Do you have a guitar gathering dust in a closet? Do you sing in the shower? Sherwood Conservatory of Music is a community school located in the historic South Loop neighborhood. Sherwood offers individual lessons on 15 instruments and voice as well as group classes for toddlers, children, adults and seniors! Stop by Barbara’s on July 9, hear live performances, meet Sherwood faculty members, and discover the joy of music!

How many men does it take to find true love? That question is at the heart of Karyn (Save Karyn) Bosnak’s 20 TIMES A LADY. Delilah always thought she’d find THE guy by the time she’d slept with twenty of them. When she wakes up in her boss’s bed, she realizes she’s hit her personal limit, and decides to track down every man she’s ever slept with in a last-ditch effort to make it work with one of them. This is signing only event.

STEADY AND TREMBLING: Art, Faith and Family in an Uncertain World calls to mind both the narrative artistry of Annie Dillard and the theological ruminations of Kathleen Norris, exploring questions of faith and life with rare emotional complexity. From his home in the Chicago suburbs, Tom Montgomery-Fate, the father of three children, demonstrates how one might weave family and faith into something that is both creative and sustaining in the art of daily life.

In MANAGEMENT BY BASEBALL: The Official Rules for Winning Management in Any Field, author Jeff Angus arms you with practical examples and proven techniques you can use to improve your managerial effectiveness at work, at home—anywhere. As you dash from first base to home plate, former sportswriter and Senate Small Business committee aide, Angus makes learning how to become a great manager into a great reading experience.

Join us for an evening with two of the freshest, most powerful voices in modern fiction. Gina (Other Voices) Frangello explores the intersections of sex and family in MY SISTER’S CONTINENT, a work of darkness and sibling rivalry. In THE LONGEST PREGNANCY, Melissa Fraterrigo’s stories are filled with people experiencing ‘what if’ moments in life, meeting situations that have aptly been called “blue-collar magical realism.”

A fish performs questionable miracles in a drought-plagued town. A doctor, cured by a snake, must find a cure for his dysfunctional life. A woman overwhelmed by her sexual appetite must find a way to happiness with her husband. Through Luana Monteiro's masterful, whimsical writing, the characters in LITTLE STAR OF BELA LUA come to life in stories both Brazilian to the core and universal as a whole.

Not exactly what you'd call cutting-edge, BICOASTAL BABE's Lindsey Miller is shocked when she’s offered an überhip job writing for The Pulse, a newsletter that tracks trends from cosmetics to entertainment. Lindsey finds herself jet setting between NY and L.A., fumbling to find the next big thing. But disaster strikes when her evil, trend-spotting, partner begins to expose Lindsey for what she really is: tragically unhip and one dirty martini away from being found out and fired.

Calvin (Naming the New World) Baker's DOMINION tells the story of Jasper Merian, freed from slavery at the close of the 17th century, who aims to carve a utopia out of the wilderness of the Carolinas. Despite hardships, he and his wife manage to build the thriving estate, which passes through three generations. Their lives bring them up against the natural (and supernatural) world, colonial politics, the injustice of slavery, the Revolution, and questions of fidelity and the heart.

Come to Barbara's in Oak Park for fun, crafts and puppets with John Kennedy. From the author of the immensely popular Puppet Mania comes a new book with even more innovative projects and puppeteering secrets—PUPPET PLANET. Puppet Planet shares new projects, and features “action panels” so readers can see how each puppet comes to life, using the author’s experience working for the Jim Henson Company. With this fun book, readers will find everything they need to become rulers of their own puppet planets.