Books published by Chicago Review Press

Portraits of brave women from the late 1800s through todayrole models who are passionate about important issuesA source of inspiration for young women with strong social convictions, She Takes a Stand highlights 16 extraordinary women who have fought for human rights, civil rights, workers' rights, reproductive/sexual rights, and world peace. Among these are many who have been imprisoned, threatened, or suffered financial hardships for pursuing their missions to change the world for the better. Included are historic heroes such as anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells and suffragist Alice Paul, along with contemporary figures such as girls-education activist Malala Yousafzai; Sampat Pal Devi, who fights violence against Indian women; and SPARK executive director Dana Edell, who works to end the sexualization of women and girls in the media. Taking a multicultural, multinational perspective, She Takes a Stand spotlights brave women around the world with an emphasis on childhood details, motivations, and life turning pointsin many cases gleaned from the author's original interviewsand includes related sidebars, a bibliography, source notes, and a list of organizations young women can explore to get involved in changing their world.

When journalist and author Alison Stewart was confronted with emptying her late parents' overloaded basement, a job that dragged on for months, it got her thinking: How did it come to this? Why do smart, successful people hold on to old Christmas bows, chipped knick-knacks, and books they will likely never reread? Junk details Stewart's three-year investigation into America's stuff. Stewart rides along with junk removal teams like Trash Daddy, Annie Haul, and Junk Vets. She goes backstage at Antiques Roadshow, and learns what makes for compelling junk-based television with the executive producer of Pawn Stars. And she even investigates the growing problem of space junk23,000 pieces of manmade debris orbiting the planet at 17,500 mph, threatening both satellites and human space exploration. But it's not all dire. Readers will also learn that there are creative solutions to America's crushing consumer culture. The author visits with Deron Beal, founder of FreeCyle, an online community of people who would rather give away than throw away their no-longer-needed possessions. She spends a day at a Repair Cafe, where volunteer tinkerers bring new life to broken appliances, toys, and just about anything.Junk is a delightful journey through 250-mile-long yard sales, resale shops, and packrat dens, both human and rodent, that for most readers will look surprisingly familiar.

BERLIN, 1942. The Gestapo arrest eighteen-year-old Bert Lewyn and his parents, sending the latter to their deaths and Bert to work in a factory making guns for the Nazi war effort. Miraculously tipped off the morning the Gestapo round up all the Jews who work in the factories, Bert goes underground. He finds shelter sometimes with compassionate civilians, sometimes with people who find his skills useful and sometimes in the cellars of bombed-out buildings. Without proper identity papers, he survives as a hunted Jew in the flames and terror of Nazi Berlin in part by successfully mimicking non-Jews, even masquerading as an SS officer. But the Gestapo are hot on his trail… Before World War II, 160,000 Jews lived in Berlin. By 1945, only 3,000 remained alive. Bert was one of the few, and his thrilling memoir-from witnessing the famous 1933 book burning to the aftermath of the war in a displaced persons camp-offers an unparalleled depiction of the life of a runaway Jew caught in the heart of the Nazi empire.