June Sawyers – författare

Neighborhood anchor. Hotbed of art and creativity. Sanctuary for reading and conversation. The coffeehouse is an essential part of Chicago's landscape. June Sawyers merges stories of the city's vibrant coffeehouse scene with an in-depth history of the institution's place in Chicago.Since the turn of the last century, immigrants have brought Chicago an abundance of varied café traditions from Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Sawyers delves into yesteryear's Towertown bohemian enclave and midcentury venues that helped fuel the folk music revival. She also explores the coffeehouse's ongoing evolution into a digitized workplace, and the creative ways today's artists and entrepreneurs reimagine these spaces as patisseries, cafés, bake shops, tearooms, and performance settings. Throughout, Sawyers brings to light the Midwestern coffeehouse's role in cultivating individual identity and neighborhood connection.Entertaining and enlightening, Chicago Coffeehouses takes readers into iconic gathering places with art on the walls and the aroma of ground beans in the air, where steam rises from a chipped but bottomless cup of coffee.

Celtic music means many things to many people. To some it recalls the Irish rebel songs of the Clancy Brothers, to others the ensemble playing of the Chieftains or Enya's ethereal vocals. Yet Celtic music is much more than reels, jigs, and sentimental ballads. It is also unaccompanied singing, feverish fiddle tunes, the sweet strains of the Irish uileann pipes. It comes not just from Ireland and Scotland but from Wales, Brittany, the Isle of Man, and Cornwall. It informs the musical roots of Van Morrison and U2, the performances of Riverdance, and the scores for such films as Braveheart and Titanic. Celtic Music explores all aspects of this music,from its roots to the exciting developments on the contemporary scene. Sawyers profiles hundreds of artists, and compiles suggestions for recommended listening as well as the one hundred essential Celtic recordings. Lists of Celtic festivals and publications are also included, together with record outlets, record labels, and music schools, making this book essential for all lovers of the music.

Bruce Springsteen is among the most literate of singers in rock history with songs touch people''s hearts and minds. He is the story teller of our generation. Tougher Than the Rest dissects the best of Springsteen''s vast body of work, from his earliest pieces on ''Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ'' right through to ''Devils & Dust'' released three decades later. The author comments on the origin and critical response each song received as well as sharing insights into the song''s literary, historical, and cultural references. Packed with numerous sidebars, rich photographs and lots of extras, Tougher Than the Rest is a must for all Springsteen fans!

The book features chapters on Jean Ross and Christopher Isherwood – the real people behind the singular characters of Sally Bowles and Clifford Bradshaw/Brian Roberts – and includes background information on the original source material, Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin stories and the first time Sally Bowles, as portrayed by Julie Harris, appeared onstage and on the big screen in John Van Druten's I Am a Camera. It also explores the stories behind the figure of the outlandish Emcee as well as the actors who played him, from Joel Grey to Alan Cumming. And it studies the famous musical score by John Kander and Fred Ebb and looks into the burlesque roots of director Bob Fosse in his native Chicago. Throughout the book, the author makes connections and associations to Cabaret by looking at such diverse topics as the first cabarets in Paris, Cabaret Voltaire and Dada, early Berlin cabarets during the Weimar Republic, German expressionism, the Bauhaus, Marlene Dietrich and The Blue Angel, David Bowie's many German influences, and the present and future of modern cabaret. Cabaret FAQ is the definitive guide for all fans of the Broadway musical and movie as well as for fans of the art form known as cabaret.