Dear Great Book Guru,  My friends and I  have enjoyed many of your mystery and  novel  recommendations but we were wondering if you have some nonfiction we might enjoy.  We want our book club to try a new genre.   In Need of Nonfiction

Dear In Need of Nonfiction, I recently read a very interesting, albeit disturbing book your friends might enjoy: DISILLUSIONED by Benjamin Herold. Herold focuses on five different suburban communities outside of major cities: Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Los Angles, and Dallas.  In each case, he traces a family who moves to one of these communities and shows how their needs and expectations are addressed.  Almost universally, the desire for a good school system is what leads them to their new homes. Soon they realize that high taxes, a crumbling infrastructure, and poor transportation make for a nightmarish situation and the schools are not so great either.  Each family has a unique set of problems with racial discrimination impacting many of them. Younger families seeking to improve their schools quickly find themselves at odds with an aging population who no longer has a need or interest in maintaining stellar educational systems. Mired by cracked roadways and overcrowded classrooms, the new families soon find the promise of the good life that the suburbs had offered to the previous generation is a cruel joke for them. The author offers examples of communities trying to upend these problems, but he was not optimistic that the future would brighten for upcoming generations. A harrowing tale of dreams derailed but also highly recommended as a cautionary tale for community planners and citizens alike!