Suburban Books

Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir

D. J. Waldie

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton & Company Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $7.97

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great fro Teaching 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I taught this book as the last reading in an undergraduate course on Western suburban history. The students responded with tremendous enthusiasm. They recognized much that was familiar in Waldie's strange hometown (a strangeness common to suburbs all over the West). This book crystallized a feeling of loss for many students. Suburbs like Lakewood, or like the tract house developments going up today all over the region and nation, feel emptied of history for the children who grow up there. Their names (Lakewood?) like their green lawns are imposed, divorced from the land's human and natural history. Children feel this and they know something is missing. This book opened up the opportunity for students to express their own feelings and experiences of suburban life.

Note I also recommend you see the wonderful poetry of Kevin Hearle, _Each Thing We Know is Changed Because We Know It_ (1994)

Editorial Review:

Welcome to Lakewood, California, the world's largest suburb and the subject of an oddly mesmerizing account of its creation by D. J. Waldie. Waldie describes how bean fields were drawn up, sectioned off and divided up--leaving tracts for small houses of similar design. The author changes while the land around him does, in a story of how people make places and, more so, places make people.

Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey

Alan Black

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Subjects -> Sports -> Biographies -> Soccer

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Fever Pitch meets Trainspotting in this laugh-outloud, caustic account of one man’s attempt to coach a peewee soccer team

When Alan Black was a child growing up in Glasgow, Scotland, soccer—or what he called fitba’—was the be all and end all. His experience was not the little league, boys-of-summer stuff of modern America. For him, it was life and death. Now middleaged and living in California, Alan finds himself coaching a team of eight-year-olds in his beloved sport—and nothing is going right.

For a start, the kids are no good at soccer. Secondly, they’re pampered. Born and bred on the sport, Black’s hardscrabble Scottish upbringing consisted of playing tough and victory at all costs. Needless to say, his coaching methods are a far cry from the “winning isn’t everything” mentality his little leaguers have been reared with; and players and parents alike are shocked as Black attempts to transform the losing team through drills and bombast. Alone at night, watching evangelicals on TV, Black finds himself searching for some truth in the culture he finds so bizarre. And it’s with the Tigers that he feels most out of sync—faced with a mix of soft suburban children, a raft of overprotective parents, and an Iranian co-coach called Ali. Told with Black’s uproarious Scottish sensibility, Kick the Balls follows the abrasive, irreverent, and hilarious coach as he contends with a team that winds up with a zero-win record.

Both a celebration of his own tough childhood and an account of one man’s navigation of an alien culture, Kick the Balls will delight fans of well-told, laugh-out-loud memoirs.

Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul

Dave L. Goetz

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Checking yourself... 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I picked up this book after Matt Chandler made mention of it in one of his sermons and quoted it when Mr. Goetz tells of a story and then cites, "Soccer is stupid when your wife is dying with cancer." After that quote, I had to pick up the book.

This book is a very enjoyable read, especially if you live in the suburbs. I really don't think you can get the full meaning of some of the jokes or even the nagging life that awaits in the suburbs, unless you live there, or have lived there for a period of years. What David Goetz wanted to get across in this book, I believe he did very well. The 8 chapters are titled very well and it really hurts when the chapter headings are what is going on in your head when you read them. He lists for the chapters a "toxin" and then "the practice." Or the "issue" and "the solution." They are:

Chapter 1:
The Toxin: I am in Control of My Life
The Practice: The Prayer of Silence

Chapter 2:
The Toxin: I am what I do and what I own
The Practice: The Journey through the self

Chapter 3:
The Toxin: I want my neighbor's life
The Practice: Friendship with the poor

Chapter 4:
The Toxin: My life should be easier than this
The Practice: Accepting my cross with grace and patience

Chapter 5:
The Toxin: I need to make a difference with my life
The Practice: Pursuing action, not results

Chapter 6:
The Toxin: My church is the problem
The Practice: Staying put in your church

