Chicago author Christine Sneed is the author of three novels, Portraits of A Few of the People I've Made Cry, Little Known Facts, and most recently Paris, He Said. Her short stories have been published in a variety of places including Best American Short Stories, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, New England Review and Ploughshares. She received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in poetry, is the recipient of the 2013 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and her books have won a variety of prizes including Ploughshares'  John C. Zacharis prize, Book of the Year by the Chicago Writers Association, Midland Authors Award, and Booklists top ten debut novels. Christine lives in Evanston, IL and teaches creative writing for the MFA programs at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.

In the Prime of Their Lives
by Christine Sneed

Before I started teaching writing courses during graduate school in the mid-90s, it wasn’t clear to me just how much work – both inside and outside the classroom – teaching required, especially if you were at the helm of literature or writing courses, which often oblige teachers to read and prepare hundreds of pages of assigned texts each week.  But the most arduous work, many would agree, is the reading and critiquing of student papers.  All those pages, some of them barely intelligible!  How did three of the best teachers I’ve ever known – Mr. Weber, Mr. Kraft, and Mrs. MacDonald, three English teachers I studied with in high school – ever keep up, year after year, with the ceaseless onslaught of our essays on Billy Budd, The Canterbury Tales, and A Separate Peace?

It’s been almost thirty years since those now-distant English classes at Libertyville High School, the Reaganomics-haunted years when I shuffled through the crowded hallways wearing the inadvisable fashions of the times:  shiny rayon shirts with shoulder pads, mini-skirts, and Jordache jeans, my hair feathered and lacquered with too much AquaNet, but I still think about these influential teachers often.

All those frigid winter mornings when Mr. Weber had to drive the hour round-trip (oh, the monotony of that drive!) from the home he shared with his wife and three sons in Waukegan to stand before our classroom and teach us every day of the school year.  And he did it uncomplainingly, with the same sunny temperament and sense of wonder for the readings he carefully chose from our big omnibus textbooks – The Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, An Enemy of the People, short stories by John Updike and Mark Twain, the poetry of Anne Bradstreet.  I remember feeling, even in my self-absorbed, barely coherent teenage brain, an excited curiosity about these writers and their enduring work that Mr. Weber (and before him, Mr. Kraft, and after him, Mrs. MacDonald) seemed effortlessly to engender in my classmates and me.  He loved them and so, of course, we had to love them too.

The most suspenseful days were those when he returned our essays with his careful blue-inked handwriting, discussing the more inspired papers as he handed them back.  I wonder if he missed us after we graduated and wondered in turn what we would do with our lives – who among us would disappoint him, or more opportunely, impress and gladden him?  As I eventually learned, he remembers dozens of his former students so clearly and can recite our now-ancient essay topics back to us.  I’ve had lunch with him several times in the last ten years or so, and he remembers much more than I do – more proof that he was always awake and present each day, a quality that seems to be a rarer and rarer one as time passes and we take on the habits of iPhone addicts and Facebook junkies.

Perhaps it is a platitude to write about influential teachers, but it is, I think, a permissible and necessary one.  Grateful students should tell the teachers who encouraged them to go forth and be generous and curious, to open a book instead of turning on the TV, that they are very glad these teachers exist, and that they matter as much as they ever have.

Many of the teachers I studied with at Libertyville High School are people I still feel as if I must not disappoint: among others, Madame Sugarman who taught me French, which became my major in college, and Mr. Estep whose psychology and history classes were as interesting and riveting as a great film.  Their steadfastness and kindness, their ability to suppress cynicism when inevitably it must have arisen – I think of them and wonder if they are happy, if they know the good they did.

In The Third Coast, we learn about neighborhoods and stories you might not see on the front page of the newspapers. Chicagoans frequently have their own favorite “hidden gems” in their neighborhoods – the playlot with a great swing set that’s never crowded, the dive bar with the best bartender in town, the pedway shortcut that gets you from your office to the train in two minutes or less, or the restaurant with out-of-this-world egg rolls, pizza or bar-b-que.  (The Winter Garden at our own Harold Washington Library Center is a commonly mentioned “hidden gem” of Chicago!)

For this mission, let us know - what’s your favorite hidden gem or secret spot in your neighborhood?

Answer the question here or tweet us your favorite at @1book1chicago - feel free to share a photo of your favorite place too!

All participants will be entered to win a gift certificate to a local bookstore, as well as a chance at the grand prize, an iPad.

Deadline: Sunday, December 13, 2015 at 11:59 p.m

Jessie Ann Foley is a teacher and writer whose first novel, The Carnival at Bray, was the recipient of a Kirkus starred review and the Sheehan Prize in Young Adult fiction. It was also selected as a 2015 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, and as a finalist for the 2015 William C. Morris YA Debut Award. She holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, and her work has appeared in Salon.com, The Madison Review, Midwestern Gothic, McSweeney’s, the Chicago Reader, Writer’s Digest, Hypertext, xoJane.com,Sixfold, Great Lakes Cultural Review and other magazines. She lives with her husband and children in her native Chicago, where she is at work on a second novel.

Chicago: The City That Gives by Jessie Ann Foley

On the Fourth of July, 2014, after the sun went down and the pyromaniacs of the neighborhood had gathered in the alleys to launch their illegal fireworks, my husband and I walked to our local bar for a drink. It was a hot night, the air hazy with sulfur and humidity, though maybe it was just me who felt hazy, having not quite adjusted to the total life-change of motherhood, of sleeplessness, of the tidal wave of anxious, consuming love that my six-week-old daughter had created in me.

