The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J. R. Dawson

June 20, 2025

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J. R. Dawson

At the edge of Chicago, there is a Station with a lighthouse that guides the dead to the afterlife. Nera is the daughter and apprentice of Harosen, the ferryman who takes souls across Lake Michigan to the Veil, the entrance to the afterlife. Their dogs guide the souls to the Station and stay with them as they cross over, but some souls don’t want to leave the station, choosing to wait for a loved one. Others fear even beginning the journey, becoming wandering Haunts. When a living woman named Charlie is somehow able to cross the portal to the Station looking for her dead sister, Nera is forced to confront how little she knows about the Station, the city, and her own life.

Let me start by saying, the dogs are the best part! I really wanted to like this more than I did. The first half went quickly, but the second part dragged. Charlie is looking for her dead sister but it takes forever for her to actually get started, and then she gets her answer in one sentence. The waystation is wonderfully creative, as are the dogs and the souls waiting for loved ones. Marketed as a queer fantasy about love and grief, which I think is a fair description. Fans of TJ Klune’s Under the Whispering Door may enjoy it, but I found this to be far darker. Klune’s novel is much sweeter and warmer. 

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The pumping station out in Lake Michigan - I wonder if this gave the author for the idea of a gateway to the afterlife out in the middle of the lake

In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce

March 24, 2024

In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce

Before Ted Bundy, before John Wayne Gacy, there was Belle Gunness, the infamous Black Widow of LaPorte. As a girl in Norway, Belle was beaten by her lover until she miscarried her unborn child. After emigrating to the U.S., Belle lived with her sister's family in Chicago in the middle of a large community of Norwegian immigrants. Tired of men's cruelty and also tired of being poor, Belle vowed to never be under a man's control again and that she would never again be poor, taking her revenge on the men of the world in a gruesome fashion.

Historical fiction based on the life and crimes of the Black Widow of LaPorte, Indiana, one of the first American serial killers. Her crime spree began in Chicago, then later she moved to a farm in Indiana, where she continued her bloody deeds. I had heard of Belle but didn't really know her story. This was another book for Women's History Month, this time about a truly notorious woman who proved that women can be just as evil as men. 

Belle Gunness and her three foster children

Three Boys Missing by James A. Jack

January 1, 2024

Three Boys Missing by James A. Jack

On Sunday, October 16, 1955, three boys from the Jefferson Park neighborhood in northwest Chicago went to a movie at a downtown movie theater. They never returned home and were found murdered two days later. James Jack was one of the original detectives assigned to search for the missing children, and he details the case. The investigators were under pressure to solve the case quickly - little did they know that it would take 40 years to bring the killer to justice.

I live just north of Jefferson Park and I know the areas in this book very well. This crime occurred in the pre-Internet era, and police work was very different in the 1950s than it is today. Now there are surveillance cameras everywhere and there have been great advances in DNA testing. It does seem like the police spent a lot of time chasing down pointless leads. A number of the officers had fixed or pre-conceived ideas about who committed the crime - one of the persistent ideas was that a gang of teenagers had killed the boys. Most of the suspects brought in for questioning were guilty of something, just not of murdering the three boys. One witness starts filming the scene and a police officer is disgusted and confiscates the film - they'd be shocked that in 2023, everyone has a camera on their cell phone and people record everything. With law enforcement agencies not cooperating or communicating with each other, it was a wonder than any crimes were solved.

Milwaukee Avenue where much of the action in the book takes place, in the 1950s

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

February 5, 2023

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Do you follow your heart, even though you know it's going to hurt the people you're closest to? The four Padavano sisters have always functioned as a unit: oldest sister Julia is the organizer, second sister Sylvie is a reader and a dreamer (and a librarian), and twins Cecelia and Emeline are like two halves of a whole. But when one of the sisters marries a broken young man, there are unexpected consequences for all the sisters, shaking their foundations and forcing them to rethink who they are. If you grow up without love, can you be healed by another person.

This is a modern re-telling of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, which is referenced throughout the text, with the four sisters changing roles. Having read Little Women, I knew someone was going to die, but it wasn't who I expected, and I did some crying through the last chapters anyway. 

I am of the same generation as the Padavano sisters, and their mother Rose reminds me a lot of my mother, with the drama and the constant concern over what the neighbors or the pastor was going to think about everything. She also would have thrown me out just as Rose did the unmarried pregnant sister. 

