Bookshelf

Jemisin, N. K. "The City Born Great." The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Charles Yu, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2017, pp. 230-244. 

In this short story, Jemisin uses science fiction to explore what it makes up a city. She depicts a character who becomes and avatar of New York City, and shows why and how this person can "birth" the city's consciousness as they work through a battle with galactic forces. This story forces readers to consider the characteristics and tensions of cities, and to consider how the physical traits and community identities of a city might be brought to life in a human form. 

Jordan, John W. A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People. III, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908.

In this critical text, John W. Jordan of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania discusses an entire century and a half of the leading families of Pittsburgh and its vicinity.  Detailed in this book is a collection of genealogical memoirs of these crucial people in history, where important stories are told by the tracing of ancestry.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. “Learning to See from Gathering Moss.” Gathering Moss, OSU Press. 2003.

Throughout this intriguing mix of science and personal reflection told through the perspective and voice of a Native American woman, this text focuses not only on explaining the life cycle of moss but also proclaiming how mosses fit in with the expansive world of living organisms surrounding them.

Laqueur, Thomas Walter. The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains. Princeton University Press, 2015.

In this critical text, Laqueur touches on the reasoning behind churchyards being a "cultural turning point" in history and providing a unified community of memory for those who have passed.  He wants the public to grasp a better understanding of the importance of the more ancient burial traditions that should be cherished and carefully considered for the dead.

Luiselli, Valeria. Sidewalks. Translated by Christina MacSweeney, Minneapolis, Coffee House, 2014.

Sidewalks examines the ways in which the built environment can instill in its inhabitants a feeling called saudade, a Portugese term that encompasses feelings of nostalgia, homesickness, and longing for places, people, and times that are gone or soon will be. In a series of short, eclectic, and allusive essays, Luiselli moves through Mexico City to contemplate how we navigate the neighborhoods and worlds we call home.

Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. MIT Press, 1960.

This book focuses on the concept of mental maps, which people can create based on the information they take in while exploring city environments. Lynch’s ideas are centered around five specific elements of a city, including nodes, edges, landmarks, paths, and districts. He explains how they all make it possible to come up with mental images of the the surrounding area, which becomes a personal map for every individual.  

Macy, Sue. Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way).  Washington D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2011

This Young Adult nonfiction provides readers with a brief history of the bicycle, as well as information on how women in the saw bikes as a ticket to freedom.  There’s also plenty of details about famous cyclists through out history, examples of literature and music related to cycling, cycling slang, and advertisements containing bicycles.  Anyone interested in learning how the bicycle came to be what it is today will enjoy this piece.

Madarasz, Anne. Glass Shattering Notions. Pittsburgh: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1998.

This book serves as a recording and companion of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania's exhibition with the same title at the Heniz Pittsburgh Regional History Center. The book provides a narrative about the history of glass as well as a lyrical meditation about what glass offers us and the value it holds. Madarasz also discusses Pittsburgh specifically, and the city's historical significance in glass production. It is filled with images not only of the glass pieces themselves, but also with figures of historical events that are important for grasping a full understanding of the story of glass. 

Manguel, Alberto and Guadalupi, Gianni. Dictionary of Imaginary Places. 2000.

Entries about over 1,000 places from popular culture and literary canon, ranging from Wonderland to Jurassic Park. Offers a consideration of geography, characteristics, communities, and inhabitants. Who says imagined places can't be entered into a work of reference?

Nicholson, Simon. "The Theory of Loose Parts, An important principle for design methodology." Studies in Design Education Craft & Technology, Vol 4. No. 2.

In this article, Nicholson explains the Theory of Loose parts. In summary, the theory states that the more moveable, varied objects children are given for play, the more their creative thinking will be stimulated. While this article is a great read for anyone, it may be especially interesting to teachers of parents of young children.

O'Nan, Stewart. Everyday People.  New York: Grove Press, 2001.

O'Nan's novel follows the everyday lives of residents of the primarily Black neighborhood of East Liberty in Pittsburgh, PA. It takes place over the course of a week in 1998, and each chapter serves as a glimpse into the life and mind of one of the many characters in the book. O'Nan sheds light on the history of East Liberty and the Black experience in Pittsburgh by providing intimate, day to day moments that make up the lives of residents.

