I didn’t have time to write these up or make them pretty, but here’s an incomplete list of 2021 books about Chicago and/or by Chicagoans. It’s based on an Edelweiss search I ran in January, so more books will be added in the coming months, particularly for the back half of the year. Some small presses don’t use Edelweiss at all (or fail to mention Chicago in the summary or contributor bio). I did manage to add purchase/preorder links!
W-3 by Bette Howland, A Public Space Books, January 12
Useless Miracle by Barry Schechter, Melville House, January 12
The Loop : Chicago Architecture and the Social Imaginary by Kai Horstmannshoff, Columbia University Press, January 30
The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson, William Morrow, February 2
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration by Reuben Jonathan Miller, Little, Brown and Company, February 2
Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar, Catapult, February 2
Doppelgangbanger by Cortney Lamar Charleston, Haymarket Books, February 9
Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo, Agora Books, February 9
Perfect Example by John Porcellino, Drawn & Quarterly, February 9
The Upstairs House by Julia Fine, Harper Books, February 21
Meiselman: The Lean Years by Avner Landes, Tortoise Books, March 9
In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities by Davarian L Baldwin, Bold Type, March 30
Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren, Seven Stories Press, April 6
Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason by Gina Frangello, Counterpoint Press, April 6
Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960 by Arnold R. Hirsch, University of Chicago Press, April 6
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala, Berkley, May 4
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica, Park Row, May 18
Model Cases: On Canonical Research Objects and Sites by Monika Krause, University of Chicago Press, June 7
Darling by K. Ancrum, Imprint, June 22
Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Redevelopment by Teresa Irene Gonzales, NYU Press, June 29
Runner by Tracy Clark, Kensington, June 29
Leaving Breezy Street: A Memoir by Brenda Myers-Powell with April Reynolds, Henry Holt, June 29
The Lost Girls by Jessica Chiarella, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, July 6
The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer by Dean Jobb, Algonquin Books, July 13
Makeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance, edited by Stuart J. Hecht, Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud, and Megan E. Geigner, Northwestern University Press, July 15
Her Word Is Bond: Navigating Hip Hop and Relationships in a Culture of Misogyny by Cristalle “Psalm One” Bowen, Haymarket Books, August 3
Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara, Soho Press, August 3
Refugee High: Coming of Age in America by Elly Fishman, The New Press, August 10
Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day, William Morrow, October 12
Game Misconduct: Hockey’s Toxic Culture and How to Fix It by Evan F. Moore and Jashvina Shah, Triumph Books, October 12
Adam Morgan 