My in-laws were babysitting, and this was one of our first nights out without her. Her: we rarely called the baby by her actual name; that kind of specificity was unnecessary. Like God, she was so encompassing in the world of our house that she needed no other description or designation. And it did feel, in fact, like our house had become the world, a small, isolated planet containing nothing but a spit up-stained couch, a wheezing breast pump, and a television that we never watched but also never turned off. At the center of this world was a seven pound human with a wise little face and a swirl of soft fuzz across the crown of her head, who had lately taken to waving her arms with frantic joy for no reason at all.

I’d never experienced a kind of love quite like this; still, as we shut the front door and headed out in the night, my husband and I high-fived each other like giddy high school kids who had successfully snuck out of the house. When we sat down at the counter and ordered our drinks, we got to talking to the bartender. Like all new parents, we gushed about our daughter and insisted she look at several of the 800 pictures we’d taken of her.

“It’s the best thing that will ever happen to you,” the bartender said, peering at my phone screen over her reading glasses. “Children give you such happiness. But you can kiss your freedom goodbye.”

She certainly wasn’t the first person to say this to us. Throughout my first pregnancy, I met a chorus of well-meaning advice, saying essentially the same thing: you lose your freedom, but it’s worth it. And now here we were, free to have a drink and an uninterrupted adult conversation for the first time in a long time, and what were we doing? Whipping out our phones and scrolling through pictures of our baby, cooing and awing more than actually conversing. Parenthood had invaded our hearts, and never again would we be able to walk down to the Friendly Tavern and drink there all night without consequence or guilt. Spontaneity, and the romance inherent in that, was gone from our lives. We would never be out again in quite the same way. The feeling was both frightening and wonderful.

In George Saunders' famous commencement speech to graduates of Syracuse University, he told the audience, “as you get older, your self will diminish and you will grow in love. YOU will gradually be replaced by LOVE. If you have kids, that will be a huge moment in your process of self-diminishment. You really won’t care what happens to YOU, as long as they benefit.” This self-diminishment is one of the greatest gifts our children give us. Having a child uncomplicates you. It unclutters your dreams. It used to be that in my prayers, and on birthday candles, fallen eyelashes, water fountains dotted with pennies, and stars, I would wish for various things for myself: a new job, a successful writing career, love. Now, all I ever wish for is that my two daughters have health and happiness.

We could have stayed for another drink that night—my in-laws were staying with us—but we didn’t. We didn’t know how to want to stay out all night anymore. And hours after we got home, while I lay with our daughter in the darkness and the clutter and the glow of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, wondering if I would ever get a full night’s sleep again, she looked up and smiled at me for the very first time.

Chicago author Leslie Parry is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her short stories have appeared in VQR, The Missouri Review, The Cincinnati Review, The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and elsewhere. Church of Marvels is her first novel.

My son is one week old. The morning he was born, I held him, delirious, and gazed out at the bell towers of Pilsen, the trailing smokestacks, the eely flicker of distant trains. At night, in the quiet of the hospital, we listened to the L rumble past – the only sound from the outside world – a steady lullaby that soothed my son to sleep. My husband said proudly that our boy is a Hot Dog Baby, Chicago-born.

Me, I’m a stubborn Californian, a desert native, at home with the Santa Anas and Pacific tides, unused to the frigid coat of winter, the white chill that hung above the city. As I lay in the hospital bed, staring out at the shrouded skyline, I thought: how did I end up here? I was sure I would live my life out in Los Angeles – not because it was superior to Chicago, but because Chicago never seemed to belong to me. It was the storied land of my grandfather, the paper-shoed southpaw turned grinding-wheel magnate, a place I’d first become acquainted with through his delightful den of chintz: Cubs bobbleheads and penny souvenirs, steakhouse swizzle-sticks, a music box that played That Toddlin’ Town. For most of my life, Chicago was a fable told by a man in a sherbet-colored dinner jacket, a man who ate shrimp cocktail on his Astroturf porch while the neon of Hollywood glimmered below.

Those early hours with my son, I remembered that my grandfather had been born just a few miles away, at Erie and Cicero. He grew up in a string of apartments around Austin, one of eight children. His mother worked as a domestic, cleaning houses, bringing in piecemeal sewing and wash; his father, who liked to remind everyone he was descended from a line of noble French fur-trappers, drifted in and out, drank away the boys’ paper route money. The family was always, as my grandfather put it, “one step ahead of the sheriff.” Their account at the grocer’s was never paid; they fled their flint-eyed landlords. Meals of cold rice in milk; cardboard shoes that turned to pulp in the muddy alleyways; a makeshift bed on the kitchen table, shared with brothers, sisters, bedbugs. Growing up, Grandpa said, “I thought everybody was poor.” Two of his siblings died young; the rest stuck close together, handing over every cent to their mother. He worked as an errand boy after school, delivered newspapers in the mornings, pitched for neighborhood baseball teams. (His arm was so strong that once, on his route, he broke a picture window with a lobbed Tribune.) To make ends meet, he and his brother boiled hot dogs in a bucket and sold them outside Wrigley Field. He dreamed of one day hitchhiking to Florida for spring training tryouts, but the family needed his earnings. Wiry and underfed, he graduated high school at 98 pounds. They called him Midge.

By the time I was born Midge was a self-made man, a world traveler, a jolly raconteur. Wherever he went he made friends – with waiters and cabbies, bellhops and bus-drivers. Treat every person the same, he told me, whether it’s the company president or a machine shop worker.  It doesn’t matter if you can’t be generous with money or fancy things. Give someone your ear, your shoulder, your compassion.

