We are fortunate to have many creative people who were born and raised in our fair state or consciously made Illinois their home.
Once upon a time, our walls were our showcase of local visual artists, including Alex Paschal, Lisa Higby LeFevre, Sydni Reubin, Jane Cress Edgar, John DeLong, Ralph Pifer, Deb Munson, Rick Munson, Kitto, Pat Lathe and Todd Lorenc, among others. Now, we still have some pieces not for sale done by Alex Paschal, Lisa Higby LeFevre, Sydni Reubin and others. Come take a look-see.
On our shelves are a wealth of culture from around the world, as far away as Thailand and as close as our own front yard.
You will find CDs of music made by local musicians, most of whom have played live at Books on First on a Saturday night throughout the years. As we used to say, you'll find the best pass-the-hat live entertainment in Sauk Valley right here at Books on First.
And, you can find note cards with the beautiful photography of local Scot curmudgeon Charles Kerr for sale right here at Books on First. Dixon never looked so good as it does through Charlie's lens. Resident Artiste Sydni Reubin also occasionally has for sale here cards, magnets and other items imprinted with a reproduction of her beautiful paintings. We also have beautiful colored pen-&-ink drawings prints of Dixon by Belgium-born, now Chicago-based artist Arjan Jaegar. Come in today and get some affordable art.
We are proud to offer hand-made soaps by Dixonite Lisa Wood. Lisa uses only all-natural ingredients including organic hemp seed oil and essential oils meant to soothe and heal and not do any harm. Come in and have a sniff, and maybe walk out with great gifts for your own home and others'.
We are a proud sponsor of
Northwestern Illinois's National Public Radio affiliate, bringing us the best in current affairs & feature journalism, cultural news and broadcasting art.
Author Karla Clark is now living in Rockford, IL. In traveling for her work, she has frequently come to Books on First, and proprietor Carolyn Chin has reviewed Clark's first book, Between Courses: A Culinary Love Story, for which she is rumored to be currently writing a sequel.
This book is nonreturnable. Once we accept this order, it cannot be cancelled and your payment will not be refunded.
Congratulations, Nancy Mullen, founder of northern IL-focused agency serving the developmental & social needs of LGBT young people, Nancy writes about growing up "in the chaos of family addiction, mental illness, domestic violence" and the death of both parents before high school graduation with "humor, matter-of-factness, and grace" (Jon Donley, author of "The Side Door") as an "ode to survival." (Kate Clinton, humorist)
This book is nonreturnable. Once we accept this order, it cannot be cancelled and your payment will not be refunded.
Conceived first as a series of bedtime stories for his children, "The North Woods Adventures of Bob Baker" is now a book of tales for lovers of good adventure stores ages 10 and up.
Friday, 12Nov2021, 3-4:30pm, Special pricing for his visit -- $15. Come hear the author read and get a signed copy just in time for holiday gift-giving.The author lives in Chana, IL and is a doctor at Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital. He has 4 children in the Oregon school system.
This book is nonreturnable. Once we accept this order, it cannot be cancelled and your payment will not be refunded.
Life coach Tammy Helfrich grew up as a Dixon Glass Zimmerman.
Have you ever felt like there's a missing piece? You've been trying to figure out what it is but every class, podcast, and guru wasn't the answer. I lived most of my life believing that someone else had my answers. We've been trained this way since we were young and taught to believe that there is something wrong with us - that we're broken. Or that someone else knows better than we do about what's best for us. We didn't apologize for being ourselves when we were children, so why do we do it now?
I learned how to change my thinking and lean into who I am and the gifts I bring to the world. I'm continually learning how to stop apologizing for it. I wrote this book to help you learn how to do the same. To learn to understand and accept yourself and who you are, and bring your awesome to the world.
Living unapologetically starts with loving who you are, what you bring to the world, and refusing to apologize for it. Join me on the adventure towards living as an unapologetic you.
