![]()
531
33 Books of 2024 by CityReads
Our annual round-up brings you 33 books reviewed by CityReads
1.Abramitzky, R., & Boustan, L. P. (2022). Streets of gold: America’s untold story of immigrant success. New York: PublicAffairs.In this book, economists Ran Abramitzky from Stanford University and Leah Boustan from Princeton University debunk many myths about immigration. They constructed a database based on U.S. historical census data and genealogy information provided by ancestry.com, covering the occupations, incomes, marital status, and other aspects of the lives of immigrants and their descendants since 1880. The book aims to reconstruct the story of immigration to America from the ground up, revealing patterns that emerge from the life data of millions of immigrants and clarifying the facts of how immigrants have achieved the American Dream over the past 150 years.2.Alan Mallach and Todd Swanstrom, The Changing American Neighborhood: The Meaning of Place in the Twenty-First Century, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023.
This book focuses on one central question: What is the significance of neighborhoods in twenty-first-century America when people seem more absorbed in their digital devices than in the social environment immediately around them? As physical containers of social relations, neighborhoods still matter deeply, and yet their role is different than for earlier generations. This book examines how American neighborhoods have changed, what factors have driven those changes, and what challenges our neighborhoods face today in the early twenty-first century.
3.Egan, Ronald. The Burden of Female Talent: The Poet Li Qingzhao and Her History in China. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 90. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center, Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2013.
Li Qingzhao is probably the most famous female poet in Chinese history. While history often emphasizes the love and intellectual compatibility between Li Qingzhao and Zhao Mingcheng, it rarely mentions Li Qingzhao's second marriage Zhang Ruzhou. In fact, many historians deny the existence of this historical fact. I wondered under what circumstance and why Li Qingzhao would agree to this marriage, what Zhang Ruzhou's true intentions were, and what events unfolded between them after the marriage. So, I turned to a book, "The Burden of Female Talent: The Poet Li Qingzhao and Her History in China", written by Ronald Egan, a Professor of Sinology in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University.4. Frey, Carl Benedikt. The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2019.A major theme being considered by contemporary economic sociology is the relationship between labor and technology. Central to this discussion is the question of the role of technology in shaping economic history. Carl Benedikt Frey’s book presents one of the most nuanced and subtle contributions to the contemporary discussion of this problem. Meticulously researched and sweeping in scope, this book presents a detailed history of the first and second Industrial Revolutions, and the first computer revolution, in an effort to better understand economic polarization and political instability in the context of contemporary disruptive technologies.The Technology Trap serves as a timely reminder that while technological change may benefit everyone over the long run, ‘short run’ adjustment costs can represent a lifetime for some workers. 5.Bergstrom, Carl T., and Jevin D. West. Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World. First edition. New York: Random House, 2020.
As the oft-quoted saying goes, there are three kinds of lies,: lies, damned lies, and statistics. In a world drowning in data, statistical methods and other tools of scientific inquiry are increasingly being used to advance erroneous claims. In their book, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, evolutionary biologist Carl Bergstrom and data scientist Jevin D. West explains how to identify and refute data-driven misinformation and disinformation, or in their word, bullshits. The two authors encourage readers and students not to be intimidated by data and models. As they state in the book, “it will show you that you do not need to be a professional statistician or econometrician or data scientist to think critically about quantitative arguments, nor do you need extensive data sets and weeks of effort to see through bullshit. It is often sufficient to apply basic logical reasoning to a problem and, where needed, augment that with information readily discovered via search engine.”6. East, May. What If Women Designed the City?: 33 Leverage Points to Make Your City Work Better for Women and Girls. Axminster, UK: Triarchy Press, 2024.
Globally, only 5% of city leadership positions and 10% of senior architecture and urban planning positions are held by women. The inadequacy of gender expertise in urban planning has meant that women’s access to essential services and economic opportunities has too often been an afterthought in the design of urban environments. This gap has led to serious inconveniences, and at times dangers, for women, children, and gender minorities. As a result, the design of many cities today perpetuates and exacerbates gender inequities.May East's book, " What If Women Designed the City?: 33 Leverage Points to Make Your City Work Better for Women and Girls," starts from the unique perspectives of women from different countries and backgrounds on urban development, revealing the various untapped potentials rooted in their communities. Based on walking interviews with 274 female community experts from affluent and remote areas of three Scottish cities—Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Perth—the book summarizes 33 very practical points for building women-friendly cities.7. Martin, John Levi. Thinking through Statistics. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2018.Why most of what we learn in “statistics” class doesn’t solve our actual problems?
