Literary Criticism

Originally published in 1886, this collection of recipes and miscellaneous tips and tricks is a volume published almost entirely by women for women. The book was launched to raise funds for the women’s suffrage movement and to communicate—in the shared, common language of a cook book—that a woman’s place at the polls was not a replacement for her place at the home.   Included in the long list of contributors are the names of housewives, doctors, political writers, and prominent suffragists like Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Frances Willard. Contained in this volume are not just the instructions for preparing classics like “Rebel Soup,” “Election Cake,” or “Gravy as Mother Did it,” but also tips for plain living and high thinking. The final pages include a section entitled, “Eminent Opinions on Woman Suffrage.” The collective effort in compiling, publishing, and distributing this ground-breaking cook book bolstered practical skills for the women involved, and affirmed their ability to juggle civic and domestic duties almost as delicately as juggling eggs.

Part of Belt's Neighborhood Guidebook Series, The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook is an intimate exploration of the Windy City's history and identity. Required reading--The Chicago Tribune

Officially, Chicago has 77 neighborhoods. Unofficially, though, that number's closer to 200. But what does that mean for the people who actually call Chicago home? In an eclectic collection of essays, poems, photos, and visual art, The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook aims to explore the city's overlooked corners. Edited by Martha Bayne, and with help from the Read/Write Library, the book builds on 2017's critically acclaimed Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology. Here, you'll find compelling stories from all over the city:

- What one pizzeria meant to a boy growing up in Ashburn

- The South Shore's beauty and pain

- The best borscht in Ukranian Village

- The alleys of the Gold Coast

- Rogers Park's ever-shifting identity.

This lyrical and subjective guide to Chicago features work by Megan Stielstra, Audrey Petty, Alex Hernandez, Sebastián Hidalgo, Dmitry Samarov, Ed Marszewski, Lily Be, Jonathan Foiles, and many more. It's a book about the day-to-day lives of people in the city and above all else, about the changes those people have witnessed, suffered, and enacted.

In this idiosyncratic guidebook, Chicagoans will recognize both their streets and their stories, and readers from outside the city will get an intimate portrait of one of America's most iconic cities.

What does the future hold for the Midwest?

A vast stretch of fertile farmland bordering one of the largest concentrations of fresh water in the world, the Midwestern US seems ideally situated for the coming challenges of climate change. But it also sits at the epicenter of a massive economic collapse that many of its citizens are still struggling to overcome. The question of what the Midwest is (and what it will become) is nothing new. As Phil Christman writes in this idiosyncratic new book, ambiguity might be the region's defining characteristic. Taking a cue from Jefferson’s grid, the famous rectangular survey of the Old Northwest Territory that turned everything from Ohio to Wisconsin into square-mile lots, Christman breaks his exploration of Midwestern identity, past and present, into 36 brief, interconnected essays. The result is a sometimes sardonic, often uproarious, and consistently thought-provoking look at a misunderstood place and the people who call it home.

A part of Belt's City Anthology Series. A lively grab bag of essays, fiction and poetry that reads at times like a who's who of contemporary Chicago writers/residents.--The Chicago Tribune

Chicago is a city built on meat, railroads, and steel, on opportunity and exploitation. But its identity has long involved so much more than manufacturing. Today, the city continues to lure new residents from around the world, and from across a region rocked by recession and deindustrialization.

The problems that plague the region don't disappear once you pass the Indiana border, though. In fact, they're often amplified. And Chicago is a complicated city because of that, defined by movement that's the anchor of the Midwest, but bound to its neighbors by a shared ecosystem and economy.

Rust Belt Chicago collects essays, fiction, and poetry from more than fifty writers who speak directly to the concerns the city shares with the region at large, and the elements that set it apart. With contributions from writers like Aleksandar Hemon, Kathleen Rooney, and Zoe Zolbrod, and here you'll find stories about:

- Buying Bread on Devon Street

- The Cantinas of Pilsen

- Bike commutes through the North Side

- Adventures on the El.

Writing with affection, frustration, anger, and joy, the writers in this collection capture all the harmony and dissonance that define one cacophonous place.

A wide-ranging insider's look at one of the world's most iconic cities.

Published in 1903, this was the original way to a man's heart, featuring authentic American recipes, European cooking, and Jewish favorites. It was put together by the cooking students at the Milwaukee Settlement House and was an important staple of the American kitchen for more than fifty years.

A sleek volume that expands our understanding of the Midwest through the writers who have portrayed it. Hailed by The Chicago Tribune for seeing the Midwest for what it really is.

In the public imagination, Midwestern literature has not evolved far beyond stories of heartland laborers and hardscrabble immigrants from past centuries. But as the region has changed, so has its fiction. In this book, Mark Athitakis explores how shifts in work, class, place, race, and culture have been reflected or ignored by contemporary novelists and short story writers. Authors Athitakis considers include Marilynne Robinson, Toni Morrison, Jane Smiley, Leon Forrest, Aleksandar Hemon, Bonnie Jo Campbell, and Stewart O'Nan.

This book is a call to reconsider the way we think about Midwestern fiction, and one that is sure to prompt some new must-have additions to your reading list.

From the oldest chocolate maker in America, the Walter Baker Chocolate Company, comes this 1886 guide to Chocolate and Cocoa. Included in the book are background information on the botanical properties and manufacture of the cocoa plant, as well as a myriad of delicious chocolate recipes formulated for the home cook of the day. Featured on the cover is the 1883 logo of the Baker company, called La Belle Chocolatiere, after a 1740s painting by the Swiss artist Jean-Étienne Liotard. Enjoy this historical book as you might a delicious bar of chocolate—all at once or one piece at a time.

Originally printed in 1622, this is the first published account of the coming of the Pilgrims to the New World to settle Plymouth Plantation.

The Esther C. Mack Industrial School of Salem, Massachusetts compiled this book in 1910. Included are selections from 'The Compleat Cook' (1683); 'The Frugal Housewife' (1730); 'Our Grandmother's Cook Book' (1800); and 'Our Own Cook Books' (1900). Literary quotations from Shakespeare, Byron, Cervantes, and more are scattered among the recipes for baked goodies, meat dishes, and beverages.

Salt Lake City, located along Utah's majestic Wasatch Mountains, has historically been a cradle of peculiar people. Before Western culture developed terms for lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) identities, diverse communities who recognized their differences from mainstream America made Salt Lake their home. By the early 1970s, a discernible "gay community" had emerged in Salt Lake City, laying the groundwork for future activism and institutions. In the 1970s, publications like Gayzette, the Salt Lick, and the Open Door documented the nascent movement. In the 1980s, amidst devastation from the HIV/AIDS epidemic, marginalized communities valiantly worked to fight the disease and support each other. By the 1990s, LGBT Utahns had gained traction legally and politically with the formation of the first gay straight alliance at East High School and the election of the first openly gay person to the Utah legislature in 1998. The transgender community became more visible in the new century, and by 2008, Utah began to play a prominent role in the battle over marriage equality.

Ciertamente, es un libro diferente y estoy seguro que ser� de gran beneficio para toda persona que lo lea y aplique sus principios.
-Norman Vincent Peale

This edition makes Ziglar's dynamic message available to the 15,000,000 Spanish-speakers living in the United States today.