Chicago Fiction 2005

Following up her fine recap of 2005 Chicago nonfiction (that which so threatens to elevate my to-read pile), Gapers Block's Alice Maggio weighs in with her fiction list. Here are the ones which most pique my interest:

Kevin Guilfoile, Cast of Shadows
C.J. Hribal, The Company Car
Billy Lombardo, The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories
Joe Meno, Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir
Audrey Niffenegger, The Three Incestuous Sisters
Luis Alberto Urrea, The Hummingbird's Daughter
Andrew Winston, Looped

I saw Meno's book at the bookstore recently. The book is quite lovely, and square in shape--an homage to 45 RPM record sleeves. Meno, a music fanatic, really wanted it to be 7x7 inches, which apparently wasn't feasible from a binder's standpoint, so they had to go with a slightly smaller size. Still, it's a very unique package, not to mention the cool throwback cover design.