Books › The great good place › Books like it
If you loved
Books like The great good place
A warm, persuasive love letter to the cafes, pubs, and barbershops that anchor our communities and cure our modern isolation. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with The great good place.
- reflective
- wistful
- communal
- warm
- 01
Palaces for the people
Eric Klinenberg
A hopeful, eye-opening exploration of the physical spaces that bind our communities together.
- 02
The Geography of nowhere
James Howard Kunstler · 1993
A biting, hilarious, and deeply felt critique of the American suburban landscape and the spiritual toll of the parking lot.
- 03
Human transit
Jarrett Walker
A clarifying, pragmatic lens that transforms the chaotic noise of city planning into elegant, understandable geometry.
- 04
Bowling Alone
Robert D. Putnam
A sobering, data-rich diagnosis of modern alienation that explores how we lost our communal bonds and why we desperately need them back.
- 05
Triumph of the City
Edward Glaeser
An exhilarating, data-backed love letter to the bustling, messy, and miraculous engine of human progress: the metropolis.
- 06
Hanging Out
Sheila Liming
A thoughtful exploration of why doing nothing with others is actually a profound civic act.
- 07
The Art of Gathering
Priya Parker
A warm, paradigm-shifting guide that makes you want to immediately throw a dinner party or restructure your next board meeting.
- 08
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Jane Jacobs
A passionate, street-level defense of the messy, vibrant ballet of urban life against the sterile visions of top-down planners.
- 09
A pattern language
Christopher Alexander
A philosophical and practical field guide to building spaces that feel deeply, fundamentally alive.
- 10
The power of place
Winifred Gallagher · 1993
A contemplative journey into the invisible ways our physical surroundings shape our inner lives and behaviors.
- 11
The hidden dimension
Edward Twitchell Hall · 1966
An eye-opening lens that permanently alters how you perceive the physical distance between yourself and everyone else in the room.
- 12
Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser
A gripping, stomach-churning journey behind the counter of America's most ubiquitous industry.
