Books

First initial, last name. More than six feet tall. In his early 20s he made a name for himself in battle, but accounts of his heroism would later be questioned. Well-born, he nevertheless increased his fortune mightily by marrying an extremely wealthy widow. If we were doing a crossword puzzle, you might be counting on […]

The last poem in Springfield poet Siobhan Pitchford’s new book, Through the Longing Daze, employs a pun in its title: “At Daze End.” The poems preceding it are much concerned with the comings and goings of her days; the maze she carves out of them is one worth walking through. In fact, the poet seems […]

One hundred years ago, you could get more than a drink of water on Decatur’s Water Street. As Dan Guillory notes in Decatur, a photographic history of Springfield’s neighbor to the east, the thoroughfare afforded rye whiskey for the thirsty, new soles for those who were down at the heels, and a little extra cash […]

“Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on, testing that strange little tug at his shoulder blade, and think of that first flawless moment over the lawn of the labyrinth. Think of the difference it made!” — Anne Sexton, To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph How much did Howard Dean’s supporters love him? […]

“‘Arbolist’ … Look up the word. I don’t know, maybe I made it up. Anyway, it’s an arbo-tree-ist, somebody who knows about trees.” — President George W. Bush, USA Today, Aug. 21, 2001 Little did George W. Bush realize, when talking to reporters in defense of his initiative to allow logging in national forests, that […]

Did King James I commission Shakespeare to translate the Psalms for the now-famous version of the Bible? A case is made for that transaction in R. Gary Patterson’s new book about rock & roll. If you’re wondering what Shakespeare has to do with rock & roll — or, for that matter, where Faust, Shelley, Hawthorne, […]

No one who reads the remarkable new poems by John Knoepfle can fail to be touched by their penetrating strength. If poems from the sangamon (1985) brought history up out of the Midwest, this one goes back to Knoepfle’s place of Irish ancestry, taking everything American and Irish with him, and us, too. There are […]

Political potboilers have always scored high on summer-reading lists, and Bush’s War for Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People seems to qualify. Written by investigative reporter James Moore, the book seems to possess the ingredients necessary for inclusion in the genre. The difference, of course, is that this study of the White House […]

In her last book, Nine Nights on the Windy Tree, Martha Miller introduced Bertha Brannon, a Springfield lawyer who finds herself involved in a mystery. It was a good read, and I was looking forward to meeting Brannon once again in Miller’s new book, Dispatch to Death. Miller, who lives in Springfield, uses the capital […]

What happens when 10 siblings decide to join forces? Add 10 cousins to the mix, and imagine the fun and frivolity. Often, downright naughty things happen. Springfield native Helene Odell Moss O’Shea, the middle child of 10, writes of her family’s escapades in A Handful of Prisms, due out July 4. The book brims with […]

Arbor Day is Friday, April 30, and the Arbor Day Foundation (www.arborday.org) is offering you a deal. You can join the Foundation and for $10 receive either 10 flowering trees or 10 pine trees. Even though these “trees” are foot-tall sprouts, it’s still a pretty sweet offer. After you’ve read (or flipped through) Native Trees […]

There should be a warning sign for anyone venturing down nostalgia way: “Caution! Platitudes ahead.” Why must reminiscences punish the present to paint the past as more precious? In his memoir Now, When I Was a Kid …, Dan McGuire avoids this pitfall. Comparisons between now and the good old days do not abound. Enthusiasm […]