Author Discussion & Signing with Emilie LeBeau Lucchesi

Title: The Light in the Dark: Surviving More than Ted Bundy ...

Date: October 22, 2023

Day: Sunday

Time: 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Description

THE FIRST BOOK BY A CONFIRMED SURVIVOR OF TED BUNDY, AND THE ONLY MEMOIR TO CHALLENGE THE POPULAR NARRATIVE OF BUNDY AS A HANDSOME KILLER WHO CHARMED HIS VICTIMS INTO TRUSTING HIM

In January 1978, I slept in my bed at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University as Ted Bundy stalked nearby. 
He grabbed an oak log from a stack of firewood, slipped through a back door with a broken padlock, and headed upstairs.He began twisting doorknobs. Room 9 was open, and he quietly and quickly killed one of my sleeping sorority sisters. Across the hall, he found another unlocked door and murdered again. Then, he turned the knob to my bedroom and found it was open. I remember the attack vividly. Bundy bashed me once in the head with the log and then attacked my roommate. He heard me moaning and came to finish me off. He never let his victims live. But he stopped suddenly when a bright light filled the room. He fled the sorority house and the light disappeared.

Bundy wasn’t my first brush with death, and he wasn’t my last. I’ve long been a survivor. I was born into a Cuban American family in 1957 in Florida. I had a happy childhood until I received my first death sentence at the age of thirteen. Physicians weren’t sure why I was always so exhausted and running a low-grade fever. The prognosis was grim after my left kidney started to fail. Then, a physician from Cuba saved my life with a surprise diagnosis—lupus—and treatment plan: chemotherapy. I endured chemotherapy again in my early thirties when I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.

This is my story of surviving three death sentences and finding love and happiness along the way. I was saved by a bright light, and I hope my story is one for people who are experiencing their own dark times. I am a victim, but I am also a survivor, and I want to speak up for all the women and girls whom Bundy murdered.
 
He has become a legend, and our voices have been muted or ignored. It’s time we were heard.
 

About the Authors

Emilie L. Lucchesi, PhD studies framing, stigma communication, and medical history with specific regard to stigma communication and mental health. 

Dr. Lucchesi is the author of This is Really War: The Incredible True Story of a Navy Nurse POW (Chicago Review, 2019), which won second place in the American Journal of Nursing’s 2019 Books of the Year awards. The book was also featured in The New York Times, NPR, and Fox-Chicago. The book debuted as an Amazon #1 new release in multiple categories including Nursing & Critical Care. The book was also recorded as an audiobook and released by Tantor Media. Emilie is also the author of Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence that Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago (Chicago Review, 2017), which was recommended by The New York Times in June 2017 along with Crain’s Chicago Business and Ms. Magazine. She has appeared on PBS, NPR, FOX-32, and European television to discuss her books.  In May 2019, WGN-TV ran a six-minute cover story on This is Really War  -- the first book to focus exclusively on the “Twelve Anchors,” who were navy nurse POWs in WWII. Dr. Lucchesi engages with the most timely and important issues surrounding health and/or stigma communication in elite publications such as The New York Times and The Atlantic. Emilie is the faculty mentor for the women’s soccer team. And as a person with lifelong hearing loss, she is available as a personal mentor to any student with physical or learning differences. She is a regular contributor to Discover magazine and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Atlantic, and the nation’s other top newspapers. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and three dogs.

Kathy Kleiner Rubin is a sought-after motivational speaker who specializes in survivor impact. Since 2018, Kleiner Rubin has been sharing her story with audiences eager to hear of her courage and survival. She has spoken to universities, law enforcement agencies, forensic nursing organizations, and true crime conventions. Kleiner Rubin has given dozens of interviews to the country’s top news agencies including CBS News, 48 Hours, 20/20, USA Today, CNN, and Newsweek. She has also been interviewed in Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, and People. Kleiner Rubin lives in South Florida with her husband and dog. 

Author: Gail Lukasik

Title The Darkness Surrounds Us

Date: November 4, 2023

Day: Saturday

Time: 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Description

A Ghostly Window Into the Past

Nurse Nellie Lester can’t escape death. Fleeing Chicago at the height of the 1918 Spanish flu, she takes a nursing job at a decrepit mansion on a desolate Michigan island, convinced the island holds the secret to her mother’s murky past. The only problem? Her dead mother seems to have followed her there. Nightly she’s haunted by a ghostly presence that appears in her bedroom. But is it her mother or something more sinister?

