No comments about Chicago Originals, Rev. Ed..

No comments about 2003 Chicagoland Six County Atlas.

1 comments about City Smart: Chicago.

1. CITY SMART: CHICAGO is a great book about the Chicago metro area. It tells you where the best shopping, food, and transportation are, as well as describing many of the neighborhoods in both the city and the suburbs. Being that this book was written in 1999, some of what it tells you does need to be taken like the humor in ALONG CAME POLLY, SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH, 13 GOING ON 30, SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE, DRIVE ME CRAZY, and the two GARFIELD movies, but it's still worth picking up.

2 comments about The Madness of Art: A Guide to Living and Working in Chicago.

1. This "guide to living and working" is also a guide to shopping in Chicago, but the cover wisely avoids the dreaded s-word in an effort to attract wanna-bes of every artistic persuasion. Langer's guide provides lots of contact information for schools, groups, and companies: in short, stuff you can get out of the phone book, as well as a lot of snide commentary, which you can't get out of the phone book. He also interviews some promenent people (the Smashing Pumpkins' D'Arcy, for example), focusing on daft questions about the "Chicago scene." Many pages are given over to questionable "must-haves": because I am a writer, he thinks I might be interested in aspirin, coffee, a dartboard, a vintage bicycle, and a nice place to play pool, in a thinly disguised, not very clever attempt to advertise hip North Side stores and bars. There's a section in back on "where the artists are" which might better have been titled, "where the pretty people hang." Here's a listing Langer didn't include: the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State, where this book may be best perused but not bought.



2. This is an excellent book if you're looking to live and work in Chicago as an artist.

   The chapter called "Where the Artists Are" is a terrific guide to the neighborhoods of Chicago. I collect Chicago guidebooks, and this is by far the BEST look at Chicago's neighborhoods. It is honest and informative. It does tell you where artists tend to clump in Chicago, plus alot of other helpful info. Heck, it actually helped me to decide where I live now.

   The section "A cross-section of galleries that every artist should know about" is well-written and even includes a snob rating for each gallery. Although it doesn't list all the galleries in Chicago, it does include alot of the major and minor players. Plus, that snob rating just cracks me up, but it really is incredibly helpful and insightful.

   "Getting schooled" has a good listing of art schools (if ya want to take a class in the summer, or any other time). His reviews aren't as informative, but they are still funny and honest. (Look forward to artiwu publishing a more detailed guide to chicago art schools soon.)

   The compliation of "Publications and Other Resources" is one of the best and very definitive.

   There are also sections for writers, actors, dancers, musicians, and filmmakers. But they don't water down the book. The section on the fine arts is definetely worth the money.

   Overall, this book is a pure gem. It has lots of great information for the artist starting out in Chicago. The humorous writing and jam-packed info will make you want to read it. I rate it a 5 out of 5, "An absolute buy."

No comments about Gullible's Travels; and Other Stories.

5 comments about More Chicago Haunts: Scenes From Myth and Memory.

1. This follow-up book to the incredible "Chicago Haunts" is equally as impressive and hard to put down.
   While most "sequel" books are obviously comprised of filler material and rushed to press to capitalize on an earlier success, it is evident that this book was painstakingly researched. It is beautifully done. Bielski doesn't just recount ghost stories; she weaves in sympathy, historical fact, and sometimes humor to present artfully written short stories. Her hard work does not go unnoticed in this book. If you love Chicago history, ghost stories, or just good reading, this is a book for you.



2. This second book is even worse than the first. After her first book-which she ends with a cheap booze joke that mocks the whole field of Parapsychology-Mrs. Bielski is contacted by many people in the Chicago area who describe their paranormal experiences to her, only to have them whitewashed as folklore or myth. Mrs. Bielski's whole problem is, her mind is so filled with materialistic philosophy, she can't even understand human feeling when she sees it. Resurrection Mary is far more real than this phony. If you want your moneys worth of this book- take it with you to the toilet.



3. In response to "booklover": The joke that ends Chicago Haunts is just that...a joke--and a very mild and inconsequential one, too! The playfulness represented in Bielski's finale is but one feature of her multi-faceted approach to presenting ghostly legends and supernatural experiences. In being academic, popular, serious, good-humored, respectful, appreciative, believing, and skeptical, Bielski is true to herself and the material, and engaging as a writer, purposely allowing readers to ultimately decide what they believe for themselves.
   
   --Sharon Woodhouse, publisher, Lake Claremont Press



4. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion concerning what they read. Amazon.com graciously allows these opinions to be viewed online. The joke that concludes the first book is mocking and demeaning and was meant to be such! The only " believing " found in this author's books are of her own theories and write-off explanations. However many aspects that the author uses to examine the parapsychology of the great city of Chicago....her conclusions are only within the closed minded framework of folklore and myth. People who have had paranormal experiences in their lives do not share that view.



5. It was an interesting book, however, not as captivating as the first.

2 comments about Insight Kids' Map Chicago: Fleximap (Insight Kids' Maps).

1. Insight Guide Chicago is a mine of useful information in an accessible format. This, however, is not what distinguishes the Insight Guide from books with a similar mission, such as Frommers or Fodors. What marks Insight Guide apart is its wonderful photographs, which provide the would-be tourist with a rich taste of what it must be like to spend time in this vibrant, world class, but still comfortably Midwestern city.

   The other thing that sets this Insight Guide apart - even from others in the series - is the darkness of its text. If you read this book like a book, rather than a reference work (its stylish writing invites such use) you are regaled at every turn with tales of poverty, crime, corruption and racial division. That Chicago suffers from these problems is no doubt true but reading about them in a guidebook doesn't make me want to go there.




2. i found this chicago travel quide to be an exceptional difference in the usual "go here, do this" mentality of most tour books. the writing was insightful and thought-provoking, the information was straight forward and the photographs were exceptional. evidently a well thought out and researched book. even though this edition is somewhat dated (1999) i highly recommend this purchase.

1 comments about Spectacular Chicago (Spectacular).

1. It has some good photo's but most are just average, some are grainy. This is another book about Chicago from someone who doesn't live in Chicago. It has some very obvious mistakes to someone who lives in the area, such as a photo taken from one of the lagoons in Lincoln Park and labeled Riverscape. Another is a picture of St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church in the Southland section when it actually is located in the near northwest side of the city. This book is printed in Hong Kong when it should have been printed in Chicago, the printing capital of the United States.
   If you want a really spectacular photo book of Chicago buy "Above Chicago" by Robert Cameron.

No comments about Thirsty? Chicago.

No comments about Historic Illinois from the Air.