Book Giveaway: WIN The Best Hits on the Blues Highway by Chicago Author Amy Bizzarri

What We're Reading 

Chi, IL Book Releases On Our Radar:

The Best Hits on the Blues Highway 

by Amy Bizzarri 

Enter to win a signed copy through 6/17/24

The Best Hits on the Blues Highway, Chicago-based author, Amy Bizzarri signs her latest release at the iconic Chess Records Studios, now Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation.

All photos by Bonnie Kenaz-Mara

ChiIL Mama's Chi, IL Picks List

To celebrate the release of The Best Hits on the Blues Highway, Chicago-based author, Amy Bizzarri is partnering up with us, here at ChiIL Mama, to offer a signed and personalized copy of The Best Hits on the Blues Highway to one lucky winner! ($26.95 retail value). Enter at the bottom of this post. Winner will be announced here and on our social media outlets on Monday, June 17th.

Just about everyone who wasn't raised in a cave has heard of Route 66, but what do you know about Route 61, AKA: The Blues Highway? We're so excited for this fun and informative guide for blues fans and travel lovers alike. The book even comes with a QR code to scan for some roadtrip tunes to get you started off down The Blues Highway in style! We're jonesin' to hit the road and give this guide a real world try. 

The legendary Blues Highway has played a key role in the lives of countless musicians. Running from Nashville, Tennessee, to New Orleans, Louisiana, there’s music around every bend. From the two-room home where “the King” was born to the original Heartbreak Hotel to the crossroads where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil for fame, every stop has a story to tell. 

Inspiring, practical, and entertaining, The Best Hits on the Blues Highway is the premier guide to all the off-the-radar stops along America’s Blues Highway that you simply must not miss. Author Amy Bizzarri, road trip expert and author of the bestselling guide to the Mother Road, The Best Hits on Route 66, provides a comprehensive list of 100 unique stops that you’ll want to take a moment to explore as you journey along the fascinating, 730-mile route from Nashville to New Orleans. 

The Best Hits on the Blues Highway: Nashville to New Orleans on Route 61

Amy Bizzarri

Current price: $26.95

Publication Date:  June 4th, 2024

Publisher: Globe Pequot Press

ISBN: 9781493078462

Pages: 184

Experience its world-famous music landmarks, tucked-away locations, and one-of-a-kind stops. Travel one section at a time or plan an extended trip along the entire route.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amy Bizzarri is a freelance travel writer with a focus on family adventures and outdoor fun. She has a keen interest in Chicago history and is the author of 111 Places in Chicago That You Must Not Miss and Discovering Vintage Chicago. She is also the author of The Best Hits on Route 66.

It was our great pleasure to shoot Amy's book release party, Sunday, May 26th at the iconic Chess Records studios at 2120 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. The lovely event included an afternoon reception and private tour of Chess Records benefiting Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation. All event proceeds support the Blues Heaven Foundation. Here's a quick photo recap below, with a full tour set coming soon, along with a detailed book review. In the meantime, check out some excellent events this month: https://www.bluesheaven.com/events.html

The Best Hits on the Blues Highway: Nashville to New Orleans on Route 61

Book release party, Sunday, May 26th at the iconic Chess Records studios 

Best Hits on the Blues Highway, published by Globe Pequot, released 6/4/24. Find or request it at your local bookstores and online. 

CLICK HERE for your chance to WIN 

The Best Hits on the Blues Highway 

by Chicago-based author, Amy Bizzarri. 

One lucky winner gets a signed and personalized copy of The Best Hits on the Blues Highway ($26.95 retail value). Enter like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often. Winner will be announced here and on our social media outlets on Monday, June 17th.

The author has provided us with both a review copy and a signed copy that can be personalized, to give away to 1 of our lucky readers. As always, all opinions are our own. 

 

The Best Hits on the Blues Highway, Chicago-based author, Amy Bizzarri signs her latest release at the iconic Chess Records Studios, now Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation.

All photos by Bonnie Kenaz-Mara

WHAT WE'RE READING: Inspiration for a Woman’s Soul: Cultivating Joy

Here at ChiIL Mama, we embrace joy in whatever form that means to you, whether it's music, art, theatre, sports, foodie fun, creative parenting or something else entirely. Follow your bliss with passion! Today bestselling publisher Linda Joy released Inspiration for a Woman’s Soul: Cultivating Joy featuring the soul-inspiring stories of 38 amazing women who share their intimate stories of transformation.