Author Mark Maronde lives in Dixon, IL. This latest novel is a departure from his earlier more speculative fiction
This book is nonreturnable. Once we accept this order, it cannot be cancelled and your payment will not be refunded.
Poet Ric Amezquita is a native of Sterling, IL, and now lives in DeKalb. This title was featured as one of WNIJ's Winter Cabin Fever Reads.
This book is nonreturnable. Once we accept this order, it cannot be cancelled and your payment will not be refunded.
Bonnie Amesquita, Ric's partner in art, but a fine poet in her own right, has a new chapbook published. Here is what fellow local writer Susan Azar Porterfield says,
Saints and Other Strangers is a quiet book. It's that friend who always seems happiest in the background, observing. The one who surprises you with her extraordinary insights, her sympathies, her just-right way of expressing something you've sensed but hadn't realized you'd felt until that moment. It's also a book to let us know that, though "none of us is safe," little islands of rest and safety exist. Religion may be one such refuge, but Amesquita, though hopeful, questions much. Love, however, is for sure. Love is ultimately what remains "When Stars Collide."
This book is nonreturnable. Once we accept this order, it cannot be cancelled and your payment will not be refunded.
Dixon writer A.K. (Erin) Thompson has a contribution in this latest collection of short fiction, which (the title says it all) are a little bit Southern and not a little bit Surreal (and not a bit surprising). In December, A.K. read from her piece in the book, "The Taxidermist," as well as some of her work-in-progress. We have a few autographed copies. Please call to reserve.
After an illustrious career during the Civil War as one of Ulysses Grant's finely coordinated generals, John A. Rawlins was then considered President's Grant's right-hand man, although he did not do well with one of his chief responsibilities -- keeping Grant sober.
Author Allen Ottens is Profesor Emeritus of Northern Illinois University and lives in Rockford, IL.
We have autographed copies. Call us directly to get 20% off!
After a short foray outside of Chicago, Sara Paretsky returns with her 20th V.I. Warshawski novel.
When this book was first introduced to us in an advance catalog of titles coming soon, we thought, 'Story of guy with a mother whose family migrated from Kansas to Hawaii, looking for his Kenyan father's roots? Will this play in Dixon, IL?' Yet, it was by an Illinois author, so we brought it in. It languished on our shelves and we might have sold 2 copies before the author and then candidate for US Senator Barack Obama gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention. The rest, as they say, is history. Read the memoir of an aspiring President written before he became a household name around the world.
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Born in Walnut, IL, the late journalist & humorist Don Marquis introduced Archy and Mehitabel in 1927. Beloved by readers of all ages, they are the only writers Carolyn would be willing to call "aspiring."
Celebrate the 95th Anniversary of the introduction of John Carter and his Princess of Mars by Chicago-born and Oak Park-raised author Edgar Rice Burroughs, a man who felt he could write just as entertaining "rot" as he enjoyed reading and by golly, he did! He redeemed himself as a son of a military family by becoming the oldest US war correspondent in WWII. John Carter was an inspiration to many a writer and film director and this 3-story volume was printed just in time for Andrew Stanton's movie -- the first successfully launched (although unfortunately, not commercially successful) feature film based on the books: John Carter. Illinois could be rightly proud to call Burroughs a Native Son.
We stil have a few autographed copies of this WNIJ Winter Cabin Fever pick. Please let us know upon ordering if you'd like us to reserve one for you.
Tour of Oak Park, Illinois, famous for Frank Lloyd Wright's Home & Studio, also includes some of Ernest Hemingway's childhood haunts before he graduated from high school in 1917 and went off to work for the Kansas City Star newspaper, where he didn't stay for long. In 1918, he went to Italy to volunteer in the war effort and is reportedly the first American wounded in what is now known as World War I.
https://www.hemingwaybirthplace.com/hemingway-and-oak-park
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Author Callie Norse is from Rock Falls, IL.
