If you want to know about the cauldron out of which Barack Obama has surfaced--Chicago politics--there can be few better ways than to read Windy City by Scott Simon. It's about the death (natural or unnatural? that is the question) of the city's mayor, and the efforts of Alderman Sonny Roopini, a widower born in India who must fill the mayor's shoes, take care of his own teenage daughters, and figure out what really happened--all within seventy-two hours. Chicago's ethnicities, cuisines, aldermanic compromises, political horse-trading, and spirit are all brought to life here.