demonstrates once again that Lehrer knows Middle America and its ways all too well.

Books by political bloggers and other influential writers

Here are a few "must read" books by some bloggers and other prominent writers. And for those of you who don't know me, they all have a tendency to be left-leaning (that's an understatement).

The first is a new release by the "editor-in-chief" of the Huffington Post, blogger Arianna Huffington, who operates one of the most popular political blogs. Arianna tackles the issues at the heart of the 2008 presidential election with her trademark passion, intelligence, and devastating wit, according to her publisher's press release. The new book is called Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe (and What You Need to Know).

Next is a book by a co-founder of The American Prospect magazine, Robert Kuttner. The book is called The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity. Rober Kuttner has written for BusinessWeek, The Boston Globe and The American Prospect, and Kuttner has established himself as one of the most lucid economic and political critics. Now he delves deeper, illuminating how the elhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifite domination of American politics makes society less democratic and prosperous, according to his publisher. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

Abigail and John Adams: A Love Story and Dearest of Friends

Order this book today.
The recent success of the HBO series seven-part mini-series, John Adams, has stirred interest in John Adams and Abigail Adams. Check out this book of letters of these two friends and lovers, John and Abigail. The letters were often addressed to "My Dearest Friend."

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE PUBLISHERS COMMENT:
Separated more often than they were together over a 40-year span, John and Abigail Adams shared their lives through letters that each addressed to "My Dearest Friend." This new collection invites readers to experience the founding of a nation and the partnership of two strong individuals, in their own words.

Part of a short interview with Margaret Hogan Host: Chris Gondek ] Producer: Heron & Crane

In 1762, John Adams penned a flirtatious note to "Miss Adorable," the 17-year-old Abigail Smith. In 1801, Abigail wrote to wish her husband John a safe journey as he headed home to Quincy after serving as president of the nation he helped create. The letters that span these nearly forty years form the most significant correspondence--and reveal one of the most intriguing and inspiring partnerships--in American history.

As a pivotal player in the American Revolution and the early republic, John had a front-row seat at critical moments in the creation of the United States, from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to negotiating peace with Great Britain to serving as the first vice president and second president under the U.S. Constitution. Separated more often than they were together during this founding era, John and Abigail shared their lives through letters that each addressed to "My Dearest Friend," debating ideas and commenting on current events while attending to the concerns of raising their children (including a future president).

Full of keen observations and articulate commentary on world events, these letters are also remarkably intimate. This new collection--including some letters never before published--invites readers to experience the founding of a nation and the partnership of two strong individuals, in their own words. This is history at its most authentic and most engaging.

These are a few of my favorite books, Volume 2

To order Dreams from My Father, click here.
This is my second posting in a series about "some of my favorite books," and hopefully about some of yours. I am writing a book about my bookstore years and one of the predominant themes is "books that transform." There is one book that transformed my life, that book is Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama. It was this book that personally connected Michelle and I to Barack Obama back in late 1999, when we got involved in his campaign for Congress.

This book is one of the best memoirs written and established Barack Obama as a "master of prose." As many know, Obama writes most of his own speeches, such the "The Speech" that he delivered at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. While Obama has surprised America, our own community has been the least surprised having gotten to know him during two of his campaigns in 2000 and and in 2004. In campaigns, our community, East Beverly, played a key role.

Here is what Publishers Weekly said in 1995 when the book was first released.

From Publishers Weekly
Elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama was offered a book contract, but the intellectual journey he planned to recount became instead this poignant, probing memoir of an unusual life. Born in 1961 to a white American woman and a black Kenyan student, Obama was reared in Hawaii by his mother and her parents, his father having left for further study and a return home to Africa. So Obama's not-unhappy youth is nevertheless a lonely voyage to racial identity, tensions in school, struggling with black literature?with one month-long visit when he was 10 from his commanding father. After college, Obama became a community organizer in Chicago. He slowly found place and purpose among folks of similar hue but different memory, winning enough small victories to commit himself to the work?he's now a civil rights lawyer there. Before going to law school, he finally visited Kenya; with his father dead, he still confronted obligation and loss, and found wellsprings of love and attachment. Obama leaves some lingering questions? Is his mother is virtually absent? And yet he still has written a resonant book.

That is part of the story I will be telling in my upcoming book, yet to-be-published book with the working title of "Reading on Walden Bookstore: How an Ordinary Bookstore Made Extraordinary." Stay tuned.