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Patrick T. Reardon @PatrickReardon

Writer, Chicago born and bred

Joined March 2009
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I want to teach Emma who is two by Patrick T. Reardon (THOUGHTS ABOUT THE EARTH Series) silverbirchpress.wordpress.c…

I want to teach Emma who is two by Patrick T. Reardon (THOUGHTS ABOUT THE EARTH Series)

I want to teach Emma who is two by Patrick T. Reardon I want to teach Emma who is two to look out this window at the chaos of yellow and green on the mid-autumn tree — not so chaotic when, from the…

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Book review: “Ugly Ways” by Tina McElroy Ansa patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “Ugly Ways” by Tina McElroy Ansa - Patrick T. Reardon

Betty Lovejoy and her younger sisters Emily and Annie Ruth, all successful black women, have come together in Mulberry, Georgia, to bury their mother, known by the family nickname as Mudear. But it’s...

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Book review: “Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City” by Carl Smith patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “Chicago's Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City” by...

  Devastation is devastation, whether brought about by fire or pandemic. The Great Chicago Fire occurred nearly a century and a half ago, but the experience of living through that cataclysm has many...

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Book review: “The Tides of Time” by John Brunner patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “The Tides of Time” by John Brunner - Patrick T. Reardon

In its odd way, John Brunner’s 1984 novel The Tides of Time is an adventure story. It’s also a thriller and a mystery that propels the reader along in search of answers. It opens in an April in the...

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Book review: “The Jefferson Bible: A Biography” by Peter Manseau patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “The Jefferson Bible: A Biography” by Peter Manseau - Patrick T. Reardon

It takes some hubris to rewrite the Christian gospels, but maybe not that much.  A lot of people have done it. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John seem pretty straight-forward inasmuch as...

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Book review: “A Death in the Family” by James Agee patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “A Death in the Family” by James Agee - Patrick T. Reardon

It was nearly 40 years ago that I first read James Agee’s autobiographical novel A Death in the Family.    Since then, I have experienced a similarly sudden violent death in my own family.  What had...

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Book review: “Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected” by Haki R. Madhubuti patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected” by Haki R. Madhubuti...

One of my favorite poems in Haki R. Madhubuti’s new, career-spanning collection Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language is “Big Momma,” originally published in 1970. Back a half century ago,...

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Book review: “Jingo” by Terry Pratchett patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “Jingo” by Terry Pratchett - Patrick T. Reardon

Midway through Terry Pratchett’s 1997 novel Jingo, a conversation takes place between Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson and Corporal Delphine Angua von Überwald.  He is a 6’6” dwarf (by adoption) who’s...

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Poem: “Marriage Song” patricktreardon.com/poem-mar…

Poem: "Marriage Song" - Patrick T. Reardon

Marriage Song Patrick T. Reardon . We exult at the joining of young lives. We dance the dance of joy. .

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Book review: “The Hunted” by Elmore Leonard patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “The Hunted” by Elmore Leonard - Patrick T. Reardon

The shoot-out that ends Elmore Leonard’s 1977 novel The Hunted is just like those in the westerns he was still writing back in those days. Three heavily armed bad guys, getting ready to kill an...

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How to pre-order “The Loop” at local bookstores patricktreardon.com/how-to-p…

How to pre-order "The Loop" at local bookstores - Patrick T. Reardon

Publication of my new book The Loop: The “L” Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago is set for Thanksgiving Day. If you’d like to preorder the book, you can do so through many independent bookstores. ...

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Two poems about McDonald’s at 56th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan patricktreardon.com/two-poem…

Two poems about McDonald’s at 56th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan - Patrick T. Reardon

  Two poems about McDonald's at 56th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan   By Patrick T. Reardon       Three hundred and sixteen days later   The man is preaching to a table of Bible study men and...

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Book review: “The Skull Beneath the Skin” by P.D. James patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “The Skull Beneath the Skin” by P.D. James - Patrick T. Reardon

In the dark night and under the icy water, Cordelia Gray, lungs bursting, is swimming for her life.  She knows that the sea is death if she cannot find the surface somewhere out from where she is and...

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Book review: “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana” by Haven Kimmel patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana” by Haven Kimmel - Patrick...

Haven Kimmel’s 2001 memoir A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana is a rollickingly funny entertainment about the childhood of a strange child in a strange family in the strangely...

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Poem: The lost tribes, part 4 patricktreardon.com/poem-the…

Poem: The lost tribes, part 4 - Patrick T. Reardon

The lost tribes, part 4  By Patrick T. Reardon . We are lost in Viagra’d beds, in sticky, spilled orange sidewalk pop, in black sidewalk gum, in sidewalk blood, in blood cough, in closing time at...

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Book review: “Goddess of Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical” by Jacqueline Jones patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “Goddess of Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical” by Jacque...

It is a telling irony that Lucy Parsons — one of the most famous African-American women in Chicago’s history — pretended she wasn’t black. Not only that.  According to historian Jacqueline Jones,...

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Book review: “Right after the Weather” by Carol Anshaw patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “Right after the Weather” by Carol Anshaw - Patrick T. Reardon

    It is one of those random moments in life. Cate, running late, drives into Neale’s alley, puts on her blinkers and turns off the car, just as the announcer is saying, “New song by Neko Case,...

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Book review: “Norwood” by Charles Portis patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “Norwood” by Charles Portis - Patrick T. Reardon

  Norwood, the first novel by Charles Portis, is a wry, sweet, kindly novel that follows Norwood Pratt, ex-GI and decent enough car repairman, on a meandering, low-stress odyssey across the U.S. from...

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“The Loop” on the radio patricktreardon.com/the-loop…

“The Loop” on the radio - Patrick T. Reardon

The first interview about my upcoming book — The Loop:  The “L” Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago (SIU Press, November) — will be Sunday at 1:15 pm with Playtime book show hosts Bill Turck and...

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Book review: “Saving Ruby King” by Catherine Adel West patricktreardon.com/book-rev…

Book review: “Saving Ruby King” by Catherine Adel West - Patrick T. Reardon

In the closing pages of Catherine Adel West’s Saving Ruby King, two men and two women can hear police sirens approaching, drawn by reports of a gunshot in the house where they stand. Usually, in a...

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