He left to make his fortune elsewhere, but he remained nostalgic for the place he was born. In saying goodbye, I understand now, he made sure the Hot Dog Baby would have a different kind of boyhood here. There will be Cubs games and lake swimming, frosted malts on summer days. For me, of course, Chicago is a charmed place – it’s the city where I fell in love; the city where I met my son. I used to wonder how my grandfather could remain so optimistic – how, without a hint of bitterness or cynicism, he could be fondest of the place where he’d struggled the most.

It’s because there are no bad days, he said to me. Some are just better than others.

Karen Chan is a financial educator and speaker. She partners with Illinois libraries to provide programs that help patrons make wiser decisions with their money. Her workshops cover high-stakes decisions such as investing in a 401(k), deciding when to take Social Security benefits and choosing a financial adviser.  Karen has been educating the public about financial topics for more than 20 years, first as a consumer economics educator with University of Illinois Extension and now through her own business, Karen Chan Financial Education & Consulting, LLC.As part of One Book, One Chicago, Karen has been working with Chicago Public Library to present workshops at neighborhood branches on the subject of charitable giving. To make the information available to everyone, we decided to devote a blog post to the topic.

Giving and Donating: Be Smart with Your Support

By Karen Chan

If you donate money, time, used items or valuable assets to a charitable organization, you owe it to the organization and to yourself to be wise about how you provide that support.

There are many reasons why we choose to support causes or groups: we want to better our community or the environment, it makes us feel good or we want the tax benefits. Whatever your motivation, how you provide that support determines whether you and those you want to help get the most benefit from your donation.

Evaluate

Three guidelines can help get the most impact for your dollar.

1. Give directly to a group rather than through a fundraiser to ensure less of your money is siphoned off before reaching those you want to help. According to Consumer Reports, fundraisers take between 40 percent and 80 percent of your donation before the money reaches its intended destination.
2. Choose an organization that uses most of its money for programs, not administration. Information about this is available from online charity evaluation tools:
   • Charity Navigator
   • CharityWatch (Requires donation for full access, but free information is helpful)
   • BBB Wise Giving Alliance
3. Choose programs with documented impact. Read annual reports, visit their websites or make site visits to see what they are really accomplishing.

You can see a great example of how Chicago Magazine applied these ideas in its Guide to Charitable Giving in Chicago for 2012.

Avoid Frauds and Scams

The IRS has named fake charities to their Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2016. Use these tips to be sure the group you choose to support is legitimate.

• Get the exact name. Is it one you recognize, or is it a sound-a-like? Search for the charity name online, combined with a term such as “scam,” “fraud” or “complaint” to see what others are saying about the group.
• Ask for details, including their address, phone, website and purpose.
• Verify that your contribution is deductible. Ask for the organization’s Employer Identification Number. Use that number to search for the organization on the IRS list of qualifying organizations, Exempt Organizations Select Check.
• Don’t donate cash or wire money to an organization. Legitimate groups will welcome your check or credit card payment.

If an organization uses any of these tactics, it could be an indication of a fraud or scam:

• Mentions a pledge you don’t remember making.
• Offers to send a delivery service to pick up your donation.
• Guarantees sweepstakes prizes or special treatment by police or other officials.

Scammers like to take advantage of our emotions after a recent tragedy, so be cautious if you’re approached to donate to help survivors or victims of a disaster.

Report Fraudsters

If you believe you have been the victim of a fraud or scam, speak up! There are several government agencies that may investigate an organization if they receive complaints.

• City of Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection: Call 311 or file your complaint online
• Illinois Attorney General: File your complaint online or call
  • Fraud hotline: (800) 386-5438
  • Chicago main office: (312) 814-3000
  • Chicago South: (773) 768-5926
  • Chicago West: (773) 265-8808
• Federal Trade Commission: (877) FTC-HELP or file your complaint online
• Better Business Bureau

Get Income Tax Benefits for Your Donation

Our tax system provides significant incentives for taxpayers who support charitable causes:

• You may be able to deduct the value of a donation if you itemize rather than taking the standard deduction.
• If you donate assets that have appreciated in value since you acquired them (such as stocks or works of art), you may be able to avoid paying tax on the increase in value.
• If you plan to leave some of your estate to charity at your death, choosing which assets to leave to charity and which assets to leave to others can reduce or avoid any income taxes your heirs might owe on assets such as retirement accounts.
• Taxpayers who are 70½ or older can make qualified charitable distributions from their IRAs by having distributions of up to $100,000 per year go directly to a qualified charity. This strategy provides a tax benefit by reducing taxable income, rather than taking a deduction, so it's particularly helpful for those who do not itemize deductions.

Donating to a charity can be as simple as dropping change into a boot at an intersection or a bucket when you enter a store. But it can also be as complex as setting up a charitable gift annuity or a charitable remainder trust. Taking the time to evaluate and choose the best way to make your donation means that you and the recipient will get the greatest benefit from your generosity.

Few things can take your mind off your sore muscles for that last 10 minutes on the exercise bike or the final climb on the StairMaster like a good story! That's right, we caught you reading at the gym this month. Let's take a look at what you were reading.

Slowly cycling along on the exercise bike while—ahem—we were waiting, we saw you leisurely reading The Story of the Lost Child, the fourth and final installment in Elena Ferrante's epic series examining the lives and friendship of two women, Lila and Elena.

The Story of the Lost Child is available in other formats.

Waiting outside the classroom doors for Zumba class to begin, we spied you reading the biography of a musician who probably was not featured on the soundtrack to that class, Jewel. Never Broken tells the story of the singer-songwriter's unconventional Alaskan upbringing and the trials and tribulations that shaped her life and songs.

Never Broken is available in other formats.

In the back row where the StairMaster machines are, you were climbing so hard you dropped your book, which let us steal a glance. Fodor's Peru made us think you might be climbing so hard now in preparation for climbing the stairs at Machu Picchu later this year!

