katylang's review
5.0
Wonderful. City by City is a collection of essays. Each is written from a different point of view (historical, sociological, personal, etc.) and is about a different city in the U.S. from approximately 2008 through 2014. I fell in love with the in-depth view of places I've never been and the raw slices of American life that are shown.
I read some critiques that the authors all have an I-grew-up-in-X-city-and-then-went-to-a-fancy-college-and-then-moved-back-home-and-wow-things-are-different perspective. Sure, some of them write from that perspective. But not all of them. And it's not a bad thing that some of them do. If you're going to do a collection of essays by young writers, as this is intended, then yes that is going to be a lot of what you get. I didn't see it as a weakness. The essays still provided a broader perspective on our American experience than I'd get by sitting on my couch watching Netflix.
If you love cities, love diving into a variety of random topics, love reading essays, and love thinking about urban planning and transportation, you'll love this book. At one point I suggested to a friend that it be required reading for U.S. high school students and even after a few days' remove from finishing it I stand by that.
I read some critiques that the authors all have an I-grew-up-in-X-city-and-then-went-to-a-fancy-college-and-then-moved-back-home-and-wow-things-are-different perspective. Sure, some of them write from that perspective. But not all of them. And it's not a bad thing that some of them do. If you're going to do a collection of essays by young writers, as this is intended, then yes that is going to be a lot of what you get. I didn't see it as a weakness. The essays still provided a broader perspective on our American experience than I'd get by sitting on my couch watching Netflix.
If you love cities, love diving into a variety of random topics, love reading essays, and love thinking about urban planning and transportation, you'll love this book. At one point I suggested to a friend that it be required reading for U.S. high school students and even after a few days' remove from finishing it I stand by that.
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