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Did you know Chicago is home to absolute scads of wonderful authors? We here at The Book Cellar love supporting local, and here you can find books written by your fellow Chicagoans in addition to titles that'll teach you The Windy City has a richer history than you'd even guess!

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11/22: 10am-5pm
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11/24: 10am-6pm

Chicago Books!

Wagon and Other Stories from the City

Wagon and Other Stories from the City

$14.00
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Martin Preib is an officer in the Chicago Police Department--a beat cop whose first assignment as a rookie policeman was working on the wagon that picks up the dead. Inspired by Preib's daily life on the job, The Wagon and Other Stories from the City chronicles the outer and inner lives of both a Chicago cop and the city itself.

The book follows Preib as he transports body bags, forges an unlikely connection with his female partner, trains a younger officer, and finds himself among people long forgotten--or rendered invisible--by the rest of society. Preib recounts how he navigates the tenuous labyrinths of race and class in the urban metropolis, such as a domestic disturbance call involving a gang member and his abused girlfriend or a run-in with a group of drunk yuppies. As he encounters the real and imagined geographies of Chicago, the city reveals itself to be not just a backdrop, but a central force in his narrative of life and death. Preib's accounts, all told in his breathtaking prose, come alive in ways that readers will long remember.

Walk on the Wild Side

Walk on the Wild Side

$16.00
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With its depictions of the downtrodden prostitutes, bootleggers, and hustlers of Perdido Street in the old French Quarter of 1930s New Orleans, A Walk on the Wild Side found a place in the imaginations of all the generations that have followed since. Perhaps his own words describe the book best: "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind."
Walking Chicago

Walking Chicago

$19.95
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Walk the streets of Chicago and discover why the town that brought us Michael Jordan, Al Capone, and Oprah is anything but a -Second City.- Chicago's diverse neighborhoods represent a true melting pot of America--from Little Italy to Greektown, Chinatown to New Chinatown, and La Villita to the Ukrainian Village. It's also the most walkable city in the country, with flat streets laid out in a sensible grid and 21 miles of stunning lakeshore. The 31 walks described here include trivia about architecture, political gossip, and the city's rich history, plus where to dine, get the best deep-dish pizza, visit world-class museums, have a drink, and shop.
Walking Chicago

Walking Chicago

$12.95
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History, culture, and a rich ethnic heritage all come together in Chicago, the quintessential American city. And though Chicago has long been known as a hub of ship, rail, and air transportation, it is best appreciated when explored on foot. Walking Chicago will guide you through the dynamic heart of the city via the Loop, through the glitzy shops along the Magnificent Mile, through the elegant neighborhoods of the Gold Coast, and into the peaceful sanctuary of Jackson Park. A total of 17 walks enable you to experience the essence of one of the great cities of the world.
Wall of Respect

Wall of Respect

$35.00
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The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago is the first in-depth, illustrated history of a lost Chicago monument. The Wall of Respect was a revolutionary mural created by fourteen members of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) on the South Side of Chicago in 1967. This book includes photographs by Darryl Cowherd, Bob Crawford, Roy Lewis, and Robert A. Sengstacke, and gathers historic essays, poetry, and previously unpublished primary documents from the movement's founders that provide a guide to the work's creation and evolution.

The Wall of Respect received national critical acclaim when it was unveiled on the side of a building at Forty-Third and Langley in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. Painters and photographers worked side by side on the mural's seven themed sections, which featured portraits of Black heroes and sheroes, among them John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and W. E. B. Du Bois. The Wall became a platform for music, poetry, and political rallies. Over time it changed, reflecting painful controversies among the artists as well as broader shifts in the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movements.

At the intersection of African American culture, politics, and Chicago art history, The Wall of Respect offers, in one keepsake-quality work, an unsurpassed collection of images and essays that illuminate a powerful monument that continues to fascinate artists, scholars, and readers in Chicago and across the United States.

Wallpaper Chicago

$11.95
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Rigorously selected, the guides in this series include the ultimate places to visit and discover the best of design, art and architecture, to sleep, eat, drink, shop, exercise and relax. They are ideal for the weekend tourist, the business traveller, or even those enjoying an extended stay.
Wallpaper City Guide Chicago

Wallpaper City Guide Chicago

$9.95
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Rigorously selected, the guides in this series include the ultimate places to visit and discover the best of design, art and architecture, to sleep, eat, drink, shop, exercise and relax. They are ideal for the weekend tourist, the business traveller, or even those enjoying an extended stay.
Ward 41: Tales of A County Intern

Ward 41: Tales of A County Intern

$10.00
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Ward 41: Tales of a County Intern offers a glance back at Chicago's charity institution, Cook County Hospital, in the 1950s. A provacative look at a venerable Chicago teaching hospital for the poor--an ill-equipped, sometimes corrupt system--providing a rare glimpse into the life of nurses, residents and surgeons struggling to care to the poorest sick despite meager conditions.
Washington Story

Washington Story

$14.00
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The irresistible follow-up to Langer's debut hit, Crossing California is described as the most vivid novel about Chicago since Saul Bellow's Herzog and the most ambitious debut set in Chicago since Philip Roth's Letting Go (Chicago Tribune).
Washtenaw County Bike Rides

Washtenaw County Bike Rides

$12.95
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Washtenaw County Bike Rides is ideal for people who are new to the county, are new to bike riding, or simply want to expand their repertoire of rides. All routes described in the book start or end in Washtenaw County and have been selected with a preference for rides outside of the city. All the routes are paved. Joel Howell details the roads, the areas that require caution, the difficulty of the rides, and routes that can be extended for longer rides.

