The following will be a running list of books I have read, a quick blurb about them, and the year I posted (in case my views on the book change). If I have written a full review of a book it can be found in the blog section, This is just to serve as a jumping off point if someone is looking for book recommendations.
Hazard and/or Disaster Books
Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
by Eric Klinenberg
A must read. It takes the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave and looks at the event from three perspectives. First those most impacted by the event. Why did they struggle? why did other not? From the City’s perspective. How did they intestinally fail? How did the systems set up naturally fail? Lastly from the perspective of the press. What did they recover well? What did they fail in reporting? Why? (2020)
If someone was to read one book to understand disasters better, I would recommend this one.
The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills
by David A. Ansell MD
A very easy read on the impact of inequality on the quality and availability of care in the US. It really highlights how inequality is the largest driving factor of health outcomes. Most city planning, disaster work, and environmentalism will be ineffective unless it takes on inequality. A fact that is just left out of many books, in the same way that most ignore the needs of woman (Invisible Women). (2021)
If someone was to read one book to begin to understand the importance and an impact of inequality, I would, without hesitation, recommend this one.
Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis
by Samantha Montano
It is a good book. It is a great introduction for non-professionals into emergency management. What is EM about, how is it not prepared for the future, and how we can change it. It is part memoir, part case studies, and part research writing. (2021)
If someone outside the field of Emergency Management was to read one book to begin to understand the field and why it is set up to fail, I would recommend this one.
Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire
by Stephen J. Pyne
Want to know everything there is to know about wildland fire and its history in the US, look no future. It is heavy, long and overly detailed. Detailing fire use from ecological prehumen times to modern policy. (2017)
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
by Naomi Klein
Disaster capitalism in an interesting and important concept. As 2020 has shown, people can make tremendous money off of a disaster. This book is a deeper look at who decided that is a good business model and what we can learn from it. (2020)
Disasters by Design: A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States
by Dennis Mileti
The book was born out of work at the Natural Hazards Center back in the late 90s. As a result, it is a touch dated. None the less a great base of looking at how hazards and exposure to them are the result of decisions made on the US made the built environment. Chapters 5 stands out, looking at how different groups interact with adaptation and implementation with mitigation. (2021)
Preparedness
The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – And Why
By Amanda Ripley
Almost a classic as well. Lays out the basic ideas of what happens to people as events happen. How to potentially control those responses. It is a useful look into understanding how most people will handle emergency events. I have some quarrels of the use of “disaster” as most examples are emergencies not disasters. Great book nonetheless. (2020)
How to Prepare for Everything: Empowering you to face disruptions with your community and feel good about the future.
By Aaron Titus
Not a book most will know exists. This book lays out a hazard agnostic approach to community preparedness. It is effective and starting to be used in counties in Colorado. The basic idea is that by preparing for a few disturbance, one can prepare for all hazards. It moves well away from the 72 hour kit and other staple preparedness measures. It is more of disaster preparedness than emergency preparedness. (2019)
Adaptive Business Continuity: A New Approach
By David Lindstedt, Mark Armour
Continuity of operations is a the classic monumental task in emergency management. There are tons of approaches to COOP, and yet all of them seem too big and difficult to actually do anything with. Here they take a very business approach of building the minimal product and just iterating on it. It also tries to quantify the window of when COOP is needed and when the business no longer exists. It is an important idea, however it does not always transfer perfectly to government. (2021)
City Planning
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
by Richard Rothstein
This book really draws clear evidence of how housing policy was designed to have disparate impacts. With the context of Critical Race Theory, this book becomes even more interesting. Some of the examples might not have been fully intentional but none the less had the massive outcome. How do we come back from these policies is a huge problem, especially as more and more population moves back to cities and sprawl will begin to be curtailed. (2021)
Strong Towns: A bottom-up revolution to rebuild American Prosperity
by Charles L Morohn Jr.
