In his most recent book, Communities of Frank Lloyd Wright: Taliesin and Beyond, historian Myron Marty strives to define the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Fellowship in the context of other groups Wright worked with and other “intentional communities.” Together with his earlier book, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship (Truman State University Press, 1999), co-authored with his wife, Shirley, Marty presents a comprehensive picture of the unique community organized to create, promote and preserve the values and goals of one man — Frank Lloyd Wright.]]> During and immediately after Reconstruction in the South, the same entrepreneurs and bankers who had built the Confederacy's munitions and armament plants during the Civil War ]]> Sometimes real-life stories are so big they seem to be fiction. That's what strikes you while reading Taylor Pensoneau's latest book, Brother's Notorious, The Sheltons: Southern Illinois' Ledendary Ga]]> Rarely in publishing is there such a perfect collaboration of writer, photographer and publisher as in the new book, Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way. The lovely landscape photographs by Illinois pho]]> Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer. Andrea D. Lyon. Kaplan Publishing, 2010. Hardcover. $24.95. Kindle edition $9.99, contains only “A Mother Accused,” a single ]]> Untitled Document Here are two books by area authors: One describes growing up on a farm near Carthage, 1930-1950; the other is the memoirs of a World War II fighter pilot, compi]]> Please allow me to introduce Mr. Moist von Lipwig, hero of Going Postal, Terry Pratchett's latest novel in his Discworld series. But before we go any further, a confession: I am a Pratchett lat]]> Untitled Document Recently, during my family excavations, I unearthed a homemade booklet, “Books Read in 1900,” belonging to my grandmother. She’d have been 30.]]> This year’s crop of Illinois books and Illinois authors is particularly rich and interesting.To put Illinoisans in the spirit of the season, University of Illinois Press offers Christmas in Illi]]> Proud parent Michael Burlingame has delivered to us a fine 8 lb., 1 oz. baby just in time for the Lincoln Bicentennial. Burlingame, professor emeritus at Connecticut College, has been exp]]> In the summer of 1989, a 19-year-old Waverly woman, Melissa Koontz, disappeared late at night after leaving work on the far west-side of Springfield. What followed was a series of events in ]]> Chicago Noir isn’t about a newspaper, although after reading it I kept thinking of the old riddle “What’s black and white and red all over?” The stage sets in th]]> If you had to make a Lincoln from scratch, what would you toss in?You got your Basic Honesty, the Law and Politics, the Great Emancipator Business, Fighter of the War, and so forth. You would likely a]]> Untitled Document Our local- and national-award-winning poet John Knoepfle has written an autobiography. Not a complete one — he begins with his roots in Ireland and Switze]]> The first book I ever owned was a child-sized version of the life of Abraham Lincoln – a gift from my book-loving father, who was convinced Lincoln read everything he ever got his hands on. His ]]> Carl Volkmann, historian and retired director of Springfield’s Lincoln (public) Library, has meticulously researched and written a welcome book to add to our shelf of Lincolniana. Or let’s]]> I first met Hugh Moore in Allen Ginsberg’s living room, which often served as an auxiliary classroom for Naropa Institute, home to The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. We spent a soli]]> Who wants another coffee table book? Another big picture book to clutter things up? Well — we do, this one. It’s us, guys — where we live and breathe and do our everyday living, in central Illinois — along the Illinois River. In late 2005 David Zalaznik, a photographer for the Peoria Journal-Star, was invited by the Peoria Art Guild to participate in an exhibit about the Illinois River. He set off with his camera, and this stunning volume is the result.]]> Untitled Document Book lovers, if you haven’t already discovered Jasper Fforde, don’t. Danger: addiction. Where else will you find Thursday Next, a literary detective]]> Vachel Lindsay, a lifelong resident of Springfield, internationally renowned poet and author of 20 books of poetry and stories, was born in 1879. Two years before Lindsay’s death in 1931 came th]]>