A review by erica_palmisano
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Upends the popular conceptions of how people and institutions respond to disasters – both natural and human – and provides lots of details about five disasters from historians and social scientists to support its claims. While I generally appreciated the detail and thoughtfulness of the writing, I felt sometimes like the writing looped back on itself a bit more than I liked. I had to work to keep the argument's main points in mind while ever-expanding details threatened to make that difficult. Perhaps that was my issue – I was rushing to finish reading for a book club deadline. Still, a worthy read with lots to chew on. 
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