Quimby’s Bookstore · 1854 W. North Ave · Chicago, IL 60622 · 773-342-0910

Category: memoir

  • Quimby's 2021 Holiday Gift Guide

    Right now our shop is crammed full of amazing, unique gifts for everyone in your life. (OK, maybe not your uncle who only wants vintage Nixon paraphernalia, but just about everybody else). Here are just a few of our staff picks for the best stuff to wrap up this season.

    And if you don’t spot the gift you’re seeking on this list, come on into the store and let us help you find that perfect present for someone you love (or for yourself … you surely deserve a little something, too).

     

    Quimby’s Schwag

    You know you love us … so spread the love around by gifting some Quimby’s merch, featuring original designs by some of our favorite artists.

    Quimby’s Gift Certificates, available in a variety of denominations

    Quimby’s Air Freshener, designed by Plastic Crimewave

    Quimby’s Coasters, featuring our classic logo designed by Chris Ware

    Quimby’s 30th Anniversary T-shirt, designed by Caroline Cash

    Quimby’s Logo T-shirt

    Quimby’s Logo Enamel Pin

    Quimby’s Logo Embroidered Patch

    Quimby’s Logo Tote Bag

    Quimby’s Bong Mice Metallic Sticker, designed by Caroline Cash

    Quimby’s Logo Sticker

     

     

    Liz, Manager and Zine Maven

    Broke, Not Broken: Personal Finance for the Creative, Confused, Underpaid, and Overwhelmed by Anna Jo Beck

    Gentrifier: A Memoir by Anne Elizabeth Moore (comes with a free bookplate signed by the author, while supplies last)

    Someplace Special, edited by Aim Ren Beland and Cynthia E. Hanifin

    Lydia Tomkiw: Poems, edited by Dan Shepelavy

    Hang in There Kitten Tea Towel, designed and hand-printed by Heather Anacker

    Dame Darcy Meat Cake Calendar 2022

     

    Caroline, Cartoonist in Residence

    Heaven No Hell by Michael DeForge

    Bubbles, An Independent Fanzine About Comics and Manga #11 (We’ve got issues #1-#10 in stock, too)

    Alanzo Sneak by Nate Garcia

    Be Gay Do Crime by Mary Nardini Gang

    You Have Been Catcalled. What Do You Do? Patch by Jenn Woodall

     

    Cynthia (Zinethia), Zine Warrior

    Qustomized Quimby’s Zine Package $25 Version (also available in $69 and $100 versions)

    Awesome Things #4 by Liz Mason (Awesome Things #1, #2, and #3 are, frankly, awesome, as well!)

    Girl in the World by Caroline Cash (comes with a free sticker sheet designed by the artist, while supplies last)

    Social Justice Kittens Calendar 2021 (available in-store only)

    Zine Game Deck by Billy McCall

    White City Devil Coffee & Coconut Candle (available in-store only, with a free Quimby’s matchbook while supplies last)

  • Quimby's Welcomes Slackjaw Columnist Jim Knipfel, with Andy Slater 7/19

    Born in Wisconsin, Jim Knipfel was a staff writer at the now-defunct weekly alternative newspaper New York Press for thirteen years, where wrote the long-running and popular “Slackjaw” column, a cynical, misanthropic look at daily life. He is the author of ten books, including Slackjaw, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, These Children Who Come at You With Knives, The Blow-off: A Novel, and, most recently, Residue. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Village Voice, The Believer, OZY, and countless other publications. He’s also blind, and currently lives in the last remaining vestige of true Brooklyn.

    Self-described local blindo, Andy Slater aka Velcro Lewis, will host the event. Slater will be sharing excerpts from his comic How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up, his new stand-up act Permission To Fail, and details of his work with the Society of Visually Impaired Sound Artists.

    This event is supported by 3Arts, Bodies Of Work, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

    “[Slackjaw] is an extraordinary emotional ride, through the lives and times of reader and writer alike, maniacally aglow with a born storyteller’s gifts of observation, an amiably deranged sense of humor, and a heart too bounced around by his history, and ours, not to have earned Mr. Knipfel, at last, an unsentimental clarity that is generous and deep.” –Thomas Pynchon

    “Life hasn’t been easy for Jim Knipfel. He’s blind…He’s got a drinking problem. He’s been in an out of mental hospitals. He’s attempted suicide. But he’s managed to keep his sense of humor.”—Boston Herald

     

     

    Thurs, July 19th, 7pm

    More info:

    Facebook Invite For This Event

    jimknipfel.com

    missioncreep.com/slackjaw

    electronpress.com

    books by Knipfel 

  • Singer-Songwriter-Guitarist and Author Phil Circle Launches His New Book The Outback Musician's Survival Guide 10/19

    In Phil Circle’s new book The Outback Musician’s Survival Guide (Guilt By Association), he uses his 30+ years as an independent musician to shed some light on the real world of music for 99% of American musicians. Through a series of tales both whimsical and dark, reflections on the craft and the business, and admissions of his own faults, he brings a human face to a seemingly glamorous world. You’re likely to find that some of what you’ve heard about being a musician is sadly or hysterically true, and that other widely held beliefs are little more than hot air.

    “Towards the end of the book, Phil says, “I don’t have some profound message.” In fact, by sharing his humanity and his failings as well as his high points, he has created a profound message. It is often in mere survival that we create greatness, although we ourselves don’t know it at the time. The touch of human grief amidst all of the adrenaline pumping adventure makes this book something of a celebration of what it means to be human.” -Sarah Jane Clarke, Beat Media, Oxford, UK

    Phil Circle has written, recorded and produced eight albums of his own music and two albums of cover songs, one featuring almost entirely music by Chicago songwriters. As a writer, Phil’s work has appeared in articles for various music zines and other publications over the years, including Chicago Music Guide, Pro-Am Guide and a report on the industry for NARAS.

    For more info: www.philcirclemusic.com @philcircle

    Here’s the Facebook invite for this event!

    Thursday, October 19th, 7pm – Free Event

  • Allen Callaci Reads From Heart Like a Starfish at Quimby’s 6/29

    Heart transplant recipient and lead singer of lo-fi pioneers Refrigerator Allen Callaci will make his first ever appearance in Chicago to sing a few songs and read from his memoir Heart Like a Starfish (Pelekinesis Press).

    Heart Like a Starfish is Callaci’s account of that death-defying journey on which he had been given a 20% chance of survival. Callaci’s wonderfully chaotic tale is filled with music and pop cultural references and is told in a Kurt Vonnegut-esque style that captures the horror, humor and healing of his experience.

    Callaci has written for The Huffington Post, BK Nation, Inland Weekly and was selected as Inlandia Institute’s author of the week. Heart Like a Starfish was selected as a recommendation by Small Press Distribution for December 2016.

    “An inherent and consistently engaging read from beginning to end, “Heart Like A Starfish” is highly recommended for community library American Biography collections.” – Midwest Book Review, November 2016

    “Allen shares his amazing story by locating his personal experience in the midst of a network of relationships that sustain and define his life.” –John Davis (Folk Implosion)

    “For any generation… An astonishing story about how close life is to death.” – Claudia Lennear, featured singer in the Oscar-winning documentary “20 FEET FROM STARDOM”

    Thurs, June 29th, 7pm – Free Event

    Here’s the Facebook Event for you to SHARE with all of the people in the world.