We promise we weren't trying to distract you from perfecting your lifting technique when we crept over to the weights area to sneak a peek at the book hanging out of your duffle bag. It's no surprise you were interested in the story of a heavyweight brain, Mark Watney, also known as The Martian. When the astronaut finds himself stranded and alone on Mars, he has to use every bit of physical and mental strength to stay alive in this gripping story, recently made into an award-winning movie starring Matt Damon.

The Martin is available in other formats.

In the locker room waiting for lap swim to start, we spied you wrapped up in Tail Gait, the latest mystery from Rita Mae Brown and her cat "co-author" Sneaky Pie Brown. The latest installment in the Mrs. Murphy series, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen and her crime-solving pets—cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and dog Tee Tucker—set out to solve the murder of a beloved professor.

Tail Gait is available in other formats.

And, of course, we caught you reading magazines too: Runner's World, Rolling Stone, O and Chicago Magazine, to name a few. Find these titles and many more online in Zinio for Libraries.

David Welch teaches writing in DePaul University's English Department, where he is also the Coordinator of Literacy Outreach and Managing Editor of Big Shoulders Books. David also manages the longstanding partnership between DePaul and One Book, One Chicago. David's writing has appeared in AGNI, Indiana Review, Subtropics, and other journals.

Chicago: The City That Gives
by David Welch

I’ve a friend whose favorite salutation is “Have a magical day.” When we first met, I was perhaps inordinately charmed by the phrase. I hadn’t heard it before, or at least hadn’t remembered it. And I certainly hadn’t received it when heading home after meeting for a coffee or burgers. At first it threw me even as it made its warm impression. I’ve never been much for magic. As a kid, fantasy novels and movies never held my interest (my particular poison was SciFi and, though it’s luckily become a less age-peculiar interest as I’ve grown older, political thrillers). And so it’s not surprising that the novelty—if not the pleasantries—of the phrase began to fade.

If I think about it, my earliest, cognizant association with the word must have been the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe In Magic” playing on “Oldies” 104.3 as my father and I drove around the south suburbs of Chicago. I don’t remember birthday party magic shows. I don’t remember trying to unlock the mysteries behind Houdini’s tricks—though perhaps my memory has only played a trick on me and—poof!—disappeared. Nonetheless, I do remember those car rides and what sparked my interest in music: my father would quiz me on the names of songs and the artists singing them as each new tune played on the radio.

It’d be cliché, of course—and too saccharine, too hyperbolic—, to say now that those days were magical. And yet the memories of them last. They made, to say it simply, an impression. That’s what magic does: it impresses. And to do so, it relies on what isn’t seen.

Each Fall term at DePaul University, I teach a course that allows students to fulfill their Experiential Learning requirement in the University’s Liberal Studies Program. There are a number of ways students can fulfill this requirement beyond completing “Experiential Learning” designated course work: internships, study abroad programs, and research, to name a few. Not all of them are about giving, not all of them require service. But service is—increasingly, to my mind—the way students fulfill their JYEL requirement when choosing to do so through coursework. And so I think a lot about “buy-in”—about how to spark students to invest in the process of giving.

Of course, no one can require that someone be actually selfless. But what we can do is offer the opportunity to, let’s say, step into the background, to move behind the scenes where so much true giving happens. This is true figuratively for almost every service opportunity I can think of. But it’s also literally true in any number of cases. Here I think from my own experience of the fieldtrips at 826CHI, the flagship program of which hinges, in large part, on a volunteer engaging with students from behind a wall while playing the character of the reclusive, allergic to children, and at all points astoundingly cranky Admiral Moody of A. Moody Publishing. No matter how much Admiral Moody coughs and sputters and snuffles and grumbles, without the Admiral being hidden, it wouldn’t work.

In the end, the truth of it all is that many of these students already have experience with volunteerism separate from their lives at DePaul, even if only through a similar requirement completed during high school. So some of the work is already done for me as students already view it as part of their studies, or even, in the best cases, as simply part of their lives. So they already expect it. They know what it means to give, or at its base what the experience is. That, like magic, its success so often hinges on what isn’t seen.

Tiny houses are taking the nation by storm! Whether it is a desire to live more simply, a way to cut housing costs or concern for the environmental impacts of large homes, the tiny house trend continues to grow. Throughout this season of One Book, One Chicago, we've explored architecture, including making "really tiny houses" in the Maker Lab. Let's explore more about the tiny house movement with these five articles.

You can read these articles using CPL's Online Resources, but I've also noted if an article is available freely on the web.

"Tiny House, Big Benefits: Freedom from a Mortgage and Worries - and Stuff by Nina Patel
Washington Post, June 28, 2015 (also available on the Washington Post website)
This article looks at the various reasons people from retirees to globe-trotters choose to live in tiny houses.

"Small Wonder" by Steele Thomas Mardoux
Country Living, February 2015
Tiny house dweller Michelle Spiess, who co-founded the tiny house manufacturing company Tiny Heirloom Home, describes a day in the life of living in a tiny home.

"Tiny Homes to Call Their Own" by Michael J. Totten
Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2016 (also available on the Los Angeles Times website)
In Portland, Oregon, a group of homeless people created Dignity Village, a tiny house community that's working for them and for their city.

"Living the Simple Life" by Melissa Mylchreest
Cabin Living, March 2016
People who seek to build vacation homes are finding tiny houses to be a popular and affordable alternative to a traditional second home.

"7 Big Lessons from Tiny Homes" by Carley Lintz
Daily Herald, August 30, 2015 (also available on the Daily Herald website)
Even if living in a tiny house isn't practical for you, there are still lessons to be learned from those who are choosing to live a smaller and more simple lifestyle.