Includes routes and maps for Dixboro, Dexter-Chelsea, Gallup Park, Hell, Huron River Drive, Manchester, Waterloo, East Lansing, and more, as well as an overview map and ride log.

Joel D. Howell is a physician, medical historian, and avid biker who has personally ridden all of the trails featured in the book. He lives in Ann Arbor.

"Two of the strongest predictors of an active lifestyle are convenient access to exercise opportunities, and pleasant and beautiful exercise environments. Joel Howell's book has solved both of these factors with a collection of some of the most beautiful and accessible biking (and running!) routes in the upper Midwest."
---Thomas L. Schwenk, M.D., Chair of Family Medicine, University of Michigan

"This book includes all the main biking routes making it a 'must have' for any cyclist new to the Ann Arbor area. There are also great tidbits of local lore and super photographs that make it a welcome addition to the libraries of cyclists who have ridden these roads countless times."
---Mark Lovejoy, President, Ann Arbor Velo Club

"Howell has performed a genuine service for county residents and visitors. Get moving, Washtenaw!"
---Kenneth Warner, Dean, University of Michigan School of Public Health

We All Fall Down

We All Fall Down

$24.95
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Chicago cop turned private investigator Michael Kelly is racing to save his city from a deadly new foe: a biological weapon unleashed underground.
When a lightbulb falls in a subway tunnel, it releases a pathogen that could kill millions. While the mayor postures, people begin to die, especially on the city's grim West Side. Hospitals become morgues. L trains are converted into rolling hearses. Finally, the government acts, sealing off entire sections of the city--but are they keeping people out or in? Meanwhile, Michael Kelly's hunt for the people who poisoned his city takes him into the tangled underworld of Chicago's West Side gangs and the even more frightening world of black biology--an elite discipline emerging from the nation's premier labs, where scientists play God and will stop at nothing to preserve their secrecy.
It's a brave new world . . . and the most audacious page-turner yet from an emerging modern master.

We Know What We Are

$12.00
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Weird Illinois

Weird Illinois

$19.95
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West Ridge

West Ridge

$19.99
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While West Ridge residents often disagree about what to call their neighborhood--West Rogers Park to some, North Town to others--the people of this north side community share a common commitment to the American dream. Drawn by inexpensive land 10 miles north of the burgeoning city of Chicago, European immigrants settled here in the 1830s along the high grounds west of a glacial ridge known today as Ridge Boulevard. Dubbed Cabbage Heads by their Rogers Park neighbors, the citizens of West Ridge boldly incorporated as a village in 1890, remaining independent until its 1893 annexation to Chicago. Over time, West Ridge blossomed from sparsely populated farmland into a dynamic neighborhood with Devon Avenue at its core. Now home to one of the Midwest's largest Jewish communities, a hub of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi culture, and a haven for newcomers from Russia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, West Ridge remains a port of entry for immigrants and a place where cultures coalesce. In West Ridge, one can play bridge or cricket, worship at mass or the mosque, eat kosher or curry--all within a few city blocks.

West Town Tavern: Contemporary Comfort Food

$34.95
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What Would Jane Say?

What Would Jane Say?

$18.95
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CITY BEAUTIFUL, CITY LIVABLE

"What Would Jane Say?" tells the tale of two approaches to city-building in the early 1900s and the people and ideas behind them. It also tells the story of what was created in Chicago and what could have been created.

In 1909, architecture giant Daniel Burnham, Edward Bennett, and the Commercial Club of Chicago developed the Plan of Chicago, primarily with personal and business interests in mind. They subscribed to the City Beautiful movement, which assumed that a city that was attractive and well organized would resolve the vexing troubles around them. At the same time, the formidable Jane Addams and many female contemporaries were engaged in city-building work of a different sort. Their achievements still resonate today, even if the women's names do not. They subscribed to City Livable ideas that addressed the social, economic, and cultural needs of the population.

What's with Chicago ?

What's with Chicago ?

$20.95
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"Why don't Chicagoans douse their hot dogs in ketchup? What do Chicagoans mean when they say, "I'm going on the 'L' to the Loop?" How did a snowstorm change a mayoral election? These and many other aspects of life in Chicago are the basis of What's With Chicago?, a look at a Midwestern city with a cosmopolitan lifestyle."--Back cover.
When Corruption Was King: How I Helped the Mob Rule Chicago Then Brought The

When Corruption Was King: How I Helped the Mob Rule Chicago Then Brought The

$26.00
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Former Chicago mob lawyer Cooley tells of living a double life in order to turn on his cronies and help the federal government take down America's most corrupt criminal justice system. of memorable photos.