When the frozen body of the prior nurse is unearthed, Nellie suspects the nurse’s death and her family’s history are connected to a mysterious group that disappeared from the island twenty-four years earlier.

As winter closes in, past and present collide resurrecting a lurid killer, hell-bent on keeping the island’s secrets. Will Nellie uncover her mother’s shocking past before the killer enacts his final revenge?

 “Lukasik delivers a gripping ghost story. With unpredictable plotting and superior atmospheric, this is a treat for late night devouring.” Publishers Weekly.

About the Author

The Darkness Surrounds Us is Gail Lukasik’s fifth mystery novel and her first Gothic mystery. Kirkus Reviews praised Gail’s mysteries as “riveting, fast-paced and loaded with suspense.” Gail’s memoir, White Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing, captured national attention and led to her appearance on NBC’s The Today Show. The Washington Post named White Like Her one of the most inspiring stories of 2017. Once a member of the Cleveland Civic Ballet Company, she credits her aesthetic sensibility, her stage presence, and her writerly discipline to her training as a classical ballerina.

Author Discussion & Signing for Local Writer and Poet, Patrick T. Reardon with Local Guest Author Floyd Sullivan

Titles: Let the Baby Sleep and Puddin': The Autobiography of a Baby, A Memoir in Prose Poems

Called Out: A Novel of Baseball and America in 1908

Date: September 17, 2023

Day: Sunday

Time: 2:00 PM

Description

Let the Baby Sleep is a fearlessly exploratory collection of poems. The poet, Patrick T. Reardon, dissects the world of his childhood, his upbringing, his relationships with his parents and siblings, his maturation and growth, and the wrenching shock of his brother's suicide. With extraordinary skill and grace, he exposes the worlds-physical, mental, spiritual-that he inhabited and is forced still to inhabit, and asks us to confront them with him.

This is a rare collection. Reading these poems feels like a privilege that should be reserved for the poet and his family, but the warmth, generosity, humour, and love that permeates the whole is offered without reservation. The poems are, by turns, gentle, harrowing, contemplative, heartfelt, but always insistently demonstrative, insistently declarative. There is no turning away.

Description

Puddin' The Autobiography of a Baby is
a memoir. It's not fantasy.
It is the story of a baby--me--during my first
fourteen months, leading up to the birth of David. It's told from the
perspective and in the voice of a baby. Each of this small book's 101 chapters
is imagined. Yet, each is rooted in reality, in facts and feelings.

About the Author

From 1976 through 2009, Reardon was the urban affairs writer and a feature writer at the Chicago Tribune. During his 32-year career at the newspaper, he specialized in writing about social issues, public policy questions and the interconnections within the Chicago region.

He was the primary reporter and team leader on a wide variety of in-depth multi-part series on such subjects as the urban underclass, public housing, Chicago’s public school system, the middle-class migration out of the city, the rebirth of the Chicago River, the inner workings of a ward boss’s organization, the social and cultural shifts behind the disappearance of the city’s taverns, the surprising importance of alleys in the life of the city, and the emotional, cultural and historical factors behind suburban sprawl. As a team leader, he has won three Peter Lisagor Awards from the Chicago chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for reporting. In addition, his book reviews won two Lisagors for arts criticism.

Reardon was one of a team of fifty Tribune reporters, photographers and editors who won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting for “Gateway to Gridlock,” a series of stories about the nation’s over-crowded skies.

During his career, Reardon used his expertise in social policy, demographics, statistics, community organizing, Chicago politics, Chicago history, the geography of the city and region, the city’s literature, the multiplicity of governments in the region, real estate development, religion and the history of the nation and world to hold a mirror up to the people of the metropolitan region. His goal has always been to help people understand where they’d been, where they were and where they were going.

While at the Tribune, he wrote more than 200 book reviews and profiled such writers as Gay Talese, Haki Madhubuti, Sandra Cisneros, Patrick O’Brian, Richard Russo, Robert Caro, John Keegan, Antonia Fraser, P.D. James and Roddy Doyle.

He has written for a variety of publications, including the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, National Catholic Reporter, U.S. Catholic, the Chicago Sun-Times, Crain’s Chicago Business, the Chicago Reader, Health Progress, Reality, Streetwise and Illinois Heritage.

Description

As 1907 becomes 1908, National Base Ball League President Harry Pulliam suspects that the owner of the New York Giants has hired detectives to spy on him and his lover, Ted Russell, with the goal of blackmailing him. The pressure tests the strength of his relationship and his ability to administer his league duties.

