For Customers Only: Public Bathrooms and the Making of American Inequality by Bryant Simon. University of Chicago Press, 376 pages. 2026.

As a woman who adheres to contemporary norms of hydration, I need to piss a lot. Every day, there I go, in pursuit of good skin and eternal youth, dutifully carrying my Nalgene as I traverse the city of Chicago. I think myself to be so wise and self-nourishing, so responsible, so with the times—until I get about halfway through the bottle and realize I have made a horrible miscalculation. Suddenly, I am in public and nature is calling. Where can I go?

Compared to my neighborhood of Rogers Park, where unfettered bathroom access is basically limited to the public library and Target, my piss map is a little bigger downtown. Union Station has bathrooms. If you’re a little slick with how you’re dressed, you can sneak into the granite-sinked suite in the upper lobby of the Palmer House Hotel.…