Category Archives: Book Club

Online Book Club: The South Side

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I’m pleased and honored to have a new book review published on Escape Into Life, this one looking at Chicago reporter Natalie Moore’s 2016 book The South Side. I finished this book back on Martin Luther King Day, which seemed fitting, and I mentioned it briefly in this space at the time. The new piece on EIL is more complete—and also written mostly in complete sentences, so I’m right proud of myself.

One suggestion I make in the review is that The South Side would be a great book to read with a discussion group. It’s chockfull of thought-provoking interviews, data and personal stories, and raises a lot of serious issues that deserve discussion. I actually wrote down a few questions to ponder as I was reading it, and I offer those up here for anyone who interested in fueling a discussion. Bring these questions along with your own to your book group’s meeting—or, if you’re not reading The South Side with a book group, offer your answers for discussion here. Continue reading →

Themes, themes, everywhere themes

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“Thinking back on her own life, she couldn’t say exactly at which crossroads she’d chosen the wrong path, the path that had made her the woman she was now, the woman she saw in the mirror before her.”

–Maurizio de Giovanni
Darkness for the Bastards of Pizzofalcone

This is not the kind of sentence I expect to read in a crime novel. But there it was, near the end, near the point at which all is to be revealed, the “Whodunnit?” question answered.

It jarred me, made me look inside myself, revisit themes that already were on my mind after finishing The Book of Joy—these themes: owning your decisions (and indecision); acknowledging responsibility for your own life and actions; making your life and world the best you can make them, no matter what comes at you that is beyond your control. Continue reading →

Choosing joy

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The puppy stopped suddenly, coming up short when he realized what he wanted was gone.

The younger, and far less dominant, of two dogs, he had been playing joyfully with a toy, shaking it and tossing it around, when it flew from his mouth and hit the floor with a thud. It caught the attention of the older, larger dog, who quickly grabbed it off the floor and walked away with it.

And just like that, the toy was gone.

This is a true story, which I tell because of what the little dog did next. His face took on a stunned look, and he stood motionless, silent, for a couple of seconds. I could practically see him thinking about what had just happened, and whether or how he should respond. Then shaking his head slightly, his face restored its happy puppy brightness, and he ran off to grab a different toy. Continue reading →