Lenore Caylor, Pulliam's new stenographer, falls in love with him and becomes his staunchest champion as he fights to preserve the honor of professional base ball and the National League. Near the end of the season, one of the most bizarre in base ball history, controversial, game-changing calls result in violent protests, riots, and death. The survival of the national pastime hangs in the balance, as do Pulliam's relationships with Ted and Lenore-and, indeed, his own life.

About the Author

Floyd Sullivan was born in Chicago and grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in history. He has written one non-fiction book, Waiting for the Cubs, and edited a collection of essays titled Old Comiskey Park. He blogs about baseball at Waiting4Cubs on ChicagoNow.com. He works as a freelance writer and photographer in Chicago, where he lives with his wife.

Barbara Gregorich, author, She's on First and Women at Play "I enjoyed learning more about both [Harry Pulliam], his secretary, Lenore Caylor, and the various team owners. I particularly enjoyed the author's descriptions of bugs-baseball fanatics. Sullivan does an excellent job of capturing the slang of the times and depicting the violence the bugs inflicted on opposing players. And what made me laugh with delight was each and every time a character in the book complained about the Chicago Cubs always winning the World Series. "...I cared about the characters in the story, and I cared about their personal outcomes as well as the outcomes for major league baseball. Called Out is a a book I'm glad I read, and I recommend it to others as an enjoyable way to learn about an important part of baseball history-and the more important issue of how to people should behave toward one another." Patrick T. Reardon, author; Pulitzer Prize winner; National Book Award nominee: "Sullivan...has done a crackerjack job of weaving together many strands to provide a nuanced look at base ball and at America of more than a century ago. "Called Out is a baseball book in which, ironically, few games are described. However, there is one particular game to which Sullivan devotes 30 pages-and then another 40 pages to its aftermath. "It's also a book about a quirky love story centering on the novel's two major characters, Lenore Caylor and Harry Pulliam-a love story that's the furthest thing from a romance novel, especially when you consider that one of the two is gay. "It's the story of a hero, Pulliam, clashing again and again with the entrenched powers-that-be of his sport-and losing. A tragic story. And, yet, as we know from the subsequent history of base ball, he was ultimately victorious."

Title: Programmable Planet: The Synthetic Biology Revolution.

Author: Ted Anton

Date: October 12, 2023

Day: Thursday

Time: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Description

A new science is reengineering the fabric of life. Synthetic biology offers bold new ways of manufacturing medicines, clothing, foods, fragrances, and fuels, often using microbe fermentation, much like brewing beer. The technology can help confront climate change, break down industrial pollutants, and fight novel viruses. Today, researchers are manipulating life forms and automating evolution to create vegetarian "meat," renewable construction materials, and cancer treatments. In the process, they are changing our concept of what life science can achieve. Is this a new industrial and information revolution-or dangerous tinkering that could unleash unintended consequences?

Programmable Planet is a grand tour through the world of synthetic biology, telling the stories of the colorful visionaries whose ideas are shaping discoveries. Ted Anton explores the field from its beginning in fighting malaria in Africa to the COVID vaccines and beyond. Covering medical and agricultural triumphs and blunders, he examines successes in energy production, plant gene editing, and chemical manufacturing, as well as the most controversial attempts at human gene enhancement. This book reports from the front lines of research, showing policy makers' struggle to stay abreast of the technologies they aim to regulate. Even-handed, lively, and informative, Programmable Planet gives a glimpse of the promise and problems of a new biology-based industry.

About the Author

Ted Anton is the author of The Longevity Seekers: Science, Business and the Fountain of Youth (University of Chicago Press, 2013), and Bold Science: Seven Scientists Who Are Changing Our World (Henry Holt: 2000, 2001), an amazon.com pick and a featured choice on www.howthingswork.com. His book, Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu (Northwestern University Press: 1996) won a Carl Sandburg Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library. The New York Times called it "an engrossing story of a twentieth century original."

Anton's articles have been honored as finalist for a National Magazine Award, as notable essays in three years of Best American Essays, and appeared in several anthologies. A co-editor of The New Science Journalists (Ballantine, 1995), he is a professor in the English department at DePaul University in Chicago.

Author: Joseph Levalley

Title: The Sophocles Rule

Date: August 5, 2023

Day: Saturday

Time: 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Description

It began with a simple coin toss, which led to a mystery, which led to the unthinkable.