This is a question posed by John Levi Martin, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, in his book "Thinking through Statistics." It has to do with the fact that we don’t know what the true model is—not that we don’t know how best to fit it.
So, as a non-statistician, how should one use statistical methods in social science research? "Thinking through Statistics" seeks to answer this question. The book, along with two others by the author, forms a trilogy of understanding social science research: "Thinking through Theory," "Thinking through Methods," and "Thinking through Statistics."
For more, please see CityReads | How Sociologists Use Statistics to Study Society?
8. Perlin, Ross. Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. First edition. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024.
Of the world’s approximately seven thousand languages, up to half are likely to disappear over the next few centuries. Languages are being lost every year. The least documented are the most threatened. Just 4 percent of the world’s population now speaks 96 percent of the world’s languages. Now home to over seven hundred languages, early twenty-first century New York City is especially a last improbable refuge for embattled and endangered languages. In particular, in just the last few decades, hundreds of thousands of people speaking hundreds of languages have arrived in New York from heavily minority and Indigenous zones of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. At the very moment when languages worldwide are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, many of the last speakers are on the move. But this new linguistical hyperdiversity in New York has hardly been mapped, let alone understood or supported. In his book, Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York, Ross Perlin talks about the most linguistically diverse city in the history of the world: its past, present, and future.9.Mollick, E. (2024). Co-intelligence: Living and working with AI. Portfolio/Penguin.
What does AI really mean for our work, life, and future? Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School, discusses the principles of integrating AI into life and work, explaining how AI can act as a person, as a creative tool, as a coworker, as a tutor, as a coach, as the future, and even as our own co-intelligence. AI can be both instrumental and expressive.10.Michele Lancione and Colin McFarlane (eds.) 2021: Global Urbanism: Knowledge, Power and the City. London: Routledge.
![]()
What does it mean to say we live in a global-urban moment, and what are its implications? How does this moment differently unfold globally, and what are its consequences? If we seek more socially and ecologically just urban futures, what are the questions and agendas we need to tackle, and according to which kind of position – epistemic and geographical – is the answer to this question made to count? What can we learn by examining how different kinds of global urbanisms are lived, felt, and enacted from situated practices? How should we understand, theorize, and research the sheer situatedness of urbanism without policing, and silencing, in the name of theory? That is, how could we think cities with, yet always also beyond, global-urban processes and conceptual framings? Refusing all-encompassing answers, the book grounds these questions, exploring the plurality of understandings, definitions, and ways of researching global urbanism through the lenses of varied contributors from different parts of the world. 11. Vaclav Smil, 2019. Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities, MIT Press.Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities follows Smil's consistent style, packed with a high density of information and knowledge. It integrates findings from natural sciences, social sciences, and even the humanities. The entire book revolves around the ubiquitous phenomenon of "growth" in both nature and society. From an evolutionary and historical perspective, it comprehensively explains the diversity and patterns of growth. It discusses growth resulting from evolution as well as growth resulting from human intervention. It not only addresses the achievements of human civilization's growth but also points out its limitations.The book begins by summarizing several common growth patterns from a mathematical perspective. It then discusses the growth patterns of natural organisms. Then it explores human utilization of energy, the growth of man-made objects, and delves into the growth of more complex systems such as populations, societies, economies, technologies, cities, and empires. Finally, it reflects on and envisions the future of growth.12. Nightingale, Carl H. (2024). Our urban planet in theory and history. Cambridge University Press.
In "Our Urban Planet in Theory and History," Nightingale participates in the debates on planetary urbanization and critical urban theory. He argues for expanding the concept of "urban space" to include spaces that make cities possible and those made possible by cities, and to place global urban history within the longer time frame of Earth Time. More importantly, we need to introduce the crucial dimension of power, redefining cities as spaces that humans produce to amplify the harvest of geo-solar energy and deploy human power within space and time.The book uses insights from "deep history" to propose an urban theory by verb, explaining the many paradoxes of humans' 6,000-year gamble with urbanization. It first discusses some basic concepts and then elaborates on seven propositions for developing a theory of our urban planet.
13. Moreno, C. (2024). The 15-minute city: A solution to saving our time & our planet. Wiley.
In 2015, Carlos Moreno of Sorbonne University introduced the concept of the 15-minute city at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris. This concept gained support and implementation in cities like Paris, but faced criticism and attacks from opponents of car restrictions and far-right conspiracy theorists. Recently, Moreno published "The 15-Minute City: A solution to saving our time & our planet," detailing the origins, theoretical foundations, development process, and practical experiences in major cities across continents.14. Bertrand Westphal, Geocriticism: Real and Fictional Space, translated by Robert T. Tally Jr. 2011. Palgrave Macmillan.