Keep learning with our Tiny Houses recommended reads, and don't forget to come to our Really Tiny House Competition and Block Party on April 28.

Throughout the 2015-2016 season of One Book, One Chicago, we've been exploring The Third Coast by Thomas Dyja. As the season draws to a close at the end of April, test your knowledge of this season's book with our quiz!

Test your expertise with our quiz by Tuesday, May 3, and you'll enter a drawing for a grand prize of a bag of books and an autographed copy of The Third Coast, or two runner up prizes of autographed copies of The Third Coast.

President Obama has announced the 2016 National Week of Making is June 17-23, but you don't have to go to Washington, D.C. to celebrate! You can attend a class here at the Maker Lab or at other Chicago locations, or check out a book and make something at home.

Making comes in all shapes and sizes—and forms. Whether you plan to knit a pair of socks, plant a garden, cook a meal or create a work of art, there's a book to help inspire you.

Street Craft showcases a new generation of artists and crafters who shape their communities through yarnbombing, light graffiti, street sculpture and guerilla gardening. Get some inspiration on how the art and crafts you create can make a statement in your community.

Almost everyone has to make at least a few meals a week, so why not try to make something different with a new recipe during the National Week of Making? Author Alice Randall and daughter Caroline's book Soul Food Love has dozens of delicious and healthy recipes to try.

Get ready for an upcoming baby shower by making something special for your new little friend. While it seems like people have been knitting items for little ones since the beginning of time, One-skein Wonders for Babies presents easy patterns for items you can actually finish making before the baby arrives!

Reuse old T-shirts and make them into new creations with DIY T-shirt Crafts, a book with over 50 different projects ranging from jewelry to home decor. Not only will you create something new, you'll avoid throwing those old T-shirts into a landfill, too.

If you're not sure where to start, but you'd like to make something that involves technology, check out The Big Book of Hacks. Written by experts at Popular Science magazine, the book has 250 different DIY tech projects to try.

Whatever you decide to make, we invite you to share it with us during the National Week of Making by posting a photo to social media using the hashtags #chicagomakes and #weekofmaking. You can also explore those hashtags to see what others are making around the city and nation!

The 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August and September. Test your Olympics knowledge with our quiz!

Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver's first nonfiction narrative will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

Since its release in May 2007, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has helped launch a modern transition in America’s attitudes toward food. In this lively account of a family’s year of eating locally on their farm in Southern Appalachia, Barbara Kingsolver and her coauthors unearth the secret lives of vegetables and the unexpected satisfactions of knowing their food producers—and sometimes their dinner—on a first-name basis.

The family’s yearlong experience leads them through a season of planting, pulling weeds, expanding their kitchen skills, harvesting their own animals, joining the effort to save heritage crops from extinction and learning the time-honored rural art of unloading excess zucchini. Barbara Kingsolver’s engaging narrative is enriched by husband Steven Hopp’s in-depth reports on the science and industry of food, and daughter Camille’s youthful perspective on cooking and food culture. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life, and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

Chicago Public Library's One Book, One Chicago program explores Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in the 2016 - 2017 season. Join us as we explore the theme of "Eat. Think. Grow" throughout the season through a variety of programs. For details on all One Book, One Chicago offerings, visit www.onebookonechicago.org. 

Barbara Kingsolver’s 14 books of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction include the novels The Bean Trees, The Poisonwood Bible and The Lacuna, winner of The Orange Prize for Fiction. Translated into more than 20 languages, her work has won a devoted worldwide readership and many awards, including the National Humanities Medal. Many of her books have been incorporated into the core English literature curriculum of colleges throughout the country.

As a grower of food, she traces her roots back to the family garden where was given her own plot on which to grow one vegetable of her choice, starting at age 6. (She chose squash.) She cultivated the soil of many cities, on several continents, before settling once and for all on the Virginia farm where she now lives with her husband.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle co-author Steven Hopp received his doctorate from Indiana University, with a background in the life sciences. He has published papers in bioacoustics, ornithology, animal behavior and more recently in sustainable agriculture. He is the founder and director of the Meadowview (Va.) Farmers Guild and teaches environmental sciences at Emory & Henry College.

Co-author Camille Kingsolver studied biology at Duke University before pursuing a graduate degree and career in mental health counseling. She now lives with her husband, Reid Snow, in Washington County, Va., a few minutes away from her parents’ farm. She and Reid are expecting their first child in the fall.

Lily Hopp Kingsolver, now studying biology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, was too young to sign a publishing contract when Animal, Vegetable, Miracle debuted in 2007. Always an integral part of her family’s local food efforts and story, however, she has joined AVM’s trio of authors in writing new material for a 10^th anniversary edition, to be published in May 2017.

Chicago Public Library's One Book, One Chicago program explores Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in the 2016 - 2017 season. Join us as we explore the theme of "Eat. Think. Grow" throughout the season through a variety of programs. For details on all One Book, One Chicago offerings, visit www.onebookonechicago.org. 

Excerpt from a conversation with Stephen L. Fisher and Barbara Kingsolver.
(Recorded at Emory & Henry College Literary Festival, September 30, 2011. Published in the Iron Mountain Review, Volume XXVIII, Spring 2012.)

Stephen L. Fisher: Critic Priscilla Leder argues that two basic themes run throughout your impressive array of genres and settings: an appreciation, first, of the natural world, and second, of human diversity. I’m interested in your reaction to this observation and, if it is at least partially on the mark, in your commenting briefly on why that is the case.

