@borrelli.bsky.social
My piece on Zayd Ayers Dohrn and the moral blind spots of his parents (leaders of the Weather Underground) www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/23/z...
Whatever happened to the revolution? Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s new memoir confronts his notorious Chicago parents.
“Dangerous, Dirty, Violent & Young” is Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s remarkable memoir confronting his parents, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground.
chicagotribune.com
Our annual summer book extravaganza - w/ @isaacfitzgerald.bsky.social @kait.bsky.social @gemmacorrell.bsky.social @paultremblay.bsky.social @cynthiapelayo.bsky.social @colsonwhitehead.com @esglaude.bsky.social And way more www.chicagotribune.com/2026/06/03/s...
Summer books: Our 50 coolest books for your hottest months
What are you looking for in your summer reading? Chicago stories, books about music or celebrities, history lessons, or tawdry, trashy novels that are secretly good? Read on.
chicagotribune.com
Our annual summer book extravaganza - w/ @isaacfitzgerald.bsky.social @kait.bsky.social @gemmacorrell.bsky.social @paultremblay.bsky.social @cynthiapelayo.bsky.social @colsonwhitehead.com @esglaude.bsky.social And way more www.chicagotribune.com/2026/06/03/s...
Summer books: Our 50 coolest books for your hottest months
What are you looking for in your summer reading? Chicago stories, books about music or celebrities, history lessons, or tawdry, trashy novels that are secretly good? Read on.
chicagotribune.com
My piece on Zayd Ayers Dohrn and the moral blind spots of his parents (leaders of the Weather Underground) www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/23/z...
Whatever happened to the revolution? Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s new memoir confronts his notorious Chicago parents.
“Dangerous, Dirty, Violent & Young” is Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s remarkable memoir confronting his parents, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground.
chicagotribune.com
The Chicago Tribune calls Dangerous, Dirty, Violent & Young "a remarkable new history and memoir... an unsettling portrait of the idealism of one Chicago family." wwnorton.com/books/978132...
It’s difficult to say what’s more surprising: That one of the leading surgeons in Chicago from 1900-1940s was named Victor Frankenstein, or that after Victor Frankenstein was born in Chicago in 1869, his parents still named him Victor Frankenstein.
When Frankenstein was a Chicagoan, or why Mary Shelley’s creation will never die
There was a doctor in Chicago years ago named Victor Frankenstein, and one of his jobs was finding medical specimens. When you visit his grave, ponder just how much Mary Shelley’s creation remains alive and well and wandering around…
trib.al
The Computer Guy of Chicago strikes when you least expect. Sitting in a coffeehouse. Reading your phone on the train. Working out. Waiting for food. Walking down the street.
Chicago, you’ve been programmed: Meet Julius Mondragon, TikTok’s Computer Guy
The Computer Guy wears Ray-Ban Meta glasses with a camera, through which he records his interactions programming strangers, later posting brief videos on TikTok.
trib.al
Take a letter: the stationery boom is no joke - my piece on why snail mail, pen pals, journaling, etc are a growing industry www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/26/c...
Make a note: Stationery is booming as we seek out more analog experiences
Stationerycore, as many call the culture, is having its moment, with devotees flocking to events such as the recent Chicago Stationery Festival in Ravenswood.
chicagotribune.com
Take a letter: the stationery boom is no joke - my piece on why snail mail, pen pals, journaling, etc are a growing industry www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/26/c...
Make a note: Stationery is booming as we seek out more analog experiences
Stationerycore, as many call the culture, is having its moment, with devotees flocking to events such as the recent Chicago Stationery Festival in Ravenswood.
chicagotribune.com
Chicago, you’ve been programmed: Meet Julius Mondragon, TikTok’s Computer Guy
Chicago, you’ve been programmed: Meet Julius Mondragon, TikTok’s Computer Guy
The Computer Guy wears Ray-Ban Meta glasses with a camera, through which he records his interactions programming strangers, later posting brief videos on TikTok.
trib.al
Rogers Park house officially declared NOT the ugliest in the nation - but definitely one of the most interesting in Chicago www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/r...
A Rogers Park house was an HGTV ‘Ugliest House in America’ finalist — some say it’s always been anything but.
Long a neighborhood landmark, the Victorian home was an art project for its previous owners. Its new owners promised to keep it much as it was. Then HGTV came calling.
chicagotribune.com
Rogers Park house officially declared NOT the ugliest in the nation - but definitely one of the most interesting in Chicago www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/r...
A Rogers Park house was an HGTV ‘Ugliest House in America’ finalist — some say it’s always been anything but.
Long a neighborhood landmark, the Victorian home was an art project for its previous owners. Its new owners promised to keep it much as it was. Then HGTV came calling.
chicagotribune.com
What did it even mean to be a US citizen anymore? Northwestern's Daisy Hernández on the history of citizenship itself www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/29/n...
Northwestern's Daisy Hernández and her new history of the (quickly) changing meaning of citizenship
Daisy Hernández’s new book, Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth,” is partly a family memoir and partly a world history.
chicagotribune.com
What did it even mean to be a US citizen anymore? Northwestern's Daisy Hernández on the history of citizenship itself www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/29/n...
Northwestern's Daisy Hernández and her new history of the (quickly) changing meaning of citizenship
Daisy Hernández’s new book, Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth,” is partly a family memoir and partly a world history.
chicagotribune.com
My piece on Ghoul Pool, the history of betting on dead celebrities and who they expect to die in the next 12 months. No. 1 is a tie… www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/21/g...
Don’t fear the reaper. Unless you’re on this list.
