CRP's Blog

With the holidays approaching, most of the CRP staff has been trading book time for family time, but a few pages have still managed to be read. Check them out below and let us know what you’re reading this week in the comments. #CRPreads

I’ve been chuckling away to B.J. Novak’s collection of short stories, One More Thing. I had bought a copy last winter when he came to Chicago for his paperback tour, but his read-aloud during the event convinced me that the best way to consume these stories was by hearing Novak recite them himself, so I checked out the audiobook file from the library. Since then I have been caught quietly laughing to myself on the train to work, or staring off into space over the kitchen sink during a particularly moving passage. Not every story comes together perfectly, and they all kind of feel born out of jokes or theories made over a round of drinks. But there are gems in there for sure, and I’ve found the collection as a whole to be clever and amusing. –Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

After my last Staff Reads post, I bought both Fates and Furies and Career of Evil (shout out to City Lit Books for having both in stock!), and I dove into F&F first. A few years ago, the women in my family passed around Groff’s story collection, Delicate Edible Birds, with hushed and reverent appreciation, so I was excited to hear her third novel had been picked up as Morning Edition’s book club selection. When I heard her speak about the book—well, she had me at “feminine rage.” Only fifty pages in, her searing prose has already both delighted me and pushed me in uncomfortable directions, but I’m totally hooked. Can’t wait to see where this going. –Ellen Hornor, project editor

I’m reading The New Jim Crow and although I’m only on chapter two, I’ve never felt this simultaneously inspired and helpless from a book before. I’m hoping there’s a section in this book that outlines how to help with such racial injustice ingrained in our prison system and our society. –Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

Women in Blue (CRP, May 2016) author Cheryl Mullenbach brought this CNN article to our attention about Jim Smith, widower of NYPD officer Moira Smith, returning his late wife’s posthumous Glamour Woman of the Year award. The first officer to radio in about the first plane crash at the World Trade Center on 9/11, Moira managed to rescue some civilians, but was killed when the South Tower collapsed after she reentered the building to find more. –Lindsey Schauer, project editor

We’ll be taking a Staff Reads break next week, but be on the lookout for a new roundup coming soon!