Chapter 7:
The Toxin: What will this relationship do for me?
The Practice: Building deep friendships

Chapter 8:
The Toxin: I need to get more done in less time
The Practice: Falling in love with a day

My favorites were definitely at the point when Mr. Goetz pointed out why we have certain relationships and why we help out certain people. The reason is because I fall in love with the thought of, "if this person isn't going to accomplish something in my life, why should I befriend them?" Mr. Goetz speaks poignantly through this to understand that relationships shouldn't be about what you are going to get out of them, but they should be for continual development for the kingdom. In conjunction with this, he asks why we help out those that are less fortunate than us? Do we do it for self gratification if they turn to Jesus, or they "fix their life?" Or, do we do it out of the mere love for our Saviour and respond to his love with the love of our neighbors? This was a very challenging chapter.

I enjoyed the entirety of the book and felt as though it was well thought out, although not terribly theologically deep. Theologically is exactly where I found myself scratching my head a couple of times as I felt as though he left it out of the discussion at points that would have been helpful. I felt as though his convictions should have more clearly put forth in some of the areas of his life and how he lived it. But these were minor at points and not enough to deter the overall theme of the book.

I really found it to be helpful and was filled with great reminders in ways that made me laugh at times and cringe at others as they cut me deep, which was good.

One of my favorite quotes in the book, after the one mentioned at the first of this post, was:

Speed and efficiency rank high in suburban values. Garbage cans with properly colored tags are set out on the curb weekly on designated days. Dogs must be licensed before February 1. Dog waste is a hazard to our children, says our community publication on new ordinances. There are always new ordinances. Near our home, a gentleman walks his aging, bloated Labrador most evenings, dog leash in one hand and pooper-scooper in the other. By day, the man is an executive with an MBA from a worldclass university; by night, he scrapes up dog stools.

Now imagine this clever banter when dealing with spiritual issues while letting life escape us and you have a very enjoyable read along some very good insights into our everyday lives as we try and walk with Christ.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a Christian and looking for a nudge to get them out of the ordinary drudge that can be the suburbs.

Editorial Review:

A great number of seekers find themselves in the seemingly unreal world of the suburbs. They read spirituality books but find themselves in carpools and coaching soccer, not in monasteries. Dave Goetz, a former pastor, shows that the suburbs are a real world, but a spiritually corrosive one. The land of SUVs and soccer leagues can truly be toxic to the soul. Suburbanites need to understand how the environment affects them and what spiritual disciplines are needed for their faith to survive and thrive. Goetz identifies eight toxins in the suburban life, such as hyper–competition and the "transactional" friendship, and suggests eight corresponding disciplines to keep the spiritual life authentic. Goetz weaves sociology studies, his own experiences, current events, wisdom of the spiritual masters, and a little humor to equip spiritual suburbanites for how to relate to God amidst Starbucks, strip–malls, and perfect lawns.

Going Home to the Fifties

Bill Yenne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A great look at the "good old days." 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

I've been fascinated with the 50's since I was a child. Almost everything I've read on the 50's has been clouded with cynicism. While reading this book, I really felt like I was transported back in time and into the minds of people who were living in this time. I felt it did a great job of explaining "materialism" and "housewives" (that had normally gotten such a bad reputation). I just don't think I can say enough good things about this book. I'm glad I bought it, and will hopefully share it with others who share my fascination and enthusiasm.

Editorial Review:

With the postwar economic boom, a vast middle class emerged. Suburbs exploded across the country, and the new industrial complex cranked out cars, appliances, and home furnishings in record numbers. Here is an idealized neighborhood of the period, with schools, roads, and commuter trains to the homes, kitchens, and backyards — all drawn from the fantasy worlds created by advertising. Color photos and illustrations are featured in this presentation of the ideal of 1950s suburban living. From houses to cars, to individual rooms and lawns, an entire industry was created to instruct a newlycreated middle class on what ideal living should be.

Home Town

Tracy Kidder

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Massachusetts
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Northampton, Massachusetts, boasts a rich history that dates back to the 17th century. It is home to Mount Holyoke, which has been climbed by Charles Dickens and Henry James (among others), and to Sylvia Plath's alma mater, Smith College. It has always been the quintessential New England town, while becoming in recent years a politically progressive small city, whose population of 30,000 has WASPs rubbing elbows with lesbians, immigrants, students, and the homeless. Driven by a narrative force comparable to that of the best fiction, Home Town is a remarkable evocation of small-town life at the end of the 20th century.

Probing beneath Northampton's friendly exterior, Pulitzer-winning author Tracy Kidder uncovers the town's many layers, from the lowest to the highest rungs of society, and renders a portrait of Northampton by introducing those who know it best. Kidder relies most heavily on native Tommy O'Connor, a 33-year-old police sergeant who has never left his beloved hometown. Tommy's optimism and gentle humor make him an appealing guide, as he shows both the darkest and most charming streets of his town and wrestles with a future that may forever alter his relationship to Northampton. Kidder also introduces readers to Laura Baumeister, a young working mother and Ada Comstock scholar at Smith College who is struggling to care for her son and keep up with the rigorous school curriculum; Alan Scheinman, a real estate lawyer who made a fortune in the 1980s, now plagued by a crippling case of obsessive-compulsive disorder; and Samson Rodriguez, a former loom operator who may have been one of the first people to bring crack cocaine to Northampton. --Kera Bolonik

The Comparative Guide To American Suburbs 2005: Covers Over 2,400 Suburban Communities in the 50 Largest Metro Areas-With Rankings (Comparative Guide to American Suburbs)

Grey House Publishing Inc.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A hit or miss compilation of census data 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Gray House has published some useful books in this twilight era of print reference (at least until the next catastrophes arrive, when we'll be back to pictographs and recitations from memory again, perhaps), but The Comparative Guide to Am. Suburbs isn't one of them, at least not the 2005 edition.
Pretty much all the data is available on the online version of the US Census (land area, population with the usual ethnic breakdowns, income levels, single-family ownership rates, institutionalized education levels), along with an occasional historical tidbit (though I'd never heard of the factoid offered for the post-industrial burg I currently dwell in). You can get more stuff by going to kindly Uncle Sam's FactFinder.
And about more places. There's some really odd inconsistency here. I had occasion to open the book while looking for data on Fort Collins CO, and found, to my surprise, none. If you approach Denver from the north, you can't miss Ft. Collins, especially not the traffic pouring into and out of it, communicating with the rest of the Denver metroplex. Which is not to say that you can tell it apart from the rest of the Denver suburbs. Well, a lot of those other cookie-cutter burbs AREN'T in this book, either. I suppose you could object that Ft. Collins, and Loveland, and Littleton, and the rest of the places that look so much like Gurnee, Illinois (except on the days when you can see the mountains) are a long way from Denver. But Lawrence and Lowell are a long way from Boston, too, and they make it into this book.
I don't like to cut a Grey House product; as I said, they've made some good books. But this one, which should have served its purpose, didn't.

A Better Place to Live: Reshaping the American Suburb

Philip Langdon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A MUST-read for Everyone 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.

Reading this book started out as a requirement for my Urban Planning class. However, I became so interested in what Langdon had to say, and his easy to read diction, that I couldn't put it down. I would recommend this book to anyone who lives in the city, in the suburbs or anywhere in between. Everyone can relate to the issues that Langdon brings up, and they are truly interesting and relavent in today's society. A great book to use as an introduction to issues of urban planning and urban improvement.

Langdon can't force people to live this way 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 29 people found this review helpful.

Mr. Langdon has some excellent points in his book. For instance, he makes a very convincing case that modern suburbia is sterile and that it encourages heavy reliance on the motor vehicle. He also offers good solutions, including more mixed-use neighborhoods, higher architectural standards, and different street layouts.

However, Mr. Langdon never adequately addresses a significant objection to his ideas: they are *expensive* to implement. At times, he does concede that his ideas would require higher expenditures on housing. Usually he counters this with arguments resembling "well, Americans don't need wet bars and a television set in every room. If only they would give that up, we could have more intimate communities." At times it seems as though he is actively encouraging Americans to consume less, an idea that could form the backbone of another book. In this book, it only detracts from his argument.

Sorry, Mr. Langdon. While Americans may want better communities, you can't force them to give up their television sets and wet bars in order to get them. Come up with a better way to pay for your ideas; otherwise, concede that the market has given modern Americans exactly what they want.

Celebration, U.S.A.: Living in Disney's Brave New Town

Douglas Frantz, Catherine Collins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A prize-winning reporter, his wife, and their two kids describe life in Disney's vision of the future.

In 1997, six months after the first residents had moved into Celebration, Florida-Disney's town of the future with its distinctly retro link to a longed-for past-Doug and Cathy and their two kids closed on their new home and settled down to participate in (and observe) this new venture. Their report from the trenches will surprise both Disney haters and Disney fans.

What is it like to start a new community-not a suburb or subdivision, but a town, inted to be a self-supporting community with the best of the new technologies (including the very latest in teaching techniques) and the most cherished elements in American towns that existed before the automobile turned everything into a mall? For almost two years the family lived this experiment firsthand. Their report is vivid, funny, and painful-and it tells us as much about ourselves and our hopes and dreams as it does about the daily reality of building a community from the ground up.

The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, 1966-1999

Ray Suarez

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With a great deal of sadness, NPR host Ray Suarez chronicles the effects of the American migration from cities to suburbs in the second half of the 20th century. He visited a number of cities--including Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Miami, and Washington--to find out what went wrong. The Old Neighborhood makes its case with an effective mix of data and quotes from interviews with community organizers, government officials, people who stayed in the cities, and those who left. One of the best things about the book--no doubt a product of Suarez's radio background--is its tendency for extended quotes, where the voices of his interview subjects more fully emerge.

Suarez passes blame around freely for what happened to the cities and their neighborhoods, citing the loss of inner-city manufacturing jobs, crime, the decline of urban schools, and the increased availability of the automobile and development of highway systems. But mostly he blames America's inability to deal with race, asserting that whites simply don't want to live with blacks and will continue to move out further and further to prevent that from happening. (Suarez has little to say, however, about the tendency of middle-class blacks to flee the city as well.)

Although crime was down and job creation up in cities in the '90s, Suarez tends to focus on the negative. He did not, for example, interview people who moved back to the cities because their children finished school and they tired of long, bumper-to-bumper commutes and the lack of cultural offerings in the suburbs. And while many of the people he did talk to say they miss the close-knit community of their downtown neighborhoods, almost all say they are happy they left and were able to give their children a better life. Still, The Old Neighborhood remains an extremely readable clarion call for the importance of city life, obviously written from the heart. --Linda Killian

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream

Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 83 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A manifesto by America's most controversial and celebrated town planners, proposing an alternative model for community design.

There is a growing movement in North America to put an end to suburban sprawl and to replace the automobile-based settlement patterns of the past fifty years with a return to more traditional planning principles. This movement stems not only from the realization that sprawl is ecologically and economically unsustainable but also from a growing awareness of sprawl's many victims: children, utterly dependent on parental transportation if they wish to escape the cul-de-sac; the elderly, warehoused in institutions once they lose their driver's licenses; the middle class, stuck in traffic for two or more hours each day.

Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are at the forefront of this movement, and in Suburban Nation they assess sprawl's costs to society, be they ecological, economic, aesthetic, or social. It is a lively, thorough, critical lament, and an entertaining lesson on the distinctions between postwar suburbia-characterized by housing clusters, strip shopping centers, office parks, and parking lots-and the traditional neighborhoods that were built as a matter of course until mid-century. It is an indictment of the entire development community, including governments, for the fact that America no longer builds towns. Most important, though, it is that rare book that also offers solutions.