“When a self-proclaimed “lazy scholar” embarks on a trip through his life’s influences–as diverse as girl-group doo-wop, Yeats, and Van Gogh–readers are in for an illuminating ride. This collection of essays from cultural critic Di Piero veers from his early years as the son of immigrants in Philadelphia to his working life in art, film, music, and poetry. Along with a few choice essays reprinted from out-of-print collections, Di Piero’s new work shows him to be insightful about himself and his work despite his protestations against the “boosterism” of autobiography.

¶ View In Entirety… →

“Each year writers and editors submit over three thousand grammar and style questions to the Q&A page at The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Some are arcane, some simply hilarious—and one editor, Carol Fisher Saller, reads every single one of them. All too often she notes a classic author-editor standoff, wherein both parties refuse to compromise on the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of prose styling: ‘This author is giving me a fit.’ ‘I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the serial comma at all times.’ ‘My author wants his preface to come at the end of the book. This just seems ridiculous to me. I mean, it’s not a post-face.’

¶ View In Entirety… →

“Maps from virtually every culture and period—from Babylonian world maps to Saul Steinberg’s famous New Yorker cover illustration, “View of the World from 9th Avenue”—convey our tendency to see our communities as the center of the world (if not the universe) and, by implication, as superior to anything beyond these immediate boundaries. Mapping has long been a tool by which ruling bodies could claim their entitlement to lands and peoples. It is this aspect of cartography that James R. Akerman and a group of distinguished contributors address in The Imperial Map.

“Critically reflecting on elements of mapping and imperialism from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, the essays discuss the nature of the imperial map through a series of case studies of empires, from the Qing dynasty of China, to the Portuguese empire in South America, to American imperial pretensions in the Pacific Ocean, among others. Collectively, the essays reveal that the relationship between mapping and imperialism, as well as the practice of political and economic domination of weak polities by stronger ones, is a rich and complex historical theme that continues to resonate in our modern day.”

-From the publisher’s website

“The definitive sourcebook for service-oriented escapades.” —Outside

“For those who like to get their hands dirty, this is an excellent resource.” —Chicago Tribune

“Anyone who can’t find a dozen projects here to get excited about just doesn’t have a traveler’s soul.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Would-be volunteers will have plenty of adventures to research.” —Boston Globe

“Takes the legwork out of finding an opportunity to immerse yourself in another culture.” —The Iowan

“Details thousands of opportunities for anyone wanting to see the world with a purpose.” —Westworld Magazine

For the increasing number of people looking for ways to make a difference while on vacation, this fully updated edition is filled with in-depth information to get them ready for their adventure, including contacts, locations, costs, dates, project details, and profiles of 150 select organizations that run thousands of programs in the United States and around the world. Including new details about long-term projects and organizations specifically tailored for families, seniors, and people with disabilities, this definitive sourcebook provides a wealth of opportunities for anyone interested in taking a truly meaningful vacation and provides new anecdotes about all kinds of jobs and the positive impact they had on volunteers’ lives.

-From the Publisher’s Site

huck Klosterman was not well liked by my contemporary American nonfiction classmates. At all. In fact, the first day of class, one of the Klosterman haters noticed he was on the syllabus and proclaimed her hatred of him to the entire class.

This reaction seemed odd to me after I finished Killing Yourself to Live, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Klosterman, in my mind, has this wonderfully penetrating and conversational voice. Reading his book felt like fun, which is not what reading always feels like. More than that, and unlike the fun of reading Meg Cabot novels (which I stopped doing many years ago, thank you), I felt like I actually learned something from the book.

Don’t worry, I’ll actually prove to you what I mean by that (because I hate when people make the statement that they like a book because they learned something from it, but never seem to be able to tell you what that thing is) but first I want to explain to you what this book is about. Chuck Klosterman is a rock and roll journalist, which is to say that he writes about music. He was a writer at Spin magazine for a while, and has written several books, the most popular of which is titled Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs. Given my classmates negativity, and the fact that music journalism doesn’t particularly excite me, my first reaction to hearing that I had to read this book for class was to think, “ugh, the last thing I want to read right now is some hipster spouting about how every band is good until they’re popular, at which point they immediately suck.” No thank you.

¶ View In Entirety… →

“DNA profiling—commonly known as DNA fingerprinting—is often heralded as unassailable criminal evidence, a veritable “truth machine” that can overturn convictions based on eyewitness testimony, confessions, and other forms of forensic evidence. But DNA evidence is far from infallible. It is subject to the same possibilities for error—in sample collection, forensic analysis, and clerical record keeping—as any other aspect of criminal justice practice.

“Truth Machine traces the controversial history of DNA fingerprinting by looking at court cases in the United States and United Kingdom beginning in the mid-1980s, when the practice was invented, and continuing until the present. Using interviews, observations of courtroom trials and laboratory processes, and documentary reconstruction, the authors provide a nuanced, theoretically sophisticated, and original ethnographic account of DNA fingerprinting and its evolution. Ultimately, Truth Machine presents compelling evidence of the obstacles and opportunities at the intersection of science, technology, sociology, and law.”

-From the publisher’s website

“Welcome to the Baseball Forecaster, the industry’s longest running publication for baseball analysts and fantasy leaguers since 1986. The Baseball Forecaster was the first book to approach prognostication by breaking performance down into its component parts. Rather than predicting batting average, for instance, we look at the elements of skill that make up that stat—a batter’s ability to distinguish between balls and strikes, his propensity to make contact with the ball, what happens when he makes contact—and reverse engineer those skill back into batting average.

“The source used by Major League GMs, the media, and other fantasy services, Baseball Forecaster’s predictions have earned 14 national experts league titles, plus five second- and eight third-place finishes since 1997. And free projection updates are available online, so you can always make informed choices.”

-From the publisher’s website

“What would induce hundreds of people from all over the world to spend thousands of dollars each and two weeks of their lives just to run a marathon in Antarctica? Especially one with a reputation as the toughest marathon on Earth?

“John Hanc may have the answer. When he turned 50 he gave himself the birthday present to end all others–a trip to the end of the Earth to run his most unforgettable race.

“The Coolest Race on Earth is both Hanc’s story and the story of the Antarctica Marathon, first held in 1995 and now an annual event that sells out years in advance. It’s full of humor, adventure, and inspiring characters–including a wheelchair-bound competitor, three record-breaking grandmothers, and an ex-Marine who described the race as ‘the hardest thing I ever did in my life, next to Vietnam.’

“Muddy, cold, hilly, the race is by all accounts horrible–up and down a melting glacier twice, past curious penguins and hostile skuas, and finally to a bleak finish line. Even the best runners take longer to run the Antarctica Marathon than any other.

“Yet the allure of marathon running combined with the fascinating reputation of the Last Continent has persuaded runners to brave a trip across the world’s most turbulent body of water, the Drake Passage, to a land of extinct volcanoes and craggy mountain peaks, lost explorers and isolated scientists, penguin rookeries and whale sightings, all for a chance to run those crazy 26.2 miles. The Coolest Race on Earth brings the world’s most difficult marathon to life in a book that’s not only a ripping read, but also a deeply funny meditation on what makes people run.”

-From the publisher’s website

Chicago Review Press also publishes the book as an e-book, available on their website.