Literature abounds with the depiction and exploration of spaces. The spaces depicted in literature may be based on real places, such as Dostoevsky's St. Petersburg or Mark Twain's Mississippi River, or they may be entirely fictional, such as More's Utopia or Tolkien's Middle Earth. However, in most cases, the two are combined, as the literary representation of seemingly real places is never a mere replication of those spaces. The fictional spaces in literature can not only represent real spaces but also participate in the construction of real spaces.In this book, Professor Bertrand Westphal comprehensively discusses the theory and methodology of geocriticism in literary criticism, analyzing the interplay between literary texts and spatial practices, and revealing the socio-cultural dynamics of the relationship between space in literature and literature in space.15. Stout, G. 2022. Young woman and the sea: How Trudy Ederle conquered the English Channel and inspired the world. New York: Mariner Books.
![]()
The movie, "Young Woman and the Sea," tells the story of American swimmer Trudy Ederle and how she overcame numerous obstacles to successfully swim across the English Channel. Beyond the geographical, tidal, and weather challenges of crossing the English Channel, she faced social, cultural, ideological, economic, and other man-made barriers. She became the first woman to swim across the English Channel and broke the previous record set by five men, finishing two hours faster than the quickest of them. Not only did she achieve an unprecedented feat, but she also inspired the world and shattered many myths and prejudices about women’s bodies being unsuitable for swimming. The movie was excellent, and I wanted to learn more, so I turned to the novel "Young woman and the sea: How Trudy Ederle conquered the English Channel and inspired the world " by Glenn Stout. This helped me gain a deeper understanding of the era and the significance of Trudy’s accomplishment.
For more, please see CityReads | The First But Not the Last
16. Barr, J. M. (2024). Cities in the sky: The quest to build the world’s tallest skyscrapers. Scribner.Skyscrapers make up the striking skyline of cities, becoming part of the city's image and character, and embodying humanity's ambition and dream to reach the sky. Why build skyscrapers? How are they constructed? How do skyscrapers change city skylines, and how do they alter our lives, work, and leisure? How will skyscrapers shape our future cities? Jason Barr's " Cities in the sky: The quest to build the world’s tallest skyscrapers" attempts to answer these questions. The book is divided into three parts: the first two parts recount the history and geographical expansion of skyscrapers, focusing primarily on the United States and the Eurasian continent, from late 19th-century Chicago to 20th-century New York, and then to 21st-century London, Hong Kong, mainland Chinese cities, and the Arabian Peninsula. The third part adopts a global perspective, analyzing the value, negative impacts, and controversies of skyscrapers in the economic, social, and environmental contexts, and looks ahead to the future of skyscrapers and cities.17．DeJean, J. E. 2014. How Paris became Paris: The invention of the modern city. Bloomsbury.
The modern urban life we take for granted today—including city parks with benches, riverside walkways, urban squares, public spaces, street lights, fashion, department stores, city nightlife, postal services, public transportation, City Walks, and urban tourism—can be traced back to Paris more than 400 years ago.In her book "How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City," Joan DeJean analyzes how 17th-century Paris created a new urban space and lifestyle, serving as a model for cities elsewhere. It was in the 17th century that Paris became a precursor and exemplar of urban modernity.
18.Taylor, W. 2024. Hoof beats: How horses shaped human history. University of California Press.
How did horses evolve from wild animals into large domesticated livestock that humans could harness and ride, thereby transforming the development of human civilization and the course of history? In his new book, Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History, archaeologist William Taylor attempts to answer this question based on the latest archaeology evidences.
For more, please see CityReads | Hoof Beats: A 4,000-Year History of Humans and Horses
19．Tuan, Y. F. (1984). Dominance and affection: The making of pets. Yale University Press.
How have humans turned animals into pets? In Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets, Yi-Fu Tuan discusses how humans have tamed and controlled both inorganic and organic nature (including plants, animals, and other humans) to turn them into pets. The relationship between humans and pets reflects a spectrum of dynamics: dominance and affection, love and abuse, cruelty and kindness. Dominance and affection are two sides of the same coin in the making of pets.
20．Harari, Y. N. (2024). Nexus: A brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI. Random House.
What does the rise of artificial intelligence mean for human society? Will AI pose a threat to human survival? Why do humans always create things that are difficult to control and may lead to self-destruction? From nuclear bombs in the past to AI in the present.In his new book Nexus: A brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI, Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari attempts to answer this question by focusing on the variable of "information networks," tracing and analyzing the history of information networks from the Stone Age to the age of AI. Harari treats information networks as the fundamental structure that runs through human history and as the core explanatory variable of his book. He believes that humanity gained immense power by building large cooperative networks, but the way these networks were established made humans prone to using that power unwisely. 21．Rao, C. R. (1997). Statistics and truth: Putting chance to work (2nd ed). Singapore: World Scientific.