Pascal, Molly. "Here is Squirrel Hill." Bound in the Bond of Life: Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy, edited by Beth Kissileff and Eric Ledji, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020, 9-20.

Modeling her essay after E.B. White's classic "Here is New York" essay, Pascal narrates a year in her life, beginning at Rosh Hashanah in September 2018 and ending a year later, a year in which she experiences the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in her Squirrel Hill and Jewish communities. Pascal focuses on the people, businesses, history, infrastructure, and Jewish life that make Squirrel Hill a unique and beloved Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Sheldrake, P. “Placing the Sacred: Transcendence and the City.” Literature and Theology, vol. 21, no. 3, 2007, pp. 243–58. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23927123.

This article investigates the relationship between sacred spaces and the cities that they inhabit. It investigates what it means for a sacred site to be considered sacred, and the relationship between contemporary architecture and the urban values that architecture reflects.

Simon, Ed. An Alternative History of Pittsburgh. Cleveland, Belt Publishing, 2021.

In his charming history of Pittsburgh, Simon explores the city’s journey from a prehistoric ocean into a major industrial hub.  With a series of short, interconnected essays, Simon paints an entertaining and informative tale which highlights the more obscure elements of Pittsburgh’s history.

Solnit, Rebecca. Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Penguin Books, 2001.

Solnit analyzes the ways in which the mechanics of walking impact the ways in which we interact and interpret our surroundings. By looking at the history of walking, Solnit discusses how a person’s experiences—cultural, political, philosophical, and aesthetic—are impacted by the action of walking.

Solomon, David.  National Negro Opera House. Pittsburgh: WQED. DVD.

This documentary depicts the conservationist efforts of the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh. The house, as seen in the documentary, is in a state of disrepair. Nonetheless, this documentary details the many stories that make this house a historical landmark and cultural landmark for the black community of Pittsburgh. Home to the first National Negro Opera Company, the walls of the house have seen a number of stories ranging from a bet to win the Steelers to Mary Cardwell Dawson’s great success with her opera company.

Soyinka, Wole. The Man That Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka. 1972.

The self-records and considerations of Soyinka, a Nobel-winning Nigerian playwright, poet, essayist, and novelist, about his interrogation and imprisionment by the Federal government of Nigeria during the Nigerian-Biafran war. Soyinka collaborated with Salman Rushdie, Václav Havel, and Jacques Derrida to co-found the City of Asylum movement. The Winged House at Pittsburgh's City of Asylum was inspired by Soyinka's descriptions of writing during his imprisionment.

Standiford, Les. Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America. New York: Broadway Books, 2005.

This unbiased story of two of the most influential men in the history of the city of Pittsburgh is a great read. Standiford captures the rags to riches tales of both Carnegie and Frick as well as stories of mill workers and how their friendship eventually dissolved due to business opinion differences. This is a fairly easy read and a great book for anyone interested in history or Pittsburgh or Pittsburgh history.

Sweterlitsch, Thomas. Tomorrow and Tomorrow. New York: Berkley Books, 2014.

This novel is a work of futuristic, cyberpunk fiction. The novel’s main character, Dominic, follows the protagonist role of an anti-hero, as he has some major personality flaws. This novel explores corruption in the digital age and Dominic’s quest to uncover the truth about a mysterious murder and cover-up. Readers who like sci-fi, murder mysteries, or any type of literature set in Pittsburgh will want to read this, though they should be aware there are graphic scenes of sexual violence.

The Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA. Its Origin and Early History, Also a Report of It's Condition, Progress, and Business During the Last Ten Years. 1910.

This book on the report of the Allegheny Cemetery highlights the upkeep of management for the facility, those involved who adhere to their critical duties in maintaining the cleanliness, as well as the division of sections in the place that allows for plenty of land and reserved spots for graves of those who have passed.  It is essentially a detailed collection of the various rules, regulations, and guidelines in place for such important burial grounds for the community surrounding the Allegheny Cemetery.

Toker, Franklin. Pittsburgh: A New Portrait. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh Press, 2009.

