Customer Reviews

Reinventing Community: Stories from the Walkways of Cohousing

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Cohousing first hit my personal radar about a year ago when I met the editor, Dave Wann, in Golden, CO. I live in suburbia (Lakewood, CO) and have always felt like there must be a better way to live than the typical fast-paced, disconnected-from-your-neighbor, every-man-for-himself-on-his-own-little-separate-plot kind of existence. I read one of Dave's previous books called Superbia that he co-wrote with Dan Chiras. In it, they describe a bunch of really innovative ideas for helping to transform some of the major limitations of suburbia into a more connected, holistic, neighborly way of living. But I thought to myself, why not go for the real thing?

When I get enamored with an idea, I tend to read a lot and gather as much information about it as I can. And so I have read almost all of the major books out there on cohousing. The seminal one is "Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves" by Katie McCamant and Chuck Durrett, and I highly recommend it. Many of the other ones, like "The Cohousing Handbook : Building a Place for Community" by Chris & Kelly ScottHanson, and "Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities" by Diana Leafe Christian, are good but focus more on the nuts and bolts of how to build a cohousing community physically and otherwise from the ground up. But they don't really tell you what it's like to LIVE in a cohousing community once it is built. The best book I have read before this one that covers that subject well is "EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture" by Liz Walker. She tells great stories about the birth, growth and challenges of EcoVillage at Ithaca, but they are all about one single community.

Dave's book is the best I have read for giving you a real feeling for what it must be like to actually live in a cohousing community. The stories are entertaining, moving and diverse, and they come from people who live in dozens of cohousing communities all across this country. Dave has woven them together into a cohesive whole that is much stronger than the sum of its individual parts. It is, by far, the best introduction to cohousing that I have found. If I had to choose one, single book to recommend to a friend who knew nothing about cohousing, this one would be it. Highly recommended!

On a personal note, I am wishing that there were an easier way to move in to Harmony Village in Golden where Dave is a resident and founding member. There MUST be something very right and rewarding about living in cohousing if you look at property values and lack of turnover relative to "normal" housing. In the 9 years since the 27 units in Harmony Village were built, there have only been 3 that have come up for sale (and one of those was from a death). But I am patient....

After recently joining a cohousing community in development, I wanted to learn more about others' experiences creating their own cohousing communities.

This book accurately describes life in cohousing from people who actually live there. The stories of the difficulties encountered during development and the insights on living and growing with cohousing, after move-in and several years out, were inspirational and entertaining.

As someone who had never heard the word cohousing and three months later is a member of a cohousing community, I found this book to be a helpful and honest account of the exciting journey that lies ahead for us.

Note - This is not a "how-to" book. It will not tell you how to develop, design, or plan a cohousing community. There are several books out there which tackle that topic. This book is much more personal and insightful, with honest statements about the cohousing experience. Some are bad, most are good, most are very entertaining, but all of them are heartfelt commentary on the journey into cohousing, and what happens when you get there.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is, or is thinking of becoming, a member of a cohousing community.

I got to read an advance manuscript recently. Many of the stories are based on ones that have run in Cohousing or Communities magazine over the years. I love the way it helps connect to the PEOPLE in cohousing, not just the "sticks and bricks" of environmental efficiency/green building or practical aspects of community-building. Hopefully an inspiration to action! Check out Chuck Durrett's new book, "Senior Cohousing", for more stories from recent studies, and Graham Meltzer's research book for a look at how the people in cohousing communities combine for greater environmental impact reduction over time.

I don't live in a cohousing community, but I have good friends who do, and I think the concept and reality of cohousing is great. The book REINVENTING COMMUNITY illustrates -- with short, often-humorous and colorful stories -- the many values of this new kind of neighborhood. In cohousing, people can rely on each other for support; and houses are compact and efficient -- leaving open spaces and common facilities for everyone's use. Experiments in sustainability, citizen activism, and participatory design and governance are ongoing, and will be useful for the residents of any neighborhood, anywhere. (That's what David Wann's other neighborhood book, SUPERBIA! is about - creating "neighborhoods on purpose" right where we currently live). There have been other books about cohousing, but this one is especially fun to read, letting the reader experience vicariously what it's like to live in a community-by-design.

There's nothing like reading how other cohousing communities have done things to get a good feel for how to handle problems that might arise for your community. This book gives a wonderful cross section of stories about American communities and how they met cohousing's many challenges.

This is a fabulous book which is made up of different authors' personal experiences in cohousing.. Could not put it down!!
It is a must for the serious individual considering involvement in this social housing.. before getting into the real thing.
I still share it with my closest friends...-

I learned more from this book than from any other on the topic, including the Co-Housing Handbook (and Senior version), though I recommend them too.

It's painful to say, but this book has cooled my enthusiasm about co-housing and I'm sure that wasn't the intent. It's a collection of short stories, written by residents of various co-housing communities. So, it covers many experiences, not all of them good. I appreciated the honesty and depth of the stories. I didn't find this kind of practical, candid information in any other book.