Ghoulish Mortals in St. Charles runs an annual death pool to predict the celebrities who won’t live to see out the year. The guesses are in for 2026.
chicagotribune.com
My piece on Ghoul Pool, the history of betting on dead celebrities and who they expect to die in the next 12 months. No. 1 is a tie… www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/21/g...
Don’t fear the reaper. Unless you’re on this list.
Ghoulish Mortals in St. Charles runs an annual death pool to predict the celebrities who won’t live to see out the year. The guesses are in for 2026.
chicagotribune.com
My piece on Evanston’s Sara Levine, and the art of writing “unlikeable” heroines www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/w...
What’s like got to do with it? Evanston’s Sara Levine on the art of ‘difficult’ women.
Her 2012 novel “Treasure Island!!!” remains a cult classic. Her new book, “The Hitch,” arrives some 15 years later, with some important elements in common.
chicagotribune.com
My piece on Evanston’s Sara Levine, and the art of writing “unlikeable” heroines www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/w...
What’s like got to do with it? Evanston’s Sara Levine on the art of ‘difficult’ women.
Her 2012 novel “Treasure Island!!!” remains a cult classic. Her new book, “The Hitch,” arrives some 15 years later, with some important elements in common.
chicagotribune.com
What’s like got to do with it? Evanston’s Sara Levine on the art of ‘difficult’ women. trib.al/gX5BUjM
What’s like got to do with it? Evanston’s Sara Levine on the art of ‘difficult’ women.
Her 2012 novel “Treasure Island!!!” remains a cult classic. Her new book, “The Hitch,” arrives some 15 years later, with some important elements in common.
trib.al
The Chicago Tribune’s 10 best books of 2025: a bit of horror, a little graphic biography, a resonant history lesson (@risenc.bsky.social) and a touch of Chicago true crime www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/03/t...
The 10 best books of 2025: Censorship, crime and compassion
From “Clam Down” to “Murderland,” these are the 10 books out of my tall stack of best books of the year that I couldn’t get out of my mind. How do you pick yours?
chicagotribune.com
Chicago Tribune Top 10 books of 2025 list includes @johnlangan.bsky.social! www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/03/t...
The 10 best books of 2025: Censorship, crime and compassion
From “Clam Down” to “Murderland,” these are the 10 books out of my tall stack of best books of the year that I couldn’t get out of my mind. How do you pick yours?
chicagotribune.com
The Chicago Tribune’s 10 best books of 2025: a bit of horror, a little graphic biography, a resonant history lesson (@risenc.bsky.social) and a touch of Chicago true crime www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/03/t...
The 10 best books of 2025: Censorship, crime and compassion
From “Clam Down” to “Murderland,” these are the 10 books out of my tall stack of best books of the year that I couldn’t get out of my mind. How do you pick yours?
chicagotribune.com
On the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I attended a memorial service at the ship’s nearest shore, Whitefish Point, at the very top of Michigan. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/11/a...
A ceremony remembers the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 years later, gales of November included
Friends and family members gathered at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to ring the bell and remember those who died 50 years ago.
chicagotribune.com
On the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I attended a memorial service at the ship’s nearest shore, Whitefish Point, at the very top of Michigan. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/11/a...
A ceremony remembers the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 years later, gales of November included
Friends and family members gathered at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to ring the bell and remember those who died 50 years ago.
chicagotribune.com
My visit to the National Funeral Directors convention was lively: Rather be water or ashes? Turned into mulch or left to rot? Released over the ocean by a jet? Buried in a mushroom casket? Turned into a rock? www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/04/f...
From cradle to grave: There was something for everyone alive and otherwise at the Chicago funeral directors convention
You can learn a lot about your options for the afterlife at the annual trade show, which recently ended at McCormick Place. It was not a solemn gathering.
chicagotribune.com
My visit to the National Funeral Directors convention was lively: Rather be water or ashes? Turned into mulch or left to rot? Released over the ocean by a jet? Buried in a mushroom casket? Turned into a rock? www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/04/f...
From cradle to grave: There was something for everyone alive and otherwise at the Chicago funeral directors convention
You can learn a lot about your options for the afterlife at the annual trade show, which recently ended at McCormick Place. It was not a solemn gathering.
chicagotribune.com
I wrote a bit about the Illinois tradition of insane high school mascot names everyone takes for granted - and the legislation that could change a few www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/07/i...
Column: Why changing problematic high school nicknames is back in the spotlight — and a lesson in history
As playoff football games unfold across the state, two prospective bills are resurfacing in Springfield that insist the village of Freeburg, and many other Illinois schools, rethink their problemat…
chicagotribune.com
I wrote a bit about the Illinois tradition of insane high school mascot names everyone takes for granted - and the legislation that could change a few www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/07/i...
Column: Why changing problematic high school nicknames is back in the spotlight — and a lesson in history
As playoff football games unfold across the state, two prospective bills are resurfacing in Springfield that insist the village of Freeburg, and many other Illinois schools, rethink their problemat…
chicagotribune.com
I wrote about a timeless Halloween question: How old is too old to trick or treat? That question, and its history, has shaped the holiday in more ways than you know. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/31/t...
How old is too old to trick or treat? The answer is more complicated than it sounds.
For the record, there is no statewide age restriction on trick or treating in Illinois. But many small communities around the country set formal and informal age limits.
chicagotribune.com
I wrote about a timeless Halloween question: How old is too old to trick or treat? That question, and its history, has shaped the holiday in more ways than you know. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/31/t...
How old is too old to trick or treat? The answer is more complicated than it sounds.
For the record, there is no statewide age restriction on trick or treating in Illinois. But many small communities around the country set formal and informal age limits.
chicagotribune.com