Gen Recommends...

Chicago is known for many things: the second busiest airport, the locale of such events as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as well as the home of many great buildings, companies, politicians and crooks. Let’s not forget something else Chicago is known for: The Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history. In Sin in the Second City , Karen Abbot tells us the story of the Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada, who opened and operated the Everleigh Club at the start of the 20th century and attempted to elevate the industry through their own practices. Everleigh girls at the brothel, or “butterflies” as the madams like to call them, were ensured to dine on gourmet food, to be examined properly by an honest doctor, and tutored in literature. Never did the sisters go out to find girls to work for them; they didn’t need to when they had a waiting list of girls that wanted to come work for them. They were well fed and well treated unlike many othe

Hey guys, I know I haven't been updating as much as I said I'd try to. I recently got promoted to new position in a new area of the store. So I'm getting used to the job and the new schedule. So, I'm taking a break from writing. I'll be back as soon as possible; at the latest the first week of June. Thanks for understanding! Happy reading, whatever you're reading! =)

Personally, I wasn't as into nonfiction…until I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil , by John Berendt. Okay, okay I know the title is a mouthful, but trust me it’s a tasty bite. Midnight in the Garden... gives the first person account of a journalist's visit to the city of Savannah. During his visit, a crime occurred that featured some of the best characters to make it on the page. Gunshots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion, the Mercer House, leaving a redneck gigolo lying dead on the carpet and an aristocrat standing alive behind a desk…with the death-dealing weapon. That’s all it takes to set Savannah afire with speculation and gossip; was it murder or self-defense? As everyone has their bits of information about the two men, and new information surfaces everyday, that question becomes a little more difficult to answer. But with a little voodoo and a little faith, will the answer become clearer? All of the nonfiction I’d read before Midnight in the Garden… was

A sort of interview with the author A short trailer of the movie based on the book

Remember when you were younger and you were introduced to a cast of characters filled with princes and princesses, witches, talking animals and other magical creatures in those fantastical fairy tales? And I don’t mean Disney. I mean something more like The Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson. If you were anything like me, you fell in love with these characters that led you into a world of action, romance, violence, and comedy; where anything was possible, good always triumphed over evil, and there was always a happy ending. And then we got older and wiser and realized that we wouldn’t be visiting that fairy world for a very long time, if ever again. Or would we? What happened to those characters we fell in love with so long ago? In the graphic novel, Fables , Bill Willingham introduces the cast to us again in a brand new story where they visit our world…indefinitely...and not by choice. They’ve been driven from their homelands by an anonymous tyrant they only know as, ‘ The Adve

Iris Bahr is pretty accomplished if you ask me. Her list of entertaining accomplishments match her list of academic accomplishments. Earning a degree in both theatre and neuropsychology at Brown University, she graduated magna cum laude, and also conducted fMRI research at Stanford and cancer research at the Tel Aviv University. Soon after, she moved to NYC to pursue acting full-time. Since then, she’s relocated to L.A. and been critically praised for her acting, writing, and directing. Possibly best known for her appearance on the show, Curb Your Enthusiasm , she’s also wrote an award-winning solo show, DAI . [www.irisbahr.org] In Dork Whore , Iris Bahr tells us of her personal mission to lose her virginity; the first time didn’t really count, I have only had it once , and that was kind of, and she feels more than ready after twenty years, the last two years spent in the Israeli army. She feels herself shy away from the other girls in her unit, who all hang out together gossiping abou