“All knowledge is, in final analysis, history.All sciences are, in the abstract, mathematics.All judgements are, in their rationale, statistics.”This passage is from the 1997 book Statistics and Truth: Putting Chance to Work by C. R. Rao. This book serves as both a popular science introduction to statistical principles and a philosophical exploration of the field. It also functions as a practical guide, offering insights for both laypeople and seasoned statisticians alike.
22．Graeber, D., & Wengrow, D. (2021). The dawn of everything: A new history of humanity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
![]()
Regarding human history and the origins of cities，the mainstream view contains an underlying assumption: as human societies grow larger, more complex, wealthier, and more "civilized," they inevitably become more unequal. In The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, co-authored by David Graeber and David Wengrow, the authors critically examine this assumption behind the dominant narrative of human history by revisiting the dawn of everything. They synthesize and reinterpret archaeological discoveries from various sites around the world in an attempt to rewrite human history, particularly regarding the origins of agriculture, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization. The book questions whether 95% of human evolution was truly spent in small-scale hunter-gatherer societies, and whether the invention of agriculture and cities necessarily led to hierarchy and domination. The Dawn of Everything challenges many mainstream narratives about human history and attempts to construct alternative ones.
For more, please see CityReads | Agriculture and Cities inevitably Lead to Inequality?
23.Harrison, H. (2021). The perils of interpreting: The extraordinary lives of two translators between Qing China and the British Empire. Princeton University Press.
This was a significant historical moment of East-West encounter: In 1793, George Macartney sent by the British government arrived in Chengde to meet Emperor Qianlong. The most widely discussed aspect of this historic meeting is that Macartney, by refusing to perform the kowtow according to Qing court etiquette, angered Qianlong, who then rejected all of Macartney's requests. In her book The perils of interpreting: The extraordinary lives of two translators between Qing China and the British Empire, Oxford historian Henrietta Harrison vividly describes the scene of Macartney's audience with Qianlong. Through the perspectives of these two translators, Li Zibiao and junior Staunton, the book explores and analyzes the interactions and conflicts between Qing China and the British Empire. 24．Murray, M. J. (2022). Many urbanisms: Divergent trajectories of global city building. Columbia University Press.
Despite the diverse and heterogeneous trajectories of global urbanization, mainstream urban studies have generally failed to address the speed and rhythm of global urbanization, or to explore the relationship between rapid urbanization and incremental urbanization, as well as the contrast between sprawling megacities experiencing high growth and declining post-industrial shrinking cities. The book "Many urbanisms: Divergent trajectories of global city building " reflects on conventional urban theories, shifting the focus away from hierarchies, rankings, and success stories to adopt a perspective grounded in the diversity, heterogeneity, and unevenness of urban experiences globally, examining different urban experiences in a world filled with diverse cities.
25．Gingold, C. (2024). Building SimCity: How to put the world in a machine. The MIT Press.
What Do We Simulate When We Simulate a City? How does SimCity connect the invisible fabric of social, political, and economic relationships to the material environment? Or, more broadly, how do people put the world into a machine? This is the central question Building SimCity: How to put the world in a machine seeks to answer. 26. Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
![]()
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist and Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the State University of New York, but she holds a more unique identity as a descendant of North American Indigenous people, specifically of the Potawatomi Nation. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer weaves together Native American folklore, ancient wisdom, science, and personal memoir, much like the three strands of sweetgrass in a braid. These interwoven elements—science, spirituality, and storytelling—aim to inspire readers to understand and protect our natural world. She offers a remedy for our fractured relationship with the Earth, calling for a new kinship between people and the land: a relationship where humans heal the land, and the land, in turn, heals us. The book emphasizes that fostering a reciprocal relationship between humanity and nature is essential for Earth’s conservation.27. Stone, B. (2024). Radical adaptation: Transforming cities for a climate changed world. Cambridge University Press.
In this book, Brian Stone, Jr., professor at the School of City & Regional Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology, advocates for a fundamental shift in the way we manage urban environmental risks. Specifically, he argues that radical urban climate adaptation requires four principles.First, the principle of decentralization: instead of building large centralized public infrastructure, climate-adaptive infrastructure should be integrated into every parcel and community. Second, The principle of least-first: radical climate adaptation methods should prioritize the most vulnerable human communities. Third, the principle of nonnormative: breaking away from conventional approaches to managing urban environments is necessary. Fourth, the principle of deconstruction: planned urban retreat is a primary step in radical climate adaptation.28.Brenner, N. (2017). Critique of urbanization: Selected essays. Bauverlag ; Birkhauser.