Barbara Kingsolver: Certainly an appreciation for nature is an important feature of my work, and it arose in part because I grew up running wild in the woods with little adult supervision, studied biology as a college student, and then went to graduate school in biology. I am one of thousands of species that live in this place, and I don’t ever forget the other ones are there. Species diversity is a biological fact. I think a lot about the world out there beyond the artifice that human beings have created. As for human diversity, I’m very interested in the fact that everybody in this room has something different in mind right now. I’m not accusing you of not paying attention, but you’re each seeing the world in a different way and all of you are right. Well, a couple of you are not [laughter]. But seriously, as a novelist, one gets to create all kinds of minds and then put them together and look at their intersections, their interactions. Cultural differences are really exciting territory, not just for literature but for learning in general, because sparks fly when there’s friction among different viewpoints. People invest themselves differently in the same set of truths. Because of my training as a scientist, I’m always looking at the dialectic between the truth we believe exists outside ourselves and the truth we invent for ourselves. So, yes, I’m very interested in human diversity.

Fisher: I’d like to focus now on what I consider to be two crucial themes in your work: community and hope. First, community. You’ve said that you always write about individualism vs. community, and that you see independence as stupidity and instead celebrate dependency. As you once put it, “the most remarkable feature of human culture is its capacity to reach beyond the self and encompass the collective good; yet, here in the United States we are blazing a bold downhill path from the high ground of ‘human collective’ toward the tight little den of ‘self.’ ”  Would you elaborate on the importance of seeing ourselves as part of something larger and on the role of writing in helping people understand and move toward that vision?

Kingsolver: Well, I do apologize for the “bold downhill path” part. That didn’t sound very good, did it? We do have some strong traditions of community in the United States, but it’s interesting to me that our traditionally patriotic imagery in this country celebrates the individual, the solo flier, independence. We celebrate Independence Day; we don’t celebrate We Desperately Rely On Others Day. Oh, I guess that’s Mother’s Day [laughter]. It does strike me that our great American mythology tends to celebrate separate achievement and separateness, when in fact nobody does anything alone. Nobody in the auditorium is wearing clothing that you made yourself from sheep that you sheared and wool that you spun. It’s ridiculous to imagine that we don’t depend on others for the most ordinary parts of our existence, let alone the more traumatic parts when we need a surgeon or someone to put out the fire in our house. In everyday ways we are a part of a network. I guess it’s a biological way of seeing the world. And I don’t understand the suggestion that interdependence is a weakness. Animals don’t pretend to be independent from others of their kind—I mean no other animal but us. It seems like something we should get over [laughter].

Fisher: A key component of building community and leading a meaningful life is hope. Environmentalist John Nolt observes that “everyone needs a place of refuge, but hope withers if we do not carry it out from that place.” You echo that notion in the quotation from Animal Dreams that you feature on your webpage—the passage in which Hallie writes to Codi: “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.” Hope, in my mind, is at the core of your political vision and runs throughout your writing. But to be hopeful is not an easy task in these mean-spirited times. In an interview with Elisabeth Beattie in the mid-1990s, you described yourself as, along with your dad, one of the most ridiculously optimistic people on the face of the earth. I’m wondering how your optimism is faring these days, and how you today live out Hallie’s charge: What is it your hope for, and what are the ways you live inside that hope?

Kingsolver: I would like to revise my earlier words: I think that my dad is still the most optimistic person I know. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between being optimistic and being hopeful. I would say that I’m a hopeful person, although not necessarily optimistic. Here’s how I would describe it. The pessimist would say, “It’s going to be a terrible winter; we’re all going to die.” The optimist would say, “Oh, it’ll be all right; I don’t think it’ll be that bad.” The hopeful person would say, “Maybe someone will still be alive in February, so I’m going to put some potatoes in the root cellar just in case.” And that’s where I lodge myself on this spectrum. Hope is a mode of survival. I think hope is a mode of resistance. Hope is how parents get through the most difficult parts of their kids’ teenaged years. Hope is how a cancer patient endures painful treatments. Hope is how people on a picket line keep showing up. If you look at hope that way, it’s not a state of mind but something we actually do with our hearts and our hands, to navigate ourselves through the difficult passages. I think that as a fiction writer—or any kind of writer—hope is a gift I can try to cultivate.

Amina Gautier, PhD., is the author of three award-winning short story collections: At-risk, Now We Will Be Happy and The Loss of All Lost Things. She was honored with the 21st Century Award at the 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner. The 21st Century Award honors significant recent achievement in writing by a Chicago-based author. In presenting this award, the Chicago Public Library Foundation and the Chicago Public Library hope to encourage the creation of new works and increase public awareness of the writer's talents. Amina has generously agreed to share the text her of speech with us in this guest blog.

This is a very special evening and a very special award for me, partly because, like all of you, I love libraries and I believe in them and the work that they do. In giving my thanks today, I’d like to talk about the roles libraries have played in my life. I was born in 1977 and I tell you this so you can understand the culture of my generation. I am from the Reading Is Fundamental, One to Grow On, Captain OG Read More, Reading Rainbow Generation. I am a product of the after-school special and of School House Rock. Conjunction Junction? I know your function. I’m a member of the last generation to be pushed toward the library for hands-on learning via the encyclopedia, the reference desk, and the card catalog rather than pushed toward the internet.

I am originally from New York, and I grew up in a Brooklyn neighborhood known as Brownsville. I lived equidistant between two public libraries—one on Church Avenue and one on Mother Gaston Boulevard. Every Friday, my elementary school classmates and I walked together to the Church Avenue library to choose our weekend books for our book reports due Monday. I waited for every Friday to come so I could step into that space and roam and browse and lose myself and find myself once again. I waited for Friday so I could spin the racks that held the paperbacks, so I could find the books I wanted and bring back books for others. I was a short-order cook, taking requests, bringing back Agatha Christie mysteries for my great-aunt who could not make the long walk. Every Friday I always came back with more than I could carry. Just as it is for many of us, the library was my go-to place. It was the place where I was sent to “look it up.” The place I could hole up in on hot summer afternoons, using the cool space of the library to beat the summer heat. If I had a nickel for all of the libraries I’ve loved before, I’d be rich indeed.

