Apply to be a World Book Night book giver!

Apply now so you can be part of this great campaign to give free books to light or non-readers on April 23, 2013, Shakespeare’s birthday. Please apply now at www.worldbooknight.org. We at after-words will be a World Book Night participating bookstore, so we hope you’ll apply to be a giver soon.

2012 Blues Before Sunrise Film Festival

Sunday December 2, 2012 - Free Admission

Steve Cushing, Blues Before Sunris, WDCB, Jazz Record Mart & Delmark Records invite you to Steve's Pre-Christmas film party. The screening will be held here, at after-words bookstore. Films start at noon. Jazz Record Mart will be open special extended Sunday Hours for BBS fans, 11:30 am to 6:30 pm.

See early jazz short films from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Includes work by Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Helen Humes, Ethel Waters, Mahalia Jackson, Lena Horne, Bessie Smith and many, many more.

Signing for Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows November 29, 6:30 p.m.

Richard Cahan and Michael Williams will be at After-Words books on November 29, 2012, starting at 6:30 p.m., talking about and signing copies of their book, Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows (Cityfiles Press, $60, Hardback). Wine and nibbles provided. Vivian Maier, known as “the nanny photographer,” became an internet sensation after her work was put online soon after her death in 2009. Since then, Maier’s work has been shown throughout Europe and in major cities across the United States. Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows is the first book that tells her life store in pictures and words. To better understand Maier, authors Richard Cahan and Michael Williams studied census records, ship manifests and interviewed every person they could find who knew Maier, from her childhood days in the French Alps to the families whose children she cared for. They combined this biographical information, much of it unreported, with more than 300 photographs that she took starting in 1949 to create the first comprehensive record of her life story—in words and pictures. This book is based on the largely unseen collection of about 18,000 Maier negatives, owned by Jeffrey Goldstein of Chicago. This is the first time Maier’s life story has been paired with her photographs so that readers can understand the woman and the work that went viral soon after her pictures went online. This book presents her in a new light by showing more personal photographs. The book Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows is the eighth by the award-winning team of Richard Cahan and Michael Williams. They are the coauthors of Richard Nickel’s Chicago and Edgar Miller and the Handmade Home. Other titles can be found cityfilespress.com.

The Book Thief by Mark Zusak is the Fall Selection for One Book, One Chicago

Award-winning author Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief has been lauded by critics and audiences alike, and loved by readers of all ages around the globe. Through the eloquent and surprisingly sympathetic narrator Death, Zusak introduces us to Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside Munich during World War II. As war shapes the world around her, she finds courage in books and in friendship with a Jewish man whom her foster family shelters in their basement. Author John Green reviewed the book in The New York Times, hailing it as “[b]rilliant” and “achingly sad,” and said of the heroine, “[t]he hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence.” This October the Chicago Public Library offers rare program opportunities to enhance the reading of this unforgettable novel. In addition to appearances by Markus Zusak on October 22, further offerings include an appearance by Rwandan activist Paul Rusesabagina in conversation with Jerome McDonnell on the atrocities of war, and panel discussions at DePaul University on the “History of Reading” and “The Book as Object.” Lastly, there is a chance to see the novel brought to life at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where the stage adaptation written by Heidi Stillman and directed by Hallie Gordon runs through November. One Book, One Chicago was launched in fall 2001 as an opportunity to engage and enlighten our residents, foster a sense of community and create a culture of reading in our city. By offering free public programming around each One Book, One Chicago selection and hosting dozens of book discussion groups in locations across the city, the Chicago Public Library aims to enrich the experience of reading for everyone, regardless of race, gender, age, income or the neighborhood they call home. For more information visit: http://www.chipublib.org/eventsprog/programs/onebook_onechgo.php

Banned Books Week

Every year we look forward to spreading the word about Banned Books Week. This is the 30th anniversary year and will be celebrated September 30−October 6, 2012. We participate by making a display on our large octagon table with books that have either been banned or challenged in schools or libraries sometime in their published history. These challenges go back to the 1500s and stretch throughout history up to and including this year. Every year books are challenged and banned. In every case, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom is there to defend the book under scrutiny. Support your local bookstores and libraries by reading a banned book. For more information you can visit: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned

Moleskine's Are In!

Due to popular demand, we are proud to add the Moleskine line to our inventory. We have lined and unlined, hardbound and paperback, small and large and a selection of colors. Stop by anytime to check out our display.

Coupon Faux Pas

Dear Customers, As some of you may know there was a printing mistake on the September birthday coupons. It states that the expiration date is the end of August. It does not expire until the end of September. Apologies for any confusion. Birthday coupons are good for the entire month of your birthday. If for any reason you do not get your postcard, whatever the month, and you are in our database you can come in anytime during that month and apply it to your purchase. Let us know about any updates to your address so that we can make sure that the coupons we do send will get to you. Thank you again for your understanding.