CRP's Blog

Now that fall is officially here, it’s time to curl up with some apple cider and a good read. Get some recommendations from our staff below! #CRPreads

I just saw Ann Patchett last night on her book tour for Commonwealth. Indie bookstore Women and Children First hosted her at a larger venue in Andersonville, and it was packed. She is such a salt-of-the-earth human being and I love her. I’ll be tearing into Commonwealth in the coming days. —Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

I always get ultra-happy on the first really miserable, blustery, bone-chilling day of the fall. We’re not quite there yet here in Chicago, but we’re close. Reading Jeanette Winterson’s piece “Why I adore the night” reminded me all over again why I so love this time of year. —Allison Felus, production manager

On Allison’s recommendation I’m reading Coming to My Senses by Alyssa Harad, a lushly written, feminist, and funny memoir of Harad’s “sensual awakening” through her burgeoning passion for perfume. She makes a charming, relatable narrator, and her sumptuous and wonderfully specific descriptions of scents make me want to smell all the things. —Ellen Hornor, project editor

Well, naturally, I’ve been reading one chapter each day from A Night in the Lonesome October. Graymalk and Snuff’s camaraderie, despite being on opposites sides of the Game, is totally #friendshipgoals. On the audio side of things, I listened to The Dispatcher, an audiobook-only novella by John Scalzi and narrated by Zachary Quinto, while on a long walk this weekend, and in anticipation of the Zombies, Run! Virtual 5K (zombies virtual race) this coming weekend (no, I’m not virtually running; I’ll be really running) I listened to The Way of All Flesh by Naomi Alderman. I could say that it’s because it’s October that the audiobooks have a commonality— The Dispatcher is set in a not-too-distant future where 999 out of 1,000 people who have been intentionally killed come back to life, and The Way of All Flesh is a prequel (and a murder mystery to boot!) to a running app/game I’m a big fan of called Zombies, Run!—but it’s pure coincidence. A timely coincidence but one all the same. —Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

I’m sure everybody has heard of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead by now, thanks to Oprah. It’s about a young slave on a plantation in Georgia who escapes to a literal underground railroad which takes her through different states, both of the country and of being free. So far, the story is so heartrending and intense that I wouldn’t say I “enjoy” reading it, but I just got to the point where Cora boards the train and I’m impressed with how Whitehead begins to blend a fantastical element into the disturbing reality. —Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

I’ve been on a brief reading hiatus due to my recent venture to the Grand Canyon where I did not consume any media for five glorious days. (I brought along The 6:41 to Paris, but never touched it.) I did pick up a copy of Arizona Highways on my way home, however, and have been reliving my time in the state via the glorious photography in this special black & white issue.—Meaghan Miller, senior publicist and social media coordinator

I just finished Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem, written in 1928 by an African American expatriate novelist and poet. It’s an unflinching look at African American urban life in the late 1910s, finely written and vibrant. Langston Hughes read it when it came out and loved it; I wonder if he wished he’d written it himself. Most of the women in the book are prostitutes and most of the men gamblers, drinkers, or pimps, so it’s no wonder the book was roundly denounced by the black intelligentsia when it came out.—Yuval Taylor, senior editor