Building off its predecessor, Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait of 1986, this guidebook takes readers through Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods and thier transformations since the city’s founding in 1758. A professor of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, Franklin Toker blends his architectural knowledge and playful admiration for the city into a chronology of when, how, why, and by whom the buildings were constructed and used. His work unveils the colorful personalities of Pittsburgh’s infrastructure, while exploring how “the same city [could] be both the most livable and the most leave-able in the United States…where the quality of life keeps rising while the population keeps falling” (ix).

“Introduction.” Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota Press, 1977.

​​​​​​​In his influential book, Tuan uses the lens of human experience to define and differentiate between the concepts of space and place.  He examines the feelings associated with both and considers how we relate to the concepts.

"Metaphor: Or, the Map." Turchi, Peter. Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer. San Antonio, Trinity University Press, 2007.

In this book chapter, Turchi uses the idea of a map to examine writing through the ideas of exploration and presentation.  Turchi explores how writers navigate the unknown and decide what to present to their readers.

University of Pittsburgh Neighborhood Alliance, Pittsburgh Neighborhood Atlas: Oakland. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1977.

This piece which is essentially a neighborhood census mixed with atlas features a vast amount of data about the city of Pittsburgh. This particular section of the Atlas features Oakland in 1977 and describes some of the demographics, satisfaction survey results as well as crime rates in the area. The data which was gathered by several surveys to locals in Oakland gives us a peek into the status of Oakland during that time.

Wells, H.G. The Wheels of Chance. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1896. 

The Wheels of Chance is a novel follows Mr. Hoopdriver, a “draper’s assistant” in London on his bicycle ride around the Southern Coast on his holiday. He keeps running into a striking young lady having difficulties with a dastardly man…intrigue, love interest, and a daring bicycle escape ensues. It was written in the time period where cycling first became popular and showed how the bicycle offered a new mode of travel and socialization.  Readers who like to see history displayed through an interesting narrative would enjoy this novel.

Westphal, Bertrand. Geocriticism: Real and Fictional Spaces. Trans. Robert T. Tally Jr. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 

Westphal’s idea of Geocriticism is useful for figuring out how texts and the real world connect. It helps study how literature can represent a given space and how space interacts with texts. Readers who want to look deeper into the setting of different pieces of literature and connect it to the real world may be interested in this work.

Whitaker, Mark. Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2019.

This book discusses the Renaissance of Black culture in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between the 1920s and the 1950s. Whitaker explores the stories of Black pioneers who had a significant impact on the community and made history both in the city of Pittsburgh and in America as a whole. He focuses on contributions from individuals such as August Wilson, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, and more, bringing to light the lesser-known tales of how they helped transform the Steel City and the United States.

Wideman, John Edgar. Damballah, in The Homewood Books. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992.

The Homewood Books is a collection of fiction written by John Edgar Wideman, who was raised in Homewood, Pittsburgh. His writing, as quoted from The Homewood Books introduction, “offer[s] a continuous investigation, from many angles, not so much of a physical location, Homewood, … but of a culture, a way of seeing and being seen.” Damballah is a short story collection that takes readers along in a series of stories about the intertwining lives of Homewood’s residents. Inside the book you’ll find stories including the characters Reba Love Jackson, Elizabeth, and Tommy.

Wilson, August. Two Trains Running. New York, Plume, 1993.

This play is part of the “The Pittsburgh Cycle,” August Wilson’s famous series of plays set in each decade of the twentieth century in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Set in 1969 in the Hill District neighborhood, Two Trains Running's action stays within Memphis's diner and tells the story of several members of the African-American community--Wolf, Sterling, Hambone, Risa, and others--and how the redevelopment plans for the Hill impact their lives.

Wilson, August. Jitney. New York: The Overlook Press, 1979.

As the eighth play in his Pittsburgh Cycle, August Wilson set the play in his home neighborhood of the Hill District, during a period of urban renewal. His piece puts a real face on gentrification and the people that experience it. There are five main characters, as well as secondary characters that come and go in the play, that experience this gentrification in their community as it threatens their livelihood: working at a jitney station. Readers that enjoy a heavy topic fused with historic information would love this play!