The simple toss of a coin presents journalist Tony Harrington with a fascinating puzzle. And puzzles, he knows, can lead to good stories. As he searches for the origins of a particularly unusual quarter, others like it begin showing up around Orney, the small Midwestern city where he lives and works. He begins to suspect they are connected to a sixty-year-old mystery--an unsolved bank robbery and the brutal murder of its president.

As Tony digs deeper, he sparks a reaction from evil people determined to keep these secrets buried in the past. The results are two new murders and the disappearance of a teenage boy. The people of Orney react in fear and outrage, blaming Tony and the local newspaper, and putting the futures of both at risk.

With the help of a state investigator and a Hollywood actress, Tony charges ahead in the search for answers. The suspense escalates further when Tony's boss offers refuge to an ex-girlfriend fleeing a violent, abusive husband. As these intertwined stories unfold, the danger grows, violence erupts, and Tony finds himself staring into the barrel of a killer's gun.

Join Tony and his loyal friends and colleagues, as they race to find the missing boy, recover a fortune in stolen cash, stop a murderer from killing again, and once again prevent dark secrets from hiding in the past.

About the Author

Joseph "Joe" LeValley credits his love of writing for every success in his life. He was a reporter-photographer for daily newspapers for seven years, covering crime/criminal justice as his primary beat. Subsequently, he served for more than 30 years as a healthcare executive. During that time, he and his team won four national awards for communications excellence. He began his latest career, as an author and public speaker, in 2018. As a musician, Joe plays drums and guitar. He has performed with a number of groups and has written more than 40 songs. In 2016, he was inducted with the Mourning Glory Rock Band into the Iowa Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. A lifelong Iowan, Joe has a degree in journalism from Drake University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Iowa. He and his wife Jane have six children and live in Dallas County, Iowa.

NOTE: Joseph Levalley's four earlier Tony Harrington mystery novels are listed below in order of publication.

Their One-Stop Farewell Tour (Don't Miss IT!)

Authors: Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins

Date: November 19, 2023

Day: Sunday

Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

About the Authors:

Max Allan Collins has earned an unprecedented ten Private Eye Writers of America Shamus nominations for his historical thrillers, winning twice for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective and Stolen Away. A Mystery Writers of America Edgar nominee in both fiction and non-fiction categories, Collins has written five suspense novel series, film criticism, short fiction, songwriting, trading-card sets, and movie/TV tie-in novels, including Air Force One, The Mummy Returns, the New York Times bestselling Saving Private Ryan, CSI: Double Dealer (from the CBS series), and The Scorpion King.He scripted the internationally syndicated comic strip Dick Tracy from 1977 to 1993 and has written the Batman comic book and newspaper strip. His graphic novel, Road to Perdition, has been made into a DreamWorks feature film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, directed by Sam Mendes.

Barbara Collins is a noted short-story writer who has also written books with her husband, Max Allan Collins, sometimes under the joint pseudonym Barbara Allan. In Bombshell, written by both Barbara and Max Allan Collins under their own names, the authors tell a "Cold-War" story featuring the late U.S.S.R. leader Nikita Khrushchev coming to the United States and meeting Marilyn Monroe, who sets out to save Khrushchev from an assassination plot by his own security agents. Wes Lukowsky, writing in Booklist, noted the novel's "wonderful characterizations" and the author's ability "to re-create an era within the context of a delightful comic adventure." Library Journal contributor Rex Klett commented that the story is "told with warmth, attention to historical detail, and serious tone."

Bookseller's Comment: Both Max's and Barb's most recent titles are listed below for your review. I wanted to take this space to thank them for their writing of great and delightful books over the years and, especially their loyalty to Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore. The first time they came to C&S we were in Oak Park in the early 1990's He had written the copy in an illustrated Dick Tracy graphic book. He actually wrote a note to my son in a  cartoon bubble of  Dick Tracy in a precarious position. He wrote "A.J. help me," We have had many very good authors at this store who are fortunately loyal and supportive to Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore. Max and Barb Collins have been and are on that Honor Roll.  (Augie Aleksy Bookseller)

Title: Murder and Mamon (A Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery #4) 

Author: Mia Manansala

Date: September 23, 2023

Day: Saturday

Time: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Description:

When murder mars the grand opening for Lila Macapagal’s aunties’ new laundromat, she will have to air out all the dirty laundry in Shady Palms to catch a killer…
Lila Macapagal's godmothers April, Mae, and June—AKA the Calendar Crew—are celebrating the opening of their latest joint business venture, a new laundromat, to much fanfare (and controversy). However, what should’ve been a joyous occasion quickly turns into a tragedy when they discover the building has been vandalized—and the body of Ninang April’s niece, recently arrived from the Philippines, next to a chilling message painted on the floor. The question is, was the message aimed at the victim or Lila's gossipy godmothers, who have not-so-squeaky-clean reputations?
With Ninang April falling apart from grief and little progress from the Shady Palms Police Department in this slippery case, it’s up to Lila and her network to find justice for the young woman.
The Calendar Crew have stuck their noses into everybody’s business for years, but now the tables are turned as Lila must pry into the Calendar Crew’s lives to figure out who has a vendetta against the (extremely opinionated yet loving) aunties and stop them before they strike again.

