Book cover of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World

Book description

Shortlisted for the Zócalo Book Prize

Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The New Republic

“Consistently entertaining and often downright funny.”—The New Yorker

“Wry and revelatory.” —The New York Times

"A romp, packed with tales of anger, violence, theft, lust, greed, political…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Paved Paradise as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love explainer books, especially regarding infrastructure, because the world isn’t the way it is naturally; it was designed, and it’s important to know how parking really does explain the world (even more so than soccer, I should say). And once you do, you can’t unsee how we’ve given over the world to cars instead of people, how parking lots dominate our environment, and how this will become a huge problem as climate change turns them into either lakes or heat generators.

The book also puts paid to the idea of governments privatizing public infrastructure for short-term financial gain. It…

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These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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