One of the top five gift books for beer lovers -The Chicago Tribune

Beer nerds and history buffs will find common ground while reading this quirky volume, which uses Chicago-area breweries as an entry point into the city s broader history. The author, public-policy scholar and suds enthusiast Denese Neu, uses 15 taprooms as starting points for what she calls bar stool stories--essentially, local lore about the neighborhood that you might hear from an old-timer over a cold pint. Mostly, the connection is tangential: The location of the Goose Island brewpub in Wrigleyville (home of the Cubs) serves as a launchpad for a treatise on the city's sporting past. Other times, there s a more concrete (if still whimsical) connection: A visit to Crown Brewing in the nearby town of Crown Point, Indiana, leads to the story of notorious bank robber John Dillinger, who was locked up in (and ultimately escaped from) a jail, part of which is now the brewery. --Andrew Frisicano Time Out New York