Great American Read

Did your favorite novel come out first in The Great American Read's search for America's best-loved book? Find the top ten books by voting here, and learn insights from the results.

The American Library Assocation's Office for Intellectual Freedom is currently hosting Banned Books Week. What kinds of books were most frequently challenged in 2017, and what books from The Great America Read's list of America's favorite novels have been banned?

One in six adults, or 35 million people, read below a fourth-grade level in the United States. The Chicago Literacy Alliance is working to change that, by bringing together organizations with similar goals and fostering collaboration amongst them.

Discover the stories behind more of Chicago's favorite indie bookstores on the South Side, including a legendary, long-lived one that counts Barack and Michelle Obama amongst its fans.

Last year, Illinois spent less than $300 on prison libraries, and access is often very limited. So Chicago Books to Women in Prison does exactly what its name says.  “By helping women have a better quality of life while in prison, that's just better for their family and the community they'll be returning to," says a volunteer.

"Nobody needs a book much, do they?" It's a surprising sentiment to hear coming from a writer, but in this 1981 interview with WTTW's John Callaway, John Updike discusses his impressively humble views on literature, his existential anxieties, and his goals as a writer.

Need some new book recommendations for the summer? Discover some of the books the Chicago Tonight​ is reading right now, from a sweeping family saga to a clear-eyed memoir of race to a book of chatty but opinionated essays by a Chicagoan.

Are you adventurous like Tom Sawyer? Fierce like Jo March? Just like Atticus Finch? Indomitable like Celie? Find out which classic literary character you are and get a reading list for your personality from The Great American Read's list of America's best-loved novels.