About the Author:

Mia P. Manansala is a writer from Chicago who loves books, baking, and badass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture.

Title: Just Judy: A Citizen and Leader for Illinois

Author: Joseph Baar Topinka

Date: July 15, 2023

Day: Saturday

Time: 11:00AM - 1:00PM

About the Book:

In Just Judy, we read the story of Judy Baar Topinka, a strong and inspiring female leader who changed Illinois history through her commitment to effective government and equality. Through education and persistence, Judy found herself on a history-making path, impacting the lives of millions of Illinois residents along her way. Judy began her career as a journalist and moved into government as a State Representative, State Senator, and then State Comptroller. Her story is a unique portrayal of modern Illinois history based on the life of a female politician who defied traditional gender roles to rise to the top of her profession and support the lives of people throughout the state. Featuring compelling photographs, unique primary sources, and inspiring discussion questions, this book is an ideal resource for students of history from middle school through adult. Judy Baar Topinka continues to inspire us all.

About the Author:

Joseph B. Topinka is a retired military attorney who previously taught as an Assistant Professor in the Army-Baylor University Graduate Program in Health and Business Administration and was also a Legal Instructor for the Army Medical Department Center and School’s Leader Training Center. He is the former Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for the U.S Army Medical Command and the former Command Judge Advocate and Center Judge Advocate for the Army’s Western Regional Medical Command and Madigan Army Medical Center respectively. He has published or co-published many works over the last ten years.

"Joseph Baar Topinka, son of former Illinois politician Judy Baar Topinka, is working to keep his mother’s legacy alive"

Bob Sirott of WGN Radio AM 720 (October 5, 2021)

Date: July 2, 2023

Day: Sunday

Time: 3:30-5:00 PM

Title & Author: Lay Your Body Down by Amy Suiter Clarke

About the Book:

After Del Walker fled her small hometown and its cult-like church, she vowed to never return. The man she loved, Lars, left her to marry the local golden girl Eve, and their romance is now the focus of Eve’s viral blog espousing the pastor’s conservative philosophy about women and marriage. But six years later, Lars is suddenly killed, and she’s convinced it couldn’t have been an accident.

 When Del returns to her hometown for the funeral, she discovers the now mega-church—and the insidious, patriarchal teachings of Pastor Rick Franklin—has grown not only in size but in influence. Eve was clearly discontent in her marriage, despite the carefully constructed “Noble Wife” positivity of her blog posts, and Del knows better than anyone just how far she will go to get what she wants. Del is determined to cut through the church’s lies and corruption to find out who killed Lars—even if it means confronting the religious trauma she’s spent years trying to bury.

About the Author:

AMY SUITER CLARKE is the author of Girl, 11 and is a writer and communications specialist. Originally from a small town in Minnesota, she completed an undergraduate degree in theater in the Twin Cities. She then moved to London and earned an MFA in creative writing with publishing at Kingston University. She currently works for a university library in Melbourne, Australia

Title & Author: Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia Manansala

About the Book:

It’s Christmastime in Shady Palms, but things are far from jolly for Lila Macapagal. Sure, her new business, the Brew-ha Cafe, is looking to turn a profit in its first year. And yes, she’s taken the first step in a new romance with her good friend Jae Park. But her cousin Ronnie is back in town after ghosting the family fifteen years ago, claiming that his recent purchase of a local winery shows that he’s back on his feet and ready to contribute to the Shady Palms community. Tita Rosie is thrilled with the return of her prodigal son, but Lila knows that wherever Ronnie goes, trouble follows.
 
She’s soon proven right when Ronnie is suspected of murder, and secrets surrounding her shady cousin and those involved with the winery start piling up. Now Lila has to put away years of resentment and distrust to prove her cousin’s innocence. He may be a jerk, but he’s still family. And there’s no way her flesh and blood could actually be a murderer . . . right?

About the Author:

Mia P. Manansala is a writer from Chicago who loves books, baking, and badass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture.