Best Books on Livable Communities
100. 
Urban Ecology: A Natural Way to Transform Kids, Parks, Cities and the World
by:
Ken Leinbach
4.42 avg rating — 55 ratings 100. 
Healing with the Arts: A 12-Week Program to Heal Yourself and Your Community
by:
Michael Samuels
3.92 avg rating — 52 ratings 100. 
Placemaking with Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities
by:
Victoria Derr
4.83 avg rating — 6 ratings 
105. 
Citizens, Experts, and the Environment: The Politics of Local Knowledge
by:
Frank Fischer
4.26 avg rating — 31 ratings 105. 
105. 
Connecting the Drops: A Citizens' Guide to Protecting Water Resources really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings
105. 
105. 
Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World
by:
Emma Marris
4.06 avg rating — 1,067 ratings 110. 
The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition 3.77 avg rating — 151 ratings
110. 
Singing in the African American Tradition - Volume 2: Building a Vocal Community 4.75 avg rating — 4 ratings
110. 
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time
by:
Jeff Speck
4.32 avg rating — 8,339 ratings 110. 
The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race
by:
Carl C Anthony
4.48 avg rating — 21 ratings 110. 
Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes
by:
Thomas Rainer
4.24 avg rating — 798 ratings 115. 
Native to Nowhere: Sustaining Home and Community in a Global Age
by:
Timothy Beatley
3.95 avg rating — 39 ratings 115. 
Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities
by:
Ryan Gravel
3.81 avg rating — 270 ratings 115. 
The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land
by:
Norman Wirzba
4.09 avg rating — 181 ratings 115. 
115. 
Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change
by:
Larry Weaner
4.32 avg rating — 231 ratings 120. 
Deforestation: Social Dynamics in Watersheds and Mountain Ecosystems
by:
J. Ives
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings 120. 
Rewild Your Garden: Create a Haven for Birds, Bees and Butterflies
by:
Frances Tophill
4.17 avg rating — 294 ratings 122. 
Taking Back Our Neighborhoods: Building Communities That Work
by:
Mary I. Wachter
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating 
122. 
125. 
How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breathe Easier, and Get More Mileage Out of Life
by:
Chris Balish
3.63 avg rating — 336 ratings 127. 
The Community Dream: Awaking The Christian Tribal Consciousness liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating
127. 
Smart Communities: How Citizens and Local Leaders Can Use Strategic Thinking to Build a Brighter Future
by:
Suzanne W. Morse
3.55 avg rating — 44 ratings 
130. 
The Careless Society: Community And Its Counterfeits
by:
John McKnight
3.82 avg rating — 137 ratings 
130. 
Common Ground on Hostile Turf: Stories from an Environmental Mediator
by:
Lucy Moore
3.72 avg rating — 29 ratings 133. 
133. 
Planning for Coastal Resilience: Best Practices for Calamitous Times
by:
Timothy Beatley
3.75 avg rating — 20 ratings 133. 
Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability
by:
David Owen
3.72 avg rating — 1,560 ratings 136. 
136. 
The Price of Thirst: Global Water Inequality and the Coming Chaos
by:
Karen Piper
3.83 avg rating — 156 ratings 136. 
140. 
Navigating Ethnicity: Segregation, Placemaking, and Difference
by:
David H. Kaplan
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings 140. 
Building Soil: A Down-to-Earth Approach: Natural Solutions for Better Gardens & Yards
by:
Elizabeth Murphy
4.09 avg rating — 136 ratings 140. 
Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions
by:
Paul Mason
3.75 avg rating — 268 ratings 
144. 
How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built
by:
Stewart Brand
4.35 avg rating — 1,842 ratings 144. 
Mind Your Own Business: Survive and Thrive in Good Times and Bad
by:
Feargal Quinn
4.50 avg rating — 12 ratings 144. 
The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities
by:
Will Allen
3.96 avg rating — 1,567 ratings 148. 
Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It
by:
Amy Cortese
3.78 avg rating — 157 ratings 148. 
148. 
The Edge of Extinction: Travels with Enduring People in Vanishing Lands
by:
Jules Pretty
3.14 avg rating — 28 ratings 148. 
More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change (California Studies in Food and Culture) (Volume 60)
by:
Garrett M. Broad
4.06 avg rating — 47 ratings 
152. 
Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition 4.22 avg rating — 1,843 ratings
152. 
Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife
by:
John M. Marzluff
3.87 avg rating — 216 ratings 152. 
Convivial Urban Spaces: Creating Effective Public Places
by:
Henry Shaftoe
3.33 avg rating — 6 ratings 156. 
The Creative Community Builder's Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Arts, and Culture
by:
Tom Borrup
4.17 avg rating — 60 ratings 156. 
Democratic by Design: How Carsharing, Co-ops, and Community Land Trusts Are Reinventing America
by:
Gabriel Metcalf
3.67 avg rating — 70 ratings 156. 
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by:
Malcolm Gladwell
4.01 avg rating — 844,249 ratings 156. 
The Impact of Co-production: From Community Engagement to Social Justice
by:
Aksel Ersoy
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings 
160. 
The Fruitful City: The Enduring Power of the Urban Food Forest
by:
Helena Moncrieff
3.86 avg rating — 90 ratings 160. 
Last Horsemen: A Year at Sillywrea, Britain's Only Horse-Powered Farm
by:
Charles Bowden
4.38 avg rating — 26 ratings 
164. 
Common Place: Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design (Samuel and Althea Stroum Books xx) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings
164. 
Underground Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube
by:
Andrew Martin
3.83 avg rating — 575 ratings 164. 
Connections: 12 approaches to relationship-based placemaking
by:
Noha Nasser
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings 167. 
167. 
Breaking Free: True Stories of Girls Who Escaped Modern Slavery
by:
Abby Sher
3.88 avg rating — 342 ratings 167. 
Bridging Cultures: The Guide to Social Innovation in Cosmopolitan Cities
by:
Noha Nasser
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating 
170. 
Seeing the Better City: How to Explore, Observe, and Improve Urban Space
by:
Charles R. Wolfe
3.74 avg rating — 27 ratings 170. 
170. 
The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging
by:
Charles H. Vogl
3.69 avg rating — 1,001 ratings 174. 
177. 
The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating A Caring Economics
by:
Riane Eisler
4.09 avg rating — 226 ratings 177. 
City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America's Urban Future
by:
Mark Pendergrast
3.86 avg rating — 288 ratings 177. 
Transforming Communities: How People Like You Are Healing Their Neighborhoods
by:
Sandhya Jha
4.39 avg rating — 71 ratings 
180. 
Change Here Now: Permaculture Solutions for Personal and Community Transformation
by:
Adam Brock
4.38 avg rating — 13 ratings 183. 
183. 
183. 
Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities 4.13 avg rating — 114 ratings
186. 
Neighborhood as Refuge: Community Reconstruction, Place Remaking, and Environmental Justice in the City 4.19 avg rating — 16 ratings
186. 
Unseen City: The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness 4.01 avg rating — 1,797 ratings
188. 
Growing Smarter: Achieving Livable Communities, Environmental Justice, and Regional Equity 3.50 avg rating — 18 ratings
191. 
Emancipating Space: Geography, Architecture, and Urban Design
by:
Ross King
4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings 191. 
194. 
194. 
Street Smart: A Fifty-Year Mistake Set Right and the Great Urban Revival 4.12 avg rating — 681 ratings
194. 
Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America
by:
E.J. Dionne Jr.
3.38 avg rating — 8 ratings 197. 
People, Land, and Community: Collected E.F. Schumacher Society Lectures 3.80 avg rating — 10 ratings
197. 
Feral Cities: Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle
by:
Tristan Donovan
4.05 avg rating — 118 ratings 
200. 
Renewing Hope within Neighborhoods of Despair: The Community-Based Development Model
by:
Herbert J. Rubin
3.40 avg rating — 5 ratings