Murder, intrigue, history, war & politics
Our annual book issue featuring local books and authors
This year’s crop of Illinois books and Illinois authors is particularly rich and interesting.
To put Illinoisans in the spirit of the season, University of Illinois Press offers Christmas in Illinois: A Collection of Holiday Memories, Recipes and Images. There are memories of Christmas in Kaskaskia in 1700, an 1860 Christmas brawl in Springfield, and West Frankfort’s Black Christmas of 1951 when 119 were killed in a coal mine disaster. Happier memories are in the eating section, where an essayist writes, “We ate until we couldn’t move, returning the shared language of love our grandmothers understood.”
Abraham Lincoln was an Illinois reader, as Robert Bray details in one of two Lincoln books offered by Southern Illinois University Press and reviewed here. The
contrasting images of Lincoln reading a borrowed and worn edition of Shakespeare in New Salem, and a finely bound edition in the White House tells a story of the man’s rise, aided by literature.
The days when you could order a precut home from a catalogue are recalled in Corinne Frisch’s review of Sears Homes of Illinois, and we’ve included addresses where you can find Sears homes in Springfield. There’s more local history in the new Arcadia Press photo book, Route 66 in Springfield, reviewed along with Illinois Times columnist Tara McClellan McAndrew’s Stories of Springfield.
And there’s plenty more here for Illinois book lovers. The books of Illinois, taken together, tell the story of the state. That story of those books starts here. –Fletcher Farrar, editor
Contents
13 Reading with Lincoln by Robert Bray reviewed by Julie Cellini
14 Sears Homes of Illinois by Rosemary Thornton reviewed by Corrine Frisch
15 Lincoln and Darwin:
Shared Visions of Race, Science, and Religion by James Lander reviewed by Julie Cellini
16 Christmas in Illinois edited by James Ballowe reviewed by Julianne Glatz
17 Dapper and Dangerous: The True Story of Black Charlie Harris by Taylor Pensoneau reviewed by Patrick Yeagle
18 Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The secret legacy of coal in the heartland by Jeff Biggers reviewed by Rachel Wells
20 Illinois Politics:
A Citizen’s Guide by James D. Nowlan, Samuel K. Gove and Richard J. Winkel Jr. reviewed by Robert E. Hartley
21 The Legend of Lovea Duval by Mike Shepherd reviewed by Job Conger
22 Rt. 66 in Springfield by Cheryl Eichar Jett reviewed by Corrine Frisch
22 Stories of Springfield by Tara McClellan McAndrew reviewed by Corrine Frisch
