The best books and video games for city lovers

Also today: When department stores had Christmas monorails, and winter storms strain the US power grid.

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As the year winds down, we're ready to relax a little — and there's no better way than to kick back with a good book. CityLab's Sarah Holder looked back at more than a dozen we featured in 2022, with authors who sought answers to pressing questions about gentrification and inequality, celebrated spontaneity in Tokyo's alleyways, and found hope in the form of communities fighting for change. Today on CityLab: 17 Books About Cities We Read This Year We also enjoyed a wave of new video games that offered much-needed escapism this year. Some, like Catizens, allow people to play as urban planners and design their own utopias; others, like Floodland, tackle challenges such as climate change. Read more from our roundup by Allison Nicole Smith: These Are the Best Video Games for Wannabe Urban Planners — Amelia Pollard More on CityLab

Bring Back the Christmas Monorails Monorails may never have taken off as mass transit, at least in the US. But for much of the 20th century, they were seasonal shopping attractions popular enough to rival Santa. Winter Storm Exposes Flaws of US Energy System The deep freeze now blanketing much of the US has laid bare just how vulnerable the electric grid has become to a full-on catastrophe. China Reopens to World in Removing Last Covid Zero Curbs China will no longer subject inbound travelers to quarantine from Jan. 8, putting the country on track to emerge from three years of self-imposed global isolation.

What we're reading Black voters are transforming the suburbs — and American politics (Politico) Five ways climate change made life more expensive in 2022 (Grist) Apartments vanish from New York's rent regulation system, and questions linger about how (The City) Wildfires in Colorado are growing more unpredictable. Officials have ignored the warnings (ProPublica) Boomtown: A solar land rush in the West (Harper's Magazine)

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