"From the beloved author of The House on Mango Street: a richly illustrated compilation of true stories and nonfiction pieces that, taken together, form a jigsaw autobiography: an intimate album of a literary legend's life and career. From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The House on Mango Street to her abode in Mexico, in a region where "my ancestors lived for centuries," the places Sandra Cisneros has lived...

A vivid snapshot of America's journey from Victorian-era propriety to 20th-century modernity. Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history--and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago at the dawn of the 20th century, the Club welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons into a stately double mansion, and the Everleigh...

"At once incendiary and icy, mischievous, and provocative, celebratory and elegiac, a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, and American culture through the prism of the author's rarefied upbringing and education among a black elite concerned to distance itself from whites and the black generality, while tirelessly measuring itself against both. Born in 1947 in upper-crust black Chicago--her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at...

The acclaimed author of There Are No Children Here takes us into the heart of Chicago by introducing us to some of the city's most interesting, if not always celebrated, people.

Chicago is one of America's most iconic, historic, and fascinating cities, as well as a major travel destination. For Alex Kotlowitz, an accidental Chicagoan, it is the perfect perch from which to peer into America's heart. It's a place, as one historian has

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"Now a documentary narrated by Common, produced by Grant Hill, Dwyane Wade, and 9th Wonder, from filmmaker Mary Mazzio The moving true story of a group of young men growing up on Chicago's West side who form the first all-black high school rowing team in the nation, and in doing so not only transform a sport, but their lives. Growing up on Chicago's Westside in the 90's, Arshay Cooper knows the harder side of life. The street corners are full of gangs,...

Looking for an escape from childhood abuse, Reymundo Sanchez turned away from school and baseball to drugs, alcohol, and sex. He was left to fend for himself before the age of 14. The Latin Kings, one of the largest and most notorious street gangs in America, became his refuge and his world, but its violence cost him friends, freedom, self-respect, and nearly his life. This is a raw and powerful odyssey through the ranks of the new mafia, where the...

Chicago, 1924. For intrepid "girl reporter" Maurine Watkins, a minister's daughter from Indiana, big-city life offered unimaginable excitement. Newspaperwomen were supposed to write about clubs, cooking, and clothes. But within weeks of starting at the Chicago Tribune, Watkins found herself embroiled in the scandalous, sex-fueled murder cases of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan, who had gunned down their lovers in mysterious circumstances

"Former Chicago police officer and mafia associate Fred Pascente is the man who links Tony Spilotro, the protagonist of Nicholas Pileggi's Casino and one of Chicago's most notorious mob figures, to William Hanhardt, chief of detectives of the Chicago Police Department. Pascente and Spilotro grew up together on Chicago's near West Side, and as young toughs they were rousted and shaken down by Hanhardt. While Spilotro became the youngest made man in...

“Chronicles the heyday of the Chicago Heights subsidiary of Al Capone’s infamous Prohibition-breaking criminal organization” (Time Out Chicago).
 
Chicago Heights was long the seat of one of the major street crews of the Chicago Outfit, but its importance has often been overlooked and misunderstood. The crew’s origins predate Prohibition, when Chicago Heights was a developing manufacturing center...

"NPR's Scott Simon's personal, heartfelt reflections on his beloved Chicago Cubs, replete with club lore, memorable anecdotes, frenetic fandom and wise and adoring intimacy that have made the world champion Cubbies baseball's most tortured--and now triumphant--franchise. No metaphor is necessary; the Chicago Cubs have been the living example of disappointment and failure for more than a century--until now. The Cubs' 2016 World Series win marked the...