What exactly is critical urban theory? Neil Brenner, a prominent critical urban theorist, addressed this question in a paper published in the journal City in 2009. The paper was later included in Brenner's book, Critique of urbanization: Selected essays. In this work, Brenner traces the origins of the concept of critique and the emergence and evolution of critical theory. He identifies four key elements of critical theory and then shifts to discuss the position of urban question within critical social theory. Brenner emphasizes that in the era of planetary urbanization, critical theory and critical urban theory are inextricably linked.29.WU, F. & Zhang, F.Z. (2024). Governing urban development in China: Critical urban studies. Routledge.
Is China's urban development model unique? How are Chinese cities governed? What are the characteristics of urban governance in China? How can we go beyond the study of China's urban governance experiences and make theoretical contributions to 21st-century urban studies? A new book, Governing urban development in China: Critical urban studies, by Professors Wu Fulong and Zhang Fangzhu of University College London, seeks to answer these questions.The core question of the book is to answer what the logic of urban governance in China is. The central argument is that a key feature of urban governance in China is the significant role of the state in governing urban development, and the essence of China's urban governance is "State entrepreneurialism." This is the key concept to understanding China's urban governance and forms the overarching framework of the book.30.Ritchie, H. (2024). Not the end of the world: How we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet. Little, Brown Spark.
Hannah Ritchie, the Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher at Our World in Data, has written numerous data analysis articles on topics such as climate change, energy, food and agriculture, biodiversity, air pollution, and deforestation. This year, she published her first book, Not the end of the world: How we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet. In the Introduction, she shares how, as a young person, Hans Rosling’s talks changed her worldview and how she learned to understand the world through solid data analysis, particularly using data to understand sustainable development. Ritchie argues in the book that we have never achieved sustainable development because we have never achieved both components simultaneously. Either neither of the two components has been achieved, or one has been achieved at the expense of the other.31.Tuan, Y. F. (2014). The Last Launch: Messages in the Bottle. George F Thompson Publishing.
This book includes previously unpublished essays by Tuan, featuring a prologue titled Closing the Circle, and a main text divided into six parts and 18 chapters: Revisiting the Personal and the Geographical; Understanding Social Reality; Seeking Goodness and Good; God, Christianity, and Religious Faith; Messages to the Young; and Reflections of the Self.
The Last Launch, like Yi-Fu Tuan's other books, covers a wide range of topics, drawing from both ancient and modern, Eastern and Western sources with ease and erudition. This book includes parts of Tuan's life experiences as well as his profound insights into space, place, society, and life.
For more, please see CityReads | The Last Launch
32.Haver, M. C. (2024). The new menopause: Navigating your path through hormonal change with purpose, power, and facts. Rodale Books.
In this book, OB-GYN Dr. Mary Claire Haver not only explained the essence and definition of menopause and perimenopause and their symptoms, but also delved into the endocrine principles behind them. She introduced cutting-edge treatments and lifestyle adjustments, and highlighted the systemic neglect of women's health—especially non-reproductive health—by academia, the medical community, and society. This includes insufficient research funding and studies for women’s health, particularly post-reproductive health, and inadequate training for doctors. As a result, the health issues of women during at least a third of their lives are often overlooked. 33. Sims, S. T., & Yeager, S. (2022). Next level: Your guide to kicking ass, feeling great, and crushing goals through menopause and beyond. Rodale.
Almost all research on exercise and nutrition has been conducted on men, and recommendations for women are often inferred from studies on men. However, as exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist Stacey Sims pointed out in her TED talk, “Women are Not Small Men.” Diets and training methods designed for men may not be suitable for women, and simply applying male nutrition and fitness plans does not yield optimal results for women.
In this book, Dr. Sims teaches how perimenopausal and menopausal women should scientifically approach diet and exercise in response to dramatic hormonal changes to maintain peak condition and enhance performance.
For more, please see CityReads | Next Level: How Perimenopausal and Menopausal Women Should Exercise and Eat
1.“It might be well of us to remember that while differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.”- Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge
![]()
2.“We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so that each thing gets noticed. Together awe notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.”-Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk![]()
CityReads ∣Notes On Cities"CityReads", a subscription account on WeChat,
posts our notes on city reads weekly.
Please follow us by searching "CityReads"
