CRP's Blog

The genre range of the CRP staff this week is staggering—fiction, politics, comics, history. Check out the variety below and let us know what you’ve been reading lately, too. #CRPreads

I’m really enjoying Jane Hamilton’s new novel, The Excellent Lombards (I snagged a copy at BEA). It’s a sweet story about a young girl coming of age on her family’s apple orchard in Wisconsin. The narrator is Mary Frances (“Frankie”) Lombard, and the author does a brilliant job of getting into her adolescent, comically naive head. —Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

Recently I’ve been relying heavily on the NPR Politics podcast. Since I haven’t had time to watch full coverage of the RNC and DNC, the daily recaps are a great way to get a quick rundown of the high (and low) points.  —Ellen Hornor, project editor

I may not have put in enough hours for #24in48 this past weekend, but I did spend some hours reading SuperMutant Magic Academy, the trade collection of Jillian Tamaki’s online comic of the same name. I have to credit both the Chicago Public Library’s blog and the reemergence of that magical feeling in the air as the world waits for the new Harry Potter book’s midnight release for compelling me to pick up the book now. My elevator pitch would be it’s for people who are looking for something more mature than Potter but not as serious as Lev Grossman’s Magicians series. With a dash of Nimona and Hark! A Vagrant. For a book about magical kids and mutants, it’s very relatable. Sure, the students at SuperMutant Magical Academy have to deal with curses and spells, mortality and prophecies, but even if you can transform yourself into a fox or a tree, there are still the very mundane concerns of requited and unrequited love, school dances, and what to do after you graduate. I could relate to some of the panels and definitely laughed out loud more than once. —Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

This week I read an article called “The Real Reason Women Love Witches” by Anne Theriault. It was about witchcraft throughout history and into modern society, and had a nice connection to feminism. —Francesca Kritikos, CRP intern

I think I might be behind the trend, but I just discovered theSkimm this past week. Somehow that site has made me addicted to reading the news. Within a few hours I read every article on there, so now I pretty much know everything going on in the world. On another note, I’m almost done with Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett and, as always, he’s a genius. —Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

After a spring and summer of nonfiction, I decided to treat myself to what I’ve always thought of as a beach read, bestselling Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. I’ve just finished chapter 3, and my thoughts so far: I still don’t really know where it’s leading. I love teen protagonists and boarding school stories. What’s up with the cover? And how did Sittenfeld know exactly how I felt when I was a freshman in high school? —Meaghan Miller, senior publicist and social media coordinator

I’ve been reading Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas, an extraordinary look at urban race relations in the 1970s through the stories of three Boston families. —Yuval Taylor, senior editor