he thing that struck me when I cracked this book open was that from the first paragraph, the reader is immediately drawn into the exclusive world of professional golf. At first glance, the book may not appeal to those who aren’t interested in the sport, but once you actually decide not to judge the book by its cover, you get to see the excitement that comes with following golf. For those of you who don’t necessarily view golfers as celebrities, the accounts in this book are akin to reading the memoirs of, say, Britney Spears’ or Lindsey Lohan’s personal assistants or bodyguards; someone who is with the “celebrity” day in and day out, seeing a side of them that the public is unable to. In other words, they give us all the juicy stuff.

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arcus Sakey, well-known Chicago writer of crime fiction is featured in this month’s issue of Chicago Magazine.

n Chicago-Related News:

–Jonathan Messinger at Time Out Chicago talks about The Time Traveler’s Wife movie, coming out August 14th, as well as his thoughts about her upcoming novel.
–Of Beast Women and Beach Poets
–Dalkey Archive Press has a summer blowout sale.
–Aleksandar Hemon discusses the way music affects his writing.
–Gaper’s Block reviews Claire Zulkey’s An Off Year.
–Chicago author Sara Peretsky gives herself a well-deserved pat on the back.

Beyond the Windy City:

–Barack Obama peruses a romance novel, says, “This looks sexy.”
–Check out the baffling huge list of big-hit books coming out this fall.
–Amazon apologizes for removing illegal copies of 1984 and other books from the Kindle.

he 5th annual Librarian Book Cart Drill Championship was a real highlight of ALA this year. The winners? Oak Park’s Public Library Warrior Librarians took the cake–or Golden Book Cart. Check out their performance below.

ictured to the left with his brother John, together the brothers put together the Wise Guide series. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us about the books.

PC:  What inspired you to start Wise Guide Books?

A:  My brother John and I are big Cubs fans and attend games at Wrigley Field all the time, and the idea for the guides literally came while sitting there watching a game and drinking beers. We just thought we have a lot of knowledge about the experience and love the experience so much – the sights and sounds and tastes and traditions and history – why not try to share that with folks.

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ports fans are going to love this.  The Wise Guide series of books presents a succinct, all-inclusive look into what fans of various teams need to know to enjoy their trips to the stadium.  The particular Guide I’m reviewing is for Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, but there are also Wise Guide books out for Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, AT&T Park, Ohio Stadium, and Notre Dame Stadium available at their website.  These books are perfect both for new fans who want the know-how that lifetime fans have built up over the years, and for the old-pros who may want to brush up on some of their stadium knowledge.  Honestly, these books seem like the perfect gift, possibly as stocking-stuffer because of their small size, for any sports fan.

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…about his new book Zeitoun, published by McSweeney’s, released July 15, 2009.

od, I love Featherproof.  Observe below as they wreak havoc on their newest title, Scorch Atlas, by Blake Butler, “A novel of 14 interlocking stories set in ruined American locales where birds speak gibberish, the sky rains gravel, and millions starve, disappear or grow coats of mold.”  The book releases on 9/9/09, but you can pre-order a destroyed or a pristine copy now from their site.  Rock on.

wo tidbits of outside-Chicago book news:

Astronaut Robert Thirsk brings two books into space, and they’re both by Canadian authors.

The Cornish beach that inspired Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse was just sold for 80,000 pounds.

The Chicago Poetry Calendar has a fantastic slideshow featuring many of the publications that will be at this year’s Printers Ball.  Check it out!  Get excited!

he’s everywhere!  This time she’s talking to Borders abour her new novel Her Fearful Symmetry, due out September 29.

pparently it’s a love/hate relationship.

uis Urrea’s new novel Into the Beautiful North is being distributed through Powell’s Book’s Indiespensable, a subscription club that delivers popular new books with a focus on independent publishers.  Subscribers recieve a new book every six weeks, and according to them, the package often includes ” bonus DVDs or CDs, prepublication copies of books we’re looking forward to, mugs, posters, chocolate.”  The total cost of each shipment is $39.95.  This seems quite expensive, until you realize how much you get.  This particular package includes a signed hardcover first-edition of the book in addition to a ocally produced, autographed chapbook featuring the work of up-and-coming writers.

Congratulations, Luis.

Ninth Letter, literary journal from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne, recently posted a podcast video featuring famous Chicago author and Columbia College professor Audrey Niffeneger.  The podcast focuses on Niffeneger’s work with visul arts, which I found fascinating.  There seems to be much less dialogue surrounding her work as a visual artist than her work as a writer, particularly her novel The Time Traveler’s Wife which is currently being produced as a movie, scheduled for release the 14th of August.  Niffeneger has written two graphic novels, The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress.

t seems that Dominique Raccah’s comments have sparked quite the debate.  The Idea Logical Blog throws in their two cents, outling the progression of E-books into today’s and through tomorrow’s markets.

n an extensive two-part interview, John O’Brien talks about the mission behind Dalkey Archive Press, what the internet has done to literature, and his take on the best literature produced in the last five years.

“…all I can say is that there are books, fiction as well as nonfiction, that I like, and that is what I publish. These books, with few exceptions, seem to be as out of fashion today as they were nearly 30 years ago. ¶ View In Entirety… ⇒

ulia Keller, well-known literary critic for the Tribune, published an article this Sunday on the changing form of the Great Chicago novel. Well known Great Chicago novels, such as The Jungle or Sister Carrie, tend to feature the stoicism–both in plot and in characterization–that was a common trope in turn of the 20th century (ish) literature. This kind of literature, according to Keller at least, has come to speak for Chicago and it’s industrial history. Yet she calls for a new type of literature to speak for modern Chicago, and she believes she has found this in Chicago (ish) author Elizabeth Berg’s new novel Home Safe, published by Random House.

“In a beautifully subtle way, it reflects the shift in the city of Chicago from a simple grid of streets, from a matter of longitude and latitude and factories, to an idea. Chicago is no longer just a place to which people come to realize their dreams, large and small. It’s a place in which people live — in the city proper, and in the ever-widening ripple effect of its suburbs. It’s a geographical location, yes, but it’s also a mind-set.”

Read the full article at the Chicago Tribune.

hanks to Dominique Raccah, Sourcebooks CEO, for this.