Practical ways to make your neighborhood come alive!

Great American City demonstrates the powerfully enduring impact of place. Based on one of the most ambitious studies in the history of social science, Robert J. Sampson’s Great American City presents the fruits of over a decade’s research to support an argument that we all feel and experience every day: life is decisively shaped by your neighborhood. Engaging with the streets and neighborhoods of Chicago, Sampson, in this new edition, reflects on local and national changes that have transpired since his book’s initial publication, including a surge in gun violence and novel forms of segregation despite an increase in diversity. New research, much of it a continuation of the influential discoveries in Great American City, has followed, and here, Sampson reflects on its meaning and future directions. Sampson invites readers to see the status of the research initiative that serves as the foundation of the first edition—the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN)—and outlines the various ways other scholars have continued his work. Both accessible and incisively thorough, Great American City is a must-read for anyone interested in cutting-edge urban sociology and the study of crime.

An examination of American cities since 1950, looking at the issue of white flight, and discussing its impact on schools, housing, crime, and jobs.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One of NPR's Best Books of 2020 "A provocative, absorbing read." — People “A feast of a read... I finished A Good Neighborhood in a single sitting. Yes, it’s that good.” —Jodi Picoult, #1New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Thingsand A Spark of Light In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son, Xavier, who’s headed to college in the fall. All is well until the Whitmans—a family with new money and a secretly troubled teenage daughter—raze the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace. With little in common except a property line, these two families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers. A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today—what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye?—as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.

Following the attacks of September 11th, New York Governor George Pataki witnessed a truly United States of America rise like the mythological phoenix. People came together regardless of their generational, ethnic, situational, or cultural background, and he stated, “On that terrible day, a nation became a neighborhood. All Americans became New Yorkers.” These words echo today with a hollow ring, and a bitter sting. The economic and emotional fallout post-9/11 was devastating. The political toll was even worse, bringing us to where we are today, a society as divided as it’s been in more than a hundred years, separated by political tribes that demand ideological purity coupled with blind loyalty. In looking at America and its divide, Pataki asks a bold question: Did the terrorists win? This is a question no sitting politician or pundit from either side of the political spectrum will dare address. Along with President George W. Bush and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Pataki was one of only three people directly involved in, commanding, and making life or death decisions during 9/11. Few have the experience or depth to even begin to dive into this subject; as a result, Pataki’s answers might surprise you. In sharing his perspective of where we were and where we are today, he hopes to shed light on what he calls the great divide. It’s a divide not just between left and right or Republicans and Democrats, but between the American people and their government. This division has fostered anger and resentment toward Washington, and toward each other, in a cultural separation that is likened to that of the Civil War. Now, almost twenty years since the deadliest attack on American soil, Americans have reached another critical moment: will we unite again, or this time get lost in the divide? Drawing on Pataki’s memories, notes, crises, and critical events, The Great Divide gives an unprecedented, shocking, heart-pounding inside view into what happened before, during, and after 9/11. The Governor reflects on where our country is today and how we can rebuild a common future and perhaps return to a time when a nation became a neighborhood.

Up close with the ocean's most fearsome and famous predator and the scientists who study them—just twenty-six miles from the Golden Gate Bridge! A few miles from San Francisco lives a population of the ocean's largest and most famous predators. Each fall, while the city's inhabitants dine on steaks, salads, and sandwiches, the great white sharks return to California's Farallon Islands to dine on their favorite meal: the seals that live on the island's rocky coasts. Massive, fast, and perfectly adapted to hunting after 11 million years of evolution, the great whites are among the planet's most fearsome, fascinating, and least understood animals. In the fall of 2012, Katherine Roy visited the Farallons with the scientists who study the islands' shark population. She witnessed seal attacks, observed sharks being tagged in the wild, and got an up close look at the dramatic Farallons—a wildlife refuge that is strictly off-limits to all but the scientists who work there. Neighborhood Sharks is an intimate portrait of the life cycle, biology, and habitat of the great white shark, based on the latest research and an up-close visit with these amazing animals.

Baltimore is the setting for (and typifies) one of the most penetrating examinations of bigotry and residential segregation ever published in the United States. Antero Pietila shows how continued discrimination practices toward African Americans and Jews have shaped the cities in which we now live. Eugenics, racial thinking, and white supremacist attitudes influenced even the federal government's actions toward housing in the 20th century, dooming American cities to ghettoization. This all-American tale is told through the prism of Baltimore, from its early suburbanization in the 1880s to the consequences of "white flight" after World War II, and into the first decade of the twenty-first century. The events are real, and so are the heroes and villains. Mr. Pietila's engrossing story is an eye-opening journey into city blocks and neighborhoods, shady practices, and ruthless promoters. -- Book jacket.

A new generation of children love Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, inspired by the classic series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood! Daniel’s friend O the Owl learns how to focus on one thing at a time in this Pre-level 1 Ready-to-Read story based on a popular episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood! It’s storytime at the library! Right away, Daniel and O find a really cool pop up-book and can’t wait for O’s Uncle X to read it to them. But as soon as Uncle X begins, O looks around and gets distracted by all of the other great books! Can O’s uncle teach him to focus on what’s special about the book they are reading at that moment before moving on to the next? © 2019 The Fred Rogers Company

Chicago’s Far North Side, a few decades ago—a rough-and-tumble place, awash with racial tensions and petty crime. Joey, the youngest child in a mixed-race family, is pushing his way up through the cracked pavement of a chaotic life: parish festivals and block parties on long summer nights, fistfights in back alleys on boring empty days, long walks up and down Clark Street pocketing envelopes of collection money for his older brother, Lil’ Pat. It’s easy enough to pretend it’s all normal, until he sees Pat murder a man in a neighborhood drugstore. Now he’s haunted by the memory of blood pooling on the green tiles under the flickering fluorescent lights, torn by the conflict between love of family and disgust over what they do—and desperate to survive the insanity without being swept up in it. This revised second edition of Bill Hillmann’s modern classic features a new introduction by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh. It’s a perfect primer for a great book that deserves a place alongside the likes of Nelson Algren and James T. Farrell on the top shelf of Chicago literature.

"A touching novel about discovering you're stronger than you think, and fiercer than you ever dreamed."—ABBI WAXMAN, USA Today bestselling author A heartwarming and life-affirming story of family dynamics, mother/daughter relationships, and second chances—perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Abbi Waxman. After years of struggling to make ends meet, Ginny, a single mom from Queens, falls for a hard-working and loving man, and relishes the idea of moving with her quirky eleven-year-old daughter Harri to his home in an upscale New Jersey suburb. Though she's never been impressed by material things, she is thrilled that getting a second chance at love comes with the added bonus of finally giving Harri everything she never could before. And then she meets the neighbors. Ginny is quickly thrust into the complicated realities of a neighborhood defined by the ever-shifting alliances of PTA moms, Real Housewife contenders, and their mean-girl daughters. When the neighbors' secrets, back-stabbing, and bad behavior take a devastating toll on her daughter and new marriage, Ginny must decide what really matters—and protect it at all costs. "We need Lisa Roe's side-eye on navigating a new marriage, a quirky child and a fresh start for everyone, with neighbors who put it all at risk. Warm, funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking."—ANN GARVIN, USA Today bestselling author of I Thought You Said This Would Work "A heartfelt and endearing story about keeping one's feet firmly planted while simultaneously dreaming big." —KATHLEEN WEST, author of Are We There Yet?