Local Book Notes: Slaughterhouse, Powell’s & Adult Coloring

An Astonishing Spectacle

“It’s impossible to pinpoint the exact moment Americans embraced industrialized food. But the first Christmas after the Civil War is a key date to note. That’s when Chicago’s infamous Union Stock Yard opened to the public in 1865,” Anne Bramley reports for NPR.

“Its promoters clearly thought there could be no more appropriate way to observe a festive Christian holiday in the midst of America’s capitalist hothouse than to open the greatest livestock market the world would ever see,” writes Dominic A. Pacyga in his new book, Slaughterhouse: Chicago’s Union Stock Yard And The World It Made

“‘See’ is the key word here. Because the new modern industry was quite a spectacle to behold, says Pacyga, and it was by watching it that Americans began to change their relationship to meat.”
Click through for an interview with Pacyga.

*
From the University of Chicago Press:
“From the minute it opened – on Christmas Day in 1865 – it was Chicago’s must-see tourist attraction, drawing more than half a million visitors each year. Families, visiting dignitaries, even school groups all made trips to the South Side to tour the Union Stock Yard. There they got a firsthand look at the city’s industrial prowess as they witnessed cattle, hogs, and sheep disassembled with breathtaking efficiency. At their height, the kill floors employed 50,000 workers and processed six hundred animals an hour, an astonishing spectacle of industrialized death.”
–
Powell’s Out
“The Powell’s Books in University Village by the University of Illinois at Chicago campus was recently packed when the Chicago Humanities Festival brought speakers like Salman Rushdie and Patton Oswald to the nearby UIC Forum,” Joseph Pete writes for the Northwest Indiana Times.

Professorial types browsed the well-curated titles and lined up at the counter with books stacked in the arms.
But such scenes were rare at the three-year-old bookstore at 1218 S Halsted St., which replaced Barbara’s Bookstore.
Powell’s Books, one of the most beloved names in Chicago bookselling, is closing its University Village location on Dec. 23. The chain, which was founded by the owner of Portland’s famous Powell’s City of Books, also recently closed its South Loop and Lincoln Avenue locations and now just operates a single store at 1501 E. 57th St. in Hyde Park.

The good news:

–
Are Adult Coloring Books A Real Thing?
“I posted the query to Facebook and the response – entirely from women – was surprisingly immediate and enthusiastic,” Julia Felsenthal writes for Vogue.

“My aunt-in-law brought coloring books and fancy markers to Thanksgiving and I was all ‘pshhhh, really??'” wrote Dean, a designer in Chicago whose funky style I’ve long admired on social media. “Next thing I know, I’m suuuuper chill with a glass of wine, coloring a picture of a flower shop. It’s surprisingly kind of awesome.”

That would be Dean Renaud.

–
Comments welcome.

Permalink

Posted on December 9, 2015