I’ve never had a Kindle or Nook, but I never believed the prediction that electronic access to books would signal the death knell of libraries or render them unnecessary. Those of us who love books, who are enchanted by the physical properties of literature, those of us who know that holding the book in one’s hand, supporting its spine in your palm, inhaling its parchment, its thread and ink, turning its page, leaving our fingerprints behind and thus imprinting ourselves on the written word—those of us who know this know that there is a physical connection between book and reader. We know that holding our books in our hands makes reading a visceral pleasure that cannot be matched on screen. More importantly, as much as we love books, we know that libraries are so much more than repositories for books. Libraries are us. They are the people who use them, the readers who come to find books in their native languages so they can preserve and pass on their culture and heritage, the family that comes to rent a video to watch on family night, that bright kid who just wants to know more. Libraries are centers of re-imagining, hubs of reinvention—sanctuaries from the dangers of neighborhoods, confidence boosters for the unwarranted fear that we can never know enough, never learn enough. Libraries are palms that hold cultures, fingers that spread and disseminate knowledge.

Libraries hold our dreams in custody, providing stewardship for all of the possibilities we comprise. A library can erase the long walk and the dangerous paths you might have taken to reach it and it can calm your soul while engaging your mind for a time. You may be an adult studying for a GED or a civil service test, a retiree who wants to email pictures with friends and grandchildren, a student with a book report to complete, a child coming for story time, an aspiring writer needing access to everything at once, a person creating a resume for the first or 10th time, another person who wants to listen to music, or someone who just needs a place to think quietly. A library is a place with room for all of us. We can be anyone and anything we want once we enter through its doors.

The Chicago Public Library is a true example of which I speak. In the aftermath of the great fire, A.H. Burgess proposed that England donate books to create a free library in Chicago “as a mark of sympathy now, and a keepsake and a token of true brotherly kindness forever.” Opening its door on January 1, 1873, set in an abandoned iron water tank at LaSalle and Adams streets, the Chicago Public Library was created from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, and it stands as both a figurative and literal example of the power of potential and transformation. For all of these reasons, I am deeply honored that it has given me this award. Thank you.

In addition to the 21st Century Award, Gautier has received numerous awards for her work. At-Risk was awarded the Flannery O’Connor Award, The First Horizon Award and the Eric Hoffer Legacy Fiction Award. Now We Will Be Happy was awarded the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, the International Latino Book Award, the Florida Authors and Publishers Association President's Book Award, a National Silver Medal IPPY Award and was a finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize. The Loss of All Lost Things was awarded the Elixir Press Award in Fiction and the Royal Palm Literary Award. More than 90 of her stories have been published, appearing in numerous literary journals, including Agni, Callaloo, Glimmer Train, Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Review, StoryQuarterly and Quarterly West. Gautier has won the Crazyhorse Prize, Danahy Fiction Prize, the Jack Dyer Prize, the William Richey Prize, the Schlafly Microfiction Award, and the Lamar York Prize in Fiction and received fellowships and scholarships from American Antiquarian Society, The Betsy Hotel, Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, Callaloo, Dora Maar, Disquiet International, Hawthornden, Hurston/Wright Foundation, Kimbilio, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Key West Literary Seminars, MacDowell Colony, Prairie Center of the Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Ucross Foundation, and Vermont Studio Center.

We explore the theme “Eat, Think, Grow” this One Book, One Chicago season, with this year’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. But if you're looking for a taste of something a little different, travel the world without leaving your kitchen with these cookbooks of flavors from all over the globe.

The Enchilada Queen is a must-read for any fan of Mexican food. While focused on perfecting the enchilada, the book also provides recipes for sides, desserts and appetizers from the Texas-Mexican border kitchen tradition.

Clodagh's Irish Kitchen takes you through the best of modern Irish cooking, with soups and stews to warm your body and spirit, as well as more complex dishes.

The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook is packed with recipes for delicious dishes that are also suitable for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free eaters, and easy to make too!

If you’ve ever thought that you needed illustrations to take you through a recipe step by step, you’re in luck with the graphic novel Cook Korean! You’ll learn how to make traditional and modern Korean dishes in no time.

Polska celebrates the tradition of Polish cuisine, as well as its modern evolution through the years, through delicious recipes and beautiful photos.

Award-winning chef Rob Chirico shares the tale of growing up with an Italian-American mother who was not a good cook, and what he learned about life and food in Not My Mother's Kitchen.

Western and Eastern African dishes are celebrated in Food From Across Africa, showcasing both classical and modern African dishes and diverse, delicious flavors.

Do you have a favorite cookbook of regional cuisine? Share your favorite in the comments!

We explore the theme “Eat, Think, Grow” this One Book, One Chicago season, with this year’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Have you ever thought about what your favorite celebrity cooks? Here are just a few of the cookbooks from some famous faces.

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein partner up for this cookbook featuring recipes from their satirical show Portlandia. The Portlandia Cookbook includes actual recipes referred to in the television show, as well as plenty of humorous stories to make you laugh while you cook.

In addition to her acting skills, Audrey Hepburn was a whiz in the kitchen too. Her son writes about their family’s favorite food and his mom’s cooking traditions and shares recipes in the loving memoir Audrey at Home.