Wonderful read, highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The Lozano branch of the Chicago Public Library, where sister Sylvie works

The Queen by Josh Levin

October 15, 2022

The Queen by Josh Levin

Linda Taylor (not her real name) was a mysterious African American woman who lived on Chicago's South Side. She had mink coats, drove a new Cadillac, wore designer clothes, and owned expensive jewelry. She was married multiple times and at various times, reported having as many as eight children. She used multiple aliases. Even her age and her race were uncertain. When she reported a robbery at her south side home (claiming a burglar had stolen her refrigerator and removed it from the house through a small kitchen window), the detective assigned to the case recognized her as a woman he had arrested for welfare fraud in Michigan. As he investigated her claims, he realized that Taylor used a number of aliases to commit a variety of crimes in several states, including welfare fraud, kidnapping, con games, and possibly murder. The Chicago Tribune dubbed her the welfare queen and the title was picked up by then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, who made her story a national legend and a disgrace.

This is an unusual narrative about a shadowy figure who learned how to work the system and not get caught. Part of the reason behind her success as a con artist was the reluctance of government agencies and law enforcement to investigate. It took a crusading journalist at the Chicago Tribune to bring the case to the public's attention. This is an issue that really pisses off working people: our tax dollars going to people who don't work, smoke cigarettes, drink liquor, party, gamble, and frequently have a large number of children. While there are certainly recipients who fall into that category, many welfare recipients are going through a bad time and need help to temporarily bridge the gap until they can get back on their feet. The author is sympathetic to Linda and welfare recipients in general, but Linda was definitely a con artist of the first rank.

Linda Taylor (center) with her lawyer and (I think) her daughter Sandra

Three Girls from Bronzeville: a Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood by Dawn Turner

March 11, 2022

Three Girls from Bronzeville: a Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood by Dawn Turner

Three African American girls grew up on Chicago's South Side in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood in the 1970's. They attend a good school and spend their childhood with the promise of greater opportunities, rights and freedoms than their parents and grandparents had. But as they begin high school, they go off in wildly different directions that include loss, displacement, drugs, alcholism, teen pregnancy, and murder.

The author is a journalist and novelist and the book is well-written. She published her novels under the name Dawn Turner-Trice, but when her marriage broke up, she began using her family name for her nonfiction writing. Turner went on to graduate from the University of Illinois, marry, and have a child, while her sister died young of alcoholism and her best friend went to prison for murder. It may have been a very different story if one of the other girls two had written it. 

Historic homes in Bronzeville

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara

August 30, 2022

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara

American-born Aki and her sister Rose are Nissei, the children of Japanese immigrants. Aki's father runs a successful produce business in a Los Angeles suburb. Aki has always lived in California, until the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. The family soon finds themselves in Manzanar concentration camp out in the middle of nowhere.

When the government offers relocation to cities in the center of the country, the family jumps at the chance to move to Chicago, where there is work and housing available. Aki's older sister Rose works for the camp administration and is allowed to go on ahead of the rest of the family. But shortly before the rest of the family arrive in Chicago, Rose is killed in a subway accident. Her death is ruled a suicide by the coroner. Aki is certain that her sister would never have killed herself and is determined to find out what caused her death.

Chicago 1944

This is Hirahara's first historical novel and it's not as good as her mystery series. It is a fascinating look at life for Japanese Americans during World War II. Lots of descriptions about Chicago, although there is a little too much about traveling around the city. Some of the more interesting characters (like a drag queen Aki meets at the hair salon) are unfortunately not explored and in fact, have nothing to do with the plot. Not the author's best effort.

Manzanar Camp

Peel My Love Like an Onion by Ana Castillo

September 30, 2019

Peel My Love Like an Onion by Ana Castillo

I always try to read at least one novel that celebrates the yearly heritage months.  Peel My Love Like an Onion was my choice for Hispanic American Heritage Month 2019.  Set in Chicago, the main character is a Mexican-American (or Chicago-Mexican, as she calls herself) woman who had polio as a child and was determined to become a flamenco dancer.

Carmen Santos (aka Carmen la Coja, or Carmen the Cripple) suffered from polio as a child, which left her with a withered leg.  At her school for “special” children, a dance teacher encouraged Carmen to try flamenco as a way of strengthening her weak leg.  To the teacher’s astonishment, Carmen decides she wants to be a professional flamenco dancer.  She perseveres and is taken on by a professional flamenco company run by a male dancer named Augustin, who soon becomes Carmen’s lover.  She becomes famous in Chicago’s dance community, partly because of her unusual disability and partly because of her beauty, and she embraces the flamenco culture as a way of life.  Her family is always in the background like a Greek chorus, causing Carmen to feel guilty that she isn’t a better daughter.  But after 20 years as a dancer, Carmen’s polio resurfaces and not only forces her to retire from dancing, but to reconsider and recreate her life.

Carmen's love affairs are multi-layered and complicated, as are her feelings for her family, and some of her choices are hard to accept.  This title would make a good book club title since there is a lot of material for discussion, especially for either Hispanic American Heritage Month or Disability Month.  It’s also a very reasonable length for book clubs at just over 200 pages.