Chicago books and authors in 2020: Our list of 36 suggests it was anything but a slow year
This might sound humbug-y for the holidays, but you know what I want for Christmas? At least a week where I am not reading a new book that was written by a Chicago author or a former Chicagoan; I don’t even want to read a new book about Chicago, the state of Illinois or, just to be safe, Iowa, Michigan and Indiana. I want a short vacation from Chicago-centric books because, well, bad as 2020 got, the year was a watershed for Chicago writers. The wealth of excellent new titles from local writers became so overwhelming, I went to sleep dreaming of “Hood Feminism” and woke up in “Reaganland.”
Here’s a refresher, likely incomplete and in no particular order:
Hyde Park’s Mikki Kendall exposed the blind spots of mainstream feminism in her elegant “Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That a Movement Forgot.”
Former Chicagoan Isabel Wilkerson delivered another smart thinking book on the history of race and class with the Oprah-certified “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”
Edgewater’s Rick Perlstein closed out his two-decade long project, a sweeping, readable history of contemporary conservatism, with the bestseller “Reaganland.”
Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Northwestern professor Natasha Trethewey left us in devastated awe with “Memorial Drive,” her memoir about mother’s murder by her stepfather.
“Having and Being Had,” the latest excellent book of essays from Eula Biss, was a Pandora’s box of uneasy questions and anxieties unleashed after buying a house in Evanston.
“How to Make a Slave (and Other Essays)” by South Side native Jerald Walker was one of the year’s smartest sleepers, an often hilarious roundup of stories about the obliviousness of white liberals, race and restaurant seating and the writer’s own mentor.
A lot of writers spend their entire careers coming to grips identity, but the talented West Pullman native Nate Marshall, with his terrifically entertaining poetry collection “FINNA,” made everyone in America who is also named Nate Marshall part of that identity.
Poet Rosanna Warren delivered not just another well-liked collection, “So Forth,” she followed a few months later with the biography “Max Jacob: A Life in Art And Letters.”
Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy taught us “How to Write One Song,” reminding us that creativity defines humanity. It seems he’s taught his son this lesson well, as Spencer Tweedy released his own book, “Mirror Sound: The People and Processes Behind Self-Recorded Music.”
“Stateway’s Garden,” the towering debut by Kenwood’s Jasmon Drain,is a series of interlocking narratives set at the now-demolished housing project, was one of the year’s best.
Edmund White, the pioneering gay author (and Evanston native), turned 80 in January, then published his latest novel, “A Saint From Texas,” his umpteenth work of fiction.
In “Monogamy,” a novel by Chicago native Sue Miller, a grieving widow’s life is upended when she learns of her late husband’s infidelity.
Marisel Vera told the Tribune that she didn’t see her family represented in literature when she was growing up in Humboldt Park, so she wrote a historical novel about Puerto Rican migrants: “The Taste of Sugar.”
In her latest novel, “Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey,” Tribune contributor Kathleen Rooney channeled a pigeon and a soldier to relate an affecting World War I tale.
“The Lost Book of Adana Moreau,” the debut of Chicagoan Michael Zapata, introduced us to a new voice who moves seamlessly from the speculative to the Loop.
Adam Levin, the former Chicago wunderkind, returned with “Bubble Gum,” another tumble down a conceptual rabbit hole of consumerism and tech.
Catherine Lacey’s third novel, “Pew,” spun an eerie morality tale set in the American South.
University of Chicago historian Jane Dailey found a fresh way to approach racism with “White Fright: The Sexual Panic at the Heart of America’s Racist History.”
“His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life,” by the Chicago-born historian Jonathan Alter, was remarkably the first major unauthorized biography of the misunderstood president.
Speaking of weirdly overlooked history: “Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City,” by Northwestern’s Carl Smith, proved to be the most authoritative and revelatory retelling of that seminal Chicago disaster to date.
“Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7” delivered the blow-by-blow ordeal of Lee Weiner, the only Chicago defendant in the famous trial.
Add “The Loop: The ‘L’ Tracks that Shaped and Saved Chicago,” by former Tribune writer Patrick Reardon, to the list of thoughtful local histories that were finally written.
Former Tribune writer Rob Elder scratched a fascinating, unlikely niche with “Hemingway in Comics,” a study of how cartoonists have treated Oak Park’s favorite Papa.
And yet another former Tribune writer Barbara Mahany helped us see what’s sacred in “The Stillness of Winter.”
Chicago essayist Christie Tate had a sorta self-help hit with the self-described memoir “Group: How One Therapist and A Circle of Strangers Saved My Life.”
Jason Diamond put his childhood in Chicago suburbs to good use in his essay collection “The Sprawl.”
Comedian Cameron Esposito returned to her roots in the western suburbs in her memoir, “Save Yourself.”
As we all locked down this spring, ultimate homebody Samantha Irby cracked us up with her latest essay collection, “Wow, No Thank You.”
Elizabeth Wetmore, a Rogers Park resident by way of Texas, returned often to her hometown of Odessa to gather the details for “Valentine,” her debut novel, a spring bestseller about five women staring into bigotry, lonesomeness and a glimmer of hope.
In “Last One Out Shut Off the Lights,” one of the buzziest debut story collections of the year, Stephanie Soileau dredged the wetlands of her native Southwest Louisiana.
Rachel Swearingen, a School of the Art Institute faculty member, published nine new unsettling stories in “How to Walk on Water.”
Sam Weller, best known as Ray Bradbury’s biographer, released his own collection of haunting tales, “Dark Black.”
Nnedi Okorafor continued to redefine science fiction and fantasy — this time for middle-graders with “Ikenga.”
Meanwhile, Y.A. phenom Veronica Roth wrote her first novel for adults, “Chosen Ones.”
Oh, yeah: Barack Obama had a little success with “A Promised Land,” the first of a two-part presidential memoir. It sold nearly 2 million copies in its first week of release.
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