A quick read on how our cities are failing and what can be done about it. Most interesting from my perspective is flipping to the idea that infrastructure is actually a liability not an asset to a city. (2020)
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
by Jane Jacobs
A great book on city planning on the local level. What makes a neighborhood worth living in? Why do some areas of cities thrive and other feel awkward. This book is a keystone that is reverenced by many other books for good reason. (2021)
Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places
By Jeff Speck
A collection of 101 ideas as to how to make cities more walkable. They are often specific, but only a little time spent on why. The specificity is a nice change from other books (like Happy City) where little detail is provided. I would have liked more detail on why these specifications are warranted and a bit more on accessibility. Generally recommend. (2021)
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
By Charles Montgomery
A view of how dramatic changes in a community can lead to happier lives. Interesting, but not a necessary read. Came across very hand-wavy, not all that actionable, and not really interrogating why each of the changes were successful. (2020)
The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Can Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life
By Jonathan F. P. Rose
A book trying to get everything into one book. Ideas that stood out: looking at the city as a living organism in that inputs must equal outputs, the historical context of cities, and the development on neighborhood and block level. Not a perfect book but interesting. (2020)
Social Capital
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
By Robert Putnam
The classic basis for social capital. I think this is the book that is most referenced by other books I have read. Overall great book to understand social capital and what it is based on. The book is a bit dated as it was published in 2000, the internet was a new thing that had not played nearly as much of a role as it does now. The internet did not fix any of the problems. Well worth a read if Social Capital is of interest. It is a bit dense citing survey and research throughout. (2020)
Community Building
Community: The Structure of Belonging
By Peter Block
Interesting look at what makes a community and little things that lead to changes in meetings. Useful in some contexts but I would be careful using it as a step by step guild for every meeting. Structure can be good in some contexts. In addition I think it lacks some understanding of neuro-diversity and other access and functional needs. Overall message still stands. (2019)
The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging
By Charles H. Vogl
The 7 ideas of what makes for a successful community are really nifty. Well worth a read. It lacks some technical/research basis for some claims, but overall they seem to hold up in most contexts (2019)
From Equity Talk To Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education
By Tia McNair, Estela Bensimon, Lindsey Malcom-Phiqueux
The book is a jab at actually practicing equity in the higher ed setting. If you work in the space it can be interesting, but even in support staff rolls there are few clear useable items in the book. It is the best book I have read on the equity, but there is room for a better book. The book ultimate argument is, meet students where they are at, but to do that you need to measure the gaps. (2021)
Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence
By Patrick Sharkey
Crime is an interesting topic because it has such massive impacts, and yet few people really understand why it happens and how to reduce the impacts. This book is focused on policing and how it can be impactful, but the later chapters do look at a more whole community approach. I honestly would recommend listing to his interview on the Ezra Klein Show before reading this book: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-patrick-sharkey.html (2021)
Environmentalism
A Sand County Almanac
by Aldo Leopold
Leopold was one of the forebears of modern environmentalism. Written in the 1950s, the book is composed of short essays on land preservation, hunting, and other environmental ideas. The essays generally take a poetic approach to the topics. (2021)
Ishmael
by Daniel Quinn
An odd novel advocating a specific form of environmentalism. It is extremely popular in some circles. It is an enjoyable read, though the claims are sometimes dubious. It is a novel and not a work of non-fiction. The sequel Story of B is a bit better in my opinion, but just as odd. (2017)
Miscellaneous
Punishment by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes
by Alfie Kohn
An interesting book that has implication on rewards. Largely how they do not work and often cause the exact opposite results. (2021)
Invisible Woman: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
by Caroline Criado Perez
Data on sex difference is often missing and crucial. 50% of the world is woman and yet most of the world is not designed for them. For example, how streets are plowed, public transit is set up, and parking at large organization. Highly recommend, wide implications. (2021)
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens
by Benedict Carey
A dive into the current science on how memory/learning works. Overall, the book does a decent job describing the fundamentals, but does not build out a full method of leveraging these implications. In additions the focus is on memory, and less so understanding or mastery of topic. Interesting book, however not sure it total usefulness unless linked with other learning/teaching knowledge.(2021)