CHF's Holiday Gift Guide: Favorite Books of 2019

The holidays are here, which means it's time to do some last minute shopping! We may be biased, but here at CHF, we think a book is the best present there is. Here are some fall festival books our staff think will make perfect gifts for your favorite bookworms! Happy holidays from our CHF family to yours!

For the Chicagoan...

A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life & Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks by Angela Jackson

No one has written more attentively about Black life and art in Chicago than Gwendolyn Brooks. Angela Jackson recalls Brooks's tremendous influence on and support for Chicago's Black creative community and the independent institutions that it built and has sustained. Surprised Queenhood is a testament to the ways that Brooks's legacy continues to thrive in Chicago. —Ira Murfin, Program Manager for Neighborhood Partnerships

Where Future Unfolds by Damon Locks and the Black Monument Ensemble

Where Future Unfolds is not a book, but the composition of this record reads like a story that will uplift your spirits and warm your soul with this wonderfully inspiring record of Chicago's very own Black Monuments Ensemble. I especially love that a child sings in the song "Rebuild a Nation." —Brenda Hernandez, Senior Program Manager

For the poetry lover...

Soft Science by Franny Choi

This book of poetry felt especially relevant at this time in my life, embarking upon adulthood. Franny Choi uses and stretches the Harawayian cyborg narrator, forcing a reckoning in the reader of what humanity looks like and what the expectations are of being in today's world. —Jagravi Dave, Program Assistant

For the artist...

The Nevada Test Site by Emmet Gowin

Max Norman, the New Yorker reviewer of Emmet Gowin's The Nevada Test Site, said it all: "[William] Blake famously read Satan as the true hero of 'Paradise Lost,' proclaiming Milton 'of the Devil's party without knowing it'—and in Gowin’s entrancingly beautiful pictures one feels a similar admiration for the power that humans have wielded to shape the earth in their image, however ugly that image may be." — Gregor Baszak, UIC Public Humanities Fellow

For the student...

Repair: Redeeming the Promise of Abolition by Katherine Franke

Through a discussion of what Reconstruction era reparations for slavery could have looked like on a national scale, Franke makes the a case for reparations in the present moment. —Simone Montgomery, Marketing Assistant

Life Isn't Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between by Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker

Life isn't binary and neither are we! This book would be a great read as people start to reflect on 2019 and envision their 2020 year. —Brenda Hernandez, Senior Program Manager

For the memoir enthusiast...

My Corner of the Ring by Jesselyn Silva

Jesselyn Silva may be only 12 years but she is a powerhouse that you will want to follow! My Corner of the Ring wonderfully captures her spirit, discipline and wit that will surely have you asking what will she do next? —Brenda Hernandez, Senior Program Manager

Medallion Status by John Hodgman

In true holiday fashion, I gifted Medallion Status to my mom. She says, 'The way he tells a story with so much wit about the unapologetic truths of how he views himself in the world in which he lives is delightful, and each page provides humor from the smallest little chuckle out loud bursts of hearty laughter.' My mom loves it, and yours will too! —Daniella Mazzio, Audience Services Coordinator