Dennis Shere offers up what it was like to defend an accused mass murderer in his book, The Last Meal—Defending an Accused Mass Murderer, which chronicles the 1993 Brown’s Chicken killings in Palatine. The book allows readers to be the juror in the case against Juan Luna, one of the men who stood trial for killing seven employees who worked at the fast-food eatery in the affluent suburb outside of Chicago 18 years ago. It was one of the most gruesome crimes in the Chicagoland area.The most compelling aspect of the book, is that readers are able to sit in on the trial and decide Luna’s fate …

In many neighborhoods lives the recluse, the odd neighbor surrounded by myth and mostly unknown to those who live around him or her. In some neighborhoods these characters are subject to torment by school children whose imaginations have run wild about the habits and life of the recluse. Growing up in New York as a child, author, E.L. Doctorow can recall reading about such eccentric recluses, a set of brothers who hoarded their belongings in their three-story Fifth Avenue home. Doctorow was among many others who became familiar with the Collyer brothers because they became an urban legend, …

Glenview native Susan Walsh penned her first book "Walking in Broken Shoes" following last year's earthquake in Haiti. Written through Walsh’s eyes, the book takes a microscopic look at life in Haiti before and after the disaster. As Walsh, a nurse, and her team, a mix of volunteers and medical staff, leave a local clinic set to return home to the States, the ground rumbles and trees bend to their breaking point. Soon after, Walsh realizes they’ve just experienced an earthquake. Wasting no time, the team races back to the village to check on any injured residents. A young girl who was …