Chicago Culinary Bookstore Serves Up a Menu of Holiday Gifts

With world-class restaurants on virtually every corner, it’s no surprise that Chicagoans like to dish up top-notch nosh at home too. Now there’s a new foodie bookstore to cater to their discerning palates. Located on the hip Halsted Street shopping corridor in Lincoln Park, Read It & Eat carries everything from well-known encyclopedic reference cookbooks to […]

Between the Pages: Books With Fascinating Fictional Marriages

The most intriguing stories of marriage don’t always happen under the covers, but rather, between them. In many ways, the arc of a marriage parallels that of a compelling novel — it begins with a meeting, climaxes with a coupling and ends with, well, an end — whether because of death or a fight over […]

Join Make It Better’s Cynic’s Self-Help Book Club

If you looked at my bookshelf, you’d think I could give solid advice on disciplining children, being a better leader and 10 other things. But, the books are only partially read or, more likely, never read. Stacks and stacks. Either I don’t make time to read them or don’t fully buy into their promises. To […]

The Best New Cookbooks of 2015

Every year, when it comes time to compile my annual list of favorite cookbooks, I ask myself the same questions: What makes a cookbook compulsively readable? Why do some cookbooks – even those without the Food Network imprimatur – become bestsellers, while others languish on the shelves? Most importantly, which new cookbooks can I not […]

Best Books of 2015 (So Far)

Say goodbye to beach book season—the kids are headed back to school and soon, you might just find yourself with a little more free time. With that in mind, here is some of the best of the bunch this year. A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara For fans of epic sagas—those 700-plus page books that invite […]

7 Books That Will Inspire Your Junior Superhero in Training

Bam! Pow! Bang! From Batman to Wonder Woman, kids can delve into books featuring their favorite DC superheroes. They’ll engage in reading while learning about shapes and colors, right and wrong and even how to make a Superman Up, Up, and Away Yogurt Parfait. If it inspires your child to read, that’s a victory for […]

10 Little Details That Bring a Room to Life

Layers bring a room to life! Without them, even the most beautiful space will remain a soulless showroom full of things. It’s like setting a table with gorgeous linens, fine china and spectacular centerpieces and then skipping the food! After many hours spent poring over images of stunning interiors that nail it, we discovered ten […]

10 Best Books to Gift for Father’s Day

Mother’s Day came and went, and it was as a success! So congratulations to you as you sit at your computer with your new coffee mug and yoga clothes, picking bits of eggshell out of your teeth from the omelet your kids made you three weeks ago. Now what to get him? Your husband, who […]