Books | Thursday, April 15,2004

Good humor

There should be a warning sign for anyone venturing down nostalgia way: "Caution! Platitudes ahead." Why must reminiscences punish the present to paint the past as more precious? In his memoir Now, W

Books | Thursday, March 25,2004

Books, briefly noted

By Corrine Frisch

Admit it. When you think of the literary capitals of the world, Springfield doesn't leap to the top of the list. But beginning on Saturday, Springfield shines like a literary luminary on the pr

Books | Thursday, March 11,2004

Literature lovers have a choice tonight

By Corrine Frisch

Like a man to double business bound I stand in pause where I shall first begin. Claudius in Act III of Hamlet Where to be or not to be? Tonight, March 11, two downtown libraries offer excellent

Books | Thursday, March 4,2004

Celebrate Kingsolver’s work at “Together We Read” kick-off on Friday

By Corrine Frisch

One book. One city. In 1998, the Washington Center for the Book posed the question --"What if all Seattle read the same book?" Six years later we have the definitive answer. If the people in Se

Books | Thursday, February 12,2004

If you feel meddlesome, it may be time to sample the crumpets

By Corrine Frisch

Janet Jackson's brazen bust-baring before millions of football fans, dubbed by one pundit "a tempest in a C-cup," got me wondering. Not about the fall of western civ as we know it, but about wh

Books | Thursday, January 15,2004

Look at U.S. Senators is a valuable, though uneven, political history

By Bob Sampson

Most Illinoisans could only reply with a blank expression if asked to identify the likes of Jesse Burgess Thomas or Richard Montgomery Young or Otis Ferguson Glenn or James M. Slattery. Yet, at one t

Books | Wednesday, December 24,2003

Veteran’s story teaches every life holds extraordinary moments

By Corrine Frisch

Since Sept. 11, 2001, it has become commonplace to see signs outside stores, restaurants, and union halls proclaiming "God Bless America" (often followed by various non sequiturs such as "Fish Fry Fri

Books | Thursday, December 11,2003

Biography offers new insights into Springfield poet

By Sam B. Davis

Job Conger's Strange Gold is a recent effort to encapsulate the life of Springfield's most famous poetic son, Vachel Lindsay. Conger wisely does not attempt to outdo previous authors. Lacking the cred

Books | Wednesday, November 26,2003

A call to conserve what remains of Illinois natural habitats

By Corrine Frisch

When the everyday grind gets to be too much, some of us fantasize a bucolic life, picturing ourselves tucked into a little country place full of birds and sunshine. The irony of this particular fantas

Books | Thursday, November 13,2003

What the Dickens! A site devoted to his public readings

By Corrine Frisch

Charles Dickens would have loved the Internet. To the boy who worked in the boot-blacking factory, the digital highway would have been an endless piece of paper and a bottomless pot of ink. Dickens ne