Musician Ziggy Marley shares the food and recipes that his family eats in Ziggy Marley and Family Cookbook. Based on his childhood immersed in both the Rastafari and Jamaican culture of his family, Ziggy updates recipes with a mind towards health, taste, and sharing time with family.

How could a recipe from Frank Thomas be anything other than a home run? In The Big Hurt's Guide to BBQ and Grilling, he shares his passion for grilling with recipes, tips and personal stories. Perfect for impressing your friends at your next tailgate!

They’re known for their colorful uniforms and dedication to protecting the Pope, but the Pontifical Swiss Guard also has unique insight on what happens inside The Vatican walls. If you’ve ever wondered what’s on the Pope’s plate, your answer is in Pontifical Swiss Guard Presents The Vatican Cookbook.

Few people know that actor Freddie Prinze Jr has another passion – cooking. Back to the Kitchen showcases the actor’s Puerto Rican specialties as well as tips for fitting home cooking into a busy life.

Do you have a favorite celebrity chef? Let us know in the comments!

Multitalented poet, artist and singer-songwriter Patti Smith turns 70 on December 30. In this Throwback Thursday post, we celebrate her long and varied career as a boundary-pushing artist who has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has won the National Book Award.

Smith was born in Chicago in 1946, grew up in New Jersey and moved to Manhattan in her early 20s. There, she met Robert Mapplethorpe, with whom she had an intense romantic relationship, detailed in her National Book Award-winning memoir Just Kids. If you’ve ever wondered about the art and music scene in New York in the 1970s, this book is a must-read!

During that time, Smith spent her time soaking up New York’s artistic community. She did performance art and spoken word, wrote rock journalism and co-wrote a play with Sam Shepard, Cowboy Mouth. Cowboy Mouth appears in Shepard’s collection Fool for Love, and Other Plays.

The Patti Smith Group recorded its first album, Horses, in 1975. Fusing punk rock and spoken word poetry, and iconic cover art by Mapplethorpe, the album launched Smith’s musical career, and she spent the next few years touring around the world and recording more albums, including Radio Ethiopia, Easter and Wave.

While Smith spent most of the 1980s and 1990s in semi-retirement, raising her children, she continued to write poetry and music, occasionally releasing books or songs, including Dream of Life, which features the well-known song “People Have the Power.” This song was performed by a variety of celebrities at her 2007 induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Today, Patti Smith remains an active artist, poet and songwriter. Her latest book, M Train, collects essays from her life and travels in creativity, and is another must-read for anyone who appreciates a look inside the soul of an artist.

What’s your favorite Patti Smith album, song or book? Let us know in the comments!

It’s the time of year where we make resolutions to try new things in the coming 365 days. As we explore the theme “Eat, Think, Grow” this One Book, One Chicago season, we’re thinking about food-related resolutions. This year’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, tells the story of Barbara Kingsolver and her family as they resolve to eat in a whole new way, with a locally-grown focus and food they mostly grow themselves.  If you’re interested in trying the same thing, here are some resources to help you out.

Your first step in garden success is planning what you want to grow and when. One of our favorite resources from people who really understand what it’s really like to be a gardener in the city of Chicago is Fearless Food Gardening in Chicagoland. Published by the Peterson Garden Project, a local non-profit organization, this guide gives practical advice and step by step instructions for gardening in Chicago.

Every plant begins as a seed. While Chicago winters and springs can be very cold, you can still work on your garden by starting seeds indoors ahead of time. Starting Seeds will give you simple, easy to follow instructions and tips on starting healthy seeds inside your home.

Once you have your seeds going, it’s time to get to gardening! The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Midwest provides a comprehensive look at gardening in our region, with tips on how to move your seed plants outside, composting, using rain barrels, when to harvest, and more.

Your vegetables will start to appear in the summer in Chicago, but a delicious meal is only partially about the ingredients. The cook’s skill is important too! Prep School will teach you skills and techniques that will have you cooking like a pro in no time.

Once you’ve harvested your veggies, you’ll need to decide what to cook! Legendary cook Alice Waters’ book The Art of Simple Food II has over 200 new recipes based on food from the garden.

Finally, as you sit down to a delicious meal of food you’ve grown in your garden, you may be thinking about what you’ve learned during your adventure in urban gardening, and what the future may hold. If you want to take things a step further and get involved with the food justice movement, you’ll want to read The Food Activist Handbook.

What do you plan to grow this year?

We explore the theme “Eat, Think, Grow” this One Book, One Chicago season, with this year’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  After reading the book, you may be inspired to try some new recipes at home.  To get ideas for great recipes, explore our collection of food and cooking magazines on Zinio. You can download the latest issues to your smartphone or tablet, or read them online, with no waiting. Here are five of our favorites.

Saveur focuses on the tastes and flavors of the world. You’ll find information about the history of various cuisines, stories of local flavors, and culinary trends. Not only will you want to try new foods after reading this magazine, you may want to book tickets to travel the globe as well!

Every Day with Rachel Ray reflects the fun yet practical personality of television chef Rachel Ray. Her famous 30 minute meals, party ideas, and gadget reviews are all featured in every issue.

Food Network Magazine is a handbook to the stars of the television network. The network’s celebrity chefs contribute recipes and behind the scenes stories, inspiring you to be a star in your own kitchen.

Vegetarian Times is a jam-packed resource for those who follow a vegetarian diet, as well as those who just want to eat more meatless meals. Tasty recipes with a perspective of care for self and the environment are the centerpiece of this publication.

Weight Watchers Magazine aims to make it easy to follow the popular diet program. You will find smart advice from experts, tips for sticking to the program, and healthy recipes.

To get started on Zinio, visit our website.

Do you have a favorite cooking magazine? Share it in the comments!