Jane Hamilton

It is a pleasurable thing to have drinks with Randy Albers and we have done so over the years at such saloons as, of course, the Billy Goat, as well as Stefani's 437, the Underground Wonder Bar and some joint in the South Loop whose name escapes me at the...

LOS ANGELES -- Stop us if you've heard this one before: HBO dominated the Emmy nominations announced Thursday morning, picking up 81 nods for viewer favorites such as "Boardwalk Empire" and "Game of Thrones" as well as comedy newcomers "Girls" and "Veep."...

From the pleasant opera-loving terrorists in "Bel Canto" to the endlessly fertile Amazon women in her new novel, "State of Wonder," Ann Patchett creates magical stories. No wizards or vampires, no triumph over dysfunctional past, but rather an alternative...

BOYLE Deeds filed recently in the office of Boyle County Clerk Trille Bottom include: HSBC Bank and Geraldine Jones, through J. Thomas Hensley, master commissioner, to HSBC Bank, property on Alta Avenue, $21,868. Johnny and Juanita Durham to Rodney...

There's no point in getting wordy, so we'll simply remind you that the Tribune-sponsored 27th annual Printers Row Lit Fest takes place June 4-5. For now, here are 10 "chapters" of Chicago lit: 1 Ben Hecht, who co-wrote the play "The Front Page" and was a...

Brooke Berman makes a left off Sunset Boulevard onto Larrabee and begins to recount, warmly, a home she once occupied in West Hollywood. "This was one of the best apartments I've had in L.A.," she says as we approach a place a few blocks from Book Soup,...

Tribune reporter Colleen Mastony began reporting this story two days after the shooting. She spent weeks in the Rice Lake area and in St. Paul, where Chai Vang lived. She interviewed Vang, his family and friends, as well as the two survivors, Terry...

In sweeps, size matters. The ratings periods are all about drawing the biggest crowds to shows hyped as events. Although few programs warrant the buildup, broadcast executives merrily brag about their results anyway. Ultimately, the four-week sweeps...

This is the week that Chicago has set aside to discuss "To Kill a Mockingbird," the book designated last summer as the first work to be read by the entire population of the city (and suburbs) as a shared intellectual exercise. The Harper Lee classic...

SEE CORRECTION APPENDED When you're reading Chekhov, author-illustrator Edward Gorey once said, you wonder why you read anyone else. Michael Cacoyannis' new film of the great Russian writer's final masterpiece, "The Cherry Orchard," illustrates what...

Friday December 3, 1999      The title of the powerful "A Map of the World" refers to a drawing a child makes to try to grasp where her dying mother might be going. Now as an adult, Sigourney Weaver's Alice Goodwin finds herself heading into uncharted...