City Lit Books is excited to welcome three talented and distinctive Chicago voices to share their latest novels with us. In What More Could You Wish For by Samantha Hoffman, Libby Carson has a thriving business, a loving family and a steady partner with whom she has an "arrangement." That is until her 50th birthday, when her significant other proposes—a road Libby finds she doesn't want to travel again. After reconnecting with a high school boyfriend online and beginning a flirtation, Libby must ask herself when life is good—what more could you wish for?
Randy Richardson's Cheeseland tells the story of Lance Parker and Daniel McAllister two Chicago high school seniors who attempt to mend their friendship with a road trip to Wisconsin after a friend's suicide. The journey of recovery is filled with comical twists as the two teens navigate "Cheeseland," a place that blurs the line between adolescence and adulthood. Along the way, secrets are revealed and the ugly truth behind the friend's suicide unfolds.
Coming Out Can Be Murder by Renee James is the story of a Chicago hairdresser whose world is shaken when a transgender friend is brutally murdered. When neither the press nor the police seem to care about the murder, Bobbi Logan comes out as a transgender woman in defiance of society and begins her own investigation, determined to bring the murderer to justice. Her decisions subject her to danger as she struggles to keep her job and becomes the next target of a violent sexual predator.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Samantha Hoffman's stories have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Dieter's Soul, The Corner Magazine in London and numerous other print and online publications. She also writes a popular blog about life in Chicago. What More Could You Wish For is her first novel.
Randy Richardson is an attorney and award-winning journalist and serves as president of the Chicago Writers Association. His essays have been published in the anthologies Chicken Soup for the Father and Son Soul, Humor for a Boomer's Heart, The Big Book of Christmas Joy, Be There Now, and Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year, as well as in numerous print and online journals and magazines. His debut novel, Lost in the Ivy, was named one of the notable Chicago books of 2005 by Gaper's Block. Conversations Magazine named his latest, Cheeseland, one of the top 100 books of 2012.
Renee James is the pen name of a Chicago writer and editor who has been active in Chicago's vibrant transgender community for many years. Prior to publishing Coming Out Can Be Murder, her first novel, James had an award winning career as a magazine editor and publishing company executive. She wrote Coming Out Can Be Murder because "fiction tells the transgender story in a way that the many great autobiographies in the field can't."
About City Lit Books:
City Lit Books is a new independent bookstore located in Logan Square. Opening in August 2012, City Lit Books has quickly become a literary hot spot thanks to its excellently curated selections of fiction, non-fiction, science fiction and children's books along with its rotating calendar of events.
