Desi Lit book group meets and discusses Mistress: A Novel by Anita Nair

Start time: Monday, February 01, 2010 At 07:30 PM

The Book Cellar Book Group meets and discusses The Alienist by Caleb Carr.

Enjoy 50% off wine and beer all day!

Start time: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 At 07:30 PM

Reminiscent of James Herriot’s wonderful books, Coston’s memoir "Ask the Animals: A Vet's-Eye View of Pets and the People They Love" offers zany, sad, and touching stories about a medical practice where the patients cannot speak, yet communicate deeply.

Bruce R. Coston’s first book is a warm, funny, and amazingly fulfilling celebration of the wonderful world of animals as seen through the eyes of a small-town veterinarian.Bruce R. Coston

Start time: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 At 07:00 PM

We here at the Book Cellar love fiercely indie Brooklyn writer Jami Attenberg's previous novel The Kept Man, so are eager to hear what she brings with The Melting Season, her new empowering, observant novel about a woman on the run with a suitcase full of cash.

Kirkus Reviews says it's an "intelligent, moving portrait of a journey to self-awareness, with meaty characters and a refreshing absence of psychobabble.”

Start time: Thursday, February 04, 2010 At 07:00 PM
Url: http://jamiattenberg.com/site/

Lookin' to add a little something to your love life? Join us for DATE & DASH, a Chicago-based dating service! At Date and Dash events, ladies sit at the tables, and guys move from one woman to the next as soon as a whistle blows.

After each "date," participants circle "yes" or "no" on their cards to indicate if they'd be interested in seeing their "date" again.

A few days later, participants receive an e-mail connecting them with their "yes" matches...

Spaces are limited, so sign up today!

Start time: Saturday, February 06, 2010 At 05:00 PM
Url: http://www.dateanddash.com/

The Gaper’s Block book group meets and discusses The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

Start time: Monday, February 08, 2010 At 07:30 PM

Join Us for Our 2009 "Best Of" 10,000 Tons of Black Ink Release Party

10,000 Tons of Black Ink will release its 2009 print edition featuring the strongest pieces published online during the course of the year.

The evening will feature readings from the publication, and will include a silent auction and raffle.

10,000 Tons of Black Ink is a Literary Writers Network publication that strives to give voices to new and burgeoning literary artists.

$5 suggested donation, includes one copy of the magazine.

Start time: Thursday, February 11, 2010 At 07:00 PM
Url: http://www.10ktobi.org

Chicago based print artist and poster celebrity Jay Ryan will be here with his latest book of his best work over the last four years, a collection covering all his work, vastly ranging from concert posters to book covers.

Author and local favorite Joe Meno (Hairstyles of the Damned, The Great Perhaps), who wrote the introduction for the book, will be here for this celebration of a man and his art.

Start time: Friday, February 12, 2010 At 07:00 PM
Url: http://www.thebirdmachine.com/

Join us for Second City/ Third Person, hosted by Chicago writer Brian Costello, author of The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs and subject of his own Wikipedia entry! This reading series is devoted to stories based in this one-of-a-kind, true blue 'merican city.

It also celebrates a strong third person narrative voice--not that there's anything wrong with first. At least I don't think so.

This months celebrated street: State Street, that great street.

This month's readers include: Erin Teegarden (who's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Another Chicago Magazine, Little White Poetry Journal, PMS (poemmemoirstory), Bellingham Review, and Pittsburgh's City Paper, among others, and the Book Cellar's own Brandon Will (frequent contributor to Knee-Jerk Magazine)

Start time: Saturday, February 13, 2010 At 07:00 PM

Essay Fiesta is a free monthly charity event (for the Howard Brown Health Center) and reading series that features writers and comedians from across Chicagoland and beyond!

Essay Fiesta, Chicago's only first-person charitable reading series, is ringing in the New Year with a fantastic line-up of artists.

Recently Added - Comedian Robert Buscemi
Actress, comedian and writer Kelsie Huff
Comedian and Second City Training Center instructor Bryan Bowden
Novelist and essayist Mary T. Wagner
Comedian Adam Guerino
Improviser and creative writing instructor Janna Sobel

And of course, your hosts Keith Ecker and Alyson Lyon.

Come see why we've twice been a Metromix Best Bet.

"A platform for artists to share and perform work, a place to gather with friends and enjoy a night out of the house, and a raffle benefiting a local non-profit... could Essay Fiesta be any more fun?" - The Examiner

Start time: Monday, February 15, 2010 At 07:00 PM

If Kathleen Rooney's new collection of nonfiction essays, - For You, For You, I am Trilling These Songs - is anything like Live Nude Girl, her lively and insightful memoir of her time as a nude artists model, we're certainly in for a treat.

Cristina Henriquez, author of the fantastic short story collection Come Together, Fall Apart celebrates the paperback launch of her first novel The World in Half, a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection. Friend of the Book Cellar Claire Zulkey recently interviewed Henriquez here.

Melanie Benjamin reads from Alice I Have Been, her heavily researched "Victorian Era" novel chronicling the life of the real-life inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell.

Start time: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 At 07:00 PM

Another stellar line-up of authors for you! Jerry Gabriel with his new story collection Drowned Boy will be here with fellow authors Patrick Somerville (New York Times Best Books of 2009 The Cradle), and Mark Rader (shortlisted for a 2009 Pushcart Prize)

From the Back Cover:

Jerry Gabriel delivers an unsentimental portrait of rural America in Drowned Boy, a collection of linked stories that reveals a world of brutality, beauty, and danger in the forgotten landscape of small-town basketball tournaments and family reunions.

Selected by Andrea Barrett for the 2008 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, these stories probe the fraught cusp of adulthood, the frustrations of escape and difference, and the emotional territory of disappointment with Gabriel's assured, austere prose, set in the hardscrabble borderlands where Appalachia meets the Midwest.

Start time: Friday, February 19, 2010 At 07:00 PM

The Classics Book Club meets to discuss Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.

Start time: Monday, February 22, 2010 At 07:30 PM
Email : TJOYCE994@aol.com
Url: http://bookcellarinc.com/bookclubs.php?id=14

Hey, why not - plenty of great literature that's marketed to young adults is much more than it's marketed as.

Coinciding with the release of the movie, the Young Adult Book Club for Adults meets to discuss The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.

Start time: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 At 08:00 PM
Email : NeverTooOldBookClub@gmail.com
Url: http://bookcellarinc.com/bookclubs.php?id=11

Long time small press and zine writer and publisher Kevin Sampsell reads from and discusses his new memoir out from Harper Collins.

A Common Pornography does something amazing. Through painstakingly chronicling his "average" childhood in middle/lower class Portland, Sampsell gives voice not only to his own life, but to countless others from such an uncelebrated background. Even his "average" life is filled with heartbreak, betrayal, discovery, and maybe even an alien in a alley one time.

With special guest Lindsay Hunter, co-host of Chicago's Quickies! Reading Series.

Start time: Friday, February 26, 2010 At 07:00 PM
Url: http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061766107/A_Common_Pornography/index.aspx

The KATES took the name of their first home--Kate the Great's Book Emporium--and moved to The Book Cellar where they continue to boast uproarious solo performance pieces, side-splitting monologues, and absurdly entertaining characters.

If you are looking for an intimate night of comedic storytelling, different from anything you'll see at a typical comedy club or late night bar, the hilarious Kates are for you!

Start time: Saturday, February 27, 2010 At 07:00 PM
Url: http://www.kelsiehuff.com/id16.html