The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz

The rise and fall of cities is a fascinating thing, when you can look back at them with a historical view. That's the idea at the heart of this book which explores the demise of four ancient cities: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today. Their stories are about human survival, what keeps culture alive and why some things last for millennia while others are forgotten. Though the focus of Four Lost Cities is certainly on eras long past, the lessons from these cities and the people who inhabited them still feel surprisingly relevant for today.

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About the Non-Obvious Book Selection of the Week:

Every week I share a new “non-obvious” book selection. Titles featured here may be new or classic books, but the date of publication doesn’t really matter. My goal is to elevate great reads that perhaps deserve a second look which you might have otherwise missed.