Read: Maryanne Wolf - Proust and the squid [the story and science of the reading brain]

Neuroscience of how the brain works while reading. A particular focus on how a child's acquisition of reading skills reveals how the various parts of the brain work together to read (or not, in the case of dyslexia). Also, an historical examination of how various reading systems develop, and how the brain's involvement differs from one type to another. A bit academic overall, with a tendency to make the same point too many times, but all in all a pretty good read.

Want to Read: Mark Osbaldeston - Unbuilt Toronto, A History of the City That Might Have Been

I heard about this book when there was an exhibition about it - now I find out he's a friend of a friend (and that he has a new book coming out). Even more incentive to read it now.

Want to Read: Sarah Susanka - The Not So Big House, a Blueprint for the Way We Really Live

I browsed through a copy of this book years ago, and it had some very convincing arguments for why many small houses are better. I'm curious now if in re-reading it I'll discover similarities to Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language".

Want to Read: The uTOpia series of books

A series of books about all the things I'm interested in: improving the city, the arts, sustainability, water, food and community activism. I'd like to start with GreenTOpia and The Edible City.

Want to Read: Dickson Despommier - The Vertical Farm, Feeding the World in the 21st Century

I've seen a bit about vertical farming here and there, but need to read more to convince me that it's workable - maybe this book will have the details.

Want to Read: Richard Harris - Unplanned Suburbs

The early history of the suburbs in North America - pre 1920s.

Want to Read: John Lindqvist - Handling the Undead

A zombie novel, but not really about zombies. The dead return to life, and want to reunite with their families. It sounds more sad and awkward and contemplative than creepy and violent. I'm intrigued. I haven't read his previous novel, "Let the Right One In" that the recent popular movie was based on (and I haven't seen the movie either), but they both sounded intriguing too.

Read: Doug Saunders - Arrival City, the Final Migration and our Next World

Great book. Humans are progressively becoming an urban species, and it's a good thing - higher standards of living, lower birth rates, more energy-efficient all around. But the transition process can be messy, resulting in slums. Doug Saunders' argument, bolstered by a tremendous amount of personal stories from people he has met and interviewed, is that slums aren't all they seem on quick glance - if all is working as it should, residents are moving in and up out of them within a generation, so that poverty doesn't become entrenched. Property ownership and the opportunity to set up small businesses easily are the key to keeping the system moving.

Want to Read: Jane Jacobs

It's been years since I've read anything by Jane Jacobs. Reading Doug Saunders' "Arrival City" makes me think of her "Life and Death of Great American Cities" - it's time to read her work again.

Want to Read: Malinda Lo - Ash

A re-telling of Cinderella, with darker tones and a lesbian spin on the love story. Sounds great.

Want to Read: Adam Gidwitz - A Tale Dark & Grimm

At brunch with friends this past weekend we were recalling fairy tales of our youth, and now I read a review for a book that ties in with that perfectly. It inserts the characters of Hansel and Gretel into other, lesser-known Grimm's fairy tales - sounds dark and funny.

Want to Read: Maria Tatar's annotated collections of fairy tales

Several years ago I bought Maria Tatar's collection of annotated Grimm's fairy tales as a gift for my sister. It looks like she's edited and annotated several other collections as well. Fairy tales seem especially well-suited to annotation - there can be multiple variations of the same tale, and it would be fascinating to read them with this kind of additional information available.

Want to Read: Sarah Waters - The Night Watch

Mentioned in a review of Connie Willis' "All Clear" - a book that is similarly set in WWII London, telling the stories of several women. Although this book might suffer by comparison to Connie Willis, who I adore. But Sarah Waters has apparently written several other well-regarded historical fiction novels (set in other eras), so I could try those first instead.