Over the Counter #195

What books caught my eye this week as they passed over the library counter and under my scanner? Well, I'm involved in a community connecting project, so Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World  by Ross Chapin made me stop and take a second look.

From the publisher, Taunton Press:

"Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World introduces an antidote to faceless, placeless sprawl — small scale neighborhoods where people can easily know one another, where empty nesters and single householders with far-flung families can find friendship or a helping hand nearby, and where children can have shirt-tail aunties and uncles just beyond their front gate.

The book describes inspiring pocket neighborhoods through stories of the people who live there, as well as the progressive planners, innovative architects, pioneering developers, craftspeople and gardeners who helped create them.

The book is filled with rich photographs, drawings, illustrations and site plans, and a Resources section at the end provides leads for the reader to explore the topic in further detail."

The downtown of the large city I work in is not somewhere I choose to go. I find it dirty and I don't feel either safe or comfortable, especially at night. This is in stark contrast to the city my daughter lives in. The downtown is vibrant, clean and a destination. So, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America One Step at a Timey by Jeff Speck also speaks to community and  was worth a second glance.

From the publisher, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux:

"A Best Book of the Year according to Planetizen and the American Society of Landscape Architects

Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability.

Making downtown into a walkable, viable community is the essential fix for the typical American city; it is eminently achievable and its benefits are manifold. Walkable City—bursting with sharp observations and key insights into how urban change happens—lays out a practical, necessary, and inspiring vision for how to make American cities great again."

 (Over the Counter is a regular feature at A Bookworm's World. I've sadly come to the realization that I cannot physically read every book that catches my interest as it crosses over my counter at the library. But...I can mention them and maybe one of them will catch your eye as well. See if your local library has them on their shelves!)