Cultivating Joy also includes Reflection Questions after each story which will empower you to integrate the vital lessons of each woman’s journey into your own life. For a limited time you can get over 50 transformational gifts with your copy of Cultivating Joy. Grab your copy today www.CultivatingJoyBook.com

Click here to order ‘Inspiration for a Woman’s Soul: Cultivating Joy’ today & receive thousands in bonus gifts from over 50 visionary women. Limited Time Only! 

WIN: How To Raise An Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims ($27 value) #RaisingAdults #giveaway #Book #Review #Ad

What We're Reading:

It's great to not reinvent the wheel if someone has been there, done that, and written a useful book. Here at ChiIL Mama, we jumped at the chance to read an advance copy of Julie Lythcott-Haims' new release, How To Raise An Adult. It's a tough and timely topic and as a mom of a tween daughter and a teen son, it's a subject on my mind a lot.

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is elated to partner up with Henry Holt and Company Publishing and Clever Girls for this feature. We have been compensated with complimentary review samples and a book for our giveaway. As always, all opinions are our own.

CLICK HERE to win your own hardback copy of How To Raise An Adult ($27 value) from ChiIL Mama. Enter through midnight 6/20/15. Open nationwide.

Lythcott-Haims writes with humor and insight. She's an experienced lawyer/Stanford Dean/mom, who has been called a triple threat "ologist", psychologist, sociologist and anthropologist based on the themes of her writing. Her invaluable experience as long time Freshman Dean at Stanford makes Lythcott-Haims uniquely qualified to expound on our collective cultural foibles and failings at parenting this generation of American kids. 

I had so many favorite parts of the book, you'll just have to read it, because I can't possibly hit them all. The quote "It's our job as parents to put ourselves out of a job." really spoke to me and sums up my parenting philosophy. My kids have both attended a public Chicago Montessori school from preschool (ages 3 & 4) through 6th grade, so they have been trusted with a lot of independence and child led learning for the past decade, and it shows. Still, we live in a dense, urban area where violence and danger are a true threat. So parenting older kids is a real balancing act between fostering freedom and autonomy and keeping kids out of life threatening situations.

I'm raising two adults who are confident in speaking up, can cook, and take charge of their own homework and schedules. I've often told my kids that my job is not to teach them what to think but how to think and that my job as mom is not to wait on them hand and foot or make their lives fun and easy all the time, but to teach them self sufficiency.

How to Raise an Adult is a welcome reality check and wake up call to helicopter parents whose best intentions may backfire. Humans learn more from our mistakes than our successes. I had a friend in my early 20's whose parents had literally written ALL of her papers through high school and did much of her homework too. College came as a rude shock, and she was left floundering, resentful and utterly unprepared.

When it comes to great tips from How To Raise An Adult, we adore the concept of raising capable kids by "putting independence in their way." My son, now entering high school in the fall, has taken the city bus to and from school for 7th & 8th grade. Both kids have a lot of choice in their activities, and we never do their homework for them but make it clear we're available if they need help figuring out how to do something.

We highly recommend reading How To Raise An Adult. Sometimes less is truly more, and we found this book to be a voice of sanity in a sea of other parenting manuals that demand more and more from overextended parents.

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is elated to partner up with Henry Holt and Company Publishing and Clever Girls for this feature. We have been compensated with a complimentary review sample and a book for our giveaway. As always, all opinions are our own.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Willem McGowan on Diablo #OriginalVideo

We've known Willem McGowan now for 4 years and he's become a friend, mentor and teacher to both of my kids.  He has now graduated and he's off studying at École de cirque de Québec, so we don't get to see him much any more.   We miss Will, but we're very excited and happy for his continuing love for circus arts and his growing skills!  While he was in high school we had the pleasure of seeing him perform for both CircEsteem and Actor's Gymnasium and shooting stills & video of his acts numerous times.

My son who is 12 now picked up so many diablo tips and skills from Will last year.   Check out Will in action at City Winery last March.   This performance was a Circus Now event and book launch for The Ordinary Acrobat by Duncan Wall.   I shot for ChiIL Mama/ChiIL Live Shows and we gave away 5 of Wall's books.   

Both Duncan Wall and Matt Roben (pictured at the start of this video) are involved with The Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival, this week in Chicago, so we're including this fun clip of Willem along with our other circus coverage.