‘LIFE SKILLS: HOW TO DO ALMOST ANYTHING’

How do you give a good wedding toast? How do you fix a clogged drain? How do you bowl without hurting anyone? Questions like these—some highly practical, others wildly funny—make up this engaging do-it-yourself guide. Collected from the Chicago Tribune how-to columns called “Life Skills,” this book is filled with often humorous instructions on performing a variety of tasks.

“He Had It Coming: Four Murderous Women and the Reporter Who Immortalized Their Stories” “Chicago The Musical” has played on Broadway for more than 9,600 performances since it premiered on Nov. 14, 1996, yet not many people know the characters of Roxie Hart, Velma Kelly and others are inspired by real women. Their stories were captured by Tribune reporters including Maurine Watkins, who worked at the newspaper for just eight months in 1924. Watkins drew on her access to women accused of murder inside Cook County Jail to write a three-act play that later became “Chicago.” For the first time in almost a century, see photos of these real women that were discovered by Tribune photo department. This new book also includes original newspaper clippings, Watkins’ stories and new analysis written by Tribune reporter Kori Rumore, film critic Michael Phillips, theater critic Chris Jones and columnists Heidi Stevens and Rick Kogan.