John Warner

2 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | John Warner

A couple of weeks ago, for the first time in her life, Mrs. Biblioracle got a library card. The impetus for the choice was a tip from her book club that you can listen to audiobooks for free (something possible through services like Libby and Overdrive), but once a member, she was introduced to additional benefits, including free access to the New York Times, which meant we no longer had to fight over the Wordle.

3 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | John Warner

Jess Walter, author of the just about to be released “So Far Gone,” is one of my favorite contemporary novelists. He’s been something of a shapeshifter over the course of his career, first establishing himself as a crime writer, including in the Edgar Award-winning “Citizen Vince.” “The Zero,” from 2006, uses Walter’s base in crime fiction set against the Sept.

4 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | John Warner

I am a big fan of reading, but even as big a fan as I am, I rarely think of a particular book as “fun.”Reading a great novel can be “compelling,” or “moving,” or “haunting,” or “penetrating.” We tend to think of “fun” as attached to other kinds of activities like a day at the amusement park, a nice hike in the woods, or jumping out of an airplane. (Scratch that last one.)I’m here to testify that Lincoln Michel’s new novel “Metallic Realms,” is more than fun; reading it was an absolute blast.

1 month ago | mcsweeneys.net | John Warner

Why would a fifty-five-year-old man try such a thing as Skittles POP’d Freeze Dried Candy, you might ask. I’ll tell you why. The grocery store was out of Nerds Very Berry Gummy Clusters, and a fiend needs his fix. We are in the midst of something like a golden age of candy technological advancement, and you never know when some new morsel capable of leaving your tongue scoured raw by repeated exposure to high-grade dextrose and food starch will hit the market.

1 month ago | chicagotribune.com | John Warner

In 2012, hip hop star Tupac Shakur performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival on stage with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, even though Tupac had been killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996. The Tupac hologram was a little Hollywood special effects trickery that cost heavy sums, but now, thanks to generative artificial intelligence, we can resurrect just about any historical figure. Or can we?