The WTTW show “Chicago Tonight” asked me to share a few “winter reads” for the Dec. 23 episode on Monday. Representing the Chicago Review of Books, I appeared with young adult author Samira Ahmed and Rachel Wever, the co-owner of the independent bookstore The Book Table in Oak Park. Collectively, we tried making a stab at what constitutes a worthwhile “winter read.”
I decided to interpret the term in a few different ways. I figured a winter read could look back at the highlights of 2019, look forward in offering something for a new year’s resolution, or simply have a snowy setting.
On air I recommended Chris Ware’s Rusty Brown (a recent CHIRBY nominee) and Lynda Barry’s Making Comics. Cut for time was a recommendation of Ann Durkin Keating’s The World of Juliette Kinzie (which Dean Jobb reviewed for the CHIRB earlier in the year).
The show also wanted a book recommendation for a book that debuted earlier in the decade, so I talk about Roger Ebert’s memoir Life Itself at the end of the segment.
You can watch the appearance above, which starts at 41:36 in the full “Chicago Tonight” episode. The embed in this article should start at that point, but might be a little off.
And if you want to read more, WTTW put together an article about all of the guests’ recommendations.
