Happy summer everybody!

Whether you are relaxing on a beach or you are lacking ideas for books to read this fall, have a look at LabGov’s random and inexhaustive summer reads suggestions.

Feel free to share this article and comment with your favorite city reads on our social media pages using the #LabGovReads hashtag!

The Co-Cities Open Book  by LabGov



The result of years of research and experimentations on the field to investigate new forms of collaborative city-making that are pushing urban areas towards new frontiers of participatory urban governance, inclusive economic growth and social innovation.


  • The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing
The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing

  • The Fate of Rome. Climate, Disease and the End of an Empire by Kyle Harper

  • Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon


  • Calcutta: Two years in the City by Amit Chaudhuri



  • Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

  • The Municipalists by Seth Fried

  • Tokyo on Foot: Travels in the City’s Most Colorful Neighborhoods by Florent Chavouet

  • Delirious New York by Rem Koolhas

Radical Cities. Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture by Justin McGuirk

For some more committed readers and a more serious beach vibe:

  • All That is Solid Melts into Air by Marshall Berman

  • Alger, Capitale de la Révolution (French) – Algiers, Third World Capital (English – Verso) by Elaine Mokhtefi

  • A Moving Border. Alpine Cartographies of Climate Change by Marco Ferrari, Elisa Pasqual, and Andrea Bagnato

  • Extreme Cities. The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change by Ashley Dawson

  • Race, Class and Politics in the Cappuccino City by Derek S. Hyra

  • Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg

  • Patients of the State. The Politics of Waiting in Argentina by Javier Auyero

  • Invisible in Austin, edited by Javier Auyero

Other great sources for books:

Source of images: goodreads.com,
veiling.catawiki.nl ,
www.naibooksellers.nl ,
www.versobooks.com, fnac.com,
www.cup.columbia.edu, press.uchicago.edu, penguinrandomhouse.com, dukeupress.edu, utpress.utexas.edu